Free Republic

Israel is routinely beset by attacks, physical and rhetorical, at the hands of its hostile neighbors and the Western media and elite. Our mistake is to assume that we can counter those attacks with logic, reason, and evidence. We assume that we are presenting our arguments to people who want to objectively examine the arguments on each side of the conflict, and then come to a rational conclusion to discern right and wrong. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Take this example. Just days after Mahmoud Ahmedinejad of Iran publicly claimed that the Holocaust was a fabrication, Mark Steyn...

Balamand, Lebanon -- The patriarchs of Eastern churches Tuesday deplored the raging violence in Iraq and Syria that has caused a massive wave of refugees, exhorting Christians to maintain their presence in the region's war-torn countries and keep hold of their lands. In a statement released at the opening of their Holy Synod in Lady of Balamand Convent in north Lebanon, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai, Melkite Gregorius III Lahham, Syriarc Catholic Patriarch Ignatius III Younan, Syrian Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Ephrem and Greek Orthodox Patriarch John Yazigi released a statement on local and regional developments. "The patriarchs prayed for the people...

Bill O'Reilly objects to "bloviating," which I think means giving opinions not based on fact. So what should we make of his claim that "I believe there is overwhelming evidence that the Syrian tyrant Assad did gas civilians, including children." Where is the "overwhelming evidence?" One day earlier, O'Reilly had claimed, "The evidence is strong that Assad violated the Geneva Convention by using poison gas to kill civilians." So in the course of one day, the evidence had gone from "strong" to "overwhelming." On what basis did this occur? O'Reilly doesn't say. I submit that O'Reilly is engaged in bloviating....

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is being criticized by The New Republic for concern over Christians after Syrian rebels attacked a Syrian Christian village. In an article titled “Rand Paul’s Syria Bible Thumping: Why does he only seem to care about the country’s Christians?” journalist Julia Ioffe rails, “Paul’s emphasis on Syrian Christians is more than a simple reminder of a neglected aspect of an already complicated situation.” Ioffe continues, Rand’s concern over Christians in Syria “sounds distinctly like the garbage about America being a Christian nation, like the unnerving evangelical support of Israel, like the not-too-subtle hum on the right...

The New York Times story, "President Gains McCain's Backing on Syria Attack," is predictable, considering that Obama had invited Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to the White House for the specific purpose of supporting his proposed military strike on Syria. Obama has also asked the same two senators to travel to Egypt to undermine the military leaders who overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood government there. What is lacking from the media coverage is any recognition that the inevitable result, according to congressional testimony, will be the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood and associated terrorist groups in Syria, and...

True democracy can no more take hold in Islamic soil than a rose can grow in a glass vase ... no matter how much water it contains. This is a true statement and many Islamists know that this is a true statement. Tell that to the politically correct segment of our society. This segment, whether it is the mainstream media or foreign policy makers, is afflicted with "opposite disorder ' or better described as "Islamophilia." "What is Islamophilia?," you ask. It is the irrational and self-destructive desire to show how enlightened and morally superior you are by bending over backwards...

A day after reports that Noble Energy had begun its natural gas drilling off the coast of Cyprus, amid threats from the Turkish government that it was considering deploying naval escort ships to protect exploration areas north of the country, an Israeli expert on the situation deemed the threats grave to both Cypriot and Israeli concerns. (Snip) Meanwhile, following a statement from Cypriot President Demetris Christofias that drilling was about to begin, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened on Monday that Turkish aircraft, frigates and torpedo boats would be sent to watch over the eastern Mediterranean, Reuters said

WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration wanted to be certain that Congress would not block $50 million in new aid to the Palestinian Authority last month, it turned to a singularly influential lobbyist: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. At the request of the American Embassy and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Netanyahu urged dozens of members of Congress visiting Israel last month not to object to the aid, according to Congressional and diplomatic officials. Mr. Netanyahu’s intervention with Congress underscored an extraordinary intersection of American diplomacy and domestic politics, the result of an ever-tightening relationship between the Israeli...

The world -- or at least the large part of it that hates Israel and wishes it would go away -- moves a step nearer that goal this week when the United Nations votes on whether to recognize a Palestinian state. The vote violates the Declaration of Principles signed by the PLO in 1993, which committed the terrorist group and precursor to the Palestinian Authority to direct negotiations with Israel over a future state. This violation is further evidence the Palestinian side cannot be trusted to live up to signed agreements and promises. Caroline Glick, whose column appears in these...

NEW YORK -The Obama administration insisted Monday there was still time to avert a divisive showdown over Palestinian statehood, ignoring President Mahmoud Abbas' defiant pledge to take his government's case to the United Nations and reaching out to Western allies in the hopes of a last-ditch compromise. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the U.S. was engaged in "extremely intensive" diplomacy with Israel, the Palestinians and the other governments gathered in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meeting. A statement from the U.S. and other key Mideast peace negotiators on a possible path forward appeared to be...

From Israel to New York - Jews, Christians Protest Hamas Led Palestine UN Vote By Joel Leyden Israel News Agency New York --- September 20, 2011 .... Thousands of Jewish and Christian protesters are taking to the streets in Jerusalem and in New York to protest a UN vote on the creation of a Hamas led Palestine. Just south of the UN, Rabbi Avi Weiss and 50 other demonstrators protested the PA's request to the UN for unilateral statehood. The protest was sponsored by AMCHA - Coalition for Jewish Concerns. Six people were arrested and charged by NYPD with disorderly...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described offshore gas drilling by estranged ally Israel and Cyprus as "madness" on Wednesday, raising the stakes in a confrontation over potentially huge deposits in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The quarrel over gas has escalated in recent weeks, just as relations between Israel and Turkey abruptly broke down over Israel's refusal to apologize for its raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last year in which nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists died. (snip) "The Greek Cypriot administration and Israel are engaging in oil exploration madness in the Mediterranean," Turkish state news agency Anatolian quoted Erdogan as telling...