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Geneva-The United Nations’ top human rights official, Navi Pillay, said Wednesday that there was a “strong possibility” that Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes with indiscriminate attacks on civilians during more than two weeks of fighting with militants in Gaza. Opening a special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ms. Pillay called for an investigation and accountability to end the cycle of violence. Ms. Pillay cited Israeli airstrikes on civilian homes in Gaza and the shelling of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital two days ago, which killed four people, as examples of actions that suggest...

The FAA announced today that they have not lifted their ban against travel to or from Tel Aviv's airport and will prohibit travel to the country for an additional 24 hours. "The agency is working closely with the Government of Israel to review the significant new information they have provided and determine whether potential risks to U.S. civil aviation are mitigated so the agency can resolve concerns as quickly as possible," the FAA said in a statement.

<p>TEL AVIV, Israel (CBS News/CBSDC/AP) — Secretary of State John Kerry defied a Federal Aviation Administration ban and flew into Israel’s main airport Wednesday in a sign of sheer will to achieve a cease-fire agreement in the warring Gaza Strip despite little evidence of progress in ongoing negotiations aimed at halting fighting that’s left at least 31 Israelis and 650 Palestinians dead.</p>

Israel has requested an additional $225 million in United States funding for the production of Iron Dome components, in light of the wide-scale use of the system during Operation Protective Edge. In a letter to the leaders of both houses of Congress on Wednesday, U. S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hegel wrote that the Department of Defense "has reviewed and supports this urgent request." The additional funding, if granted, will increase Iron Dome funding from the U.S. to more than half-a-billion dollars in the current financial year. Both houses, which previously doubled the Iron Dome allocation requested by the administration, are...

They arrived by the thousands for Max Steinberg’s funeral. In flip-flops and tank tops, dressed in youth movement uniforms and army unit T-shirts, with yarmulkes and hats, bareheaded and with sunglasses, they filed in to the cemetery at Mount Herzl, standing in uncharacteristic silence under the hot sun to pay their respects. “We’re here to give the family the feeling that we’re with them,” said Nirit Friedlander, a Jerusalemite who came with two friends. “They should feel that we’re holding them.” “He’s a lone soldier,” said Yisrael Schwartz, another local. “He’s part of us.”

Transportation minister orders that Uvda airport near Eilat be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport beginning noon local time. Transportation Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday instructed the relevant agencies to immediately open the Uvda airport, the country's second terminus for air traffic which lies just north of Eilat, in the wake of the spate of flight cancellations announced by major foreign airlines. Katz convened a meeting of senior civilian aviation officials who recommended that the Uvda airport be utilized to replace Ben-Gurion Airport. Related: • US urges deferral of travel to Israel, increases first aid to Gaza • El Al says...

Germany’s largest airline, Lufthansa, says it is canceling all flights to Tel Aviv for at least another 24 hours because of ongoing safety concerns. […] The European Aviation Safety Agency on Tuesday strongly recommended that airlines not fly to Tel Aviv after a Hamas rocket exploded near the Ben Gurion airport. …

Some 60,000 IDF reservists have been called up to serve in Operation Protective Edge so far. Many are parents leaving families behind at home – but not all are fathers. According to the IDF Spokesman who would not release exact figures, the thousands of women currently serving in reserves are a higher percentage than in any previous IDF operation. They serve in a variety of capacities, but especially in combat support in the Home Front Command, Intelligence, the Air Force and field operations. While it is never easy for anyone to drop everything and leave home, receiving a “tzav 8,”...

“Why in God’s name does anyone show sympathy, and support for a terrorist organization?” - Former Congressman Allen West

Israel’s mood at the start of this war with Hamas was one of confident assurance. We wouldn’t be deterred by the rocket threat, and Hamas would be contained. That’s utterly changed. The rockets turned out to be the least of our concerns. And the national mood now is a mixture of anguish at the growing toll of IDF dead, anger at the feckless response of parts of the international community — notably the US — and confidence in the troops and (atypically) the political leadership. To lose the lives of 30 Israelis to terrorism is, appallingly, nothing new in a...

I argued in Spring Fever: The Illusion of Islamic Democracy that the illusionÂ’s signature feature is a fantasy: By holding free elections, a people is choosing freedom: joining modernity, adopting pluralism and tolerance, rejecting revolutionary violence and totalitarianism.Today, we are yet again being inundated with tales of Palestinian woe after HamasÂ’s familiar barbarism has provoked an Israeli military response. It thus bears remembering that the Palestinian people chose Hamas. What ever happened to all those Democracy Project paeans to self-determination? Hamas is Palestinian self-determination. Hamas was not forced on Palestinians. Hamas did not militarily conquer Gaza. No, Hamas swept parliamentary...

