Free Republic

In the run-up to the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 jihad attacks, and on the day itself, the establishment media is going to inundate us with feature stories about “Islamophobia.” Here’s one: NPR on Tuesday ran an interview with Rozina Ali, who writes for the New York Times and has just published a new book of victimhood propaganda, Seasons of Fury: Four Families and the Rise of Islamophobia in America. Hawking the book and Ali’s appearance, NPR tells us: After the Sept. 11 attacks, assaults against Muslims in the U.S. surged. At the same time the U.S. government launched a...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday that the final major IRGC-Hezbollah facility in southern Lebanon had been cleared, with all the occupants killed, captured, or moving at a very high speed out of the area. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Thursday night that the Israeli army has cleared the strategic Ali Taher ridge in southern Lebanon, which he said Hezbollah had developed as an extension of the Beaufort (al-Shakif) position. According to Netanyahu, the ridge was used to threaten the northern Israeli settlements of Kiryat Shmona and Metula and was positioned as part of Hezbollah’s plans to potentially...

Greece is set to sign a 3.1 billion euro defence agreement with Israel in Tel Aviv, marking the largest single defence export deal in Israeli history and equipping Athens with its first fully integrated, multi-layered air defence system. A Greek delegation will formalise the contract with the Israeli Defence Ministry, concluding three years of negotiations. The systems, known collectively in Greece as Achilles’ Shield, will be delivered in stages and are scheduled to reach full operational readiness within 35 months. Most of the funding will flow to Rafael Advanced Defence Systems for David’s Sling batteries capable of intercepting heavy rockets...

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it is creating a task force to take a fresh look at drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations linked to Hezbollah after an investigative report last month claimed that the Obama administration turned a blind eye to such activities to preserve the Iran nuclear deal. The task force, dubbed the Hezbollah Financing and Narcoterrorism Team (HFNT), will begin its work by reviewing investigations stemming from Project Cassandra, a campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) targeting the Lebanese terror group’s actions. According to a Politico report published last month, officials with the Obama Justice...

Arab state reportedly urged another potential Israel-normalization country to sign deal with Israel, then go to war ‘when time is right’ i24NEWS. August 10, 2026. Information cleared for publication by the Israeli military has revealed a reported exchange between several countries in the region over a possible agreement with Israel, according to reports by Israeli media Kan 11 and Channel 12. According to the reports, one Arab state allegedly advised another country to first sign an agreement with Israel and then, if circumstances became more favorable, launch a war against the Jewish state. identity of the country that received the...

US President Donald Trump says Iran should also be responsible “for the damages and death caused to the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Gaza.” The latest declaration by Trump in a Truth Social post comes an hour after he claimed he had instructed his negotiators to demand that Iran pay reparations for Americans it has killed over the years. | #FirstpostNews.

Iranians have adopted a new sport in the past few years: knocking the turban from a passing cleric’s head. There are points for technique and for how high and how far you can get their headgear to go. These are small acts of revenge against a hated religious elite who came to power on a wave of arrests and torture and who, as recently as January, ordered thousands of peaceful protesters to be shot in the streets. It’s also a symptom of something larger. Political Islam is in retreat across the Middle East and the wider Muslim world. “The strange...

The Peace Council on Friday published the full roadmap for ending the war in the Gaza Strip, outlining a phased process that includes Hamas’ disarmament, the transfer of civilian and security authority in Gaza to a new Palestinian governing body, an Israeli withdrawal, and a broader political process that could ultimately lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state. The document, titled the "Roadmap of July 30, 2026", serves as the framework for continued implementation of US President Donald Trump’s Comprehensive Plan. According to the document, the roadmap is designed to transform the principles of the 20-point plan from a...

President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu estimated the intense part of the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran would last four to six weeks. It is now entering the sixth month without a decisive military victory or a diplomatic breakthrough. Now, as Mr. Trump weighs his next steps and the future of roughly 50,000 U.S. troops across the Middle East, two of Washington's closest regional partners are pressing the president with sharply different visions for how the conflict should proceed. The president received input Wednesday from his partner in this war, Netanyahu, as well as from Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin...

An announcement on Hamas’s agreement to a 15-point Board of Peace proposal that would see the gradual handover of the terror group’s weapons could come in the coming days, an Arab diplomat familiar with the negotiations said. But as reports amassed about an imminent deal, an Israeli official appeared to pour cold water on the optimism, saying that the 15-point proposal “does not adequately address” Jerusalem’s demands for the “complete demilitarization, [which is] a precondition for any process.” “There will be no IDF withdrawal from the Yellow Line in the Gaza Strip before Hamas is disarmed and the Strip is...

