Free Republic

Since al-Qaeda-affiliated Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) conquered Damascus with the help of Turkey in December 2024, HTS fighters and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants have committed massacres against religious minorities in the country. Social media posts show Alawite or Christian men, women, and children barbarically shot at close range. And the death toll is increasing. The Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and all the East, John X, said during a sermon on March 9th: 'The bloody events taking place on the Syrian coast left many dead and wounded. … In many cities, towns, and villages, their...

When culture warriors become literal corporate sell-outs, they shouldn’t be surprised when the laws of economics come and bite them in the ass. There’s a reason ‘go woke go broke’ has become axiomatic. Even institutions as big as Disney and Bud Light have learned they are not too big to feel the sting of a spurned public returning the favor. As for politics, there aren’t many corporate political attention whores louder than Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. Ben & Jerry’s sold their company to Unilever in 2000, with the expectation that they could continue their political grandstanding. It looks like,...

A New York federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s bid to dismiss the legal challenge brought by Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia graduate and Palestinian activist who was detained by immigration enforcement agents earlier this month, and has ordered the case transferred to New Jersey. Khalil, a permanent US resident with a green card who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last spring, was arrested in New York on 8 March by federal immigration authorities. He was transferred first to New Jersey and then to Louisiana, where he is currently detained. The Trump administration sought his deportation but two...

US President Donald Trump says that Iran will be held responsible and face “dire” consequences for any further attacks by Yemen’s Houthis.

The Ireland-Israel Alliance has described as shocking an incident in which a businessman who was visiting Dublin from Tel Aviv said he was spat at while dining with a colleague and verbally abused by a group. They say it was shocking incident of pure hatred and said they expected gardaí (police) to follow it up. Tamir Ohayon, 26, from Tel Aviv, Israel, was visiting Dublin for a business conference. He said that nobody intervened during the “attack” and that they “chose not to care”. “People just kept eating,” he said. “I felt helpless and disappointed. I saw faces of people...

NEW YORK (AP) — Demonstrators from a Jewish group filled the lobby of Trump Tower on Thursday to denounce the immigration arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who helped lead protests against Israel at Columbia University. The Jewish Voice for Peace protesters, who carried banners and wore red shirts reading “Jews say stop arming Israel,” chanted “Bring Mahmoud home now!” After warning the protesters to leave the Fifth Avenue building or face arrest, police put at least 65 of them in zip ties and loaded them into a police van and city bus about an hour into the demonstration....

President Trump is meeting the leader of Ireland today. . A man who : - Tried to impose hate speech laws. - Made Irish people second class citizens under law by introducing hate crime laws. - Flooded Ireland with immigrants . - Admitted breaking the economy in 2008. - Doesn't believe in Irish sovereignty. - Imposed the longest lockdown in the EU. - Activated nationwide digital surveillance of the entire population, which remains ongoing. I don't expect the Americans to attack him in front of cameras but this tyrant needs to be pulled up on what he's doing to Ireland....

President Trump said Monday he will "lead the charge" to oust Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) for his refusal to support Republicans' government funding bill.

Fox News is wall to wall with dead-eyed politicians telling you that Iran is a dangerous “sponsor of terror.” Softening up the base for a war. But what exactly does that phrase mean, and how does it apply to the United States? Here’s one measure: over the past twenty years, how many Americans have been killed by Iran on American soil? Try to find that number, and then compare it to the number of Americans killed by drug ODs. Or suicide. Or illegal aliens. Or carjackings, diabetes and the Covid vax. Still think Iran is the greatest threat? How about...

Snip>> As an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, he said returning home under the rule of the Taliban — which swept back into power after the Biden administration pulled out of the country — would mean he would be killed. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas. Omagh was deported after presenting himself to American authorities and asking to seek asylum in the U.S., which he was denied. “My hope was freedom. Just freedom,” he said....

The ceasefire in the Gaza Strip is perilously close to collapsing as both Israel and Hamas have both balked at entering negotiations over terms of an intended second phase of the deal. Meanwhile, food shortages in the territory have become acute and Palestinians living there are again struggling to feed their families. Mustafa Abu Shaaban, a blacksmith before the war, and his wife Rasha, try to create a semblance of normality for their kids. "Our life is hard – we just want to live like everyone else," Rasha told CBS News. But as the aid freeze starts to bite in...