If you're looking to confirm the oft-repeated Israeli narrative that Hamas and terrorist groups in Gaza endanger Gazans by hiding weapons among the civilian population, then this episode is your smoking missile

Perhaps sensing a leadership vacuum with Mayor de Blasio enjoying la dolce vita overseas, former Mayor Bloomberg is back in the news. With an international message: He's traveling to Israel to blast the FAA's decision to ban flights to Israel. Earlier today, the FAA announced that flights to and from Tel Aviv would be prohibited for up to 24 hours after reports of a rocket strike landing about a mile from Ben Gurion this morning. Which prompted Bloomberg to plan a trip. He wrote on his website: This evening I will be flying on El Al to Tel Aviv to...

During United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to Israel on Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu presented him with the rockets and operating methods of Hamas terrorists. Netanyahu showed Ban, among other things, some of the long-range rockets that Hamas has used to target central Israel. Netanyahu also showed the UN chief some proof that Hamas has been using civilians as human shields.

On Friday July 18, a Pro-Palestinian demonstration took place in Calgary. The organizer of this event was the University of Calgary student club “Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights” whose current president Ala’a Hamdan recently said “My body and soul are ready to fight and die,” and “This land will be proud that Palestinian babies are born men and women ready to spill their blood.” In a fictional battle hymn written to a son, Ms. Hamdan also wrote: “I will soak a koffiah with your blood and save it to show to your siblings ... I will be named the mother...

Wounded soldiers have given shocking testimony regarding Hamas’ use of young children as human shields. Parents of wounded soldiers spoke to Kol Yisrael on Tuesday and shared some of the disturbing stories they had heard from their sons. They said soldiers have repeatedly seen young children in Sheijaya, Gaza, be sent out into the streets with guns to try to attack IDF troops. One parent reported that terrorists had run at IDF soldiers with a gun in one hand and a baby in the other, apparently in hopes that the soldiers would see the child and hold their fire. If...

The European Union on Tuesday called upon terrorist groups in Gaza to disarm, and to end and renounce violence. The official statement read: "The EU strongly condemns the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas and militant groups in the Gaza Strip, directly harming civilians. These are criminal and unjustifiable acts. The EU calls on Hamas to immediately put an end to these acts and to renounce violence. All terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm. The EU strongly condemns calls on the civilian population of Gaza to provide themselves as human shields."

Left-wing justice minister says IDF operation in Gaza is "unavoidable"; Kerry meets Egyptian leaders in Cairo in attempt to forge resolution to conflict between Israel, Hamas. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni dismissed on Tuesday the possibility of an imminent halt in fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, adding that the IDF ground incursion in the Strip was impossible to avoid. Related: • US, UN pushing hard for immediate cease-fire in Gaza "There is no real option for a cease-fire now. This operation is unavoidable," the left-wing minister told Army Radio. "Hamas is not close to a cease-fire in terms of...

European and US airlines suspend flights to and from Israel after rocket falls 5km from Ben Gurion; El Al has historically continued flight service during times of war. Israeli airline El Al said it would not cancel any flights as air travel to Israel from all American carriers and several European ones came to a halt on Tuesday after the Federal Aviation Authority banned US airlines from traveling to and from Ben Gurion Airport for 24 hours. "There is no chance we will stop operations," an El Al spokesman told the Post. In labor disputes with the government, El Al...

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has called for an end to the fighting and bombing in Gaza. “Both sides must distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, and Israel must ensure that its use of force is proportionate in accordance with international humanitarian law. More immediately, all combat operations must stop, and Israeli troops should withdraw from Gaza,” Carter said in a statement released Tuesday. So far, more than 600 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting, according to reports. The Israeli death toll is estimated at 29, including two civilians. Humantarian groups have also called for an end to...

As of Tuesday night, despite the efforts of international intermediaries here in the region, there was no sign of an Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Visiting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had failed to achieve the long-term humanitarian truce he planned. This despite signs Monday that Hamas might want to halt the fighting. The Al-Mayadeen satellite station, which has good contacts in the office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, claimed late Monday that Abbas and Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal had reached a ceasefire deal, based on Egypt’s proposal for an immediate cessation of hostilities. Abbas’s intelligence chief Majid Faraj set...

