Free Republic

Washington: Attending the White House signing ceremony on Tuesday of the Abraham Accords – which normalize relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain – was both moving and jarring. Standing at the South Lawn, just meters from the Rose Garden where the Oslo Accord were signed 27 years ago on September 13, 1993, the comparison between the two agreements was inescapable. That ceremony was an act of political theater unsurpassed in the history of Israel. Yasser Arafat, chairman of the PLO, and architect of modern terrorism, grinned ear to ear as he received the royal treatment on...

President Trump announced the Abraham Accords earlier this week, marking the beginning of an historic and lasting peace to the Middle East. This was a result of years of effort on his part, planning a comprehensive strategy and carefully putting it into effect. To that end, he was able to use three tactics to bring about his desired result. Play the Energy CardIn the Middle East, he who controls the energy makes the rules. Not so long ago, it was Arabic countries of the Middle East, mainly in the Persian Gulf (including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain) that controlled...

The last American president to have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was honored less for something tangible he had achieved, and more for who he was and what he represented. President Barack Obama, the Nobel committee declared in 2009, has “created a new climate in international politics.” If President Donald Trump is not awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, it would be reasonable to suspect that the reason is similar. Trump also created a “new climate in international politics,” just in a way that’s much less appealing to the judges in Scandinavia. So maybe his chances of receiving the prize...

Video has surfaced of former Secretary of State John Kerry adamantly insisting Middle East peace was not possible without the Palestinians. The comments, viewed in the prism of President Trump’s recent historic peace deal between Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the Kingdom of Bahrain, led to mockery on social media . The Abraham Accords, which President Trump aptly described as “the dawn of a new Middle East,” were signed earlier this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, and Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalif, and will involve establishing...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Moscow on Monday where the issue of Middle East peace talks will be raised, Russian authorities announced Thursday. “The two leaders will hold talks concerning key aspects of Russian-Palestinian relations and their future, with particular attention on the trade, economy and humanitarian sectors,” the Kremlin said in a statement according to AFP. There will also be “an exchange of ideas on the process of Israeli-Palestinian talks and other problematic regional situations,” the statement continued, adding that North Africa would also be on the agenda. …

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates minister of state for foreign affairs said on Saturday that Turkey should stop interfering in Arab affairs, criticizing comments on Libya made by Turkey’s defense minister. Turkish media had reported the Turkish minister making remarks critical of the UAE’s actions over Libya. The UAE, alongside Egypt and Russia, backs eastern Libya commander Khalifa Haftar, whose fighters have been battling the forces of the internationally recognized government in Tripoli. Turkey has stepped up support for the Tripoli government. “Relations are not managed by threats and there is no place for colonialist delusions in this day and...

U.S. Africa Command says that at least two MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter jets, possibly piloted by shadowy Russian mercenaries, have crashed in Libya. Jared Szuba, the Pentagon correspondent for AI-Monitor, Tweeted out that one of the jets was apparently lost on June 28, while the other went down on September 7, 2020. This information had come in a statement from Rear Admiral Heidi Berg, U.S. Africa Command's (AFRICOM) director of intelligence. Another tweet indicates that Berg believes that "Russian fighter aircraft," presumably MiG-29s too, but potentially also Su-24 Fencer strike aircraft, have conducted airstrikes in Libya. AI-Monitor's Szuba follows that up...

Good indications for continued progress toward peace in the middle-east. President Trump has called for a 2:00pm press conference (not previously scheduled) following an oval office meeting with Amir Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of the State of Kuwait. This could be yet another partner announcement in the normalization of relations with Israel. CTH predicted Kuwait would be next. It would make sense for Kuwait, Oman and Sudan to come next in the process before the heavy -and more complex- nations (Qatar & Saudi). Protocols and pageantry are culturally very important to the Arab nations and they have a...

After Israel's resounding victory over the Egyptian, Jordanian and Syrian armies in 1967, the Jewish state again offered the Arab world peace in exchange for recognition. And it was again rebuffed. Instead, the Arab League convened in Khartoum to formulate a consensus response that became known as "The 3 Noes" -- no recognition, no negotiations and no peace with Israel. Needless to say, this posture left little room for positive dialogue. Indeed, three years before Israel had ever attained its "occupied" territories in the West Bank, the Arab League had already created and funded the Palestine Liberation Organization, a nationalist...

I have noted before that I grew up in Dubai, one of the United Arab Emirates. From 1980-1990, my family lived in an ungated community in the middle of the city down the street from the Iranian Hospital with the Jumeirah American School just one long block up the road. We walked to school every day. The school changed its name to the American School of Dubai the year after I graduated. It moved locations. The current school at the old location is the Jumeirah Baccalaureate School. My old house is all that remains of my neighborhood. The whole place...