An expert on insurgency says an American military incursion into Canada would be a disaster — for the United States. A military move by President Donald Trump could eventually destroy America’s worldwide power, says Dr. Aisha Ahmad, an associate professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Ahmad has studied insurgencies and visited many conflict zones for more than 20 years. She sees a pattern of resistance that repeats itself every time. Article content When a country gets invaded, a growing portion of the people fight back. Would Canadians do that? You bet we would, Ahmad says. Canadian “niceness” is a...

Cardinal Cupich praises Muslim ‘brothers and sisters’ at annual ‘Iftar’ dinner for RamadanThe liberal Chicago cardinal has received intense criticism on social media for attending a 'Muslim-Catholic Iftar.'Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich is under fire for attending an annual Muslim-Catholic “Iftar” dinner.“Happy to be at the … Muslim-Catholic Iftar in Morton Grove tonight to break the daily fast observed by our Muslims brothers and sisters during Ramadan,” Cupich said on X yesterday.Cupich is one of the most liberal members of the clergy in the United States. He has attended multiple Iftar dinners in the past, dating to at least 2016. His...

TEL AVIV—Israeli decision-makers plan to resume the Gaza war in four to six weeks with overwhelming force, sending in tens of thousands of troops to conquer the entire strip in a single coordinated offensive against Hamas. Incoming military chief of staff Eyal Zamir has, at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Israel Katz, started developing the plan, according to several current and former Israeli officials with knowledge of high-level discussions. Under the plan, Israel will deploy more troops to Gaza than it has to this point in the war—over 50,000—before relocating the civilian population to humanitarian...

Mannheim's mayor has described the incident as "abhorrent and "inhumane" in a statement posted on the city government's website. "Our thoughts are with the dead and injured, their families and friends," Mayor Christian Specht says. Carnival events planned for tomorrow in the nearby suburbs of Feudenheim, Neckarau and Sandhofen have been cancelled. A market has been closed and a street carnival in the city centre will not take place, according to the statement. As a reminder, outdoor carnivals linked to Easter celebrations are held across Germany at this time of year. SNIP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that Israel will be halting all movement of goods into Gaza, following Hamas’s apparent rejection of a ceasefire proposal suggested by President Donald Trump’s envoy. As Breitbart News reported Saturday, “Israel accepted a new proposal by the Trump administration on Saturday night, under which all of the 63 remaining hostages would be released over the course of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, en route to a permanent ceasefire.” It was not clear at the time what Hamas’s response would be to the proposal, which had been conveyed by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.

A leading Reform rabbi told his congregants during Shabbat services yesterday that the murder of Shiri Bibas and her young children Kfir and Ariel caused him to "snap" and reject the Two-State Solution, the Jewish News Syndicate reported. "Something snapped in me this week," said Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, the senior rabbi at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City. "After 16 months of keeping it together, my heart finally cracked. The plight of the Bibas family struck me so deeply, that I do not even know where to place all of these emotions running rampant inside of me."...

Citing years of discord with its corporate parent, Unilever, over the brand's political stances, particularly concerning Israel, Ben & Jerry's founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are reportedly exploring the possibility of buying back their iconic ice cream company. Bloomberg reported that the pair have discussed a potential deal, which could involve a multi-billion dollar offer. Cohen and Greenfield originally sold Ben & Jerry's to Unilever, the multinational consumer goods giant, in 2000 for $326 million. However, in recent years, friction has grown between the ice cream maker and its parent company, primarily fueled by Ben & Jerry's outspoken views...

PLYMOUTH, Michigan (WXYZ) -- Fourteen-year-old Danielle Khalaf said that an experience with her teacher at East Middle School in Plymouth has made 8th grade an anxious experience for her. She said that it started on January 10, when the Pledge of Allegiance started playing over school speakers. "I decided I wanted to sit down because I didn’t feel comfortable standing because of what’s happening in Palestine," said Danielle. "After the Pledge was over the teacher addressed the class and said that anyone that was sitting down was being very disrespectful to soldiers, to America." Danielle said that after class, she...

You may have heard that “in Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” but did you know that in the Muslim world, they’re exterminating them — by the millions? In early January, it was reported that a whopping three million dogs were going to be killed in Morocco: