Free Republic

Failing to respond to Hamas attacks because they were being launched from civilian areas would be a moral and operational mistake that would validate its use of human shields and “hand an enormous victory to terrorists everywhere,” Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday.Addressing reporters in Jerusalem amid talks in Cairo aimed at extending a 72-hour, Egyptian-brokered ceasefire currently in place, Netanyahu portrayed the Gaza conflict as a “test” for civilized nations – should terrorists be given immunity because they carry out attacks from schools, mosques or hospitals?He defended the month-long military offensive against Hamas in Gaza, calling it justified...

In a remarkable video from 1978, 28 year old MIT grad Benjamin Netanyahu debates whether there should be a Palestinian state created on the West Bank and Gaza. Netanyahu argues that such a state would...

ow badly have US-Israel relations deteriorated in recent weeks? If Israeli media reports are any indication, tensions boiled over to the point where a phone call between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ended due to "communications problems" earlier this week. Both men have not spoken since, according to the State Department. Kerry's spokesperson, Jen Psaki, told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that the two men have not spoken since a brief phone call over the situation in Gaza ended because of "communications problems."

A phone call between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was mysteriously disconnected on Sunday, Channel 2 News reports. According to the report, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki admitted to reporters on Tuesday that the call was disconnected, though she said it was due to a “communications issue”. Psaki did, however, say that the two have not spoken since the phone call was cut off. …

(CNSNews.com) – Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a Marxist and long-time friend of Communist Cuba and who Ronald Reagan once described as a “little dictator,” criticized Israel’s actions against Hamas terrorists as genocidal and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “appears to be possessed by the Devil” and “needs Pope Francis to exorcise it.” "Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be possessed by the Devil, he needs Pope Francis to exorcise it, to become appeased,” Ortega was quoted as saying on Aug. 1 in Globovision. Ortega also said that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza, a crime so “terrible that it is...

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, a Marxist and long-time friend of Communist Cuba and who Ronald Reagan once described as a “little dictator,” criticized Israel’s actions against Hamas terrorists as genocidal and said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “appears to be possessed by the Devil” and “needs Pope Francis to exorcise it.” "Prime Minister Netanyahu appears to be possessed by the Devil; he needs Pope Francis to exorcise it, to become appeased,” Ortega was quoted as saying on Aug. 1 in Globovision. Ortega also said that Israel is “committing genocide” in Gaza, a crime so “terrible that it is only comparable...

Israel is routinely beset by attacks, physical and rhetorical, at the hands of its hostile neighbors and the Western media and elite. Our mistake is to assume that we can counter those attacks with logic, reason, and evidence. We assume that we are presenting our arguments to people who want to objectively examine the arguments on each side of the conflict, and then come to a rational conclusion to discern right and wrong. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Take this example. Just days after Mahmoud Ahmedinejad of Iran publicly claimed that the Holocaust was a fabrication, Mark Steyn...

The decision to redeploy IDF forces in Gaza was a "purely military one", but marks a crucial crossroads for the Israeli government to decide whether it will deal decisively with Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza, or merely push off the next round of fighting for a few years. That's according to former Israeli National Security Adviser Major General (res.) Yaakov Amidror, a fellow at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Amidror explained that the IDF's mission upon entering Gaza was very clear: "to identify and destroy" Hamas's tunnel network. Amidror...

NETANYAHU AND USELESS OBAMA - graphics and limerick

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue waging war on Hamas Saturday afternoon, saying Israeli operations would continue “at full scale” in order ”to bring back the quiet, peace and calm to citizens of Israel and severely harm terrorist projects.”

Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel. The strong reaction came as top Israeli officials questioned the effort to forge the truce, accusing the U.S. and the United Nations of being naive in assuming the radical Hamas movement would adhere with its terms. The officials also blamed the Gulf state of Qatar for not forcing the militants to comply.

Channel 2′s Udi Segal, reporting on the security cabinet decision overnight, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and colleagues now firmly set on unilateral end to the conflict in the next few days. He says Israel adamant that Hamas cannot be trusted in any ceasefire deal, and that it has to be deterred. He also says the US understands this, since the US also recognizes that the Hamas attack on Israeli troops in Rafah on Friday morning was a “spit in the eye” of the US and other mediators. Netanyahu will deliver a televised statement and take questions from the media...

Matthew Lee, Associated PressAugust. 2, 2014 WASHINGTON (AP) — Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel. Sources familiar with conversations between Netanyahu and senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say the Israeli leader advised the Obama administration "not to ever second guess me again" on the matter. The officials also said Netanyahu said he should be "trusted" on the issue and about the unwillingness of Hamas to enter into and follow through on cease-fire talks. The...

WASHINGTON — Following the quick collapse of the cease-fire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the White House not to force a truce with Palestinian militants on Israel. Sources familiar with conversations between Netanyahu and senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry, say the Israeli leader advised the Obama administration “not to ever second guess me again” on the matter. The officials also said Netanyahu said he should be “trusted” on the issue and about the unwillingness of Hamas to enter into and follow through on cease-fire talks. An Israeli official said the Netanyahu government viewed...

Let’s just recap what happened with the abduction of an Israeli soldier this morning. The Israeli government believed the word of the Secretary of State of the United States that, via his Turkish and Qatari friends, he had obtained acceptable terms for a ceasefire with Hamas. Mr. Kerry’s flunkies even bragged about the success of his Turko-Qatari connections, chiding those who looked askance at his bromance with friends and sponsors of Hamas. What happened next – a surprise attack on Israeli troops in the southern Gaza Strip an hour and a half into the “ceasefire”, an abduction of a soldier...

MK Danny Danon, whom Prime Minister Netanyahu fired as Deputy Defense Minister two weeks ago, has told Newsmax TV that President Obama talked to Prime Minister Netanyahu on Sunday 'like he was the leader of the Taliban.' Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Weasel Zippers)

When US President Barack Obama phoned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night, in the middle of a security cabinet meeting, he ended any remaining doubt regarding his policy toward Israel and Hamas. Obama called Netanyahu while the premier was conferring with his senior ministers about how to proceed in Gaza. Some ministers counseled that Israel should continue to limit our forces to specific pinpoint operations aimed at destroying the tunnels of death that Hamas has dug throughout Gaza and into Israeli territory. Others argued that the only way to truly destroy the tunnels, and keep them destroyed, is for...

The following is an English translation of the Hebrew account of the talk given in the report: B. Obama: I demand that Israel agrees to an immediate, unilateral ceasefire and halt all offensive activities, in particular airstrikes. B. Netanyahu: And what will Israel receive in exchange for a ceasefire? BO: I believe that Hamas will cease its rocket fire — silence will be met with silence. BN: Hamas broke all five previous ceasefires. It’s a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of Israel. BO: I repeat and expect Israel to stop all its military activities unilaterally. The pictures of destruction...

Talk show host Mark Levin slammed President Barack Obama for a report by a member of the Knesset published by Newsmax that Obama “yelled” at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a discussion on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

<p>President Obama demanded that Israel agree to a one-sided ceasefire during a heated phone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a report aired on Israeli TV Tuesday.</p> <p>Both leaders quickly denounced the purported transcript of their private discussion as fake.</p>