Free Republic

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.

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...

Despite the clear transcript and video evidence exonerating Trump for the hoax surrounding Charlottesville, millions of Americans still believe that the 45th President was an open, brazen racist.“Hard to Kill” is a Steven Seagal action thriller from 1990 that garnered scornful reviews, though I loved it as a then-teenager. But that phrase, hard to kill, also aptly describes the “Very Fine People” hoax surrounding Charlottesville and the lingering myth that President Trump praised bigots there.In recent days, liberal social media rabble-rouser actor Michael Rapaport stated on the Patrick Bet-David podcast that “the Charlottesville, that I ranted about, I was wrong…...

I used to joke, during the recent impeachment trials, that if what Donald Trump had done was “worse than Watergate,” as CNN’s Carl Bernstein said over and over again, then perhaps Watergate wasn’t so bad.At the time, I had a conventional view of the scandal that brought down President Richard M. Nixon — the one taught in history courses, and familiar from All the President’s Men: that due to hubris and paranoia, Nixon had sought to spy on the opposition in an election he won by a landslide, and deserved to go to prison.That narrative has unraveled slowly over the...

Columnist Lee Smith, author of The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History, said colleagues and peers of his — whose judgment he trusts — speculate that the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, FL, was a search for documents related to its “Russiagate” surveillance operation of the 45th president. “I think the best way to understand this is in the context of a six-year-long operation targeting Donald Trump, Donald Trump’s aides, and Donald Trump’s supporters,” Smith said on...

Several journalists erroneously tweeted that Stephen K. Bannon was found guilty of contempt of Congress in federal court in Washington, DC, on Thursday afternoon — before closing arguments in the trial. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell tweeted: “BANNON GUILTY.” His colleague Chris Hayes tweeted “Bannon found guilty,” citing a tweet by CBS News correspondent Scott MacFarlane, who was covering a different case. Kai Ryssdal of Marketplace warned others that they were getting the facts wrong: So, too, did Bannon biographer Joshua Green: O’Donnell apologized for spreading the misinformation about the verdict, as did Hayes, taking down their mistaken tweets: Others also apologized:...

Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, author of The Price of Principle: Why Integrity Is Worth the Consequences, said Democrats are unable to credit former President Donald Trump for securing the Abraham Accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates due to severe partisanship and animus towards the the 45th president.“I think in general, [President Joe Biden’s] trip to the Middle East has been building on the Trump administration’s Abraham Accords,” Dershowitz said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak. “I can’t get a Democrat to agree that the Abraham Accords have moved the ball toward peace....

Russia announced sanctions Tuesday on President Joe Biden and several other prominent Americans — including Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who is known for his international dealmaking and influence-peddling in Ukraine, China, and elsewhere. The sanctions were described by the Russian government as a response to similar sanctions by the Biden administration, which has applied sanctions since Russia invaded Ukraine — after removing some Donald Trump-era sanctions last year. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: In response to a series of unprecedented sanctions , starting March 15, the Russian stop list includes, on the basis of reciprocity, President Joe Biden,...

The Port of Long Beach is not yet at 24/7 operations, despite President Joe Biden’s promise in October that the crucial cargo facility would be shifting to a round-the-clock schedule to alleviate a backlog of cargo ships that is hurting supply chains. Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero revealed in his annual “State of the Port” address on Wednesday that the port facility had not moved to a 24/7 schedule, though he commended Biden for helping start the “conversation”: However, Breitbart News reported at the time, the plan struggled at the outset because there were not enough truckers...

Former President Donald Trump was full of praise for terrorist-supporting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a recent interview — while claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not want to reach a peace deal. Axios’ Barak Ravid, who conducted the interview with Trump for a new book about Trump’s peace efforts, reported Monday: