Free Republic

Having presided over the recognition of Israel by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, President Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize amid talk of peace breaking out across the region. Assuredly, this is a major diplomatic breakthrough, and Nancy's Pelosi's sour-grapes dismissal of the deal as a "distraction" testifies to that truth. Recognition of Israel by the UAE and Bahrain will, it is predicted, be followed by recognition of Israel by Oman and other Gulf states, perhaps even Saudi Arabia. But the idea that peace is at hand appears to be, as Mark Twain said of...

DOHA, Qatar — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Breitbart News exclusively — after meetings between Afghan government officials and Taliban leaders as part of the beginning of intra-Afghan peace negotiations — that the process is moving along on pace for a full withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by the spring of 2021. “I do,” Pompeo said when asked if the process is moving on pace with a Feb. 29 agreement between the United States and Taliban leadership that laid out the framework for the United States to reduce the troop count to zero by April or...

Israel's Abraham Accord agreement with the United Arab Emirates marks a substantial achievement for the mission of peace and stability in the Middle East. Although Israel had previously signed diplomatic agreements with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994, the agreement with the UAE marks a substantial achievement for the mission of peace and stability in the Middle East. The diplomatic agreement, called the Abraham Accord, means Israel and the UAE can exchange ambassadors and establish embassies in each other’s nations. Furthermore, the accord allows direct trans-national flights and opens new opportunities for bilateral cooperation, particularly in health care and...

The U.S. is "watching in real time" developments at a long-range rocket site that North Korea is believed to have rebuilt, a senior State Department official said Thursday. The Sohae facility has been used in the past for satellite launches that employ similar technology to what is required to fire intercontinental ballistic missiles. It is now back to "normal operating status," according to new commercial images and analysis from two teams of researchers...(snip) ...The State Department official said that while it is important for North Korea to act as it had promised, the U.S. side did not see Sohae as...

During a meeting with South Korea’s political delegation yesterday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un reportedly made clear his willingness for the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, if military threats towards the North are cleared and the security of its government is guaranteed. Kim also told the South Korean delegation that he is willing to engage in direct talk with Washington and would halt weapons tests during any negotiations. Both the North and South Korean leaders agreed to hold a summit, the 3rd such summit since the end of the Korean War, in April this year. A hotline between the...

United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nicki Haley held a press conference on Tuesday regarding the Iranian democracy protests. Haley also touched on the North Korean threat and the Trump administration decision to withhold funding to Pakistan. Nicki Haley also told the press the Trump administration will not give funding to the Palestinians until they sit down at the table for peace negotiations with Israel.

Here is the latest, postponed from yesterday to today. The prophecy teaching starts at about the 17-minute mark, but I encourage you to watch the beginning, where Amir again stresses the reading of God's word in general, not just the prophecy parts. He emphasizes this again at the end. He encourages us not to become prophecy freaks. Enjoy this and learn a great deal!

The time has surely arrived for trilateral negotiations to be commenced between Israel, Jordan and Egypt to allocate sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza between their respective sovereign States The Quartet—America, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations—has effectively consigned any negotiated two-state solution to political oblivion with its latest Report. Two statements in the Report stymie any resumption of negotiations—stalled since April 2014.

Pushing the 2002 Arab Initiative whilst ignoring the 2004 Bush-Congress Initiative is destined to become an exercise in futility and certain failure The announcement by French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault that France will host a meeting of ministers from 20 countries in Paris on May 30 to try and relaunch the Israel-Palestinian peace process seems to be yet another flight of fancy that is destined to end up where the Oslo Accords and the Bush Roadmap presently find themselves after decades of fruitless negotiations. Who those 20 countries are that will attend such a meeting will make fascinating reading.

It's all a bunch of empty rhetoric and meaningless promises. How gullible do Republicans, especially the Bush brothers, think we Jews are? Very, judging by their empty promises to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Last week Jeb Bush told a South Carolina audience that on his first day in the Oval Office his second move would be to order the embassy moved as "a show of solidarity" with the Jewish state. Sound familiar? That's just what big brother George W. promised to do on his first day and yet eight years later, on his...

