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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation and answered reporters' questions Sunday evening during the prime time newscasts after 8:00 p.m., and spelled out relatively modest aims for Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, which completes its 13th day Sunday night. In response to a question, Netanyahu said that Israel has embarked on a gradual process of undoing the harm done by the 2005 unilateral Gaza withdrawal known as the Disengagement, which ended up allowing Hamas to take over Gaza. At the time, he noted, he had warned that the vacuum left behind by Israel would be filled by Hamas, which...

The anti-Semitism of the left leaked out through the liberal media this week.The Washington Post published this cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly punching a Palestinian baby. Via Pamela Geller:

"The prime minister and the defense minister have ordered the IDF to begin a ground operation in order to damage the underground terror tunnels constructed in Gaza leading into Israeli territory. "Such a tunnel was used earlier this morning by Hamas terrorists to enter Israeli territory, with intent to case massive harm to Israeli civilians. "The IDF successfully thwarted this attempt at terrorism as well. The prime minister and the defense minister have ordered the IDF to make preparations for expanding the ground operation. The order to act tonight has been approved by the security cabinet, after Israel agreed to...

Op-ed: A land invasion is our last resort, but we might have to do it nonetheless; Hamas might compel us to. Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign up! If we emerge from this round of conflict with an extended period of quiet, I will consider that to constitute success. Operation Cast Lead (winter 2008-9) gave us almost four years of quiet. Operation Pillar of Defense (November 2012) gave us 20 months. Longer, needless to say, would be better. In pursuit of that goal we are hitting Hamas hard. We...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did what he had to do when he fired Danny Danon, who rudely and insolently attacked him and criticized the policy of his defense minister, Moshe Ya'alon. If it were possible, Danon would not be the only one Netanyahu would fire. If it were possible and would not jeopardize his government, he would also fire Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. We have probably never seen such a thing before, not even in wars with less national agreement than in the current operation: In the midst of a battle, while IDF soldiers are deployed on the outskirts of...

If the foreign minister thinks the prime minister is doing a lousy job, he should either shut up when outvoted or quit, not publicly undermine the PM at the height of a bitter conflict with Hamas. Israel is currently a nation at war. It has been targeted with some 1,300 rockets over the past eight days fired at its population almost everywhere in the country. Untenably, on Tuesday, Liberman sought to score points at the expense of Israelis’ faith in their leadership. Whether his prescription for Gaza is right or wrong — does Israel really want to reconquer Gaza and...

<p>The dismissal of Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon on Tuesday night had an immediate dampening effect on the right wing’s criticism of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the offensive in the Gaza Strip.</p> <p>Danon was fired after publicly opposing the cabinet’s decision to accept a cease-fire with Hamas.</p>

Israel resumed its heavy bombardment of Gaza on Tuesday and warned that Hamas would "pay the price" after the Islamic militant group rejected an Egyptian truce plan and instead unleashed more rocket barrages at the Jewish state. Late Tuesday, the military urged tens of thousands of residents of northern and eastern Gaza to leave their homes by Wednesday morning, presumable a prelude to air strikes there. Rocket fire from Gaza killed an Israeli man Tuesday, the first Israeli fatality in eight days of fighting....

The security cabinet met late on Tuesday night to determine the next steps in Operation Protective Edge, at the end of a topsy-turvy day that started with the prospect of a cease-fire and ended with dozens of Hamas rockets hitting Israel and intense retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip. Before convening the security cabinet, which some 12 hours earlier had approved a cease-fire brokered by Egypt that Hamas never accepted, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel would answer Hamas’s rejection of a truce with stepped-up attacks. “If there is no cease-fire, our answer is fire,” Netanyahu said, adding that Hamas...

Tuesday was a roller coaster day that started with talk of a cease-fire, and ended with fire that would not cease. In the early hours of the day, however, when it appeared – at least in theory – as if the Egyptian- brokered cease-fire might lead to an end to Hamas’s rockets and Operation Protective Edge, diplomatic officials said that the security cabinet agreed to the Egyptian proposal in order to “give an opportunity for the demilitarization of the Gaza Strip.” The idea of a demilitarized Gaza Strip is an idea that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his spokesmen began...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, discussing the escalating Israeli air strikes in Gaza and the rockets fired into Israel from Palestinian militant groups there, said at a press conference Friday that this latest violence shows why Israel cannot withdraw unilaterally from the West Bank as it did in 2005 from Gaza. While many have interpreted this as opposition to any two-state solution whatsoever, it reads to me as something a little different: a major Israeli requirement for any peace deal to work, and one that precludes Israel from ending its West Bank occupation without Palestinians agreeing to a deal that...

In a dramatic development Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has fired his Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon. Danon, who is a member of Netanyahu's Likud party, has been a consistent and sometimes harsh critic of the prime minister's leadership. Sources close to the PM say Danon's scathing criticism of the government's decision to sign up to a ceasefire agreement with Hamas proved the last straw. Hopes of a ceasefire crumbled after Hamas rejected it and fired dozens of rockets onto Israeli population centers, prompting Israel to respond with more airstrikes after several hours of restraint. While some analysts - including...

As the sixth day of Operation Protective Edge came to a close Sunday evening, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave no indication of whether the campaign was nearing its end or whether Israel is on the verge of a ground operation. The security cabinet met Sunday evening, as it has on an almost daily basis since the campaign began, with the options on the table ranging from sending IDF troops into Gaza to working with a third party – such as the US, Egypt, Qatar, or Turkey – to broker a cease-fire, to a unilateral cease-fire to gauge how Hamas reacts....

If Netanyahu emerges from Operation Protective Edge with what could be characterized as a victory, he could take advantage of his post-war popularity. If Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu succeeds in ending rocket fire from the Gaza Strip without losing any Israeli lives, he could advance the next leadership race in his Likud party, sources in the party said Sunday. The Likud must hold a leadership race ahead of every general election. While such races tend to be held in proximity to general elections, Netanyahu moved up the last two races to much earlier in order to catch his potential competitors...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the IEC not to risk the lives of its employees in trying to restore power. Seventy thousand Gazans from Khan Younis and Deir el-Balah were in the dark Sunday night after a Hamas rocket hit the power line that supplies electricity to those places. It's not clear when Israel Electric Company workers will be able to repair the system, but they are apparently in no rush to do so. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the IEC not to risk the lives of its employees in trying to restore power to the affected sector...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared on Fox News Sunday to detail his country’s fight against Hamas, telling Brit Hume, “I just want your viewers to imagine the United States being bombarded, not in one city or two cities, but in every city between New York and Colorado. “Maybe 20% of the United States would be exempt from this,” he said, “80% of your citizens would have to be in bomb shelters or ready to go into bomb shelters within a minute to a minute and a half max. No country can accept that, we can’t accept it, and we’ll...

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...

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...

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...

I received an email concerning a speech by Binyamin Netanyahu. As I read it I had my doubts about its authenticity. It's a hoax. Here is part of the hoax letter: "I give you formal notice that our tanks are massed at the Gaza border, with artillery and air support at the ready. We have already dropped leaflets over the northern parts of the Gaza strip, warning civilians of our impending arrival, and that they should evacuate southward, forthwith. If you fail to meet our ultimatum, we are coming in, and, with God's help, this time we will not leave....