Free Republic

Most Gazans approve of Hamas’s decision to launch the war on October 7 and would prefer Hamas rule over the US-backed Palestinian Authority A book by Hitler is discovered in the house of Ahmed Samarah (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON UNIT) In June, Fadi al-Wadiya, a physiotherapist from Doctors Without Borders, was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza. Doctors Without Borders quickly took to social media, condemning the “abhorrent” attack in multiple languages in a post that received millions of views and thousands of shares. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responded by publishing photographic evidence that al-Wadiya was an operative...

As an Israeli journalist observing this train wreck, the lesson is clear: honesty is the best policy in politics, as in life. Now, Biden’s legacy and the Democratic Party’s future hang in the balance The circus that is American politics never fails to entertain, but the latest act has been more tragicomedy than usual. US President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, followed by his endorsement of Kamala Harris, has pulled the rug from under the Democrats. Yet, the real scandal isn't Biden’s decision to step down—it's the deceitful cover-up by his advisors that led to this debacle....

“Prop 1, the Ranked Choice Voting and Open Primaries ballot initiative, qualified to be on the general election ballot this November. If Prop 1 passes, this will be the end of the Idaho Democratic Party. The promise of Prop 1 is to allow Democrats and Independents to have a voice by choosing Republican candidates, but it also means the Republicans will be voting for Democrat candidates. This includes precinct committeemen (PCs) who elect the leadership of the Democratic Party. Imagine a concerted effort by Republicans to run for Democrat party Pc races (or maybe this is already underway). Same play...

Trump assassination attempt: Does Dr. Jill Biden need to be questioned?I am careful about my words. I don’t throw around accusations, and, for the legal record, I am not here making an accusation. This essay is deliberately written so as to not be an act of defamation or of libel.Here is my immediate response on Saturday July 13, to the assassination attempt. As I warned you all in my recent essay “What Time It is”, about the incarceration of Stephen K Bannon, the attempt on President Trump’s life on Saturday July 13 was sadly predictable, as we are in the...

What it's really time for. Old Joe Biden has now bowed to pressure from Democrat top dogs and dropped out of the race. So why is this man still president of the United States? The contradiction is clear in the statement Biden’s handlers wrote in his name, withdrawing his candidacy: “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country” — note the order of priority: party first, country second — “for...

"Muslim Travel Ban" replaced with "Israeli Travel Ban." Eight years ago, Elor Azaia, an Israeli Army medic, arrived at the scene of an Islamic terrorist attack in the biblical Jewish city of Hebron. Two Islamic terrorists had been shot after attacking Israeli soldiers. One of the terrorists, wearing a heavy coat in springtime weather, was still alive, and Elor suspected that he had a suicide bomb vest hidden underneath the coat.The soldiers on the scene were uncertain what to do and Elor took the shot to save their lives.The Islamic terrorist attack had been timed for the Jewish holiday of...

Can we cease the charge of Trump the fascist since it has not only been proven false but has revealed far more about the authoritarian and conspiratorial nature of the accusers than their target? Who has most peddled conspiracy allegations the last nine years—all of them false and nearly all of them influencing national elections and public policies? Once a target is constructed as Hitlerian, almost any means necessary to quash that perceived existential threat become justified. And we have seen a lot of them in the last nine years. Russian collusion did not work. Christopher Steele was a fraud....

On Sunday, President Biden chose National Ice Cream Day to announce he will not seek re-election for a second term, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take over as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. Biden said in a letter posted to X that he will “stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” But if he had any respect for the office he holds, the American people, our republic or himself, Biden would resign from the presidency immediately. No one said campaigning for re-election was easy. The schedule is punishing. A...

Can Trumpism outlast Donald Trump? The selection of Senator JD Vance of Ohio as his running mate suggests that the answer is yes.Even the most successful political parties are coalitions of odd bedfellows and competing interests. But parties risk decline if they cannot attract new voters or if they suppress internal debates. The Republican Party Mr. Trump inherited in 2016 had been defined by free market ideology and neoconservative foreign policy for a generation: From Ronald Reagan through both Bushes to Mitt Romney, mainstream conservatism pursued a narrow agenda of tax and entitlement cuts at home and wars of regime...

On the surface, this GOP convention is the most ebullient and unified in decades. Beneath it, many elected officials are deeply uneasy. The source of that agitation is Donald Trump’s running mate. At a glance, Mr. Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance makes sense, as he appears to be a prototype of Mr. Trump. Protectionist. Passionate. America First. But he isn’t Mr. Trump—not at all—in ways that are hugely consequential for the conservative movement and its future. In choosing Mr. Vance now, Mr. Trump sets him up for 2028, which means a monumental internal fight is coming. We’ll soon find...

