Free Republic

Putin is doubling down on the separatists. We continue to see arms flow across border from Russia to Ukraine.Russia is also firing artillery from within Russia into Ukraine.Although our preference is a diplomatic solution to Ukraine crisis, we remain ready to impose further costs on Russia as warranted

What follows is testimony delivered on Wednesday by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, at the UN Human Rights Council Emergency Session on Gaza, in Geneva. The Palestinian ambassador to the UNHRC, together with Iran, Syria, Egypt, Cuba and Venezuela had tried but failed to silence Mr. Neuer. As expected, the council voted 29 to 1 (USA), with 17 abstaining (EU & others), to condemn Israel for “gross violations of international human rights,” and it created a new commission of inquiry. ... An entire nation—towns, villages and cities, from the Negev Desert up to the Galilee, from the Judean hills...

Obama administration officials said Thursday that Russia is firing artillery from its own territory into Ukraine to hit Ukrainian military sites, pointing to escalating Russian involvement in the deadly conflict. “This clearly is a military escalation,” Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said, adding there is no question that Russian military—as opposed to Russia-backed separatists—are firing the shots. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf first made the accusation during a press briefing earlier Thursday. She also claimed Moscow is boosting its military shipments to pro-Russian separatists. …

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to trumpet the so-called 2009 “reset” of the U.S.-Russian relationship despite all evidence to the contrary that it worked. With relations over the past two years dwindling to lows not seen since the Cold War, Clinton still told National Public Radio Thursday that it was a success. She told BBC last month that it was a “brilliant stroke.” “The reset worked,” she said. “It was an effort to try to obtain Russian cooperation on key objectives while Medvedev was president, and of course Putin still pulled the strings but he gave Medvedev a...

18 Ukrainian servicemen have returned home after undergoing medical treatment at hospitals in the Russian southern city of Rostov-on-Don, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasyl Zvarych told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday, July 24.

Russia, Israel Joining Efforts to Improve International Terrorism Law RIA Novosti July 23, 2014 MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) - At meetings in Jerusalem Russia’s Federation Council members, led by the council’s foreign affairs committee chairman Mikhail Margelov, raised the proposal for a unified approach to terrorism. “As lawmakers we could propose to the international organizations, first of all the UN, to finally define this term and the approach to eliminating terrorists,” Vladimir Kulakov, first deputy chairman of procedures committee and head of Russia’s delegation to the OSCE Parliamentarian Assembly, was quoted as saying by the statement. Russia’s Israeli counterparts...

Valdimir Petrov found evidence of a Russian artillery unit shelling Ukrainian positions from Russian territory, because a soldier from this unit is posting photos on his VKontakte page (the Russian Facebook). Or course immediately after discovering this, his page has been deleted. But the info is still here:

Russia's Federal Penal Service said that the country's inmates would soon be contributing to public works including the construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge to Crimea and a cleanup operation in the Sochi region, the Kommersant newspaper reported Wednesday.

Hamas continues to be uncompromising in its position regarding an international cease-fire, AFP reports Wednesday. "We reject today and will reject in the future," Hamas leader-in-exile Khaled Meshaal insisted, in a public speech in Qatar. Meshaal insisted that Israel must accept his list of unprecedented conditions for a cease-fire - which included lifting several security measures, such as the naval blockade and border control, designed to prevent terrorists entering into Israel, as well as re-releasing terrorists arrested earlier this month - and only then will Hamas deliberate with Israel on a date for a cease-fire. Meshaal claimed that the terms...

Last Thursday, Malaysian Airlines Fight 17 was shot down, allegedly by the Donetsk People's Republic, a pro-Russian separatist group which currently controls much of eastern Ukraine. U.S. intelligence believes that Russia provided the separatists with missiles. Yet, even as evidence mounts implicating Russia in the MH17 shooting, no new economic sanctions have been issued. Instead, the global community is going after Russia's role as the host of the 2018 World Cup. Peter Beuth, interior minister of the German state of Hesse, has said, "If Putin doesn’t actively cooperate on clearing up the plane crash, the soccer World Cup in Russia...

