Free Republic

John Kerry warned that if his latest peace mission is unsuccessful, Israel will be isolated, according to columnist Jeffrey Goldberg. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently warned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that if his latest peace mission is unsuccessful, Israel will be isolated. According to Bloomberg View columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, Kerry capitalized on Israel’s anxiety over the European Union’s new guidelines which boycott Israeli entities that operate from beyond the 1949 Armistice Line. Kerry, according to Goldberg's latest column, has warned Netanyahu in recent weeks that if the current peace talks bear no fruit, Israel may soon be facing...

This past July, Russian president Vladimir Putin ignited outrage among the (primarily Western) pro-homosexual community by signing into law a ban on homosexual adoption. The new law also prohibits adoption by single parent households. Only a few days before, Putin also signed into law broad prohibitions against "gay propaganda," which included provisions that allow "the government to arrest and detain gay (or 'pro-gay') foreigners for up to 14 days before they would then be expelled from Russia" While these latter measures are no doubt draconian, they nonetheless represent a growing realization within Russian society, namely: sexual anarchy has proven devastating...

A tank biathlon may sound like an unlikely olive branch, but that has not prevented Russia's defence ministry reportedly extending an invite to their US counterparts despite the current diplomatic tensions between the two countries. 4:00PM BST 12 Aug 2013 A tank biathlon, the first of which is currently taking place in Russia this week, sees powerful T-72 tanks race over a 13-mile track, shooting at five targets along the way. Each target they miss means another 500 metres to travel. So far, only tanks from four countries have taken part, but the Russian Defence Minister is reported to have...

The worst has finally happened. It took much longer than expected -- nearly two thousand days -- but Barack Obama's foreign policy has finally collapsed, leaving Americans to gape slack-jawed at the smoking ruins. Obama has undermined American influence and honor in ways that will be very difficult to repair. Writing in the Moscow Times, Russian attorney Vladimir Berezansky plays the funeral dirge. He calls Russia's granting of asylum to Edward Snowden a "Suez moment." By this he means that China and Russia have effectively burst the bubble of American power in the same way that the U.S. burst the...

This was not the headline that the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics gave its recent release of provisional fertility data for 2012. However, if you compare the most recent CDC data with Rosstat data on Russian births you see that, for the first time in a very long time, in 2012 Russia’s birth rate actually exceeded that of the United States. This is, to put it mildly, a significant reversal from the not too distant past when the US had a birth rate that was as much as 75% higher than Russia’s. As you can see,...

During an August 8 appearance on CNN's The Lead, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) said Russia's recent actions toward the U.S. have "reset" relations and put the two countries back on Cold War footing. According to McCain, "The Russians have reset, they've reset alright--back to about 1955."

The entertainment industry is giving full voice to their criticism of the Russian anti-gay statute. They've singled out Russia because the 2014 Winter Olympics are going to be held in the city of Sochi and gay fans of the games don't want to be arrested simply for exhibiting what in Russia is politically incorrect behavior. The International Olympic Committee wants assurances from the Russian government but Moscow is standing firm, saying that the law must be respected. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko insisted Thursday that Olympic athletes would have to respect the laws of the country during the Sochi Games....

Ted Koppel Writes the Dumbest Op-Ed About Terrorism You Can Imagine August 10, 2013 By Daniel Greenfield When you saw the name “Ted Koppel�, your first reaction was probably to wonder if he was still alive. The answer is, yes. He is.Your second reaction was probably to wonder if he was still the same smug boring media personality reciting liberal truisms at the speed of a snail.The answer also yes.And for some reason the Wall Street Journal gave Ted Koppel editorial space to write one of those “The only real danger from terrorism is if we hit terrorists too hard�...

A previously undisclosed site advertised by Iran as a launching pad for its space program could be used for testing ballistic missiles, according to a London-based weapons research publication. The publication IHS Jane’s analyzed satellite imagery and concluded that the site, located 220 miles east of Tehran near the Caspian Sea, was developed in the last three years to be one of three launching sites for Iran’s space program, the New York Times reports: The Jane’s report was likely to be viewed with concern by Western officials and Israel. They have expressed suspicions that Iran’s ballistic missile development is part...

Dr. Kamil Sedik, secretary of the Congregational Council in Alexandria, has condemned repeated attacks by Islamist groups against Coptic Christians in Egypt, saying that authorities are permitting the violence by not providing adequate security for vulnerable Copts."Copts are subjected to violence by criminals, who were released from prison by deposed President Morsi, because of their [Copts] ideological affiliation," Sedik told Mideast Christian News. Moreover, Sedik accused government officials of failing to cope with criminal attacks against Copts. "The government does not provide security for Copts, but it tolerates prisoners who are under investigation," he said in reference to the meeting...

