Free Republic

When American and Israeli warplanes struck Iran on Feb. 28, Israeli officials let themselves believe the alliance was entering a golden age. Four months later, they are bracing for a future where Israel stands more alone than ever. The vice president of the United States set the stage last week, telling Israel it has almost no friends left in the world, and that it should think hard before turning on the one it has. But the problem for Israel is much bigger than JD Vance, according to seven people, including U.S. and Israeli officials and others familiar with the relationship....

"You Can't Be A Slave To A Foreign Power— STOP!"TRANSCRIPT SUMMARYThe speakers argue that President Trump recognized the risks of escalating conflict with Iran but responded with public threats rather than a clear military strategy. They claim this made him appear weak, comparing his behavior to someone who boasts instead of acting decisively. Tucker Carlson is quoted criticizing Trump for being overly influenced by others, particularly Israel, and expressing regret for previously promoting Trump based on expectations he now believes were incorrect.The discussion praises Tucker Carlson as an influential commentator and argues that some of his remarks have been taken...

Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister 'all the Jews are sick of you' during a shouting match regarding peace in the Middle East, according to a new book about the President's second term. Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's 'Regime Change' details Trump's attempt to broker a Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas in September of 2025. The President was on the call with Netanyahu, son in law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff when they became frustrated with the prime minister following an Israeli strike on Qatar. That's when Trump unleashed, the book claims. 'Everybody's sick of you, Bibi....

Trump said in the post on Wednesday: "The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. "Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being 'gouged.'" He added that he had ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to "immediately start looking into this".

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir openly called for genocide, demanding that all of Lebanon “must burn” while the United States works to end the war with Iran. Ben-Gvir issued a scathing rebuke of the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) negotiated between Iran and the United States after Israel says four of its soldiers were killed in Southern Lebanon in an attack by Hezbollah — although some reports suggest Israel and Lebanon have subsequently agreed to a new ceasefire late Friday morning. In his statement, Ben-Gvir said the goal should be to indiscriminately “obliterate” Lebanon. “For every tear of...

US Vice President JD Vance pushes back on what he calls an Israeli “freakout” over the recently signed US-Iranian memorandum of understanding in an interview with The New York Times, suggesting Israel relies too much on military force to address its problems, that it should give more “credit” to the US as an ally, and that concerns that the agreement emboldens Iran or its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, are misplaced. “I find this whole freakout in Israel a little bit odd because I think that it comes from a place of mistrust, and I think that America has earned the trust...

Iran's top joint military command, ​Khatam al-Anbiya Central ‌Headquarters, said on Saturday that the Strait ​of Hormuz would ​be closed to vessel ⁠traffic, citing ​alleged violations of a ​ceasefire agreement by the U.S. and Israel, Iran's ​Mehr state ​news agency reported. It said that ‌the ⁠closure was the "first step" in response to what it ​described ​as ⁠breaches of commitments and warned ​that further measures ​would ⁠be taken if "aggression" continued.

Throughout the early Cold War, conservatives in Congress—including Republicans—opposed American entanglements in the Middle East, drawing on an earlier noninterventionist consensus that valued restraint overseas and fiscal prudence at home. Conservative Republicans presented a vocal bloc of opposition to the Eisenhower Doctrine, which expanded American influence in the Middle East, ostensibly to counter Soviet influence and fill the vacuum left by the departure of the European colonial powers. One such dissenter was Iowan Representative H.R. Gross, one of the most fiscally conservative congressional members in history. Dissenting Republicans voiced similar critiques during the American response to the 1973 Yom Kippur...

The Department of War is reportedly seeking $80 billion to cover costs associated with the Iran conflict and other unrelated expenses, according to The Wall Street Journal.Deputy War Secretary Stephen Feinberg has told lawmakers in recent phone calls that the Pentagon needs additional funding to sustain military operations tied to the conflict with Iran and cover other expenses, people familiar with the discussions told the Journal. Congress has been pressing the Trump administration for a comprehensive accounting of the war's costs since the conflict began Feb. 28. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concern about the depletion of U.S. munitions...

[Translated from Hebrew by Twitter.] For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn! With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit. All of Lebanon must burn. Our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, and this commitment takes precedence over every other consideration. I told the Prime Minister, even in our private meetings: For every tear of an Israeli...

