Free Republic

MK Amit Halevi (Likud) issued sharp criticism Sunday evening of the agreement reached to end the war in Gaza, calling it “the opposite of a victory.” He also announced that he will not attend US President Donald Trump’s planned address to the Knesset on Monday. “Even those who believe we were forced to sign this agreement should not celebrate it,” he said. “After the most brutal massacre in our country’s history, after more than a thousand soldiers killed and thousands wounded, Israel is now agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state on homeland territories in Gaza, to the internationalization...

Israel on Friday published the names of 250 Palestinian security prisoners it has agreed to release as part of the Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, and Israeli authorities began notifying families whose loved ones’ killers are set to go free. However, Hamas’s Prisoners’ Ministry said there was no agreement yet on the identities of the prisoners to be freed, and Qatari-owned network Al Araby TV cited sources saying the list published by Israel on Friday omitted some names that mediators had agreed on. The list, published the morning after the cabinet approved the US-backed ceasefire deal, includes members of the Hamas, Palestinian...

[snip] Even though we disagree with roughly 99% of the opinions expressed on Morning Joe, let's accord the show credit for giving President Trump generally unqualified praise for his diplomatic achievement. David Ignatius of the Washington Post said: "President Trump will take a victory lap for sure over the next few days. But it's deserved. There's no way that I can see that this would have been done without Trump's pressure in the final hours." And in perhaps the bitterest pill for liberals to swallow, Ignatius added: "This war was blocked for two years. President Biden, who preceded him, was...

News of a truce between Israel and Hamas sent shockwaves through the mainstream media on Thursday as it appears President Donald Trump may finally have earned his Nobel Peace Prize. The president plans to arrive in Israel on Saturday, two days before Hamas is set to release approximately 200 living hostages still in captivity. The first phase of the peace agreement also calls for Israel’s troops to withdraw to a fixed perimeter, with a final goal of total demobilization from Gaza. On ABC News, correspondent Martha Raddatz appeared unrecognizable from her past pieces critical of Trump as she breathlessly recounted...

After Hamas announced its response to his peace proposal Oct. 3, President Donald Trump called on Israel to “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza” to clear the way for the release of hostages. In a breaking news report, Hamas-friendly source Al-Jazeera reported that the terrorist organization accepted two key proposals of Trump’s 21-point plan, namely freeing all Israeli captives and handing over administration of the enclave to Palestinian technocrats. According to the Associated Press, Hamas also argued that “aspects of the proposal touching on the future of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rights should be decided on the basis of...

President Trump told Axios in an interview Sunday that negotiations over his plan to end the war in Gaza are "at their final stages" and contended a deal could open the way for wider peace in the Middle East. ...

Putin probably has all the pro-Russian territory of Ukraine already. Ukraine will not give up territory without a fight. Putin will probably effectively insist to the end that: 1. Russian assets to be returned by the EU, US & UK (over a specified time), 2. Ukraine to not be a threat to Russia as follows: a. Ukraine to be neutral, b. Ukraine not to be a member of any military alliance, c. Ukraine not to have secret treaties, d. no foreign military personnel, or any that have been employed by a NATO member government, to be on territory under control...

WASHINGTON — As U.S. and Ukrainian officials prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia this week, President Donald Trump has privately made clear to aides that a signed minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv won’t be enough to restart aid and intelligence sharing with the war-torn country, according an administration official and another U.S. official. Trump wants the deal, which would give the United States a stake in Ukraine’s mineral resources, signed. But he also wants to see a change in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s attitude toward peace talks, the officials said, including a willingness to make concessions such as giving...

U.S. and Russian officials have reportedly agreed on a framework that could see the end of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, but at a potentially steep price for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, the meeting culminated in an agreement to form “high-level teams,” led by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, to draft a peace agreement, as reported earlier by The Gateway Pundit. The U.S. delegation also includes National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Ambassador Steve Witkoff. According to Sergey Lagodinsky, a German lawyer and...

Emboldened by the European outcry against the new peace negotiations between the US and Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky turns his back on the US leader Donald J. Trump, insists that he will not recognize any US-Russia peace deal that he is not involved in, and is expecting European partners to step up in today’s conference and hand him a lifeline to continue the war. At this point, he can justly be accused of wanting to burn his country to rule over the ashes. Zelensky needs war and needs ‘martial law’ to avoid elections. With polls favoring General Valery Zaluzhny,...

