Free Republic

From my balcony in the Judean mountains, I can see the lights of Jordan on a clear night and the skyline of Amman at sunrise. On other nights, I simply look south and east and know that the same Iranian missiles and drones from the Houthis in Yemen threatening my children and grandchildren are also threatening the mosques, holy cities, the oil fields, and the very capital that keep the House of Saud in power. That is the uncomfortable intimacy of this region. We are not friends. We are not yet even fully acknowledged as legitimate neighbors. Yet Riyadh is...

The new season of Fauda, released on September 8 on Netflix, is a hit around the world, as the series tends to be – but the big news is that, even as anti-Israel sentiment mounts around the world, it is the number one show in Lebanon, according to tracking sites such as FlixPatrol. Not only is it the top show in Lebanon, which has been in a state of war with Israel since 1948, but it is or has been in the top 10 in nine other Arab countries that have different relationships with Israel. At the time of writing,...

Chinese entities supplied Iran with satellite images of an air base in Jordan before and after a deadly missile strike that killed three US service members, according to a report. The US has “connected” the high-resolution satellite imagery of Muwaffaq Salti Air Base to Iran’s July 17 ballistic missile attack on the facility, US officials told the Wall Street Journal. The officials declined to identify the Chinese companies that allegedly provided the images to Iran and didn’t accuse the Chinese government of direct involvement. The missile attack, which targeted a housing area on the base, killed Army Sgt. Angel S....

Multiple American military aircraft were damaged in Iranian strikes overnight Tuesday into Wednesday local time on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, people with direct knowledge of the matter told CBS News. One A-10 Thunderbolt, an attack aircraft known as the Warthog, was struck and lost a wing, the sources said. Roughly eight F-15s sustained light damage and were reportedly put back into service, according to the people familiar with the damage, who spoke to CBS News under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. No U.S. deaths have been reported in the strikes on...

Egyptian officials have officially confirmed that an Iranian drone strike was responsible for damaging two US energy tankers at the port of Damietta. Following the strike, the United States carried out limited conventional air raids, opting against a broader military escalation despite warnings of a much harsher response. Egyptian authorities officially confirmed Thursday that an explosion damaging two American energy tankers at Damietta Port was caused by an Iranian drone strike. Egyptian officials emphasized that an investigation into the incident remains underway, noting that no group has formally claimed responsibility for the operation. The official confirmation from Cairo follows statements...

The US military says it’s launching strikes on Iranian targets in response to Tehran’s attack on American forces a day earlier. US Central Command said the strikes are “a powerful response to yesterday’s attempted Iranian attack” and that they began Wednesday evening, in a post on social media. It’s a further escalation after a period of calm, with the U.S. saying it had intercepted strikes from Iran a day earlier and carried out separate strikes alongside Saudi Arabia on Tehran-backed militias in neighboring Iraq.

“. . .there is no saving the Left. There is only saving America from them.” — Sasha Stone. The polycrisis of 2026 whirls like a demon-infested storm overcoming this human project of ours like a medieval panorama of the world’s end. Everything is fraught, tilting toward hazard, menace, ruin. Even under a summer sun, the mind sees only darkness everywhere it looks. Apocalypse now, it seems like. You almost can’t blame the doomers, the black pill-ers, lost in their transports of dread. But I tell you, we will get through this. Is it a surprise that the IRGC has a...

Airstrikes in Jordan show Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is willing to risk Trump’s retaliationIran’s surprise missile attack on U.S. forces in Jordan shows Tehran’s military leaders would rather risk ramping up the war than play defense or accept a peace deal that would expose them to greater domestic political pressures.Iran fired ballistic missiles on U.S. troops early Wednesday local time, demonstrating a willingness by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which exerts more power than ever in Tehran, to escalate during a relative lull in the conflict and attempt to seize the initiative after weeks in which Iran has mostly reacted to...

Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq reported drone attacks in their territory Monday amid a lull in US air strikes against Iran, after nearly two weeks of fighting between both sides. The Israel Defense Forces said Monday morning that it shot down two drones over the Jordan border, near the Dead Sea, adding that the drones did not cross into Israeli territory. Their origin was under investigation, the army said. Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry, meanwhile, said it shot down drones aimed at petroleum targets, some in its eastern province and others in the capital Riyadh. It said the drones had...

Military aid vote shows the double standard and the real agenda. Last year, a bipartisan group of members of Congress introduced H.Res.776: a resolution expressing concern about the persecution of Coptic Christians under Egypt’s Islamic regime. The resolution has only picked up 8 cosponsors and has yet to make it out of committee. By contrast, 103 House Democrats voted in favor of the Massie amendment to cut aid to Israel out of H. R. 8595 which also apportions $1.4 billion to Egypt and $1.6 billion to Jordan. Meanwhile an amendment to zero out the $1.4 billion in military aid to...

