Free Republic

New satellite imagery and flight-tracking data show a significant buildup of U.S. military aircraft at a key air base in central Jordan, as tensions rise over Iran's nuclear program, The New York Times reported Friday. Images captured Friday reveal more than 60 U.S. attack aircraft parked at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base — roughly three times the number typically stationed there.Flight data also indicate that at least 68 cargo planes have landed at the base since Sunday, suggesting a surge of personnel, equipment, and logistical support. More fighter jets may be positioned under protective shelters. The images show advanced aircraft, including...

The talks are still alive. Just. Iranian and US diplomats, engaging indirectly through Omani intermediaries, have yet to make any substantive progress towards a framework of understanding that governs further talks – as Kafkaesque as that might sound – but they are talking, and that is the best that the diplomats can hope for right now. What separates Iran and America is a vast chasm between their respective red lines, and beyond that, the very substance of the talks themselves. The US is not willing to countenance an Iran that enriches uranium, has a ballistic missile programme and arms proxies...

Global energy markets were put on alert after Iran temporarily restricted movement in parts of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most strategically important oil transit routes on Earth. The move came as Tehran simultaneously engaged in sensitive diplomatic talks with the United States over its nuclear program, underscoring how quickly geopolitical tensions in the Middle East can ripple through global markets. While the disruption was limited and short lived, investors, energy traders, and policymakers immediately focused on what the action signals about regional stability, oil supply risks, and the broader geopolitical chess match between Iran and the West....

The 162-article draft "constitution," however, shows that, if and when the Palestinians have a state of their own, it would actually not be different from the two mini-states they have had for the past two decades: the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank. Both Palestinian regimes have miserably failed their people, mainly by depriving them of international aid, democracy, opportunity, free elections, and freedom of speech. Notably, the new "constitution" repeats and reaffirms the long-standing and familiar positions and policies of the PA and Hamas, especially towards Israel and Jews. These...

The Jerusalem Post @Jerusalem_Post: Editorial: For the first time during the war, a major international organization has publicly recognized the presence of armed groups operating within a Gaza hospital.

Speaking at the 2026 edition of the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the UN has "tremendous potential," but needs reforms to be of real use.

Over a year has passed since the world saw the terrified face of Arbel Yehoud forced to walk through a baying mob of Hamas terrorists to freedom. Only now does the 30-year-old feel strong enough to reveal that this sickening spectacle was just the last act in a monstrous campaign of abuse unleashed throughout her 482 days held in Gaza.

Nickolay Mladenov, the head diplomat in charge of the Board of Peace's subcommittee on the Gaza ceasefire, stressed on Friday that all armed groups in the Gaza Strip must disarm. Mladenov was responding on social media to a post by Aaron Goren, an analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who wondered why Mladenov refused to respond to a question on whether reports that Hamas will only be partially disarmed as part of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan are accurate. “I've made it very clear that all militants in Gaza need to be disarmed and there is...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., alleged at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that U.S. aid to the Jewish state enabled a genocide by Israel. AOC’s attack on the Jewish state in Munich unfolded in the birthplace of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement that carried out the worst genocide in human history. During the town hall event in Munich, the Squad member said, "To me, this isn't just about a presidential election. Personally, I think that the United States has an obligation to uphold its own laws, particularly the Leahy laws. And I think that personally, that the idea of completely unconditional...

The Department of Homeland Security has revoked deportation protections for Yemenis living in the United States, ordering them to return home, according to a draft press release obtained by the Daily Caller. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced Friday that Yemen no longer meets the statutory requirements for Temporary Protected Status after a department review of conditions in the country. She said ending the designation would protect national security interests while returning the program to its original temporary intent. “Allowing TPS Yemen beneficiaries to remain temporarily in the United States is contrary to our national interest,” Noem wrote. “We are prioritizing...

A former Army Colonel from Florida was sentenced to two years in prison Tuesday for trying to woo a woman he met online by sending her secret classified battle plans. Retired combat vet Kevin Charles Luke, 62, was working as a high-level civilian contractor with “top secret” clearance at US military headquarters in Tampa in October 2024, when he texted a photo of plans for a Middle East attack to his new fling, according to court documents. “Sent to my boss earlier,” he wrote in the text, which included a photo of an email on his work computer at Central...

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot tells lawmaker the French government demands UN Rapporteur's resignation after her latest hateful rant against Israel. “France unreservedly condemns the outrageous and reprehensible remarks made by Ms. Francesca Albanese, which are directed not at the Israeli government, whose policies may be criticized, but at Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable," Barrot said. He stated that Albanese's remarks “target not the Israeli government, whose policies can be criticized, but Israel as a people and as a nation, which is absolutely unacceptable," and that they "add to a long list of...

The Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions, with the support of international labor unions, intends to sue Israel for compensation on behalf of Palestinian Authority Arab workers who lost their jobs in Israel since October 7, 2023, when Hamas and civilian Arabs infiltrated Israel en mass and brutally tortured, massacred, and dismembered Israeli men, women, children, and infants. The petition to the International Labour Organization (ILO) focuses on the right to wages and the protection of workers' social rights in accordance with binding international conventions and agreements. Shaher Saad, Secretary-General of the Palestinian Workers Union, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the...

Aizenberg @Aizenberg55: The Gaza death toll narrative depends on pretending Hamas never kills Gazans. In reality, Hamas & PIJ killed 1000s from internal violence and misfired rockets—then get counted as civilians killed by IDF. Numerous reports and incidents like the one below document this clearly.

Key Takeaways: Headlines claiming the IDF “accepted” Hamas’ 70,000 death toll stemmed from an anonymous briefing remark—not official data—and were later clarified by the IDF as not reflecting its position, yet the narrative spread globally before the correction. Hamas’ published figures lump together combatants, civilians, natural deaths, and deaths caused by Hamas itself, with no breakdown—embedding an estimated ~11,000 natural deaths, ~1,000 errors, and ~4,000 internal or misfire-related killings that are routinely attributed to Israel. Reconstructing the data shows roughly 25,000 Hamas fighters killed and about 36,000 civilians—a civilian-to-combatant ratio of around 1.5:1—undercutting claims of indiscriminate slaughter and revealing how...

Three adult dogs and seven puppies found abandoned near the Gaza border will be flown to the US for adoption by American soldiers who served in the area during the Gaza war. The soldiers discovered the animals and decided they couldn’t leave them behind, according to Israel’s Let the Animals Live association. Let the Animals Live said it was caring for the canines in kennels before they are flown out, while also dealing with the export bureaucracy and ensuring that all shots are up to date. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (International) is funding most of...

Arab bus driver, Fakhri Khatib, plows into ultra Orthodox Jews haredim protesting draft. killing teenager Yosef Eisenthal and injuring several others.Bus driver rams into ultra-Orthodox protesters in Jerusalem, 14-year-old killed.Thousands of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters gathered in Israel's capital on Tuesday evening • Driver arrested after killing one, injuring three others • Shas: "Haredi blood is not cheap."By Miriam Sela-eitam, Tobias Holcman. JPost, January 6, 2026.Yosef Eisenthal, a 14-year-old boy, was killed, and three were injured after a bus driver ran over ultra-Orthodox Jews during a haredi draft protest in Jerusalem on Tuesday."We responded to a severe collision involving a bus...

Campus Jihad Hypocrisy: 33K Gaza Tears vs. 1M+ Islamist Slaughter Ignored On American campuses, Islamo-Arab lobbies and their radical allies orchestrate non-stop spectacles of faux outrage over Israel's defensive war against Hamas, fixating on roughly 33,000 civilian deaths in Gaza—tragedies exacerbated by the terror group's ruthless human-shield tactics of embedding fighters, rockets, and command centers in hospitals, schools, and homes. Yet this death toll pales against the jihadist bloodbaths they conveniently overlook, where Muslim supremacists slaughter their own and minorities without a whisper of protest. Israel's combatant-to-civilian ratio—fewer than 1.5 non-combatants per fighter killed—reflects unprecedented restraint in urban warfare, debunking...

The Three G's: Gaza, Genocide, Government – Unmasking Hamas "Palestine" Hypocrisy. In recent weeks, the world has been confronted with images and reports from Gaza that raise troubling questions about the true nature of the ongoing conflict. As Israel’s anti-terror operation continues to dismantle Hamas infrastructure in Gaza, the group’s actions are revealing the depth of its hypocrisy and disregard for the well-being of its own people. Hamas, which has long used the civilian population of Gaza as human shields, has now shown an alarming double standard as its leaders desperately try to secure their own escape while preventing their...

Here we go again. President Donald Trump says he wants to make a deal with Iran and avoid war. And he’s sending negotiators to Oman for talks with Iranian diplomats on Friday. Sound familiar? Ahead of scheduled U.S.–Iranian talks in Oman last June, Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran, instigating a war that Trump later briefly joined with a bombing raid on Tehran’s main nuclear facilities. Not quite eight months later, the world anxiously waits to see if recent history will repeat itself, this time with America leading the charge. Israel, of course, is worried that Trump won’t attack....