FULL TITLE: Ted Cruz: The facts suggest President Obama has just used the FAA to launch an ECONOMIC BOYCOTT on Israel…//// Sen. Ted Cruz ripped the president today for using a federal agency, the FAA, to launch an economic boycott on Israel in order to force them to comply with his demands. He pointed out that this economic boycott aids Hamas while simultaneously hurting Israel. What Cruz is calling for is the Obama administration to answer the following questions: Was this decision a political decision driven by the White House? If the FAA’s decision was based on airline safety, why...

Navi Pillay said Tel Aviv's two-week onslaught on Gaza - which has cost more than 650 Palestinians lives - would be thoroughly investigated. Ms Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the attacks have destroyed houses and hospitals and killed civilians. "These are just a few examples where there seems to be a strong possibility that international humanitarian law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes. "Every one of these incidents must be properly and independently investigated." According to Gaza officials, 475 houses have been destroyed and 2,644 damaged, while 46 schools, 56 mosques...

GENEVA, July 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations on Wednesday launched an international inquiry into human rights violations and crimes that may have been committed by Israel during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the Israeli assault which it said had involved "disproportionate and indiscriminate attacks", including aerial bombing of civilian areas, collective punishment, and the killing of more than 650 Palestinians. At the end of an emergency session, the 47-member forum adopted a resolution presented by Palestinians by a vote of 29 states in favor, 1 against (the United States) with 17...

Qatar hosts three major US military bases on its territory. And it is becoming one of the most important clients for US military contractors. Earlier this year Qatar signed an $11.4 billion dollar arms agreement with the US. At the same time, according to the Calacalist report, Qatar is the major bankroller of ISIS and al Nusra in Syria and Iraq. It gives $50 million a month to jihadists in Libya. It gives Hamas $100m. in annual aid. And in the past two years Doha has provided Hamas with an additional $620m. dollars, including $250m. it transferred to Hamas leader...

Leadership: Just three days after President Obama delivered his "get tough" speech on Ukraine aimed squarely at Vladimir Putin, Russia's president has responded — not with words, but deeds. Obama has been lauded for his speech on Monday regarding Russia's role in downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, killing 298 people. "Russia has extraordinary influence over these (Russian) separatists," the commander-in-chief said sternly. "No one denies that. Russia has urged them on. Russia has trained them. We know that Russia has armed them with military equipment and weapons, including anti-aircraft weapons. Key separatist leaders are Russian citizens." Sounds like he was...

Vladimir Putin just showed the world exactly what he thinks of the President of the United State and NATO allies calls for him to rein in the pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine. Less than a week after rebels took down a Malaysian passenger plane carrying nearly 300 civilians, the militants loyal to Moscow are not laying low. “Two Ukrainian fighter jets were shot down Wednesday in the eastern regions of the country that are controlled by Russian-backed separatists, according to Ukraine’s defense ministry,” USA Today reported on Wednesday. It was the first reported shoot down of a plane over eastern Ukraine...

Aeroflot A330, landed and took off from Ben Gurion, destination unknown.

On Monday, four days after Vladimir Putin’s minions in Ukraine shot down a passenger airliner carrying 298 people, including an American citizen, President Barack Obama emerged from the White House to issue a statement. Scowling at the camera, Obama stated: “Russia has extraordinary influence over these separatists. No one denies that. Russia has urged them on. Russia has trained them.” Finally, after fulminating for several minutes about the nastiness of the Russian government, Obama approached the predictable climax: threats of action. Except that there were none. Instead, Obama explained that if Russia were to ignore his warnings, it would “only...

In the wake of the shoot-down of the Malaysian Airlines plane over Ukraine, various pundits continue to say it is unlikely that Europe will do much about it. But why? It is just a lack of will? Or something else? The evidence is being ignored by most of the media, but it continues to indicate that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is an agent, or at least a stooge, of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. In an extraordinary development, the office of the President of Russia reports that Putin said on Wednesday that the German Chancellor is “a reputable European leader under whose...

Last month, Ukraine quietly asked the United States and NATO for sensitive equipment to jam the radars that Russian anti-aircraft systems use to lock their missiles on planes. As the United States and NATO last month began to publicly acknowledge the sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft systems moving into rebel held areas of eastern Ukraine, the government in Kiev asked for gear that might be used to counter those weapons. According to a former senior U.S. defense official who has worked closely with Ukraine’s military and a former head of state who has consulted with the government there, Kiev last month requested...