Free Republic

On Sunday John Kerry forgot the number one rule of being miked for an interview; the microphone is always on. The Secretary of State was miked and on camera waiting for an interview with Fox News Sunday’s Chris Wallace when he spoke to an aide about an Israeli operation resulting in the deaths of 14 IDF solders. Kerry’s reaction was a mocking: "It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation.We’ve got to get over there. Thank you, John. I think, John, we ought to go tonight. I think it’s crazy to be sitting around.”...

Thousands of illegal immigrant children who have been arrested for crossing the U.S. border are merely pawns "in a political game" by President Barack Obama, Rep. Marsha Blackburn charged to Newsmax on Saturday. "I find it just horrific that these children would be used for a political point," the Tennessee Republican said after touring a detention center at Fort Sill Army Base in Oklahoma. .... Blackburn spent about two hours at the Fort Sill center with Oklahoma Rep. Jim Bridenstine, who appeared on Newsmax TV on July 3 to tell "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner how he was denied access when...

Mahmoud Abbas, the sometimes moderate, often ineffectual leader of the Palestinian Authority, just asked his rivals in Hamas a question that other bewildered people are also asking: “What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?” The Gaza-based Hamas has recently fired more than 500 rockets at Israeli towns and cities. This has terrorized the citizenry, though caused few casualties, in large part because Israel is protected by the Iron Dome anti-rocket system. In reaction to these indiscriminately fired missiles, Israel has bombarded targets across Gaza. Compared with violent death rates in other parts of the Middle East, the number...

Partly blaming unrest in the Middle East on President Barack Obama, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Saturday that Obama has not spoken firmly and forcefully on Israel’s behalf and that the country no longer trusts it has the full support of the United States because of him. The Republican governor’s remarks came as Israel targeted civilian institutions with suspected ties to the militant organization Hamas and declared it would step up its bombardment of northern Gaza. Israel says it is acting in self-defense against Hamas rockets. …

Does Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really support a two-state solution, or is his rhetoric to this effect disingenuous? Did he genuinely seek an accommodation with the Palestinians during the nine months of US-brokered negotiations that collapsed in April, or was he just stringing the Americans and the Palestinians along, while his heart is truly with the settlement enterprise? >>SNIP<< Netanyahu began his appearance, typically, by reading some prepared remarks. But then, most atypically, he took a series of questions. And while he initially stuck to responses tied to the war against Hamas, its goals, and the terms under which it...

Netanyahu finally speaks his mind At his Friday press conference, the prime minister ruled out full Palestinian sovereignty, derided the US approach to Israeli security, and set out his Middle East overview with unprecedented candor. His remarks were not widely reported; they should be BY DAVID HOROVITZ TOI July 13, 2014, These are fundamental questions — questions you’d think Israelis and the watching world would long since have been able to answer, especially given that Netanyahu is Israel’s second-longest serving prime minister ever. In fact, though, while many pundits claim to have definitive answers, most Israelis would acknowledge that they’ve...

The UN's special refugee agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, reported Sunday that about 4,000 residents of northern Gaza have fled their homes after the IDF told them to do so, starting last night. In addition, about 850 Palestinians with foreign nationalities are leaving Gaza through the Erez checkpoint. Three hundred of these had already done so by the early afternoon. Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on border areas in northern Gaza, calling on the citizens to evacuate their homes before noon Sunday as it prepared to bomb the area. The IDF warned that those who do not obey their instructions will be...

How many times do I have to write about the problems discovered in Common Core teaching? This time it deals with Pearson Education, one of the leading companies that helps develop and train Common Core teaching. According to their website: “As the leading education services company, Pearson is serious about evolving how the world learns. We apply our deep education experience and research, invest in innovative technologies, and promote collaboration throughout the education ecosystem. Real change is our commitment and its results are delivered through connecting capabilities to create actionable, scalable solutions that improve access, affordability, and achievement.” [Emphasis mine]...

The map of the Middle East displayed in an Obama administration video released days before President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel shows the Jewish state dispossessed of substantial parts of its current territory, including its capital. The map of Israel, displayed repeatedly during the video, shows the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, northern Israel, and areas surrounding what is currently the West Bank as non-Israeli territory. The Golan Heights is shown as part of Syria; Jerusalem is shown as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon. The itinerary on the White House website also implies...

CNN’s Jake Tapper has taken notice of two disturbing hashtags that have recently surfaced, apparently in response to Israel’s Operation Protective Edge: #HitlerWasRight and #HitlerDidNothingWrong. And as he notes, Adolf Hitler was no friend to the Arabs. That hasn’t stopped the hashtags from spreading, though.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed support for Israel in its struggle against Hamas and its supporters, and cited the three Israeli teenagers who had been recently murdered. "I follow closely what's going on in Israel," said Putin to a delegation of rabbis. "I support the struggle of Israel as it attempts to protect its citizens. I also heard about the shocking murder of the three youths. It is an act that cannot be allowed, and I ask you to transmit my condolences to the families." Putin referenced Jews during the Holocaust, saying, "I remember visiting in the Yad...

