Free Republic

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, went in front of the cameras at the White House on May 31 and presented a multi-stage process for an end of war in Gaza that would release all the hostages, declaring it to be an Israeli peace plan.So bizarre to have this coming from the American President, not the Government of Israel:https://t.co/dton6d7sWl — Victoria Coates (@VictoriaCoates) May 31, 2024It would be interesting to learn from Biden which Israeli came up with this plan.Biden’s “Israeli” plan sounded comprehensive but it wasn’t, and it didn’t sound right. According to Biden we would get...

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, took advantage of a major rally held today in Ankara, the Turkish capital, to continue his rampage attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Addressing an audience of thousands of supporters, Erdogan called Netanyahu derogatory names and called on the world to "stop the bloodthirsty thug Netanyahu." "We need to stop this barbarian, thug, and bloodthirsty Netanyahu, who is dragging our region and the entire world into disaster," Erdogan said. He then reiterated Turkey's commitment to the Palestinians and said that Turkey stands by the Palestinian people. "Turkey opposes the oppression, the massacre, and the...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government begrudgingly accepted President Biden's plan for a cease-fire in Gaza on Sunday. Biden had issued the plan on Friday, and Netanyahu initially responded with dismissal. Hamas has indicated it favors the plan, though no formal agreement has been made. Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy advisor to Netanyahu described Biden's plan in an interview with the U.K.'s Sunday Times, saying it was "a deal we agreed to — it's not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them." "There are a lot of details to be worked out," he said,...

It’s called “projection”: ascribing to others behavior or beliefs that are one’s own. Of the two major weapons in Hamas’s arsenal, projectiles and projection, the latter has been markedly the most successful.Hamas projectiles – rockets, missiles, mortars – have over the years, including over the five Hamas-initiated wars between 2008 and 2023, forced tens of thousands of Israelis into bomb shelters. And the group’s targeting of civilians is a war crime. But the actual toll of the projectile assaults by the terror group, in terms of lives lost and property damaged, has (unlike Hamas’s gun, knife and grenade invasion of...

A jackal bit a one-year-old baby in a nearby tent at the Gvanim Stream camping site in Ramon Crater on Friday night. According to the Nature and Parks Authority, the father said that he left a small opening in the tent when he went out at night, and returned after hearing his wife screaming while searching for the child. "Apparently, the jackal dragged the child a few meters before releasing him". Magen David Adom (MDA) teams evacuated the baby to Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva in moderate condition, with bite marks on his face. Later, the hospital reported that the...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday there would be no “permanent ceasefire” in Gaza until Hamas’s military and governing capabilities were destroyed. His comments, in a rare statement published on the Sabbath and only in English, came after United States President Joe Biden announced Friday that Israel had proposed a three-phase deal for a ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for Hamas releasing hostages, told the terror group to accept it and urged the Israeli government to stand behind it. “Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: The destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the freeing of...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said he would “not attend” a speech given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after Republican and Democrat lawmakers invited Netanyahu to speak before a “Joint Meeting of Congress.” Sanders issued a press release on Saturday describing Netanyahu as a “war criminal” and stating that he “should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress.” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) wrote a letter addressed to Netanyahu on Friday, inviting him to speak before a “Joint...

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police said Saturday that they had 34 people in custody following a pro-Palestinian protest at the Brooklyn Museum, which reported damage to some artwork and harassment to security staff by demonstrators. Hundreds of protesters marched to the museum on Friday afternoon, set up tents in the lobby and unfurled a “Free Palestine” banner from the building’s roof before police moved in to make arrests. New York City police officers tackled and punched some protesters during scuffles that broke out in the crowd outside the museum while some demonstrators hurled plastic bottles at officers...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was invited to speak before the United States Congress and Senate in a joint meeting. Johnson announced on Friday that he was “honored” to invite Netanyahu to “address a joint meeting of Congress.” In a letter addressed to Netanyahu, Johnson wrote that “last year” Congress had proudly hosted Israeli President Isaac Herzog to visit Washington, D.C., and that Netanyahu was invited to speak before a “Joint Meeting of Congress.”

