Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has decided that the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees is not immune from being sued, reversing the U.S. government’s position that the organization was protected from civil liability.The Justice Department revealed its new stance in a letter it filed in federal court in New York on Thursday as part of a lawsuit that aims to hold the agency, known as UNRWA, accountable for the Oct. 7, 2023, deadly attack on Israel by Hamas. The change in position underscores the hardened perspective toward the agency under the Trump administration following allegations by Israel that some...

If there is a single moment in time in which the fate of Western civilization was decided, it is the battle of Marathon, 490 BC. The Persians under their king Darius landed in Greece, only 26 miles from Athens itself. A vastly outnumbered Greek force marched out to meet them. The Persians had already conquered huge swathes of the Middle East and South Asia. A relative handful of quarrelsome Greeks seemed unlikely to pose much of a challenge to them. But they were. When the day was done, the Persians were vanquished. The idea of Persian invincibility was destroyed forever....

Dramatic night as Saudi sources now claims Iranian intel ship Zagros (SIGINT) was sunk by U.S. forces at the same time the IDF conducts wide-ranging strikes in Gaza after Israel discovers Hamas was plotting another major Oct 7 style attack. Gaza ceasefire officially over, according to the Prime Minister’s office. Reuters is also reporting ballistic missile movement at IRGC bases in Iran. There were also reports from Yemen (video) that several senior IRGC members were eliminated in US attacks on Houthi targets.

Iran has responded to US President Donald Trump's warning that Tehran must end its support for the Houthis in Yemen. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on social media on Sunday that the US government has no authority to dictate Iranian foreign policy, and it must stop killing Yemeni people. The spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Esmail Baqaei, said in a statement released on Sunday that the brutal airstrikes by the United States had resulted in the martyrdom and injury of dozens of people, including a number of innocent Yemeni women and children. He said the US military...

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...

The United Nations rights chief said the parading of bodies in Gaza is abhorrent and flies in the face of international law. [...] Gilad Erdan, former Israeli ambassador to the UN and the US, compared the Palestinians in Gaza to the Nazis in an X/Twitter post. “Even in Nazi Germany, there were Germans who saved Jews. Not a single Gazan saved a single hostage.” Erdan continued, “Many, many ‘innocent’ Gazans took part in the kidnapping & murder, and many more came out today and on October 7 to celebrate the return of Jewish babies in coffins.

Lebanese government wouldn't let IRGC plane land at Beirut International, because it was carrying hardware to resume hostilitities with Israel. IRGC and Hezbollah attacked UNIFIL forces protecting the airport. Lebanese armed forces were caught flat-footed by the attack, which was ongoing as of yesterday. Mahyar has footage from phone cameras on scene. Transcript linked below video.

Following President Trump's executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC, the Treasury has added the court's prosecutor to its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List.

Israel’s defense minister has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to devise a plan for Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for how the devastated territory would be administered. "I have instructed the IDF to prepare a plan to enable voluntary departure for Gaza residents," Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday, adding they could go "to any country willing to accept them." Katz said the plan "will include options for exit and land crossings as well as special arrangement for exit by sea and air." Katz welcomed what he characterized as Trump's "bold plan" for...

One can’t help but see the grim irony in a United Nations event on human rights being held in Hangzhou, a major Chinese city known for its technological hubs, co-hosted by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Perhaps the invitations were printed on forced-labor cotton paper, and the keynote address brainstormed over a surveillance feed of political prisoners. Leave it to the UN to turn hypocrisy into a high art. This past December, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the PRC co-hosted the Hernán Santa Cruz Dialogue on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights...

After 16 months of sheer hell, freed Hamas hostage Daniella Gilboa finally reveals what happened in that shelter on October 7th. In a heart-wrenching first public message that has reverberated across social media, Daniella Gilboa - who survived the October 7 attack and subsequent captivity - has shared her story of faith, survival, and gratitude. Speaking directly to a nation that held its breath for her return, Gilboa reveals the raw, powerful moments when she chose prayer over despair in a shelter under siege, and describes the profound emotion of finally reciting the traditional survivor's blessing in synagogue. "Hi loved...

