Free Republic

Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu aide who is seeking to replace him as prime minister for a second time, is offering voters a straightforward promise: a “rebuild.” Israel’s main anti-Netanyahu alliance, led by Bennett and Yair Lapid…offered a conservative, hawkish vision that carries echoes of Netanyahu — but none of his baggage. Their pitch will be tested in a momentous election this year that will reveal whether voters want younger faces to lead Israel through a period of growing domestic division and international isolation… Lapid’s centrist supporters say they do not agree on all issues with Bennett…But he is someone...

Israel is betting nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars that it can talk its way out of a reputation crisis. Lawmakers in Jerusalem approved a 2026 national budget at the end of March that includes roughly $730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — more than four times the $150 million they allocated the year before… Most striking for a country long accustomed to bipartisan American support: 57% of Republicans under 50 hold negative views of Israel. Support has cratered among the religiously unaffiliated, Black Protestants and Catholics. Among American Jews, support has...

Forty-two percent of Israelis who voted for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party in the previous election are either considering or have decided to back a different party in the fall Knesset elections, according to a Channel 12 news poll broadcast Friday. The other 58% of Israelis who voted for Likud in the previous election said they will do the same at the ballot box, the survey said. The poll showed 10% of those who backed Likud in 2022 will support the Together slate former prime minister Naftali Bennett formed with Opposition Leader Yair Lapid; 6% will vote for former...

She is the loudest, most aggressive pro-Israel voice in Donald Trump's orbit. So when Laura Loomer leaned in close to the President two months ago and warned him that the American public was giving up on the Jewish State, his two-word reply landed like a thunderclap, carrying an ominous message for Benjamin Netanyahu. 'You're probably going to be the last pro-Israel President we ever have,' Loomer recounted telling Trump, in an interview with the New York Times. Trump, she says, replied: 'You're right.' The White House pointedly did not deny the exchange. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly instead offered a boilerplate response...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday revealed he had undergone treatment for prostate cancer and delayed releasing the results at the peak of U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran earlier this year. In a post on the social platform X, Netanyahu said doctors had discovered a malignant tumor at a “very early stage” and that it had not spread “whatsoever.” He said he chose to have “targeted treatment” against the tumor, which required a “few short” follow-up treatments. “Today, my annual medical report was published. I requested to delay its publication by two months so that it would...

Moved almost to tears, three of US President Donald Trump’s closest confidants stood together…on the stage at Hostages Square – a central Tel Aviv plaza that, since the October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre, has become the beating heart of weekly demonstrations calling for the release of Israelis still held captive in Gaza and, increasingly, for an end to the war. It was Witkoff’s third visit to Hostages Square in less than a year, and that compares with not a single visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or most of his ministers. The hostages’ families have described many times their connection...