Free Republic

Abu Dhabi is advocating for a reformed PA to govern Gaza, the West Bank, and east Jerusalem under an independent Palestinian state, the sources said. The United Arab Emirates has discussed with Israel and the United States participating in a provisional administration of post-war Gaza until a reformed Palestinian Authority is able to take charge, according to people familiar with the talks. The behind-the-scenes discussions, reported by Reuters for the first time, included the possibility of the UAE and the United States, along with other nations, temporarily overseeing the governance, security and reconstruction of Gaza after the Israeli military withdraws...

A successful, peaceful, and vibrant Gaza, in the image of the UAE, Bahrain, and Israel itself, would be the model not only for a better Middle East but also for the wider world. Back in December 2023, barely two months after the horrors of October 7 and the resultant war to eradicate Hamas in Gaza, I posted my original thoughts in a Jerusalem Report article (“A new Gaza – A new Middle East”) on how to achieve peace and a better future for Gaza. I envisioned nothing less than a regional partnership to rebuild Gaza into becoming the Cote d’Azur...

“The western territories of Ukraine will be safe if they temporarily come under the protectorate of the Polish state.” Polish Prime Minister Matteusz Morawiecki.

Intersting

With President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney continuing to run neck-and-neck in the US presidential race, analysts in Washington are seriously considering whether a recount on 7 November will be necessary. The consequence could be far-reaching for Europe, which is waiting until the US vote to take a decision on debt-laden Greece.Five days before Americans go to vote, the latest Washington Post–ABC News poll showed the two candidates within decimal points of each other nationally and across the battleground states (49% for Obama, 48% Romney). And the likelihood of a recount can now no longer be excluded, experts...

If one is curious why the EURUSD has been ramping as if no one will ever sell one more euro ever again, the reason is simple: the BIS is desperate to mask the fact that the fragile Greek coalition, whose creation sent Europe to the edge back in June during the Greek re-elections that just barely avoided a Grexit, has just crumbled. And with an illiquid market, the reflexive argument always is a simple one: if someone is buying, the news must be good, so dear momo-chasers—buy along. Only the news isn't good, and in a centrally-planned world, the only...

The king (left) is spending five days in India India and Bhutan are due to update their friendship treaty to give the Himalayan kingdom greater control over many areas of governance. The revised 57-year-old agreement will allow Bhutan more freedom in areas of foreign policy and military purchases. The Bhutanese monarch, Jigme Khesar Namgyel, will meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi to sign the treaty. In 2008 Bhutan becomes a parliamentary democracy with a new constitution. The meeting is part of a six-day visit by the Bhutanese monarch to India. After taking over from his father, King...

The Betrayal of Checks and Balances The philosophy of Ayn Rand has taught me and numerous other thinkers of the new intellectual Renaissance the moral groundwork for laissez-faire capitalism as the sole economic system which fully and unequivocally recognizes the individual’s objective prerequisites to survival, his natural rights of life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, and property. With slight loopholes, this was the implicit philosophy behind the founding of America, and the principal force in its first one hundred fifty years of development. Yet, in the words of Aristotle, "The least initial deviation from the truth gets multiplied later a thousandfold.”...