Free Republic

Hamas’ rockets never discriminate between Arabs and Jews — they fall where they fall. .. gunmen who raced across the border, butchering and kidnapping as they went, were not discriminating ... Hamas terrorists killing Muslims inside of Israel after they infiltrated the border ... Masudin’s family hails from the Bedouin village of Segev Shalom in southern Israel, just an hour’s drive from the border with Gaza. ... Gunmen burst into the city Saturday morning with their automatic rifles blazing, killing civilians and shooting it out with local police units in firefights that consumed the town. They even captured the local...

Late last week, a bulldozer toppled a minaret that has watched over the city of Basra, Iraq, for nearly three centuries, leaving local residents dismayed.Minarets like this one serve as the beacons from which Muslims are called to prayer five times each day. At roughly 36 feet tall, this particular minaret has stood since 1727. Cultural officials say that the initial plan had been to preserve and relocate the Siraji Mosque's minaret, which was reportedly contributing to traffic jams, according to Reuters.Officials from the Sunni Endowment Office, which oversees Sunni religious sites, say they had no knowledge of the impending...

The Iraqi political scene has been ablaze for the past 72 hours due to the emergence of recordings attributed to Nuri al-Maliki, the ex-Iraqi PM, in which he appears to be criticising and insulting Moqtada al-Sadr, one of Iraq's strongest Shiite political figures whose faction won big in the 2021 general parliamentary election. “The issue is that there is a British project aiming to put Moqtada in control of the Shia and Iraq, then they would kill him and give Iraq to the Sunnis. The issue is not al-Maliki [myself], I can just leave and take refuge in the house...

Hezbollah has set up an observation post on the Lebanese border that is used to gather intelligence on security forces under the guise of the Lebanese Environment Association. The Northern Command recognizes Hezbollah operatives by name and role. Amazing pictures of the IDF Spokesman in Arabic pic.twitter.com/aSmwlR1GBi— איתי בלומנטל Itay Blumental (@ItayBlumental) June 8, 2022

Two rockets were fired in the direction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Saturday, with one of them shot down by the U.S. military and the other missing the embassy compound, Fox News has confirmed.... ...No group had yet claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, the report said. The incident came ahead of an end-of-year deadline set by Iranian-backed militias for the U.S. to withdraw its forces from Iraq, according to the Post. On Dec. 9, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East said the U.S. would keep the current 2,500 troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future...

Just ahead of U.S. sanctions on Iran set to snap back on Monday targeting primarily the energy, shipbuilding, shipping, and banking sectors, Iran’s most prominent conservative cleric has announced that if oil exports are halted, Saudi tankers will be confiscated and Gulf countries attacked. Powerful Shia cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda is the Friday Prayer leader in Mashhad, considered Iran’s spiritual capital and among the holiest places in Shia Islam, and sits on the government’s “Assembly of Experts” but has no formal government role or decision-making ability. However, he’s a powerful leader and chief spiritual force behind Iran’s conservative faction who...

Iraqi social media star and model Tara Fares has been shot dead in Baghdad….The former Miss Baghdad, and first runner-up for Miss Iraq, was killed on Thursday after gunmen opened fire on her Tara was a Christian and “famous for her bold clothing and posts on social media.” Those attributes sealed her fate, along with that of other women in her country who fly in the face of the Sharia, such as the human rights activist, Suaad al-Ali, who “was shot and killed in an outdoor market by an unknown gunman” two days before. Last month, “two well-known women in...

The World Court, the highest United Nations tribunal, on Wednesday ordered the United States to ensure that sanctions against Iran do not impact humanitarian aid or civil aviation safety.

A new attempt by Hamas to entice Israeli children to play with incendiary balloons includes choosing colorful balloons and attaching lights and toys to them, Yediot Ahronot reported. According to the report, a cluster of balloons recently found in the Eshkol Region was attached to an explosive toy. The balloons, found late at night, were colorful and included colorful flashing lights. Kibbutz Be'eri's secretary, Yaniv Hagi, told Yediot Aharonot: "Incendiary balloons land in our kibbutz at all hours of day and night. They arrive with flashing and sparkling lights, and some of the balloons have smiley faces on them, so...

Congress moved this week to tighten the economic noose on the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar al Assad, passing new sanctions that directly target his military alliance with Russia and Iran that has resulted in scores of civilian casualties. The new sanctions on Assad seek to "halt the wholesale slaughter of the Syrian people" by hitting the regime's financial and military alliances with Russia and Iran, both of which have provided Assad and his allies with military hardware and manpower. It also authorized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to provide U.S. support to entities that are gathering and preserving...

