Free Republic

Welcome to Your Weekend the sentiments of my week expressed in the music set that reflects my opening up the boxes of my past to sort things out and throw away some things and keep others. The cards and letters from people in my past like the guy that lived in an "Animal House" fraternity setting and ended up joining the Salvation Army. The man who was the Best Man at my wedding who told me the truth about myself just years after I got married and was working in the mainstream media serving as the officer of the church...

The U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees expressed concern on Friday over moves by the mayor of Jerusalem to close down its operations in the city. Mayor Nir Barkat said on Thursday he had developed a plan to end the Jerusalem operations of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which aids Palestinians displaced by the 1948 war of Israel’s founding and to millions of their descendants, and to replace them with Israeli services. UNRWA has faced a financial crisis since the United States in August announced it was cutting aid to the body, calling it an “irredeemably flawed...

Tomorrow morning, approximately 30,000 runners are expected to participate in the 8th annual Jerusalem Winner Marathon, which will take place in the nation’s capital, according to the event’s website. The event will include several tracks – marathon (42.2 km), half-marathon (21.1 km), 10 km race, 5 km race, family 1.7km race and an 800 m community race. This is one of Israel’s largest marathons, with 30,000 participants of which hundreds are elite runners and runners from abroad. The various tracks pass by fascinating historical sites that illuminate 3,000 years of the history of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. In addition to the...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — February 22, 2015 … The Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, upon seeing a terror attack take place on the streets of Jerusalem rushed the terrorist and wrestled him down to the ground. The Islamic terrorist attacked an Orthodox Jewish man, stabbing him in the stomach. The Mayor, who was not armed, subdued the terrorist, a 18-year-old Arab teen, with the help of his bodyguard. Barkat told reporters that he was walking to his office when his guards spotted the attack. “We saw a terrorist with a knife standing and looking for the...

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat outlined the sorry state of security in the capital Monday, in a session of the Knesset’s Interior Committee. Barkat disputed the claims that the deterioration in security began around the time of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. “Even before Operation Protective Edge, the state of affairs in Jerusalem as regards riots, rock throwing and enforcement was shoddy. We were talking about 200 events of rock throwing [per month]. Even before Protective Edge, we held a discussion about the changes needed to bring back the rule of law in Jerusalem. The Arab residents are complaining about the...

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Wednesday called US President Barack Obama's strong criticism of the building of additional Jewish homes in a Jewish neighborhood of the Israeli capital a position based on racism. Said Barkat: "Israeli law does not discriminate between Jews, Muslims, and Christians or between eastern and western Jerusalem. The demand to halt construction by religion is not legal in the United States or in any other free place in the world. I do not presume that any government would demand to freeze construction in the United States based on race, religion or gender and the attempt to...