Free Republic

Today, a side of Adams that was not made much of in his lifetime has for many of us become the most important, and much-needed, part of his legacy: his critical view of Islam and of Muhammad. He derived these views from experience — his own and his father’s — of Muslim behavior (both of the Barbary Pirates and of the Ottoman Turks), from his lifelong study of history, and from his intensive reading of the Qur’an. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were sent in 1786 to negotiate in London with the ambassador from Tripoli, Sidi Haji Abdrahaman, about the...

Israel is now engaged in the fourth war it has had to fight for its survival. The three others were fought in 1948, 1967, and 1973. In addition, there have been a half-dozen other campaigns the Israelis have had to fight against the terrorists of the PLO, Hamas, and Hezbollah. The IDF soldiers, their ranks increased with the addition of 360,000 reservists, have been fighting up and down the Gaza Strip, a hellishly difficult theatre of war — that is, urban warfare in one of the most densely-populated places on earth. Israel’s mortal enemy, the terror group Hamas, has built...

The New York Times proudly announced last Monday that it had “won three George Polk awards, including two for its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.” Those prestigious journalism awards went to “Samar Abu Elouf and Yousef Masoud of The Times” for “photojournalism for their photographs of the conflict from inside Gaza, capturing the horrific toll of Israel’s airstrikes on civilians, including the death and injury of many children.” The Times neglected to mention, however, one telling detail: Masoud has been unmasked as a member of Hamas who participated in the Oct. 7 jihad massacres inside Israel.The Paper of Record shows...

As if stealing Palestinian land were not enough, those diabolical Israelis have been trying to appropriate a key component of the Palestinian identity: food. It turns out that Israelis have been making, and eating, and taking credit for, foods which the Palestinians claim belong to them.More on this latest preposterous claim can be found here: “New York Times Joins the Food War Against Israel,” by Ricki Hollander, JNS.org, October 25, 2022:One of the most absurd fronts in an ongoing Arab/Palestinian war on Israel’s legitimacy is the fight about food. Israelis are accused of food imperialism, i.e. appropriating Palestinian foods, with...

While the U.S. has now identified Communist China as its greatest threat, the Palestinian Authority has consistently declared its total support for Beijing, and has done so yet again as tensions rise over Taiwan. Yet this support does not seem to bother the Bidenites, who continue to lavish hundreds of millions of dollars in aid on the PA. A report on Mahmoud Abbas’ latest embrace of the hard men in Beijing is here: “Palestinian Authority Declares Support for Chinese Regime as Tensions Deepen Between Washington and Beijing,” by Ben Cohen, Algemeiner, August 2, 2022:The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Tuesday declared...

The man who promised to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” now begs them for oil. What was once planned as a quick visit to Israel-and-the-Palestinians by President Biden has become a three-way affair, with Saudi Arabia not only added to the itinerary, but has become the main event, the meeting in Riyadh with the Saudi Crown Prince will overshadow his lightning visits to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. In Israel, Biden will attend the Maccabiah Games and no doubt discuss with Prime Minister Bennett ways for Israel to tamp down “tension” in the area – even though all such tension is provoked...

Among the providential results of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been the reawakening of the West to the value of its mutual defense pact, NATO, whose 30 members are all pledged to come to the defense of any member threatened with aggression. And the Ukraine war has led to a spectacular development: the desire expressed by both Finland and Sweden to become members of NATO. Before the invasion of Ukraine, most Finns and Swedes were lukewarm about joining NATO. All that has changed: 76% of Finns now want Finland in NATO, and so do more than 60% of Swedes....

Like the New York Times with its roster of anti-Israel contributors, such as the anti-Israel post-Zionist Peter Beinart, the Washington Post favors op-ed contributors on Israel-Palestine who are very much on the side of the Palestinians. A recent example, featuring the Palestinian Mariam Barghouti, is reported on here: “Washington Post Publishes Op-Ed by Mariam Barghouti, Who Compared Israel to Nazi Germany,” by Rachel O’Donoghue, Algemeiner, April 1, 2022: It would appear that having a documented history that has included comparing Israel to Nazi Germany does not preclude one from offering their opinions on the editorial webpages of The Washington Post,...

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has reassured settler leaders in the West Bank that he is willing to stand up to American pressure, describing his three “No’s” to President Biden’s requests made at their meeting on August 26. A report on Bennett’s description of his pushback is here: “Bennett tells settlers he said no 3 times to Biden, on Iran, consulate, building,” by Shalom Yerushalmi, Times of Israel, September 27, 2021: Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently told settler leaders that he pushed back against United States President Joe Biden on Iran’s nuclear program, the reopening of the American consulate...

A Jordanian professor figures out how the Zionists control the world. Department of Down-The-Rabbit-Hole: a Jordanian professor of Islamic law has figured out how the Jews/Zionists control the world: they control the language that we all use, and thereby twist our understanding of things. Endlessly diabolical, those Jews. A report on his remarkable insight is here: “Jordanian Professor Ahmad Nofal: The Jews Rule The World; We Have To Say ‘Zionists’ Instead Of ‘Jews’ Or Else They Cancel Us; Zionists Harvest Palestinians’ Organs,” MEMRI, April 2, 2021: Jordanian professor Ahmad Nofal said that the Jews rule the world and monitor every...

Mahmoud Abbas originally thought it was a good idea. There was a new administration in Washington, one most favorably inclined to the Palestinians. The Biden people were ready to undo what the “unfriendly” Trump Administration had done. Trump had closed the PLO office in Washington, Biden promised to open it. Trump had folded the consulate to the Palestinians in east Jerusalem into the Embassy in Jerusalem; Biden promised to reopen it. Trump had ended both direct aid to the Palestinians and American contributions to UNRWA. Biden announced that he was again turning on the spigot of aid, starting with a...

Shortly after the 9/11/2001 attacks, that have entered history under the too-casual shorthand of “nine-eleven,” the American government began to plan to conduct a war against those whom, it correctly believed, were those most immediately involved in the attack. These were the members of an identifiable group called Al Qaeda. Its head was a mediagenic son of a Saudi billionaire, Osama Bin Laden, ably seconded by the scion of a prominent Egyptian family, Ayman Al-Zawahiri (his great-uncle Azzam Pasha had been the first Secretary of the Arab League), with others who had, from their lairs in Afghanistan, been plotting against...

Poll: Over 50% of Germans equate IDF with Nazis www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/004205.php It should be a major goal of German policy -- and that of all intelligent and morally aware Germans -- to undo this travesty. Never mind that the Israeli army has been, if anything, far too delicate and magnanimous in its behavior, and has again and again taken unnecessary casualties (as when it so often has refrained from firing on suspicious enemies who, whether women or teenagers, have turned out to be terrorists), or as in Jenin, where the failure to bomb from the air, and to risk the lives...