Free Republic

A Belgian national and resident of France, suspected of international arms dealing for decades, was arrested on charges alleging that he conspired to illegally export F-5 fighter jet engines and parts from the United States to Iran, the U.S. Justice Department stated. Jacques Monsieur was arraigned Wednesday in a U.S. federal court in Mobile, Alabama. Monsieur, 56, and co-defendant Dara Fotouhi, 54, an Iranian national currently living in France, were indicted with conspiracy, money laundering, smuggling, as well as violations of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).

Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu received on Thursday in Germany 29 sketches of the Auschwitz death camp and declared, "We cannot allow evil to cause massive death. We must stop evil in due time.” In a clear reference to Iran, he added, "There is a connection between despotism and terrorism, between freedom and peace. … Military barbarism knows no limits. We must prevent the spread of these armies on time so that humanity can be saved." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stated several times that the State of Israel should be“ wiped out” and is advancing Iran’s nuclear program, which...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu departed Monday afternoon for a four-day visit to Europe. He will meet with Special U.S. Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell on Wednesday in London to determine Israel's future construction policy in Judea and Samaria. While in London, he is scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. From there he will fly to Germany for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel. On Sunday night, the Prime Minister assessed that talks with the Palestinian Authority will resume by the end of next month. During Netanyahu’s absence, Minister for Regional Development Silvan Shalom will stand in...

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak slammed the appointment of a new government minister by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the weekend, noting that the new official had been involved in a terror attack on the Buenos Aires Jewish community center. “The world must learn from this incident, and look into the intentions of the Iranian government, especially its leader, which has appointment a terrorist as its defense minister,” Barak added regarding Ahmad Vahidi's expected appointment Sunday. Both Argentina and the United States have also criticized the appointment, which was announced Friday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is withholding data on Iran’s attempts to obtain nuclear arms, Western and Israeli diplomats told a Hebrew-language newspaper. The officials said that the U.N. nuclear weapons watchdog hasn’t published evidence that its inspectors obtained over the last several months that Iran was attempting to develop or obtain nuclear weaponry. The sources told Haaretz that the evidence was published in a classified report signed by IAEA heads in Iran. Israel’s Foreign Ministry and Dr. Shaul Horev, director-general of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission, are also pressuring the IAEA to release the report.

The U.S. will press Syria to resume talks with Israel when a delegation of top security officials arrives Wednesday in Damascus, according to a Syrian source quoted by Reuters. American and Syrian security officials will also reportedly discuss arrangements on the Syrian-Iraqi border. The United States has demanded that Syria step up security along the border to prevent infiltration into Iraq. One of the members of the delegation includes State Department official Frederick Hoff, who is responsible for bridging the gap on territorial dispute between Israel and Syria, which are still officially at war. Negotiations between the two countries have...

Two pro-Israel American organizations and the Republican Jewish Coalition lashed out at U.S. President Barack Obama for awarding a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Mary Robinson. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) called on the administration to “firmly, fully and publicly repudiate her views on Israel and her long public record of hostility and one-sided bias against the Jewish state.” The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) also condemned the decision to award former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The ZOA pointed out that both Tutu and Robinson “have made statements and presided over organizations and conferences that were viciously...

The United States has told Syria that it will reduce trade restrictions towards Damascus, which were imposed five years ago for supporting organized terror against Israel. Washington has confirmed that U.S. President Barack Obama has sent letters to Arab heads of state to push them for confidence-building measures towards Israel. Syria and Israel are officially at war. Negotiations between the two countries have been mediated by Turkey throughout the years. However, at the crux of the dispute is the final status of the Golan, which Israel conquered in 1967 after it was attacked by Syria. White House press secretary Robert...

Israel's new anti-ballistic defense system, designed to protect civilians against terrorist rocket fire from Gaza, passed series of live tests on Wednesday. A defense official explained that the test of the Iron Dome defense system marked the first time that the system tested a mid-air deception of a target rocket, which was completely destroyed. Iron Dome works by intercepting medium-range Katyusha rockets as well as the shorter, homemade Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired by Gaza terrorists. It uses a small kinetic missile interceptor called the “Tamir.” The anti-ballistic sytem is expected to intercept rockets between the ranges of 2-45...

U.S. President Barack Obama stated that the United States and Syria began diplomatic contacts between them. However, he emphasized that he expects a long way ahead for the two countries. In an interview on the British Sky News TV channel to be broadcast Sunday, Obama didn’t explicitly state whether he would accept an invitation from Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. When asked whether he would accept Assad’s invitation for face-to-face negotiations, Obama said, “Well, you know I think that we've started to see some diplomatic contacts between the United States and Syria. There are aspects of Syrian behavior that trouble us...

