Free Republic

With a media blitz, the Islamic State has set its sights on Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula as the next shot at expanding its empire and establishing a base from which to attack neighboring Israel.

A school built in Gaza using German funds is educating their students on hatred and violence for Israel and providing children with military training At the end of March, a Hamas-affiliated news agency distributed a video showing a Palestinian teacher indoctrinating school children with hatred for Israel and support for an armed struggle against it. The teacher used the letters of the Arabic alphabet as a didactic tool to teach them "the fundamental Palestinian national principles" even before they learn to read. The video did not specify the name of the school; however, data collected by the Intelligence and Terrorism...

Senior Hamas politburo official Mahmoud al-Zahar reignited the war of words between his terrorist organization and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction, which have long been bitter rivals. Hamas and Fatah have remained violently divided despite the unity deal sealed by Abbas in April 2014 when he torpedoed the US-led peace talks. In recent days - even as Egypt is leading talks in Cairo to try and unify the Palestinian factions - al-Zahar upped the ante on Hamas-Fatah tensions by slamming Fatah founder and arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat for being a "coward" and fleeing a battle with Israel, before...

It has become the fact in American political talking points, even Mr. Trump insists that what is going on in the Middle East today is the result of the President Bush’s 2003 policy in Iraq that opened the doors to chaos and the creation of ISIS. No one, however, is going back to search for the root causes of the events in today’s complicated and problematic Middle East. The facts are, notwithstanding the forever continuing Palestinian/Israeli war, that the Middle East was kept relatively peaceful and political Islam and its terrorism was kept under control in a secular Iran until...

A Fake Museum for a Fake Palestine The Palestinian Museum is as empty as its soul. May 20, 2016 Daniel Greenfield    Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. 150 years ago, Mark Twain visited Muslim-occupied Israel and wrote of “unpeopled deserts” and “mounds of barrenness,” of “forlorn” and “untenanted” cities. Palestine is “desolate,” he concluded. “One may ride ten miles hereabouts and not see ten human beings.” The same is true of the Palestinian Museum which opened with much fanfare and one slight problem. While admission is free,...

General Odierno Says ISIS was AvoidableGen. Raymond Odierno said he believes the Islamic State’s creation was avoidable during an interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. Host Joe Scarborough asked Odierno, who commanded the Multi-National Forces in Iraq for about two years, if ISIS and the current state of Iraq were avoidable when the United States ended formal combat operations there. “Did it ever have to begin? Was ISIS avoidable?” Scarborough asked. “I think it is, and I’m not one for revisionist history,” Odierno said. “Actually, I was, on 1 September 2010, that’s when I gave up command in Iraq and that...

Israel’s defense minister announced his resignation on Friday, saying the governing party had been taken over by “extremist and dangerous elements” and that he no longer trusted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following reports that he was to be replaced. Moshe Ya’alon’s departure removes a strong voice of moderation in the Cabinet and deepens the rift between the security establishment and the hardline politicians. Ya’alon told reporters that “Israel is a healthy society” with a “sane majority” that is tolerant of minorities and strives for a liberal and democratic society. “But to my great dismay extremist and dangerous elements have taken...

ISIS has executed 25 people in Mosul, northern Iraq, by lowering them in a vat of nitric acid, according to several local news reports. The men had been accused of spying on ISIS on behalf of Iraqi government security forces. According to witnesses, the 25 alleged 'spies' had been tied together with a rope and lowered in a large basin containing nitric acid until their organs dissolved.

United States Secretary of State John Kerry met in Cairo on Wednesday with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a day after the Egyptian leader called for a renewal of the Middle East peace process. Even before Sisi raised the issue, Kerry had planned a visit to discuss the Libya and Syria crises and to raise concerns about Egypt's harsh crackdown on dissent, and those issues were discussed in the meeting, according to AFP. But Kerry was also keen to hear more from the Egyptian leader about how he intends to help broker peace between his Israeli and Palestinian neighbors. "He's interested...

