Free Republic

Roman Gofman is the hero no one saw coming, with first hand experience of fighting Hamas terrorists on October 7th. Dramatic security-camera footage from the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre has resurfaced, showing Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, Israel’s next Mossad director, fighting terrorists at the Sha’ar Hanegev junction near Sderot with no body armor, no helmet, and no backup unit. At the time a Brigadier General and commander of the IDF Ground Forces Training Center at Tze’elim, Gofman rushed south from his home in Ashdod as soon as reports of the attack reached him. Arriving alone at the junction, he...

Péter Magyar, the Hungarian politician most likely to defeat Viktor Orbán, promises “regime change” but signals continuity on several core policies. The European Union should manage expectations and prepare for a more complex relationship than a simple post-Orbán reset. With less than two months to go before Hungary’s 12 April elections, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar is polling ahead of Orban’s Fidesz. For the first time since 2010, a change of government appears genuinely possible. The stakes are high. A fifth consecutive term for Orbán would further entrench what the European Parliament has described as a “hybrid regime...

Almost one in two, or 45.1 percent, of Muslims in Germany under the age of 40 hold Islamist attitudes, according to Germany’s Radicalization Monitoring System and Transfer Platform. MOTRA is run by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). MOTRA researchers revealed last month that almost half of younger Muslims in Germany hold latent or manifest Islamist-leaning views, which means they feel drawn to Islamism, prefer Sharia law over the constitution, and hold antisemitic prejudices. Breaking this down, the researchers found manifest Islamist attitudes – meaning their radicalization toward Islamism is already evident and pronounced – to be most widespread among...

An ‘Islamophobic’ incident in California shows the ridiculousness of the whole charade. The Simi Valley, California Police Department had a momentous announcement on Wednesday: they revealed that they were “investigating a possible ‘hate incident’ at an Islamic Society of Simi Valley building,” according to NBC Los Angeles. What kind of “hate incident”? That’s unclear. What is clear from several recent incidents, however, is that although most people, especially political and law enforcement officials, are much more worried about “Islamophobia” than they are about Islamic jihad, the latter is actually much more of a threat. It all started apparently when someone...

According to a Phys.org report, Haichao Li of Sichuan University led a team of researchers in the analysis of fragments of iron discovered in southwestern China at the Sanxingdui site, a city occupied between 2800 and 600 B.C. So far, eight sacrificial pits containing metal objects such as bronze masks, trees, and figurines have been excavated at the site. The three iron fragments, which appear to have been parts of an ax-like weapon, were discovered in Pit 7. Because this object was found in the sacrificial area, the researchers suggest that it had ritual significance. Metallographic and scanning electron microscopy-energy...

According to a Phys.org report, a team of researchers led by Jean-Luc Houle of Western Kentucky University explored two Late Bronze Age mounds in Mongolia known as khirigsuurs for evidence of feasting. Khirigsuurs, found in Mongolia and parts of southern Siberia, usually contain human burials and are surrounded by deposits of horse skulls. These are sometimes accompanied by horse neck vertebrae and hooves, and the burned bones of sheep or goats. Houle and his colleagues looked for the rest of these horses and evidence of butchering at khirigsuur ZK-956, which has been dated to between 1054 and 906 B.C. A...

Yeshua the Hope for Israel Returns to Israel - Zechariah 12:10-14/ Revelation 19:11-21 A Song and a YouTube Video which sings about Zech. 12:10- 14

As sons and daughters of Israel today from all around the world, along with evangelical believers in the Messiah and global supporters of Israel's right to exist, we soberly reflect on Holocaust Remembrance Day. What is absolutely astounding is that after such horrific mass genocide of the children of Israel by Nazi Germany, the nation of Israel, eighty years later, is now established as one of the leading nations in the world and is now the sole superpower in the Middle East. Israel is a sign to the world in these last Days that the G-d of Israel has not...

With a little more than an hour to go before President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night deadline for Iran to open up a vital shipping corridor, Utah businessman Khosrow Semnani, who was born in the Middle East country, was wracked with anxiety. “I’ve never been worried so badly as I am right now, to be honest with you,” he said. Semnani, the man who opened Tooele County’s low-level nuclear waste facility, was particularly concerned about Trump’s threats to attack bridges and power plants in Iran, especially the nuclear generation facility in Bushehr. “These are counterproductive. It pushes people of Iran to...

New police data shows foreign nationals feature disproportionately in violent offences, with sharp regional disparities and rising political pressure. Germany’s latest police crime statistics (PKS) have reignited the migration debate, with new data showing a stark overrepresentation of foreign nationals in violent offences. According to the figures, non-German suspects—particularly from Syria and Afghanistan—feature disproportionately in serious crimes. While foreign nationals account for around 15% of the population, their share of violent crime suspects is significantly higher. The imbalance is especially visible at regional level. In several federal states, including Bavaria, Berlin, and Baden-Württemberg, roughly half of all suspects in violent...

