Free Republic

President Obama's first journey to Israel as president comes amid earth-shattering change in Middle East, much of it for the worse. The Arab Spring, which once raised hopes of freedom and dignity, has diverged onto the dark path of Islamist authoritarian rule. In Syria, tens of thousands of people have died in a bitter civil war that might have recently seen its first use of chemical weapons. And Iran continues its march toward nuclear weapons capability, heedless of international condemnation. Obama's effort to seek peace between Palestinians and Israelis is in tatters. That's why the White House has been lowering...

Reports indicate that Marine General James Mattis is being forced out of CENTCOM for questioning certain aspects of the Obama administration's Middle East policy. In particular, it appears his questions surrounding the U.S. response to Iran's nuclear ambitions drew the ire of civilian military and security advisers. These civilians were apparently upset by the way Mattis pushed them to "consider second and third-order consequences of military action against Iran." Nor did they appreciate the way he pushed them to think long term and consider what the U.S. will do if Iran develops non-nuclear weapons that can be used to keep...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness …Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities”Unlike the classic Dickens work, this week's presidential campaign was a tale of one city Jerusalem, and the different way it was handled by the two different campaigns, One handled it as if this was the age of foolishness, the other as the age of wisdom. One refused to give its position on Israel’s capital publicly; the other stood in front of the panorama of the holy city over his...

Last week, when U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and four other GOP House members wrote letters suggesting that federal government personnel close to the White House be investigated more closely for Muslim Brotherhood connections, they were severely criticized. The criticism was due to a sentence in one of the letters that mentioned Sec. of State Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff Huma Abedin. ... Now, new information has emerged which is being called supportive of the letter-writing politicians’ assertion that there is a need for scrutiny of persons in federal government – including some that are close to the White House....

Global media are reporting that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has addressed students at the Dar El-Hekma women’s college in Saudi Arabia, known to have been co-founded and patronized by an individual designated as a terrorist by the U.S as well as by important Saudi bankers and members of the Bin Laden family. The college website describes itself currently as follows: Dar Al-Hekma College as a learning community is committed to the furtherance and enhancement of creativity, excellence, intellect and independent thinking among its students. The graduates of Dar Al-Hekma will be capable of bringing about positive change for the...

AMERICANS will certainly have 9/11 in mind when they vote today. But they should keep another date in mind, too — one almost exactly a quarter-century ago: Nov. 4, 1979. A clear path runs to 9/11 from the day of the raid on the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the seizure of American hostages. The 1979 embassy attack came at a time when the administration of President Jimmy Carter was trying to prop up the new Khomeinist regime in Tehran. Carter had decided to support Khomeini in the context of the so-called "Green Belt" strategy developed by National Security...