Free Republic

Muslims don’t like vaccines. It’s safe to mock a Jenny McCarthy over vaccines, but no one mentions the vehement opposition of Islamists to vaccinations. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have issued fatwas against vaccines and murdered workers. Nigeria and Pakistan have also been scenes of violent Muslim opposition to vaccination. Muslims aren’t even 1 percent of the population of Scotland. But they’ve been doing their Talibanest best there, with the aid and support of the so-called Scottish National Party that often seems more like the Pakistani Immigrants Party and now Scotland’s largest vaccination program has been shut down because of them.

There has been a just degree of criticism directed towards the Guardian over the results of their readers’ poll on the Nobel Peace Prize in which 76% of respondents chose Hassan Rouhani from a list (compiled by their journalists) which included the brave Pakistani girl – shot by the Taliban for advocating on behalf of girls’ education – named Malala Yousafzai. (see charts at website) Rouhani was nominated by Saeed Kamali-Dehghan, who has served as one of the paper’s chief promoters of the lie that the new Iranian president is a “moderate” despite Rouhani’s involvement in terror attacks abroad and...

The 1973 October War was the Arab-Israeli war Israel almost lost. Historians generally attribute Israel's costly victory to two Israeli lapses, a successful enemy deception operation and a very astute Egyptian war plan. The lapses and enemy deception scheme still shape Israeli security policy, especially toward Iran and its nuclear weapons program. Israel's first lapse occurred when its intelligence services failed to detect the size and scale of enemy military preparations. Spies noticed more tanks on Syria's side of the Golan Heights and increased activity on Egypt's side of the Suez Canal. However, they failed to discern the Syrian and...

The Israeli air force has updated the status of an ongoing modernisation programme for its fleet of Boeing F-15I "Raam" strike aircraft. "This is the first major upgrade of this excellent aircraft and it will enable it to fly for many more years," says Col Shimon Tsentsiper, commander of the service's depot 22. Intended to help retain the two-seat F-15I's status as the air force's primary long-strike platform in a variety of operational scenarios, the upgrade introduces a "great number" of new avionic systems, most of which were developed in Israel by drawing on the service's operational experience. The F-15I...

Until the regime changes, says former US president, ‘I won’t believe they have peaceful intentions’ WASHINGTON — Former US president George W. Bush told a Jewish gathering that he did not trust the Iranian regime to change its intentions toward Israel. “I will not believe in Iran’s peaceful intentions until they can irrevocably prove that it’s true,” Bush told the 1,200 guests at the gala of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, according to several people in attendance. “The United States’ foreign policy must be clear eyed and understand that until the form of government changes in...

In Yom Kippur War anniversary speech, prime minister suggests that inaction on Iran is costlier than international opprobrium Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a thinly veiled defense of a possible Israeli preemptive strike on Iran during a Knesset commemoration Tuesday of the 40th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. In a speech to MKs about the war, in which Israel was surprised by a coordinated Arab invasion on the northern and southern fronts, Netanyahu explained that IDF soldiers who fought in the bitter battles of that war “saved us from paying the price of complacency.” “In the end we won...

The Ministry of Defense's weapons development administration (Mafat) is targeting a global market worth $2 billion annually. The Ministry of Defense's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure (Mafat) has set the next challenge for Israel's defense industry: do for unmanned submarines what it did for unmanned aerial warfare. If the defense industry moves quickly and purposefully in identifying this emerging market, and offers a well-functioning unmanned submarine, it could be riding the right wave in a decade from now: Mafat aeronautics division director Dr. Yuval Cohen estimates that the market will be worth $2 billion a year...

JERUSALEM — The goal was merely to promote clean energy in Israel — but television ads starring a pair of male puppets called "plug" and "socket" have instead unleashed a debate about gay pride. The puppets, named Sheka and Teka in Hebrew, have appeared in ads for the state-owned Israel Electric Corp. for more than a decade. Israelis have long playfully questioned whether they might be gay. But the arrival of a baby puppet in the new campaign set off fresh speculation about their sexual orientation.

Iranian leaders are doing everything they can to display their country’s Jewish population as satisfied, even if they have to resort to fakery to do so, according to Iranian Affairs expert Menashe Amir. Amir, who was born and raised in Tehran and now lives in Israel, explained that Iran’s leaders believe that showing Jewish support will help their image. … Iranian Jews suffer from discrimination as do all religious minorities in Shiite Muslim states like Iran, he said. The problems they face include, in some cases, a lack of access to medicine, he said. …

"The big Kerry arm." That's how some of his Senate staff used to describe John Kerry's approach to negotiation. It's reminiscent of what Lyndon Baines Johnson used to do to his Senate colleagues: a little light physical pressure to drive home a point. You can bet that at some point over the weekend the six-foot-four Kerry, who landed in Kabul on an unannounced visit Friday, applied that big arm to the shoulders of the diminutive Hamid Karzai, the often combative and erratic president of Afghanistan, whom Kerry knows well and with whom no one else in the U.S. government seems...

