Free Republic

WASHINGTON (CBS DC/AP) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ridiculed Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza, accusing the Israeli government of “barbarism that surpasses Hitler.” Speaking at a political re-election rally in the Turkish city of Ordu, Turkey’s prime minister said that Israel has “surpassed what Hitler did to them” and declared the country a “terrorist state.” “[Israelis] have no conscience, no honor, no pride. Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism,” said Erdoğan. He accused Israel of rejecting ceasefires that Hamas has proposed and “spitting death, spitting blood.” Erdogan reiterated his opposition to Israel’s...

PRIME Minister Tony Abbott has ­confirmed troops will be deployed to eastern Ukraine to protect Australian Federal Police officers working on the crash site investigation. The Saturday Telegraph understands they will be deployed through the ­United Arab Emirates, which was the operating base for Australian ­deployments to Afghanistan. Another 100 AFP officers are flying to Ukraine today to join 90 of their ­colleagues already deployed to Europe under a Dutch-led investigation. Mr Abbott said the AFP officers, some of whom would be armed, would be entering the crash site under the protection of Australian soldiers. A number of troops are...

Israeli defense minister told troops that Israel might significantly widen Gaza ground operation. Earlier on Friday, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet has rejected proposals for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and is seeking changes to the plans, a government source said.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A network of tunnels Palestinian militants have dug from Gaza to Israel — dubbed "lower Gaza" by the Israeli military — is taking center stage in the latest war between Hamas and Israel. Gaza's Hamas rulers view them as a military game changer in its conflict with Israel. The Israeli military says the tunnels pose a serious threat and that destroying the sophisticated underground network is a key objective of its invasion of Gaza.

Diplomatic-security cabinet "flatly rejects" American proposals for a week-long humanitarian halt to fighting, seeks changes to terms. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's security cabinet has rejected proposals for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and is seeking changes to the plans, a government source said on Friday. US Secretary of State John Kerry has been pushing for a halt to 18 days of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Full details of the proposed truce have not been released, but the government official, who declined to be named, said Israel wanted modifications before agreeing to any end to...

The Russian commander in charge of separatist militia forces in Ukraine has a warning for Russia President Vladimir Putin: Lose Ukraine and you'll lose your power. Col. Igor Strelkov, a former commander of Russian special forces during the Chechen war in 2011, has been commanding rebel units with the MH17 in Ukraine, reports The Daily Beast. His command is under direction from Moscow, but made up of unprofessional fighters, not normal Russian military, and his troops have been losing to advancing troops from the Donetsk Ukrainia Anti-Terror Operation Forces. And then last week, Strelkov was labeled a possible war criminal...

The Netherlands is poised to send its most elite soldiers to secure the crash site of Malaysian Airways MH17, the Telegraaf reports on Friday. The paper says all leave for the commandos of the 11 Luchtmobiele Brigade based in Schaarsbergen and Assen has been cancelled and that soldiers will leave for eastern Ukraine this weekend. In addition, Dutch special forces currently in Mali are being recalled and sent on to the area around Donetsk, the paper says, without quoting sources. The aim of sending troops is to ensure the 23 Dutch crash investigators and 40 unarmed military police officers can...

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee Chairman is calling on President Obama to cut off all business pending between the Export-Import Bank and Russia because of the nation’s recent actions in Ukraine. “The situation in Ukraine grows worse every day,” wrote Texas U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling in a letter to Obama, Sec. of State John Kerry, Sec. of Treasury Jack Lew, and others. “Russia bears responsibility for this conflict, including the atrocity of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, because Russia is supplying the separatists with advanced weapons and encouraging their attacks on aircraft and on the...

Russian president Vladimir “Teflon” Putin is on a roll—or so we’re led to believe by the media. The Russian president combines the slick machismo of James Bond, the cojones of George Patton and the craftiness of Cardinal Richelieu. Actually, in his dealings with Cuba, Putin looks more like Barney Fife. We’re not accustomed to seeing Mr Macho-Cool Vladimir Putin made an international jackass. But many Cuba-watchers snickered as the hapless Russian President met with the Castro brothers on July 11th and “wrote off” their $32 billion debt to the Soviet Union. “That old thing? I never liked it anyway,” Cuba-watchers...

