Free Republic

In a recent piece in The Atlantic, Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow with the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies, urged the United States to confront Turkey. According to Gerecht, Turkey has emerged, under the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, “as perhaps the greatest danger to Israel in the Middle East, escalating the threat of a conflict he won’t be able to avoid.” Gerecht charges Erdogan with setting the stage for a clash with Israel as a key tactic in his power projection strategy abroad. To reduce the risk of “yet another regional war,” Gerecht urges President Donald Trump...

Fatima Hassouna, a war documentarian who had covered the conflict in Gaza on the ground for 18 months and the subject of a new documentary to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival next month, was killed along with seven members of her family in an Israeli strike this week. “If I die, I want a resounding death, I do not want me in urgent news, nor in a number with a group,” Hassouna wrote in a post on Instagram in August 2024. “I want a death that the world hears, an effect that remains for the extent of the...

The Royal Navy's flagship HMS Prince of Wales has departed on one of its biggest deployments yet. The £3bn aircraft carrier set off from Portsmouth and will take part in exercises demonstrating the UK's ability to operate fast jets at sea, and carry out large scale military operations on the other side of the world. Up to 24 of the latest F-35B stealth jets will join the carrier as it leads a multi-national fleet of warships to 40 countries across the Mediterranean, Middle East, south-east Asia, Japan and Australia. The 65,000-tonne warship, which can hold up to 1,600 military personnel,...

Global leaders, including Trump and Putin, condemned the Pahalgam terror attack, expressing condolences and solidarity with India against terrorism. US President Donald Trump, Russia's Vladimir Putin and other world leaders condemned the terrorist attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on Tuesday and extended unstinting support over the terror strike that left 26 tourists dead. The attack took place in Baisaran meadow, around five kilometers from Jammu and Kashmir' resort town of Pahalgam. Donald Trump said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the “incredible people of India, have full support” of the US and deepest sympathies. Track Pahalgam terror...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke via phone on Tuesday with US President Donald Trump, the American leader said, declaring that the pair “are on the same side of every issue.” The call covered “numerous subjects including Trade, Iran, etc.,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, adding that the conversation went “very well.” Notably, Trump did not include Gaza or the 59 hostages being held there in his list of topics discussed amid the ongoing impasse in ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. However, according to a report in Axios, the pair did talk about efforts to reach...

When war once again came to Gaza in late 2023, Palestinian photographer Fatma Hassona began documenting all aspects of life: death, displacement, destruction, children celebrating during Eid, relief as people were allowed to return to northern Gaza during a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas this year. Despite the challenges she faced, the 25-year-old was planning for the future: She was engaged to be married this summer and received news last Tuesday that a documentary about her life in Gaza during the war had been accepted to Acid Cannes, which runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival in France. A day later,...

Thomas L. Friedman, famous New York Times editorialist, does not much like Trump’s plan for Gaza. A skilled wordsmith, he dismisses it, writing, “How short a distance it is between out-of-the-box thinking and out-of-your-mind thinking.” However, the former is correct. This plan is creative, unique, and incisive, and kills several “boids” (as we say in Brooklyn) with one rock. For one thing, it will safeguard Israel. Under an American Riviera on the Mediterranean, there will be no more rockets launched in an eastward direction; no more leaping out of tunnels (a new tourist attraction!) to unleash suicide bombers. For another,...

Watch Yosef Haddad, an Israeli Christian Arab educate an entire Muslim Crowd at Oxford Union. Very fiery delivery over intense heckling, of a defense of Israel by a combat veteran of IDF. Transcript linked to video. Too long to detail in a summary, but well worth the listening.

The powerful unit, and Tehran's insistence: "We will not give it up." Why did Iran set a red line, and how dangerous is it for us? All the details. "Outside the scope of any agreement": Iran's insistence on the missile force, and Israel's containment battle. While the Iranian foreign minister claims that the American team did not raise "any issue other than nuclear" in the talks, Israel insists that any agreement with Iran must also limit the Iranian missile program. • How long will it take Iran to adapt a missile to a nuclear warhead? Can the Iranian missile array...

