Free Republic

An anti-Israel activist in California sobbed in court Friday after she was slapped with 18 felony counts for allegedly threatening to murder members of the Bakersfield City Council. Riddhi Patel, 28, pleaded not guilty to the charges she faces after making incendiary comments to officials during the public comment portion of a city council meeting last Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. Patel, who served as economic development coordinator for the nonprofit Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment in Bakersfield, railed against the city council and Republican Mayor Karen Goh for not backing a Gaza ceasefire resolution against...

“In fact, it shows Louis Tomlinson fans near Four Seasons Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina last week,” a fellow BBC fact-checker said of the 32-year-old singer and one-time Harry Styles bandmate in One Direction. The footage, also shared by numerous online influencers, was just one of a number aired by Iran’s state TV claiming to show scenes of devastation from the weekend’s air strikes, despite Israel shooting down around 99% of the drones and missiles fired at the Jewish state. Another that IRINN claimed to be the fiery aftermath of a missile strike was actually from a February forest fire...

Turns out that simply saying “don’t” is not an effective deterrent against genocidal regimes hellbent on the destruction of Israel—and the United States. On October 18, 2023, merely 11 days after the Hamas-led massacre against Israel, President Joe Biden issued a warning to any state or hostile actor considering attacking Israel: “Don’t, don’t, don’t.” And yet, Israel has faced relentless bombardments from multiple Iranian proxies for the last six months. The ineffectiveness of Biden’s strategy was on full display again this past weekend, when the president issued a similar warning to Iran against striking Israel, this time with a single...

Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, a Turkish diplomatic source told Reuters on Sunday, adding that Washington had conveyed to Tehran via Ankara that any action it took had to be "within certain limits." The Turkish source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had spoken to both his US and Iranian counterparts in the past week to discuss the planned Iranian operation, adding Ankara had been made aware of possible developments. Earlier this week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to Fidan to make clear that escalation in the...

Iran said it warned its allies and neighbors in the region 72 hours before the drone and missile attack on Israel began, the Iranian foreign minister said Sunday. "We informed them that the Islamic republic's response was legitimate and definitive," Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said in a televised meeting.

Democrat Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) broke ways with President Joe Biden on Sunday after he said he wouldn’t support Israel if it retaliated against Iran. During an interview with CNN, Fetterman told host Jake Tapper that he disagreed with Biden’s stance, saying he would never "capitulate to the fringe" or “pander” to the Democratic Party. “Do you think that's the right call or should direct U.S. military action, as some of your colleagues in the Senate are suggesting, should that be on the table?" Tapper asked. The president made it clear that he would not back Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” This aphorism aptly describes the phenomenon of Jew-hatred. Purim fell in March this year, while Israelis were engaged in an existential war against Gazan and Lebanese terrorists. The holiday commemorates the salvation of the Jews of ancient Persia from a genocide planned by an abominable man named Haman. Today, Iran—modern Persia—is a major sponsor of Islamist Hamans, including the paragliding, motorcycling murderers of Hamas. Founded three years after the end of the Holocaust, Israel became the great beacon of hope for a traumatized people. The Jewish homeland took in millions of refugees...

Iran's massive missile and drone barrage targeting Israel over the weekend is similar to Russian tactics used in frequent strikes on Ukraine, according to a new assessment, after Iran launched its first-ever direct strike from its own territory into Israel. "Iran's use of drones and missiles shows how Iran is learning from the Russians to develop increasingly dangerous and effective strike packages against Israel," the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Saturday. Russia has launched thousands of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine in nearly 26 months of all-out war in the country....

US President Joe Biden dissuaded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from greenlighting an immediate retaliatory strike against Iran after it launched around 300 attack drones and missiles at Israel last night, the New York Times reports.

Israeli media reported that the interception of dozens of Iranian missiles and drones by Israel overnight incurred a cost of up to 5 billion shekels ($1.35 billion). Each Arrow missile used for interception costs $3.5 million, while a Magic Wand missile costs $1 million, in addition to aircraft sorties involved in interception.