The United States is in touch with India over the alleged Russian aggression in Ukraine, a senior Obama Administration official has told lawmakers, who expressed concern over India's close relationship with Moscow. "We do make the point to our Indian colleagues, as we do to friends around the world, about our perspective, particularly with respect to Russian aggression in the Ukraine and the implications that that has," Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal said during a Congressional hearing. "And we will continue to have those conversations with India and with other partners around the...

(Language Warning) When TMZ caught up with comedian Joan Rivers Thursday outside of LAX she unleashed an emotional rant on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, screaming, "You are all insane, they [Palestinians] started it!" Rivers got animated at the paparazzi's question about the mounting civilian casualties, saying, “Let me just tell you, if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe them out. If we heard they were digging tunnels from New Jersey to New York, we would get rid of Jersey."

Operation Protective Edge. Israel’s government unanimously rejected a ceasefire offer advanced by US Secretary of State John Kerry while Hamas officials were said to still be considering the plan. West Bank violence continued to escalate, with five Palestinians reported killed in riots. With the Gaza death toll said to pass 700, Israeli military sources said several hundred Hamas gunmen had been killed. The IDF death toll is 35. IDF-Hamas fighting in Gaza remains intensive, and rockets are still being fired into Israel, but foreign airlines are returning to Ben-Gurion airport. Read more: Israel rejects Kerry ceasefire proposal; IDF death toll...

n a Thursday briefing to county leaders, Sheriff Chuck Jenkins said a "full deployment of military resources" to the U.S.-Mexico border is needed to address the illegal-immigration issues he witnessed during his recent trip to Texas.[snip] "It's really, really hard to believe you're in America," Jenkins told Frederick County commissioners during Thursday's meeting. "You feel like you're in a combat zone." Jenkins spent about 20 minutes detailing his experience visiting McAllen, Texas, with several other sheriffs from around the nation. In the trip's aftermath, Jenkins said he and the other law enforcement leaders will formulate recommendations, which they hope the...

Sami Turgeman says army has uncovered and is disabling most terror tunnels dug under Israeli border Hamas fighters in the Gaza Strip are weakening and losing morale “in all parameters,” the commander of IDF forces in southern Israel said Friday, but added that the troops on the ground needed more time to completely root out terror tunnels burrowing into Israel.

The IDF determined on Friday that Givati Brigade soldier Staff Sergeant Oron Shaul died in battle, and defined him as "a soldier killed in action whose burial site is unknown." In a statement, the IDF said that "prior to the decision, all the religious, medical and further relevant issues were taken into consideration." "In light of this definition," the statement added, and "according to the Jewish religion, the family is not obligated to conduct a funeral, nor is the family obligated to sit through a 'Shiva,' the traditional mourning period of seven days."

There’s one celebrity out there who’s defending Israel right now. But forget social media for a minute, this is on the radio. “Shock jock,” DJ Howard Stern, gave Hanzi, his regular Pakistani caller, an earful last week about the current situation in Gaza. Stern, who now broadcasts from Sirius satellite radio, has always been known for his foul mouth and strident opinions. His longtime cohost, Robin Quivers, alternately reins him in and goads him on.

In 1933, the Holodomor was playing out in Ukraine. After the "kulaks," the independent farmers, had been liquidated in the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture, a genocidal famine was imposed on Ukraine through seizure of her food production. Estimates of the dead range from two to nine million souls. Walter Duranty of the New York Times, who called reports of the famine "malignant propaganda," won a Pulitzer for his mendacity. In November 1933, during the Holodomor, the greatest liberal of them all, FDR, invited Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov to receive official U.S. recognition of his master Stalin's murderous regime....

Channel 10 reports that the diplomatic-security cabinet "flatly rejects" American proposals for a week-long humanitarian halt to fighting.

Not only have more unaccompanied children illegally crossed the southern border this year — more than twice last year's total — but they are crossing at much younger ages, according to a study released this week. There has been a 117% increase in apprehensions among unaccompanied children ages 12 and younger and a 12% increase among teenagers between the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years, according to government statistics obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Pew Research Center. There are still more 13- to 17-year-olds crossing, 84% of youths apprehended. Most are 16- and 17-year-olds, Lopez said....

Joan Rivers jettisoned comedy for politics ... unleashing an impassioned defense of Israel that included an awesome New York/New Jersey analogy.

