Free Republic

After the dramatic implosion of Graham Platner's US Senate campaign in Maine, Morris Katz was dispatched to help deal with the crisis. At 27 years old, the New Yorker has risen quickly in the world of Democratic strategists. The Gen Z media guru serves as Zohran Mamdani's top political adviser and is credited with helping to orchestrate the Democratic socialist's landslide victory in New York City's mayoral election. His skills in harnessing social media and creating savvy digital campaigns have put him in high demand among those vying for power in a party desperate to reengage young voters. Mr Katz...

Yahm Levin is a diehard Democrat who lives in one of the nation's most liberal cities. And yet the 39-year-old Jewish woman from Los Angeles is sometimes afraid to use her first or last name when meeting people — even those who share her progressive politics. Levin has learned from recent experience that being identified as a Jew, especially one who lived in Israel, can trigger uncomfortable questions from fellow Democrats. Or worse. So, she introduces herself by her middle name, Shelly, which she said feels safer.

American Jews view New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani more favorably than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed on Tuesday. The survey, carried out on 1,022 Jewish adults nationwide between June 11 and June 17, found that 44% of American Jews view Mamdani either very favorably or somewhat favorably, whereas just 32% of respondents said they have a favorable opinion of Netanyahu.Thirty-nine percent of US Jews viewed Mamdani unfavorably, and 59% viewed Netanyahu unfavorably. A strong majority of US Jews viewed US President Donald Trump unfavorably (70%), whereas only...

Former US Senator Norm Coleman, who was appointed Monday by Pete Hegseth to a position on the US Defense Policy Board, said a year ago that ‘the masters of the universe are Jews.’ (LifeSiteNews) — After the Monday appointment of former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota to vice chair of the U.S. Defense Policy Board by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, a year-old clip has resurfaced of his exclaiming “the masters of the universe are Jews.”Coleman, who also serves as national chair of the Republican Jewish Coalition, drew attention for remarks made in April 2025 at the Jewish News...

"As of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability," said Katz.Israel is developing space lasers to carry out attacks above the Earth, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday.“One of the central goals that the prime minister and I set is that we are recruiting the best minds,” he said in a briefing with military reporters. “As of today, no country has the ability to mount attacks in space. We must be the leading country in the world with this capability.”“If we achieve this, it...

Activists, journalists and politicians around the world have been spied on using cellphone malware developed by a private Israeli firm, it emerged Sunday, igniting fears of widespread privacy and rights abuses. The use of the software, called Pegasus and developed by Israel's NSO group, was reported on by the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and other news outlets who collaborated on an investigation into a data leak. The leak was of a list of up to 50,000 phone numbers believed to have been identified as people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016. One of those targeted was...

The deadly US strike on a girls school in the Iranian coastal city of Minab happened due to gaps in the Pentagon’s system for analyzing potential targets, Bloomberg has reported, citing people familiar with the investigation.The bombing, in which more than 120 students aged between 6 and 13 were killed in addition to 26 teachers, happened on February 28, the opening day of the American-Israeli military campaign against Iran.The investigation into the incident, ordered by the chief of US Central Command (CENTCOM) Brad Cooper, was completed in April, but its results haven’t yet been made public, Bloomberg said in an...

When American and Israeli warplanes struck Iran on Feb. 28, Israeli officials let themselves believe the alliance was entering a golden age. Four months later, they are bracing for a future where Israel stands more alone than ever. The vice president of the United States set the stage last week, telling Israel it has almost no friends left in the world, and that it should think hard before turning on the one it has. But the problem for Israel is much bigger than JD Vance, according to seven people, including U.S. and Israeli officials and others familiar with the relationship....

Texas Democrat U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, who is running against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, has accused Christianity of causing unmatched harm while opposing President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions on terrorism-prone nations and repeatedly aligning himself with Muslim communities. Texas state Rep. and Presbyterian seminarian James Talarico said earlier this year in a New Yorker profile that Christianity is the “most violent” religion and has done “more damage” to Islam than it has done to any other religion. The remarks stand in contrast to figures from the Cato Institute, which say radical Islamic terror has killed at least 3,100...

The neoconservative pundit Mark Levin posted on X on Thursday, “Here’s a novel idea: stop bullying our ally and cozying up to our enemy.” Megyn Kelly, the influential conservative podcaster, replied, “To which politician could he be talking? I guess we’ll just have to wonder.” Kelly was being tongue-in-cheek. There was no wondering. Levin was talking about J.D. Vance. He just didn’t want to name names. The vice president rocked Washington last Thursday—and infuriated neoconservatives—when he defended the Trump administration’s memorandum of understanding (MOU) deal with Iran at a press briefing. “This does bother me,” Vance said. “You've seen people...