Full title: Emails show Qadaffi son offered talks – but Clinton ordered top general to 'not take the call,' source saysVideo at link. Exclusive - New emails obtained by Fox News show that in March 2011, at the height of the Arab Spring revolution inside Libya, dictator Muammar Qaddafi’s son Saif was willing to talk peace from the ground in Libya – but a source told Fox News the offer was rejected by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In the years since Qaddafi was forced from power, Libya's government has collapsed, and extremist groups including ISIS have exploited the power...

The European Union is assessing new ways to push Israel back to the peace negotiating table with the Palestinians for a deal based on a two-state solution, working in tandem with the United States, EU officials say. The EU is exploring new diplomatic terrain and could consider ways to discourage Europeans from buying products from Israeli settlements it believes are illegal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s election rhetoric has fueled doubts about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution—a cornerstone of EU and U.S. policies for ending the Middle East conflict. “We will not forget or ignore what was being said...

If Christian broadcaster Stendal goes on trial in Colombia, missions work nationwide may be at risk. Is Russ Stendal, the famed missionary to FARC terrorists in South America, actually El Gringo, a terrorist leader seeking the overthrow of Colombia’s government? That question is before a three-judge panel, based on allegations from Carlos Manuel Silva, chief sectional prosecutor for the Colombian department of Cundinamarca, which includes the capital, Bogota. Stendal denies any allegation of leadership in FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). He said in a recent Facebook video, “Somebody set a trap for me, and I walked into it. They...

resident Barack Obama belatedly gave a high five to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud Party won a decisive victory in last week’s elections. But like a lot of things Obama “accomplishes” this one comes with the familiar Barackian asterisk: Obama didn’t mean to give Netanyahu props; instead Obama thought he was criticizing the prime minister. “I indicated to him that given his statements prior to the election, it is going to be hard to find a path where people are seriously believing that negotiations [with the Palestinians] are possible,” said Obama according to the New York Times. His...

Egypt's foreign minister raised the possibility Tuesday of restarting stalled peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians as part of negotiating a cease-fire in the war that has broken out on the Gaza Strip. At the start of a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said he planned to work with U.S. and other world leaders “to not only resolve this issue but also to set in motion once again the peace process that Secretary Kerry has been so actively involved in so as to end this ongoing conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis.”...

America has no business dictating terms on issues of vital national security to Israel, US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, said in the Knesset Monday. He placed the blame on the Palestinians for the recent failure of peace talks, saying “the principal impediment to peace is that, to date, the Palestinians have refused to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and have refused to renounce terror. “Unless and until the Palestinians can agree on those very basic starting blocks, no lasting peace solution is likely,” he stated. Cruz...

U.S. President Barack Obama sees Israel as being responsible for the failure of the recent peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to a senior official in Washington who was quoted by the New York Times on Friday. The unnamed official told the newspaper that the president believes that Israel’s announcements of new construction in Judea and Samaria were to blame for the failure. “At every juncture, there was a settlement announcement,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. “It was the thing that kept throwing a wrench in the...

A senior Fatah official said Monday that the Palestinian leadership has put forward seven terms by which they would extend peace talks with Israel beyond their April 29 deadline. Amin Maqboul, a member of the Fatah revolutionary council, told the Palestinian newspaper al-Quds that the Palestinian Authority would agree to an extension of negotiations if Israel agreed to: announce the basis on which future talks will be held; draw the outline of the borders of a Palestinian state within the next three months; halt settlement construction; withdraw Israeli troops from the West Bank’s Area C to the lines held before...

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton called on Israel to reverse recent announcements regarding construction in Judea and Samaria in order to advance peace talks. Ashton said she viewed with “great concern” an Israeli decision to declare an area near the Gush Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem as state land and the recognition of Jewish rights to the disputed Peace House in the Judean city of Hevron, a statement from her office said Friday. Ashton also lashed out at the “demolition of Palestinian property and the confiscation of EU humanitarian aid”. …

The brutal winter ebbs at last, giving way to the season of hope, deliverance and renewal. The celebrations of Passover and Easter, marking the beginning of spring, overlap this year, as they often do. Jewish children practice reciting the four questions and dream of finding the hidden Passover mazoh. Christian children celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, decorating eggs and hiding them for a hunt. Nature awakens, and suddenly all things look possible again. Just not for a lasting peace in the Middle East. President Obama, with Secretary of State John F. Kerry as his messenger and chief instigator, badly misjudged...