The head analyst of Norway’s intelligence agency says a group of people is en route from Syria “to carry out an act of terror in the West,” adding that Norway has been “concretely named” as the target.

Taliban insurgents halted minibuses in western Afghanistan, identified 14 Shiite passengers and shot them dead by the side of the road .. marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ... The Taliban, like other Sunni extremist groups, view the country's minority Shiite community as apostates, and have targeted Hazaras

Operating behind enemy lines in Gaza during the conflict with Hamas, the elite Maglan unit has attacked dozens of terrorists cells that fired on the IDF, destroyed areas used to launch rockets at Israel, and killed and injured 40 terrorists in recent days. A senior source from the unit revealed that its members have targeted Hamas gunmen waiting in ambush for the IDF's Ground Forces, striking the threats right before Israeli forces pass by the ambushes. The Maglan unit has detected and destroyed forward Hamas posts and rocket launchers. It has detected a cross-border underground attack tunnel leading into Israel...

President Barack Obama was meeting with Central American leaders Friday to urge them to help slow the exodus of unaccompanied children from their countries, as House Republicans tried to get behind a solution to the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border. GOP lawmakers said Friday they were attempting to coalesce around a narrow package of changes including sending National Guard troops to the border, increasing the number of immigration judges, and changing the law so that migrant youths arriving by the tens of thousands can be sent home more quickly. The package would cost less than $1 billion, several lawmakers said,...

Though few Americans paid any attention at the time, in November of last year, Secretary of State John Kerry announced to the world that this summer would be defined by violence against the Jewish state. Warning Israel to make a deal with the likes of Hamas and Fatah, Palestinian parties who do not acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, Kerry said, “Does Israel want a third intifada? … “I believe that if we do not resolve the issues between Palestinians and Israelis; if we do not find a way to find peace, there will be an increasing isolation of Israel. There...

Israel’s Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday that Hamas was intending to attack Israel from dozens of tunnels in a coordinated simultaneous attack. At the beginning of Thursday’s special cabinet meeting the prime minister said, “These tunnels enable the enemy to open a multi-pronged offensive and carry out a massive terror attack inside Israel.” The attack Hamas was planning, the officials say, “would have made Israel drop to its knees.” They added that even the tunnels destroyed until now takes away from Hamas a strategic asset the terror group has been working on for years. Hamas has prepared a...

Organizations and human rights lawyers in the USA denounce abuses in deportation proceedings the authorities of that country have adopted as soon as possible to repatriate the undocumented who just crossed the border with Mexico, and fear that they have forced to sign voluntary departure without being heard by an immigration judge. "We are saying to the undocumented--which is a process where they will be detained for a long time and it's easier to go are forcing a resolution, "he said by telephone from USA, Meredith Brown, an expert on immigration issues, the Chamber of Attorneys of Los Angeles. Brown...

A new Gallup poll taken this week shows that only 11 percent of Americans view Hamas as being justified in its war against Israel, according to the results released on Thursday. A full 70 percent said Hamas was not justified in this war. Gallup said the poll showed U.S. attitudes remained similar to a previous poll conducted in 2002, when the Israel Army responded to widespread suicide bombing that killed over 1000 civilians during the second Palestinian ‘Intifada,’ or uprising. In 2002, the same question about Palestinian justification for fighting Israel showed that 17 percent believed their aims were justified...

In an otherwise excellent article on the Hamas terror tunnel network in Gaza, the Jerusalem Post buries the lede. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier in the field told the Post that while Hamas fighters offered fierce resistance when the ground operation began, now Hamas operatives are fleeing, abandoning their positions, leaving behind weapons and other material that the IDF is using to expand its assault on the terror group. The source added that in recent days, a recognizable wave of demoralization has washed over Hamas's combat battalions. "They simply escape, leaving behind weapons and suicide bomb vests that were...

First, the reassuring news: Americans’ pro-Israel sentiments remain near an all-time high, according to Pew’s latest numbers, and CNN measures public support for Israel’s recent actions against Hamas at a robust (57/43). Gallup’s latest nationwide survey, however, shows a much closer split on the righteousness of Israel’s defensive military campaign — although only a fractional minority is willing to defend Hamas’ terror campaign: According to Gallup’s internals, self-identifying Republicans are the primary reason Israel’s actions attract plurality support in this poll. GOP-leaners back Israel’s actions by a whopping 44-point margin; the numbers turn upside-down among independents (-10), and especially...

