Free Republic

A Turkish judicial panel has unanimously approved demands for a sentence of combined 18,000 years behind bars for IDF ex-chief of staff and other officials responsible for the murders of activists on the Mavi Marmara cruise ship in 2010. ­The Istanbul court has formally pressed charges against four senior officers of the Israeli Defense Forces who commanded the operation against the Gaza flotilla two years ago. Nine passengers of a Turkish ship were killed as they tried to bring aid to Gaza, the subject of an Israeli military blockade. The four officers face nine consecutive life terms in prison –...

When Jordan's Arab Legion seized half of Jerusalem, ethnically cleansed its Jewish population and annexed the city-- the only entity to recognize the annexation was the United Kingdom which had provided the officers and the training that made the conquest possible. Officers like Colonel Bill Newman, Major Geoffrey Lockett and Major Bob Slade, under Glubb Pasha, better known as General John Bagot Glubb, whose son later converted to Islam, invaded Jerusalem and used the Muslim forces under their command to make the partition and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem possible. Since then the annexation and ethnic cleansing has become an international...

Earlier this month, Jerusalem said a rocket fired at Eilat originated in Sinai; Egypt warns against inflaming the border situation. Egypt's Sinai Peninsula has turned into a "kind of Wild West," which terrorist organizations use to smuggle weapons with Iranian assistance and initiate attacks on Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Israel Radio on Tuesday. The open desert border between Israel and Egypt has been relatively quiet since the 1979 peace treaty. But various Israeli officials have said that since the fall of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, Cairo lost control of the desolate Sinai, exacerbating tensions. Earlier this month,...

By Ryan Jones.. The First Baptist Church in Bethlehem was ordered closed by the Palestinian Authority on Saturday, according to Rabbi Russell Resnik of the Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations. Resnik reported the incident after meeting with Pastor Steven Khoury, the son of First Baptist’s head pastor, Naim Khoury.

Mohammed Merah belonged to extreme Salafi group that works to topple French democracy • Group’s website shut down with homepage reading: “Due to great pressures brought upon us, we have dismantled the Forsane al-Izza movement.” Mohammed Merah, the confessed murderer of three children and a rabbi at a Toulouse Jewish school this week, was not a lone wolf, and on Wednesday the testimonies poured in about his involvement with a Salafi (extreme strand of Sunni Islam) group named Forsane al-Izza (FA). The “Knights of Pride”- as the group’s name means in English - was founded in France about a year...

Two photos tweeted on the popular social network site are shown to be from other events and not the current hostilitiesTwo photos tweeted as being the result of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in the recent round of violence have been proven false. One photo, showing a dead Palestinian girl covered in blood in the arms of her father, was tweeted by Khulood Badawi (@KhuloodBadawi), who was identified by Honest Reporting as the information and media coordinator for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It also was tweeted by Diana Alzeer. “Palestine is bleeding … another father...

In the course of a recent private email exchange concerning, in part, the reliability of the MSM I made reference to the Pallywood Video. (If you don't know what this is, you simply MUST watch it.) I also made reference a video about the supposed death of Muhamad Al-Dura. Both of these video expose fraudulent "news" footage shot at a crossroads in Gaza known as the Netzarim Junction. Both include schematic views of the Netzarim Junction. Here is the one from the Pallywood Video: And this is the one from the Al-Dura Video: Today I thought to have a look...

The unique qualities of the new radars, “Baron” and “Baroness”, are thanks to a revolutionary new scanning technology. The radars are equipped with a wide view scanner, allowing them to view an entire area without rotating like traditional radars, eliminating blind spots. The new radar can scan an entire section of the border, tracking multiple targets simultaneously without rotating and leaving an area vulnerable. The radar is also sensitive to objects moving at low speeds, able to pick up lizards and trees waving in the breeze. The radar, made by Elta Systems, is based on technology that allows it to...

Iranian military experts are active in the Gaza Strip and in Sinai, according to a high-ranking official in Jerusalem. The official said the Iranians entered the areas via Sudan and Egypt, and added that some of the rocket-launching systems in Gaza were manufactured under Iranian supervision. The senior source also claimed that Islamic Jihad continued to fire rockets at Israel even after the recent cease-fire was announced because the Iranians pressured that organization, and the popular resistance groups, to continue acting against Israel.

Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, on Tuesday presented a letter of complaint to the UN Security Council and to the organization's Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, over the Council’s silence in the face of the continued rocket attacks on southern Israel. “250 missiles since Friday, a rocket every 20 minutes, and zero response from the Security Council,” Prosor wrote in the letter, reminding Ban that “during your visit to Israel you met with children from the south and saw the situation for yourself. Yesterday you told the members of the Council that the firing of rockets at Israel's...

In what many would say is a parallel to the “Wise Men of Chelm," Knesset Members in 2005 said it is “ridiculous” to think terrorists will hit Ashkelon after the exit from Gaza. Arutz Sheva now presents a video of an Israel National News (Arutz Sheva) television in 2009, when the IDF entered Gaza in the counterterrorist Cast Lead campaign against terroroists, aired a Channel Two program, in which Amit Segal viewed promising speeches in 2005 on behalf of the “Disengagement” program to exit Gaza. VIDEO

Some 100 rockets hit Israel since Friday Iron Dome intercepts 27 out of 30 rockets fired at Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon; IAF kills 15 Islamic Jihad operatives in Gaza strikes. Gantz: IDF to respond with determination to any attack Ilana Curiel Latest Update: 03.10.12, 12:04 / Israel News 

Rocket barrage from Gaza continues. Over 40 rockets were fired from Gaza to Israel’s southern cities and towns. Eight people were injured, some damage was reported. Rockets had also fallen in Be’er Sheva, Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi, Netivot, and Ashkelon; these rockets either fell in open area or were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, causing no damage, or casualties.

This was the winning photo of the year in Turkey in 2010 – a battered and bloody Israeli soldier aboard the Mavi Marmara. Nine people were killed onboard the Gaza-bound Turkish ship after IDF troops who raided it encountered violent resistance by “peace activists” armed with an assortment of weapons. The “peace activists” threw stun grenades and beat the Israeli soldiers with pipes and chains. In August 2011 the Obama Administration warned Israel to apologize to Turkey over its bloody interception of a Gaza aid flotilla in 2010, or risk strained ties with Washington. There were also reports that Barack...

Deja Vu: Another "March to Jerusalem" aims at rallying one million people to march on Israel’s borders from surrounding countries. An attempt is being made by the BDS movement to have a ‘Global March to Jerusalem’ on March 30, to coincide with the so-called “Palestinian Land Day,” in a repeat of the failed Naqba Day attempt last year. “The concept behind it is to have a million people marching on Israel’s borders from all the surrounding countries – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt,” CiF Watch reported. The BDS movement declares, “Commemorating Land Day, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) invites...

There are two places in the world where an international border is undermined by a series of tunnels used by smugglers. I’m at one of them now, the border between southern California and the Tijuana area of Mexico. In the past four years, U.S. authorities have discovered at least 75 tunnels along the length of the 1,950-mile border, many around Tijuana. After several days along the border, I am struck by the proximity of buildings on the Mexican side to the warehouses on the U.S. side. The nearest buildings are probably the length of two football fields from each other...

I never thought I would say this, but those of us on the Israeli Right owe a debt of gratitude to Mahmoud Abbas. I never thought I would say this, but those of us on the Israeli Right owe a debt of gratitude to Mahmoud Abbas. By forging a unity agreement with Hamas earlier this month in Doha, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority president has inadvertently corroborated one of the central tenets of our political philosophy: the Palestinians cannot and must not be granted a state. Ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993, we have warned against...

Gaza Strip - Palestinians tried to block the U.N. chief from entering the Gaza Strip and flung shoes at his armored convoy on Thursday, the second day of Ban Ki-moon's mission to the region. About 40 relatives of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails for a range of violent attacks gathered at the Erez Crossing between Gaza and Israel. Some swung their signs and wooden sticks at Ban's convoy in protest. Three of them threw slippers at his car and another hurled a boot — an insulting gesture. Speaking to reporters, Ban thanked the people of Gaza for their "warm...

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who preached in Tahrir Square 10 days ago, loathes Israel, justifies suicide bombings against its civilians. 1. Sheikh Dr. Yusuf Abdallah al-Qaradawi is a central figure affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. He was expelled from Egypt and found refuge in Qatar, operating from there throughout the Muslim world. 2. Many consider him the supreme religious and ideological authority for the Muslim Brotherhood, although he is not officially its leader. (In the past, he refused to accept the title of the Muslim Brotherhood’s General Guide). He is influential in Egypt and considered one of the most important Sunni...

