Free Republic

Top News: Iraq timetable rejected By the Republicans on vote. Read on!!

Daschle Calls for Troops Pullout by 2008 Thursday November 3, 2005 12:01 AM By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle says all U.S. troops ought to be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of 2007. The South Dakota Democrat, defeated for re-election last November, made the comment in a foreign policy speech set for delivery in Chicago on Wednesday, three days before a planned visit to politically pivotal Iowa. Daschle has raised his public profile in recent weeks and has not ruled out a presidential run in 2008. In an advance...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel may bar far-rightists convicted of violent protests against the Gaza pullout from compulsory military service, an Israeli army spokesman said on Tuesday. In Israel, where enlistment of 18-year-old men and women in the military is widely seen as sacrosanct, such a ban could ignite tensions between Jewish settlers who opposed the pullout and the bulk of the country's mainstream that supported it. The army spokesman said the military had postponed conscription for an unspecified number of Israeli youths "whose actions during the disengagement (from Gaza) are under Israeli police investigation." The army would decide at a...

Even before he set out for home Monday, Sept. 19, Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon charged into combative mode against his political adversaries, using a New York meeting with Jewish leaders as his platform. He declared he had lost the majority of the party he founded because of the “lies and terrible incitement of a minority which opposed the Gaza evacuations.” It was unheard of for a ruling party, Sharon said, to relinquish power a year and a quarter before the end of its term solely in order to satisfy someone’s “crazy personal ambitions” (a transparent reference to former finance...

THE DELUSION OF 2005 9/14/05 What malady infects the U.S. State Department? What turns reasonable, intelligent people into political machines that work against America's interests? How can an incredible woman, Condoleeza Rice, make some of the following statements and not believe that thinking people know she is stretching credulity with them? RICE: "We welcome the completion of the Israeli disengagement from Gaza. This is an historic moment for both sides, and the commitment of both sides to be a successful disengagement process has been impressive." REALITY CHECK: Secretary Rice, just name ONE fulfilled commitment on the part of the Palestinians...

TULKARM, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed five Palestinians in an overnight West Bank raid, the army's first deadly strike since it removed Jewish settlers from occupied lands this week. Palestinian militant leaders vowed revenge. A new wave of violence would jeopardize a truce that largely held while Israel scrapped 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank and make it harder to capitalize on the pullout by reviving Middle East peacemaking. Hours before the raid a Palestinian stabbed to death an ultra-Orthodox Jew and wounded another in Jerusalem's walled Old City in an attack police said...

The withdrawal of Israeli settlements from the Gaza strip is proceeding as well as could be hoped given the circumstances. Most Americans cannot even imagine the trauma of having their families uprooted and sent elsewhere, so many have seen it as another retreat in the face of terrorism. But the Israeli government’s order for its Jewish settlers to leave Gaza is not about surrendering to the forces of terror at all. It is a sound tactical play in the face of a changing enemy, and a maneuver that we would expect from an old fighter such as Ariel Sharon. To...

Palestinian Elections Set For January Elections Were Postpone Due To Gaza Pullout Aug 20, 2005 2:56 pm US/Mountain Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas (File) AP (CBS) RAFAH, Gaza Strip Palestinian parliamentary elections will be held Jan. 25, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced Saturday. The elections were to have been held in July, but were postponed indefinitely because of Israel's Gaza pullout. In setting a firm date, Abbas was making a conciliatory gesture to his political rival, Hamas, which is expected to make a strong showing in the vote. "The parliamentary election will take place in all of the homeland districts on...

DEIR Al-BALAH, Gaza Strip - Behind a once lush expanse of date palm and carnation farms, Palestinian farmer Mohammed Bashir climbed onto his roof Thursday to witness the forcible removal of Jewish settlers from Kfar Darom. Like dozens of his neighbors in this central Gaza town, he watched with mixed emotions as Israeli riot police scuffled with settlers barricaded in a synagogue. He feels relief because for the first time in years, it is safe for the 42-year-old farmer to be on the roof of his home just 100 yards from the hard-line settlement. "I'm standing here without any fear...

TEHRAN, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Iran on Thursday welcomed Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip after nearly four decades of occupation, state radio reported. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the withdrawal was a victory for "legitimate Palestinian resistance". "The evacuation shows that what was taken by force would not have been retrieved without resistance," state radio quoted Asefi as saying. Since its 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has refused to recognise Israel and has supported groups including Hamas, which is Islamic fundamentalist. Iran says it would not oppose a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict if the Palestinian...

