Free Republic

On Saturday’s “CNN Newsroom,” House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) stated that he believes the Biden administration will advise Israel that “they should look to de-escalate across the board where possible.” Smith also argued that the Iranian attack on Israel “underscores the need to get to a ceasefire in Gaza, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza, and to have an endpoint to that conflict, completely admitting Israel’s right to defend itself there, without question. But things need to calm down or Israel is vulnerable in the region.” Smith said that the Iranian attack seems to be...

“They have tried to solve a wide range of insoluble problems, from the weather to poverty to viruses, and now they will attempt to solve us.” —Eugyppius. This is that part of the movie where the hero — you — tumbles off the cliff on Kong Island in a lightning storm with a canyon full of tarantulas down below where you’ll soon be landing. I know, not a pretty picture. The cliff is our country’s financial quandary; the lightning is us getting sucked directly into war; and the tarantula pit below is the emerging peril of Covid vaccine injury and...

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel "sooner, rather than later" and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden said simply, "Don't," and he underscored Washington's commitment to defend Israel. "We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed," he said. Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of retaliation for an attack on Iran's embassy compound last week in Damascus that killed a senior commander...

Ukraine Weekly Update 12th April 2024 DR. ROB CAMPBELL APR 12, 2024 Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi shake hands during a joint press conference following their meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guest House in Beijing, China - Sputnik International, 1920, 10.04.2024 Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi - Has China agreed to back Russia militarily? This week, Russia has continued to degrade Ukraine’s energy system with some massive drone/missile attacks. Several large power plants have been damaged and some disabled while large underground gas storage facilities have been destroyed. The future of...

This is a breathtaking betrayal of Israel by Biden, who clearly cares more about his poll numbers in Michigan and Minnesota than the fate of the Jewish state. For someone who has declared himself to be a Zionist, US President Joe Biden sure has a funny way of showing it. On April 4, in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden reportedly harangued Israel, all but threatening to cut off military aid to the Jewish state unless it capitulated to his demands. As Reuters succinctly noted, “US President Joe Biden effectively gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an...

The Interior Department on Friday finalized a rule making it more expensive for oil and gas producers to drill on federally owned lands. Several of the provisions in the rule — like raising the rent the government charges to oil companies for using its land and increasing the government’s share of the profits from that oil — were set out in law by the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act. The Biden administration will additionally make it more expensive for drillers to abandon their oil wells after use instead of cleaning them up. The administration argues that current bonding rates do not...

Israel is preparing for a direct attack from Iran on southern or northern Israel as soon as the next 24 to 48 hours, according to a person familiar with the matter. A person briefed by the Iranian leadership, however, said that while plans to attack are being discussed, no final decision has been made. Iran has publicly threatened to retaliate for an attack last week in Damascus, Syria, that Tehran said was an Israeli airstrike on a diplomatic building. The strike killed top Iranian military officials, including a senior member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force. Earlier...

Here are 10 key reasons experts say U.S. support for Ukraine should be continued: 1. Putin's aggression must be stopped. 2. Putin's atrocities need a response. 3. Russia is targeting evangelical Christians for persecution. 4. Ukraine wants only to regain its sovereign territory. 5. Russia has not "won" the war. 6. Russia is rearming for a larger war. 7. Most Ukraine aid goes to U.S. contractors. 8. Europe fears a coming attack on NATO. 9. Support for Ukraine signals to China: Do not invade Taiwan. 10. Give Ukraine aid to let Trump bring peace.

Oh. After Chef Jose Andres of World Central Kitchen (WCK) accused Israel of 'deliberately' targeting a WCK convoy, and of 'genocide', a picture has surfaced of Hamas with WCK workers, and allegedly riding with the vehicles. Whether or not there's more to the story, we'll have to wait and see. Hi @chefjoseandres care to explain this picture? You’ve spent the week accusing Israel targeting @WCKitchen volunteers & now we know Hamas was riding with the vehicles. You also accused Israel of genocide which is an absolute lie. Now YOU can be seen hanging with Hamas. WTF??? pic.twitter.com/914YyGxbfZ — Sebastian Marinaio...

Roosevelt, argues Arnold Beichman, misread Stalin—and proved naive about communism itself.... Professor Arthur Schlesinger Jr., who has argued that the 1989 counter-revolution in Central Europe vindicates President Roosevelt’s wartime diplomacy,... However, I argue that, from the time he took office in 1933, FDR ignored informed assessments from within the State Department of the nature of Soviet diplomacy and that, consequently, the peoples of Central Europe for some four decades paid the price.... In the early years after the Bolshevik revolution, some U.S. diplomats who had begun to specialize in Soviet affairs believed that we should have as few dealings with...