Israel’s Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said on Tuesday that the just announced cancellation of European and U.S. flights to Israel handed a victory to terrorism. “There is no reason for the American companies to stop their flight and give a prize to terror,” Katz said, according to Jerusalem Post correspondent Niv Elis. On Tuesday, four major U.S. airline carriers announced their decision to cancel flights heading to Israel indefinitely, one specifically citing the danger of Gaza rocket attacks near Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. Shortly after the airlines announced their decision, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it told all U.S....

The Federal Aviation Administration told U.S. airlines they are prohibited from flying to the Tel Aviv airport in Israel for 24 hours starting Tuesday afternoon due to the potentially hazardous situation created by the armed conflict in Israel and Gaza. The notice came after a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near Israel's main airport Tuesday, wounding one Israeli and prompting all U.S. and some European and Canadian airlines to cancel flights to Tel Aviv - a reflection of high anxiety over air travel after the downing of a Malaysian jet over Ukraine. It was the latest blow to...

Several airlines already had suspended operations or diverted flights. The ban comes less than a week after a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 was shot down over Ukraine. For Hamas, it could be the biggest break the Islamist group has had since the most recent fighting started -- potentially increasing Israeli's physical and psychological isolation from the rest of the world. The airport handles about 14 million travelers a year.

Jerusalem hails European condemnation of Hamas violence; EU condemns rocket fire, calls for renunciation of violence. Israel received a strong back-wind from an unlikely source on Tuesday, when the EU issued a statement strongly denouncing Hamas and condemning their use of civilians as human shields. The EU's foreign ministers, following a monthly meeting in Brussels, issued a statement on the Middle East condemning “the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel by Hamas and militant groups in the Gaza Strip, directly harming civilians. These are criminal and unjustifiable acts.” The statement also called on Hamas to immediately put an end to...

Islam, the religion of death not peace, continues its winning streak. President Obama shows many signs of approval. An article posted by Daniel Greenfield at Front Page Magazine and republished at Warsclerotic is titled "Israel’s War with the Muslim Brotherhood." It makes a powerful case supporting this thesis: Israel has become a flashpoint in the region because it is the only place where an armed non-Muslim minority has been able to make a stand against Muslim genocide.  Israel has been fighting the forces of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza since right after the Holocaust. Its soldiers are fighting so that the same forces...

United, Delta and USAir have suspended all flights to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport after a Hamas rocket this afternoon landed in Yahud, some 5 kilometers from the airport (Hat Tip: NY Nana). The White House says that it did not order the flights suspended, but Delta said it made its decision in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration. Delta said it suspended service to and from its New York JFK hub "until further notice," while the Israel Airports Authority would only confirm that the carriers had suspended flight scheduled for Monday. US Airways has not yet released a...

When I interviewed The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart two years ago for a documentary I co-directed, The Muslims Are Coming!, one of the questions I posed to the talk show host was: Do you think your show has had an impact on issues? Surprisingly, Stewart responded “no.” At first, my co-director, Negin Farsad, and I thought Stewart was being unduly modest. But he was actually being sincere. Stewart went on to list issues he had railed against for years—such as media sensationalism—and noted that nothing tangible had changed despite his best efforts. But if that question were put to Stewart...

The Federal Aviation Administration is telling U.S. airlines they are prohibited from flying to the Tel Aviv airport in Israel after a Hamas rocket exploded nearby. The FAA said in a statement that the ban on flights is for 24 hours beginning at 12:15 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday again placed the onus on Hamas to accept a ceasefire along the lines of an Egyptian proposal to end the raging conflict in Gaza The top US diplomat was speaking in Cairo after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, whose government’s ceasefire proposal last week was accepted by Israel but rejected by Gaza’s Hamas rulers. Kerry voiced support for the initiative as a “framework” to end the fighting that has killed almost 600 Palestinians and 29 Israelis in two weeks of fighting. But Hamas, which has been relentlessly firing rockets and tunneling...

No country would accept rockets raining down on its civilians, and all countries and parties have an international obligation to protect civilians, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday. Ban, who arrived in Israel as part of his effort – together with US Secretary of State John Kerry – to broker a cease-fire, said at a press conference with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the UN position was clear: “We condemn strongly the rocket attacks, and these must stop immediately.” Furthermore, he said, “we condemn the use of civilian sites, schools, hospitals and other civilian facilities for...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was due to land in Israel 2 P.M. Tuesday in an attempt to push for progress on a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Ban's attempts to secure an hours-long humanitarian cease-fire over the course of the morning failed, however, after Israel rejected the proposal. Immediately after landing in Israel, Ban will be taken to the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv, where he will meet with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ban and Netanyahu are expected to hold a press conference at 4 P.M., after which Ban will head to Ramallah...