Violence has been on the rise across Iraq since a deadly crackdown by government forces on a Sunni protest camp in April, and attacks against civilians and security forces notably spiked during Ramadan. The surge of attacks has sparked fears that the country could spiral into a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed similar to that which brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006 and 2007. In the holy Shiite city of Karbala, police said four people were killed in a car bomb attack near a cafe at night. Karbala is 80 kilometres (50 miles) south...

Scarcely a day goes by now where we do not read of yet another in a constellation of initiatives being undertaken by both the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims in Syria, Egypt, and elsewhere in the world. For instance, on July 31 it was announced that a charitable drive launched at the end of June by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia had raised US$1.3 Million to assist victims of the Syrian armed conflict. That these funds will be distributed through the auspices of both Orthodox Christian Patriarch John...

Finally, a prominent nation is taking on the homosexual agenda and rejecting it outright. A number of African nations have done the same, but third-world countries are not newsworthy to mainstream media. Although recently, the President of Senegal (West Africa), Mackey Sall, was reported as rebuffing Barack Obama's haughty insistence that Senegalese embrace homosexuality. The irony is stunning that a Communist nation would understand that preserving the value of men and women marrying and producing children makes for demographic survival, while many American Christian leaders cower in the shadows, in fear of activist homosexuals and their leftist supporters. For any...

The chill in relations between the US and Russia grew still frostier yesterday as President Vladimir Putin's foreign minister told the White House to start behaving like "grown-ups". Sergei Lavrov chided the US administration two days after President Barack Obama scrapped a summit with Mr Putin when Russia granted asylum to Edward Snowden, the fugitive US spy.

President Obama today made clear that he rejects growing calls for the U.S. to boycott the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi over Russia’s new anti-gay law. “I want to just make very clear right now: I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics,”

President Barack Obama on Friday urged people not to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics taking place in Sochi, Russia over the country’s new law against gay rights activism. “I want to just make very clear right now: I do not think it’s appropriate to boycott the Olympics,” Obama said. “We’ve got a bunch of Americans out there who are training hard, who are doing everything they can to succeed.” …

The Brain Dead American Media missed this veiled threat in Obama's opening statement: "We shouldn’t forget the difference between the ability of our government to collect information online under strict guidelines and for narrow purposes, and the willingness of some other governments to throw their own citizens in prison for what they say online" Tell that to the arab who made a movie and posted it to the Net and who was blamed for creating the Benghazi Attacks ? Tell that to all those who have been surveilled by federal agencies using the NSA databases ? Obama often uses words...

Russia's immigration issues would be familiar to Americans: Millions of impoverished migrants have come and found low-wage jobs. Some are in Russia illegally and are exploited by their employers. And a growing number of Russians fear this influx of migrants, many of whom are Muslim, is changing the face of the country. At 3:30 on a recent morning, the train from Dushanbe, Tajikistan, pulls into Moscow after a four-day journey. The passengers hauling their bags out onto the damp, ill-lit platform are mostly men. Russian police eye the new arrivals with suspicion. Every day, trains and planes arrive from Uzbekistan,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a telegram on Thursday to his old sparring partner, former U.S. President George W. Bush, wishing him a quick recovery from heart surgery. It may have been coincidence that the Kremlin released details of the telegram a day after Barack Obama pulled out of a planned summit with Putin, but little is left to chance in Russian politics. The warm words to the man who once said he looked Putin in the eye and got a "sense of his soul" highlighted how different the relationship is between the leaders in the Kremlin and the White...

A major German newspaper on Wednesday published an anti-Israeli caricature likening Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to an evil character from an anti-Nazi song. The cartoon raised serious concerns among Jews in Germany and beyond, who have demanded that the paper apologize. In Wednesday’s Stuttgarter Zeitung, Netanyahu is seen sitting on a park bench, pouring poison from a bottle labeled “settlement construction” over a piece of bread which he apparently intends to feed to a peace dove. The cartoon caption references a 1938 anti-Nazi song by the Jewish Austrian-American composer and performer Georg Kreisler called “Pigeon Poisoner.” The American Jewish Committee...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday denied he has poor relations with Vladimir Putin after canceling their Moscow talks, but said the Russian president can sometimes appear "like a bored kid in the back of the classroom." U.S.-Russian relations plunged to one of their lowest points since the Cold War this week after Russia granted temporary asylum to fugitive former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden. Obama retaliated by abruptly canceling a Moscow summit with Putin planned for early next month. At a White House news conference on Friday, Obama insisted that he does not have bad personal relations with...