Sirens sounded Saturday evening in northern Israel as rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon into the Jewish state. The sirens sounded in Nahariya, Rosh Hanikra, Shlomi, Kabri and Hanita, along the border with Lebanon. Initial analysis said that the rockets were apparently fired from Lebanon by a Palestinian Lebanese terror group. "Two rockets fired from Lebanon hit uninhabited areas in the Nahariya region," a coastal town around 12 kilometers (seven miles) from the border with Lebanon, an army spokeswoman told AFP. Israel responded with artillery fire targeting the firing points. A Lebanese security source told AFP at least one rocket...

Israeli ground troops entered northern Gaza tonight to take out a number of missile launch sites, according to the Israeli military. The move comes after weeks of growing tensions and nearly a week of escalating missile strikes from both sides. The mission was launched early Sunday local time comes after the UN Security Council urged the two sides to reach a cease fire, and the Israeli government said it hit northern Gaza "with great force" to prevent more Hamas rocket attacks. The IDF, the Israeli military, said its goal in crossing into northern Gaza was to dismantle some of the...

Five days after the launch of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s effort to put a halt to Hamas rocket fire, some 600 rockets had been fired from Gaza at Israel. Rockets fired throughout Saturday targeted communities near the Gaza Strip as well as Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Rehovot and Rishon Lezion. Hamas launched a major assault on central Israel in late evening. An American tourist died of a heart attack after sirens wailed in Jerusalem. Palestinian reports say at least 150 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes, including more than 15 in a strike late Saturday aimed at Hamas’s Gaza...

Egyptian forces seize rockets being smuggled from Gaza to Sinai 20 Grad rockets and their launching bases were seized after a clash with militants in Rafah. Egyptian security forces have intercepted a number of Grad rockets being smuggled from the Gaza Strip through cross-border tunnels into Egypt’s Sinai, MENA reported on Friday. Security forces thwarted the smuggling of 20 rockets and launching bases when they clashed with Egyptian and Palestinian Islamist militants at the opening of one of the tunnels in Egypt's border city of Rafah, security sources told the state news agency. Around one hundred people have been killed...

In a major surprise, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the country’s second-largest teachers union, opened its biannual convention Friday by announcing a step back from its support for Common Core education standards. The group, gathering in Los Angeles, announced that it will now provide monetary grants from its Innovation Fund for teachers who want to critique the standards or even write entirely new ones themselves. The AFT’s executive council is also introducing a resolution, to be voted on at the convention, which would declare that the standards had noble intentions but have fallen short due to outside meddling and...

The surge in popularity Hamas receives each time it unleashes rockets on Israel is predictable by now. The frustration voiced by Palestinians in Gaza who blame Hamas for pursuing its own interests while their homes get reduced to rubble is less expected.[snip] “Even those, like me, who were all the time criticizing Hamas … now we have to raise up our hats,” [snip] “I feel proud that after 60 years of [Israel] raping our lands we have an army, an army that can hit Israel,” says Ms. al-Lolo, who lives in Gaza City.

Skitter, scamper, scuttle. That seems to be the mode of the Obama administration of late. Skitter away from your red line in Syria. Scamper off to a meeting you'd previously nixed with Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Scuttle as much as the Constitution as you can, at least until you get called on it by 9-0 majorities in the Supreme Court, as the justices did on recess appointments, warrantless cellphone searches and $75,000 a day fines for disturbing supposed wetlands. It's not a very effective way to make public policy, and it tends to put you in an embarrassing public posture....

In a reminder of the Middle East’s intertwined nature, the latest violence between Israel and Hamas has U.S. and Israeli officials lamenting the role of a key actor hundreds of miles east of Gaza: Iran. “Who is the enabler for Hamas? Where do they get those rockets?” asked House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce Friday morning. “It’s Iran.” […] “Iran continues to do everything it can to push rockets into Gaza,” says Israel’s ambassador to Washington, Ron Dermer. “Iran obviously is a supporter of Hamas. And Islamic Jihad is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Iran.” (Islamic Jihad is militant group...

Israel’s air campaign in Gaza may violate international laws prohibiting the targeting of civilians, the U.N.’s top human rights official said Friday. Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said the Israeli military, which claims to have hit more than 1,100 targets that it says are mostly rocket-launching sites, and the Gaza militants, who have fired more than 550 rockets against Israel, must abide by international law. […] Pillay says she’s seen for herself in Gaza how traumatic the airstrikes and rocket attacks are for civilians, particularly children. Her office says civilians bear the brunt of the conflict...