Salesian Father Tom Uzhunnalil, who was abducted by Islamic militants of Yemen on March 4, could be released soon, a Malayalam newspaper reported May 17. The Malayala Manorama based its story on an interview that Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia Bishop Paul Hinder gave to the “Bild-Zeitung,” (picture newspaper), a German tabloid. The vicariate covers Yemen also. The German tabloid quoted Bishop Hinder as saying that the Fr Uzhunnalil’s release was imminent. Suspected Islamic militants took the 57-year-old priest into custody after they raided a Missionaries of Charity aid center in Aden, a southern port city of Yemen. The terrorists...

The US State Department has approved a request by Egypt to purchase 20 Harpoon Block II encapsulated missiles for submarines as well as related equipment and training, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency announced in a statement. In addition to the Harpoon missiles, the proposed sale, worth approximately USD 143 million, includes two encapsulated harpoon certification training vehicles, technical assistance, personnel training and logistics support provided by the US. The missiles will be used by Egypt’s new Type 209 submarines, built by the German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems, according to military intelligence and analysis website IHS Jane’s 30. “The proposed sale...

Perhaps the Carter administration was comparably hostile to Israel, but the passive-aggressive, honor-deficient Obama administration has both caused and acceded to greater danger to the Jewish State than any other U.S. administration since 1948.Yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he would not be attending the Mideast conference to be held in Paris on May 30, which was organized by France's socialist President Francois Hollande.According to State, Kerry is simply too busy.As a result, Hollande has postponed the conference and no alternative date has been set.Eager to force Israel towards negotiations with the bifurcated, terror-supporting Palestinian leadership, Hollande had...

Iran has launched a new crackdown on social media, arresting fashion models active on photo-sharing websites and a blog website manager after Tehran's top leader declared war on un-Islamic thoughts on the Internet. Eight members of a modeling network were arrested and accused of publishing photos of women without the obligatory hijab headscarf on the picture-sharing application Instagram, Tasnim news agency said on Sunday.

GSM31 will be out of town on Thursday, so we recorded this early.

Shipment meant to support Egypt's fight against terrorism, U.S. officials say ___ The first shipment of U.S. Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles arrived in Egypt Thursday. The 762 armored vehicles were provided to the Egyptian military at no cost as part of the Pentagon's Excess Defense Articles program, according to a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.

In April, the Islamic Republic of Iran conducted another rocket launch, ostensibly to put an Iranian satellite into orbit, which fell far short of its mark. Many analysts speculated that its purpose had nothing to do with satellites. Those paying attention to Iran’s recent activities & skeptical of the Islamic Republic suggested that this latest launch was yet another example of Tehran’s ongoing effort to test its long-range ballistic missile program. About two weeks later, these suspicions were confirmed when the deputy commander of the Iranian armed forces, Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, boasted that the launch had been a successful...

Islamic State fighters have recently arrived in the Gaza Strip to train with their Hamas counterparts, a senior IDF official said in an Arabic interview published Friday.

Israel's decision to honor a controversial Greek Orthodox priest at its official Independence Day ceremony is driving a wedge in the country's tiny Christian Arab community as the government recognizes him for his efforts to encourage Christians to enlist in the Israeli military. Father Gabriel Naddaf's recruitment drive has deeply divided Israel's Christian Arabs, who make up just 2 percent of Israel's population. His inclusion in a ceremony tinged with sadness for many of the country's Arabs, along with new allegations accusing him of sexually harassing young people he helped, has only added to the anger and risks overshadowing what...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday took part in the Seventh International Bayt al-Maqdis Islamic Conference in Ramallah, Samaria, in which he aired libel against Israel apparently on the background of its counter-terror actions. In his speech, he called on the international community to get involved in order to "defend" the Arab residents of Jerusalem who are dealing with "illegal" activities from Israel "that oppose international law and human rights." Hamdallah's call to take action against Israel urged international pressure so as to end the "occupation" and establish an independent Palestinian state along the 1949 Armistice lines,...

Hamza Bin Laden, the son of former al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, is calling for the targeting of Jewish and Western interests and the building of an army to “liberate Jerusalem.” US Jewish institutions on alert following calls for attacks from bin Laden’s son.