Free Republic

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on Sunday on ongoing negotiations for a hostage deal and a cease-fire agreement in the Gaza Strip, saying at the opening of the weekly Cabinet meeting that "we are engaging in negotiations, not concessions. The principles we have established are essential for Israel's security." Netanyahu emphasized that "Israel is prepared for any threat—both defensively and offensively. We are determined to defend ourselves and to exact a very heavy price from any enemy who dares to attack us, from any front." He added, "There are matters on which we can be flexible, and there are those...

The Israeli military has touted that their forces have killed more than 17,000 Hamas operatives in the Gaza Strip since the war began, with US officials saying the Jewish state has achieved “the vast majority” of its goals against the terrorists. IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said about 56% of Hamas’ estimated 30,000 forces have been wiped out since Israel waged war following the Oct. 7 massacre. Hagari said the blow has greatly affected Hamas’ ability to regroup and recover as small battalions have continued to resurface across Gaza after months of intense fighting. The latest death count is...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overtook war cabinet minister Benny Gantz as the public’s preferred choice for premier in a television survey aired Wednesday, marking the first time in a year that the incumbent rated higher than his best-polling rival. The Channel 12 news poll also found Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party gaining on Gantz’s centrist National Union, while indicating that a potential all-star slate of Netanyahu’s former right-wing allies could win a double-digit number of parliamentary seats, mainly at the expense of National Union. If elections were held today, according to the poll, National Union would pick up 25 of the...

Nikki Haley, a former GOP presidential candidate and United Nations ambassador, wrote “Finish them” on an artillery shell while on a trip to Israel this week. Haley was photographed signing the shell Tuesday in a social media post by Danny Danon, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations and a member of the Israeli Parliament. The message on the shell read, “Finish them! America [heart] Israel always, Nikki Haley.” “This is what my friend, the former ambassador, Nikki Haley wrote today about a shell during a visit to an artillery post on the northern border,” Danon wrote in a post...