Free Republic

In a highly unusual plea, Mohammed al-Issa, an ally of the kingdom’s reformist crown prince, says mission could help ‘provide fertile ground to find solutions’ The head of the Saudi-based Muslim World League has called for a Muslim-Christian-Jewish interfaith delegation to travel to Jerusalem to promote the cause of peace by finding common ground between religions. Dr. Mohammed bin Abdul Karim al-Issa, who is an ally of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, told Fox News in an interview Thursday: “We should send a peace convoy that is representative of all three Abrahamic religions. They should be Muslim, Christian and Jewish...

Oman publicly called on Middle East countries to accept Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday made a historic visit to the Arab Muslim state ...Oman is relying on the United States and efforts by President Donald Trump in working towards the “deal of the century” (Middle East peace), he added. ...Communications Minister Ayoub Kara said the visit was a testament to declarations “about the good relations that are developing between the Israeli government and the Sunni countries that oppose the Iranian terror, which also threatens them.” “In the coming days and until President Trump presents his diplomatic [peace]...

"The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, exercising its sovereign rights guaranteed by the international law, and protecting national security from the dangers of terrorism and extremism, decided to sever diplomatic and consular relations with the State of Qatar," the statement read.

The American Iranian diaspora that stands against the regime in Iran last month came to New York, my city, as the international community does during the annual United Nations General Assembly meetings. For the ninth time, I had the honor of addressing them. We have an obligation to listen to what the Iranian people have been saying over the past nine months in their continuous nationwide protests. I am one of a large bipartisan group of former governors, mayors, military leaders, senior administration officials and members of Congress, who agree on one critical foreign policy, as the Iranian people do:...

The report provided numerous examples of fraudsters exploiting the food stamp program to fund terrorist activities. A grocery store owner in Chicago was imprisoned in 2006 for stealing $1.4 million through food stamp fraud and aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In 2010, two Somali store owners in Michigan pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud and running an unlicensed money transfer business that sent money to “hot spots” in the Middle East and Africa. In Indianapolis, a ring of convenience stores bought food stamps from customers for 50 cents on the dollar. The ringleader was arrested on a return flight from...

Teenager who served time says soldiers should be ‘slapped all the time;’ rejects two-state solution, vowing to ‘fight for liberation of all of Palestine,’ not just West Bank A teenager who became an icon of the Palestinian cause after she was jailed for slapping an Israeli soldier has urged others to follow her example and assault IDF troops. In an interview earlier this month, Ahed Tamimi vowed to campaign for the removal of Israel rather than a two-state solution to the conflict — even if that would mean sacrificing her life as a martyr. Tamimi, 17, served an eight-month sentence...

TSOFAR, Israel – Israeli farmers on Monday voiced concern over Jordan's intention not to renew parts of its landmark peace treaty with Israel that leased out two small border areas for agriculture, as Jordanians on the other side of the border welcomed the decision. Jordan's King Abdullah II announced Sunday that he plans to pull out of annexes from the 1994 peace agreement that allowed Israel to lease Ghamr and the northern enclave of Baqura for 25 years. The leases expire next year. His decision reflects what have become cool relations between the kingdom and Israel. Last week saw a...

CAIRO: Egypt has arrested an economist and his publisher over a book that challenged President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s economic policies, a lawyer said Tuesday, the latest in a wave of detentions in recent years targeting all forms of dissent. Prize-winning economist Abdel-Khaleq Farouq and his publisher, Ibrahim el-Khateib, were detained Sunday. Mohammed Abdel-Aziz, a lawyer for the author, said the two are accused of spreading “fake news,” which carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. The book — entitled “Is Egypt Really a Poor Country?” — was posted online by activists. Authorities seized 185 copies of an initial 200-copy...

Pastor Andrew Brunson (@BrunsonPastor) apparently created a Twitter account on the day he was released from Turkey. The archive.org version says his twitter account was created on October 12th. >P> Here is his suspended page https:/twitter.com/BrunsonPastor Here is the October 13th save of his page at archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20181013113932/https:/twitter.com/BrunsonPastor Pastor Andrew Brunson (@BrunsonPastor) Official Account Pastor Andrew Brunson (@BrunsonPastor) Beigetreten Oktober 2018 Pastor Andrew Brunson (@BrunsonPastor) {when you hold your mouse over the word Oktober, it shows that the account was created on October 12.} This graphic says the pastor violated Twitter rules. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dpa13mMXUAUoGf8.jpg

American evangelicals and human rights advocates are encouraging the United States to pressure Turkey to release American missionary Andrew Brunson, who faces ridiculous allegations of complicity in Kurdish terrorism. Are they right to do so, even if the price is estrangement with a key NATO member and harm to US regional interests? How should Christians in their political witness balance Christian causes versus the wider national good? The president, vice president and secretary of state have all denounced Turkey's imprisonment of Brunson. Economic sanctions have been levied against Turkish products, and personal sanctions have targeted two Turkish officials. Congress has...