President Barack Obama doesn’t have a strong hand or the dominant personality needed to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that’s why the United States backed out of a September one-on-one meeting, says Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa. “If they neither fear you nor respect you, it’s going to be awfully hard to talk them into letting (NSA leaker Edward) Snowden come back into the United States in our custody,” King said Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity.” …

I Am going to move My sphere of authority into place now upon My Foundation and "TRUTH" shall be its Robe ! Zechariah 4:9 9The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this house; his hands shall also finish it. Then you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger] to you. The unction of My Spirit is something to be followed not ignored ! My blessings flow through My Spirit and Guiding counselor of My very Heart ! So understand this ; To reject My Spirit is to deny Me ,...

Russia turned westward in the 18th century, but its relationship with the West has remained strained. The two civilizations were like oil and water: No matter how you stir the mixture, the substances stayed separate and Russia always shrugged off Western influences. For 200 years, Russia was ruled from St. Petersburg, a city built by Western architects and planned under the spell of the French Enlightenment. However, Nikolai Gogol, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and other writers despised it, describing it as an alien sore on the body of Mother Russia. After the 1848 revolution in Europe, ideas such secularism, individualism...

The Russian Bear is stronger and more powerful than it has ever been before. Sadly, most Americans don't understand this. They still think of Russia as an "ex-superpower" that was rendered almost irrelevant when the Cold War ended. And yes, when the Cold War ended Russia was in rough shape. I got the chance to go over there in the early nineties, and at the time Russia was an economic disaster zone. Russian currency was so worthless that I joked that I could go exchange a 20 dollar bill and buy the Kremlin. But since that time Russia has roared...

The highly encrypted email service reportedly used by NSA leaker Edward Snowden has gone offline - and its administrator claims the company is legally barred from explaining why. On Thursday, the homepage of Lavabit.com was changed to a letter from the company’s owner announcing that the site’s operations have ceased following a six-week long ordeal that has prompted the company to take legal action in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Now in the midst of an escalating fight from the federal government aimed at cracking down on encrypted communications, one of the last free and secure services has thrown...

The Obama administration has compromised a core U.S. interest -- the ability to take action unilaterally or with like-minded allies -- in return for Russian cooperation on second-order issues like Iran sanctions (which should be just one element of an Iran policy). Realists would never make that trade. In classic liberal fashion, Obama is constraining American power by rules and norms to which all states could be subjected. The reason President Obama's Russia policy is on the rocks is that the White House pretends to be realist but acts like a liberal. President Obama may think he's sent a tough...

She has the sober demeanor and tightly wound bun of a boarding school headmistress. And she's Vladimir Putin's new morality crusader, spearheading efforts to curb gay rights, punish online cursing and impose a tax on divorce. Yelena Mizulina, a member of parliament, has used her position as the head of the Committee on Family, Women and Children to author increasingly conservative laws, including a ban on homosexual "propaganda" that went into force last month.

With conditions continuing to deteriorate in Syria, the Obama administration is making a major policy shift by agreeing for the first time to allow thousands of new Syrian refugees into the United States, The Cable has learned. The numbers are relatively small: just 2,000 refugees, compared to an estimated two million people who have fled Syria during the civil war. But it's a significant increase from the 90 or so Syrian refugees who have been permanently admitted to the U.S. in the last two years. And it's not entirely uncontroversial. The refugees, mostly women and children, will be screened for...

The New York Times is facing more scrutiny from the pro-Israel community over Middle East-related articles it published this week, prompting the Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. to write a letter to the editor complaining about the controversial coverage. This as the paper was forced to issue a correction after a conservative website pointed out an inaccurate key, lead fact in an article.As TheBlaze reported on Tuesday, the venerated newspaper was the target of sweeping criticism after publishing a front page article on Monday that appeared to downplay Palestinian stone-throwing against Israelis, which one youth characterized as a "hobby."The U.S....

IAI selling upgraded Kfir jets for $20m Israel Aerospace Industries promises very short delivery schedules for the renovated jets, which it claims are even better than fourth-generation jets. 6 August 13 17:45, Yuval Azulai Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) (TASE: ARSP.B1) is trying to sell dozens of Kfir fighter jets to foreign air forces, offering a 40-year manufacturer's guarantee. The veteran jets are equipped with new avionics and powerful radars developed by IAI unit Elta Systems, diversified armaments, updated electronic warfare systems, and air-to-air refueling. IAI has told its sales reps to sell the Kfirs to Eastern European countries that...

