Free Republic

Why does it seem the Pentagon is far better at spending money than actually putting together a successful operation? The failed “Operation Prosperity Guardian” and the disastrous floating Gaza pier are but two recent examples of enormously expensive initiatives that, though they no-doubt enriched military contractors, were incapable of meeting their stated goals. To great fanfare, last December the Pentagon announced the launch of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a joint US/UK military operation to halt the Yemeni Houthi disruption of Israel-linked commercial shipping through the Red Sea. The Houthis announced their policy in response to civilian deaths in Israel’s war on...

Shortly after Oct. 7, the president of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker, issued a statement on the foundation’s behalf. Walker, who has been lauded by Laurene Powell Jobs as an "optimist," a "realist," and a "prophet who speaks truth to our world’s most troubling demons," announced that the Ford Foundation would bankroll "immediate humanitarian relief efforts in Gaza and the Middle East." "Administered by our colleagues in the Middle East and North Africa regional office," Walker said, "the resources will go to partners in the region to provide life-saving support and other essential needs to the affected Palestinian civilians in...

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld roasted a heckler who was ejected while shouting anti-Israel slogans during a performance on Sunday in Sydney, Australia. “We have a genius, ladies and gentlemen! He’s solved the Middle East! He’s solved it! It’s the Jewish comedians, that’s who we have to get,” Seinfeld said in a mocking voice. “They’re the ones doing everything!” The man shouted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” as he left, repeating a genocidal call for the destruction of Israel. “So, you’re really influencing everyone. We’re all on your side now, because you’ve made your point so well,...

Can you guess what they were replaced by? Just as protesters screaming “From the river to the sea/Palestine will be free” want Israel to disappear, in order to be replaced by a 23rd Arab state, so some people in a New Jersey town wanted to make Jews disappear from this year’s high school yearbook. More on that sinister removal of a photograph of a Jewish group, and its replacement by a Muslim group in the yearbook, can be found here: “‘Blatant Antisemitic Act’: High School Yearbook Erases Jewish Students’ Names, Replaces Photo With Muslim Students,” by Jack Elbaum, Algemeiner, June...

The Palestinian Authority could collapse in the coming months, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said on Monday, citing a lack of funding, continuing violence and the fact that half a million Palestinians are not allowed to work in Israel. "The Palestinian Authority, with whom we work closely, are warning us that they might be collapsing this summer," Barth Eide told Reuters. Norway chairs the international donor group to the Palestinians...

BEIRUT (AP) — He is among the very last survivors of his Gaza family, a clan so close they knew without thinking how blood and marriage bound them across generations and city blocks. Then, branch by branch, 173 of Youssef Salem’s relatives were killed in Israeli airstrikes in a matter of days in December. By spring that toll had risen to 270. Bones and flesh strewn over the ruins of family homes. Blond curls of a young cousin peeking through bricks. Unrecognizable bodies piled on a donkey cart. Lines of burial shrouds. These images are what survivors are left with...

Joe Biden has logged yet another foreign policy disaster under his belt after the Pentagon announced the "Gaza pier" will be dismantled due to damage. Some press reports describe the move as "temporary," though it's questionable whether the project will ever resume after being completely torn down and towed away. This marks the latest in a string of logistical issues involving the president's prized pier. For context, the pier has been in place for less than a month, and it's already suffered multiple shutdowns related to moderate seas overtaking it. Here's the full timeline illustrating just how absurd this idea...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group have been arrested in the United States in recent days, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. The arrests took place in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the individuals, who entered the U.S. through the southern border, are being held on immigration violations, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The nature of their suspected connections to the IS was not immediately clear, but the...

Pro-Palestinian protesters reportedly firebombed “the side of a building” on the University of California Berkeley (UCB) campus and claimed that students had been “attacked” on another campus. In a post on Instagram on Thursday, Palestine Action in the United States shared a post from an anonymous user who claimed responsibility for firebombing the side of Koshland Hall, a building at UCB that houses “labs from the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology.”

Members of a small far-right group advocating the annexation and settlement of southern Lebanon are set to hold a video conference on Monday, claiming their approach is the “only solution” to the ongoing clashes with Hezbollah amid increasingly vocal calls for Israel to invade its northern neighbor. “More assassinations in Lebanon, more firing of missiles, more alarms in the northern settlements, and no real change is visible on the horizon,” the Uri Tzafon organization said in a statement last week decrying the current escalation in the north. As an alternative, it invited the public to participate in what it is...