Jamey dutifully wore her keffiyeh, took up with a “Palestinian” man, and converted to Islam. Jamey Carney was an American woman who moved to Ireland five years ago. She was a deep supporter of the “Palestinian” cause, took part in marches to protest against the Jewish state, dutifully wore her keffiyeh, took up with a “Palestinian” man, and converted to Islam. And despite all that, that “Palestinian” partner, whom the police described as a “Middle Eastern man,” beat her to death. More on her sad life and sadder death can be found here: “‘Asylum seeker’ on the run after American...

It was Iran that broke the 60-day “comprehensive cease-fire” established by the Memorandum of Understanding by attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, period. Before the ink was dry on the MOU, which guaranteed open passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard asserted Tehran’s control and ownership of the waterway and warned that merchant ships must obtain its OK to transit; then it started firing on vessels that didn’t comply. Blocking sea lanes reopened the war, and Israel had nothing to do with it. It’s also preposterous to charge that Jerusalem wants the war to drag on...

Feckless and clueless, Donald Trump is lost in Iran, unable to find a way out of the disastrous war he started. Once again, the US military is pummelling the country and, increasingly, its civilian infrastructure. As before, this unlawful bludgeoning strengthens the resistance of a hardline regime that cares little for its people’s suffering. How often have Trump and Pete Hegseth, the Pentagon’s wildling lord of bones, hailed a bogus victory? The president claimed this week to be “winning big”. No one believes him. Even as it counts the vast human and economic cost of his Persian folly, a watching...

Iran's supreme leader vowed to teach the United States "unforgettable lessons" on Saturday, as Washington reported its first military deaths since renewing its hostilities with the Islamic republic.A month after the foes signed a now-abandoned preliminary deal aimed at ending their war, Tehran struck infrastructure around the Gulf in retaliation for a week of intensifying US attacks, which Iran said had hit an airport, a railway station and bridges.Iran hit an oil facility in Kuwait as well as a power and water plant, authorities in the Gulf state said, while in Bahrain the army said air defences repelled a wave...

BREAKING: Two US service members KIA in Jordan after Iranian missile & drone attack and a third service member is missing in action

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi announced Saturday that Iran was no longer observing the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, which laid out the glide path for the United States and Iran to achieve a peace deal. "Practically, the United States has violated and suspended all its commitments. Consequently, we have also suspended all our obligations under the memorandum and are currently implementing none of them." He also admonished the Trump Administration that "If they are wise, they must choose other approaches [than military action]." This came as the U.S. was finishing up bombing Iran for the seventh consecutive...

The Iranian regime unveiled a shocking giant mural in central Tehran on Wednesday depicting President Donald Trump lying in a coffin and captioned with the brazen threat, “We kill Trump.” The mural, erected in Tehran’s Islamic Revolution Square, shows Trump with his hands folded across his chest and his face protruding from the coffin. It was unveiled just weeks after the funeral of Iran’s late Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, killed at the outset of the U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, where crowds were filmed chanting slogans calling for death to America. It remains unclear who commissioned the mural,...

The unexplained attacks have added a dangerous new layer of uncertainty to an already volatile conflict, raising concerns that additional countries may now be conducting military operations against Iran without publicly acknowledging their involvement.New Airstrikes Came After U.S. Said Its Campaign Had EndedThe U.S. military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) announced Thursday morning that it had completed a coordinated operation striking approximately 90 targets inside Iran.Yet only hours later, Iranian state media reported another wave of explosions and airstrikes across the southern provinces of Bushehr and Sistan and Baluchestan.Those attacks occurred after the United States had publicly stated its operation was complete.CENTCOM...

Saddam's Ambassador to al-QaedaBy Jonathan SchanzerWeekly Standard | February 23, 2004 A RECENTLY INTERCEPTED MESSAGE from Iraq-based terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi asking the al Qaeda leadership for reinforcements reignited the debate over al-Qaeda ties with Saddam Hussein's fallen Baath regime. William Safire of the New York Times called the message a "smoking gun," while the University of Michigan's Juan Cole says that Safire "offers not even one document to prove" the Saddam/al-Qaeda nexus. What you are about to read bears directly on that debate. It is based on a recent interview with Abdul Rahman al-Shamari, who served in...

Prof. Mordechai Kedar is one of the world’s leading experts on Islam and Arab society. In this powerful interview, Prof. Kedar explains why Western models keep failing in the Middle East, why the Palestinian Authority is doomed, and how Israel should adopt the successful clan-based "Emirates" model in Judea and Samaria ( the West Bank) to achieve real stability and peace. Chapters: 00:00:00 – Intro 00:00:53 – Middle East Clan System: Why Muslim States Fail or Succeed 00:10:22 – Why the PA Is Doomed to Fail 00:25:52 – The Spiritual War of Islam – Path to Real Peace 00:44:18 –...