Saudi Arabia would turn the other cheek and allow Israel to use its airspace to attack Iran, London’s Sunday Times reports. According to the report, Mossad chief Meir Dagan has told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that Syria has hinted to the move. “The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israel air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia,” a diplomatic source stated.

Amnesty International’s annual report condemns Israel for its treatment of Palestinian Authority Arabs while only briefly noting atrocities attributed to the Hamas terrorist organization. Both the IDF and a watchdog on fair media research called the report findings biased and unethical. Amnesty International issued Thursday its annual report, condemning Israel and PA Arabs for disproportional violence during Operation Cast Lead. The human rights watchdog blames Israel for killing over 1,400 PA Arabs in Gaza and wounding 5,000 others. The report blames the IDF for repeatedly breaching the laws of war by “by carrying out direct attacks on civilians and civilian...

Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak tried to convince special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell Tuesday that construction for Jews in Judea and Samaria isn’t an obstacle to the peace process. Barak's view is that the focus on building homes is short-sighted and that it will lead the peace process to a dead end instead of helping to create a wide-ranging regional peace plan. "In 2000, I was the Israeli Prime Minister that made the boldest steps to attain peace, and that year saw the largest number of Israeli construction-starts" in Judea and Samaria, he told Mitchell at their...

The U.S. State Department may have toned down its demand on Israel to freeze construction within Judea and Samaria. In a press briefing Monday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly reiterated that the obligations signed by Israel under the Roadmap require Israel to freeze all construction within Judea and Samaria, including “natural growth.” Nevertheless, Kelly hinted that the U.S. is open to “negotiations.” The official stated that both Israel and PA Arabs must honor their commitment to the Roadmap plan towards peace. “For the Palestinians, it means ending incitements to violence against Israel and demonstrating an ability to provide security. For...

The ringleader of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro ship will be expelled from Italy to Syria, the Associated Press reports. Youssef Magied al-Molqui has served only 23 years of his 30-year jail sentence for his role in the hijacking and murder of wheelchair-bound Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer. Italy’s Attorney General Gianfranco Pagano said that Molqui was to be flown on Saturday from his holding cell in Sicily to Rome and then onto Damascus. Molqui's claim that he should not be expelled due to his marriage to an Italian citizen was rejected by an Italian court. Nor did his...

"Hamas authorities should immediately allow Sgt. Gilad Shalit of Israel to communicate with his family and to receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)," Human Rights Watch said Wednesday, a day before the third anniversary of his captivity. "Hamas's prolonged incommunicado detention of Shalit is cruel and inhuman and may amount to torture," Human Rights Watch said. Hamas authorities are obligated by the laws of war to allow Shalit to correspond with his family, but during his three years of captivity, Hamas has passed on only three letters he has written and a voice recording. Neither...

U.S. Federal Judge Richard M. Berman sentenced on Tuesday a New York resident who broadcast satellite television programming of the Hizbullah terrorist organization to more than a year in prison. Saleh Elahwal pleaded guilty to providing material support to the terrorist organization's Al Manar news network between September 2005 and August 2006. He was sentenced to a year and five months. Elahwal's sentencing comes two months after the main defendant, Javed Iqbal, was ordered by a federal judge in Manhattan to serve five years and nine months. Iqbal, dubbed by a prosecutor as “Hizbullah’s man in New York City," ran...

A tree planted in a Polish town in honor of Adolf Hitler's birthday has received its death sentence. The local government of Jaslo, a southeastern Polish town, wants to fell and burn the 67-year-old oak tree, which was brought by the Nazi occupying force from the Austrian town where Hitler grew up. Jaslo's mayor, Maria Kurowska, wants to uproot the town's Nazi past by removing the tree and planting a new tree to be dedicated to the memories of Polish officers who were killed by Soviet police in April 1940. The mayor did not mention whether a new tree would...

The head of the radical Islamic Movement's northern branch told some 200 Arab students at Haifa University on Wednesday that Israel is tunneling underneath the Temple Mount in order to build the Third Temple. The claim is not new, but Haifa University officials said Thursday they could not prevent Sheikh Ra'ad Salah from repeating the charges. Salah added, “We welcome death” rather than “give up our principles and holy sites.”

As a way to capitalize on the growing increase of Russian tourism to Israel, Israel's Minister of Tourism Stas Misezhnikov met in Moscow Thursday with Russia’s Minister of Transportation, Igor Levitin. The Tourism Minister recommended adding an additional carrier for regularly scheduled direct flights between Tel Aviv and Moscow, removing hitches in scheduling charter flights to various Russian destinations, and increasing the number of charter flights between Eilat and Moscow. The Tourist Ministry stated in a news release that Russia has brought the second largest influx of tourists to Israel in the last few years. Despite the world economic crisis,...