Iran’s ambassador to India said Tehran is open to talks with the United States if Washington refrains from making “unlawful demands.” Mohammad Fathali was referring to talks held in Islamabad and said the main sticking points were Iran’s nuclear program, war reparations and sanctions relief. Asked about the prospects for future negotiations, Fathali told reporters in New Delhi, “If they (the U.S.) accept our conditions, it is possible.”

The current U.S. military buildup in the Middle East signals a shift far beyond traditional deterrence. As of early April 2026, the concentration of full-spectrum forces—air, sea, rapid deployment, and special operations—indicates a posture designed for Systemic Paralysis. While diplomatic headlines focus on a fragile ceasefire, the military-technical reality suggests a theater prepared for a coordinated Leadership Disruption Strategy targeting the regime’s critical infrastructure.Mobilized Resources: The Architecture of Total WarThe U.S. deployment since late March encompasses every component necessary for a high-intensity theater operation:...The April 8th “Ceasefire”: Pressure Through Strategic Pause>The brief ceasefire announced on April 8 serves distinct strategic...

The Iranian delegation to the US-Iran high-stakes peace talks has adopted the name “Minab-168”. Iranian Speaker of the Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf explicitly identified the aircraft the mission as “Minab-168”. The front row of the aircraft was arranged with blood-soaked bags, the children's shoes, and their photograph with white roses. He posted a picture the caption, “My companions on this flight #Minab168.” The Iranian embassy in South Africa re-shared the picture with the caption, “We will never forget the children of Minab" It also posted an AI-generated video emphasising that association. Iranian officials and state media have used the name...

California’s war on cars knows no bounds, which is far out of step for the state that launched America’s car culture. While policymakers haven’t yet outlawed the classics, their failure to act responsibly has added to the burden of owning them. Famous classic collector Jay Leno aims to change this. There are almost 36 million vehicles registered in California, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. While the number of classic cars is difficult to determine, Sen. Shannon Grove says there are 320,000 automobiles made from 1976 to 1991 in the state. That’s an almost imperceptibly thin slice, less than...

In an arid valley near the village of Kourtimale in southern Djibouti, a tattered chain link fence marks the boundaries of what was once Abdi Guelleh's farm. Within it, there's not a speck of greenery in sight. Broken lengths of irrigation piping lie scattered in the dust. A derelict weather station stands in a corner amid a tangle of cables. Here and there, taps that haven't seen water in years protrude from the earth. There's little to hint at the fact that this lifeless 2.5-acre plot was once meant to be one tiny brick in one of the world's most...

Iran does not need to secure the Strait of Hormuz. It only needs to make sure that no one else can, either. Despite the sorry condition of its naval forces,.. Iran still maintains selective control of the Strait of Hormuz—resulting in 80 to 90 percent of the traffic being halted. How? Not through naval dominance, but rather through asymmetric disruption, which Iran uses to make travel through the Strait too dangerous to risk. Iran Doesn’t Need to Close the Strait to Cut Off Shipping Iran’s strategy is not to implement a total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, it...

FILE PHOTO: An aerial view of the island of Qeshm, separated from the Iranian mainland by the Clarence Strait, on December 10, 2023. Nicolas Economou/Reuters With thousands of US ground troops reportedly on the way to the Middle East, speculation is mounting that they may be assigned to take Iran’s Kharg Island, a key fuel hub in the northern Persian Gulf which handles 90% of Tehran’s oil exports. But Kharg is just one of dozens of Iranian islands in the gulf, and others may be more important to securing the safe passage of ships – and naval vessels –...

The islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb in the Persian Gulf hold the key to the global economy's most vital chokepoint: the Strait of Hormuz..In the current landscape of the West Asia conflict, the islands of Abu Musa, Greater Tunb, and Lesser Tunb have transformed from sleepy patches of sand into what military analysts call “unsinkable aircraft carriers". While the world watches the missile exchanges between major powers, these three tiny landmasses in the Persian Gulf hold the key to the global economy’s most vital chokepoint: the Strait of Hormuz.The story of how these islands became part...

WAHOO, Neb. (AP) — Strong winds whipped around Doug Bartek, a fifth-generation farmer, as he headed into a grain bin to shovel soybeans onto a conveyor chute. The 60-year-old was anxious at the onset of the spring planting season, rattling off the long list of issues affecting his family’s livelihood at their 2,000-acre farm near Wahoo, Nebraska. The high cost of fuel, equipment, and fertilizer — compounded by the Iran war — and also tariffs, perceived “price gouging” by suppliers, and low soybean prices driven by a global supply glut. All of it weighs on Bartek, who is chairman of...

Nigeria (Christian Daily International–Morning Star News) – Gunmen described as “Fulani terrorists” raided a village in central Nigeria on Thursday night (April 9) and killed at least 20 Christians, area residents said. The assailants attacked Mbwelle village, near Bokkos town in Plateau state at about 9 p.m., they said. “An attack is currently ongoing in my village, Mbwelle,” Moses Kefas told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News in a text message. “Twenty members of our community have died, and seven of them are members of my family.” Kefas identified eight of those slain as church elder Iliya Mangut Dakus, Luck Titus...