Free Republic

Prof. Mordechai Kedar is one of the world’s leading experts on Islam and Arab society. In this powerful interview, Prof. Kedar explains why Western models keep failing in the Middle East, why the Palestinian Authority is doomed, and how Israel should adopt the successful clan-based "Emirates" model in Judea and Samaria ( the West Bank) to achieve real stability and peace. Chapters: 00:00:00 – Intro 00:00:53 – Middle East Clan System: Why Muslim States Fail or Succeed 00:10:22 – Why the PA Is Doomed to Fail 00:25:52 – The Spiritual War of Islam – Path to Real Peace 00:44:18 –...

Tucker Carlson had an expletive-filled kiss off to Donald Trump as he continues to burn bridges within the White House over the Iran War. The former Fox News anchor has been one of most public critics from the right of Trump's foreign policy, coming to a head with the strikes on Tehran. Carlson, appearing on the Jack Neel Podcast, accused Trump of feigning strength by using empty threats against Iran as the war continued on. 'He tried to posture his way out of it,' Carlson said of the President after the initial killing of Ayatollah Khomeini didn't force Iran's surrender....

The city's main liquified natural gas (LNG) processing site suffered a "technical accident" in Ras Laffan industrial zone on Sunday night, the interior ministry said, with the city's skyline turning orange because of the explosion. Qatar's Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said the explosion would not affect the country's exports, adding "this was an accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature". The Ras Laffan Port is the largest artificial harbour in the world and has the world's largest LNG export facility. ... On Sunday, QatarEnergy, which is the country's state-owned energy company, confirmed the explosion occurred at "Barzan local...

Ukrainian drones attacking the port city of Sevastopol... "And I want to thank the Emir of Qatar" US President Donald Trump unveiling a new presidential aircraft... The 65th deadly US attack on a boat linked... US Envoy Steve Witkoff reported on his way to Switzerland... The Netherlands moving an air defense frigate closer to the Middle East... US politics President Donald Trump endorsing both Republican candidates... Bodies of migrants washing ashore near the northern Libyan city of... In Israel a man with a suspected case of the Ebola virus is hospitalized... A train driver is dead, 89 people injured 11...

Is it goodbye Air Force One, hello Qatar Force One? White House officials bade farewell on Thursday to one of the two jets that have been used to transport US presidents for more than 30 years. The goodbye messages fueled speculation that a Boeing 747 controversially gifted to President Donald Trump by the Gulf emirate of Qatar is now due to enter service. "'Well done, good and faithful servant. 'The Last Ride,'" Trump's communications director Steven Cheung said in a post on X with a picture of the iconic white and blue jet after returning from the G7 summit in...

President Trump has made a deal with Iran. On Friday, Vice President JD Vance will attend the official signing in Geneva of a 14-point US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding that covers the naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's nuclear ambitions, the lifting of sanctions, a $300bn reconstruction fund for Iran and a ceasefire. The deal has gone down badly in the US, and with good reason. Gerry argues that it's a calamity for America and a betrayal of the Iranian people. Could it also be the undoing of JD Vance? It looks like he's been set up as the...

Top White House officials on Thursday morning bade farewell to a jet that has carried U.S. presidents around the world for 35 years, as the Trump administration prepares to replace it with a Boeing 747 donated by Qatar to serve as Air Force One. As President Donald Trump and his staff returned from France after 3 a.m. on Thursday morning, White House communications director Steven Cheung and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted photos of one of the highly customized, heavily fortified Boeing 747-200B jumbo jets that are called Air Force One when carrying the president. “Well...

It's entirely possible that Trump, the "Art of the Deal" master, never saw the details of the MoU --brokered by fake "friends" Qatar/Pakistan-- before blindly placing his confidence in JD Vance. Yet virtually no one argues that this deal is good for America. There is broad consensus across Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, and many others that the sole beneficiary would be Iran's oppressive regime and its jihadist proxies. No one believes that the $300 billion would simply be spent on "reconstruction." Just like the regime has been doing with Obama's cash release for its annihilation nuclear program, ballistic missiles, shahed drones...

Well, to be clear, it appears that many of the sanctions have already been lifted, as Iranian oil shipments are flowing out of the Strait of Hormuz. The blockade, it appears, is already over, even before the official signing we expect on Friday. The lifting of sanctions on oil-related exports appears to be point #10 in the leaked but unconfirmed Memorandum of Understanding. 🚨 The Iranian television is broadcasting from the Strait of Hormuz. and claims: At least 3 oil tankers carrying 5 million barrels of crude oil have passed through the Strait of Hormuz in recent hours. pic.twitter.com/13txRGNFEv— Raylan...

