Free Republic

Russia is planning to expand its Syrian bases at Tartus and Hemeimeem to Libya. The possible Russian move into Libya represents the most recent failure stemming from the policies of President Obama that backed Islamist rebels who overthrew and killed Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Mr. Obama has said that the failure to prepare for the aftermath of the ouster of Gadhafi was the worst mistake of his presidency. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also came under fire for failing to provide security for Americans who were attacked and killed in Benghazi after Gadhafi’s fall. The push for a...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Shared Meal 
 (New Testament) John 15 The Vine and the Branches 15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless...

The barrage of rockets into Israel from Gaza continued into the early morning hours of Sunday. It all began Friday night and Israel has responded with air strikes into Gaza aimed at targets of the Hamas terrorist organization that rules there. Four Israelis were injured in the attacks by some 200 plus rockets including three in a synagogue on the Sabbath. Two were killed in Gaza in the Israeli attacks in response. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that if Hamas didn't get the message from Saturday's military response, they will get it on Sunday. The Israel Defense Forces have...

In biggest attack since 2014 war, Israeli army says it struck 40 targets, including Hamas' Beit Lahia battalion HQ, More than 140 rocket alarm sirens sound in southern Israel, 90 rockets fired at Israel, 16 intercepted by Iron Dome. Israel's cabinet will meet on Sunday to discuss the escalation in the south. A Palestinian official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said Egypt and other international players were holding contacts iwht Israel and Gaza to restore calm.....

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Shared Meal 
 (New Testament) John 14 Jesus Comforts His Disciples 14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God[a]; believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Shared Meal 
 (New Testament) John 13 Jesus Washes His Disciples’ Feet 13 It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3 Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Shared Meal 
 (New Testament) John 12 Jesus Anointed at Bethany 12 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. 3 Then Mary took about a pint[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But one of his disciples,...

The U.S. ambassador to Germany urged Berlin on Tuesday to stop Iran withdrawing large sums of cash from bank accounts in Germany to offset the effect of new U.S. sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal. Richard Grenell, a longtime critic of the accord, told the mass-circulation daily Bild that the U.S. government was extremely concerned about Tehran’s plans to transfer hundreds of millions of euros in cash to Iran. “We encourage the highest levels of the German government to intervene and stop the plan,” Grenell said. […] Bild first reported on Monday that German authorities were...

A major purpose of Iran wanting to enlarge its footprint in Syria may be to hide aspects of its nuclear program from the International Atomic Energy Agency, former top IDF Military Intelligence official Yossi Kuperwasser said on Wednesday. Speaking at a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs conference on the Iran nuclear situation, JCPA fellow Kuperwasser, a former IDF brigadier-general, noted that IAEA inspectors are limited to inspecting Iran’s territory, as the Iran nuclear deal did not grant IAEA inspectors complete access to Iranian scientists. Based on that limited access, Kuperwasser said Iran could move and conceal its nuclear scientists and...

A description of the Israeli attack on the T-4 airbase in Syria and the complete destruction of the control tower. The Iranians are no longer hiding their intentions and are waiting for the order to destroy Israel. Israel's help in rescuing the trapped soccer players (amazing technology!). The repercussions on Iran of Trump moving out of the Iran nuclear deal. And did you know it was Israeli intelligence that revealed the plot to blow up the convention in Paris at which Giuliani and Gingrich were scheduled to speak? Earthquakes and their possible significance. And the update is followed by a...

n a major story that came and went, President Obama shut down a major drug operation run by Hezb'allah because he didn't want to upset Iran's mullahs and endanger his Iran deal. Seems the Iran deal was considerably more important to his "legacy" than any concern about drug-dealing, the opioid epidemic, or just the idea of putting terrorists who finance themselves through the global drug trade out of business. Politico did the story about how Obama shut down Project Cassandra, so it should have gotten attention, yet it didn't. The whole thing recalls something security expert Rachel Ehrenfeld memorably told...