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

You have to love Hamas. They're just so subtle. Hamas has sent some of its goons to attack Mahmoud Abu Rahma after Abu Rahma exposed Hamas' use of Gaza citizens as human shields. The stabbing in Gaza of a Palestinian rights activist after he exposed Hamas' contempt for its own people by using them as human shields, and after he criticized the radical Islamic group for torture, abuse and trampling free speech, should be strongly condemned by the United Nations—both as an attack on the victim’s human rights, and on the idea of freedom of expression. Masked attackers on Friday...

Palestinian officials say that at least one person was killed in an explosion that hit a Rafah home of a senior terrorist, Popular Resistance Committees Secretary-General Zuheir Qeisi. At least six other Palestinians were wounded....

Ron Paul’s Son Sen. Rand Paul Won’t Comment on Father’s Past Comparison of Gaza to “Concentration Camp”; Israelis Suprised Congressman Made Analogy Supporters of Ron Paul have been trying to make the case their candidate is pro-Israel despite his past statements and opposition to foreign aid to the Jewish state. Their job got a little harder after a two-year-old interview Rep. Paul gave to Iran’s Press TV was recently posted on YouTube in which he compared Israel’s treatment of Gaza to that of a Nazi concentration camp. In the 2009 interview, Paul talks about the “tragedy of Gaza,” comparing it...

The rise of the forces of jihadist Islam in Egypt places the US and other Western powers in an uncomfortable position. The US is the guarantor of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel. That treaty is based on the proposition of land for peace. Israel gave Egypt the Sinai in 1982 and in exchange it received a peace treaty with Egypt. Now that the Islamists are poised to take power, the treaty is effectively null and void. The question naturally arises: Will the US act in accordance with its role as guarantor of the peace and demand that the new Egyptian...

Hamas’ New Logic: Lack of Jews in Gaza Forces It into Violence Hamas says that if only Jews still were in Gaza, it would be able to stage peaceful protests. Without them, the only choice is violence. The odd logic was stated by senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar, who explained why the terrorist organization cannot agree to non-violence protests, such as the Arab Spring uprisings. "Against whom could we demonstrate in the Gaza Strip? When Gaza was occupied, that model was applicable," Zahar was quoted as saying by the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency.

The chemical is designed to ignite a fire around the impact zone and is banned by international law for use near civilians. Two mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip into the rural Eshkol Regional Council on Sunday morning contained phosphorous, security forces confirmed. The shells landed in open fields, causing no injuries or damage. Mortars containing phosphorous fired from Gaza have landed in Israeli territory in the past. Phosphorous is designed to ignite a fire around the impact zone. The chemical is banned by international law for use near civilians. The mortar attack follows an Israeli air strike on...

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters)- Israel killed the leader of an al Qaeda-inspired faction in the Gaza Strip on Friday, accusing him of involvement in firing rockets and a planned attack on the Jewish state from the neighboring Egyptian Sinai. The deadly air strike was Israel's second against a Salafi Islamist militant this week. Militants identified him as Momen Abu Daf, chief of the Army of Islam, among a loose network of Palestinian groups which profess allegiance to al Qaeda and have been reinforced by volunteers who slip in from the Sinai. Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers, who have sometimes reined in more radical...

According to the Spanish daily ABC, a Libyan rebel commander who played a key role in overthrowing the rule of Muammar Qaddafi previously participated in the May 2010 attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza aboard the Turkish-owned vessel the Mavi Marmara. The operation famously culminated in a deadly clash between Israel Defense Force commandos and “activists” armed with iron rods and knives aboard the ship. The paper’s source for the story is the rebel leader himself: Mahdi al-Harati, the commander of the so-called Tripoli Brigades, which are widely credited with having played a decisive role in the rebel...

Four rockets were fired Wednesday from Gaza into Israel, with two landing in open areas in the Eshkol region and another landing in the Sha'ar Hanegev region without exploding. There were no reported injuries or damage. The strike followed a targeted killing in which two sorties by the Israel Air Force killed three terrorists and wounded another nine overnight Tuesday in communities surrounding the Gaza Strip. The rocket fire comes as the Israel Defense Forces' Gaza Division is preparing for a possible large-scale incursion into the Gaza Strip, now three years after Operation Cast Lead. "We are preparing and in...

And only some, but this Friday night news dump serves another purpose. The mainstream media finally had to talk about the bundling Jon Corzine did for Barack Obama this year in the context of the MF Global scandal and the disappearance of $1.2 billion in customer funds: President Barack ObamaÂ’s re-election campaign has returned campaign contributions from Jon S. Corzine, former chairman and chief executive officer of MF Global Holdings Ltd., according to a Democratic official.Obama for America and the Democratic National Committee refunded the money from the former New Jersey governor out of an abundance of caution, said the...

