Free Republic

German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers it “problematic” that Twitter would toss President Trump off its social media platform, saying through a spokesmen Monday that the president’s ability to express his opinion is a fundamental right of “elementary significance.” “This fundamental right can be intervened in, but according to the law and within the framework defined by legislators — not according to a decision by the management of social media platforms,” Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin. “Seen from this angle, the chancellor considers it problematic that the accounts of the U.S. president have now been permanently blocked,” he...

In his speech on Friday, January 8, 2021, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Khamenei, pointed to a few matters worth elaborating on. Throughout his speech, he made it clear that in Iran, the foremost decision-making authority is himself, and the government, the president, and the parliament are not allowed to decide on major issues. In other words, the people’s will and whatever other officials may express are unimportant to him. Listening to his speech, one would clearly comprehend that Iran is, in fact, a dictatorial country ruled by a dictator named Ali Khamenei and that...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel considers U.S. President Donald Trump’s eviction from Twitter by the company “problematic,” her spokesman said Monday. Twitter permanently suspended Trump from the microblogging platform on Friday, citing a “risk of further incitement of violence” in the wake of the storming of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing president. Asked about Twitter’s decision, Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said the operators of social media platforms “bear great responsibility for political communication not being poisoned by hatred, by lies and by incitement to violence.” He said it’s right not to “stand back” when such content is posted,...

President-elect Joe Biden has announced that he's nominating former Deputy Secretary of State William Burns to be his CIA director, replacing Gina Haspel, who was the first woman to run the agency. "Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure," Biden said in a statement. "He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect. Ambassador Burns will bring the knowledge, judgment, and perspective we need to prevent and confront threats...

Israel on Monday advanced plans to build 800 new settler homes in the occupied West Bank, a move that could strain ties with the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced the move, saying it would include 100 homes in a settlement where an Israeli woman was killed last month in an attack allegedly carried out by a Palestinian assailant. The announcement will burnish Netanyahu’s right-wing credentials in a tough campaign ahead of March elections, but it could anger Biden, who is opposed to settlement expansion and has clashed with Israel over it in the...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the “disgraceful rampage” on the Capitol Building on Thursday morning, saying it was the “opposite” of American and Israeli values before going on to praise President Donald Trump. “For generations, American democracy has inspired millions around the world and in Israel. American democracy has always inspired me,” Netanyahu said while standing alongside U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who was in Jerusalem in the aftermath of Sudan’s pledge to join the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel. He then praised Trump for his four years in office, in particular his efforts in the Middle...

The global anti-American alliance is now on full display in the Middle East, with Iran at the lynch point. The headlines have told us about the coordination of Iranian/Iraqi/Syrian/Russian/Chinese activities, and of course there is a division of labor. That was all worked out in recent weeks in a series of Iranian visits to Moscow (General Suleimani, who commands the Revolutionjary Guards’ foreign ops, twice traveled to Russia in open defiance of existing sanctions). Basically, the Russians are sending some crack troops and their favorite heavy weapons (tanks, big guns). It goes via an Iranian air bridge and thence across...

Iran’s state media has alleged that in addition to the United States, several countries, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Germany and Britain, had played a role in the assassination of its senior military leader Qassem Soleimani. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike on January 3, 2020, while visiting Baghdad. According to DEFA Press, more countries would be added to the list once the investigation into Soleimani’s killing is completed. “We must learn from this experience, which came at a great price, and we must make every effort to preserve national unity and cohesion that was achieved...

The Tel Aviv municipality on Saturday informed dozens of residents of two apartment buildings in the center of the city that they may return to their homes, days after they were evacuated when the ground suddenly began heating up and emitted steam. Experts who were called in did not detect any dangerous substances at the site or any risk to the buildings’ stability, and the source of the heat was said by the municipality to be "trapped energy" from an unknown source. . . . On Thursday, residents of an apartment building on the northern end of Ibn Gabirol Street...

It’s easy to see why the American Left loved Sami al-Arian. Leftists hate Israel, too. Longtime FrontPage readers will remember Sami Al-Arian, the former University of South Florida professor who for years was a darling of the Leftist intelligentsia. IPT News reported Monday that he has resurfaced, but that the stalwart old Jew-hater hasn’t changed: while he has reined in his rhetoric a bit and speaks in a more civilized manner, he is still calling for Israel’s destruction, which would result in the murder of millions of Jews. Back in 1991, during a speech in Chicago, al-Arian screamed: “The Quran...

