http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/middleeast/ en-us Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:15:51 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418570/posts Candles of Darkness by Ari Bussel It was the last Monday of the year 2009, and at 5PM already dark here in Los Angeles. The weather treated us nicely, so we stood with only one or two layers, signs in our hands (“We Stand with Israel”) along with US and Israeli flags and candles. We were greatly outnumbered, almost five to one. On the other side of the street, just in front the Israeli Consulate building, about 120 anti-Israel protestors, all white-Caucasian, children to the elderly, stood with candles and signs. The darkness and lights of passing cars obliterated them,... "Postcards from Israel - Postcards from America" http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418570/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:15:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417869/posts More than 1,000 people from around the world were gathered here on Tuesday for a solidarity march into Gaza despite Egypt’s insistence that the Gaza border crossing that it controls would remain closed to the vast majority of them. The protest, the Gaza Freedom March, was planned for Thursday and intended to mark a year since Israel’s three-week military assault on the territory. On Tuesday, hundreds of the frustrated activists gathered to press their case on the front steps of the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate here, holding “Free Gaza” signs and chanting, “Let us go.” Some declared a hunger strike. About... NY Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417869/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:34:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417481/posts photo: Ayatollah Khamenei (left) en Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right) (EPA) Reports from Iran indicate that the Supreme National Security Council has ordered a complete check-up of the jet which is on standby to fly Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei and his family to Russia should the situation in Iran spiral out of control. The order, to the Pasdaran Revolutionary Guard Corps, was dated on Sunday, 27 December. A fax containing the order was sent to Dutch-based Shahrzad News.   In Iran, tens of thousands of pro-government supporters took to the streets on Tuesday, calling for leaders of the opposition to be... Radio Netherlands Worldwide http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417481/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:20:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416669/posts Mideast: As the death of a dissident cleric spawns renewed protests, Sen. John Kerry seeks to make nice with the oppressors of those who truly deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. How about regime change, Senator? The death toll from the brutal suppression of the latest round of Iranian protests against their government has reached double digits. We wonder if the senator still wants to be the highest U.S. official to visit Tehran since U.S. hostages were held for 444 days by the very same regime. To Kerry and this administration, the problem is one of mistrust and misunderstanding. Come, let... Investors.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2416669/posts#comment Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:01:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415981/posts COPS fear that 25 British-born Muslims are plotting to bomb Western airliners. The fanatics, in five groups, are now training at secret terror camps in Yemen. It was there London-educated Umar Abdulmutallab, 23, prepared for his Christmas Day bid to blow up a US jet. The British extremists in Yemen are in their early 20s and from Bradford, Luton and Leytonstone, East London. They are due to return to the UK early in 2010 and will then await internet instructions from al-Qaeda on when to strike. A Scotland Yard source said: "The great fear is Abdulmutallab is the first of... The Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415981/posts#comment Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:26:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414246/posts Since the 1990s China has successfully been expanding its influence in the Middle East and Iran in particular without attracting the attention of the global community. China views Iran as a significant potential ally in its attempts to counter-balance western power. Clearly Iran serves as a major source of oil. In addition, it is a leading geopolitical player in the region, capable of heavily affecting the political balance in the Middle East. In addition to energy, China is extensively involved in many areas of Iran's economic development. To help develop Iran's economy, empower it, and open up consumer markets for... World Tribune.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414246/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 03:47:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413774/posts The ongoing Christian flight from the Middle East was high on the agenda of the Vatican’s secretary of the relations with states, Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, when I met with him recently in Rome. The lengthy exodus of ancient Christian congregations from the greater Middle East’s last redoubts of religious pluralism is accelerating. Terrorism, conflict, and the rise of intolerant Islamism are to blame, Vatican officials explain. There is a real fear that the light of Christian communities that was enkindled personally by the apostles of Jesus Christ could be extinguished in this vast region that includes the Holy Land. This... