Free Republic

LAS VEGAS — There are the people on his side on the Iran deal, President Barack Obama said Monday evening. Then there are “the crazies.” Back from a notably uneventful and restful two-week vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, Obama was immediately on the road for a short trip here, first to speak at a green energy conference hosted by retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, then to raise money for his preferred successor, former Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto. Ruddy from the sun, Obama described himself as “refreshed, renewed, recharged — a little feisty.” And he delivered, recounting the ride...

Adviser to parliamentary speaker rejects British foreign secretary’s suggestion that Rouhani indicating ‘more nuanced approach’ to Jewish state Hussein Sheikholeslam (screen capture: YouTube) A senior Iranian official on Tuesday said Israel “should be annihilated,” and that the thawing relations with the West would not translate into a shift in Tehran’s position concerning the Jewish state. Hussein Sheikholeslam, a foreign affairs adviser to parliament speaker Ali Larijani, told Iranian media that contrary to remarks by British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, “Our positions against the usurper Zionist regime have not changed at all; Israel should be annihilated and this is our ultimate...

The kidnapping of a group of U.S.-trained moderate Syrians moments after they entered Syria last month to confront the Islamic State was orchestrated by Turkish intelligence, multiple rebel sources have told McClatchy. The rebels say that the tipoff to al Qaida’s Nusra Front enabled Nusra to snatch many of the 54 graduates of the $500 million program on July 29 as soon as they entered Syria, dealing a humiliating blow to the Obama administration’s plans for confronting the Islamic State.

If a senior US senator can so quickly become the target of a widespread campaign of anti-Semitism from both the Right and the Left, we should all increase our vigilance. The social media site Twitter offers an extraordinary form of communication. But perhaps because of its scope and anonymity, it is also a hotbed of racism, bigotry and anti-Semitism. This has never been clearer than in the wake of Senator Chuck Schumer’s announcement that he will oppose President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. In doing so, Schumer became guilty of heresy in the eyes of many on the progressive...

VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Tuesday it will run out of money next month to monitor implementation of nuclear accords with Tehran and asked countries to increase funding the costs of its Iran work, which will rise to $10 million a year. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano said he had asked member states for contributions to ensure its work can go ahead. Under the agreement reached between Tehran and six world powers on July 14, sanctions relief for Iran hinges on IAEA reports on its past and present nuclear program. So far, costs for...

President Reuven Rivlin said during talks with settler leaders on Monday that Israel had a "right" to build settlements in the West Bank, his office said in a statement. "I love the land of Israel with all my heart. I have never and will never give up on this land. For me, our right to this land is not a matter of political debate. It is a basic fact of modern Zionism," Rivlin said, For Rivlin the "land of Israel" includes the West Bank, where Jewish settlements are considered illegal under international law. "We must not give anyone the sense...

Joe Mantegna, star of the CBS television show Criminal Minds, plans to auction off two of his Tavor rifles to fundraise for "Friends of the IDF", a New York City-based organization that lends material support to the Israeli military. According to a press release from IWI-US, Mantegna will conduct an auction for two Tavor rifles produced by IWI. Gains from the auction will go to "Friends of the IDF". Interestingly, "Israel Weapon Industries-US" (IWI-US) is co-sponsoring the Sunday event, along-with "Bullets & Bagels", a Jewish gun club in Orange County, California. Event attendees “will get to shoot the TAVOR at...

Western media has often been criticized by Israel for only on rare occasions presenting Gaza as anything other than an open-air prison suffering from Israeli blockades, but an unusual glimpse into the glamorous life of Gaza’s middle class made its way to light on Sunday. Articles such as an Economist expose in 2012 detailing golden Porsches and Hummers cruising the streets of Gaza under corrupt Hamas rule were joined by a Washington Post report, revealing on Sunday how the “other half lives” in the terrorist enclave. The article begins by noting how under-reported the middle class aspect of Gazan life...

A judge in New York on Monday ordered the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to post $10 million in cash or bond while they appeal a jury's finding that they supported terrorist attacks in Israel, Reuters reported. At a court hearing in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge George Daniels said the defendants must also deposit $1 million each month pending the appeal of a February jury verdict worth $655 million in favor of 10 American families. The order came a week after the Obama administration took the unusual step of urging Daniels to "carefully consider" the PA’s...

President Barack Obama and his supporters have framed the debate over the Iran nuclear deal as a choice between accepting the agreement or opting for war, claiming there is no alternative to this deal. However, critics argue that the current agreement not only allows Iran to acquire a nuclear weapons arsenal, but also may bring the world closer to nuclear war than at any time in 70 years. As the US military budget is cut and the Obama administration diminishes America’s power and global role, will nervous allies in the region—worried about Iran’s rising power and the seriousness of US...