And Egypt’s authorities conclude it was a “generic” crime that has nothing to do with religious hate. Two Muslim brothers recently went on a stabbing spree targeting Egypt’s indigenous Christian minority, the Copts, in Alexandria, Egypt; one man was killed and two others were severely injured and hospitalized during the rampage. Last reported on Dec. 13, the brothers had been arrested and were to be detained for four days, pending an investigation. According to authorities, they went on their murderous stabbing spree because they were “upset” that their mother had died earlier that day, on Dec. 10. Even the state...

The State Department confirmed the sale in September The United States sold the ambassador’s residence in Israel for more than $67 million in July, according to an official Israeli record of the sale that shines new light on a transaction that has been shrouded in secrecy. The State Department confirmed the sale in September but refused to identify the buyer or disclose the sale price of the sprawling beachfront compound in the upscale Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya. On Tuesday, it said the sale had been "open and transparent." The Israeli business newspaper Globes has identified the buyer as the...

On the day after Christmas, the Iranian Islamic regime’s Ahlul Bayt News Agency published a collection of the sayings from Shia Islam’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, about Christianity and related matters. Khamenei denounced the claim that “Islam is hostile to other nations and to other religions” and insisted: “This is not true. Islam is not antagonistic toward other religions.” Digging even deeper, he added: “When Islam dominated non-Muslim regions, the followers of other religions were grateful to Muslims for their Islamic mercy.” Khamenei and his regime are known for their deceptive practices, but this one may be the biggest...

The FBI believes Iran was behind a website which incited violence against officials who discredited election fraud allegations by team Trump, sources said Tuesday. Director of the bureau Christopher Wray and former head of DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Chris Krebs were two of those singled out. Their pictures and addresses were posted to the 'Enemies of the People' site with targets placed over images. Others say they have received death threats.

Trump Tweets Surprise Threat To Iran After Latest Attack On Baghdad Embassy President Trump in a surprise late Wednesday tweet has directly blamed Iran for the Sunday rocket attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad, which according to prior reports involved eight ground-fired rockets targeting the compound. It comes as the USS Georgia nuclear submarine is currently deployed to the Strait of Hormuz in very open signaling that the Pentagon is prepared to react to any possible escalation form the Islamic Republic. Trump cited intelligence chatter in his latest statement on Twitter, saying, “Our embassy in Baghdad got hit Sunday...

Listening to US Vice President – Elect Kamala Harris speak about Hanukkah frightened me more than Rashida Tlaib’s vulgar tweets. As I see it , the danger lies in distorting the meaning and intent of the Hasmonean revolt against the Syrian occupation. If one may paraphrase Churchill’s tribute to the RAF during the battle of Britain, we may say of the Maccabees that never before in the history of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few. Had the Maccabees failed there would be no Judaism, no Jews and no Christianity or Christians. Neither would there be...

Federal prosecutors are expected to unseal new charges against a bomb-maker linked to the 1988 attack on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, according to a report. Abu Agila Mohammad Masud, a top bomb-maker for the late Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy, is accused of constructing the explosive that downed the airliner and killed 270 people on board, the Wall Street Journal said. Masud is being held by Libyan authorities.

The inquiry into the 2019 attacks on two Christchurch mosques revealed on Tuesday that security services had not given enough focus to right-wing terror, and could only have prevented the shootings “by chance.” The judicial probe called for 44 key changes to counterterrorism operations in response to the murder of 51 Muslim worshipers by a white supremacist. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed the publishing of the almost 800-page report and said she would accept recommendations. “The Royal Commission found no failures within any government agencies that would have allowed the individual’s planning and preparation to have been detected...

Some months ago, a gentleman who pens anti-Semitic tracts approached me for an interview. I agreed. Being a naïve methodological individualist, I never generalize about individuals. That my interlocutor writes crude anti-Semitic boilerplate did not mean I would not give him a chance to reveal himself as someone other than a crude anti-Semite. After I had already answered his written questions in full, however, he bailed. Here, then, is my reply to one of many loaded and leading questions I was asked and had answered in good faith. A leading question is one that suggests an answer. Since I am...

GAZA - The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees paid the salaries of 30,000 Palestinian staff across the Middle East for last month, but a funding shortfall may still hinder payment in December, officials said on Wednesday. UNRWA finds itself in limbo after the U.S. election - President Donald Trump ended all U.S. payments, but while Palestinians hope President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will at least partially resume payments, that could take months. The agency said last month it had run out of money to pay salaries after two years of funding cuts by the United States and other donors, including...