Free Republic

Most mainstream media outlets have made it clear in recent years where their loyalties lie regarding the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict. But while rational observers can disagree about how both sides have reacted in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, the use of misleading photos to manipulate the narrative should never be deemed acceptable. That’s what the New York Times essentially admitted it did with a photo originally presented as a severely malnourished child in Gaza. A little legwork by a watchdog group called Honest Reporting helped expose the misrepresentation, as Breitbart reported: The New York Times admitted...

Israel isn’t committing genocide - it’s resisting genocide. On Oct 7, 2023, thousands of Muslim Jihadis swept from Gaza into Israel, killing, torturing, raping and kidnapping anyone in their path. The victims included not only Israelis or Jews, but Americans and Europeans, Christians and Buddhists, as well as those Bedouins whom the Hamas, PLO and Islamic Jihad attackers did not consider Muslims. Their rationale was not a “Palestinian” cause or any of the later war propaganda myths about an “open air prison”, but an Islamic religious imperative to drive out infidels. That’s why they named their genocidal campaign, ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’...

The United States has joined Israel in accusing Sir Keir Starmer of “rewarding Hamas” after he declared the UK will recognise Palestine in September unless Benjamin Netanyahu’s government makes peace. The Prime Minister issued the ultimatum to his Israeli counterpart after an emergency meeting of his Cabinet. Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the US State department, said Sir Keir’s remarks were a “slap in the face for the victims of October 7” which “rewards Hamas”. “It allows it to continue. It gives one group hope, and that’s Hamas. It is a rewarding of that kind of behaviour,” she said, adding: “There’s...

Saudi Arabia will not pursue normalization with Israel absent the creation of a Palestinian state, the kingdom’s top diplomat said on Monday, according to Bloomberg. Speaking at a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot at the United Nations, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan declared that normalization “can only come through the establishment of a Palestinian state.” “That position remains the same, and it is based on a strong conviction that only through the establishment of a Palestinian state and only through addressing the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination can we have sustainable...

The Trump administration says it boycotted a United Nations conference promoting the two-state solution on Monday, calling the event a “publicity stunt” and an “insult.” “This week, the U.N. will serve as host to an unproductive and ill-timed conference on the two-state solution in New York City,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement. “This is a publicity stunt that comes in the middle of delicate diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.” Bruce said the conference will “prolong the war, embolden Hamas, and reward its obstruction and undermine real-world efforts to achieve peace.” Instead of participating, Bruce said...

Syria will hold parliamentary elections in September, the head of a body tasked with organizing the election process told state media Sunday. Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad, chairman of the Higher Committee for People’s Assembly Elections, told state news agency SANA that elections will take place between Sept. 15 and 20. They will be the first to take place under the country’s new authorities after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December. One third of the 210 seats will the appointed by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, with the rest to be elected. In a recent...

World-renowned urban warfare expert John Spencer has delivered a searing indictment of international inaction over the systematic massacre of Syria’s Druze minority, arguing that while “human rights organizations say little” and “Western capitals issue muted statements or none at all,” Israel alone has responded with decisive action to protect a vulnerable community facing what Spencer describes as “ethnic and religious cleansing in broad daylight.” Spencer, who serves as executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute and chair of urban warfare studies at West Point’s Modern War Institute, posted his analysis to X on Sunday in a viral social media post...

The Syrian government on Monday started evacuating Bedouin families trapped inside the city of Sweida, where Druze militiamen and Bedouin fighters have clashed for over a week. The clashes between militias of the Druze religious minority and the Sunni Muslim clans killed hundreds and threatened to unravel Syria’s already fragile postwar transition. The clashes also led to a series of targeted sectarian attacks against the Druze community, followed by revenge attacks against the Bedouins. The U.N. International Organization for Migration said some 128,571 people were displaced in the hostilities that started with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks a...

The White House is alarmed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decisions in Syria, multiple officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration were quoted Sunday as saying, branding the premier a “madman” and “a child who just won’t behave.” “Bibi acted like a madman. He bombs everything all the time,” a White House official was cited as saying by the Axios news outlet, using the premier’s nickname. “This could undermine what Trump is trying to do.” Israel began carrying out strikes on Syrian troops rolling into Sweida on Tuesday after local government forces were accused of killing scores of people in...

Bedouin fighters positioned outside the southern Syrian city of Suweida have told the BBC they will observe a ceasefire with the Druze community there, but have not ruled out resuming hostilities. The Bedouin fighters have retreated from the city to surrounding villages in the province after a week of deadly sectarian clashes between Druze fighters, Bedouins and government forces, with Israel carrying out air strikes in support of the Druze. On Sunday a UK-based monitoring group said there was a "cautious calm" in the region - but later said tribal fighters had attacked villages. From the town of al-Mazara'a -...

