Free Republic

The US Army will acquire two Iron Dome batteries by 2020 as well as consider the full adoption of the Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept, both systems developed by Israel, Inside Defense reported Wednesday. The Iron Dome batteries will provide US ground forces an interim capability against unmanned air vehicles, mortars, rockets, artillery and cruise missiles. The US Army has been working to transform the Israeli interceptor into an American system to defend forward-deployed US forces since 2017. The US Army has performed tests to evaluate which missile system would best serve this purpose. Rafael Advanced Defense System's Iron...

Should Iran be worried? Here's everything we know. Israel’s submarine corps is a tiny force with a big open secret: in all likelihood, it is armed with nuclear weapons. The five Dolphin-class submarines represent an ace in the hole for Israel, the ultimate guarantor of the country’s security, ensuring that if attacked with nukes, the tiny nation can strike back in kind. Israel’s first nuclear weapons were completed by the early 1970s, and deployed among both free-fall aircraft bombs and Jericho ballistic missiles. The 1991 Persian Gulf War, which saw Iraqi Scuds and Al Hussein ballistic missiles raining down on...

<p>The radicals took control of the House today. Far left anti-Trumpers and open Socialists are now in charge of the US House of Representatives.</p> <p>Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, an open Israel-hater, was sworn in on a Koran today.</p> <p>And after her swearing in she immediately called on President Trump’s impeachment — the “mother f*cker”!!</p>

The IDF destroyed a Hezbollah tunnel that penetrated into Israeli territory south of the Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced in a statement Tuesday.

Major General Herzi Halevi, the Commanding Officer of the IDF Southern Command, slammed the Hamas terrorist organization following the rocket attack on Be'er Sheva early Wednesday morning. "Hamas pretends to govern in Gaza, and tells the Gazan population that it seeks to improve their lives. However, in reality, Hamas specializes in riots at the border fence and in using explosive devices, incendiary and explosive balloons, and, as we saw last night, rockets," Gen. Halevi said in a statement. "Hamas worsens the lives of ordinary Gazans and last night took actions which forced us to strike a range of weapon production...

The state of Israel is bucking the trend: It has a very high fertility rate for a developed nation. What's behind it? In addition to things like a high per capita income and high levels of literacy, one of the defining characteristics of a "developed" country is a low fertility rate. We've often spoken of the demographic crisis facing industrialized countries. No member of the European Union has a "replacement level" fertility rate. Even with high levels of immigration, most members' populations are on a downward trajectory. In East Asia, the outlook is even bleaker. In Japan, more adult diapers...

The Israel Defense Forces are so much more than the picture of raw power perceived in news stories and war-centered history books. The IDF functions on a daily basis employing stealth and deception in the battle against Israel's unremitting enemies. Pre-1967, the state and military were perceived as underdogs fighting the good fight against all odds. The devastating effectiveness and efficiency with which the IDF knocked out and embarrassed Arab armies changed the perception of the IDF and the Jewish people into a conquering military machine. The success was so decisive that it altered the mindset of the Jewish people...

In the Russian MoD statement, the government is accusing the Israelis of not giving Russia enough time to get its forces out of the area, and given the information available at the moment, that seems likely. Did the Israeli Defense Force miscalculate on this one? The Israelis, as noted in the above report, have routinely attacked targets in Syria deemed to be a threat to the Jewish state’s security. Most of the time those attacks have been aimed at Iranian installations but Syrian government bases have also been targeted in the past.

Large explosions were reported at a Syrian military air base early Sunday in an attack widely attributed to Israeli warplanes. However, Syria denied an attack had taken place. The reported strike occurred just after midnight at Mazzeh air base near Damascus, a key regime facility thought to have been targeted by Israel in the past. The military airport of Mazzeh, in the west suburbs of Damascus, was hit by a “possible Israeli missile, which hit a munitions store setting off successive explosions,” the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdel Rahmane told AFP.

In high contrast to nearly every other non-U.S. country, Israel passed a law on Monday that would expand the number of citizens eligible for firearms ownership licenses. As justification for the new policy, Israel’s Security Minister Gilad Erdan cited increased protection from “lone wolf” terrorist attacks. “Many civilians saved lives during terror attacks and in an era of ‘lone terrorism.’ The more skilled civilians carrying weapons, the greater the chance of thwarting attacks without casualties and reducing the number of casualties,” Erdan said, according to the Jerusalem Post. Previously, Israel operated under a system similar to the “good cause” scheme...

