Free Republic

Lost on the President Donald Trump-hating pundits who weighed in on the second and final debate with former Vice President Joe Biden was Trump's energy and focus. The man just recovered from COVID-19. Male and 74 years old, Trump is in the "high-risk" category. His weight makes him "comorbid." Yet, there he was, still throwing heat at the end of the standing 90-minute debate, having spoken earlier that day at a typically raucous love fest/campaign rally. Trump handily defeated Biden, who noticeably tired by the end of this second and final debate. Yes, nearly all polls show Biden ahead both...

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...

For over one hundred years, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded. In that time, this honor has been viewed as the ultimate prize for any political leader. Recipients are supposed to be great diplomats who have brokered historic peace agreements. In contrast, the recipients are often left-wing politicians who have a suitable political agenda for the five-person Nobel Peace Prize committee. Despite their efforts to end the plague of communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, neither Pope John Paul II nor Ronald Reagan received the Nobel Peace Prize. Instead, it was awarded to Mikhail Gorbachev, a communist...

A dam has broken and our media are desperate to avert our eyes from it.  I am stunned at the succession of positive developments that has followed the announcement almost a month ago that the United Arab Emirates is normalizing relations with Israel. Momentum is accelerating toward the long dreamed-of goal of peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. I have to pinch myself after writing such a thing to remind myself that decade after decade of strenuous effort has failed, frustrating presidents of both parties and stymieing plan after plan put forth by diplomats and NGOs. Yet, improbable...

The Middle East is not necessarily known for good news. But look a little deeper over the last several weeks, and a region normally stereotyped as hopeless, confusing, and blood-soaked is actually making some significant and potentially historic progress. And just as importantly, this progress is being constructed in conference rooms rather than on battlefields.   For the United States, which has invested so much blood and treasure in the Middle East over the last two decades ($2 trillion and tens of thousands of casualties in Iraq alone), there is a lesson in these latest accomplishments: Washington can achieve far...

The Israel-United Arab Emirates news is actually much bigger than the American press is reporting. President Donald Trump actually does deserve a great deal of credit, and if the deal were reported accurately, he would get that credit. But the issue is larger than even that, and the American media has totally missed the bigger story. First, to review, the United Arab Emirates and Israel have decided to publicly have diplomatic relations in something they are calling the Abraham Accords. This is groundbreaking in and of itself. Though the countries have privately been collaborating for some time, they will make...

Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar on Wednesday told the Maan news agency Hamas would never recognize Israel. Saying Hamas would accept a PA state based on the "1967 borders," Zahar made it clear a peace accord would only serve as a prelude to Israel's destruction. Zahar, who has served as Hamas' foreign minister in Gaza since 2006, said Hamas would not recognize Israel because doing so would "cancel the right of the next generation to liberate the land." “A truce is not peace," Zahar said.

.........."We are accustomed to the lies of the Palestinian Authority," Qassem said. "There are things going on behind the curtains." He added that the so-called Geneva Agreement, which many of the leaders of the Palestinian Authority have endorsed, already has shown their willingness to deeply compromise the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel. Qassem also said that Palestinian officials are party to negotiated agreements with the United States, Israel, and the Egyptians about how Gaza will be run after the withdrawal. Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the foreign affairs and defense committee of the Israeli parliament and a member...

Egypt knows a thing or two about the Gaza Strip. Its military occupation of Gaza lasted from 1948 to 1967. According to The Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, "During Egypt's tenure, the army assumed control over Gaza's civil and security affairs. Political activity of all kinds was prohibited. Egyptians held all high-level administrative positions. Refugees were excluded from mainstream social and economic affairs, and indigenous Gazans were carefully monitored." It was only in the early 1960s, when president Gamal Abdel Nasser wanted to play the Palestinian card, that he permitted a Palestinian Arab to head Gaza's local council. In 1964 Cairo...

[IMRA: This is one of a series of stories now being leaked by officers in the IDF out of concern that the politicians have lost control over the situation. ISS (Shabak) head Avi Dichter's highly unusual public remarks - remarks that clashed dramatically with the Sharon government's actions (he said that he was confident that security control in cities in the West Bank would not be transferred to the Palestinians before the PA proved that they were confiscating weapons and taking other measures against the terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip - this when less than 24 hours later security...

One would suspect that American news sources would have mostly news about the United States. There is certainty enough hard news in all fifty states worthy of being related. But, turn on news sources like Fox News and it seems to be "all Israel all the time" coverage. Congress and State legislators seem to be working overtime writing laws to usurp our rights, but we hear about Israel instead. Per capita, there are more violent deaths in many American inner-cities that in Israel, but we hear about Israel instead. China was provided better technology with which to make even better...