Sectarian fighting has highlighted just how combustible the country remains months after its authoritarian leader, Bashar al Assad, was toppled. Ahmad al Sharaa, who led Islamist rebels who overthrew the authoritarian leader, became the country's interim president in a transition that was initially mostly peaceful. He has pledged to protect Syria's diverse ethnic and religious groups since. However, a few months after the overthrow of Assad, government forces clashed with pro-Assad armed groups on Syria's coast, spurring sectarian attacks that killed hundreds of civilians from the Alawite religious minority to which the former president belongs. This left other minority groups,...

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has received a report on sectarian violence that took place in Syria’s Alawite heartland earlier this year and pledged measures to prevent its recurrence, the presidency says, without disclosing the findings. Sharaa received the full report on the bloodshed from the fact-finding committee on July 13, the statement from the presidency says — the same day sectarian violence erupted in the heavily Druze province of Sweida. In early March, Syria’s Mediterranean coast, home to the Alawite religious minority to which ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad belongs, saw several days of intercommunal violence. The new Islamist authorities accused...

Sectarian clashes have continued in southern Syria despite an "immediate ceasefire" announced by the country's president. Reports say that Druze fighters on Saturday pushed out Bedouin gunmen from the city of Suweida - but fighting continued in other parts of the province. This has not been verified by the BBC. Government forces deployed earlier this week by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa were blamed for joining in attacks on the Druze. More than 900 people are reported to have been killed in the past week. All sides are accused of atrocities. The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, demanded an end...

Heartbreaking, Father Tony Boutros, representative of the Greek Catholic Church in Sweida, Syria, makes an appeal to the international community to save Christians and Druze from an Islamist genocide. “We Christians and Druze are one. Look at the massacre they are committing against us. We need protection to continue living in the land we have peacefully lived together for hundreds of years.” ... Who is doing the Killings? What’s UN doing? ... not seeing Christian pastors/priests speaking up ... This is the history of Islam. Conquer. Destroy. Kill non Islamic citizens. Then destroy a country and send it back into...

Fierce fighting broke out once again Friday in Syria’s Druze-majority Sweida region as armed Bedouin tribal factions, backed by Syria’s Islamist-led interim government, clashed with local Druze fighters at the city’s entrance, AFP reported. The confrontation follows the Syrian army’s Thursday withdrawal from Sweida after Israeli airstrikes and intense diplomatic pressure. Following the latest outburst, Syria’s government announced on Friday evening that it will redeploy forces to the area. The conflict has already claimed at least 638 lives since Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). The United Nations has demanded an end to the "bloodshed" and...

Sectarian clashes escalated in Syria's predominantly Druze region of Sweida on Saturday, with machinegun fire and mortar shelling ringing out after days of bloodshed as the Islamist-led government struggled to implement a ceasefire. Reuters reporters heard gunfire from inside the city of Sweida and saw shells land in nearby villages. There were no immediate, confirmed reports of casualties. The government had said security forces were deploying in the southern region to try to keep peace, and urged all parties to stop fighting after nearly a week of factional bloodshed in which hundreds have been killed. The Syrian Observatory for Human...

The Syrian presidency says it will deploy a new force to halt the deadly sectarian clashes between Bedouin and Druze fighters in the south of the country. Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa's office urged "all parties to exercise restraint", amid reports of renewed fighting near the city of Suweida on Friday. Almost 600 people are reported to have been killed since the violence erupted on Sunday. Government troops deployed to the area were accused by residents of killing Druze civilians and carrying out extrajudicial executions. Israel later struck targets in Syria to force the troops to withdraw from Suweida province....

Syrian government forces had largely pulled out of the southern province of Sweida on Thursday after days of clashes with militias linked to the Druze minority that threatened to unravel the country’s post-war transition. The conflict had drawn airstrikes against Syrian forces by neighboring Israel in defense of the Druze before a truce — mediated by the U.S., Turkey and Arab countries and announced Wednesday — halted most of the fighting. However, Syrian state media said Thursday that Druze militiamen had launched revenge attacks on Sunni Bedouin communities, leading to a wave of their displacement. There were some reports of...

Syria has been wracked by a new wave of deadly sectarian violence that has placed the spotlight on the Druze minority at the center of rising tensions with Israel. Dozens of people were killed this week after clashes between government loyalists and Druze militias in the southern city of Suwayda, prompting Syrian forces to intervene. That, in turn, triggered renewed Israeli airstrikes, as Israel – citing a commitment to protect the Druze – expands its footprint in southern Syria. .. Syria’s military entered Suwayda, a stronghold for the Druze community in the country’s south, on Tuesday after clashes broke out...

Israel carried out strikes against Syrian government forces in southwestern Syria for a second day on Tuesday, vowing to keep the area demilitarized and to protect the Druze minority as deadly clashes continued in the region at the Israeli frontier. A Reuters reporter said they heard drones and at least four strikes over the predominantly Druze city of Sweida, and saw a damaged tank being towed away. Bursts of gunfire were heard and three bodies were seen on the ground. Dozens of people have been killed in fighting in the region since Sunday. The surge in violence underlines the challenges...