VLADIMIR PUTIN has responded to the international outrage over the destruction of a Malaysian airliner by his proxies in eastern Ukraine by escalating his aggression. According to U.S. officials, tanks, artillery and other heavy weapons have continued to cross from Russia to Ukraine since the passenger jet was shot down. On Wednesday, two more Ukrainian military jets were hit by anti-aircraft missiles, which Ukrainian officials said had been fired from Russia. The State Department also said Thursday that Russian artillery was firing at Ukrainian positions from across the border. The Russian president is clearly not impressed by Western responses to...

Americans are divided in their views of whether Israel's actions against the Palestinian group Hamas is "mostly justified" or "mostly unjustified," but they widely view Hamas' actions as mostly unjustified. Those results are similar to what Gallup measured 12 years ago during another period of heightened Israeli-Palestinian violence, and they are consistent with Americans' generally more positive views of the Israelis than of the Palestinians.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s new use of Russian military force inside Ukraine harkens back to 1939 when Joseph Stalin led a Russian invasion of Poland, and Dempsey predicted Putin was far from finished. Dempsey was speaking to the Aspen Security Forum and responding to the news that the U.S. government is accusing the Russian military of firing artillery from Russian territory into eastern Ukraine in support of separatists there. The latest development represents a dangerous escalation of the crisis on the part of Putin, and the Russia-Ukraine crisis...

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) alluded to Glenn Beck's flamboyant campaign to bring soccer balls and teddy bears to tens of thousands of illegal alien children streaming across the U.S. border while urging Republicans to stow their objections to billions in border crisis funding requested by the president and pass the bill anyway. “Even some of the most conservative political commentators have said first, America, show your heart, that you care for these children. And that’s what the president is asking us to do. So let us take care when we consider the supplemental appropriations bill that we don’t...

A day before meeting with President Obama at the White House to discuss the border crisis, the presidents of Honduras and Guatemala blamed the wave of unaccompanied children inundating the U.S. on American foreign policy and on gridlock in Congress over immigration reform.

Late Thursday evening Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, with the co-sponsorship of seven other House Representatives, released a bill to finally designate the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The Breitbart News Network has obtained a copy of the potentially historic document that links the MB to Al Qaeda and the global jihadi movement. Titled the ‘‘Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2014,’’ the proposed legislation provides extensive evidence proving why the organization, which has recently been designated a a terrorist group by both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, satisfies the federal requirements to be placed on the official FTO...

(Reuters) - An Italian-Russian project to build a new generation small submarine has been suspended because of the "political situation" following Western sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine crisis, Itar-Tass news agency said on Friday. The decade-old deal between Russian company Rubin and Italian shipmaker Fincantieri to build a 1,000-ton diesel submarine, the S-1000, is part of President Vladimir Putin's plans to revamp Russia's fighting force. "To our regret, due to the well-known political situation this project has been suspended," Itar-Tass quoted Igor Vilnit, the head of Rubin's Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering, as saying. Rubin declined immediate comment...

The application window for HHS grants under the Unaccompanied Alien Children program just closed yesterday. According to the data included in the application the average length of stay for a UAC is 30-35 days prior to unification with a sponsor. Most (95%+) of the sponsors are relatives of the child. Most sponsors reunited are the mothers of the children (85%+) who actually brought them along and there is never a disconnect. All sponsors are subsidized by taxpayers at an average cost of around $4,000 to $6,000 per child/per month. A custodial ‘sponsor’ (mother) with three UAC’s will net about $12,000...

La Raza President and CEO Janet Murguia, at La Raza's annual conference in LA, said it sickened her to hear Americans chanting. She accused Murietta protesters of having "cloaked their hatred in patriotism" by shouting "'USA! USA!' again and again." "It made me angry," she said. "In fact, I was outraged." Murguia demanded amnesty and said the road to the White House for Republicans goes through the Latino community and La Raza. She also said Republicans who want to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program will not get Hispanic votes. She repeatedly excoriated protesters. "What we saw...