Since Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected two months ago, Iran has installed 7,000 centrifuges, indicating that he is nothing more than a new face to an old regime, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. This was the fourth time since Friday that Netanyahu took aim at Rouhani, reflecting the fact that even as negotiations with the Palestinians are due to start in Jerusalem next Wednesday, Iran remains the top item on the prime minister’s agenda and is considered by him to be the most important national security challenge facing Israel. The theme of Netanyahu’s comments on Rouhani over the...

Egyptian military forces have captured over 100 Islamist terrorists in recent days – one third of them from Gaza. All were carrying phony Egyptian identity cards. They were arrested in northern Sinai, near Gaza, with some arrested south of Eilat. The false identity cards were probably produced in Gaza, Egyptian officials said, using machinery that had been smuggled into Gaza through underground smuggling tunnels, with the tacit approval of Egyptian authorities. Now, the machinery is being used to manufacture ID cards for use in Sinai and Egypt. The Islamists, many of whom belong to Al Qaeda and affiliated groups, and...

Will Salt Lake City host the 2014 Winter Games? Almost certainly not. But could the Utah capital, logistically, host the 2014 Games? The answers range from no doubt to no chance. A grass-roots movement is afoot to boycott the Sochi Winter Olympics or move them to another city after Russian President Vladimir Putin in June signed a law banning "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" and giving the government seemingly broad powers to discriminate against gays. Salt Lake City is on the short list of places that could conceivably host a modern-scale Winter Olympics on a moment's notice.....

President Obama should expand sanctions against Russian human rights violators, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Thursday. The two senators issued a joint statement that said they “obviously agree” with Obama’s decision to cancel a planned meeting next month with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. But the two said Obama should go much farther. They called on the president to finish the last phase of a European missile defense shield that’s been scrapped and push for a new round of NATO expansion to include Georgia. “Now we must move beyond symbolic acts and take the steps...

Israel will not enter into any new agreements with the EU under the terms of the recently published settlement guidelines, diplomatic sources said Thursday following a meeting on the matter chaired by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Under the guidelines, Israel would have to sign a territorial clause reneging claims to the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan before entering in any future agreement with the EU. The guidelines also forbid any dealings with Israeli entities over the Green Line. The sources said that Israel would ask for further clarifications about the guidelines. It was not immediately clear whether Israel...

President Obama on Wednesday announced the U.S. would give an additional $195 million in humanitarian aid to displaced Syrians as a gesture to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month. “Many of us have had the opportunity to break fast with our Muslim friends and colleagues — a tradition that reminds us to be grateful for our blessings and to show compassion to the less fortunate among us, including millions of Syrians who spent Ramadan displaced from their homes, their families, and their loved ones,” the president said in a statement. “To help the...

Islamists outraged by the popular coup that toppled the Mohamed Morsi government have found a target for their wrath. CBS News reports that Coptic Christians in the country have been harrassed, beaten, and killed since Morsi’s removal, and now live in fear of even greater violence which Islamists threaten on a daily basis: It was nighttime and 10,000 Islamists were marching down the most heavily Christian street in this ancient Egyptian city, chanting “Islamic, Islamic, despite the Christians.� A half-dozen kids were spray-painting “Boycott the Christians� on walls, supervised by an adult.While Islamists are on the defensive in Cairo following...

At the request of the pope, Catholics used to pray after Mass for the conversion of Russia–or so we have often heard. This custom has long since been discontinued. Whenever it comes to my mind, however, I wonder if it should be revived in a new form. Should Catholics today pray after Mass for the conversion of America? Or, if the Holy Father (for understandable reasons) would not want to single out the United States in this way, could the Bishops of the United States at least encourage their flocks to pray after Mass for the conversion of their country?...

Russian supersonic missiles behave like wolves August 8, 2013 Viktor Litovkin, special to RBTH Yakhont anti-ship cruise missile at the 3rd International Airspace Show in Moscow. Source: RIA Novosti Large-scale construction of the next-generation Project 885 Yasen-class submarine armed with Onyx supersonic missiles is starting in Russia. These ships will compete with the latest American Seawolf-class nuclear submarines and will be world leaders in terms of fire power. Large-scale construction of the next-generation Project 885 Yasen-class multi-purpose nuclear attack submarine, armed with Onyx supersonic cruise missiles, is starting in Russia. The ships will compete with the latest American Seawolf-class nuclear...