Israel is under attack, as always, this time for passing a law saying Israel is a Jewish state. As if it hadn't been already. Liberals (among them, shamefully, some Jews) worry for the Arab population of Israel, as if their lives in Israel weren't 1,000% better than the lives of Arabs in any other Arab nations, who are slaughtering each other by the hundreds of thousands. Now Israel, which has been providing Syrian civilians with medical care for years during the civil war there, has helped several hundred civil defense workers escape from the Assad regime in an act of...

Israel must launch a concerted effort to eliminate Hamas’ leadership to deter the terror group from continuing its use of airborne incendiary devices and rocket attacks against Israel, a senior Israeli lawmaker says, arguing that the current security situation along the Gaza border cannot be allowed to continue. Beginning on March 30th, tens of thousands of Gaza rioters attacked Israel’s border fence in a series of orchestrated attempts to breach the border. Dubbed the “March of Return”, the riots included attempts by armed terrorists to infiltrate into Israeli territory, and attacks by rioters on IDF soldiers deployed to protect the...

A major purpose of Iran wanting to enlarge its footprint in Syria may be to hide aspects of its nuclear program from the International Atomic Energy Agency, former top IDF Military Intelligence official Yossi Kuperwasser said on Wednesday. Speaking at a Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs conference on the Iran nuclear situation, JCPA fellow Kuperwasser, a former IDF brigadier-general, noted that IAEA inspectors are limited to inspecting Iran’s territory, as the Iran nuclear deal did not grant IAEA inspectors complete access to Iranian scientists. Based on that limited access, Kuperwasser said Iran could move and conceal its nuclear scientists and...

The missile can be fitted to the Israel Air Force’s F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets and is meant to be dropped outside areas protected by air-defense systems. With tensions still high between Israel and Iran, a new supersonic air-to-surface missile designed for the annihilation of high quality targets has been developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Israel Military Industry Systems (IMI). Dubbed “The Rampage” after a popular video-game, it is an accurate supersonic, long-range air-to-ground assault missile with a warhead, rocket engine and advanced navigation suit which allows for precision targeting at a very low mission cost compared...

For the umpteenth time, the United Nations General Assembly has voted to condemn Israel for defending itself. By a tally of 120 to 8, the members declared that Israel was guilty of “excessive use of force” against Palestinians who were protesting the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. The resolution also requested recommendations to protect Palestinians. For 10 weeks now, the two sides have clashed at the border, resulting in 120 Palestinian deaths. Israeli Defense Forces warned protesters not to approach the Israeli-Gaza border on May 14, the day of the embassy opening. They did anyway - some armed...

Israel launched an unscheduled military exercise on the Golan Sunday, June 10. Thousands of army reservists were ordered to report for immediate duty with full gear and come directly from their homes and work places. That the sudden IDF announcement did not set a timeline for the exercise’s ending indicated that it was prompted by the Syrian military announcement on the same morning of a major army offensive impending this week in the Quneitra region opposite Israel’s Golan border.

The IDF announced an IAF drill will commence Sunday across all IAF bases throughout the country and will end Thursday. The drill will include heavy aircraft traffic across the country's skies. Explosions and drill sirens will be sounded at IAF bases and in their vicinities.

On May 22, Israeli Air Force commander Amikam Norkin announced that its F-35I stealth fighters had flown on two combat missions on “different fronts,” showing as proof a photograph of an F-35 overflying Beirut. While details on those missions have not been released—apparently, they were not deployed in a massive Israeli air attack on Iranian forces in Syria that took place on May 9—this nonetheless apparently confirmed the first combat operations undertaken by any variant of the controversial stealth jet, which is currently entering service with the militaries of ten countries after undergoing over two decades of development. In fact,...

Moscow offered two explanations on Monday as to why its Russian-made Pantsir S-1 missile defense system embarrassingly took a direct hit during an Israeli airstrike last week. "One is that it had already used up its ammunition reserve," Aytech Bizhev, the former deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force, said, according to RT. "The other is that it was simply turned off; it wasn't battle ready." Israeli fighter jets struck dozens of Iranian military sites in Syria last Thursday, killing at least 23 people, including 5 Syrian soldiers.

GAZA NIGHTMARE: IDF Warns That Upwards Of 250,000 Palestinian Rioters To Crash Border Fence On Monday May 14th To “Massacre Israelis’ On Monday May 14th, the Hamas terrorist organization plans to send armed terrorists, among 250,000 violent rioters to swarm and breach Israel’s border with Gaza and enter Israeli communities,” warned the English language video. “Hamas plans to carry out a massacre in Israel. The Israel Defense Forces will not let them.” Additional soldiers have also been deployed to provide extra security to Israeli communities near the Gaza border. The protests are now set for Monday, to coincide with the...