In Mosul, ISIS fighters have daubed the letter ‘N’ for Nazarene, or Christian, on the walls of Christian-owned houses before rounding up the residents and stripping them of their money, jewellery and even mobile phones. ‘It's a very difficult time, Mosul is empty of Christians,’ says Father Andrzej Halemba, Middle East coordinator for Aid to the Church in Need. ‘Two thousand years of beautiful history, where the Christians and Muslims for centuries had helped each other, but now it’s the end of Christianity in Mosul. It's dreadful news.’

Sure the boat may look like it’s sinking. But that’s because we haven’t drilled enough holes yet. The Obama administration is considering creating a pilot program giving refugee status to young people from Honduras as part of a plan to slow the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, White House officials said Thursday. I would like to unveil my plan to slow down the rate of Obama’s lies by paying him a silver dollar for every lie he tells.Obama doesn’t want to slow down the rate. He wants to speed it up. So his solution to the...

However, in an unusual move late Thursday, multiple IDF sources rejected UNRWA’s claims and characterized them as outright falsehoods when reached by the Washington Free Beacon. “For two days we were trying to move people out of that school in particular and the Beit Hanoun area in general,” said an IDF official who was involved in the interactions between the IDF, UNRWA, and International Red Cross (ICRC) leading up to the incident. The official continued: “This morning we sought a cease-fire in the area and a humanitarian evacuation of civilians, but Hamas refused—because they wanted to keep civilians in the...

Israeli security forces shot dead a Palestinian man and wounded 150 other people Thursday night during a massive protest in the West Bank against Israel's military offensive in Gaza, Palestinian officials said.

IS terrorists tell women: Don full-face veils, cover hands and feet, wear loose clothing, don't wear perfume, or face punishment. "The conditions imposed on her clothes and grooming was only to end the pretext of debauchery resulting from grooming and overdressing," said the Islamic State in a statement. "This is not a restriction on her freedom but to prevent her from falling into humiliation and vulgarity or to be a theater for the eyes of those who are looking." A cleric in Mosul told Reuters that Islamic State gunmen had shown up at his mosque and ordered him to read...

…with 17 abstentions, including several from our courageous European allies. The single “no� vote? The United States of America. Thank you, Samantha Power. Seriously. For all of the (deserved) “voting present� snark conservatives have directed at President Obama, his administration took a stand against the UN’s self-parodic madness and deep moral depravity last night. The Obama White House’s record on Israel has been the worst in recent memory, but even they have standards below which they won’t stoop. Then again, the only reason our delegation was present to vote ‘no’ is that Obama insisted that we join this farcical...

Staying true to the conviction that no soldier should be left behind, Israeli forces were seen carrying a wounded bomb-sniffing dog off the battlefield.

The 2009 "underpants bomb" plot failed because the terrorist had been wearing his explosive-laden undergarments for more than two weeks and soiled the explosives, a senior US official said. Umar Abdulmutallab sent shockwaves through US intelligence when he successfully smuggled a bomb onto a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day three years ago. The British-educated Nigerian was able to light the bomb but it failed to explode, causing minor burns to the would-be bomber but sparing his fellow passengers.

WASHINGTON — Like the rest of the world, the U.S. government appeared to have been taken aback last month when Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell to an offensive by jihadis of the Islamic State that triggered the collapse of five Iraqi army divisions and carried the extremists to the threshold of Baghdad.

Hamas and Palestinian Authority call for "day of rage" over Israeli assault on Gaza after two Palestinians killed in overnight riots north of Jerusalem. Hamas leaders, both in Gaza and abroad, have called for the start of the third intifada - or Palestinian uprising - after violent riots with live fire erupted throughout Jerusalem and the West Bank last night. Violence flared up as thousands of Palestinians took to the streets, rioting and protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Approximately 10,000 people marched from Ramallah to Jerusalem, where they clashed with Israeli police. In Gaza, Hamas TV played pro-intifada songs, while...

For weeks, the Army has been taking a verbal beating for sending “pink slips” to officers while they were deployed. It was no joke or Internet rumor, either: About 1,100 captains received notice last month that they would be required to leave active duty within a year as the service shrinks, and some of them were in Afghanistan and other volatile areas. Reaction was swift. It was a “stunning display of callousness,” one Army veteran wrote earlier this month in the New York Daily News. It was an “outrageous and and heartless way to ‘thank’ combat veterans,” responded one writer...