Free Republic

BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 P.M.) – The United States tested the new smart bomb, GBU-53 StormBreaker, using one of their modern warplanes. According to reports, the U.S. Navy’s FA-18E/F Super Hornet fighter and attack aircraft launched the GBU-53 StormBreaker all-weather bomb on a designated target. The new bomb can be used in all weather conditions, including poor visibility, Janes Defense reported last week. An RMD spokesperson told Janes that the U.S. Air Force determines the number of tests needed to validate the bomb, but did not specify when it would be available. “The USAF (US Air Force) program office, in co-ordination...

A New York Times editor who was forced to delete and apologize for anti-Semitic statements is expressing concern that the paperÂ’s publication of an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) puts black lives at risk. Newsletters editor Tom Wright-Piersanti retweeted the NewsGuild of New York union's statement criticizing the Times for Cotton's op-ed, which calls for the military to quell violent uprisings in American cities. Wright-Piersanti also retweeted a message shared by dozens of Times staffers and editors about the piece: "Running this put Black nytimes staffers in danger." Wright-Piersanti apologized last August after Breitbart exposed tweets he sent...

Dr. Reza Parchizadeh, a political theorist and analyst, recently noted on Twitter that “the Iranian regime has turned the late #George_Floyd into Saint George, Shiite-style!” And sure enough, Parchizadeh posted a painting of Floyd depicting him in the way Shi’ite Muslims often depict their holy figures: in a green robe and surrounded by an aura of holy light. The Iranian regime has turned the late #George_Floyd into Saint George, Shiite-style! #Beware_Foreign_Influence pic.twitter.com/ofTtW5J3px— Dr. Reza Parchizadeh (@rezaparchizadeh) June 1, 2020 As incongruous as the image is, it’s perfectly fitting: Floyd, whose murder touched off the rage for destruction that is...

You wouldn’t know it from my last name, my tan skin, my North Florida address, or my politics, but I am a Jew. A northeastern Jew, in fact. I not only had a Bar Mitzvah but continued to attend Hebrew School afterward. And while I’d never move back up north, and seldom attend synagogue, I still feel a tremendous sense of pride while watching the Orthodox Jews of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, rebel against their tinpot dictator-mayor. Williamsburg has long been home to Jewish immigrants, including my grandparents and my mother. That’s right, they had a hipster address before it was cool....

Juliette famously said of her beloved Romeo, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  She wasn’t just talking about her love for him, but the inherent conflict between her Capulet and his Montague families, among whom there was a generations-old blood feud.   Today, in place of a rose, whether called sovereignty, annexation, applying Israeli law, or by any other name, it is a cornerstone of a different inherent conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, among whom there has also been a blood feud.In recent weeks, I have answered a multitude of questions about the possibility...

Blood samples from Covid-19 patients showed sicker patients had a high concentration of Alpha-defensin, a peptide involved in blood clots formation. Researchers around the world have been puzzled by a deadly Covid-19 complication: blood clots that can cause swollen legs, rashes and even sudden death. More than 30 percent of Covid-19 patients suffer from blood clots, which create lethal blockages in the lungs, kidneys, heart and brain. Dr. Abd Al-Roof Higazi, head of the Division of Laboratories and Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem, has found the mechanism that causes the clots. Higazi and colleagues...

Syria devalued its currency by 44% on Wednesday, announcing a new official exchange rate for the pound amid chaos in the market, hours before new U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off revenue for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government took effect. The sanctions, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, are the toughest set of measures to be imposed on Syria yet, preventing anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or from participating in the country’s reconstruction... Syria’s already troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the national currency, the Syrian...

With all due respect to that Iron Lady, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a woman I truly admire, human rights did not begin with the Magna Carta as she is quoted in yesterday's commemoration of the anniversary of the document by Robert Morrison. A few thousand years before England's King John signed the Magna Carta against his will and the English were just another group of lawless, warring tribes, the Jews, former slaves who fled Egypt on their way to the Promised Land of Israel, willingly received the Torah at Sinai. Codified and interpreted by generations of rabbis,...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the story of a major drama that unfolded behind the scenes at the UN Security Council shortly before former US President Barack Obama left office. New details about some drama involving Israel, Russia, and the US that played out behind the scenes at the United Nations Security Council some four years ago are coming to light. more.... It appears that Russia demonstrated a rare willingness to use its UNSC veto on Israel's behalf to block a resolution led by then-US President Barack Obama, which would have compelled Israel to set up a Palestinian state based...

