Free Republic

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will leave this afternoon for a five-day trip to China, where he will try to bring Israel’s perspectives on a slew of regional issues such as Iran, Syria and Egypt to the country’s new leadership. Netanyahu will be meeting with the new Chinese president, Xi Jinping, as well as with the country’s new prime minister, Li Keqiang, in an effort to shape their impressions of the Middle East as they begin what is expected to be a decade of rule. While two previous attempts to arrange a visit by Netanyahu failed to materialize, the trip is...

In a further indication of stirrings in the long-stagnant Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic process, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni met Thursday in Washington with US Secretary of State John Kerry, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said for the second time in a week that he supports a public referendum on any agreement with the Palestinians. Yitzhak Molcho, Netanyahu’s envoy on the Palestinian issue, accompanied Livni to her meeting with Kerry, where they discussed the peace process as well as regional developments, particularly Syria. The meeting came three days after an Arab League delegation met with Kerry and US Vice President Joe Biden. Kerry...

ROME, April 30 (UPI) -- Israeli President Shimon Peres met with Pope Francis in the Vatican Tuesday, inviting him to Israel and seeking help restarting the Palestinian peace process. Peres told Francis he has a unique and potentially very helpful role in restarting the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians, Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. "The citizens of Israel see in you a leader of peace and good will," Peres said. "The sooner you visit the better, as in these days a new opportunity is being created for peace and your arrival could contribute significantly to increasing the trust and belief...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Monday said that Iran is steadily edging closer to nuclear weapons capability but has not yet reached the "red line" he drew in a speech to the United Nations last fall. Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his assessment as Israel took delivery of the fifth of six advanced submarines it has ordered from Germany. The "Dolphin" class vessels are believed to be capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads and could play an important role in any future conflict between Israel and Iran. In Iran, an influential former president appeared to be trying to lower...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry met a group of senior Arab officials on Monday as he sought to build regional support for any fresh push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Kerry has made no secret of his hope to revive peace talks, which broke down in 2010, but it remains unclear whether U.S. President Barack Obama will decide to back a major U.S. effort. In convening the group, Kerry is trying to ensure that a new peace process would have the backing of the Arab states, who, if they were to offer Israel a comprehensive peace, hold a powerful...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Senior aides to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi made a rare visit to Tehran for talks with Iran on an Islamic initiative to seek a peaceful solution to Syria's civil war, the two sides said on Sunday. Tehran is Syria's closest ally and has provided money, weapons, intelligence and training for President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Egypt has given political support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition fighting to oust him. Mursi's foreign affairs adviser Essam Haddad and his chief-of-staff Rifaa El-Tahtawy met Iranian officials in a follow-up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's groundbreaking visit to Cairo in...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation’s president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there.</p>

Islamist extremists who have flocked to Syria to fight with groups linked to al-Qaeda pose a direct threat to Britain because they will return to plot attacks at home, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary has said. Mr Hague said there was now “uncontested space” in Syria where Islamist groups were free to establish training camps that would equip and train foreign fighters, including British extremists. In a letter to MPs, Mr Hague said his officials had concluded some of those trained would threaten British national security on their return. “This is particularly concerning as we assess some of the individuals...

NORMAN, Okla., April 26 (UPI) -- The lack of a vibrant oil sector in Syria is part of the reason there are so many refugees in the region, Syrian expert Joshua Landis said. "Oil is the only thing that Syria has going for it," Landis, a Syrian expert and professor at the University of Oklahoma, told Bloomberg News. "Farming has collapsed and that is why we are seeing this outflow of refugees. They are starving. They don't have the basics to sustain them." European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Kristalina Georgieva said there are 1.3 million refugees due...

MILFORD — Milford Beach will remain open this summer after all, after a campaign waged by community activists, business owners, and elected officials to stop the closure set off by across-the-board spending cuts known as the federal sequester. John Donahue, superintendent of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreational Area, said he had to close Milford Beach to trim his budget. This ruffled many feathers in Pike County, as Milford Beach is a big draw for both residents and visitors alike during the summer. The closing would cost businesses in Milford and the surrounding area a lot of money in an...

Energy: As the EPA snipes at the State Department's approval, Canada's natural resource minister says failure to approve the pipeline would seriously jeopardize our energy relationship and do nothing to save the earth. Joe Oliver, not amused by the continued delays in perhaps the most shovel-ready project since the pyramids, said Wednesday that rejection by the U.S. of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline "would represent a serious reversal in our long-standing energy relationship." This critical energy infrastructure project is also perhaps the most studied and approved. After a reroute at the behest of environmentalists allegedly concerned about the sensitive Ogallala...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States should consider military action to curb Syrian chemical weapons after Washington went public with suspicions they have been used in the country's civil war, Israel's deputy foreign minister said on Friday. The challenge by Zev Elkin, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, underscored tension this week over the allies' assessments on Syria, as well as longer-running disputes about how aggressively to confront Iran's nuclear program. The White House said on Thursday the Syrian government had probably employed chemical arms on a small scale against rebels. The disclosure created a bind for President Barack...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Friday any use of chemical weapons by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would "take the crisis to another level", but remained cautious about any foreign military intervention in the conflict on its border. The White House said on Thursday Assad's government had probably used chemical arms on a small scale, but that President Barack Obama needed proof before he would act. "We have been hearing allegations of the use of chemical weapons for quite some time now and these new findings take things to another level. They are very alarming," Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Levent...

---------------SIP--------------------------------------- . . .Perhaps a quick refresher on the benefits of Keystone are in order. First, notwithstanding the development of alternative energy sources, the world is going to continue to need oil; Oliver, quoting the International Energy Agency, says that global energy demand is expected to grow by at least 35 percent over the next 20 years. The notion, pushed by environmentalists, that blocking the oil sands will spur green energy is delusion. Second, energy independence is a long-sought national goal. We would no longer need OPEC, a cartel of countries with values, in many cases, antithetical to ours. Third,...

The powerful U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has once again rebuked the State Department over its positive environmental assessment of TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline. In a lengthy, highly technical letter sent Monday to the top State Department officials overseeing the pipeline permit process, the EPA raises serious concerns about the project's carbon footprint and criticizes the department's draft analysis. It urges the State Department to rethink its finding that the controversial pipeline would not significantly spur production of Alberta's carbon-intensive oilsands or boost greenhouse gas emissions. The letter, signed by EPA official Cynthia Giles, said the State assessment included "insufficient...

As President Obama weighs the fate of the Keystone pipeline, a similar project connecting Canada’s oil sands to the West Coast is quietly moving forward, little noticed in the United States. A 60-year-old pipeline already pumps oil from northern Alberta to Vancouver’s busy harbor for shipment to Asia or California. Now the owner, Kinder Morgan Canada, wants to nearly triple the Trans Mountain Pipeline’s capacity, making it even bigger than Keystone. And unlike Keystone, Trans Mountain’s proposed $5.4 billion expansion doesn’t need the approval of the U.S. government. Canadian authorities will have the final say. The project would give Canada’s...

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In a step toward restoring ties, former allies Turkey and Israel agreed Monday on the "methods and principles" of working out compensation payments for the victims of a deadly 2010 Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, Turkey's deputy prime minister said. Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were killed and several other pro-Palestinian activists were wounded when Israeli commandos stormed the ship Mavi Marmara while stopping an international flotilla trying to breach a blockade of the Gaza Strip. The incident, which also wounded seven Israeli soldiers, increased tensions between the once close allies and led to...

Do you suppose the eco-trendy crowd really, carefully thought this one through before jumping on the self-righteously outraged bandwagon? I have some pretty severe doubts on the matter, but they're in this thing, and they're certainly not going to back down now that they've invested so much time, money, and media coverage to the issue --- even though killing the Keystone XL pipeline will not prevent oil companies from developing Canada's tar sands even a little bit. Stopping their product from moving through pipelines simply means that they’ll have to seek other markets, i.e. shipping it to China via tankers,...

Mexico’s president says a Japanese company has been tapped to build a pipeline to import U.S. natural gas through Arizona. President Enrique Pena Nieto is visiting Japan, where he made the announcement about the $460 million project Tuesday. Japan’s Mitsui Corporation will build the pipeline, which will run from Tucson to the Mexican border.

In case you had any doubts, two reports released this week confirm that the oil and gas economy in Texas is still hot. Drilling permits issued in January and February were up 10 percent over the same period in 2012, according to economist Karr Ingham, who created the Texas Petro Index. The number of permits issued in February actually slipped by about 3 percent over 2012 numbers, Ingham noted. But the Railroad Commission issued 3,722 permits during the first two months of the year, “the strongest start to a year in the entire history of the TPI,” he said. Karr...