Free Republic

<p>In a dramatic statement issued Tuesday evening, the 28 foreign ministers of EU member states called for the disarmament of Hamas and other militant groups in the Gaza Strip.</p> <p>The statement, which was issued at the end of the monthly meeting of the Council of the European Union, included a ...</p>

A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Berlin on Monday night. Police said it was too soon to say whether it was part of a political protest. Amid tensions in Berlin over pro-Gaza protests and a rise in anti-Semitism, the 46-year-old doused himself in a flammable liquid and then set himself alight with a cigarette lighter at 11.45pm on Monday. Police said the man, who is of Arab descent, only suffered minor injuries outside the Israeli embassy in south-west Berlin. A police spokesman told The Local his feet and legs were burnt and he was now...

“Berlin police cower before Jew-haters,” proclaimed a headline in the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel—and this line has been posted numerous times on social networking sites. It was reported that a group of Arabs shouted “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight alone” at a recent demonstration and police officers did not interfere.In many European cities, what began as peaceful protests turned into outpourings of anti-Jewish sentiments and violence against counter-demonstrators. […] The Gaza conflict has stirred up public opinion in Europe, and it has brought Israel-hatred to Germany along with it, according to political scientist Stephan Grigat. […] Grigat has...

A man set himself on fire outside the Israeli embassy in Berlin on Monday night. Police said it was too soon to say whether it was part of a political protest. Amid tensions in Berlin over pro-Gaza protests and a rise in anti-Semitism, the 46-year-old doused himself in a flammable liquid and then set himself alight with a cigarette lighter at 11.45pm on Monday. Police said the man, who is of Arab descent, only suffered minor injuries outside the Israeli embassy in south-west Berlin. …

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

EU countries have defended Israel’s use of force in Gaza, but blamed it for harming peace prospects in the longer term. Foreign ministers in a joint statement on Tuesday (22 July) said they are “appalled by the human cost” of some parts of “the Israeli military operation”, which has killed hundreds of Palestinian civilians. But they “recognized Israel’s legitimate right to defend itself”, while blaming Hamas, the militant group which rules Gaza, for “indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel”, in what they described as “criminal and unjustifiable acts”. They also gave credence to Israeli claims that Hamas is urging civilians...

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.

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."

At least 35 trucks through Israel on Tuesday to GAZA for UNWRA PRESS RELEASE: Dubai [Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: Lionello Boscardi - UNRWA Partnership, told IMRA that at least 35 trucks will make their way from Amman through Israel to the Gaza Strip this Tuesday and that there will be many more trucks to follow as the program is already slated to continue through the 27th.] PRESS RELEASE Dubai Begins Humanitarian Airlift for UNRWA in Gaza 21 July 2014 East Jerusalem As the number of casualties and injured civilians rises in the Gaza Strip, aid agencies have geared up...

U.S. may not have shared satellite intel with Israel identifying 60 tunnels on the Israel-Gaza border "Emerson said that he is unaware if Israel requested such intelligence from the Americans or if it has yet been shared between the two nations" Exclusive: US intelligence source claims Hamas has many more tunnels than Israel says By ARIEL BEN SOLOMON The Jerusalem Post LAST UPDATED: 07/22/2014 09:44 http://www.jpost.com/Operation-Protective-Edge/Exclusive-US-intelligence-source-claims-Hamas-has-many-more-tunnels-than-Israel-says-368364 Steven Emerson, founder and executive director of the Washington-based Investigative Project on Terrorism, told the Post in an exclusive interview on Sunday that US intelligence officials believe that Israel is underestimating the number of...

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...

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...

I recently received an email from a reporter asking me to comment on questions of the “when did you stop beating your wife” variety. I receive these near daily from anti-Israel and anti-Semitic publications who accuse me of everything from supporting genocide against Palestinians, to lending my name to African regimes that slaughter their people (they’re referring to my friend President Paul Kagame, who actually stopped the genocide in Rwanda in 1994), to abandoning Michael Jackson. But this one came from a Jewish publication and included these gems: Do I disappear for days, sometimes weeks, into a room where I...

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...

In most such cases, the US does not even acknowledge its responsibility for its own lethal drone attacks, let alone issue an apology. With a predictability that is rapidly becoming mind-numbing monotony, various US officials from the president on down have been stressing the need for Israel to exercise restraint in its counter- terror operation in Gaza so as to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties. In addition to President Barack Obama, this concern has been voiced in recent days in one form or another by none other than US Secretary of State John Kerry, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, as...