Free Republic

“Death to Khamenei” and “Not for Gaza. Not for Lebanon. My life for Iran” are the most important slogans to explain how fed-up Iranians have become. Israel has only two options against Iran On August 27, Iran and Syria signed a military cooperation agreement. An official visit by Iranian Defense Minister Amir Khatami came at a time when the US started pressuring Iran to leave Syria. This clearly indicates both Syria and Iran want to show off the military cooperation and connections between Tehran and Damascus in light of US sanctions and pressures on the latter. This visit again proves...

The abject failure of the Oslo Accords has had a salutary effect on Israeli society. Israelis are today quite resilient, ready to endure – if necessary – protracted conflict. The Oslo process – started between Israel and the Palestinians 25 years ago – clearly failed to bring a resolution to the conflict and did not result in peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians. The nearly 1,600 Israeli casualties and many more thousands of wounded during this period by Palestinian terrorist and rocket attacks testify to this failure. Yitzhak Rabin’s land-for-security formula did not work. Be the first to know -...

WASHINGTON — America's allies in Europe are plotting ways to bypass President Donald Trump's sanctions on Iran as they work to keep the nuclear deal alive without the United States. With a second round of U.S. sanctions set to take effect in November, European officials are working at cross-purposes with Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign as they try to preserve as much business as possible with Iran. The goal is to persuade Iran's leaders to stay in the deal for a few more years — perhaps long enough for Trump to be replaced and for a new U.S. president to rejoin...

Anti-Semitic Islamist activist, Linda Sarsour, was in fine form at ISNA, warning Muslims that if they weren't fighting Israel, they were complicit. She warned them against even daring to "humanize" Israelis, as Steve Emerson reports at The Algemeiner. Her tone often was not aimed at inspiring Muslims to be more politically active, as much as it was to shame them for not doing so. If they aren’t sufficiently engaged in advocating for the Palestinian cause, she said, “you as an American Muslim are complicit in the occupation of Palestinians, in the murder of Palestinian protesters. So when we start debating...

Good Morning, President Trump has tweeted his opposition to a Syrian government offensive against opposition forces in the country's north including Al-Qaeda and Islamic State elements. A full roundup on the whole regional situation from Israel to Iran but first other news. Tropical Storm Gordon is moving across the Gulf of Mexico and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane before it hits the northern Gulf coast early Wednesday. At 5am the center was 230 miles east southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River..... There were outages of Facebook, Instagram and What's App Monday afternoon Eastern time...... Argentina's Treasury...

Turkey faces few good options as the Idlib offensive looms. Syrian regime and Russian forces are preparing for an offensive into Idlib province in northwest Syria. The attack on Idlib is set to mark the final major action in the war between the Assad regime and the insurgency against it. Moscow has moved 10 warships and two submarines into the waters off the western coast of Syria. This represents the largest concentration of Russian naval forces since the beginning of Moscow’s direct intervention in the civil war in Syria in September 2015. The regime, meanwhile, is dispatching ground forces from...

In the next 24-48 hours things will start to happen, as Russia and Iran prepare for a major operation on the city of Idlib to finish the war and declare victory for Assad. 50,000 to 80,000 rebels will make this their last stand, and there will be enormous casualties. The U.S. has declared that any use of chemical weapons is unacceptable and has not ruled out a strike against Iran itself. Iran also building new missile plant in NW Syria and positioning missiles in Iraq in range of Tel Aviv. More on Germany, the Palestinians, Turkey and its problems and...

Turkey's official news agency says three people have been arrested for alleged involvement in a drive-by shooting at the U.S. Embassy last month. Anadolu news agency said a court ordered them to be jailed pending trial. Three others who had been detained were released on Saturday under judicial control, requiring them to regularly check in with authorities. Shots were fired embassy in Ankara from a moving car early on Aug. 20. Three of the six bullets hit the embassy gate and a reinforced window. No one was injured

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to publish a memoir of his years in the White House, the Jewish Insider claimed. In it, Kerry claims Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu leaked details regarding a confidential peace agreement with the Hamas ...

Imagine being cut off from the world – for your whole life. That’s reality for children like Aya. The blockade of Gaza began when she was a baby, the occupation in the West Bank before her parents were born. Now she is eleven, and the blockade goes on. Aya’s childhood memories are of conflict and hardship, walls she cannot escape, and the fear that the only home she knows, however tiny, could be gone when she returns from school. This Ramadan, please help support children like Aya who have known nothing but conflict and hardship. Donate here: http://buff.ly/2qgsP0Y#forPalestinerefugees Yet neither...