The man who suggested that the US shoot down Israeli airplanes is at it again. Surveying the Israeli/Hamas conflict, Zbigniew Brzezinski couldn't summon up one word of condemnation for Hamas' intentional targeting of Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets and mortars. Instead, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser had harsh words for only one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Brzezinski said he didn't include Netanyahu in the category of leaders man enough to negotiate, accusing the Israeli PM of having "scuttled" peace efforts--again without a word of criticism for Hamas. Zbigniew ended his anti-Israel tirade by decrying that...

Hamas and Egypt are at odds over an unconfirmed cease-fire deal with Israel, Walla! News reports Tuesday—after Cairo refused to add to the terms of its mediation unprecedented “conditions” tempering the move. Hamas, which has rejected not one, but three separate ceasefire attempts, called on Israel over the past week to submit to a number of “conditions”—or demands—in return for an end to the violence against Israelis. The calls were accompanied by threats against the Israeli people, made through a series of weakly-worded text messages. These “conditions” include, among other things, greater access to international waters, reopening of border crossings,...

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Monday that Israel will continue its offensive “as long as necessary” to stop rocket attacks by Hamas and terrorist infiltration from Gaza. Meanwhile, a senior Egyptian official on Sunday accused Hamas of neglecting Palestinian citizens after officials claimed that one of the terrorist group’s leaders, Khaled Mashaal, had been invited for Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire talks in Cairo. “This is yet another lie in a string of lies made by Hamas leaders, who continue to live comfortable lives abroad while abandoning the Palestinian citizens who are being killed by the day and paying with their lives...

The IDF spends hundreds of millions of dollars and untold thousands of man-hours on high-tech weapons and low-tech methods meant to ensure the absolute minimum of innocent lives lost in a conflict. Advanced visual systems, multiple layers of legal consultation, and even thousands of pamphlets - all designed to keep innocent people alive while targeting the terrorists hiding among them. But it turns out that the Jewish state could have saved lots of that money and time. Because Hamas and the other terrorists have the most sophisticated, advanced weapons known to man. Mujahadeen Magical Munitions® are specially designed not to...

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he has stopped talking to US President Barack Obama on the phone, amid growing strains between Ankara and Washington over Syria and Gaza, AFP reports Tuesday. Turkey, a fierce opponent of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and an open supporter of armed rebel fighters, felt betrayed when the United States backed away from military action against Damascus in September. "In the past, I was calling him (Obama) directly. Because I can't get the expected results on Syria, our foreign ministers are now talking to each other," Erdogan said in a live interview on pro-government...

Experts in the Middle East conflict expected to see a demand on Israel to liberate particular terrorists as a ransom for the kidnapped boys. Such exchanges have been typical of the past. But why not this time? The answer: Hamas wanted to entice Egypt into warfare with Israel in order to help the Muslim Brotherhood regain power in Egypt. Hamas had a broader agenda for the kidnappings, murders, and rocket fire into Israel. Its aggression stirred up pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas opinion by Egypt’s politicians, journalists and media in order to put pressure on Al-Sisi’s new government to help the “oppressed” Gazans....

There’s a kind of hush over Israel at the moment. The streets are emptier; the cars are honking less; cafes are not deserted but they’re quieter; young kids’ laughter in the little park near our office rings out startlingly loud and carefree. We’re a nation glued to the news — to the TV, the radio, the internet. And it’s almost unremittingly grim. Just a few days ago, we were worrying about hundreds of rockets hitting all over Israel, and shaking our heads at the mini-miracle of Iron Dome intercepting most of them. Now it’s the residents of the kibbutzim and...

There will be endless admonitions to Israel from the Obama administration, the United Nations, and so forth, demanding an early end to the Gaza war now underway. Israel’s security needs dictate the opposite: Hamas’ capacity to make war must be crippled.Tel Aviv last week remained one of the safest cities in the world despite the incessant rocket bombardment. In the bomb shelters at the David Intercontinental, we joked about the lack of drinks and canapes at the hotel’s hastily improvised guest mixers. The cafe terraces were full every night on Dizengoff Street. But complacency on Israel’s part would be...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Monday that “there’s hope” for a ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but that he doesn’t know if it will happen under the current conditions. “There are some in the West who tell us, we support Israel’s right to defend itself… as long as you don’t exercise that right,” the premier declared. “Well what else could we do, what would you do… if 80 percent of your people were in bomb shelters?” Netanyahu also blamed the terror group for “the cruelest, most grotesque war that I’ve ever seen.” “There’s one side that is...