<p>Live thread for posting breaking news about the Gaza Explulsion which is set to begin within the hour...</p>

There have been conflicting reports about the timing of American troop withdrawals from Iraq. Gen. George Casey, commander of U.S. forces there, has announced that the United States intends to begin a "fairly substantial" withdrawal of U.S. forces after the projected December elections establish a constitutional government. Other sources have indicated that this will involve 30,000 troops, or some 22 percent of U.S. forces in Iraq. Some high-level statements from Baghdad have indicated that the beginning of withdrawals may be delayed until next summer. On either schedule, progress is dependent upon improvements in the security situation and in the training...

'Gaza will remain occupied territory' Palestinian Foreign Ministry launches new initiative, calling for international world and United Nations to recognize Gaza Strip as occupied territory following Israel's pullout from region By Ali Waked Gone, not forgotten: The Palestinian Authority claims the Gaza Strip will continue to be under Israeli occupation even after Israel pulls out of the area next week. Preparing for Israel's pullout  Photo: Reuters Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa  Photo: Reuters In a report presented to the United Nations, several foreign governments and international organizations, the PA foreign ministry calls on the international community to reject Israel’s claim...

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is laying the groundwork for beginning a withdrawal from Iraq, even as it is weighing the risk of moving so quickly that Iraqi security forces collapse without U.S. support. The benefits of a U.S. drawdown are pretty clear. Fewer troops would likely mean fewer casualties and less strain on the Army and Marine Corps, which already are stretched thin. And it would lessen the degree to which the presence of foreign forces fuels an anti-U.S. insurgency. There are now about 138,000 U.S. troops in Iraq in a war with dwindling popularity among American voters. At best,...

A Jewish Israeli man in Israel Defense Forces uniform opened fire on bus passengers in a Druze neighborhood of the Israeli Arab town of Shfaram Thursday afternoon. Four people were killed and 12 wounded, two of them moderately. The gunman was killed by a mob that boarded the bus after the shooting. Security forces said the shooting was apparently a Jewish terror attack and that the attacker was a newly religious man, an IDF deserter from Rishon Letzion who recently moved to the West Bank settlement of Tapuah. They said the gunman, Eran Tzuberi, 19, was an activist in the...

Israel Military Radio reporting that an IDF soldier has opened fire on a bus killing 3 and wounding 10

Sderot rally ends Anti-pullout vigil in Sderot draws over 20,000; towards end of demonstration, Palestinian terrorists fire Qassam rocket at Sderot; protesters now going to Ofakim By Efrat Weiss and Ronny Sofer SDEROT - Anti-disengagement activists are making their way to Ofakim, where they will spend in the town's parking lot. Staking out space for evening vigil Photo: Tsafror Abayov Sderot rally underway Photo: Ronny Sofer One thousand police are directing to Ofakim, while 15,000 security personnel are blocking the way to Gush Katif. Earlier in Tuesday evening, over 20,000 protesters attended of an anti-pullot vigil in Sderot - which,...

ISRAEL has threatened a massive ground offensive into the Gaza Strip should Palestinian militants open fire on soldiers or settlers during next month's pullout from the occupied territory. Such an assault, similar to March 2002's Operation Defensive Shield, which saw troops re-occupy most of the West Bank after numerous suicide bombings, would delay the historic withdrawal by up to two weeks, deputy defence minister Zeev Boim said. "In the case of fire, we will stop the pullout and strike a big blow in an operation at division level," Boim told public radio. Senior Israeli military officials have repeatedly warned that...

Sunday: Settlers begin to move Interior Minister Ophir Pines tours sand dunes of Nitzanim and follows the preparations to absorb hundreds of Gush Katif evacuees beginning Sunday; Pines: ‘The speed of construction here is faster than anything in Israel’s history’; a bank, three kindergartens, clinic, and market being built By Doron Sheffer and Roni Sofer NITZANIM -- Everything’s ready for the evacuees: Beginning Sunday, hundreds of former Gaza residents will be housed in luxury mobile homes (“cara-villas”) in Nitzanim. Some 320 temporary apartments have been erected so far, and in the next two weeks, there will be another 30. Interior...

Over 3000 years ago, during these very forty days, twelve men walked across this land to gain insight and inspiration. Ten of these men walked in fear and trepidation. Every where they looked confirmed their worst fears about themselves and their deepest concerns about the inhabitants of this land. They saw themselves as "grasshoppers" and felt unable to possess the land that had been promised them by the Almighty. It was impossible not to think about those steps taken in fear and trepidation as we watched tens of thousands of Jews walking through dusty fields and roads and highways attempting...