Having presided over the recognition of Israel by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, President Donald Trump has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize amid talk of peace breaking out across the region. Assuredly, this is a major diplomatic breakthrough, and Nancy's Pelosi's sour-grapes dismissal of the deal as a "distraction" testifies to that truth. Recognition of Israel by the UAE and Bahrain will, it is predicted, be followed by recognition of Israel by Oman and other Gulf states, perhaps even Saudi Arabia. But the idea that peace is at hand appears to be, as Mark Twain said of...

Can you visualize Biden strengthening America’s allies in the Middle East? The U.S.-brokered peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, which is scheduled to be finalized this week at the White House, strikes a major blow to the twin forces of Islamic imperialism and terror in the Middle East: the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood and the Shi’ite regime in Iran. The tripartite alliance between the United States, Israel and the UAE, openly supported by Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, gives an institutional structure to a pro-American regional bloc of moderate, anti-jihadist governments all with proven track records...

For decades, foreign policy experts—the blob—assumed much about the Middle East that has turned out to be completely wrong. It’s been remarkable to watch the mainstream press and official Washington try to downplay the significance of the peace deal the Trump administration brokered between Israel and two Arab states this week.The signing of the Abraham Accords on Tuesday between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain at the White House, which for the first time normalized relations between Israel and the two Persian Gulf states, is by any measure historic. It’s been 26 years since any Arab state recognized Israel,...

For evangelical Christians, it is difficult to look at major developments in the Middle East without wondering about biblical prophecy. Should we rejoice over the historic peace treaty between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain? Or is this leading to a dangerous, false peace that will only hasten the reign of the antichrist? Let’s first recognize just how historic this peace treaty actually is. For 30 years, from 1948 until 1978, not a single Middle Eastern nation made peace with Israel. It was not until 1979 that Egypt made that historic move, ultimately factoring into the assassination of the courageous...

Liberal Fox News contributor Juan Williams seems unable to give President Donald Trump any credit for anything, not even multiple peace deals in the Middle East. On Tuesday, during an episode of The Five, Juan Williams claimed that the recent peace deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain that Trump negotiated a “distraction” and that rather than achieving peace they are “accelerating” the “chance of war” in the Middle East. Williams made his argument while he and his co-panelists were discussing Nancy Pelosi’s recent remarks that the peace deals were a “distraction.” “It is [a distraction],” Williams...

Several White House Staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus a day after the signing of a historic Middle East peace treaty at the White House. Chief of Staff Mark Meadows refused to answer questions about the positive test results Wednesday. “I don’t comment on any health-related issues as it relates to the White House ever,” Meadows told Globo News reporter Raquel Krahenbuhl. Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and Bahrain Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani gathered at the White House to sign the Abraham Accords, the agreement to establish peace...

On MSNBC’s MTP Daily Tuesday afternoon, host Chuck Todd revealed that he is so deep in the tank for the Democratic Party that he can’t even credit President Trump for the historic Middle East peace deal achieved by his administration. Just moments after a White House signing ceremony finalizing the agreement had concluded, Todd whined about feeling “uncomfortable” about Trump’s accomplishment. “You know, Peter, this deal is a bit uncomfortable for a lot of observers to watch because it seems so transactional, it’s as if pulling out of the Iran deal is what got these Gulf states on board to...

Almost two-thirds of young American adults do not know that 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust, and more than one in 10 believe Jews caused the Holocaust, a new survey has found, revealing shocking levels of ignorance about the greatest crime of the 20th century. According to the study of millennial and Gen Z adults aged between 18 and 39, almost half (48%) could not name a single concentration camp or ghetto established during the second world war. Almost a quarter of respondents (23%) said they believed the Holocaust was a myth, or had been exaggerated, or they...

After deals with UAE and Bahrain, there are signs Saudi Arabia is preparing its people to warm to Israel. When one of Saudi Arabia's leading Muslim leaders called this month for Muslims to avoid "passionate emotions and fiery enthusiasm" towards Jews, it was a marked change in tone for someone who has shed tears preaching about Palestine in the past. The sermon by Abdulrahman al-Sudais, imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, broadcast on Saudi state television on September 5, came three weeks after the United Arab Emirates agreed upon a historic deal to normalise relations with Israel and days...

Rather than acknowledging they were wrong and having the grace to celebrate the Trump administration's historical breakthrough, leftist pundits are busy trashing these agreements as 'no big deal.' History was made Sept. 15, 2020, when President Donald Trump hosted the signing of the Abraham Accords, peace treaties among Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. This extraordinary accomplishment could lead nations in the region to eventually end decades of conflicts and finally bring peace in the Middle East. Before the official signing ceremony, Trump told reporters that at least five or six Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, would be “coming...