The Sudanese newspaper Rai al-Shaab (Opinion of the People), owned and controlled by Sudanese opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi, recently published an article that potentially provides new and important insight into Sudan's terrorist ties to Iran. The article alleges that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, is operating a secret weapons factory in Sudan to funnel weapons to Iran-sponsored terrorist organizations in Africa and the Middle East. Several Arab bloggers circulated the article last week. Today, these blogs are the only evidence that the article ever existed. Soon after it was published, Sudanese authorities shut down the...

Mystery plane kills two in Sudan air raid Posted 4 hours 53 minutes ago An air strike on a car on Sudan's Red Sea coast killed its two passengers and destroyed the vehicle, the head of the state assembly said. "A plane bombed a small car which was coming from Port Sudan airport to the town... There were two people in the car and both were killed. The vehicle was completely destroyed," Mohammed Tahir said. The unidentified plane, which struck about 10:00pm (local time), flew in from the Red Sea to which it then returned, Mr Tahir added. There was...

Sudan's Foreign Ministry said Sunday it had "solid proof" that Israel had carried out a deadly attack on its main port last week, using advanced technology to blind the country's radar system to enter unidentified via a civilian air space course. Two Apache AHA64 helicopters flew in via the Red Sea and attacked the "two Sudanese subjects… reflecting the Israeli desire to kill and liquidate" its targets, the ministry was quoted by the SUNA news agency as saying. The ministry was maintaining its stance that neither of the targets had been involved in the trafficking of weapons from Iran to...

Sudanese media reports that planes attacked convoy of land cruiser jeeps, number of people reportedly killed; another strike hit truck near border with Egypt, according to reports. Sudanese media reported over the weekend that IAF planes struck a number of targets in the east of the country last week. According to the reports, the planes attacked a convoy of land cruiser jeeps and a number of people were reportedly killed. Another strike took place last Sunday against a truck near the border with Egypt, according to the reports. In another incident in early December Israeli planes were reported to have...

Israeli fighter jets, helicopters and possibly a submarine were involved in multiple attacks on targets in Sudan last week, according to local news outlets. The reports say that Israeli jets hit targets in the eastern part of the African country, near its border with Egypt, last Thursday. They hit six Land Cruiser jeeps and killed four people. An earlier strike took place last Sunday and reportedly involved Israeli helicopters. A truck was targeted. Some reports say an Israeli submarine was also spotted at the same time. However, the Sudanese army spokesman, Col. Al-Sawarmi Haled Sa'ad, said that the military's air...

A rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip exploded in an open field in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council on Saturday. A short while later a mortar shell hit an open field in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported in either incident.

Christians in Gaza say they face intimidation and arrest over Christmas celebrations since Hamas took charge in 2007. When the Latin patriarch came to Gaza's Holy Family church to celebrate Christmas mass last week, he instructed a full house of Catholic and Orthodox families to pray for reconciliation. As the archbishop, Fouad Twal, stood at the lectern in Gaza City, Fatah and Hamas leaders were meeting in Cairo attempting to mend differences that have divided the Palestinian factions for four years and rendered Gaza a besieged Islamist enclave. Of the 1.5 million Palestinians now living in the Gaza Strip, fewer...

In a report that, according to Fox News’ Leland Vittert, “shatters the illusion that those who are driven by hate can have their minds changed,” one would-be suicide bomber who failed in her past attempt to kill Israelis proudly declares that she would do it all over again (next time she hopes successfully) just to “taste and smell paradise.” The interview offers viewers a look into the hate-filled mind of a woman who was incarcerated after attempting to detonate a bomb that had been strapped to her body in order to kill as many innocent Israelis as she possibly could....

The last remaining evangelical church in Gaza is functioning but in danger of dying, famed Bible smuggler Brother Andrew said after a recent visit to Gaza Baptist Church. “Christians in the west are surprised to learn that there is a church [in Gaza], a functioning church, a suffering church, a restricted church, but there is a church in Gaza... and I think its dying," the founder of Open Doors, an organization dedicated to support of Christian minorities who are persecuted because of their faith, said in a video clip. “Today only one active evangelical church remains, Gaza Baptist Church,” the...

