Free Republic

“Free Gaza” was found marked on incendiary devices used to burn ballot drop boxes in Washington state earlier this week, according to news reports, suggesting for the first time that the arson may have had a political motive.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi said Tuesday that Israel will not give Hezbollah a break from attack, as Israeli Air Force (IAF) warplanes launched a third wave of attacks in Lebanon. The Times of Israel reported Halevi’s remarks: “Hezbollah must not be given a break. [We must] keep working with all our might.” It also reported that the IAF had dropped 2,000 munitions on Hezbollah in the previous 24 hours. The Israeli offensive, officially named Operation Northern Arrows, appears to have two separate tactics. On the one hand, Israel is carrying out targeted strikes...

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution Wednesday that effectively bars Israel from self-defense in any of the territory it captured in a defensive war in 1967, including in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem. The resolution refers to a ruling earlier this year by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — led by a judge from Lebanon, which is in a state of war with Israel — in which it declared Israel’s presence in Gaza, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and eastern Jerusalem to be illegal under international law. (Israel angrily rejected the ruling, with Prime Minister...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared victory Thursday in the battle of Rafah, having destroyed Hamas’s four battalions there over the course of four months. It was a battle that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for U.S. president, told Israel not to fight, warning of the consequences for civilians there, and even threatening to withhold U.S. weapons. “I have studied the maps,” Harris said, declaring that it was impossible to attack Rafah without hurting civilians. srael, believing it would lose the war without taking Rafah, entered anyway.

Pro-Palestinian students rejoiced on August 29, 2024, when San Francisco State University (SFSU) announced it would divest from three arms manufacturers because they allegedly fail to meet "human rights standards."NBC Bay Area reported that the three companies are Lockheed Martin, Palantir Technologies, and Leonardo.The divestment decision followed weeks of protest from pro-Palestinian students. The students "camped out and protested for three weeks in a nationwide call for universities to disclose and divest from what they categorized as companies profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and the war in Gaza.Caterpillar — a heavy equipment manufacturer, not an arms manufacturer —...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Monday that 90% of the Hezbollah rockets that were intercepted Sunday were fired from civilian areas in southern Lebanon, a further violation of international law by the Iran-backed terror group. In a statement, the IDF said: Early Sunday morning, following the detection of preparations by Hezbollah to launch missiles and rockets aimed toward the north and the center of the State of Israel, the IDF struck Hezbollah targets that posed an immediate threat. During the strike, about 230 launches and 20 aerial targets were identified crossing into Israeli territory. The Hezbollah terrorist organization places...

CLAIM: Trump said: “Many more people died during his administration of COVID than during my administration.” VERDICT: MOSTLY TRUE, though Biden was president for longer during the pandemic, which distorts comparisons. President Donald Trump told Elon Musk during an interview on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday that more people had died from the coronavirus under President Joe Biden than had died under his administration. That is true. “There were roughly 460,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 up through the end of January 2021, the month when Mr. Biden took over. Mr. Biden has overseen roughly 800,000 deaths since,” the Washington Times...

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) Commander General Michael Kurilla is in Israel Monday on a pre-planned visit that would not have happened had President Donald Trump not made the decision to include Israel in CENTCOM. The U.S. divides military policy geographically, with different countries assigned to different areas based on their location. But Israel, while in the Middle East, had long been included in U.S. European Command (EUCOM), in deference to Arab hostility towards the Jewish state. Pro-Israel groups had argued that being in EUCOM put Israel at a disadvantage, because U.S. military officials in the Middle East had closer ties...

On Thursday, the IDF and Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet, or Shabak) released a statement identifying the "journalist" as a terrorist:In a joint IDF and ISA operation, the IAF struck and eliminated Ismail al-Ghoul, a Hamas Military Wing operative and Nukhba terrorist who participated in the October 7th Massacre.As part of his role in the military wing, Al-Ghoul instructed other operatives on how to record operations and was actively involved in recording and publicizing attacks against IDF troops. His activities in the field were a vital part of Hamas' military activity.The IDF and ISA are operating in order...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer falsely claimed Sunday that he refused to shake Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hand during his address to Congress last week because of “serious disagreements” over policy. A photograph and video footage of Schumer meeting with Netanyahu privately before the speech, released by Netanyahu’s office, show him shaking Netanyahu’s hand. Schumer simply refused to repeat the cordial gesture in public. Viewers watching Netanyahu’s address noted that Schumer pointedly refused to shake Netanyahu’s hand as he walked down the aisle of the House chamber toward the podium.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MN) mounted a silent protest during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on Wednesday, holding up signs that said “Guilty of Genocide” and “War Criminal” during his address. Netanyahu, who was received with a standing ovation, began his address by acknowledging the Israeli hostages and their families, and by honoring Israeli soldiers in the gallery, — including Ethiopian and Muslim soldiers, and soldiers who, though wounded, returned to the fight. He rebuked anti-Israel protesters, alluding to the thousands who had gathered outside the Capitol, noting that they stood with Hamas and with “evil,” and noting...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Friday that Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi corridor, in a hostage deal, despite media reports to the contrary. In a statement, Netanyahu said (via Government Press Office): The Reuters report, according to which, Israel has discussed the possibility of withdrawing from the Philadelphi Corridor, is absolute fake news. The Prime Minister insists that Israel remain on the Philadelphi Corridor. He has instructed the negotiating teams accordingly, made this clear to US representatives this week, and updated the Security Cabinet to this effect last night. However,...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) shared drone footage Tuesday of terrorists in a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) compound in Rafah, near several United Nations (UN) vehicles, including gunfire by the terrorists.Israel's foreign minister, Israel Katz, said that the UN was working with the terrorists, and called on UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini to resign (as Katz has done in the past).The IDF released a statement:During IDF operational activity in eastern Rafah on Saturday, terrorists were identified in UNRWA's central logistics compound alongside UN vehicles.In the footage, a number of terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles...

CLAIM: President Ronald Reagan, like President Joe Biden, withheld arms from Israel to influence its military policy. VERDICT: MISLEADING. Reagan acted within the law, and in very different circumstances, in withholding arms. The New York Times‘ Peter Baker — winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper’s bogus reporting on “Russia collusion” — wrote Friday that President Reagan, too, withheld weapons from Israel over concerns about their use. Baker’s aim in the article appears to be to rescue Biden from some of the criticism he has faced since he confirmed earlier this week that the administration was withholding bombs and...

...Then he brought the Holocaust into the discussion."You're saying that from the perspective of someone who literally went through the Holocaust or your people, your tribe. You went through the Holocaust and now you're willing to do it?" he said, apparently directing his statement at Israel.Democratic Majority for Israel, a pro-Israel group within the Democratic Party, slammed Rogan's comments as "wholly false & dangerous," placing them within the context of other fringe view that it claimed he holds...

An antisemitic riot broke out Tuesday evening at a meeting of the city council of Berkeley, California, that was to have discussed plans for observing Holocaust Remembrance Day in April.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), a member of the left-wing “Squad” in the Democratic caucus, walked back claims he made in November on Tuesday that reports of rapes committed by Hamas terrorists were Israeli “propaganda.” In a now-viral video that resurfaced from TikTok, Bowman told a rally held on November 17 in Westchester, New York, that the claims of rape, among other claims, were mere “propaganda” justifying the “siege” of Gaza. SCOOP: In the weeks after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) not only publicly cast doubt on reports that Israeli women were raped, but also called...

A senior Israeli official said Tuesday that President Joe Biden should focus on toppling the Hamas terrorist group, rather than trying to topple the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.The Israeli source was commenting in the wake of a report Monday that said U.S. intelligence agencies "expect" the Israeli prime minister's coalition government to collapse. The assessment, in the middle of a war, was the latest political attack by the Biden Administration against the Netanyahu government. Netanyahu pushed back, and told Fox News on Monday morning that "[t]o the extent that Hamas believes that there's daylight between us, that...

JERUSALEM, Israel — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the shocking accusation late Wednesday night during a press briefing in Israel’s capital that Israel is “dehumaniz[ing]” Palestinians in Gaza because of the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza. “Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7th,” Blinken said. “The hostages have been demonized every day since. But that cannot be a license to dehumanize others.” He did not provide any evidence that Israel has been “dehumanizing” Palestinians, but simply seemed to suggest that the suffering of Palestinian civilians who “had nothing to do with the...

Comedian Jon Stewart devoted his monologue on the Daily Show Monday evening to criticizing Israel’s response to the Hamas terror attack, and mocking the Biden administration for not clamping down on what he called a five-month bombing campaign. The show was Stewart’s third since returning from an extensive hiatus to take the reins on a weekly basis, on Monday evenings. Stewart mocked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan for postwar Gaza: “So your peace plan is a siege?” He claimed, falsely, that Netanyahu was trying to end the “idea” of Hamas, likening it to George W. Bush’s “mission accomplished” in...