Free Republic

The world’s Arab countries for the first time have joined unanimously in the call for Hamas to lay down its weapons, release all hostages and end its rule of the Gaza Strip, conditions that they said could help the establishment of a Palestinian state. The surprise declaration, endorsed on Tuesday by the 22 member nations of the Arab League, also condemned Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, which set off the devastating war in Gaza. The statement came at a United Nations conference in New York on a two-state solution to end the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. “In...

In an effort to end the fighting in Gaza, the Arab League issued a declaration at a United Nations conference on reviving the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, condemning the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and calling on the terrorists to release all hostages it is holding, disarm, and end its rule of Gaza. It's an amazing document. Unfortunately, it's also a non-starter. The document calls for a two-state solution, which is something that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly and firmly rejected.More problematically, the plan also calls for a "right of return" for...

Declaration, also signed by EU and over a dozen countries, urges terror group to give up Gaza rule, free hostages; calls on Israel to end war, agree to Palestinian state, ‘right of return’ Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, signed a declaration Tuesday condemning for the first time Hamas’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and calling on the Palestinian terror group to release all the hostages it is holding, disarm and end its rule of Gaza, in a bid to end the devastating war in the Strip. Seventeen countries, plus the 22-member Arab League...

Most mainstream media outlets have made it clear in recent years where their loyalties lie regarding the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. But while rational observers can disagree about how both sides have reacted in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, the use of misleading photos to manipulate the narrative should never be deemed acceptable. That’s what the New York Times essentially admitted it did with a photo originally presented as a severely malnourished child in Gaza. A little legwork by a watchdog group called Honest Reporting helped expose the misrepresentation, as Breitbart reported: The New York Times admitted...

This was the (top part of) front page of the New York Times on July 25 featuring what appears to be a starving, emaciated Gaza child.I just went through the front pages of the New York Times for the past 365 days. Not once has it positioned a photo in this extraordinary way.Usually the NYT will feature a photo that is four columns wide, and that photo is always wider than it is tall (landscape). For example, here is the front page from yesterday, illustrating the mass shooting in Manhattan.Once every couple of months it has a feature photo that...

Israel isn’t committing genocide - it’s resisting genocide. On Oct 7, 2023, thousands of Muslim Jihadis swept from Gaza into Israel, killing, torturing, raping and kidnapping anyone in their path. The victims included not only Israelis or Jews, but Americans and Europeans, Christians and Buddhists, as well as those Bedouins whom the Hamas, PLO and Islamic Jihad attackers did not consider Muslims. Their rationale was not a “Palestinian” cause or any of the later war propaganda myths about an “open air prison”, but an Islamic religious imperative to drive out infidels. That’s why they named their genocidal campaign, ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’...

1. "Genocide in Darfur – How the Horror Began." By Eric Reeves. SudanTribune September 3, 2005: "likely more than four million if we consider its earlier phase (1955-72)." Add the hundreds of thousands dead since 2005 including 150,000 2023/4 3. Nigeria, Igbo genocide by Hausa-Fulani Jihad: 3 million 2. 1971, 3 Million Bengalis by Pakistan using Islamic themes. 3. Idi Amin, sought to islamicize Uganda, 300,000. 4. Lebanon 1970s-1999 - by Syria and "Palestinians" Muslims: 300,000. 5. Iran 1979 Islamic Revolution: 80,000. 6. Saddam Hussein (- Quran waving dictator), 500,000. 7. Iran-Iraq war (Sunni vs Shiite), 1.5 million. 8. Yemen,...

The United States has joined Israel in accusing Sir Keir Starmer of “rewarding Hamas” after he declared the UK will recognise Palestine in September unless Benjamin Netanyahu’s government makes peace. The Prime Minister issued the ultimatum to his Israeli counterpart after an emergency meeting of his Cabinet. Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the US State department, said Sir Keir’s remarks were a “slap in the face for the victims of October 7” which “rewards Hamas”. “It allows it to continue. It gives one group hope, and that’s Hamas. It is a rewarding of that kind of behaviour,” she said, adding: “There’s...

Saudi Arabia will not pursue normalization with Israel absent the creation of a Palestinian state, the kingdom’s top diplomat said on Monday, according to Bloomberg. Speaking at a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot at the United Nations, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan declared that normalization “can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state.” “That position remains the same, and it is based on a strong conviction that only through the establishment of a Palestinian state and only through addressing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination can we have sustainable...

The Trump administration says it boycotted a United Nations conference promoting the two-state solution on Monday, calling the event a “publicity stunt” and an “insult.” “This week, the U.N. will serve as host to an unproductive and ill-timed conference on the two-state solution in New York City,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. “This is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.” Bruce said the conference will “prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace.” Instead of participating, Bruce said...