If it was good enough for Mohammed, why be surprised that it's also good enough for a Florida mosque. Helmi Agha, 40, was executive director of the American Muslim Youth Leadership Council when he was arrested in March and accused inappropriately touching a 15-year-old girl who attended events at the center. He faced 12 counts of lewd and lascivious molestation, though four of those have since been dropped. Agha, also known as Imam Abufarah, was born in Saudi Arabia to a Palestinian family and is not a U.S. citizen. When he was released on bond from Osceola County Jail, he...

Friday’s American stock market provided further evidence of instability in the nation’s economy, and even as financiers fear a possible fiscal disaster in September, there has been little coverage among U.S. media. But the state-run media of Russia is warning of what it calls America’s “economic apocalypse.” The Russian news service Sputnik, an agency launched by Russia’s state-owned Rossiya Segodnya in 2014 to “target global audiences with its non-mainstream take on world events,” predicts doom for the American economy next month. In a recent article, Sputnik cites several economists warning of catastrophe. It continues: “Most of the experts agree...

The Iran deal has potential, both because of public opinion and the way the administration is positioning itself, to hurt Democrats in much the same way that the Iranian hostage crisis did in 1980 and 1981. Should New York Senator Chuck Schumer succeed in killing the deal, he will be saving the Democrats from what appears to be a grave political mistake. President Obama has branded opponents of the deal as either ideological extremists or ignorant. In his speech at American University, he compared the agreement’s opponents with Iranian extremists chanting “death to America.” He pointed out that most of...

....Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran just won the backing of the Senate’s top Democrat. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said Sunday that he “strongly” supports the agreement reached by six world powers and Iran meant to curb Tehran’s nuclear ambitions – vowing that he will do “everything in my power” to defend the deal.

Mahmoud Abbas has stepped down as the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, paving the way for elections for a new top body. "The resignation of the president of the executive committee Mahmoud Abbas and more than half of its members have created a legal vacuum, and therefore the Palestine National Council (PNC) has been asked to meet in one month to elect a new executive committee," Yousef said in a statement. Yousef, a senior PLO committee member, added that the resignations will not take effect until the PNC meets. The PNC is the 740-member Palestinian Parliament. Members live in...

The threat of a nuclear Iran places the United States and countries in the Middle East in an even more precarious situation, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. told the NEA Political Animals club meeting Friday. Cotton, who recently returned from a 10-day trip to Asia where he toured South Korea and Taipei, spoke to the group at the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce office on Nettleton Avenue. Cotton said he had an opportunity Sunday to tour the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea, as well as met a South Korean soldier whose legs were blown off by a bomb made...

Washington, DC - While giving a speech to commemorate Iran’s Defense Industry Day on Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that the nuclear deal agreed upon by world powers (US, UK, China, France, Germany) and the regime in Tehran only faces opposition from “warmongers” and “Zionists.” “By our own political power, we reached an agreement, which all countries around the world confirm,” he said. “Only the Zionist regime (Israel) and warmongers in the US are against it.” Rouhani’s accusatory comments follow the same theme as the remarks uttered by President Obama in defense of the deal as of late. He...

"The route hasn't been profitable, it's strictly a financial decision," Texas-based carrier says, cites $20 million in losses • Company to terminate Philadelphia-Tel Aviv route in January 2016 • Pennsylvania congressman: Decision will hurt both economies.

The more we Americans began hearing about the possible nuclear pact with the Islamic Republic of Iran, aka “the Iran deal,” and the more President Obama saw that Americans of all faiths and political opinions realized that the pact was not in our best interest, and the more we heard the old anti-Semitic canards from the White House and the media. Things soured for Obama when Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned against this arrangement, clarifying that the funding of $150 billion for Iran, with cash assets, sanctions relief, and all strings severed could serve to fund its global terrorism...

The signing of a Munich-class agreement with Iran that hands it more than it ever hoped to pull off represents a shocking, craven American capitulation to an apocalyptic crazy state: a North Korea with oil. Nothing in Western history remotely approaches it, not even Neville Chamberlain's storied appeasement of another antisemitic negotiating partner. But it also augurs the possibility of a nuclear war coming far sooner than one could have imagined under conventional wisdom worst-case scenarios. Following the US's betrayal of Israel and its de facto detente with Iran, we cannot expect Israel to copy longstanding US doctrines of no-first-nuclear-use...