Free Republic

Poltical rivals express similar sentiment in separate interviews; Kyiv's envoy to Israel says defense minister canceled an upcoming call with his Ukrainian counterpart In a rare expression of units between coalition and opposition figures, Defense Minister Gantz and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday both expressed an unwillingness to alter Israel's policy of not sending defense equipment to Ukraine. 'We are not selling weapons to Ukraine," Gantz told the ultra-Orthodox Kol Chai radio station, noting instead the humanitarian aid Israel has been providing, and vowing to continue such shipments months into Russia's invasion of Ukraine... Meanwhile, in an interview on...

Having survived the recent cabinet reshuffle the international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, is confronted with the biggest headache of her short ministerial career: the fallout of the US intention to cut funding to UNRWA, which constitutes one of the most serious challenges to UK policies in the Middle East. Donald Trump’s threat to cut financial assistance to the UN agency specifically responsible for Palestinian refugees will be a disaster not only for the refugees but also for Israel and neighbouring countries. It does not advance US interests either. Provoked by the Palestinian rejection of Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as...

Conservative political commentator Candace Owens dismissed the charges that Kanye West was antisemitic in a recent tweet stating that he would "go death con 3 on Jewish people." Owens said that West's statement was not actually demonizing Jewish people. "If you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic," Owens, who works for the Daily Wire news site run by Jewish political commentator Ben Shapiro, said Monday. "You did not think that he wrote this tweet because he hates or wants to genocide Jewish people. This is not the beginning of a Holocaust." ..... "If you...

One of Israel’s top vaccine advisers has revealed he and his colleagues were “surprised and disappointed” by one element of the jab rollout. Israel, with a population of just 9.4 million, led the world in vaccination against Covid-19 early, starting its rollout in December 2020. In April 2021, Pfizer chief executive Albert Bourla said early trial data showed its vaccine “was 100 per cent effective against severe Covid-19”. “Did you expect the vaccines to be better at preventing transmission than they were?” host Freddie Sayers asked Prof Cohen. “Yes … especially based on what we had seen in March, in...

Fifty years ago, journalist Gary Allen set out to write a book to prove conservative anti-communists wrong. But while researching, he realized he had not seen the "hidden picture." There indeed was a conspiracy, shielded by a narrative advanced by liberal academia and the mainstream media, both actually in the service of an elite cabal that included Rockefeller, Ford, Morgan, Rothschild, Loeb, Kennedy, and Carnegie. No longer willing to dismiss "right-wing conspiracy theorists," he titled his book, published in 1971, None Dare Call It Conspiracy. It was a surprising bestseller: more than four million copies were sold during the 1972...

Multiple celebrities including movie icon Jamie Lee Curtis, comedian Sarah Silverman and Frozen star Josh Gad have come forward to denounce Kanye West's anti-Semitic Twitter outburst. Curtis spoke about the timing of West's words, coming a week after Yom Kippur, adding: 'Words matter. A threat to Jewish people ended once in a genocide.' Comedian Sarah Silverman has spoken out on the lack of outrage from non-Jews following Kanye West's anti-Semitic statements on Twitter by declaring: 'The silence is so loud.'Josh Gad echoed Silverman's statements by saying that so many people stand with him on other political issues but are silent...

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been hospitalized after feeling unwell during the Jewish fasting day of Yom Kippur JERUSALEM -- Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized Wednesday after feeling unwell during the Jewish fasting day of Yom Kippur. Israel's public broadcaster Kan said Netanyahu, 72, was taken to Jerusalem's Shaarei Tzedek hospital after feeling chest pains while attending synagogue services. Local media quoted the hospital as saying he underwent a series of tests that came out normal, but was being kept under observation overnight. In a statement on social media, Netanyahu said, “I feel better and...

Otzma Yehudit chairman MK Itamar Ben-Gvir pushed back Tuesday on criticism by New Jersey Senator and veteran Democratic lawmaker Robert Menendez, dismissing accusations of racism. According to a report last week by Axios, Senator Menendez warned Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu last month not to include “right-wing extremists” in any future coalition government. Menendez specifically demanded that Netanyahu not include MK Ben-Gvir in a new government, adding that doing so would harm relations between Israel and the US. Two sources familiar with the meeting said that during the September 5th meeting, Menendez "raised his concerns" about Netanyahu's political partners, specifically mentioning...

For eight years, NATO has supported puppet rulers in Ukraine, funded attacks in the Donbass, repeatedly violated the Minsk agreements, supported the ban on speaking Russian in the Luhansk and Donetsk republics, and helped to destroy the democratic opposition and free media in Ukraine. The result was a one-party government, essentially owned and funded by the United States, and run by American operatives. And no halftones and subtleties. Yet, somehow, the United States managed to convince the population of its country and other Western countries that Russia is a “bad boy”, that it is out of control and must be...

It is one of the holiest sites for Egypt's ChristiansThe Tree of the Virgin Mary, one of the most prominent Christian sites in Egypt, was reopened on Sunday following a months-long renovation by the antiquities ministry. The site is believed to have been one of the stops on Jesus's family’s journey through Egypt after they fled Judea (modern-day Palestine) to escape persecution. Located in the northern Cairo district of Matariya, one of the Egyptian capital’s poorer neighbourhoods, the walled garden which houses the tree has been renovated. It now includes a visitor centre and information banners, an attempt by the...