The article cites PUBLIC instances when previous Iranian leaders boasted about cheating on nuclear deals. Why are we trusting them? Because they promised they won't pursue nuclear weapons? Iran signed the NPT in 1968. So they already "promised" this before. In return for giving them billions of dollars in sanctions relief and opening up the Strait of Hormuz to their oil tankers, what, exactly, are they giving up?

US President Donald Trump knocks Israel for attacking Beirut today and says the IDF should not carry out any more attacks on any part of Lebanon moving forward. “This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a peace deal with Iran,” Trump writes on Truth Social, stopping short of definitively declaring that an memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran will actually be signed today. “Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody...

Interviews with six chapter leaders of the youth conservative movement Turning Point USA in swing states revealed a striking level of frustration. “From a lot of my peers, especially in Gen Z right now, there is a lot of frustration and now, distrust, in our current administration over the decisions with the war in Iran,” said Rebekah Bushmire, vice president of the University of West Georgia’s Turning Point USA chapter. Connor Darby, vice chair of a TPUSA chapter at the University of North Georgia, pointed out Trump’s comments about pre-war strikes having destroyed Iran’s nuclear capabilities. “I thought that was...

Even if you’re sick of hearing about Jeffrey Epstein — President Donald Trump and his team have been far more fixated on the relentless controversy than they have ever acknowledged. That (and plenty of other juicy revelations) is based on three years of reporting for a forthcoming book. "Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump" is by New York Times correspondents Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan and slated to be published in two weeks. Whether you’re a Trump supporter or detractor, the book is packed with facts that make clear that most or all of the major participants...

Republicans on Capitol Hill are seething that Donald Trump is not more focused on the economy as this year's midterm elections approach, warning it could obliterate the narrow GOP congressional majority. Polling indicates that voters are souring on Trump and his Republican allies in Congress ahead of his November's elections that will prove fateful for the President's agenda. In addition to the lack of attention to fixing the economy, senior aides also identified the nomination of Federal Housing Finance Director Bill Pulte, a close ally of the President, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence as an...

Donald Trump has agreed to a major concession to end the war in Iran: allowing the Islamic Republic to retain some of its civilian nuclear program. 'Now, on the civilian nuclear program, I think that we have to be very careful and very precise here,' a senior White House official discussing the pending memorandum of understanding between the US and Iran told reporters on a call Friday afternoon. 'We're not bothered at all by the idea of civilian power plants in Iran; what we're bothered by is the type of infrastructure that would allow them to jump from civilian power...

‘Hey, you promised lower gas prices. You promised the economy would be better.” Christian conservative influencer Savanna Faith Stone...is one of a flurry of influencers who flocked to San Antonio to gather under a bevy of bright pink lights at Turning Point USA’s Women’s Leadership Summit. “It’s harder than ever for a young couple to be able to buy a home." “I cannot express to you the level of alarm bells that should be ringing for the GOP,” conservative influencer Alex Clark told POLITICO. "Young women are looking at everything from the ongoing war in Iran to the persistence of...

Given its oft-proclaimed calling as a peace project, the European Union can sound oddly bellicose when it sets about crafting policy. There are trade and fiscal “bazookas” to blast away crises, “silver bullet” solutions for every problem, and “nuclear options” to be used as a last resort. Yet in the absence of an EU army or even a police force, the pen-wielding Eurocracy rarely gets its hands on anything that looks like an actual weapon. The only exception—tellingly—is the club’s border-patrol agency. For over a decade after it was founded in 2005, Frontex agents wielded little more than whistles and...

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s latest strikes on Lebanon and Iran have made clear that U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who started the war in lockstep, want different things.Trump had publicly warned Israel not to strike Beirut in its war with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. When it did, on Sunday, Iran responded by firing ballistic missiles at Israel for the first time since the April ceasefire. Israel then struck Iran, with which Trump has been engaged in weeks of high-stakes negotiations.The fighting has since died down, but the differences between the two leaders are likely to persist.That’s...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it carried out strikes on Iran following the crash of an Army helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz that President Donald Trump blamed on the Islamic Republic.U.S. Central Command said on social media that the strikes would be "a proportional response to unjustified Iranian aggression." Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that Iran has effectively closed during the war, before saying that the wave of American attacks in the south has "subsided."Trump said earlier...