Free Republic

The large-scale exercises Iran is currently conducting to test its air-defense network and assess its ability to protect its nuclear facilities appear to be little more than a show of defiance against the United States, Israel and Russia, its longtime key arms supplier. Without the advanced S-300PMU missiles that a fickle Moscow refuses to deliver, presumably because the Kremlin finds it more advantageous to extract concessions from the Americans, Iran's strategic targets are highly vulnerable to air and missile strikes. Indeed, as the United States and its Western allies consider imposing a package of harsh economic sanctions on Tehran for...

US, Israel lack 'courage' to attack: Iran leader (AFP) – 6 hours ago BRASILIA — Visiting Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said Monday that US and Israeli military threats against Iran were a thing of the past, and that, in any case, "they don't have the courage" to attack Iran. "The age of military attacks is over, now we've reached the time for dialogue and understanding. Weapons and threats are a thing of the past," the Iranian told a joint press conference with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, closing his one-day visit. Ahmadinejad's visit was greeted Sunday in Rio de...

Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal has held secret state-level meetings in Oman's capital Muscat, a senior official in Jerusalem told Haaretz. Diplomatic relations between Israel and Oman were cut off in 2000 at the start of the second intifada. The official said that Gal had left for Muscat with the ministry's deputy director for Middle East affairs, Yaakov Hadas, and other high-ranking officials. The Israeli delegation left on Sunday and will return Tuesday. The formal reason for the visit was participation in the annual conference of the Middle East Desalination Research Center, in which Israel is a member. However, Gal...

The Obama administration keeps making big mistakes that have a devastating effect on its own goals and interests. What is most amazing is how the implications of its actions are just not understood. Already, the current US policy has destroyed any chance not only of progress on the Israel-Palestinian front but of even holding talks at all. Let's review the situation. Israel announced in 1993, at the time of the Oslo Accords with the PLO, that it viewed construction on existing settlements as completely in line with the agreement. The Palestinians, during the ensuing 16 years, never made this a...

Anti-Israel, pro-Iran university professors are being funded by a shadowy multimillion-dollar Islamic charity based in Manhattan that the feds charge is an illegal front for the repressive Iranian regime. The deep-pocketed Alavi Foundation has aggressively given away hundreds of thousands of dollars to Columbia University and Rutgers University for Middle Eastern and Persian studies programs that employ professors sympathetic to the Iranian dictatorship. "We found evidence that the government of Iran really controlled everything about the foundation," said Adam Kaufmann, investigations chief at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. Federal law-enforcement authorities are in the midst of seizing up to $650...

Vital to that [US-Israel] alliance is US support in the UN Security Council, where it has cast 29 vetoes to shield Israel from condemnation for its actions in the occupied territories. Imagine the signal the US would send were it even to abstain. Or, better still, if the US and its allies took a blueprint for a two-state solution – the outlines of which have long been clear – to the council and voted it through. This game is not over yet.

“Why aren’t priests in this country doing more to help Arab Christian Palestinians?” As we sat down for dinner at the 2009 awards banquet sponsored by the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation, the question caught me by surprise. I had been invited by chance, but in all honesty I knew very little about the organization. Thanks to that question, however, I now know much more about why all Christians should be deeply concerned about today’s Christian Palestinians. There should always be a solidarity among Christians, regardless of where we live. As such, when one of us suffers, we all suffer....

United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates is the Mephistopheles of the Barack Obama administration - not because of his gift for intrigue, which is slender, but because of his capacity to personify non-being. "Everything that arises goes rightly to its ruin," said Goethe's devil to Faust, "so it would be better for nothing to arise." In his November 20 keynote speech to the German Marshall Fund's (GMF's) International Security Forum on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Gates portrayed the man who wasn't there. That is the secret of his longevity in public office. Several hundred attendees, including defense ministers and...

. 9/11 SCOTT "Let's Roll" BEAMER's Dad called for "Regime Change USA-2010/2012" on FoX this morning.

An aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that if the Islamic republic is attacked, it will retaliate against the Israeli metropolis of Tel Aviv, official media reported on Sunday. "If the enemy attacks Iran, our missiles will strike Tel Aviv," the official IRNA news agency quoted Khamenei's representative in the elite Revolutionary Guards, Mojhtaba Zolnoor, as saying late on Saturday. His comments came as Iranian air defence forces were set to carry out five days of manoeuvres involving simulated attacks on the country's nuclear facilities.

