Free Republic

When Donald Trump entered his second term as president, he found a full-throated supporter in South Africa’s chief rabbi. Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein said in February that South Africans “should welcome the Trump administration’s interventions” in the country’s affairs, praising the president in a widely distributed video message. A vocal critic of the South African government, Goldstein backed Trump’s opposition to South Africa for its cooperation with Iran and its new land expropriation law, which Goldstein believes will slow the country’s already sluggish economy. But since Trump decided to admit some white South Africans into the United States as refugees...

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) delivered an address to the press on Sunday in which he claimed that, based on intelligence in his possession, there is a fear of a political assassination. "I now want to warn, based on unequivocal intelligence information: we are on the way to another tragedy. This time it will come from within. The levels of incitement and madness are unprecedented. There will be a political assassination. Jews will kill Jews," Lapid warned. He added, "The most threats are against the director of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar. The Israeli ruling party, the Likud, published...

The fight against what Prime Minister Netanyahu has taken to calling Israel’s “deep state” is now in full swing. It reached a climax on Thursday, March 20, late in the evening, when the cabinet unanimously voted to dismiss Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet—the country’s domestic security service. The termination is to take effect on the earlier of two dates: April 10, or when a replacement is found. Bar is not going down without a fight, however, and has retaliated by stepping up an investigation against the prime minister’s staff. Bar’s removal is long overdue. For starters, he...

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....

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who will become the minority leader in January when a string of new Republicans are sworn in, encouraged Senate Republicans on Wednesday to pass bipartisan bills when they gain control of the upper chamber. Republicans flipped control of the Senate on Tuesday night, after taking seats from Democrats in West Virginia, Ohio, and Montana. The GOP is also leading in a Pennsylvania Senate race, that would oust incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey. They additionally kept major contested seats in Texas and Nebraska. Schumer, who was not up for reelection, said Senate Democrats were still "committed"...

Exit poll results showed 79% of Jewish voters backing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday, compared with 21% who said they’d voted for the Republican, former President Donald Trump. More responses are still being added to the poll, which was conducted by a consortium of national media outlets, and the results could change. If the current split holds, it would represent yet another election cycle in which Republican claims that Jews would flock to their candidate because of Israel or antisemitism did not pan out.Edison Research, which conducts the poll for the consortium, surveyed voters in 10 states: Arizona,...

Former President Donald Trump recently reissued his loyalty test to religious Americans, declaring that he can best protect their freedoms while preemptively blaming members of certain faiths should he lose the presidential election in November. Jews and Catholics can vote for him and ace the test, but those who don’t, he says, “need their head examined.” If he loses, Trump added, "Jewish people would have a lot to do with the loss.” Among the Jewish leaders appalled at Trump’s remarks was Rabbi Rick Jacobs. “Your words preemptively blaming Jews for your potential election loss is of a piece with millennia...

Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff warned that former President Trump would praise Nazis “behind closed doors” in what was billed as a “closing argument” against Trump on the topic of antisemitism in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday. Emhoff chose Pittsburgh as the setting for the address, not only because Pennsylvania is a swing state, but because of the sixth anniversary of the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting, in which eleven Jews were killed in the largest murder against Jews in the history of the United States. (Emhoff also referred to the shooting of an Orthodox Jew in Chicago on Sunday, who was...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday he believes former President Trump will be similar to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he is reelected. “To those people who are saying, ‘well, I can’t support Harris because she disagrees [with] Trump on that issue’ … he will be closer to Netanyahu,” Sanders said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Sanders said he thinks Vice President Harris can be moved “on that issue” of the Israel-Hamas war. Harris has called for a cease-fire deal and pushed for the war in Gaza to end, but she faces scrutiny from both sides — from...

During an interview with CNN’s “AC360,” on Thursday, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) responded to a question on if he thinks 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris is different from President Joe Biden by stating that “this is a clear choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, not Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.” Host Anderson Cooper asked, “Vice President Harris has been asked in two large venues, most notably last night on Fox, how she would be different, essentially, than President Biden. She said last night that she’s Kamala Harris and that she would not be just an...