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday will discuss a bill proposed by Minister of Welfare and Social Services Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home) seeking to normalize the status of most Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of third-party petitions filed by left-wing NGOs seeking to destroy Israel's settlement enterprise in Judea and Samaria by demanding the destruction of communities and neighborhoods they claim were built on privately owned Arab land. The Justice Ministry, Civil Administration, and Supreme Court have maintained the exclusive remedy in these cases is the demolition...

Six rockets exploded in southern Israel Friday, including one shot down by the Iron Dome missile defense system. No damage was reported. The barrage came hours after a Qassam rocket landed in an open area in Hof Ashkelon on Friday afternoon, following IAF strikes in Gaza overnight Thursday.

Palestinians say civilian killed, 13 wounded in IDF response to 7 rockets fired into southern Israel from Gaza; level of alert along Gaza border high following earlier IDF killing of 2 suspected terrorists.

Farmers in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip began exporting hundreds of tons of produce to Europe on Sunday after Israel cracked open its border with Gaza for Palestinian goods. A truckload of strawberries left Gaza to launch the season, which is to run through May. Israel has tightly controlled the flow of goods to and from Gaza since the Islamic terrorist movement Hamas violently overran the tiny seaside territory of 1.5 million people in June 2007. Israel imposed a sweeping land and sea blockade immediately after the takeover in an attempt to put pressure on Hamas. ... Yousef Shaath of Gaza’s...

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, which aired on Al-Quds TV on October 28, 2011: Mahmoud Al-Zahhar: America is leaving Iraq and Afghanistan, and Allah willing, it will leave Palestine, along with its allies. It will leave in humiliation and disgrace. Our people and our enterprise, on the other hand, will move forward. Today, we emphasize that our plan is not confined to the liberation of Palestine. The Islamic nation in its entirety will bring a smile to the faces of all the people in the world, and will wipe the tears from...

Following are excerpts from statements made at a rally of the Palestinian Al-Ahrar movement in Gaza, a pro-Hamas group that split from Fatah, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on November 3, 2011: Rally organizer: Praise be to you, our Lord. You have made our killing of the Jews an act of worship, through which we come closer to you. […] Allah's prayers upon you, our beloved Prophet [Muhammad]. You have made your teachings into constitutions for us – the light with which we dissipate the darkness of the occupation, and the fire with which we harvest the skulls of the...

A report I've just received on Twitter claims that there's another Turkish flotilla headed for Gaza (Hat Tip: Earl Peacock via Twitter). Flotilla heading for Gaza today consists of Irish boat MV Saoirse and Canadian vessel 'Tahrir'. 15 people on Irish boat, 12 on Canadian The source of that tweet is Mary Fitzgerald, a foreign correspondent for the Irish Times, who says that this has all been confirmed to her by the organizers.

Palestinian militants in Gaza renewed rocket fire toward southern Israel on Monday, launching seven rockets at Be'er Sheva and Sderot. Two rockets were fired toward Be'er Sheva, after an alarm sounded throughout the city. One rocket was intercepted by Iron Dome, and one exploded in an open area. Two rockets were fired toward Sderot, and one was intercepted while the other fell in an open area. Three more rockets exploded in an open area in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council.

The deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians could cause violence to erupt in the West Bank, and the rest of the world will not bail out Israel if that happens, a leading UN official who is close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Haaretz. Robert Serry, the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, also said Israel must take heed of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' threats to resign and dismantle the PA. "The Palestinians feel growing alienation towards the Oslo process," said Serry. "I hear many voices in Ramallah that call for the dismantling of the...

Former IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. (res.) Dan Halutz, thinks Israel should mount a crushing offensive against Gaza. He called for a "mortal blow" to be dealt to Hamas's civilian and "military" leadership. In an interview with IDF Radio, Halutz said, "We must bring back our deterrence vis-à-vis Gaza. It has not existed for even one moment since Operation Cast Lead and to this day." Halutz said that in the end, Israel will have to conduct an extensive operation of this kind, and there is no reason to wait. "A rocket struck an empty school on the Sabbath," he...

Palestinian terrorists are not happy. Last August, terrorist groups in Gaza thought they had come up with a way to get around the new Israeli Iron Dome anti-rocket system. They thought that all you had to do was fire at least seven rockets simultaneously at the same area being guarded by one Iron Dome battery. Islamic terrorists did this last August. One rocket got through, and killed an Israeli civilian. This “saturation� tactic is a problem with all air defense systems. But the saturation attacks turned out to be no more effective than firing many more rockets over an extended...