More than half of the Democratic senators currently in office havespoken out in recent weeks against Israeli annexation of settlements in the West Bank. Together with the opposition to annexation expressed by former Vice President Joe Biden, the senators’ statements on the subject show that annexation could harm Israel’s standing with Democratic politicians and voters. As of Monday, at least 28 of the 47 Democrats in the Senate have expressed their opposition to annexation, most of them by sending letters on the subject to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz. A Democratic source in the Senate told...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (12:00 P.M.) – The United States confirmed on Friday that it will discuss with the Iraqi government the status of its remaining military forces, stressing that it does not seek military bases or a permanent military presence in Iraq. According to a joint statement of the first session of the strategic dialogue, Washington and Baghdad announced the continuation of the talks on the status of the remaining American forces in Iraq, where the two countries’ focus is towards developing a normal security relationship based on common interests. The governments of the two countries said in the statement that...

Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said on Sunday that an application of sovereignty over even “one inch” of “occupied Palestinian Territory” by Prime Binyamin Benjamin Netanyahu means an extermination of any chance of peace in the region. “If Netanyahu goes ahead with the annexation and apartheid, then he must ally with the American racist extremist organization, Klu Klux Klan, and must be ready to assume all his responsibilities as an occupying power,” said Erekat, who spoke during a virtual meeting of Israeli and foreign journalists and quoted by the Wafa news agency....

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed plans to construct a new settlement in the Golan Heights named after President Trump. The funding for “Trump Heights” was approved on Sunday, which will allocate $2.3 million towards the settlement. This big move expressed gratitude for President Trump’s decision to steer clear from prior foreign policies that actively worked against the state of Israel. “Today, we will begin practical steps to construct the settlement ‘Trump Heights’ in the Golan Heights, which Israel’s sovereignty over it was recognized by President Trump,” stated the prime minister. (more at link)

An Israeli scientist says she has laid the groundwork for a vaccine against COVID-19 that is likely to work even if the virus mutates significantly. “I think that if coronavirus mutates, this vaccine would still be effective,” Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern told The Times of Israel. Frenkel-Morgenstern, head of Bar Ilan University’s Lab for the BioComputing of Complex Diseases, has filed a provisional US patent application for her research identifying 25 epitopes that she concluded can build immunity against COVID-19. She said that the epitopes — tiny protein segments that are part of short chains of amino acids known as peptides —...

June 9, 2020: Despite the financial crises, continuing anti-government protests and growing criticism from government and military leaders, the senior clerics who run Iran believe that there is a good chance the American presidential elections in November will put a more pro-Iran and anti-Israel government in power. While this is a possibility, many Iranians don’t believe the clerics can hang onto power until the end of the year. Poverty is growing in Iran and the government continues to spend lots of money on military operations in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. Syria is the costliest foreign adventure. So far this...

Facebook and Instragram ads elicited shock and outrage among current students and alumni. A cutting-edge social media campaign conducted last month by the David Horowitz Freedom Center targeted select professors known for their promotion of Jew hatred and support of anti-Israel terror groups at elite schools including Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of California-San Diego, and Rutgers University. Even as the coronavirus has forced closures of colleges across the nation, anti-Semitism continues to take on new and disturbing dimensions with both Jews and Zionists being blamed for the spread of the virus. National Students for Justice in...

In the wake of international protests over the murder of George Floyd, we are reminded that hate has no place in civil society. When bigotry is hidden under the mask of human rights, it is important for the real goal be exposed—and for good people do the right thing. Since its beginning in 2005, the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has been hiding behind the façade of a "peaceful" effort to influence Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and forge ahead with a two-state paradigm. This is the narrative espoused by leftist college students, progressive activist groups and mainstream...

A dark and shuttered United Nations building in New York will not play host to world leaders for a week of speeches come September, as the globalist body contemplates being silent for the first time in 75 years. A bitterly disappointed president of the U.N. General Assembly confirmed Monday the annual gathering of leaders and bureaucrats been cancelled because of the march of the global Chinese pandemic.

The racially motivated protests and riots taking place in the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd have elicited an unusual response. Many people, including prominent politicians and law enforcement officials, have “taken the knee” in acquiescence to or in complete agreement with the claims of the protesters that America, and in particular the police are racist. One example was Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison who took a knee when confronted by a protest last Monday. Bettison performed the ritual at the insistence of “angry protesters.” Bettison did so despite the gesture being in contravention of department protocols, for...

The Palestinian Authority has told the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague that it considers itself exempt from any agreement with Israel and the United States, including the Oslo Accords, due to Israel’s plan to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria next month, Haaretz reported Friday. The PA released a statement from chairman Mahmoud Abbas in response to the ICC’s request last week for clarification regarding Abbas’ recent declaration that he is ending all agreements with Israel and the US. This may have ramifications for questions of international jurisdiction in PA-assigned territories. Abbas announced last month that “if Israel...