Free Republic

Ari Kalker joins the show under heartbreaking circumstances to tell the story of Josh Boone, a lone soldier from Boise, Idaho, who became a decorated IDF sniper and a relentless “guardian of Israel,” logging an almost unbelievable 748 days of reserve duty before PTSD took his life. This episode pulls you past the headlines and into the hidden cost of a long war: how trauma shows up, why the “strongest guy in the room” is often the last to ask for help and what real intervention looks like when bureaucracy moves too slowly. You’ll also learn the crucial distinction between...

ISRAEL: Government approves call-up of up to 400,000 reservists amid ongoing war with Iran and Hezbollah •⁠ ⁠IDF says this is a maximum ceiling, not the actual number to be called •⁠ ⁠Previous cap stood at 280,000 •⁠ ⁠Move aimed at expanding flexibility for Operation Roaring Lion •⁠ ⁠Designed to meet growing needs across multiple fronts

Friends of the Israel Defense Forces distributed more than $132 million in 2025, the largest annual allocation in the organization’s 44-year history, with what it said was “significant” funding for mental health care and post-traumatic stress treatment for IDF soldiers, reservists and veterans... “We started seeing these reservists getting out of Gaza or from Lebanon, and nobody took care of them,” said Nadav Padan, CEO and national director of FIDF. Padan told JNS that he witnessed the psychological toll of combat in the days following the Oct. 7 attacks. “I flew to Israel the night of Oct. 7, reached Israel...

The United States struck Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility on Saturday, several media reports claimed, as the American and Israeli air forces continued their bombing campaign against regime targets. Iranian media said US-Israeli forces attacked the Shahid Ahmadi-Roshan Natanz enrichment complex on Saturday morning. Technical experts found that no radioactive leaks had occurred, and nearby residents were not at risk. In response to a query by The Times of Israel, the Israel Defense Forces said that it did not conduct any strikes in the area and that it could not comment on American activities. Israel’s Kan news reported that the...

US President Donald Trump says he will not allow another Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars natural gas field, after the IDF struck the key energy site on Wednesday. Trump writes on Truth Social that Israel “violently lashed out” at South Pars “out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East,” while insisting that only “a relatively small section” of the oil field has been hit. The US president claims that the US “knew nothing about this particular attack.” ...

Like most people in the western hemisphere, I woke on February 28 to an overwhelming rush of footage, reports, and rumors from the Middle East. The United States and Israel had launched a surprise attack on Iran overnight (after the markets closed for the weekend), and were pummeling the Iranians with massed air strikes. Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Hosseini Khamenei - a longtime fixture in regional politics - was dead, according to soon to be confirmed Israeli reports. A few hours later, Iran began retaliating with missile strikes on targets all around the region, including Israel, American bases, and the...

The Israel Defense Forces’ campaign in the joint war with the United States against Iran is proceeding according to plan, and at a faster pace than initially expected, military officials said on Sunday, with strikes on Iran’s defense industries expected to further ramp up alongside ongoing efforts to reduce missile fire on Israel. Despite being apparently ahead of schedule, the military has said it is preparing for at least three more weeks of operations in Iran, as it still has thousands more targets to hit, both in Tehran and in other parts of the country. “We have thousands of targets...

BREAKING 5: IDF has also confirmed assassinations of Basij national leader and his deputy who wer hiding in a tent to avoid attacks on their HQs. The Basij are possibly the worst. Literally hooligans hired for 1 purpose: to beat and kill their own people.

The IDF has finally begun a new ground incursion into Lebanon, in response to Hezbollah's coordinate missile attacks with Iran. Tehran and its proxy has engaged in a campaign to exhaust Israel's anti-ballistic missile defenses. The big question at the moment is whether this is ... A: The beginning of a full-blown invasion and occupation of the sub-Litani regionB: The beginning of a full-blown war with Beirut as a strategic goalC: A limited incursion to force Hezbollah out of missile range while Israel focuses on TehranD: A threat of A or B as a means to force Lebanon to deal...

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Efi Defrin was asked if striking the Basij would lead to calls for Iranian citizens to take to the streets. He responded: 'As a military, we have no goal to topple a regime. We are creating the conditions for the people to take their country. We struck the Basij forces that impose terror on the citizens. What the Iranian people will do – that depends on them.'

Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security and foreign policy committee in the Iranian parliament, wrote on X that Ukraine had effectively entered the war by supporting Israel with drones A senior Iranian lawmaker warned Saturday that Ukraine could become a “legitimate target” for Iran, accusing Kyiv of assisting Israel during the ongoing conflict. Ebrahim Azizi, head of the national security and foreign policy committee in the Iranian parliament, wrote on X that Ukraine had effectively entered the war by supporting Israel with drones. “By providing support to the Israeli regime with drones, the collapsing Ukraine has in fact become...

Assassinating Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and nearly all of Iran’s top military and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officers on the first day of the war was an incredible turning point in which all of the IDF’s air and intelligence power combined to change the course of history, an IDF senior officer told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. “Assassinating the supreme leader and all of the top echelon of the Iranian military and the IRGC in around half a minute was made possible by a giant and incredibly coordinated airstrike, which took months of planning,” the senior officer said. In 40 seconds...

Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate (AMAN) has released new details on Saturday's IAF strike that destroyed the Quds Force's air transport network inside Iran.More than 16 transport aircraft were struck and destroyed, along with additional components located in the vicinity of Tehran's airport. The aircraft had been used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force to arm and finance Iranian-backed terror proxies across the Middle East. According to AMAN, Tehran's airport had been under close intelligence surveillance for years, with suspicious takeoffs and landings tracked and flagged through a broad collection and analysis effort spanning multiple intelligence units. In an...

"We want to tell you that the hand of the State of Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor," the IDF wrote.The IDF will continue to pursue every successor to Iran's next supreme leader, the military wrote on X in Farsi on Sunday morning. "We want to tell you that the hand of the State of Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor," the IDF wrote. We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will...

Israel’s Operation Lion’s Roar, was “the largest ever military flyover in the history of the Israeli Air Force,” with 500 Iranian targets struck, the IDF said Saturday. The campaign, which ran in tandem with the US’s Operation Epic Fury, dropped hundreds of munitions on roughly 500 Iranian targets and involved more than 200 Israeli Air Force aircraft. The military reportedly focused on Tehran’s aerial defense systems and missile launchers. The strikes “severely degraded the offensive capabilities of the Iranian regime — the launch sites in western Iran,” the IDF said. “The IDF will continue operating to significantly degrade every aspect...

Israeli Air Force@IAFsiteTranslated from HebrewThe IDF spokesperson announces that the IDF and the US Army have launched a joint, extensive, and powerful operation to comprehensively strike the Iranian terror regime and remove existential threats to the State of Israel over the long term. The blow included the targeting of dozens of military sites and was carried out as part of a broad, coordinated, and joint offensive against the regime.The Iranian regime has not abandoned its plan to destroy Israel. In recent months, and despite the severe blow it suffered in Operation "With a Lion," the IDF identified that the regime...

Is there really a ceasefire in Gaza? While headlines speak of “Phase B” and a technocratic government, IDF forces continue daily clashes with Hamas operatives testing the boundaries along the yellow line. Smuggling attempts resume at the Rafah crossing, drones move weapons, and Hamas works to rebuild both militarily and politically behind the scenes. On the ground, Israeli reserve soldiers rotate through fortified positions, facing tunnel threats, civilian exploitation, and constant friction. As international plans for reconstruction stall and global attention shifts, one central question remains: Can Gaza move forward without Hamas truly being removed? Stay up-to-date with the latest...

The Jerusalem Post @Jerusalem_Post: Editorial: For the first time during the war, a major international organization has publicly recognized the presence of armed groups operating within a Gaza hospital.

Arab bus driver, Fakhri Khatib, plows into ultra Orthodox Jews haredim protesting draft. killing teenager Yosef Eisenthal and injuring several others.Bus driver rams into ultra-Orthodox protesters in Jerusalem, 14-year-old killed.Thousands of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters gathered in Israel's capital on Tuesday evening • Driver arrested after killing one, injuring three others • Shas: "Haredi blood is not cheap."By Miriam Sela-eitam, Tobias Holcman. JPost, January 6, 2026.Yosef Eisenthal, a 14-year-old boy, was killed, and three were injured after a bus driver ran over ultra-Orthodox Jews during a haredi draft protest in Jerusalem on Tuesday."We responded to a severe collision involving a bus...

An Israeli soldier killed himself in a military base in northern Israel, taking the suicide-related death toll to 61 since the beginning of the Gaza war in October 2023, local media said. According to the Haaretz newspaper, a soldier serving compulsory military service sustained critical injuries after shooting himself inside a base and was pronounced dead Tuesday evening in a hospital. A military statement earlier said that a soldier was seriously injured in a shooting at a military base in northern Israel and was taken to the hospital, where he later died, noting that the military police had opened an...