During a sermon at the University of Illinois Chicago, a speaker for the campus’s Muslim Students Association denounced America and democracy, describing them as a “cancer” spreading worldwide, while advocating for the adoption of Islam as the “new way of life” for humanity. In a sermon delivered at the campus’s Muslim Students Association (MSA) last month, Mohammad Nusairat, a University of Chicago Illinois (UIC) student, declared that America and its values are a “cancer.”

Leaders of the G7 countries on Friday issued a statement in which they declared their support for the ceasefire and hostage release deal which was recently outlined by US President Joe Biden. The lengthy statement also reiterated the countries’ support for a “two-state solution” and also called on all sides to refrain from unilateral steps that undermine that solution, “including Israeli expansion of settlements”. The G7 also criticized Iran for its April drone and missile attack on Israel and reaffirmed their commitment to Israel’s security. Finally, the statement also expressed concern over the recent escalation between Israel and Hezbollah. “We...

It’s not like this is a shocking survey. We’ve known that for years, the Palestinian people, the so-called innocent civilians, support Hamas. They voted them into power back in 2005 and have allowed the terror group to rule the Gaza Strip for nearly a generation. The international community thinks Hamas can be reasoned with—are they taking hits from Hunter Biden’s crack pipe? You cannot if anything has shown us over the past few weeks and months. They’ve rejected every ceasefire proposal because civilian casualties are not a byproduct of their operations; it’s their agenda. And the people here, for the...

Citing rescued hostage, captive soldier’s mom says [B]women were held as slaves. Mothers share accounts of their children’s captivity at conference, with one saying girls forced to clean and cook By TOI Staff. Shira Albag, mother of hostage Liri Albag, speaks during a conference of the Female Municipal Leaders' Forum in Ganei Tikva, June 14, 2024. Screen capture: Ynet, used in accordance with Clause 27a of the Copyright Law. The [B]mother of Liri Albag, a 19-year-old female soldier abducted on October 7, shared information Friday about her daughter that she said came from freed female hostages[/B] and also matched the...

The leaders of both Israel and Hamas seem content for the war in Gaza to grind on into the indefinite future. Such is the upshot of their ambiguous, but essentially negative, responses to President Joe Biden’s peace proposal, which is now fully backed by the United Nations Security Council. And the reasons are obvious. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have concluded that the best way to stay out of prison on corruption charges is to stay in office, and the best way to do that is to keep the war going. Hamas, meanwhile, believes that it is winning.

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Last summer, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip celebrated the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha the way it’s supposed to be: with large family feasts, meat shared with those less fortunate, and new clothes and gifts for children. But this year, after eight months of devastating war between Israel and Hamas, many families will eat canned food in stifling tents. There’s hardly any meat or livestock at local markets, and no money for holiday treats or presents — only war, hunger and misery, with no end in sight. “There is no Eid this year,” said...

A Columbia Law Review article that argues Jews "capitalized on the Holocaust to create a powerful narrative that monopolizes victimhood" was subject to an atypical editing process that omitted "a large number of Jewish students," according to sources familiar with the process. While prospective pieces are typically available for the Law Review's roughly 100 members to assess ahead of publication, the "Nakba" piece was handled behind closed doors by a group of roughly 30 student editors, according to Columbia Law School professor Joshua Mitts. While that group edited the piece "over several months," Mitts said, other editors—including Jews—were unaware even...

The Biden administration is close to finalizing a treaty with Saudi Arabia that would commit the U.S. to help defend the Gulf nation as part of a long-shot deal to encourage diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Israel, U.S. and Saudi officials said. But the success of the diplomatic effort hinges on Israel’s commitment to a separate Palestinian state, and more immediately an end to the war in Gaza, an unlikely proposition amid months of fruitless cease-fire talks and an Israeli weekend raid to retrieve hostages from the heart of the territory. The U.S. aims to present Israeli leaders with an...

Support for Hamas also coincides with the Biden administration's and some European nations' ongoing promotion of creating a Palestinian state right next to Israel. This move would not only open the door for more atrocities against Israelis, but would also put Israel in grave danger because the Palestinian state, even under the supposedly watchful eye of a chaperone, would essentially be ruled by the same murderers and rapists who took part in the October 7 carnage. These European nations — Ireland, Norway, and Spain — have sent a message to the Palestinians that the only way they can get international...

A Harvard law student charged with assaulting an Israeli classmate during a confrontation at a protest has landed a top job with the public defender's office in Washington DC. Ibrahim Bharmal, an editor with the prestigious Harvard Law Review, was seen in a viral video allegedly accosting an Israeli student at a pro-Palestine 'die-in' protest in Harvard last October, just days after the attack by Hamas. The confrontation happened after an Israeli student was seen walking over protesters and recording their faces as they lay on the ground to protest Israel's actions in Gaza, according to The Harvard Crimson. Despite...