Actor and LGBT activist George Takei weighed in on Russia's harsh new anti-gay policies–and the news that those policies would be enforced on athletes and spectators at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. "Given this position, the IOC must do the right thing, protect its athletes and the fans, and move the 2014 Winter Olympics out of Russia," wrote Takei on his blog.

BOSTON (Reuters) - A grand jury on Thursday indicted two students from Kazakhstan on obstruction of justice charges, alleging they helped hide evidence related to the April Boston marathon bombing that killed three and injured 264, the U.S. Attorney's office for Massachusetts said. Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19, were college friends of surviving bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. They are charged with removing a backpack containing fireworks and a laptop from Tsarnaev's dorm room after the FBI released pictures of Dzhokhar and his older brother Tamerlan in an effort to learn the names of the bombers.

One of the more surprising news to hit the tape yesterday was that Saudi Arabia, exasperated and desperate by Russia's relentless support of the Syrian regime and refusal to abandon the Syrian army thus facilitating the Qatari plan to pass its natgas pipeline to Europe under Syria, had quietly approached Putin with a proposal for a huge arms deal and a pledge to boost Russian influence in the Arab world if only Putin would abandon Syria's Assad. It will hardly come as a surprise to anyone that in the aftermath of yesterday's dilettante mistake by Obama which alienated Putin from...

Original title: "Russia Responds To Obama Snub: "We Are Disappointed... But The Snowden Situation Wasn't Created By Us" (had to be truncated) Earlier we reported that in an act of embarassing political ineptitude not to mention detente reminiscent of the Cold War's worst days, the US president did his best Freudian transferrance attempt today by blaming Putin for his ever escalating headaches caused by one 30 year old NSA whistleblower, and cancelling bilateral talks with the Russian president. And can anyone blame him: with the US increasingly slighted by both superascedent eastern powers, Russia and China, the US finds itself...

Alarmed at the fresh targeting of Egyptian Christians since the military takeover, 16 human rights groups on Wednesday condemned both sides in the continuing standoff—Islamists for inciting violence against the religious minority and the state for not providing adequate protection. … As Egyptian Muslims prepared to mark the end-of-Ramadan Eid holiday on Thursday, their Orthodox Coptic compatriots have little to celebrate. Attacks against Christians have increased over the past month, with churches, homes and stores targeted, a Coptic priest shot dead, and several other Christians killed—including a shopkeeper in the Sinai who was kidnapped and beheaded. Last weekend in a...

Days ago, al-Qaeda’s Egyptian leader, Ayman Zawahiri, portrayed the overthrow of Muhammad Morsi and the Brotherhood as a “Crusader” campaign led by Coptic Pope Tawadros II who, according to Zawahiri and other terrorists, is trying to create a Coptic state in Egypt. Since then, not only are Egypt’s Christians and churches now being attacked in ways unprecedented in the modern era, but new reports indicate that al-Qaeda’s black flag has been raised on some of them, specifically St. George Church in Sohag. Considering that it was al-Qaeda linked terrorists who initiated one of the bloodiest church attacks in recent history,...

Reminds me of an old press conference with Coach Dennis Green... (video)

Gripped by more than a year of conflict the thriving commercial hub has been transformed into a series of battlefields and front lines, its residents struggling to live on amid the widespread disease, dirty water and crippling food shortages. The aerial pictures show the extent of the destruction of the city, one of the oldest and most historically rich in the world. The Ancient City of Aleppo is a Unesco World Heritage site, this year placed on the UN organisation's list of World Heritage in Danger. “Aleppo has been utterly devastated, its people fleeing the conflagration in huge numbers," said...

US opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program may be softening, a former head of IDF intelligence said Wednesday. “The American stance on an Israeli strike against Iran has changed dramatically recently,” said Amos Yadlin, who served as chief of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate from 2006 to 2010. “In 2012 the [Americans'] red light was as red as it can get, the brightest red,” Yadlin said in an interview with Army Radio Wednesday morning. “But the music I’m hearing lately from Washington says, ‘If this is truly an overriding Israeli security interest, and you think you want to...

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plan to meet here in Washington with their Russian counterparts on Friday for a day of talks that could determine the fate of a September summit meeting between President Obama and the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin. State Department officials on Tuesday afternoon confirmed the meeting with Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Sergei K. Shoigu, the defense minister. Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said the four officials would discuss “a number of pressing bilateral and global issues.” “There’s a lot to discuss,´´Ms. Psaki said.