President Joe Biden told the United Nations on Wednesday the Palestinians are “entitled” to their own state, a day after the U.S. State Department announced $64 million in aid to the U.N. agency for so-called Palestinian refugees. “We will continue to advocate for a lasting, negotiated peace between the Jewish and democratic state of Israel and the Palestinian people,” Biden said during his address at the U.N. General Assembly.

Warning: This story contains language that may be offensive The federal diversity minister says he's taking action over "disturbing" tweets by a senior consultant on an anti-racism project that received $133,000 from his department. Ahmed Hussen has asked Canadian Heritage to "look closely at the situation" in response to what he called "unacceptable behaviour" by Laith Marouf, a senior consultant involved in a government-funded project to combat racism in broadcasting. Marouf's Twitter account is private but a screenshot posted online shows a number of tweets with his photo and name. One tweet said: "You know all those loud mouthed bags...

The Biden administration wants Israel to review its “rules of engagement” during military operations in Judea and Samaria after the killing of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, three Israeli and US sources briefed on the call told Barak Ravid of Axios on Wednesday. US pressure for Israel to review the guidelines is unusual, but comes as the Biden administration faces pressure to do more to ensure accountability in Abu Aqleh's death. The rules of engagement define the circumstances under which Israeli soldiers can use live fire. Abu Aqleh, an American-Palestinian Arab, was shot dead on May 11 while covering...

Take credit for what worked. Shift the blame for what didn’t. Run to Daddy-in-law whenever the big, bad chief of staff got in his way. That was Jared Kushner’s modus operandi during the long four years I had to serve alongside the man most responsible for the loss of the Trump White House. Kushner came to the D.C. swamp on the coattails of his wife as nothing more than a young and rich, run-of-the-mill liberal New York Democrat with a worldview totally orthogonal to the president he was supposed to serve. Yet, within the West Wing, Kushner considered himself to...

Former President Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, has suggested his son-in-law Jared Kushner could be the mole in the Trump camp who tipped off the FBI about confidential documents that were being held at Mar-a-Lago... Speaking with SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah, Mary Trump was asked if she had any idea who the suspect might be... 'It's so tough to choose. I want it to be all of them. You know, I think we need to start with who would have access to this stuff. I don't think Mark Meadows [former White House Chief of Staff] would have access to it,'...

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo filed suit Wednesday demanding New York State fund his legal defense against sexual misconduct allegations following his August resignation. Cuomo’s New York State Supreme State Court lawsuit challenges State Attorney General Letitia James for denying a him state-funded private counsel in April in the ongoing sexual harassment and unlawful discrimination lawsuit that a female former member of his security detail brought against him. The former governor claims he has a right to such representation because his alleged misconduct toward the New York state trooper is said to have occurred as he operated as governor.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has spent more than $24 million to defeat progressive candidates in this year's Democratic primaries. The United Democracy Project (UDP), an AIPAC-affiliated super PAC, has already spent $24.2 million on Democratic primaries this cycle, including millions that it raised from top Republican megadonors like Paul Singer and Bernard Marcus. The money has helped AIPAC-backed candidates wipe out progressives in primaries in Michigan, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, California and Ohio. UDP and other pro-Israel groups tied to AIPAC – Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI), Urban Empowerment Action PAC and Pro-Israel America PAC —...

Ayman al-Zawahiri, the chief ideologue and for a decade leader of al-Qaeda, was finally killed, 21 years after the terror strikes of September 11, 2001. This is certainly welcome news, if only because someone like al-Zawahiri deserved his fate. But while we can all celebrate, his death will, unfortunately, and despite Joe Biden’s August 1 speech, have zero impact on the global jihad. This dismal prognostication is fortified by the fact that, for nearly 17 years now, every time an Islamic terror leader has been killed, politicians and media exulted, portraying the death as a “major blow” to the jihad;...

... Among the sites disclosed to journalists on Wednesday was a tunnel used to store weapons and and move fighters in Gaza City's Tuffah neighborhood next to a now-closed Pepsi factory that closed following last year’s war as well as close to a UNRWA elementary school which is used as an emergency shelter for some 2,500 people in times of hostilities. Another tunnel used by Hamas in the Zabara neighborhood of Gaza City identified by the IDF on Wednesday is under a UNWRA school and a central ambulance center with 14 ambulances as well as a medical equipment storage complex....

Why do so many Palestinian boys join the cycle of violence? The attitude of Palestinian society to Ahmed Shawiki, who went to prison for the murder of a Jewish woman and was recently released, tells the story of the institutional brainwashing of Palestinian youth and children "How does it happen that a 14-year-old boy (his name is Muhammad Shahada) was killed by our soldiers in El Khader today? Why?" asked the left-wing activist, Hagit Ofran, without an answer. This is an incident in which he fired at three Molotov cocktails throwers at Israeli vehicles. One of them, Shahada, was shot...