Free Republic

Saudi Arabia displayed remnants of what it described as Iranian drones and cruise missiles used in an attack on Saudi oil facilities as “undeniable” evidence of Iranian aggression. Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Turki al-Malki said a total of 25 drones and missiles were launched at two oil plants in last weekend’s strikes, including what he identified as Iranian Delta Wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and “Ya Ali” cruise missiles.

The last one, held in April, looked like a victory for Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party. But when Netanyahu failed to get enough support from smaller parties to form a government, he was forced to call new elections. So here we are. The polling for the new election is too close to call. Likud is locked in a tight race with the centrist Blue and White party, which is leading the opposition. The ultimate outcome depends on a lot of things that are really hard to predict, ranging from minor party vote share to post-election parliamentary haggling.

The US has told at least one US ally in the Middle East, that they have intelligence showing that the launch was “likely” coming from staging grounds in Iran, but they have not shared that intelligence yet. “It is one thing to tell us, it is another thing to show us,” said a diplomat from the region. A US official separately tells CNN that the US has assessed that the attack originated from inside Iran. The official spoke on condition of anonymity. No public evidence has been shared. What countries in the region decide to do, in reaction to the...

Tuesday's election will not only be a contest between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz but also between their American pollsters. John McLaughlin stood beside Netanyahu in a video he posted on Friday explaining why Otzma Yehudit would not cross the 3.25% electoral threshold. In explaining why he was so sure, Netanyahu pointed at McLaughlin and said that he was the pollster for US president Donald Trump. Blue and White's American strategist Joel Benenson also made the news this past week, when Netanyahu accused him of being behind a false report in Politico accusing Israel...

A weekend drone attack on Saudi Arabia that cut into global energy supplies and halved the kingdom’s oil production threatened Sunday to fuel a regional crisis, as the U.S. released new evidence to back up its allegation that Iran was responsible for the assault amid heightened tensions over Tehran’s collapsing nuclear deal. President Donald Trump said the U.S. had reason to believe it knew who was behind the attack — his secretary of state had blamed Iran the previous day — and assured his Twitter followers that “we are ... locked and loaded” depending on verification and were waiting to...

Drone attacks on two critical production facilities in Saudi Arabia wiped out over 5% of the world’s oil supply in one go, eliminating the spare capacity of the entire globe. The attacks, which targeted an oil processing facility at Abqaiq and the nearby Khurais oil field knocked out 5.7 million barrels of daily crude production, a whopping 50% of Saudi Arabia’s entire oil output. “This incident effectively eliminates the world’s spare capacity,” said Sarah Cottle, global head of market insight at S&P Global Platts. The attacks led at one point to oil prices spiking by 19%, the biggest leap since...

WASHINGTON — U.S. warships and aircraft sank or heavily damaged six Iranian navy ships Monday as a major confrontation erupted in the Persian Gulf in the wake of the United States’ early morning strike against two Iranian oil platforms, the Reagan Administration said. U.S. and Iranian forces fired on each other in the broadest and most direct conflict yet, suddenly escalating what for months had been a war of nerves in the volatile waterway.

EXCLUSIVE: Iran has established a new military base in Syria and has plans to house thousands of troops at the location, according to multiple Western intelligence sources. The classified Iranian project, called the Imam Ali compound, was approved by top leadership in Tehran and is being completed by the Iranian al-Quds Forces. Using a civilian satellite company, Fox News verified the information and obtained images that show a base being constructed on the Syria-Iraq border.

President Donald Trump has left the impression with foreign officials, members of his administration, and others involved in Iranian negotiations that he is actively considering a French plan to extend a $15 billion credit line to the Iranians if Tehran comes back into compliance with the Obama-era nuclear deal. Trump has in recent weeks shown openness to entertaining President Emmanuel Macron’s plan, according to four sources with knowledge of Trump’s conversations with the French leader. Two of those sources said that State Department officials, including Secretary Mike Pompeo, are also open to weighing the French proposal, in which the Paris...

US Special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt resigned Thursday. Greenblatt was one of the key architects of the Trump Administration's long-waited peace plan, which has been dubbed the "Deal of the Century." He will remain in his position for several weeks until the Administration reveals the details of the peace plan, which is expected to be shortly after Israel's elections on September 17. In its announcement, the White House stated that Greenblatt had originally intended to serve as special envoy for two years, but stayed on longer...

Japan will not join a US-led security mission to protect merchant vessels passing through key Middle Eastern waterways, but will consider deploying its naval force independently, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Tuesday. Citing unidentified government sources, the Yomiuri said Japan was considering a plan to send its Maritime Self-Defense Force (SDF) on information-gathering missions in the areas around the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab shipping lane between Yemen, Djibouti and Eritrea. It would also consider including the Strait of Hormuz in the SDF’s sphere of activity if Iran agrees, the paper said, according to Reuters.