President Trump on Friday denied a report that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heard an audio recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was never given or shown a Transcript or Video of the Saudi Consulate event. FAKE NEWS!" Trump tweeted. The president's comments come one day after ABC News reported Pompeo listened to the recording and was given a transcript of it during meetings this week in Turkey scheduled in response to Khashoggi's disappearance. Trump administration officials have repeatedly denied the report, which was based on the account of...

Following Jordanian King Abdullah's decision to exercise option of ending Israel's lease on two territories, which was done under peace treaty, Prime Minister Netanyahu promises to negotiate extending the agreement.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel will renegotiate two annexes to its peace treaty with Jordan in an effort to maintain control over Naharayim and Tzofar, after the Hashemite Kingdom decided to reclaim the territories.Under the accord, Israel has been leasing the Island of Peace in Naharayim and the Tzofar enclave in the Arava for nearly a quarter of a century. Israeli farmers have cultivated the land for many...

The debate over free speech and content policy on Twitter– like on other social media sites— is often centered on issues relevant to political and cultural debates in the United States, where the company is headquartered. Yet this discussion of hypothetical censorship obscures the fact that company policies today are already used to silence important voices— journalists reporting from Kurdistan, who provide key information on political and military developments there at great personal risk.  While Twitter is a safer platform for Kurdish reporters and supporters of the Kurdish cause than sites like Facebook— which ban pages and accounts for posting photos of the...

American and western intelligence sources believe Iran has been increasing its shipments of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah, and that the deliveries now include Global Positioning System (GPS) components to make previously unguided rockets into precision guided-missiles, increasing the threat to Israel, Fox News reported on Friday. One of the Iranian flights arrived in Lebanon three days ago, officials told the news channel. Iran’s Fars Air Qeshm flight number QFZ-9950 departed Tehran International Airport on Tuesday at 9:33 a.m. local time, and flew to an unknown destination, according to flight data obtained by Fox News. Later in the day, the Boeing...

During the Obama presidency, the U.S. administration was wary of the Muslim Brotherhood, which had come to power in Egypt after the country’s first-ever free elections. Despite his declared support for democracy and change in the Arab world in the wake of the Arab Spring, then-President Barack Obama did not take a strong position and reject the coup against President-elect Mohamed Morsi. The coup, as we know, led to the military’s return to power in the largest Arab country — along with tyranny, repression, corruption and mismanagement. That is the conclusion that David D. Kirkpatrick arrives at in his excellent...

The United States on Thursday downgraded the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by placing it under the authority of the U.S. Embassy to Israel. The move, which was immediately denounced by the Palestinians and hailed by Israel, is the latest Trump administration decision to align with Israeli government views and a victory for U.S. Ambassador David Friedman. He had long sought to end the Jerusalem consulate’s independent status but had faced resistance from within the State Department. Friedman’s push picked up steam in May after the Trump administration moved the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem...

If you get your news from the media, then you will have heard that Jamal Khashoggi was a heroic reform who sought freedom for the region, and was brutally murdered to the strains of hip-hop music by a legion of Saudi assassins. And it was all recorded on his Apple Watch. If you're interested in the facts, instead of the fake news, you probably already know that Jamal Khashoggi was a Muslim Brotherhood leader and an old friend of Osama bin Laden. He's being mourned by the media that backed the Muslim Brotherhood.

....Israel does not need the love of the Arabs nor does it need to convince them of its right to exist in their midst. It knows that its existence is outside the context of history and logic and that it came into being by force, it will live by force and it will die by force. Consequently, it will have to live with its finger on the trigger... ....this doctrine is still alive. It is exactly what the current Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is implementing so faithfully in Gaza today, in the footsteps of his predecessors. In brief, and...

“The Palestinians are not a UN Member State or any state at all. The United States will continually point that out in our remarks at UN events led by the Palestinians,” Haley said. The United States does not recognize Palestine as a state, its envoys said on Tuesday as they opposed United Nations General Assembly move to enhance the stature of the Palestinian Authority. “The Palestinians are not a UN Member State or any state at all. The United States will continually point that out in our remarks at UN events led by the Palestinians,” US Ambassador to the United...

President Trump on Wednesday said the U.S. has requested audio and video from Turkey related to the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. "We've asked for it, if it exists," Trump said in the Oval Office. Trump told reporters he is not sure if a recording exists, but conceded it "probably does," and indicated it could play a role in assigning blame for his fate. "We will probably know that by the end of the week," Trump said regarding the Khashoggi case. The president spoke as grisly details emerged about the Saudis alleged interrogation of Khashoggi inside their consulate in Istanbul...