President Claudia Sheinbaum has called for the recognition of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, reaffirming Mexico's longstanding position on the matter. In a statement on Saturday, reported by Revista Proceso, she declared, "We condemn the aggressions that are being experienced and also consider that the State of Palestine must be recognized in its entirety just like the State of Israel. This has been Mexico's position for many years, and that is the position we have and the search for peace above all. War will never lead to a good outcome." Sheinbaum, known for her leftist political stance and European Jewish...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) said that Iran has “been using Hezbollah, one of their proxies, to attack Israel for the better part of the last year” and launched an “unprecedented attack on Israel” today, but “when Donald Trump was President, we had more chaos at home and abroad, and he has no plans to bring stability, either to the Middle East, or throughout the nation, when we’re facing serious challenges here.” After listening to Trump saying that Biden and Harris are absent, Shapiro stated, “Well, first off, Wolf, let’s speak truth, Iran...

Second gentleman Douglas Emhoff ripped former President Trump on Friday for his remarks at an event raising awareness for combating antisemitism in which the GOP nominee suggested Jewish people would partly shoulder the blame if he loses in November. “Last night, Donald Trump once again fanned the flames of antisemitism by trafficking in tropes blaming and scapegoating Jews,” Emhoff, who is Jewish, posted on the social platform X. “He even did it at an event purporting to fight antisemitism, no less.” “This is dangerous and must be condemned,” he continued. “We will not be intimidated and will continue to live...

A poll released Monday by the Jewish Democratic Council of America claims that Vice President Kamala Harris will win over two-thirds of the Jewish vote, while former President Donald Trump will only win one in four Jewish votes, suggesting Democrats have not lost Jewish support. There has been speculation that Jewish voters might shift Republican, due to perceptions that the Biden-Harris administration had handled Israel poorly, and the fact that they have presided during a shocking rise in antisemitism. Jewish voters are typically too small in number to make much of a difference in presidential elections, though they may have...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said antisemitism played “no role” in Vice President Kamala Harris’ opting against him as a running mate, and blamed Donald Trump for spreading that allegation. Shapiro, who is Jewish, made the remark in an interview on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, as he was making the rounds between meetings of state delegations. Shapiro had been considered a leading contender in Harris’ veepstakes, and faced a progressive campaign to tank his chances over his support for Israel. Critics of the effort called it antisemitic, but Shapiro told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that antisemitism was...

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) quipped that former President Trump has “buyer’s remorse” over choosing Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R) as his running mate, while talking to reporters Friday. “This guy is not exactly off to a good start and it is clear that Donald Trump really has buyer’s remorse with his pick,” said Shapiro, who is one of the leading contenders to be Vice President Harris’s running mate. Shapiro was responding to comments Vance made during an interview Friday in which he said that Shapiro speaks like he’s doing a bad impression of former President Obama. “I’ve seen a...

A Jewish-American Army Major has resigned from his post in protest at US support for Israel's 'ethnic cleansing' of Palestinians that has starved and killed 'tens of thousands of civilians'. Major Harrison Mann told CBS that Israel's response to the October 7 attack has 'turned the whole world against it' and imperiled the security of both Jews and Israel. The Defense Intelligence Agency analyst offered his resignation in November as casualties mounted in Gaza following Israel's invasion, and spoke out on Tuesday as he formally stepped down after 13 years. 'I'm confident saying it's certainly some measure of ethnic cleansing,'...

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) stated that President Joe Biden “has been ironclad” in his support of Israel but “what I think we have here is a problem of imprecision in the communication from the President.” And that the Biden administration should raise its concerns with Israel privately “because it leaves room for misunderstandings. And look, leaving the impression of possible daylight emboldens Hamas, risks emboldening Hamas, risks the possibility or even likelihood of it being less likely that we can get our hostages home, particularly our American hostages.”

Hamas should accept an “extraordinarily generous” proposal to release Israeli hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a temporary cease-fire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hamas is expected to respond to the U.S.-led proposal Monday in discussions with Egyptian and Qatari officials in Cairo. “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said during a panel discussion at the WEF. “And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and...

WASHINGTON – Few people are entirely neutral in their assessment of the work and influence of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Whether revered, feared or reviled, AIPAC is seen by some as an icon of pro-Israel advocacy – or the bogeyman symbolizing everything that's wrong with America's political lobbying and fundraising scene. But no matter how it's characterized, AIPAC's political evolution over the past three years has been one of the defining stories of U.S. politics.