As President Donald Trump moves this week to extricate himself from a conflict that a CBS News poll finds most Americans want ended now, the powerful donor-class networks that want endless war have rapidly moved to sabotage his efforts. It is no surprise which portions of the right have mounted an emergency campaign against Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance’s recent peace efforts. Israel Hayom—owned by the Trump mega-donor Miriam Adelson—published a blistering open letter accusing Trump of signing a “surrender agreement with a murderous and cruel terror regime.” The Wall Street Journal editorial board has been carping about the...

The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, has said that Israeli troops would not withdraw from southern Lebanon, further complicating Iran peace talks as fighting in Lebanon continues to be an obstacle to permanent peace. Speaking on stage in an interview in Tel Aviv, Katz said Israeli troops would remain in south Lebanon – echoing sentiments from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. The US and Iran signed an accord last week extending a fragile ceasefire and setting the stage for 60 days of talks meant to lead to a permanent peace. The first hiccups to the memorandum of understanding (MOU)...

Israel secretly deployed a small contingent of forces to Somaliland earlier this year following its recognition of the breakaway territory, a senior Somali government official revealed to Middle East Eye (MEE) on Monday."According to our intelligence reports, the Israeli military selected Israeli soldiers of African heritage, especially Ethiopians, so as not to draw attention to themselves and to blend in more easily with the local community," the senior Somali official stated.via ReutersThe Somali official said that Israel had deployed a group of 50 soldiers to Somaliland shortly after the recognition and the resumption of the war on Iran in late...

Late this week Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli declared in an interview with Israeli Army Radio that Tel Aviv "will be at war with Syria sooner or later," highlighting that the alliance between Damascus and Turkey poses a "strategic challenge" to his country.The Likud official said, "There is no way that a jihadist regime rooted in ISIS and Al-Qaeda, whose aspiration is the unification of Jerusalem, can live in peace alongside the State of Israel."In a separate interview with Kol Barama, a prominent Israeli ultra-Orthodox radio station, Chikli identified Syria as part of a "radical Sunni axis of evil"...

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir openly called for genocide, demanding that all of Lebanon “must burn” while the United States works to end the war with Iran. Ben-Gvir issued a scathing rebuke of the current Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) negotiated between Iran and the United States after Israel says four of its soldiers were killed in Southern Lebanon in an attack by Hezbollah — although some reports suggest Israel and Lebanon have subsequently agreed to a new ceasefire late Friday morning. In his statement, Ben-Gvir said the goal should be to indiscriminately “obliterate” Lebanon. “For every tear of...

[Translated from Hebrew by Twitter.] For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn! With all due respect to the Americans, Israel must make it clear to the entire world that the blood of our sons and the security of our citizens are not forfeit. All of Lebanon must burn. Our supreme duty is to protect the citizens of Israel and the soldiers of the IDF, and this commitment takes precedence over every other consideration. I told the Prime Minister, even in our private meetings: For every tear of an Israeli...

To think that our military accomplishments snatched this defeat from the jaws of victory is mind-boggling. Here is the text of the MOU as reported by Bloomberg:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. President Donald Trump that Israel does not consider itself bound by the Lebanon clause in the emerging agreement with Iran, Israeli officials said, making clear that Jerusalem will not accept any arrangement that limits its freedom to act against Hezbollah. The understanding among ministers in the Security Cabinet is that Israel is standing firm on its interests in Lebanon, and that Netanyahu received full backing in the cabinet meeting for his position. The dispute comes after Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Trump and Iran all announced that a U.S.-Iran agreement had been reached. According...

Israeli officials were left “stunned” by US President Donald Trump’s public criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s decision to strike Hezbollah targets in Beirut. They are increasingly concerned that a prospective US-Iran agreement could sharply restrict Israel’s military freedom of action in Lebanon, Channel 12 reports. A senior Israeli official close to Netanyahu tells the Hebrew network that officials in Jerusalem were taken aback by Trump’s remarks, which included accusing the premier of having “no fucking judgement,” saying: “Trump’s statement is a resounding slap in the face. The restrictions [on Israel] have been taken to another level. The...

The Hezbollah war with Israel has brought great suffering to the country. About one-quarter of the population (1.4 million people) has been displaced. More than 3,500 have been killed — many of them Hezbollah fighters but also many civilians... About a dozen Lebanese Christian civilians have been killed in the south...On June 1, Dr. James Karam and his two children, Tony and Theodosia, were killed by an Israeli drone strike as they returned from university exams in Beirut to their village. The Trump administration has sought to save Lebanon, pushing the Lebanese and Israeli governments to negotiate directly for the...