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2413774/posts#comment Wed, 23 Dec 2009 16:05:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412590/posts U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors fly in formation during a training mission in southwest Asia, Dec. 6, 2009. The F-22 fighters and crews are deployed from the 27th Fighter Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Va., and entered the Air Forces Central area of responsibility for the first time as part of a multi-national exercise where aircrews from France, Jordan, Pakistan, the U.A.E., the U.K. and the U.S. trained together in fighting a large-scale air war. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Michael B. Keller. SOUTHWEST ASIA — U.S. Airmen here marked a milestone recently, completing the first deployment... Multi-National Force-Iraq http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412590/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:51:44 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412084/posts An illicit North Korean arms shipment seized in Thailand last week was destined for the Middle East, the head of US intelligence said Friday. About 30 tonnes of sanctions-busting weapons were confiscated in Bangkok on Saturday but it had remained unclear where the North Korean shipment was headed. "Teamwork among different agencies in the United States and partners abroad just last week led to the interdiction of a Middle East-bound cargo of North Korean weapons," Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, wrote in a commentary in the Washington Post. Blair's reference marked the first public comment by the administration... Space War http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2412084/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:59:09 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408520/posts The Iraqi Army has come a long way since 2003, when the old, Sunni Arab dominated force was disbanded, and a new one, loyal to a democratic government, and led by newly recruited and trained officers, was built from scratch. Because of the Sunni Arabs loyal to Saddam (and Sunni Arab rule) fought a four year terror campaign, while the army was forming, the best troops were formed into special "intervention" units. This resulted in an army organization consisting of one "Intervention Corps" and three other corps of lesser quality. Total manpower is about 250,000 troops. Most divisions have four... The Strategy Page http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2408520/posts#comment Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:28:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405884/posts Note: The following text is a quote: December 11, 2009 286 arrested in ICE's largest ever enforcement surge targeting criminal aliens 2 convicted rapists and armed robber among those captured in 3-day California operation LOS ANGELES - Nearly 300 foreign nationals with criminal records have been removed from the United States or are facing deportation following a three-day enforcement surge in California, making it the biggest operation targeting at large criminal aliens ever carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). During the operation, which concluded late Thursday, ICE officers located and arrested a total of 280 criminal aliens... ICE.gov - News Release http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2405884/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:11:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402219/posts Limp wrists don't scare terrorists thelastcrusade.org Arab Writer Finds Obama Scary for the Moderates, Reassuring for the Radicals By Barry Rubin Here’s a remarkable article from Michael Young of the Beirut Daily Star that tells you more about what’s happening in the world than anything you’ll read in the Western media. To give you a clear sense of the contents the title is, “Barack and Hassan concur, the US is waning.” It begins: “It’s not often that Barack Obama and Hassan Nasrallah [the leader of Lebanese Hizballah, a Lebanese Islamist group backed by Iran and Syria] agree, but both... The Last Crusade http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402219/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 19:13:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402015/posts It is difficult to turn on a TV or radio or pick up a newspaper these days without finding some pundit or other deploring the dismal prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace or the dreadful living conditions of the Palestinians. Even supposedly neutral news reporters regularly repeat this sad tale. “Very little is changing for the Palestinian people on the ground,” I heard BBC World Service Cairo correspondent Christian Fraser tell listeners three times in a 45-minute period the other evening. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I had spent that day in the West Bank’s largest city, Nablus. The city... National Review http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402015/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 15:14:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2401918/posts Dr. Richard Antoun of Binghamton University, a retired professor of anthropology with a specialty in comparative religions allegedly was stabbed four times in the chest by a Saudi national, Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, a cultural-anthropology grad student. Professor Antoun was a peace activist, and a convert to Judaism, and was known on campus as "a really nice guy." The American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2401918/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 11:23:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401218/posts EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU must put real pressure on Israel to halt settlement growth in East Jerusalem or risk seeing an escalation of the Middle East conflict that could spill into Europe, a Jewish politician on the front line of the peace process has warned. "We have reached the last moment when it is still possible to divide and share Jerusalem. If it [decisive action] does not happen this year, it will become impossible to implement any plan like the two-state solution," Meir Margalit, a Jerusalem city councillor, told EUobserver