Free Republic

Just as 9/11 and the space shuttle disasters showed failures at the relevant agencies, the 10/7 pogrom has exposed a failure of leadership at all levels of government and society.Derek Hunter often writes to the effect that when one thinks that Democrats could not go any lower, they whip out their shovels and keep digging deeper and deeper. I was reminded of his insight when I saw a headline this morning. It’s not enough that the US chose not to send ammunition to Israel during a hot war. It was still not enough to threaten not to send certain critical...

To be a college president, you have to go through the faculty ranks with one fear: you do not want to get on the wrong side of left-wing students and left-wing faculty. They're not just Democrats; they're hard left now and are predominantly taking over the general education curriculum. It's a diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology. You see the Columbia president, someone promoted not on merit but on the idea that they are acceptable to the hard left and will continue this drift. The problem they're having is that the nation hadn't seen this. The nation just thought, "Well, it's...

These infantile campuses have a rendezvous with adult accountability, both public and governmental. And they won’t like what is coming. Anti-Israel/pro-Hamas campus protests have engulfed hundreds of college campuses. But the more coastal, blue-state, and supposedly elite the campus was, the more furious the violence that sometimes followed these demonstrations. Even rowdier and more vicious street analogs shut down key bridges, freeways, and religious services. Protestors often defaced hallowed American monuments, national cemeteries, and iconic buildings. Visa-holders were among the worst perpetrators, adding ingratitude to their criminality. The vast majority wore masks, not to protect from infection but to hide...

IDF troops have located additional weaponry in an UNRWA facility in Jabalya, the Israeli military announced Monday afternoon. Additionally, an Israel Air Force aircraft struck and eliminated the terrorist Zaher Huli (also known as "Abu Hamed"), who held roles in Hamas's military wing and the Hamas Police in central Gaza, the IDF and the Shin Bet announced. Zaher reportedly used his position to build connections with other Hamas terrorists and promote terror attacks on Israel. During an additional operation on Sunday, the terrorist Rami Khalil Faki, who held roles in Hamas' military wing and Hamas Police in the area of...

There are 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza. We already know, thanks to the relentless investigations conducted by Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, that some of those UNRWA members joined Hamas operatives on October 7, taking part in the atrocities inflicted that day, joining in the fun of rape, torture, and murder of Israeli men, women, and children. Other UNRWA members in Gaza have subsequently expressed support for Hamas’ actions. UNRWA schools still use textbooks full of antisemitic passages. UNRWA’s European and American donors have repeatedly demanded that such material be excised from the schoolbooks; UNRWA solemnly promises that it will...

Deputy of NYC Mayor Eric Adams calls out Washington Post for article on wealthy Jews' advocacy for Israel.

Hamas footage showing former hostages Ela and Dafna Elyakim while they were being held hostage in Gaza. (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) The IDF released footage soldiers found of former hostages Ela and Dafna Elyakim in Gaza on Sunday. The footage shows Ela, an eight-year-old resident of Nahal Oz, in a video seemingly filmed by Hamas asking for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to free her and noting that she was "being held hostage by Hamas." A banner of Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades was displayed behind Ela. Elyakim sisters released in November The Elyakim sisters were released as part of the hostage...

As of April 29,179 people have been granted temporary visas under special Gaza programLawyers are questioning Canada's approach to screening visa applications for people in Gaza with extended family in Canada after one applicant, a medical worker, was asked whether he had treated members of Hamas. The Canadian Press obtained a redacted letter sent to the applicant by a Canadian immigration officer, which asks if he has "ever provided medical care to injured Hamas members." If he has not, the letter asks him to say how he was able to refuse "without consequences." Kelly O'Connor, an immigration lawyer in Toronto,...

President Biden applauded a call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip Sunday while attending the commencement of Morehouse College in Atlanta on Sunday. Valedictorian Deangelo Fletcher, who spoke before Biden’s commencement address, stopped short of any direct rebuke of the president but called for an “immediate and a permanent ceasefire.” “It is only right for the class of 2024 to utilize any platform provided to stand in solidarity with peace and justice,” Fletcher said while evoking the activism of Morehouse alumnus Martin Luther King Jr.

The United Nations confirmed Saturday that 800,000 Palestinians have left the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza, as Israel begins its attack on Hamas battalions there. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), announced the number of evacuees — and warned of the risks they face. The number of evacuees far exceeds the estimates that were discussed in advance of the Israeli operation, which began on May 6, amid U.S. opposition. The Biden administration warned that an attack on Rafah could cause civilian casualties there.