Sarah Idan, Iraq’s 2017 Miss Universe beauty pageant contestant, is visiting Israel this week, a trip that has enraged people back home. Idan was criticized and received death threats after taking a selfie with Israeli contestant Adal Gandelsman during last November’s competition. She arrived in Israel this week and reunited with Gandelsman during a visit organized by the American Jewish Committee to “talk about peace.” Miss Iraq, who currently resides in the U.S., received the title in 2017 after the original winner was disqualified for being married. Her appearance in Israel drew harsh criticism from Iraqis on social media. Iraq...

The US threatened unilateral action against Iran after Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Tehran’s failure to stop its weapons from reaching Houthi rebels in Yemen. "If Russia is going to continue to cover for Iran then the US and our partners need to take action on our own,” said US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Monday. “If we’re not going to get action on the council then we have to take our actions.” Ms Haley did not specify what kind of action could be taken. Russia on Monday vetoed the resolution that would have...

Saudi Arabia's mass execution of 47 prisoners — including prominent Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr — triggered unrest across the Middle East on Saturday, particularly in Iran, where protesters stormed and ransacked the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Photos and video footage posted on Twitter by Iranian journalist Sobhan Hassanvand showed a mob of angry demonstrators smashing windows and setting fire to the Saudi diplomatic outpost in the Iranian capital. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also condemned the executions. "I'm shocked & saddened at Sheikh Nimr's execution by Saudi authorities," he wrote on Twitter. "Peaceful opposition is a fundamental right. Repression does...

CAIRO - Bahrain said on Thursday it had recalled its ambassador to Iran, a day after it said security forces had discovered a large bomb-making factory and arrested a number of suspects linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Bahrain's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had also declared the Iranian charge d'affaires in Bahrain a "persona non grata" and gave him 72 hours to leave the country. In a statement on its website, the ministry said the decision to recall its ambassador had come "in light of continued Iranian meddling in the affairs of the kingdom of Bahrain ... in order...

Move to eliminate all U.S. funding for diplomacy with Iran Congressional leaders have begun pressuring their colleagues to cut off all U.S. funding for the ongoing talks with Iran over its contested nuclear program as the Obama administration rushes to hash out the details of a deal in the coming months, according to multiple sources and a letter that will be sent next week to appropriators in the House of Representatives. With the deadline approaching, congressional Republicans have been exasperated by the Obama administration’s efforts to prevent them from having any oversight over the deal.

Options to stop a nuclear Iran are not yet limited to President Obama’s bad deal or war WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Trent Franks, R-AZ-8, today reintroduced the Sanction Iran, Safeguard America Act to impose sanctions against Iran and help safeguard America in the face of the Obama Administration’s disastrous proposed nuclear deal with Iran.“As the self-perpetuating negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program drag on, it is time for a moment of clarity,” said Sen. Cruz. “It is time to tell the American people the truth. These talks are not going to prevent the Islamic Republic...

House Speaker John Boehner showed up President Barack Obama earlier this month by inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge Congress against a nuclear deal with Iran. Now, with negotiations stalling over the timing of sanctions relief and centrifuge development, the GOP leader is setting the stage to do it again. Boehner (R-Ohio) is expected lead a group of lawmakers to Israel at the end of March, a trip that could coincide with the March 31 deadline to get a framework agreement in place, according to reports. Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith confirmed the visit and said it was planned...

Graham threatens to cut funds to UN if Obama bypasses Congress on Iran sanctions...

Obama's plan does one other thing... it steps on and attempts to supersede our basic rights of free will derived from the very hand of God It didn’t take 24 hours for President Obama’s duplicitous stripes to show after Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party victory. Reeling from the sting of failure to corral Israel’s liberal and Arab voter base behind his retreat strategy for the encircled nation, Obama immediately floated Plan B—United Nations running interference. Par for the course (pun intended), the president falls back on making an appeal for international support for an agenda that he knows the American people...

LAUSANNE, Switzerland—France is again adopting the toughest line against Iran in negotiations aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program, potentially placing Paris at odds with the Obama administration as a diplomatic deadline to forge an agreement approaches at month-end. President Barack Obama called French President François Hollande on Friday to discuss the Iran diplomacy and try to unify their positions. The presidents “reaffirmed their commitment” to a deal “while noting that Iran must take steps to resolve several remaining issues,” the White House said. French diplomats have been publicly pressing the U.S. and other world powers not to give ground on...