British Royal Air Force fighter jets shot down a “number of” Iranian attack drones launched against Israel, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed on Sunday. RAF jets scrambled to protect Israel from their bases in Iraq and Syria intercepted and downed Iranian military drones, Prime Minister Sunak said while warning that “the fallout for regional stability would be hard to overstate” if the strikes on Israel had been successful.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, General Hossein Salami, on Sunday applauded the drone and missile attack on Israel, lauding it as more successful than expected before warning against any retaliation from the Jewish state or its allies. Salami’s boast came despite the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) saying it had intercepted the “majority” of the “dozens” of drones and cruise missiles sent to attack Israel, though a few hit targets, including an IDF base, as Breitbart News reported.

During MSNBC’s coverage of Iran’s strikes on Israel on Saturday, Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) stated that if Israel continues “indiscriminate aerial bombardments, it’s going to get very difficult for Israel funding.” Garamendi said that he believes Iran’s attack will change the dynamics in Congress and might result in Israel aid passing, along with humanitarian aid and Ukraine aid.

In 2009, as the newly elected President, Obama made a move which enabled yesterdays attack by Iran. What Obama did was stop Iran’s Green Revolution, keeping the Mullahcracy in place. Additional actions by the Obama administration, most notably handing Iran pallets of money and negotiating the JCPOA set the stage for Iran to produce nukes. "Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to eliminate its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium, cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%, and reduce by about two-thirds the number of its gas centrifuges for 13 years. For the next 15 years, Iran agreed to enrich uranium only...

Israel's air defence system is one of the most effective in the world. The Iron Dome began operating in 2011, largely in response to the 2006 war that ended with Hamas taking control of Gaza the following year. It uses radars to detect and intercept short-range rockets, missiles and drones. The Iron Dome was developed by Israel's state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems with US support. The system consists of a series of truck-towed mobile units placed strategically throughout the country. When their radars detect a threat, the information is sent to a 'battle management centre' where military personnel analyse it,...

Real Palestinian 🇮🇱 @shim_rational: The PalestiNazis are celebrating at the Temple Mount complex after learning about the launches towards Israel. We should package them all and send them to Iran. 11:53 PM · Apr 13, 2024 https://twitter.com/shim_rational/status/1779266777706631527

TEHRAN - Amid escalating tensions, an Iranian military source has suggested that Jordan may face severe repercussions and become the next target if it aligns with the Zionist regime. The caution follows heightened surveillance by Iranian armed forces, closely monitoring Jordan's activities in the aftermath of a retaliatory attack by Iran against the occupied territories on Saturday night. This retaliation came after the Israeli regime struck Iran's embassy in Damascus on April 1, resulting in the deaths of seven high-ranking military officials. The source emphasized that should Jordan choose to engage in any future actions, it risks becoming the next...

An anti-Israel protester was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats at a Bakersfield City Council meeting in California on Wednesday. During the public comment section of the meeting, protester Riddhi Patel threatened to murder council members and Republican Mayor Karen Goh for not backing a cease-fire resolution against Israel and for installing heavier security at the government building due to ongoing anti-Israel protests. Video of the meeting depicted Patel claiming she hoped oppressed minorities would guillotine city government members, declaring that even Jesus Christ would kill them, and threatening to go to their houses and murder them. The threats...

A protester was led out of Wednesday evening’s Bakersfield City Council meeting after telling the council “we’ll see you at your house, we’ll murder you” during public comments. The council meeting was then delayed after the comments by Riddhi Patel, who spoke about security measures put in place for council meetings. Patel lashed out at the council for the security measures in place saying the measures were put in place as retaliation against protesters.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant late Thursday, to reassure him Washington would defend its closest ally in the region if Tehran struck on its soil. Austin told Gallant “Israel could count on full U.S. support to defend Israel against Iranian attacks, which Tehran has publicly threatened,” a Pentagon spokesman said.