Free Republic

A decision by Italian officials to cover up ancient nude statues to not offend Iran's visiting president is drawing ridicule in Rome. Ahead of a news conference Monday with Premier Matteo Renzi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, wooden panels were erected around some Roman statues in Rome's Capitoline Museums. When images of the cover-up made the Italian media Tuesday, politicians from across the spectrum decried and derided the decision. The museum said Tuesday that the premier's office wanted the statues along Rouhani's path to the news conference covered up. Renzi's office declined to comment. ...

Waiting so long for Rafael to respond to a new fashion in missile technology seemed surprising only because the state-owned Israeli weapons and sensor house is most often the industry’s leading trendsetter. But Rafael has been curiously slow to respond to a clear trend within the air-to-air missile community. In the past decade, the most anticipated new missiles – the Chinese PL-12, MBDA Meteor, Raytheon AIM-120D and Vympel RVV-AE-PD – have all shared a similar trait. As advanced sensors push the detection range of missile firing platforms ever farther, missile manufacturers have responded with new weapons with ranges beyond 54nm...

BAGHDAD, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Last week, fighting between security forces and Islamic State militants in Iraq's Anbar province continued alongside clashes across the border in neighboring Syria -- where the United States and Russia could be setting up new air bases. Syria Russia is reportedly establishing a presence in more air bases across Syria besides the currently used Hmeimim air base in Latakia province. Russian forces are also expanding the al-Shayrat air base, located in the countryside southeast of the capital of Homs province, according to SOHR. The facility will reportedly by used by Russian warplanes in operations around...

OTTAWA - Canada's new Liberal government said on Monday it was delivering a "tough message" to Israel as a good friend after expressing concern about Israeli-Palestinian violence, Israeli settlements and unilateral Palestinian moves. The statement came a day after Foreign Minister Stephane Dion was criticized for saying Palestinian initiatives toward statehood in international forums and continued Israeli settlements were unhelpful. "We're steadfast allies and good friends, and good friends can occasionally deliver tough messages, but it's by no means to suggest that we're somehow retreating from any kind of support of Israel," said Joe Pickerill, Dion's spokesman. Dion on Sunday...

An official Palestinian Authority (PA) daily op-ed has accused the United States of being behind all the chaos and civil wars in the Muslim and Arab world, including the longest and oldest fight from right after Mohammed's times between the Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims. According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), the PA writer claims that this turmoil is the direct result of the September 11th attacks on the US, stating that the US utilized this attack to create "an imaginary enemy called 'terror,' and it supervised the cultivation of the idea until it ripened into what is known today as...

Murad Bader Abdullah Adais, the 16-year-old Arab terrorist who last Sunday stabbed to death Dafna Meir at the entrance to her home in Otniel, southern Judea, was inspired to launch his murderous terrorist attack by Palestinian TV. Israeli Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) made the revelation on Sunday, noting that the shows he watched on Palestinian TV presented Israel as "executing young Palestinians," in a warped twist on how security forces have killed attacking terrorists to save lives. ...

Interview from January 18, 2016. 36 minutes Dr. Mordechai Kedar is an expert on Middle East affairs. Currently, Dr. Kedar is a professor at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, and a Research Associate at BESA (Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies). He spent 25 years in IDF Military Intelligence (Unit 8200, equivalent to our NSA). Topics covered: >Iranian nuclear deal >Effects of the Arab Spring on the map of the Middle East >The new political landscape in the Middle East as a result of the Iran nuclear deal >Relationship between the United States and Israel

Can we start calling the Hate Israel crowd anti-Semitic yet? Because between the boycotts of Jewish businesses, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and overt justification for anti-Jewish violence, whatever distinction may have existed in the past is gone. Case in point, Rony Brauman, the former president of Doctors Without Borders suggesting that Jews wearing Kippahs, a Jewish religious garment, are bringing violence on themselves by pledging allegiance to Israel.

A senior British MP has compared a violent anti-Israel riot at a London university last week to kristallnacht, as condemnation of the violence carried out by pro-Palestinian activists continues to mount. In an interview with Sky News on Sunday morning, Sir Eric Pickles - a former minister who now serves as the United Kingdom's Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues - likened the incident, in which windows were smashed and at least one Jewish student was physically assaulted, to the Nazi pogrom in which anti-Semitic thugs ransacked Jewish-owned synagogues, shops and other establishments in Germany. ...

Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that if upcoming negotiations fail and no political solution to the civil war in Syria is possible, the United States is prepared to step in with major military force. "We do know it would better if we can reach a political solution but we are prepared... if that's not possible... to have a military solution to this operation in taking out Daesh," Biden said following a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Controversial anti-Israel politician and London Mayoral candidate George Galloway has been accused of "fascism," after refusing a man entry to his events because he is pro-Israel. Jewish activist Ben Gross of the Israel Advocacy Movement had attempted to enter a public talk by Galloway last week, but was rejected and physically blocked from entering. If Gross was under any doubt as to why he was turned away, Galloway himself quickly made it clear to his audience that it was his pro-Israel sympathies which made him a persona non grata. ...

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday that the United States and Turkey were prepared for a military solution against Islamic State in Syria should the Syrian government and rebels fail to reach a political settlement. The latest round of Syria peace talks are planned to begin on Monday in Geneva but were at risk of being delayed partly because of a dispute over who will comprise the opposition delegation. Syrian armed rebel groups said on Saturday they held the Syrian government and Russia responsible for any failure of peace talks to end the country's civil...

US President Barack Obama called former President Shimon Peres over the weekend to wish him well, after Peres suffered a heart attack. In the conversation, Obama thanked Peres for their long friendship, according to a press release on Saturday night from Peres's office. "I was lucky to be treated by a dedicated medical team that worked around the clock, not only to open and improve my artery but to improve my heart. I left hospital stronger than I entered," said Peres in the phone call. He also lauded Obama for sealing the controversial Iran nuclear deal, even as it has...

Qatar asked for clearance from the U.S. Government to purchase 72 F-15E Strike Eagle derivatives, but the request has been slow-rolled. Now, almost two years later and after the Iran Nuclear Agreement has been implemented, there are high hopes the deal may finally be allowed to move forward. Considering that Qatar remains a close ally of the U.S. in the region, and their fighter business has traditionally gone to European manufacturers, penning a deal for dozens of F-15 Strike Eagles seems like a no-brainer. Yet, politically, this would seem not to be the case. Aside from Israel and Saudi Arabia,...

When President Obama secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin arming Syria's embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the C.I.A. has relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Since then, the C.I.A. and its Saudi counterpart have maintained an unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans have code-named Timber Sycamore. Under the deal, current and former administration officials said, the Saudis contribute both weapons and large sums of...

Stuck in a recession and with no sign of a reprieve in the oil price, Russia could quickly descend into chaos if the money runs out, William Browder, a well-known critic of the Kremlin and chief executive of Hermitage Capital, told CNBC. "I don't think you can underestimate how bad the situation in Russia is right now, you've got oil below any measure where the budget can survive and you've got sanctions from the West. Russia is in what I'd call a real serious economic crisis," he said on Thursday. Speaking to CNBC in Davos where global business and political...

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Tuesday that if he had to choose between the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and Iran on the country’s borders, he would “choose ISIS” every time. In comments made at the Institute for National Security Studies’ (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv, Yaalon said that if the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were to fall ...

Saudi Arabia is not ruling out developing a nuclear bomb if its regional rival Iran obtains one, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. Asked if Saudi Arabia had discussed seeking a nuclear bomb in the event Iran managed to obtain one, al-Jubeir replied the country would do "whatever we need to do in order to protect our people". "I don't think it would be logical to expect us to discuss any such issue in public and I don't think it would be reasonable to expect me to answer this question one way or another,"...

The Prime Minister’s Office dismissed as “unacceptable and wrong” uncharacteristically sharp public criticism of Israel’s legal standards leveled Monday by US envoy Dan Shapiro, who said at times there seemed to be one standard of law in the West Bank for Israelis, and another for Palestinians. “As Israel's devoted friend, and its most stalwart partner, we believe that Israel must develop stronger and more credible responses to questions about the rule of law in the West Bank,” Shapiro said during an address at the annual Institute for Strategic Studies (INSS) Conference in Tel Aviv. Noting that the recent indictments in...

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says he's "100 percent" on board with the remaining field of candidates in support of moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if elected president in the fall of 2016. In an interview with The Brody File, published on Tuesday, Trump said "I am for that one hundred percent. We are for that one- hundred percent" when told by host David Brody that pledging to move the embassy to Jerusalem is a "tier-A issue for Evangelicals as it relates to support for Israel." Trump is currently tied for first place with Senator Ted...