Iraqi and Lebanese Shi'ite militia backed by Syrian army firepower overran a southern suburb of Damascus on Wednesday, opposition activists said, in a blow to Sunni Muslim rebels trying to hold onto strategic outskirts of the capital. At least 20 rebels were killed when Hezbollah guerrillas and Iraqi militiamen captured the town of Sheikh Omar under cover of Syrian army artillery and tank fire and aerial bombardment, the activists said, with tens of Shi'ite fighters killed or wounded.

A group of Syrian clerics have issued a ruling - or fatwa - allowing people living in besieged suburbs of Damascus to eat meat that is normally forbidden. In a video, the Muslim clerics said people could eat cats, dogs and donkeys to stave off hunger. The fatwa comes amid reports of starvation in the besieged, rebel-held Damascus suburb of Muadhamiya. Aid agencies have urged the government to allow humanitarian supplies to the area, where many residents are trapped. Hundreds of civilians, some carried on stretchers, were able to flee Muadhamiya at the weekend following a temporary ceasefire. 'Absurd situation'...

Anti-Israel sentiment on British campuses is nothing new. … But the UK’s most famous anti-Israel Member of Parliament got a little more he bargained for at a debate at the prestigious Oxford University. … When it came to the audience Q&A session, after several minutes one audience member stood up and, facing Galloway, delivered a speech of his own—in Hebrew, whilst holding an Israeli flag. After Galloway claimed to feel “threatened” by the episode, the student, named as Jonathan Hunter, switched to English, condemning Galloway for his support of Middle Eastern dictators, including former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. When the...

Swiss radiation experts have confirmed they found traces of polonium on clothing used by Yasser Arafat which "support the possibility" the veteran Palestinian leader was poisoned. In a report published by The Lancet at the weekend, the team provide scientific details to media statements made in 2012 that they had found polonium on Arafat's belongings. Arafat died in France on November 11 2004 at the age of 75, but doctors were unable to specify the cause of death. No autopsy was carried out at the time, in line with his widow's request. His remains were exhumed in November 2012 and...

A senior Muslim cleric denounced on Monday the incident in which Jews prayed and sang Israel’s national anthem “Hatikva” on the Temple Mount, and warned that this incident was further proof that Israel was planning to “destroy” the Al-Aqsa mosque. … Sheikh Yusuf Adeis said in an interview on a Palestinian Authority-based news website that the entrance of “extremist” Jews to the Temple Mount and their waving the Israeli flag was a “heinous crime”. Speaking to shfanews, Adeis said that Jewish entry to the Temple Mount was “a violation of all treaties” and was part of the “occupation forces'” plan...

During a phone interview with Al Jazeera, Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi attacked the Egyptian military over the scores of pro-Morsi protesters killed or denied medical attention by the armed forces, declaring that the army was “worse than Israel.” … This was all too much for Egyptian actor Hassan Yousef, who found a creative way to “exonerate” his long-time friend on Egypt’s Dream 2 TV. … “That [the man who condemned the army] is a double,” he said, dramatically, insisting that “what we just heard could not have been said by the Sheikh Al Qaradawi I knew.” To the obvious amusement...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Evangelicals: Vital for American Support for IsraelPosted By Ronn Torossian On October 14, 2013 @ 12:30 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments American Jewish support has long been viewed as vital for the State of Israel’s political interests. The particulars of the recent high-profile Pew Research Center survey of American Jews should result in radical re-thinking of that theory (with the exception of Orthodox Jews.)  Those who are concerned with Israel’s future must now consider placing even more emphasis upon the Evangelical Christian community.  The study found that Christians are more supportive of,...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - The Vatican, the Jews and IsraelPosted By Joseph Puder On October 14, 2013 @ 12:32 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 8 Comments The Vatican announced on September 30, 2013 that deceased Popes John XXIII and John Paul II will be canonized as saints at a Vatican ceremony, which will take place on April 27, 2014.  By happenstance, these two popes did more than any others to foster close ties with the Jews and the Jewish State. Pope John XXIII was pontiff from 1958-1963, and the Polish-born Pope John Paul II, the first non-Italian Pope...