This month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intimated that his country might consider leaving NATO. Meanwhile, on a visit to Moscow last week, Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu referred to Russia as a “strategic partner”—a first. This talk is empty. Erdogan may well be angry at Washington, but ultimately, Ankara is going to have to do whatever it takes to restore its ties with the West. Doing so might not be enough to pull the country out of its economic crisis, but Erdogan has few other options if he wants to avoid a potentially worse political meltdown: He depends too...

On one of the nights of the last week of last June, the Syrian security forces imposed strict measures inside and around Damascus International Airport. Just before midnight, a private UAE plane landed on one of the runways. About forty minutes passed before a huge procession of black Four-Wheel vehicles took off carrying the passengers to the Mezzeh area, in the center of Damascus, where the new office of Major General Ali Mamlouk, director of Syria’s National Security Bureau is located. There, a senior US officer led a delegation that included officers from several US intelligence and security agencies. Ali...

Stock markets dropped Thursday on profit-taking after a recent run higher on optimism on trade deals, and news on more US tariffs on China, while Argentina's peso and the Turkish lira tumbled. The peso slumped to a new record low, prompting Argentina's central bank to raise its benchmark interest rate to 60 from 45 percent in a bid to arrest a slide in its value. The drop came even after the International Monetary Fund's agreed to consider Argentina's request to speed up payments under its $50 billion loan. The peso fell 13 percent against the US dollar, taking its losses...

The Trump administration has decided to cancel all U.S. funding of the United Nations aid program for Palestinian refugees, part of its determination to put its money where its policy is as it seeks a recalculation of U.S. foreign aid spending and prepares its own Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. In an announcement to be made within the next several weeks, the administration plans to voice its disapproval of the way the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, spends the funds and to call for a sharp reduction in the number of Palestinians recognized as refugees, dropping it from more than...

Investors are increasingly concerned Latin America's third-largest economy could soon default as it struggles to repay heavy government borrowing. The peso is down more than 45 percent against the greenback this year, exacerbating pre-existing fears over the country's weakening economy and inflation running at 25.4 percent this year. "I know that these tumultuous situations generate anxiety among many of you ... I understand this, and I want you to know I am making all decisions necessary to protect you," Macri said. Argentina is struggling to cope with yet another financial crisis. Investors are increasingly concerned Latin America's third-largest economy could...

hen President George W. Bush sent U.S. troops into Afghanistan to attack Taliban and Al Qaeda forces following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland, nations around the world lined up in support of America – as they should have. When Israel is attacked by Palestinian terrorists from Hamas and other groups, many nations and the United Nations line up solidly against the Jewish state for daring to defend itself. No matter how much care Israel takes to prevent civilian casualties when it retaliates against terrorist attacks, it receives automatic condemnations and complaints that it has used...

CHEMNITZ, Germany (Reuters) - Far-right demonstrators clashed with leftist protesters in the eastern German city of Chemnitz on Monday after an Iraqi and a Syrian were arrested over a fatal stabbing that had triggered violent demonstrations. Over a thousand leftist protesters massed near a giant statue of Karl Marx in Chemnitz on Monday evening to protest attacks on foreigners that occurred during an impromptu demonstration on Sunday after reports spread on social media about the stabbing of a 35-year-old German man. Nearly the same number of demonstrators waving German and Bavarian flags gathered nearby, some breaking through police barriers aimed...

Berlin fears a meltdown of the Turkish economy could spill over into Europe, cause further unrest in the Middle East and trigger a new wave of immigration toward the north. “We would do a lot to try to stabilize Turkey,” a senior German official said. “We don’t have much choice.” Other European governments have grown equally concerned. Hosting his Turkish counterpart in Paris on Monday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said it was important to support Turkey’s efforts to repair its economy.

A shining effigy of controversial Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suddenly appeared in southwestern Germany—to the surprise and chagrin of locals.The 13-foot statue, painted gold, depicts Erdogan with his hand, outstretched and pointing at the horizon. Erdogan is a divisive figure in Germany—which has a diaspora of around 3 million people of Turkish nationality or descent—and when residents of Wiesbaden, 20 miles west of Frankfurt, woke up to a monument honoring the man, they had questions for city officials."We have received calls from a string of irritated citizens—it is not clear to people that it is part of the...

Turkey’s state broadcaster has stopped showing cowboy films, which the channel has aired on Sundays since the 1980s. The decision was taken in response to the current crisis between the United States and Turkey, which has seen the United States demand the release of citizens held in Turkey, the imposition of sanctions on two Turkish ministers and added tariffs on metal imports from Turkey. Turkey has responded with largely reciprocal measures. In place of Westerns, TRT announced that it plans to broadcast Turkish movies. News of the decision elicited numerous reactions on social media. Yüksel Aytuğ, a journalist working for...