It should be obvious by now that Barack Obama’s disastrous Cloward-Piven economic policies were not meant to lift the economy. After all, ask yourself, what would Obama be doing differently today if he intentionally set out to destroy the American economy? He’s tripled the national deficit in less than one year. He’s increased the national debt to $12 Trillion. And he’s nearly doubled the unemployment rate since the Bush years. Even Saturday Night Live and Chris Matthews can’t ignore it any longer. Jim Simpson at The American Thinker reported today on Obama’s Cloward-Piven economic plan: It is time to cast...

Egypt's president basically acknowledged that to Peres. "A Jew cannot even build a bathroom in Jerusalem without International condemnation"-Dov Hikind, NY Assemblyman Israel's president Shimon Peres was in Cairo, Egypt for talks with Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian president, who has been Egypt's head of state for at least a quarter of a century, warned that Israel would anger all Muslims if it did not resolve what was refered to as Jerusalem's "disputed status". But the real kicker came when Mubarak emphasized that the future of Jerusalem is "an issue for the entire Islamic world". Did you get that? "...an issue...

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Wednesday called US President Barack Obama's strong criticism of the building of additional Jewish homes in a Jewish neighborhood of the Israeli capital a position based on racism. Said Barkat: "Israeli law does not discriminate between Jews, Muslims, and Christians or between eastern and western Jerusalem. The demand to halt construction by religion is not legal in the United States or in any other free place in the world. I do not presume that any government would demand to freeze construction in the United States based on race, religion or gender and the attempt to...

According to the Saudi Network, al-Arabiya (via Ynet), Gilad Shalit, Kidnapped by Hamas over three years ago, may be coming home as soon as this coming Friday. It will be a four-stage deal. Israel will release 450 terrorists, custody of Shalit will be transferred to the Egyptian Government. Israel will follow up by releasing the another 650 terrorists and Egypt will transfer Shalit to the Israel. I assume that means that Hamas believes that one Jewish life is worth 1,000 Arab terrorist lives. Israel had agreed to release 1,000 prisoners months ago, within the group 450 specific prisoners were demanded...

Israel, Germany to discuss missile ships By YAAKOV KATZ A German defense delegation will arrive in Israel next month for high-level talks to focus on an Israeli request to purchase two Meko-class missile ships. The delegation will be led by senior officials from the German Defense Ministry and the German Navy. Talks on the Israeli side will be led by Defense Ministry director-general Pinhas Buchris and Navy commander Vice Admiral Eliezer Marom. While the Navy has yet to finalize its order, it is working on a concept under which the 2,000-ton ship would be designed by the German company Blohm...

Yesterday they underlined this message by pointing to reports showing that Mr Obama had failed to convene a single policy meeting of the Senate European subcommittee, of which he is chairman. There was also strikingly robust criticism from an independent Washington think-tank about a “disconcerting void” over transatlantic relations in Mr Obama’s foreign policy, as well as from a former British Minister for Europe. Mr Obama’s advisers say that he has an “intuitive grasp” of world affairs because he spent part of his childhood abroad. “The benefit of my life of having both lived overseas and travelled overseas is, I...

More filth over at mybarackobama's website. No matter how many times I expose it, they keep it up, providing a forum for and the cultural acceptance of this incitement to Jewish genocide. Such vile hate would never have been allowed in polite and decent society 15 years ago. We are no longer decent? Hope and change folks, hope and change. Do you think calls for end of Islam would stand? Racism against blacks? Would that stand? During the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama’s website, Organizing for America, hosted a series of vile anti-American, Jew-hating posts and pieces. The onslaught was...

During a recent speaking tour in Canada, MK Nahman Shai (Kadima) shocked some of his hosts when he said that his primary goal in politics today is to bring down the Netanyahu government. Although indelicate, Shai's comment was not surprising. Kadima is in the opposition. And like all opposition parties in all parliamentary democracies, the primary goal of its members is to bring down the government so that they can take power. Given that this is the case, it is unsurprising that until this week, Kadima leader Tzipi Livni tried to blame Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for US President Barack...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris last week that he wanted to launch talks with Damascus without preconditions, according to Syrian President Bashar Assad's top aide Bouthaina Shaaban. Shaaban told Arab reporters on Friday that Sarkozy had told Assad in his subsequent meeting with the Syrian leader that Netanyahu had told him "that the Syrian track was very important, and that he wanted to open talks without delay and without preconditions." However, she said that Assad had responded by saying that before talks could start, he wanted guarantees that Israel would return "Syria's land" and...