The military said on Wednesday that it now had full operational control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. This effectively clamps down on any possible weapons flow to Hamas from the outside. Troops located 20 tunnels crossing into Egypt near the Philadelphi Corridor and 82 tunnel shafts. This information was passed on to Egypt. Egypt’s Al Qahera News denied the reports. “It doesn’t mean that we have boots on the ground across all of the corridors, but it means we can control and we have the ability to cut off the...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) joined an anti-Israel commentator this week in blaming the Abraham Accords peace deal and the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem for Hamas’s massive terror attack on Israel on October 7. “AOC” also agreed that Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights — which are not claimed by Palestinians, but were taken from Syria in a defensive war — was also “directly” responsible for October 7.

..... The Israeli proposal which was transmitted by Qatar to Hamas, Biden revealed, includes three phases, the first of which “would last for six weeks ... [and] would include a full and complete ceasefire, withdrawal of Israeli forces from all populated areas of Gaza, release of a number of hostages, including women, the elderly, the wounded, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.” Phase two would see the release of all remaining living hostages, including male soldiers, Israeli forces, with withdrawal from Gaza. “As long as Hamas lives up to its commitments, a temporary ceasefire would become,...

The first rule in crisis communications is this: Protect the brand. When faced with a crisis that could explode in the media, crisis communicators work to minimize damage to the brand. But should Amazon be running the violent abduction of its employee, Alexander “Sasha” Troufanov, like a classic crisis communications scenario instead of exhausting all means and resources to free him? Shortly after the New York Post reported in November that Sasha, an Amazon employee in its Tel Aviv lab, had been kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7, I did a round of pro bono media outreach to offer Sasha’s...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Israel would not accept a ceasefire deal that prevented it from destroying Hamas, after U.S. President Joe Biden presented a so-called Israeli “proposal” that allowed Hamas to survive. On Friday, Biden presented a proposal, which he claimed was made by Israel, for a ceasefire. The terms do not even mention Hamas, much less its disarmament, while they require Israel to withdraw and stop fighting.

Survey conducted in March finds only 19% of Israeli Jews believe peaceful coexistence possible with Palestinian state — lowest since Pew Institute began polling Israelis in 2013 Fifty percent of Israeli Jews support Israel maintaining control of the Gaza Strip after the war against the Hamas terror group ends, according to a Pew Research Center survey published Thursday. Asked who should govern the Palestinian enclave after the war, half of Jewish respondents said Israel; 15% said they didn’t know; 10% said the Palestinian Authority, but without its president, Mahmoud Abbas; 8% said people who live in Gaza should decide; 7%...

Randi Weingarten's American Federation of Teachers defends pro-Hamas campus occupations as 'peacefully demonstrating' The American Federation of Teachers led by Randi Weingarten claimed that anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were simply "peacefully demonstrating." The American Federation of Teachers led by Randi Weingarten claimed that anti-Israel protesters on college campuses were simply “peacefully demonstrating.” The Tuesday statement from the AFT came in response to a hearing last week from the House Education and the Workforce Committee where leaders of Northwestern University, Rutgers University, and the University of California, Los Angeles, were grilled regarding their response to campus anti-Israel encampments. ”AFT members...

Spokesman of the military arm of the Houthis: We carried out a combined missile attack against the American aircraft carrier Dwight Eisenhower in the Red Sea in response to last night's attacks in Yemen

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s brashness toward progressives has expanded beyond the topic of Israel. Fetterman was the topic of a lengthy feature article published by the New York Times on Saturday that highlighted how the senator, who had been on thin ice with progressives for his staunch and unconditional support for Israel in its war with Hamas, has shown that his willingness to make waves within his own party doesn’t stop at the Middle East. Fetterman was seen mocking environmentalist Stevie O’Hanlon, who was trying to speak to him about a Chester County pipeline, in a video that circulated online...

Former MSNBC anchor Mehdi Hasan slammed the Biden administration on Wednesday over the news that the $320 million pier the U.S. built to transport aid into Gaza had fallen apart after only a few days. "Let's be clear: if this had happened on Trump's watch, we would all be mocking and denouncing him," Hasan wrote on X. "It's super-embarrassing that it happened on Biden's watch and the fact that it did shouldn't prevent us from saying: what a bloody s--tshow."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday held an operational situation assessment and visited several command and control centers in the IDF’s Northern Command, together with Head of the Command, Maj. Gen. Uri Gordin. Upon completing the visit, Minister Gallant referred to Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah’s recent speech in which he claims that, “Israel’s Minister of Defense is inflating the numbers.” Minister Gallant presented a series of images of Hezbollah brigade commanders and emphasized that the IDF has eliminated over 300 terrorists and commanders in the terrorist organization. He explained, "I have just completed a situation assessment and tour of...