Violence is accelerating under Syria’s new Islamist government, as is the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities. This tragedy was entirely predictable. As far back as Barack Obama’s first term, critics warned that Washington’s flirtation with and assistance to Sunni Arab radicals would turn out badly. Nevertheless, Joe Biden’s administration persisted in that approach in an effort to overthrow the secular government of Bashar al-Assad. From the standpoint of US policymakers, Assad had committed two unpardonable sins. He transformed his country into Iran’s closest regional ally, and he forged closer ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Indeed, Russian air power played...

Former Kentucky country clerk Kim Davis seeking US Supreme Court review...damages and attorney fees to two gay men... Starlink service down for around two and a half hours... The US Justice Department acting to keep President Trump's pick... The US Department of Justice suing the City of New York... France will recognize a Palestinian state... US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Meets Ghislaine Maxwell...Questioning Continues Tomorrow...Maxwell Seeking Pardon From Trump... At least six killed and more than 150 injured following explosions at an ammunition dump in northwestern Syria... "When you build something that requires a HIGH water demand, it will...

First they came for the Alawites, then they came for the Christians. Now they are coming for the Druze.Ever since regime change in Syria last December, the country had not exactly offered safety to its minorities, despite President Ahmed al-Sheraa's (al-Julani) fine words that he is the head of all Syrians, not just Sunnis. Druze have been murdered in the town of Suweida, there has been massacre, mutilation and humiliation. In fact there are suspicions that Al-Julani’s own forces slaughtered the entire staff at Suweida’s hospital along with their patients and carried out extrajudicial executions. The international community has been...

https://t.me/beholdisraelchannel/60104 A pro-government jihadist terrorist cold-bloodedly killed a Druze citizen in As Suweyda just because he was Druze. The conversation between them: "Are you Druze?" "Yes, just going out to buy bread." He shot him, then laughed and said, "Who told you to go out to buy bread?" His fellow fighter laughed: "You could at least have let him finish his sentence!" He replied: "No - slaughter, slaughter." ((. Graphic video at link - viewer discretion advised. ))

World-renowned urban warfare expert John Spencer has delivered a searing indictment of international inaction over the systematic massacre of Syria’s Druze minority, arguing that while “human rights organizations say little” and “Western capitals issue muted statements or none at all,” Israel alone has responded with decisive action to protect a vulnerable community facing what Spencer describes as “ethnic and religious cleansing in broad daylight.” Spencer, who serves as executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute and chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, posted his analysis to X on Sunday in a viral social media post...

Bedouin fighters positioned outside the southern Syrian city of Suweida have told the BBC they will observe a ceasefire with the Druze community there, but have not ruled out resuming hostilities. The Bedouin fighters have retreated from the city to surrounding villages in the province after a week of deadly sectarian clashes between Druze fighters, Bedouins and government forces, with Israel carrying out air strikes in support of the Druze. On Sunday a UK-based monitoring group said there was a "cautious calm" in the region - but later said tribal fighters had attacked villages. From the town of al-Mazara'a -...

The Syrian government on Monday started evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside the city of Sweida, where Druze militiamen and Bedouin fighters have clashed for over a week. The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile postwar transition. The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins. The U.N. International Organization for Migration said some 128,571 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks a...

The Druze are a small minority spread between Lebanon, northern Israel, and northern Jordan, with their concentration in southern Syria. Persecuted over the centuries, they are known as fierce fighters that placed their communities on the more mountainous terrain of the Levant for defensive reasons. Another defining feature of the Druze is the principle of loyalty to land and regime. Indeed, so close is the bond between Israel and its small Druze population of approximately 150,000 that most Druze youth serve in the IDF, with many becoming high-ranking officers.

For many Jews, the images of Druze men having their mustaches forcibly shaved conjure up memories of the Holocaust. Israel’s decision to take decisive action in Syria in an effort to deter attacks on the Druze community has shown that it is possible for countries to work to preempt massacres or genocide. In the wake of the fall of the Assad regime, Israel has been vocal about protecting the Druze in Syria. The IDF has acted several times when clashes in Syria between armed groups and Druze fighters led to the killings of Druze.

Sectarian fighting has highlighted just how combustible the country remains months after its authoritarian leader, Bashar al Assad, was toppled. Ahmad al Sharaa, who led Islamist rebels who overthrew the authoritarian leader, became the country's interim president in a transition that was initially mostly peaceful. He has pledged to protect Syria's diverse ethnic and religious groups since. However, a few months after the overthrow of Assad, government forces clashed with pro-Assad armed groups on Syria's coast, spurring sectarian attacks that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which the former president belongs. This left other minority groups,...