America cannot be relied upon to guarantee the security of Europe from Russia because it has to focus on its own borders and the threat of China, President Trump’s defence secretary told Nato leaders on Wednesday. In remarks that experts said would “rock” Nato, Pete Hegseth used his first speech on the world stage to rule out using US troops to uphold a peace deal in Ukraine. Speaking at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Hegseth said the US would block any Nato involvement in the conflict or resolution. Pressure will instead fall on Britain and France to lead any peacekeeping force,...

While many of us were celebrating Christmas, Egypt popped up with an interesting new wrinkle in the Israeli-Hamas war. After having largely tried to keep themselves out of the toxic stew brewing in Gaza, the Egyptians came forth with what many described as a bold, overarching peace proposal. They suggested a complete cessation of military action by Israel in Gaza. In exchange, Hamas would agree to step aside from governmental control and allow the election of a new Palestinian parliament. Hostages and prisoners would be exchanged and the rebuilding of Gazan infrastructure and the flow of humanitarian aid could resume....

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Kan News Friday that he believes “at least” half a dozen Muslim countries will follow Saudi Arabia’s lead, should Riyadh and Jerusalem normalize ties. Cohen was interviewed at the United Nations after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of how a “new Middle East” is being created as more Arab countries establish diplomatic relations with Israel. Cohen noted that during his General Assembly address, Netanyahu had said that “a peace deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia also means peace between the Jewish people and the greater Muslim world.” “There are another six or seven countries that...

MIAMI - The Biden administration’s plan to remove a Colombian rebel group from a list of foreign terrorist organizations barely caused a ripple outside Washington when the news broke this week. But in Florida, home to an estimated 150,000 Colombian American voters, it’s a different story. Biden’s policy is reverberating loudly among Democrats, leading some of the state’s top elected officials, strategists and activists to rail against the decision. “This is terrible. It’s bad policy. It’s bad politics,” said Florida state Sen. Annette Taddeo, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate who’s Colombian American. Calling the news “outrageous,” Taddeo criticized the Biden administration...

Tesla head Elon Musk created a furor among many on the left and some of those supportive of Ukraine when he posted a poll with a proposed peace deal between Ukraine and Russia in it.Ukraine-Russia Peace:– Redo elections of annexed regions under UN supervision. Russia leaves if that is will of the people.– Crimea formally part of Russia, as it has been since 1783 (until Khrushchev’s mistake).– Water supply to Crimea assured.– Ukraine remains neutral.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 3, 2022Musk said he thought that this was likely to be the outcome in the end but that it was “just...

There's mounting evidence that the war in Ukraine could have been over by this point, but key Western backers of Kiev sought to sabotage the potential for peaceful settlement through negotiations. That's precisely what regional Ukrainian media reports concluded as early as May, soon after the UK's Boris Johnson showed up in the capital on a "surprise" visit to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time the month priorThis is what a bombshell story in Ukrainska Pravda said at the time, but which was almost completely ignored in Western mainstream media: According Ukrainska Pravda sources close to Zelenskyy,...

In an interview with Reuters, Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman for decades, made a startling offer. Moscow could end the Ukraine war immediately, said Peskov, if four conditions were met.Ukraine should cease all military action, recognize Crimea as part of Russia, accept the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk separatist enclaves, and enact a constitutional commitment to "neutrality," which would prevent Ukraine from ever joining NATO.Were this to be done, said Peskov, the war "will stop in a moment."As this would restore the situation in Ukraine to the "status quo ante" that existed before Putin ordered the invasion,...

Anonymous alleged “U.S. and congressional officials” told the Wall Street Journal this week President Joe Biden is planning to remove the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a nearly 60-year-old terrorist organization responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, from America’s list of designated foreign terrorist groups. The FARC, a communist group, has been responsible for a wide variety of human rights atrocities in Colombia since its founding in 1964 that include mass killings, kidnappings, child rape, forced abortions, the use of child soldiers, and one of the world’s most lucrative drug trafficking operations. The government of then-President Juan Manuel...

At gala opening of Peace through Strength Center, former ambassador says Arab-Israeli conflict on cusp of ending; Pompeo swipes Biden over Afghanistan withdrawal Speaking at the gala opening of The Friedman Center for Peace through Strength at the Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem on Monday night, former US ambassador David Friedman said that his fledgling organization will work to bring Muslims to Jerusalem, so that they see for themselves the way Israel protects holy sites, including the Al Aqsa Mosque. Muslim tourism to Israel was a central pillar of the Donald Trump administration’s approach to Middle East peace, Friedman added....

In what could be a landmark in the Middle East’s history, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Israeli media reported. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, currently on a tour of the region, was also reportedly present at the meeting in Neom, Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu was accompanied by the head of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Yossi Cohen, who is widely regarded to have played a key role in preparing the groundwork for the recent normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Arab Gulf states, news...