in a phone interview on Thursday (3 December). EU Observer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401218/posts#comment Sat, 5 Dec 2009 23:22:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400791/posts SNIPPET: "AUSTRALIA'S most notorious terrorist Willie Brigitte will be free from jail next year having served less than half his sentence for conspiring to blow up the nation's only nuclear reactor and the power grid. The Caribbean-born Muslim convert made headlines in 2007 when he was sentenced in France to a maximum nine years, following his arrest in Sydney, for joining an al-Qaida-backed Pakistani terror cell out to bomb Lucas Heights nuclear plant, the national electricity grid or a military base. The French Justice Ministry is considering releasing the 41-year-old, on an early-release good-behaviour plan." HERALD SUN.com.au http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400791/posts#comment Sat, 5 Dec 2009 06:37:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396168/posts ...the president’s promising [Middle East] peace initiative has unraveled... Peacemaking takes strategic skill. But we see no sign that President Obama and Mr. Mitchell were thinking more than one move down the board. The president went public with his demand for a full freeze on settlements before securing Israel’s commitment. And he and his aides apparently had no plan for what they would do if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no. ...What has President Obama learned from the experience so he can improve his diplomatic performance generally?... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2396168/posts#comment Sun, 29 Nov 2009 05:14:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395662/posts World financial markets are quaking in the wake of a request by Dubai World, a principal investment vehicle for the Emirate of Dubai, to suspend debt service amounting to billions of dollars in the next 6 months. The company owes a total of $59 billion. Islam, of course, opposes interest payments on borrowed money, so much of the debt is so-called Islamic debt, in which different labels are applied, but the concept of paying for the use of money remains. Dubai's fabulous skyline has been built on a vast pool of debt, and property there was often pre-sold and re-sold... American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2395662/posts#comment Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:29:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391946/posts 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. AFP via Yahoo! News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2391946/posts#comment Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:51:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390504/posts 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... Jerusalem http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2390504/posts#comment Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:49:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2390261/posts 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. See the pictures http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2390261/posts#comment Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:12:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389789/posts 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... Caroline Glick blog http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389789/posts#comment Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:35:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389705/posts Russia's KBM has been briefing Middle East and other militaries on the Igla man-portable air defense system. The Igla-S, an enhanced version of Igla-9K38, was touted as effective against fighter-jets, helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles and cruise missiles. Iran and Syria have received a legacy variant of Igla-S. The Igla-S has been touted as capable of downing a range of U.S. UAVs deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. "It also has night-firing capability," KBM said. "Igla-S MANPADS is a new-generation system featuring considerably extended firing range and enhanced kill probability against aerial targets and possessing a new quality for this class of... Geostrategy Direct http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2389705/posts#comment Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:42:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386511/posts Nov 14, 2009 17:25 | Updated Nov 14, 2009 17:29 Iran has completely rejected a UN-brokered nuclear deal, but US President Barack Obama has postponed the official announcement on Teheran's refusal due to internal political reasons, Israel Radio quoted a senior western official as saying Saturday. The deal would see most of the Islamic Republic's uranium shipped to Russia and France for further processing. The official reportedly told journalists in Paris that Iran has also refused to resume nuclear talks with the six world powers. JPOST http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386511/posts#comment Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:44:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386528/posts CHRISTIANS ALERT MORE TROUBLE IN THE HOLY LAND byPaul L. Williams, Ph.D. thelastcrusade.org War is looming in the Middle East.But the cause, according to Arab experts, will be neither the creation of a Palestinian state nor the emergence of a nuclear Iran.It will arise from the shortage of water.The region's worsening water situation, exasperated by global warming and burgeoning populations, already has created civil unrest which, experts fear, will ignite into armed conflicts - - including a clash between Israel with neighboring Lebanon and Egypt. Jordanian political science professor Ghazi al-Rababah says that Israel will be the first to... The Last Crusade http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2386528/posts#comment Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:15:09 GMT