President Barack Obama stepped up his efforts Sunday to limit Israel’s gradual destruction of Hamas’ tunnel network in the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza, which now conceals many of the rockets and jihadi units that attack Israelis. In a morning call to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama “reaffirmed Israel’s right to defend itself [but] also raised serious concern about the growing number of casualties, including increasing Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza and the loss of Israeli soldiers,” said a 2.00 p.m. statement from the White House. Israel’s government did not officially respond to Obama’s statement, which came after Israel ground...

The IDF Spokesperson's Office stated Monday night that seven additional soldiers and officers have been killed in Gaza, as the fourteenth day of Operation Protective Edge draws to a close. Their families have been notified. Sergeant First Class Yuval Dagan, 22, from Kfar Saba, served in the Golani Brigade. Dagan's funeral will be held Monday night in the military cemetery in Kfar Saba. Lieutenant General Dolev Keidar, "Gefen" commander, 38, from Modi'in was killed during the infiltration attempt into Israel early this morning. Sergeant First Class Tal Yifrah, Golani Brigade, 22, from Rishon LeTzion. Yifrah was killed in clashes in...

The IDF has identified only six of the seven soldiers caught in a deadly ambush in Gaza City’s Shejaiya area earlier this week, the army announced Tuesday. The seventh soldier, named Tuesday afternoon as Oron Shaul, would appear to be missing in action. There is no definitive evidence of whether he is alive or dead Hamas, which, like Hezbollah, has a long history of sadistically toying with Israel over the fate of its soldiers, has released an ID photo of the apparently missing soldier along with his army ID number. The battle in Shejaiya began on Saturday night. During the...

A Hamas force wearing Israeli army uniforms emerged from a tunnel inside Israel this morning and inflicted losses on Israeli troops before being wiped out. The Hamas squad numbered at least 10 fighters, Israeli sources said. Nine were killed but an Israeli officer said at least two may have escaped through the tunnel. In initial accounts, which gave conflicting narratives, the Hamas force was said to have emerged from a hidden tunnel on the Israeli side of the border only 200 yards from a kibbutz, and split into two groups. Israeli soldiers whom one group encountered shortly afterwards reportedly took...

With diplomats from Middle Eastern states and several outside powers scrambling to stem the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian crisis on Monday, President Obama called for a cease-fire and cited “serious concerns” about the rising toll of dead on both sides. The Obama administration also dispatched to the region Secretary of State John F. Kerry, who arrived in Egypt late Monday to try to mediate calm between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. But the violence continued to surge Monday night, with the top Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip signaling that the Islamist group, whose charter calls killing every Jew a...

On Thursday, we chronicled President Obama's series of decisions to carry on with his public schedule -- a burger joint photo op, a partisan speech on infrastructure spending, and a pair of Manhattan fundraisers -- in the midst of two major international crises. First, Russian-backed and -armed separatists in Ukraine shot down a commercial airliner, killing nearly 300 innocent civilians, including one American. The attack marked a dramatic and lethal escalation of the war in Eastern Ukraine, in which Russia is a malignant and destructive actor. New evidence appears to indicate that Moscow has been highly interested in obtaining the...

“I take my hat off to Israel, and I say to the army, the people, and the Israeli leadership – you’re good men,” enthused Tawfik Okasha, owner and anchor of the Egyptian television channel Al-Faraeen. Although it’s true that Okasha has a personal vendetta against the Muslim Brotherhood, which closed down his channel during their rule, statements such as these haven’t been heard in Egypt in generations. There’s no doubt that the official and public discourse in Egypt is more favorable to Israel than it is to Hamas, but it’s still too early to rejoice about any kind of miracle...

CAIRO - The US is sending $47 million in humanitarian aid to the besieged Gaza Strip to help tens of thousands of Palestinians.....

Barack Obama is trying his best to stand in between Israel and the destruction of one of the world’s most dangerous terrorist organizations. The president has made it clear since the conflict in Gaza began heating up a few weeks ago, that his support of Israel begins and ends at the podium, as his actions outside of his famously scripted and egocentric speeches demonstrates a hidden hostility toward the Israelis. President Obama warned Israeli leaders to use “restraint” in dealing with terrorists who were bombing their country, doing untold amounts of damage and putting people’s lives in danger. After a...