Greece and Israel signed a joint declaration last week that further enhances their cooperation in the energy sector and acts as a guide for the development of relations of wider geopolitical significance for the two Mediterranean countries. It also makes clear that the two sides with proceed with a series of actions for the joint extraction and exploitation of hydrocarbons. The two states “will examine ways and means for the better development of natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean and their transfer to the energy market,” reads the confidential agreement, which has been seen by Kathimerini. This phrase refers to...

When a US Congressional committee approved a resolution recognizing the World War I-era massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide, Turkey's reaction was swift and harsh: Blame the Jews. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: AP In an interview with the liberal Islamic Zaman newspaper on the eve of the resolution's approval October 10 by the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said he had told American Jewish leaders that a genocide bill would strengthen the public perception in Turkey that "Armenian and Jewish lobbies unite forces against Turks." Babacan added, "We...

A U.S. citizen detained in Egypt for violating curfew in August was found dead Sunday in his jail cell, the second foreigner to die in detention in recent weeks. ... Security officials identified the man as James Henry, 66, a retired U.S. Army officer who arrived in Cairo from the Gulf kingdom of Bahrain on Aug. 25. Henry was detained by army troops in the turbulent region of northern Sinai three days later while making his way to the border crossing with Gaza in the town of Rafah

IDF soldiers recently discovered a tunnel, built by Gaza terrorists, that led from Gaza to a nearby Israeli community. The discovery was made late Wednesday night, but was under a gag order until Sunday morning. Terrorists were apparently planning a large-scale infiltration and attack, and were possibly planning to bring Israeli civilians back to Gaza as captives. Terrorists have made several attempts to kidnap Israelis in recent months, with the goal of exchanging captives for terrorists being held in Israeli prisons. A terror tunnel similar to that found Wednesday night was used in the 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad...

(excerpt) "Until Iran dismantles its military nuclear program, sanctions must not be eased - on the contrary. Only the pressure brought Iran to this point, and only the continuation of pressure and its strengthening can bring them to dismantle their nuclear program," Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

WASHINGTON - Taking on one of the United States’ most prominent Israel critics Wednesday, Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican who is mulling a presidential run, defended the special relationship with Israel as essential for U.S. security. The sparring came when, at a Homeland Security Committee hearing on the threat posed by Somali al-Qaida affiliate Al Shabaab, former CIA al-Qaida analyst Michael Scheuer said that al-Qaida would leave the U.S. alone if they were to abandon their alliance with Israel. “If it was up to me I’d dump the Israelis tomorrow,” Scheuer said. “All I worry about is the...

'Camp Jihad' Partly Funded by US Tax Dollars? By Julie Stahl and Chris Mitchell CBN News Middle East Bureau Friday, October 11, 2013 JERUSALEM, Israel -- Imagine a summer camp that teaches children how to make "holy war" against their enemies. If that's not bad enough, American tax money could be helping pay for the facilities where the lessons on jihad are held. "Camp Jihad" is a 20-minute documentary film exposing summer camps that encourage Palestinian Arab children to take back their homes from Israel violently. In one scene a teacher is coaching the children in a chant: Teacher: "Palestine...

Rabbi Yisrael Ariel of the Temple Institute and activist Yehuda Glick were arrested Thursday morning on the Temple Mount. An eyewitness told Arutz Sheva that the two were violently arrested at the exit to the holy site. Police dragged the men on the ground, he accused. Police said the two were arrested for praying and bowing down while visiting the Temple Mount, which is the holiest place on earth according to Judaism, and the site where the First and Second Temples once stood. …

Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’s political bureau, will visit Iran soon, the movement confirmed on Thursday, according to Kol Yisrael radio. Hamas used to be heavily backed by Iran, but the relations between the Islamic Republic and the terror group have been strained for the past two years because of the civil war in Syria. …

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists broke into a home in the Jordan Valley on Thursday night, attacking a couple who was in the home. The husband was critically injured and died a short time later. The woman was lightly injured, was treated by paramedics at the scene and then taken to the HaEmek Hospital in Afula.

Iran’s supreme leader promises in a newly released audiotape the destruction of Israel and Palestinians’ return to that land. Fars News Agency, an outlet run by the Revolutionary Guards, last week posted an audiotape of excerpts of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s speeches to Palestinian officials and others with a title “Palestine will surely become free.” In the audiotape, which is partly in Arabic, Khamenei gives blessings to those who fight against Israel and says, “Peace be upon the children of our nation, peace be upon the brave jihadists in Palestinian and Lebanese resistance. Today the Islamic world and the whole world...