The idea that there is this mythical nation of Palestine is unknown to those in the Arab world, but anti-Semites and fools use it with great agility as an excuse to undermine Israel. Not that there is a definable difference between the two groups, and that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. But I digress. The Bible is the final authority in support of what I have just said; and not that it is needed, archeology too supports my fact. Jew-haters are all motivated by the same mindset: 1) they hate Jews but are unable to provide any truly...

President Trump’s statement portrays loyalty to the Jewish homeland as positive and consistent with devotion to America US President Donald Trump never criticized Jews for “dual loyalty.” The president did the opposite: He urged greater Jewish loyalty to Israel. Moreover, the president’s statement urging greater loyalty to Israel and the Jewish people was certainly not antisemitic. Rather, it was the opposite of antisemitic; it was philosemitic. Antisemites depict loyalty to Israel as a negative, and as inconsistent with American interests. By contrast, the president upheld loyalty and caring about Israel as a positive good. The president’s detractors also ignored the...

The initial goal of invading Afghanistan in the immediate weeks after 9/11 could not have been more clear: Get Osama bin Laden and oust the Taliban regime that gave his fanatical pack of beards safe haven to plan and practice the deadly attacks.It was the first and so far only time NATO allies invoked the Article 5 mutual defense pact. That familiar mission creep, however, seeped in and with the best of naive intentions, the foreigners stuck around to attempt nation-building to protect the power vacuum they created.It’s had some good days (a new Constitution now gives equal rights...

1Iran Deploys Naval Destroyer Armed With Cruise Missiles to Secure its Ships in Gulf of Aden - / Fars News Agency, Hamed Jafarnejad 11:05 26.08.2019(updated 11:38 26.08.2019) Get short URL2210 The reported move comes just a day after an Iranian Navy commander voiced readiness to escort the oil tanker Adrian Darya (formerly known as the Grace 1), which had been released by the authorities in Gibraltar earlier in August after more than a month-long detention despite US appeals to seize the vessel. According to Iran's English-language broadcaster Press TV, Iranian authorities have deployed a naval destroyer armed with long-range cruise...

Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi is reportedly set to arrive in Gaza on Thursday to discuss projects funded by the Gulf emirate in the Strip. Emadi’s expected arrival comes as tensions have spiked on Gaza’s border following several violent confrontations between Israeli soldiers and armed Palestinians. The Gulf diplomat’s visit, which will last for a number of days, will “follow up on the Qatari Gaza Reconstruction Committee’s work and projects in the Gaza Strip as well as follow up on the payment of Qatari grants to poor families” in the coastal enclave, according to a Monday report from the Gaza-based news...

Why the “enlightened” Left so ferociously hates both Trump and Israel. Golda Meir is credited with saying, “Israel is the Jew among nations.” In the speeches of global leaders and the pronouncements of the UN–– the so-called global “community” that strains out the besieged, liberal-democratic Israel gnat while swallowing whole herds of murderous tyrannical camels–– this international form of anti-Semitism is blatantly obvious behind the thread-bare veil of “anti-Zionism.” The frenzy of progressive commentary blaming Donald Trump for the recent mass shootings is just the latest hysterical outburst of hatred, one suggesting that for the left the president has become...

Iran sanctions threaten the lives of young ca... In the battle over sanctions between the United States and Iran, the losers are Iranian cancer patients seeking life-saving drugs. Correspondent Imtiaz Tyab reports from a children's hospital in Tehran where vital drugs are running out

DOHUK, IRAQ - The U.S. State Department is hosting its second Religious Freedom Ministerial Roundtable in Washington, gathering international organizations, religious and government leaders, and social activists to tackle the challenges facing religious freedom. Ahead of the meeting, Iraq’s top Catholic cleric, Patriarch Cardinal Louis Sako, said he is concerned about the future of Iraq’s Christians. He says they are struggling after the destruction of their ancestral lands by Islamic State militants and the growing encroachment by Shi'ite militias linked to Iran, on their towns. Patriarch Louis Sako’s Chaldean Catholic Church represents about two-thirds of Iraq’s Christian community. The once-thriving...

USS Boxer Downs Iranian Drone in ‘Defensive Action’ By: Sam LaGrone July 18, 2019 4:00 PM • Updated: July 19, 2019 6:29 AM This post has been updated with additional details on the downing of the Iranian drone. Amphibious warship USS Boxer (LHD-4) took down an Iranian drone that U.S. officials say threatened the ship as it entered the Persian Gulf on Thursday. At about 10 a.m. local time, Boxer was transiting Strait of Hormuz when an Iranian fixed-wing drone approached the ship, a defense official told USNI News. “A fixed-wing unmanned aerial system (UAS) approached Boxer and closed within...