Concerns are growing in Israel’s government over the possibility of a unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence within the June 4, 1967 borders, a move which could potentially be recognized by the U.S. and the United Nations Security Council. On August 26th, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad issued a 54-page plan ("Palestine: Ending the Occupation, Establishing the State") that proposed the establishment of a de-facto Palestinian state within two years – a state to be established regardless of negotiations with Israel and outside the framework of the performance-based March 2003 Roadmap and the Oslo Agreement. [1] While the Plan adopts...

Tough Lessons For Obama On Mid-East Peace The BBC's Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen considers how the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians has taught US President Barack Obama hard and humiliating lessons. Nearly 500,000 Jewish people live in settlements built on occupied territory. The land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea has great sunsets. One the other day turned the sky from deep blue to pink, then angry orange, and flaming red. The fading light glowed on the roofs of the expanding and illegal Jewish settlements that run, like little fortresses, along the mountain spine of the West...

November 13, 2009 at 1:09 pm On local Houston radio 2 days ago a private from Ft. Hood called into the AM talk show on 950AM. Since then the host has verified just to be sure that the man was indeed an injured soldier so as not to be fooled. Anyway, the private was with some others that were not critically hurt in a ward. He called in to offer the “difference” between the visit from President Bush vs the visit from President Obama. As you stated, no one knew President Bush was coming, he just showed up. WITH NO...

A searchable map detailing 40 years of Israeli archaeological work in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, developed for the USC Digital Library, has won the 2009 Open Archaeology Prize from the American Schools of Oriental Research.A nonprofit organization founded in 1900 and located at Boston University, the American Schools of Oriental Research support the study and public understanding of peoples and cultures of the Near East. The prize, to be presented today at a professional meeting in New Orleans, recognizes “the best open-access, open-licensed, digital contribution to Near Eastern archaeology by an ASOR member.” Project leaders Lynn Swartz Dodd...

However, despite the public appearance of a committed relationship most Europeans countries today, and some Jewish sects do not support the state of Israel and the European government is somewhat puzzled by the Americans protectionist attitude toward Israel. The common views outside the United States towards Israel is that they are an oppressor state — some go as far as declaring Israel a "terrorist" state, while others give Israel the benefit of the doubt by declaring "well, both sides are guilty, but Israel is stronger and should know better"

However, that false propaganda has succeeded in conducting an occupation the "minds" of some willfully misguided, or misinformed Americans.Recent statements made by the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, may be an indication that she is not so misinformed, has not been drinking the Islamist inspired propaganda, and that she "gets it", and understands the facts:"I disagree with the Obama administration on that," Palin told Walters. "I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks...

Prez. Incapable of making rational decisions Frolicking in the Quicksand: How the Obama Administration Keeps Making Huge Mistakes in the Middle East By Barry Rubin thelastcrusade.org Of course, the Obama Administration has its defenders. They either ignore criticism of the Administration’s foreign policy or claim it is all partisan and ideological. And yet the truth is that if you watch the government's policy on a daily basis it is truly remarkable how many dumb, avoidable mistakes are made.I won’t supply a long list here but instead will talk about the latest one. Let’s take it step by step to...

In another in a long series of swift kicks to Israel and American Jews, the Obama Administration has announced that it is slashing the guest list and budget for its 2009 Hanukkah celebration. According to the Jerusalem Post the guest list is being cut in half causing some American Jews to wonder if Obama is giving them the cold shoulder... again. In case no one has been paying attention, President Obama has been slighting Israel and American Jews since before he became president. His pick of Samantha Power, the Palestinian apologist, for his Mid East policy team was a fine...

My wife and I were in Israel in 1966, passing from Jordan into Israel. We went through the Mandelbaum Gate, prayed at the Wailing Wall, visited holy sites, including Gordon’s Calvary where we observed the communion sacrament with friends. Since then it has pained me to think Israel would lose any of that land fought for. I believe it was a miracle that they won that war in six days.

Representatives from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia are scheduled to meet today in Brussels to discuss future steps to dissuade Iran from developing the capacity to build nuclear weapons. Our message to the world leaders: If you want peace, prepare for war.

Former US vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin disagrees with the Obama administration's demand that Israel halt settlement construction, although her reason for that opinion is puzzling to some (or at the least demonstrates she's not familiar with the term "natural growth" that much of the debate has revolved around). Palin debates Biden in St.... She told Barbara Walters on ABC's Good Morning America this week that she disagrees with the White House because all the Jews moving to Israel need a place to live. "I disagree with the Obama administration on that," Palin told Walters. "I believe that the Jewish...