Bucking--not backing - Trump is a sure-fire recipe for committing political suicide President Trump has created a veritable diplomatic tsunami affecting the political fortunes of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Hamas and Jordan - with his decision to cease all future donations to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) - currently US$360million per annum and comprising about 30% of UNRWA’s budget. The numbers of UNRWA-registered Palestinian Arab refugees in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza have been increasing in leaps and bounds annually because they include all the descendants of those Palestinian Arabs caught up in the 1948...

Perhaps Hamas is the party guilty of genocide - of the Palestinian people?Genocide is defined as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:(a) Killing members of the group;(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. Let's focus on...

Promoting terrorism, in the heart of Israel: When the state lost patience with the absurd The "Afshaa Al-Salaam" committees were closed down due to being an arm of the Islamic Movement, on the recommendation of the Military Intelligence Service and after the presentation of well-founded and unambiguous intelligence information collected on their activities. Alon Hachmon. 01/28/2025. The police, Shin Bet and the Ministry of Defense announced that after prolonged activity by the Israel Police, Shin Bet and the Headquarters for Combating Economic Terrorism (MATL), the "Afsha'a Al-Salam" committees have been outlawed. This morning (Tuesday), as part of the combined national...

Netanyahu: ‘Hamas are the new Nazis’. "The core of new antisemitism is the attempt to ... undermine [Israel's] right to self-defense," Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar said. JNS Staff. (Jan. 27, 2025 / JNS). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called on the “civilized” world to up its effort to combat Jew-hatred, while labeling the Hamas terror group the “new Nazis.” “On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I call on all civilized nations to confront antisemitism wherever it appears—on college campuses, city streets or international forums like the [International Criminal Court],” Netanyahu tweeted. “Founded in the shadow of the Holocaust, the...

Benjamin Netanyahu is piling pressure on Sir Keir Starmer to restore all arms licences for Israel. The Israeli PM ‘raised the issue’ of Britain having suspended around 30 licences in a phone call yesterday just hours after Donald Trump became US president. A readout from the Jewish State’s government press office stated that Sir Keir ‘said that an evaluation of the issue is being carried out’.

Israeli hostages released as part of the recent ceasefire with Hamas have claimed they were held in a U.N. camp in Gaza. Hostages Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher, who were released from Hamas custody on Sunday, reported that they had been held in a U.N. refugee camp at some point during their captivity, according to Israel’s Channel 13. Details were not given as to what camps they were held in, when, or for how long. The revelation is the latest blow to the position of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East,...

Oy veh — it’s gonna get mashugana out there. In the waning days of the Biden administration (which also coincides with the waning days of Joe Biden), a few uncomfortable truths have emerged. First, Biden is destined to be remembered as one of the least consequential presidents in American history. His tenure was a speed bump -- a thin slice of bologna that’s sandwiched between the two Trump terms. For a guy like Biden, who so clearly covets adulation, recognition, and public praise, that’s gotta sting. Two, it’s now apparent that Biden’s presidency coincided with a national realignment. The public...

Why was the Los Angeles California arson suspect (arrested yesterday) carrying FIVE cell phones and a United Nations prepaid debit card?? ... Syrian Illegal Alien ... If you speak Arabic, please feel free to translate and correct in comments. ... LAPD says there is no probable cause to charge the man walking around with a large blowtorch in LA with arson. He must have just been trying to light a cigarette with a massive blowtorch! The man was detained by local residents after they accused him of trying to start fires. "There was not enough probable cause to arrest this...

The newly installed House, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), is set to vote Thursday on legislation that would sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, over efforts to arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to lawmakers and congressional sources briefed on the matter.The legislation first passed the House in June with support from Republicans and 42 Democrats, but then-Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) did not bring it to the floor of the upper chamber for a vote. Its resurgence comes weeks after top Republicans—both in Congress and in the incoming...