Juuuussssttttt spitballin' here, but it certainly seems like we have an answer for Egypt's extraordinary pissiniss about Israel's plans to clear out Rafah.I have to admit, this was the favored line of thinking over the past few weeks as the Biden administration sabotaged every Israeli move, and the Egyptians blustered and threatened. Almost to a one, folks weren't at all fooled. They were asking, "What is Egypt worried the Israelis are going to find?"Well, hiya.Nearly 700 tunnel shafts have been identified in Rafah, with ~50 tunnels crossing into Egypt, revealed @DrGiladNoam at today's sham @CIJ_ICJ hearing.Those tunnels are used to...

Earlier this month, the Biden administration floated a trial balloon, suggesting "senior officials across several federal U.S. agencies have discussed the practicality of different options to resettle Palestinians from Gaza who have immediate family members who are American citizens or permanent residents." No other Middle Eastern country is crazy enough to want large numbers of Gazans to enter their country. The history of Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria suggests that the refugees would look to overthrow the government or launch terrorist attacks against Israel from within their borders. This apparently isn't deterring Joe Biden. Perhaps it should. Pinhas Inbari,...

On Friday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) stated that President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold certain weapons from Israel took pressure off Hamas and in doing so made it less likely to get a ceasefire deal, which makes it harder to get aid into Gaza and free the hostages. Moskowitz said that while he has issues with the House bill to force Biden to transfer weapons to Israel, the bill won’t become law anyway, so those concerns aren’t hugely relevant, and “my main purpose for voting for the bill is what I said earlier when the President decided...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday that it had recovered the bodies of Israeli hostages Amit Buskila, Itzhak Gelerenter, and Shani Louk in a special operation overnight in the Gaza Strip. All three were murdered at the Supernova Music Festival in Re’im, in southern Israel, and their bodies taken to Gaza. Louk was killed and her body abused on the back of a pickup truck in one of the most infamous scenes of October 7. Gelerenter, 58, went missing on October 7 and his phone was later found by the IDF in Gaza. Buskila, 28, a fashion designer, had...

In a fascinating April 13, 2024 interview, Yuval Bitton, head of the Intelligence Division of the Israel Prison Service, recounted his interactions with Hamas leaders, including Yahya Sinwar. Bitton first interacted with the prisoners as their dentist before getting into intelligence work, so he got to know these men on very personal terms.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has found loaded rocket launchers during its operation in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, now in its second week. Rocket fire from Gaza into Israel, which was nearly constant in the days following the October 7 terror attack, has largely subsided. However, in recent weeks, Hamas terrorists have fired rockets at the Keren Shalom crossing, where humanitarian aid enters Gaza near Rafah, and at the city of Sderot, near northern Gaza.

As the weather has warmed, it’s time for that time-honored tradition — protest season. Because everyone knows the plight of the disenfranchised is best solved at 70°F. Setting up winter camp in a college quad seems unpleasant — the revolution will take place at a time, place and temperature that’s convenient for America’s poetry graduate assistants. Campus protests are nothing new in America. They’ve been a feature of university life since at least the Vietnam War and beyond. And sure, it’s fun to get wrapped up in a romantic cause you only just learned about and of which you have...

IDF drone footage shows “a Hamas terrorist firing at Palestinian civilians trying to get aid at an UNRWA compound east of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.” As Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pushes deeper into the Rafah terror stronghold, more evidence of collusion between terror group Hamas and the United Nations’ Palestinian aid agency (UNRWA) comes to light. The IDF on Wednesday released drone footage showing Hamas terrorists using UN marked vehicles, which enjoy protection in a combat zone. The clip also shows Hamas gunmen apparently shooting at unarmed civilians in and around the UNRWA humanitarian aid depot in Rafah. The...

President Joe Biden is backing an internal revolt within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government over the fate of postwar Gaza, after defense minister Yoav Gallant publicly declared his opposition to long-term Israeli rule there. Gallant made an unexpected televised address in which he stated that he was opposed to Israeli military rule or civilian rule in Gaza after Hamas, and preferred rule by non-terrorist Palestinians with help from Arab states.

The “floating pier” built by the U.S. Navy off the coast of Gaza was completed on Thursday, and connected to the shore by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops. President Joe Biden announced the port project in his State of the Union address in March to augment land routes to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. He promised that there would be no American “boots on the ground”; the U.S. is relying on the IDF to provide onshore security for the port. Today at approximately 7:40 a.m. (Gaza time) United States Central Command personnel supporting the humanitarian mission to deliver additional humanitarian...