The greatest beneficiaries of violence. There have been four assassinations of presidents in American history, and every one of them has aided the Democrats. This is not to say that the Democrat party engineered the assassinations for its own advantage, but nevertheless, it’s true: each time a president has been killed, the Democrats were the beneficiaries. If Donald Trump had been murdered last Saturday evening, it would not have been the killing of a sitting president, but once again, the left would have reaped the benefits. When Abraham Lincoln became the first president to be murdered while in office, the...

Who green-lit the Trump shooting? On Saturday, July 14, a 20-year-old local boy with virtually no online footprint or history of political radicalism brought a ladder and rifle to the Pennsylvania grounds where presidential candidate Donald Trump was about to speak to supporters. The would-be assassin stationed himself on a low, unsecured, slightly sloped rooftop with a direct line of sight to Trump, a mere 130 yards away, and got off a shot that came within a hair’s breadth of killing the likely next President. A Secret Service sniper then eliminated the threat (but only after he got off a...

MILWAUKEE - For four nights at Donald Trump's nominating convention in Milwaukee, a roster of speakers attempted to give one of the most divisive politicians in recent U.S. history a makeover, describing him as a loving and caring family man whose near-assassination at a rally on Saturday had changed him. That new version of Trump lasted barely half an hour. Then the Trump more familiar to Americans - the bombastic thrower of insults who revels in demonizing his opponents - re-emerged, trampling over the message of unity so painstakingly choreographed by the Republican National Committee this week. In a rambling...

What’s behind the Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement and two prominent Iraqi Shi’ite militias' latest statements, and what may they imply for the direction of events? Recent statements by the Yemeni Ansar Allah (Houthis) movement and by two prominent Iraqi Shi’ite militias reflect the close levels of cooperation and coordination between different elements of the Iranian-led Mehwar al-Muqawama (Resistance Axis) in the region. The statements consist of threats against Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. Of particular note is the focus on Saudi Arabia by these organizations. What’s behind these latest statements, and what may they imply for the...

Why not, at last, just let the people choose their own president? When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the “right thing” of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton. What followed were eight long years of extralegal efforts to neuter candidate, then President, then ex-President, and then candidate again, Donald Trump. The nonstop efforts were all justified as “saving democracy”—albeit by nearly destroying it. In 2015-2016, the Hillary Clinton campaign fueled the lie that discredited ex-British spy Christopher...

This assassination attempt on Trump is only the latest endeavor to stop him from leading the United States in 2025. A SIGN near the site of last week’s attempted assassination of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, reads: ‘Prayers for Peace – Donald Trump 2024.’ US President Joe Biden’s choice of Kimberly Cheatle to lead the Secret Service is a failure, the writer opines.(photo credit: CARLOS OSORIO/REUTERS) By the grace of God, former President Donald Trump turned his head and the assassin’s shot sliced into his ear instead of piercing his skull. We could very well be planning...

“Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?” The Democrat press agents known as “the media” are frantically attempting to convince us that until the June 27 presidential debate, they didn’t know the extent and severity of Joe Biden’s cognitive and physical decline. That’s why since 2020 they smeared thousands of columns and videos documenting the decline as “disinformation” or “deep fakes” manufactured by the MAGA Ministry of Information. Essentially, they’ve been relying on the Marxist––of the Chico variety–– question, “Who you gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?”But for over a century we’ve known that the left is...

Deal with it. You knew that the New York Times wouldn’t let a patriotic holiday like Independence Day pass without taking a subversive shot at patriotism or America itself or her founding. Sure enough, author, editor, and Times columnist Pamela Paul wrote a July 4th opinion piece with a headline that, in addition to being wrong, was insulting to all Americans of faith: “Your Religious Values Are Not American Values.” Predictably, it regurgitates many of the Left’s usual negative tropes about Christianity and our country’s founding.Allow me to address some of those tropes, and please forgive the belated response to...

MILWAUKEE — When the Republicans put the final gavel to the wreckage of their convention in Cleveland eight years ago, they were in a state of nuclear meltdown.Yes, they had a nominee in reality television star Donald Trump. But the party itself was a collection of warring factions that agreed on little by way of principles, beyond their collective desire to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House. Strategist David Urban, who helped organize the 2016 convention for Trump, recalls that the floor of Quicken Loans Arena felt like “enemy territory.” Tensions were thick between Trump’s campaign and the...

As Old Joe Biden sends them billions. The Biden regime State Department has now publicly confirmed what it must have known for nearly three years, if not longer: Taliban jihadis are holding three Americans hostage. What have relentlessly anti-American Biden regime apparatchiks done in response? True to form, they’ve sent billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer money to the Taliban.The Washington Examiner reported Saturday that a Biden regime Foggy Bottom wonk “confirmed on July 11 that three U.S. citizens, George Glezmann, Mahmood Habibi, and Ryan Corbett, are currently being held in Taliban custody. Taliban representatives repeatedly claimed they only held...