Dozens of soldiers from the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion left the Sde Teiman base without authorization on Thursday afternoon after commanders removed signs and symbols tied to a longstanding battalion tradition, prompting widespread coverage in Arab media that portrayed the incident as a rebellion within the IDF. The soldiers were filmed leaving the base while chanting an obscene slogan against their officers. Some reportedly left their weapons behind before returning home. Videos and images from the scene quickly spread on X and were amplified by Lebanese, Syrian, Qatari and Iraqi outlets aligned with or sympathetic to the Iranian-led regional axis....

Egyptian officials have officially confirmed that an Iranian drone strike was responsible for damaging two US energy tankers at the port of Damietta. Following the strike, the United States carried out limited conventional air raids, opting against a broader military escalation despite warnings of a much harsher response. Egyptian authorities officially confirmed Thursday that an explosion damaging two American energy tankers at Damietta Port was caused by an Iranian drone strike. Egyptian officials emphasized that an investigation into the incident remains underway, noting that no group has formally claimed responsibility for the operation. The official confirmation from Cairo follows statements...

An explosion hit a liquefied natural gas terminal at Egypt's Damietta Port on Wednesday evening during cargo discharge operations, with maritime security officials suspecting an unmanned aerial vehicle attack. Maritime security firm Ambrey reported that a drone struck the American owned, Marshall Islands flagged floating storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that subsequently spread to a second vessel, Gaslog Salem. Shipping agent Inchcape Shipping Services stated that affected vessels were moved outside the port area while emergency crews contained the flames, allowing other berths to resume operations. The incident follows a target map published by Iranian state television identifying...

President Donald Trump vowed to hit back hard at Iran after it attacked US bases in Jordan on Wednesday, as the Middle East war reignited and once again drew in the Islamic republic's proxies.The warning came after a short lull in the fighting that had spurred hopes of a return to negotiations appeared to draw to an end, sending oil prices jumping five percent over fears of disruptions to global supplies.On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia and the United States announced strikes on militant bases in Iraq, while US ally Israel accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of a truce violation.- 'War by other means'...

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded a White House meeting Tuesday with both governments describing the talks as “positive and productive” and reaffirming their shared commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, as the president weighs whether to continue negotiations with Tehran or authorize additional military action. Iran dominated the discussions, according to Israeli and White House officials, after Trump warned just hours before the meeting that the United States would strike Iran’s suspected Pickaxe Mountain nuclear facility if Tehran refuses to reach an agreement over its nuclear program. Following the talks, Netanyahu called...

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House Tuesday for his first in-person talks with US President Donald Trump since the Iran war began in February, and later described their meeting as “excellent” and “one of the best we’ve ever had.” The White House succinctly called the talks productive and positive. The meeting took place behind closed doors in the Oval Office, with reporters not invited in and without a press conference afterwards. Netanyahu entered the White House through a side entrance that was only partially visible to reporters, and left without fanfare some 90 minutes later. Held...

US-Saudi airstrikes targeting the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq killed 20 people, including several Iranian military advisers, according to sources within the Iran-aligned alliance and Iranian media. Two sources within the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, told AFP that five Iranian advisers were among those killed in a strike in the central province of Diyala. AFP journalists reported seeing coffins draped in Iranian flags during funerals organized by the PMF in Baghdad. Iran’s Hamshahri newspaper separately reported that four military advisers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in the overnight strikes. Iranian authorities had not officially confirmed the...

The U.S. and Saudi militaries launched airstrikes late Tuesday on Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, U.S. Central Command said, after Iran and its proxies allegedly targeted American forces over the last few days. The strikes could pose a challenge to a five-day lull in U.S. attacks on Iran, as President Trump says he wants to give diplomacy a chance. It's unclear when — or whether — strikes on Iran could resume. The U.S. also said Tuesday it prevented an Iranian "surprise attack." The U.S.-Saudi operation was aimed at "terrorist logistics and weapons sites across eastern Iraq," CENTCOM said in a statement...

Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq reported drone attacks in their territory Monday amid a lull in US air strikes against Iran, after nearly two weeks of fighting between both sides. The Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning that it shot down two drones over the Jordan border, near the Dead Sea, adding that the drones did not cross into Israeli territory. Their origin was under investigation, the army said. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, some in its eastern province and others in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones had...

Around 40% of Iranians consider the US and Israeli military action against the Islamic Republic a “humanitarian intervention,” according to a survey of 31,450 Iranians aged 15 or older living in the country, conducted by the Netherlands-based non-profit research foundation The Group for Analyzing and Measuring Attitudes in Iran (GAMAAN). The survey, titled “Iranians’ Attitudes Toward the 2026 Protests and War,” collected responses from Iranians across the country from June 20 to June 27, 2026, in collaboration with Psiphon, Lantern, and MahsaNet. The survey reports an approximate 95% credibility level with a conservative credibility interval of plus or minus three...