A newly surfaced video reveals Plano Mayor John B. Muns offering the controversial East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) special access to public school officials—exposing once again how this mosque has transformed from a religious institution into a powerful political force shaping education, demographics, and public policy in Texas. Plano, Texas — In a deeply alarming and politically revealing moment, a newly surfaced video captures Plano Mayor John B. Muns inside the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC), meeting with mosque leadership—including Yasir Qadhi, a cleric with a long-documented record of radical Islamic views—and offering them direct, special access to Plano school...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying a strategic partnership treaty with Iran, Russian state news agency RIA reported on Monday.

he United Kingdom is worried about its King’s security after unidentified drones were seen over Charles Royal residence of Sandringham. A no-fly zone has been put in place over the King’s home after the scare occurred during the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the estate. ... “The restrictions were requested by security services on 4 March – days after Charles hosted Volodymyr Zelenskyy – and came into force on 10 March. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander signed off on the order that restricts aircraft from flying below 2,000 feet at Sandringham ‘for reasons of public safety and security’.”

Cenk Uygur @cenkuygur If @nytimes is right and Trump refused Israel's request to attack Iran, he deserves a ton of credit for that. Times reporting @TulsiGabbard made the argument against the strike - huge credit for that. @JDVance also spoke against. Not a lot of good news lately, but this is great. 4:24 PM · Apr 17, 2025

President Trump has vowed to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon — but inside his national security team there's a divide over the best way to do it. -snip- One camp, unofficially led by Vice President Vance, believes a diplomatic solution is both preferable and possible and that the U.S. should be ready to make compromises in order to make it happen. Vance is highly involved in the Iran policy discussions, another U.S. official said. This camp includes also Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff — who represented the U.S. at the first round of Iran talks on Saturday — and...

Daniel Wakin, the New York Times Deputy International Editor of Opinion, had an "Opinion Today" item in the paper's April 14th edition promoting a guest essay on the Op-Ed page entitled, "The U.S. Must Now Reckon With a Hegemon in the Mideast: Israel." The beginning of Wakin's item [emphasis added] reads: "Ancient Rome in the Mediterranean. The Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. The United States in the Western Hemisphere, for that matter. History is rife with nations and empires seeking to become dominant in a region or larger swath of the world. It is called hegemony. Aaron David Miller and...

More and more mosques are being built in Sweden, including mega projects potentially funded from abroad.. Sweden has seen massive demographic changes over the last 25 years, and this is not only reflected in the demographic composition, but also the religious composition of the country. While churches continue to close their doors, the country went from approximately seven mosques in 2000 to now 300 in 2025. The exact figures are difficult to ascertain, however, the 300 mosques refers to permanent prayer places built for Muslim worship, which often feature a minaret and a dome. If unofficial places of Muslim worship...

If there is no emotional connection to their own children, how could there ever be a desire for peace, coexistence, and mutual respect for the Israeli people? Speaking to the children of Jenin in their native Arabic language, N12 Israeli television reporter Ohad Hemo confirmed what we’ve all known for a long time: the realization of why there can never be peace between Israel and the so-called Palestinians who live in Samaria. With special permission from the IDF, Hemo made his way through the rubble, which was once home to 14,000 people who lived in the Jenin Palestinian refugee camp,...

The European veil of leftist intellectual and moral superiority is starting to crumble. In recent weeks, we’ve seen Europe begin to take responsibility for its defense, the climate crazies seeing many of their goals collapsing under the weight of the twin realities of science and economics, and the rise of conservative politicians who are seeking an end to the immigration invasion. ... Europe is now fully awake to the fact that the U.S. is not their on-call military ... Thanks to decades of cradle-to-grave benefits, in addition to their reliance on the U.S. for their defense, Europe essentially has no...

President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will lead the U.S. delegation for nuclear talks with Iran on Saturday in Oman, two sources familiar with the plan tell Axios. -snip- So far, there have only been negotiations about the negotiations — which don't yet seem to be resolved. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, whom Iranian press reports say will be Iran's chief negotiator, insisted the talks would be "indirect" — with Omani mediators passing messages between the sides. Trump insisted the talks would be "direct." Two U.S. officials told Axios that is indeed the plan. Whatever the format, the stakes are clear....

Former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz sparked backlash Monday after she admitted a social media post that implied former President Joe Biden was dead “got her hopes up.”. The left-leaning firebrand has made her disdain for Biden clear, attacking his pro-Israel stance on the war in Gaza. A social media user seemingly shared her view, posting a black-and-white photo of Biden over the weekend and writing: “RIP Joe Biden 1942-2025…You were always a racist -–king monster, and will not be missed.” Lorenz shared the post on Sunday with a frowny face, adding: “This tweet got my hopes up.” Some social...