President Biden is facing deepening political trouble as criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza grows more widespread and a possible invasion of Rafah looms. Discontent with Biden’s substantive support for Israel has spread across the Democratic Party, even as the president has toughened his rhetoric criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. At the same time, Republicans are upping their attacks on Biden as insufficiently supportive of Israel in its war with Hamas and amid rising tensions with Iran.

The story of what happened after Oct 7 has played out in the international media as a montage of bombs and rubble. And while Israel’s campaign against the Hamas perpetrators of the horrific massacres, rapes and kidnappings is an important part of the story, it is not the only one. From the men who grabbed their guns and drove south in the hours after the attack began to the warehouses quickly set up to provide food and clothing for the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who were forced to leave their homes after the attacks from Gaza, inside Israel, the...

A remembrance mural has become the target of "mindless vandalism" for a second time. Spray paint was used between Monday and Tuesday last week to deface the artwork situated on Witham's river walk. The initial incident was reported to Essex Police, but silver spray paint was then used at the weekend to create further damage. A spokesperson from Witham Town Council said it was "just mindless vandalism". Police have been contacted for comment.

In the history of U.S. foreign and defense strategy, no presidential administration ever cultivated the rise of new, powerful groupings of nation states that oppose the United States in every sphere of meaningful human endeavor on the scale of the Biden administration. In a world of competing blocs, much of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and several European states are now united by events in Ukraine and the Middle East to overturn America’s global dominance. Seventy-four years ago, General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower expressed the hope that access to more accurate information would prevent future generations of Americans from...

US President Joe Biden has urged “the Israelis to just call for” a six-to-eight-week ceasefire, remarks the White House adamantly insisted did not mark a major shift in policy even though he did not mention Hamas or a hostage deal in his appeal to Israel. “What I’m calling for is for the Israelis to just call for a ceasefire, allow for the next six, eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country,” Biden told Univision, a US Spanish-language TV network, in an interview aired Tuesday. “I’ve spoken with everyone from the Saudis to the Jordanians...

During an interview with Univision that took place last Wednesday and aired on Tuesday, President Joe Biden said that he hopes his legacy is that he kept his word and did what he said he would do and that the reason he ran for office “was to help the life of ordinary people and reduce the prospect of war and — because of Vietnam.” Interviewer Enrique Acevedo asked, “Do you think a lot about legacy, because we’re talking about over 50 years of public service, and, regardless of the outcome, this might be your last political campaign, you’ve done a...

Australia is preparing for war in order to avoid it. Their historic new increase in defense spending and China’s dependence on them for iron ore make them an important ally. Australia’s defense funding for 2024 will be $35 billion USD, just over 2% of their GDP, and up from $20 billion in 2021. They’ve signed a new trilateral security agreement with the United States and United Kingdom that will give the Australian Navy a new weapon that only 6 other nations in the entire world have. Major upgrades are being made to their northern army, air and naval bases. But...

It doesn’t take a genius to see the that Democrats are using the World Central Kitchen incident to play to that significant portion of their base which has revealed itself as deeply antisemitic. ust days ago, NSC spokesman John Kirby assured the world of the administration’s “unwavering support” for Israel in its fight for survival. President Biden authorized an arms transfer to Israel, including 1,800 MK-84 2,000-pound bombs, 500 MK-82 500-pound bombs, and 25 F-35A fighter jets. Days later, following tragic drone strikes in which seven World Central Kitchen workers perished, the president made clear the need for Israel to...

The Israeli military has withdrawn all of its ground troops from southern Gaza save for one bridge in order to “rest and refit,” US officials say – as the Jewish State returns to the negotiating table with Hamas. “They’ve been on the ground for four months, the word we’re getting is they’re tired, they need to be refit,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told ABC’s “This Week.” “It is really just about rest and refit for these troops,” Kirby added, “and not necessarily that we can tell indicative of some coming new operation for these troops.”

Celebrity chef and World Central Kitchen founder José Andrés said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that Israel was committing a “war against humanity.” Discussing World Central Kitchen workers being killed in Gaza, Andrés said, “Every time something happens, we cannot be bringing Hamas the question. I think the IDF knows better than anybody that they can be a better army. There should be protocols. There should be rules of engagement, that somebody has to be making sure that the happen in a war zone, is way too many cases now of humanitarians dying.”