A Democratic candidate for a seat in the California state assembly blames Israel for committing genocide against the Palestinians and has offered her support for anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Maria Estrada, a candidate for California’s District 63 representing the southeast suburbs of Los Angeles, garnered the second most votes, some 28 percent, in a top-two primary on June 5 for the November election. She will run against incumbent and fellow Democrat Anthony Rendon, who also serves as Speaker of the California State Assembly. In an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, Rabbi Abraham Cooper and...

“On the way to Sevastopol, not too far from Simferopol,” begins what is probably the most famous Yiddish song from the Soviet Union, “Hey Dzhankoye.” Jews have been living in the peninsula since ancient times, largely divided into two communities: the Krymchaks, who followed rabbinical Judaism, and the Karaites, who rejected the Oral Torah. Soon after Catherine the Great conquered the region from the Ottoman Empire in 1783, she opened it up to Jewish settlement, hoping that the Jews would serve as a bulwark against the Turks. Although Jews were later barred from living in the major cities, the peninsula...

Sunday night's aerial attack on the T4 airbase in Syria, near the city of Homs, was the third to have been ascribed to Israel at that site this year. Based on experience, Israeli will opt to attack in two possible contexts. The first is tactical: to hit a new arms shipment, or a weapons system that is about to be deployed. Israel has openly expressed concern about efforts by Iran to introduce such systems to protect its future military entrenchment in Syria, and has vowed to thwart such ambitions. The second context is to send a strategic signal. The latest...

The drone, which had also overflown Jordan and appeared to have been unarmed and designed for surveillance, was downed near the Sea of Galilee at the Golan foothills in northern Israel, spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus told reporters. “We are still looking into why it crossed - whether it was on a military mission and crossed on purpose, or it strayed,” he said, while adding that the latter scenario was “not common”. The drone, which had also overflown Jordan and appeared to have been unarmed and designed for surveillance, was downed near the Sea of Galilee at the Golan foothills in...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Shared Meal 
 (New Testament) John 7 Jesus Goes to the Festival of Tabernacles 7 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want[a] to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things,...

Israel announced Tuesday that it will launch its first lunar mission in December 2018, hoping to become the fourth country to land on the moon, following the U.S., Russia and China. SpaceIL and the state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries presented the new spacecraft, which took eight years of collaborative efforts, and $95 million to build the smallest aircraft to date. It is measured to be four-feet high, and 6 ½-feet in diameter, and it will be able to reach a maximum speed of 22,370 miles per hour. South African-Israeli billionaire Morris Kahn, president of SpaceIL, who has donated $27 million to...

Three countries have landed missions on the moon: the US, Russia and China. Israel hopes to be the fourth when it launches a spacecraft this December with an assist from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The unmanned mission is a joint effort between private company Israel Aerospace Industries and nonprofit organization SpaceIL. SpaceIL participated in the Google Lunar XPrize competition, which wrapped up earlier this year with no ultimate winner. The people at SpaceIL aren't letting that stop them from completing the lunar journey. On Tuesday, the team announced its goal of a Feb. 13, 2019, moon landing, but it has yet to...

Does Iran really want to nuke Israel? Is Israel stronger than Iran? A top security expert explains Israel ranked eighth most powerful country in the world North Korea expanded missile facility during talks with Trump, analysts say Pompeo downplays North Korea's rebuke of 'gangster-like' denuclearization demands North Korea reportedly extended an offer to Israel in 1999 to nix its agreements to sell missile technology to Iran and other enemy states that posed a threat to the Jewish state at the time - if Israel paid Pyongyang $1 billion in cash. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal published...

Father and son Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond left a federal prison in Long Beach, California free men at around 130pm Pacific Time Tuesday, six and half hours after a Presidential Pardon was announced. The White House announced a full pardon for the Hammonds, who were serving five year manadatory terrorism sentences for lighting a backfire to protect their land. President Trump's pardon of the ranchers was welcomed by Ammon Bundy, leader of the Oregon Standoff protest in early 2016, centered at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Bundy released a statement that saying in part: "I hope they find...