US President Barack Obama has warned Israel that its policy of ignoring US pleas and continuing to expand housing in sensitive areas of Jerusalem could end up being "very dangerous". Israel yesterday rejected the condemnation of the Obama administration and other world leaders and proceeded to demolish two Palestinian homes -- bringing to seven the number of Palestinian homes demolished this week in east Jerusalem. Mr Obama, in his strongest condemnation yet, warned that the development of 900 new houses in the disputed Jerusalem suburb of Gilo could "embitter Palestinians". He said it made it difficult to resume any peace...

Israel bashing, Houston hair care executive Farouk Shami, is throwing his hat into the ring and has stated that he is 100% sure that he will be the next Governor of Texas. Here is one of his past comments. "Polls show that our unquestioning support of Israel fuels anti-American sentiment in the Arab and Muslim worlds." If he wins, I am sure that he will get along just fine with Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison. Democrat Joins Gubernatorial race, Says He’ll Spend $10 Million in Primary November 19, 2009 by TMO Houston hair executive Farouk Shami says his focus is stimulating...

For the past couple of months I have worried about the risks of a failed presidency. No one should want this, regardless of party affiliation. It is harmful and dangerous to our economy and country. However, it appears obvious to me that the royal regime known as Obama has ended. Seth Leibsohn writing in the National Review summarized it this way: "This is reminiscent of the Jimmy Carter years - the last time the U.S. was seen as weak - unable to move and coax other countries, unable to reassure dependent allies, unable to have the respect of the world...

Dsvid Littman, 75, was awarded the Order of "Hero of Silence" last Summer 2009 by the Israeli Mossad for having been an undercover volunteer helping 500 children leave Morocco clandestinely in 1963. The Order of "Hero of Silence" is a very rare award. Only nine people have received it, seven whose identities remain classified. "drzz.info" obtained exclusive photographs of this private event taking place at the heart of Israel's intelligence community and featuring Ephraim Halevy, the Mossad's former director general, and the current Mossad's deputy director whose face has been "blacked" for confidentiality restrictions.

The Great Rift Valley extends some 4,000 miles southward from Syria north of Israel, through the Gulf of Aqaba, through Ethiopia, and all the way to Mozambique in southeast Africa. It harbors a giant fault, which has been under investigation as a model for sea floor spreading. A recent geologic event rent a gaping crack through the desert of Ethiopia, causing safety concerns for locals. These crustal plate motions may foreshadow rifting events further north in the Great Rift Valley...

Once again, US President Barack Obama has demonstrated his intention of "putting light" between America and Israel. His hostility toward Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during the latter's visit to Washington this week was breathtaking. It isn't every day that you can see an American president leaving the prime minister of an allied government twisting in the wind for weeks before deciding to grant him an audience at the White House. It isn't every day that a visiting leader from a strategically vital US ally is brought into the White House in an unmarked van in the middle of the night...

US President Barack Obama is an extremely intelligent man surrounded by equally intelligent advisers, many of whom have years of experience dealing with the Middle East. His continued misreading and misunderstanding of the Israeli public is, therefore, somewhat baffling. This misread was evident again in the past few days by the US objection to the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Committee's approval of a plan to build some 900 new units in Gilo - not in a far-flung settlement overlooking Nablus, nor even in one of the settlement blocs like Gush Etzion, nor even a Jewish complex in one of the Arab...

Tiny survivor doesn't remember Mumbai attack By AMY TEIBEL (AP) – 14 hours ago KFAR CHABAD, Israel — Moshe Holtzberg celebrated his third birthday on Wednesday the way many Jewish children do — he got his first haircut. He appeared not to recall the tragic events of a year ago, when his parents were killed in a terror attack in Mumbai, India. Surrounding the smiling tot were his grandparents and Sandra Samuel, the caretaker who brought him home to Israel after the attack on the Jewish outreach Chabad House in Mumbai. Hundreds joined them at the group's Israel center, a...

A Gaza charity headed by the interior minister of Hamas yesterday offered $1.4 million to any Arab citizen of Israel who abducts an Israeli soldier. Palestinians have frequently called on Israeli Arabs to abduct soldiers, but this is the first time money has been offered.

In today's interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, Sarah Palin was asked about her opinion regarding Obama's position on Israeli "settlements". Her response was the most decisive and unequivocal of any conservative politician: "I disagree with the Obama administration on that," Palin told Walters. "I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don't think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the...