So far Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's peace ruse is still bearing some fruit. President Obama was eager to talk with him at the United Nations -- only to be reportedly rebuffed, until Obama managed to phone him for the first conversation between heads of state of the two countries since the Iranian storming of the U.S. embassy in 1979. Rouhani has certainly wowed Western elites with his mellifluous voice, quiet demeanor and denials of wanting a bomb. The media, who ignore the circumstances of Rouhani's three-decade trajectory to power, gush that he is suddenly a "moderate" and "Western educated."...

The Cairo-based Arab League has condemned remarks by the Czech president about moving his country’s embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, calling them a violation of Palestinian rights and international resolutions. … The United Nations proposed an international jurisdiction for Jerusalem when it wrote the mandate for a Jewish state in 1947, but a 1948 war divided the city between Israeli and Jordanian control. …

IAI is developing a new missile carrying warship with powerful offensive capabilities for patrol operations on the high seas. Sources inform ''Globes'' that Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) is developing a new missile carrying warship with powerful offensive capabilities for patrol operations on the high seas. The ship, which will be called the Multirole Super Dvora (bee in Hebrew) is still on the drawing board at IAI Ramta plant in Beersheva. On the basis of the general features that Ramta general manager Brig.-Gen. (res.) Nitzan Shaked has provided "Globes", the Super Dvora will be the largest warship ever...

Netanyahu already apologized for Marmara incident, but Turkey is in no rush to forgive or forget. ‘Israel apologized too late,’ Turkish President Abdullah Gul tells Yedioth Ahronoth. Senior Turkish advisor: As long as Erdogan is in power, things will not change ...

Police forces and Yassam tactical unit officers on Wednesday destroyed four homes in Geulat Tzion, a small agricultural community is located near Shiloh in the Samaria (Shomron) region. Jewish-owned homes in the region are demolished from time to time by IDF forces acting under orders from the Civil Administration, which claimes that the homes were built illegally. Before demolishing the structures,security forces ordered an evacuation of the four houses in the Samaria outpost Wednesday morning. Two right-wing activists tried to breach a closed military zone declared around the area and threw rocks at the security forces, but both were detained...

Officials and experts in Israel responded on Wednesday with a mixture of disappointment and alarm to the news that the United States planned to reduce its military aid to Egypt in response to this summer’s brutal crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and the continuing violence it has spawned. Israel views the aid as part and parcel of its 1979 peace treaty with Egypt, and essential to the maintenance of stability in the region. But one Israeli official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate diplomacy involved, warned that the implications of punitive cuts in Egypt’s aid could...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Joe Biden’s Middle East DelusionsPosted By Ari Lieberman On October 9, 2013 @ 12:07 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 1 Comment Joe Biden is not known for his scruples. Those forced to endure his speeches have cringed at having to listen to an endless plethora of gaffes emanating from his unrestrained tongue, each more embarrassing than the next. We’ve become inured to his pearls of wisdom – JOBS is a three-letter word and all Indians work at 7-11 – and chalk them up to his advanced age and possible onset of early dementia. But...

Israel condemned on Tuesday the selection of Iran for a high-level position on a United Nations committee dealing with disarmament and international security issues. Israel’s UN Ambassador Ron Prosor said in a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council that “it is inconceivable” that a country under UN sanctions over its nuclear program would be allowed to hold the position of rapporteur on a committee dealing with nuclear disarmament. …

The United States will cut off aid to Egypt in the wake of the July coup against President Mohamed Morsy and the turmoil that has followed, a U.S. official said Tuesday. The Obama administration withheld some military aid to Egypt in August. The U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the full suspension has been prompted by an "accumulation of events," including recent violence against protesters, dozens of whom were killed over the weekend.

A tale of two aerospace companies One of Israel's earliest startups, Israel Aerospace Industries, failed to fulfill its potential or rival its peers. Long before Israel became world-renowned as the “Startup Nation,” the country was already home to a highly successful startup: Israel Aircraft Industries (now called Israel Aerospace Industries), which shot up like a meteor in a few years, from a small aircraft overhaul and maintenance shop to a major player in the aerospace industry. Initially encouraged by David Ben-Gurion and Shimon Peres, staffed by talented Israeli aeronautical engineers, and led by an ambitious and active management, IAI accomplished...

Turkey has begun building a two-metre high wall along its border with Syria in an attempt to stem border security and smuggling problems. The move comes as the United Nations forecast that another two million refugees will flee the Syrian conflict in 2014. Turkey is sheltering around a quarter of the two million people who have already fled Syria's conflict. Construction workers have begun digging foundations for the wall in Nusaybin, a border district six miles (10 km) north of the Syrian town of Qamishli. An unnamed government official in the Turkish capital, Ankara, said: "We haven't had border security...

Here is something to remember as nuclear negotiations between the West and Iran appear set to recommence: The Iranian president, Hasan Rouhani, the putative moderate on whose shoulders great American hopes have been placed, is proud of the work he did to advance his country's nuclear program — and also of his efforts to stymie Western attempts to stop that work. Rouhani didn't talk about this during his recent visit to the United Nations. He came bearing a different message: Iran seeks a peaceful resolution to its decade-old nuclear standoff with the international community. Yet in May, shortly before he...

<p>President Shim'on Peres sent a letter to Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland of the Council of Europe, Monday, urging the council to reconsider its recent decision against circumcision.</p>

I recently read a hundred-page book by a wonderful American historian who passed away nearly 50 years ago. His name was Will Durant and he wrote many books. He wrote an eleven volume history of civilization, but at the end of his life, he wrote a hundred-page book, The Lessons of History. You should read it. Every line is carved from the stone of truth, and I will give you the bad news and the good news. The bad news is that when you finish reading this book, you understand that in history, greater numbers rule. They matter. But here...

Iranians have used social media to mock Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ... In an interview with BBC Persian TV Mr Netanyahu said that if Iranians were free they would wear blue jeans, and listen to Western music. Hundreds of Iranians both in Iran and abroad reacted on social media sites. Many posts showed mainly young Iranians wearing jeans and listening to Western music, some in comic poses. Others mocked up scenes from ancient Persian history with the protagonists wearing denim. ...

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has reported that on three different occasions, Palestinian Authority TV has broadcast children reciting a poem that includes the words "my enemy, Zion, is Satan with a tail." Last week during a performance given in the PA, the Egyptian writer of the poem, Hesham El-Gakh, recited this and other poems, after which the PA Minister of Culture, Anwar Abu Eisheh, and PA District Governor of Ramallah, Laila Ghannam, awarded him a plaque of honor. The event was broadcast on official Palestinian Authority TV Live. To warm up the audience, a young girl recited a small section...

Over a half a million people were attending the funeral of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Monday night in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yosef, 93, passed away earlier in the day. The crowd, observers said, consisted of a cross-section of Israelis, from hareidi to Religious Zionist to secular. Eulogies were being held at the Porat Yosef yeshiva in the Geula neighborhood. Dozens of speakers will eulogize the rabbi. Among the first to speak was Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, one of Rabbi Yosef's sons and current Chief Sephardic Rabbi of Israel. In a heart-wrenching voice, Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef spoke of his father, saying that “from the...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - Netanyahu Responds to Abbas’s Praise of Hitler’s MuftiPosted By David Bedein On October 7, 2013 @ 12:10 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments On January 4, 2013, Mahmoud Abbas, spoke via video link on a wide screen to the masses in Gaza, who gathered to celebrate the founding of Fatah (Arabic word for “conquest�),  otherwise known as the Palestine Liberation Organization.In his New Year’s speech, Abbas spoke glowingly of the legacy of the Godfather of the PLO, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Muhammad Amin Al-Husseini, who during the 1920′s and 1930’s instigated pogroms...

Forty years ago, Israel experienced the most devastating war in its modern history. Israel not only suffered its worst casualties during the Yom Kippur War, but actually came close to being destroyed with Defense Minister Moshe Dayan warning that “The Third Temple is falling.” To understand the lessons of the Yom Kippur War, it is important to understand the three key elements that led to it. These are Muslim deceptiveness, American diplomatic pressure and Israeli complacency. Egypt had lulled Israel into complacency by faking a crisis. Before the Yom Kippur War everyone “knew” that Egypt’s air force was defunct and...

- FrontPage Magazine - http://frontpagemag.com - KerryÂ’s Peace Process ExplodingPosted By P. David Hornik On October 7, 2013 @ 12:31 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 11 Comments On Saturday night a Palestinian terrorist snuck into the Israeli community of Psagot, north of Jerusalem and near Ramallah, and either shot or stabbed a nine-year-old girl, Noam Glick. Noam was rushed to hospital in Jerusalem and, fortunately, is in stable condition.The terrorist, however, melted back into the Palestinian population and has not yet been apprehended, and the attack was part of a pattern.In the Jewish year that ended on the Rosh Hashanah...

A top member of Fatah said on Sunday that he condemns the terror attack in the Binyamin region community of Psagot, but placed the blame for the attack on the Israeli government. Speaking to Kol Yisrael radio, Jibril Rajoub was asked if he condemns the attack, to which he responded, “Listen, listen, I condemn everything that causes damage. I condemn it and I condemn those responsible for it. And those responsible for it are the Government of Israel and the prime minister of Israel.” Rajoub went on to say that the Israeli government was responsible for the attack, in which...