Free Republic

Convicted Israeli spy Jonathan J. Pollard downplayed the controversy around his private meeting with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, telling NBC News the visit was “personal” and “wasn’t done surreptitiously.” The “main point” of the meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in July, Pollard said, was to “thank” the ambassador for “his efforts on my behalf during my incarceration.” Pollard, a former American intelligence analyst, spent 30 years in prison on espionage charges after being found to have passed critical security documents to Israeli intelligence in the 1980s. Israel made Pollard a citizen during his lengthy prison term,...

A simplistic 18th century math formula, not the latest complex Big Tech algorithm, is the greatest growing threat to our democracy. This formula got scratched out using a quill pen in 1787. Then it was used in 1789 to elect George Washington as our first president. This enduring presidential algo is found in Article II, Section I, of the U.S. Constitution. The term “Electoral College” doesn’t appear there. But the basic math does. Each state has two senators. This equals two electoral votes, regardless of population. In addition, a state gets representatives in Congress based on population. Each representative equals...

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political and personal future hangs in the balance this week, as a pretrial hearing weighing whether to indict him on corruption charges kicked off. Following the four-day hearing which began Wednesday, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit will decide whether to indict Israel’s longest serving prime minister on fraud and bribery charges in three corruption cases. Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and has said he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch-hunt” by the media and the left. The start of the hearing came after talks to form a unity government, following last month's...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday denied that his country's spies were responsible for surveillance devices found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington. His denial came after Politico, citing three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter, reported Thursday that the U.S. government had concluded that Israel was most most likely behind the discovery of the devices capable of tracking cellphone activity. NBC News was unable to immediately independently verify the report; the White House and State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Netanyahu's office called allegations that Israel was...

Whoops, there it is: Sarah Palin’s fear of enslavement to the Chinese may actually be true. “Don’t wish for something, you just might get it” is a paraphrase of the often-cited Chinese proverb. The former GOP vice presidential nominee had called on MSNBC to cancel Martin Bashir’s talk show. Bashir was, at the time, serving as the conscience of the network, striking fear into those who defied political correctness. Not since King George has a Brit been so brash. Leaving aside Piers what’s-his-name, perhaps. To no one’s surprise, a few weeks ago. Marty found something Ms. Palin said to be...

Paul Goldman, a Richmond lawyer who is a former Virginia Democratic party chairman, is helping represent a conservative group in challenging Newt Gingrich's disqualification from the Old Dominion ballot on March 6, Super Tuesday. Bill Pascoe, executive vice president of Citizens for the Republic, said: “We are teaming up with former Virginia Democratic Party Chairman Paul Goldman to make sure the voters of the Commonwealth have a fair and transparent presidential primary process. ...

In a highly charged political environment, every news story is scrutinized for inaccuracies and signs of bias. Even an innocent mistake can appear to take on sinister dimensions. That’s what happened to POLITICO last night, when the news organization published an opinion column about Sarah Palin that included the textual equivalent of a cartoon thought-bubble. The authors of the piece, Paul Goldman and Mark J. Rozell, had crafted a paragraph to try to get at what Palin might be thinking. In their original version, they used quotation marks around what they imagined to be Palin’s thought – a common convention...

News site Politico.com admitted Friday that it made an "error" in attributing a nasty quote about Rep. Michele Bachmann to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The quote came in an opinion piece Thursday by former Virginia Democratic Party chief Paul Goldman and George Mason University professor Mark J. Rozell. The piece speculated on whether Bachmann's possible presidential run might compel Palin to get in the race, and argued that her recent bus tour sent a message to Bachmann, R-Minn. -- a message they attributed directly to Palin.