Lawmaker decries U.S. demand to halt Jewish construction - JERUSALEM – A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party today slammed as "racist" President Obama's longstanding demand for a halt to Jewish construction in the strategic West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem. "President Obama should not interfere with the rights of the Jewish people to live in Jerusalem," said Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon. "This ... is a racist demand, saying that Jews cannot live in Jerusalem, only Arabs." Danon continued: "Our duty is to the nation that chose to deepen the settlement across Judea and Samaria, and...

In recent years there has been a significant rise in the number of non-Palestinians who describe themselves as "pro-Palestinian" activists. These people can be found mostly on university campuses in North America and Europe. What is striking is that many of these "pro-Palestinian" activists have never been to the Middle East, let alone the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. In most cases, they are not even Arabs or Muslims. What makes them "pro-Palestinian"? In their view, inciting against Israel on a university campus or publishing "anti-Zionist" material on the Internet is sufficient to earn them the title of "pro-Palestinian."...

Google Earth is helping Jews in Israel and all over the world understand the miraculous victory of the Jews over Greek invaders 2,000 years ago thanks to the initiative of a rabbi who brings history back to life on the computer.

Have you ever seen so much hatred for, and vitriolic criticism of, someone who had only a brief stint on the national political stage? More than a year after the presidential election in which Sarah Palin, as the GOP nominee for Vice-President, campaigned for about three months, she is still being pilloried by the left-wing loons as though she had been elected and were actively engaged in dismantling the liberal establishment. Not a day goes by in which we don't hear or read vicious attacks on a woman who represents the wholesome conservative values of Middle America -- values that...

There is no place outside the US (where, in view of the likelihood of Senate approval of health reform, the situation is a bit different) where people are not disappointed in President Barack Obama. This is not an entirely justified disappointment: Anyone with eyes, particularly here in the Middle East, should have known that his commitments and style could not produce the results he promised. True, the man has vision, charisma and natural leadership qualities, but the trees he has climbed are too high. If Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, for example, truly believed that Obama would succeed in completely...

(IsraelNN.com) White House officials told the New Republic magazine this week that the Obama administration has been embarrassed at least twice by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for revealing in public information and policies that the State Department was supposed to keep private between Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the U.S. According to the sources, Clinton was not supposed to reveal publicly the U.S. demand that Israel institute a total building freeze in Judea and Samaria, fearing that it would lead to a confrontation with Israel – which it did, after U.S. President Barack Obama publicly backed Clinton. The second...

(IsraelNN.com) While the U.S. debate continues as to whether Maj. Nidal Hassan’s murder of 13 soldiers in Texas this month was a terrorist attack, researcher Barry Rubin says the murderer himself provided the affirmative answer. Maj. Hasan, who is now facing charges of having murdered 13 and wounded 29 in the Fort Hood shooting attack of Nov. 5, delivered a lecture in June 2007. His topic was: Islam, the complete subservience demanded by Allah and Muhammed, and threats that the American military might encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting wars in Muslim countries. Hassan’s slide show can be seen here....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Tuesday that it was "dismayed" over Israeli approval to expand the Gilo settlement in Jerusalem and sharply criticized the ongoing evictions and demolition of Palestinian homes. "At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement. U.S. President Barack Obama has urged Israel to curb settlement expansion as a gesture of goodwill to Palestinians in an effort to restart the peace process. Israel on Tuesday approved the building of 900 homes...

MEMRI: Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews MEMRI No. 2260| November 16, 2009 Palestinian Historian Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: Ancient Egyptians Had the Right to Force the Jews to Work Building Pithom and Raamses; Benjamin Franklin Warned against the Jews Following are excerpts from an interview with Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar, a lecturer on Islamic history at the Islamic University of Gaza. The interview aired on Al-Aqsa TV on July 31, 2009. To view this clip, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2260.htm Dr. Ibrahim Al-Sinwar: The...

At their convention this past August, Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction of the PLO officially endorsed a recognized terrorist organization as the "military wing" of Fatah. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. These jihadists have been responsible for gruesome "jihad in the way of Allah" suicide bombings. They also openly serve in Abbas PA security services. Some of them have also bragged about the military training they recieved courtesy of your U.S. tax dollars and General Keith Dayton. Gen Dayton, an American version of Glubb Pasha. A top Fatah leader, Muhammad Dahlan, acknowledged that Fatah has never recognized Israel's right to exist.Abbas and Fayad's Fatah...