The US secretly approved a financial and maritime arrangement between Qatar and Iran, under which billions of dollars were paid to Tehran in exchange for free passage for Qatari tankers and ships through the Strait of Hormuz, three diplomatic officials now confirm. This was a deliberate and conscious course of action by the US administration, which allowed its navy to turn a blind eye to the arrangement, in complete contradiction of its declared policy. The move was intended to ease the crisis in global energy markets and curb rising oil prices. The current revelation proves that the White House had...

U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Middle ‌Eastern leaders and attend a working ‌session with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during the ​G7 summit in France next week, senior U.S. administration officials said on Saturday. Officials said Trump would meet separately with the ‌leaders of Egypt, ⁠Qatar, United Arab Emirate, France and India. No bilateral meeting ⁠was planned with Zelenskiy but the two leaders could meet on the sidelines ​of the ​summit, they added. Trump ​planned to raise ‌issues of shared importance with leaders at the summit, including economic growth and development, supply chain resilience, illegal migration and AI, one...

[snip] To begin CNN This Morning's discussion of the anti-ICE riots, host Audie Cornish called on Karen Attiah, the creator and leader of the Resistance Summer School. As per its website, the school is: A "structure for radical learning . . . Students will explore how colonial legacies and racial hierarchies shape global politics, diplomacy, conflict, and coverage —and how media systems often reinforce (or resist) these power structures." Take a look below at the school's insignia featuring a clenched fist, a traditional socialist symbol. And it adopts as its motto, "A Luta Continua" [The Struggle Continues.] That was the...

Last month, I directed our Great U.S. Military to execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait. This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran. Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost. It’s over for Iran! Thank...

Video at link. "President Donald Trump said the U.S. would hit Iran “very hard” today."

KAN Israel News, citing an Iranian-linked news network, reports that $3 billion was transferred from Abu Dhabi to Tehran aboard a private Boeing 737. According to the report, Iran agreed to halt direct attacks on Israel after receiving a U.S. message, delivered through Qatar, in from further strikes in Lebanon. The funds were reportedly flown to Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport aboard UAE Royal Jet aircraft A6-RJF, which was tracked traveling from Abu Dhabi to Iran. At this stage, the flight itself was genuine (it happened during Irans airspace closure) and the presence of a UAE delegation in Tehran has been reported...

In April 2025, amid active congressional investigations, federal FARA violation requests, a sitting faculty member who had publicly hoped Iran would bomb a US military base, Hamas symbols spray-painted on dorm walls, a student body that had just voted 68% to boycott Israel, and an ongoing war in which Iran was targeting American institutions — Georgetown University’s interim president flew to Doha and signed a ten-year contract renewal with Qatar Foundation. He then accepted a ceremony in which Georgetown’s highest honor, the President’s Medal, was given to Sheikha Moza bint Nasser — the Qatari royal who had publicly praised Hamas...

It’s a typical afternoon in Saint-Denis, the narrow streets packed with people whose faces you cannot see. The women move in niqab, shapes without features, eyes that do not meet yours. The shop signs are in Arabic, the smell of cumin and lamb fat rises from every doorway, thick and permanent, as if the street itself has been marinated in another world. From three directions at once, the call to prayer cuts through the air. Al-lahu Akbar. God is great. Come to prayer. Come to salvation. Even the French police do not enter without backup. Ambulances request escorts before responding...

“Qatar bought a soccer team, a giant energy conglomerate — and, it seems, a French President.” — Biff Spackle.In April 2024, a 73-page secret report landed on the desk of France’s President Macron. It said the Muslim Brotherhood (once aligned with Nazi Germany) had spent forty years (yes, four decades) secretly infiltrating French neighborhoods, schools, and city halls. And all of it was bankrolled by Qatar and Turkey. Emmanuel Macron read the report. He understood it. Then he locked it in a drawer. And full credit for this story goes to Behind the Narrative 📣. This is the story he...

Mehek Cooke@MehekCookeTrump just turned the Abraham Accords into an accountability trap for the Gulf states and Iran walked right into it.Gulf states like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey have never held Iran accountable is due to exposure. They share a neighborhood. They can't sanction, shame, or confront Iran while having zero security architecture binding them to the West or to each other.The Abraham Accords change that math entirely. Once Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey are signatories, they aren't just recognizing Israel they are locking themselves into a collective security posture.A breach of the Iran deal becomes their problem...

Concerns are mounting in Washington over Qatar’s expanding financial footprint across key American sectors, where investment flows are increasingly seen as a vehicle for strategic influence and geopolitical leverage, a new study has found. According to a newly released report from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based think tank, Qatar has invested over $400 billion in the United States since 2000, with analysts now raising alarm bells over the scale and strategic reach of its financial ties. While FDD’s analysis uses a conservative baseline, the estimate could even reach roughly $1.2 trillion in investment flows if...