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For reasons that have no rational explanations at this time, the US and Europe have embarked on a concerted program to demonize Putin, ostracize Russia, and bring the world as close to a major conflict as it's been since the Cold War, a time hardly memorable to many in the current crop of our elected officials. Within hours of the MH-17 plane crash, the United States pinned the blame on Russia generally, and Putin particularly. The anti-Putin propaganda (and if there were a stronger term I'd use it) has been relentless and almost comically over-the-top (see image above, and those...

This is a rush transcript from "The Kelly File," July 31, 2014. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.... Fox News Megyn Kelly Grills Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer!?

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...

The IDF believes there is a high likelihood that a soldier was kidnapped this morning in Rafah (Rafiach) at 9:30am. Hamas terrorists attacked IDF troops this morning during the cease fire, a battle ensued, at it is believed they managed to kidnap a soldier. They have made numerous attempts, since the war began, to abduct soldiers, and this may have been their goal all along. The soldier’s family has been notified.

If you want to judge a nation, look at how it treats its most vulnerable civilians. Hospitals are a good place to start. Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in Gaza, is housed in a converted British army barracks. Some 126 miles north is Israel’s Ziv Medical Center in Zefat. Hamas, which controls Gaza, is using the civilian population as human shields. The terrorist group has placed its missiles in schools and mosques and, even more deplorably, burrowed its command center underneath the al-Shifa hospital. Hamas‘ activities are taking place in plain sight. Just two weeks ago, The Washington Post described al-Shifa...

<p>JERUSALEM - Despite Israeli casualties and world criticism, a near-consensus in Israel supports the government's conduct of the Gaza war, views Hamas as the aggressor and considers outsiders' moralizing as hypocritical, ignorant or both.</p>

The House on Wednesday passed a resolution to condemn the extremist group Hamas for its recent rocket attacks against Israel. The measure, passed by voice vote, specifically denounces Hamas's use of civilians as "human shields" during combat. "Hamas is engaging in a crime of enormous proportions, perpetrated by those who are deliberately hiding among civilians to protect themselves," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.). "The world can't let terrorists embed their forces among the civilian population, using them as human shields, without speaking out." It also expresses support for Israel to defend itself against Hamas, as well...

Three Israeli soldiers were killed and 27 injured in the Gaza Strip Wednesday, July 30, on the 23rd day of Israel’s counter-terror operation Defensive Edge against Hamas. A bomb planted in the wall of a building in Khan Younes blew up as the soldiers went in to examine a tunnel shaft. Maj. Gen. Sami Torjeman, OC Southern Command, told reporters that the soldiers had fought “stubbornly” and “seriously impaired” Hamas’ strength. Hundreds of enemy fighters have been killed, he reported, including scores of Hamas’ elite troops and some of the commanders hunkered down in their hideouts. Dozens too had been...

Governor Palin uses two unlikely sources to get to the truth about what’s happening in Israel.

The conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama was tense and tough, according to a report on Channel 1 Tuesday evening. Based on a transcript of the conversation, obtained by Israel’s channel 1, Obama “behaved in a rude, condescending and hostile manner,” the network’s foreign correspondent concluded. During the 35-minute conversation on Sunday, the president reportedly demanded that Israel should immediately and unconditionally end the operation. When Netanyahu asked what Israel would get in return for unilaterally ending the strikes, Obama replied: “I believe Hamas will stop firing rockets – quiet in return for quiet.” To which...

That nine of the 10 Israeli servicemen who died in the counter-terror operation against Hamas Monday, July 28, were killed on Israeli soil was a wake-up call for Israel’s war leaders. It meant that Hamas had used the 22 days of combat to carry the contest from its own home ground into Israel by grabbing the tactical advantage of surprise. The Nahal Oz encounter was a tragic microcosm of the current face of Operation Defensive Edge. The tunnel, from which a band of Hamas infiltrators jumped out – and about whose existence the IDF admits to have known – ran...

IDF chiefs have asked the government for a clear decision on whether to expand their counter-terror operation in the Gaza Strip which entered its 22nd day Tuesday - or terminate it. This was reported by a senior IDF officer Tuesday. He put it this way: “Decide now whether we go in or out.” DEBKAfile: This comment reflects the mounting criticism in the IDF high command of the government’s slowness in reaching a decision about the next stage of the operation against Hamas. This irresolution, they say, exposes the troops to danger and point to the 10 fatalities the IDF suffered...

Israel expands counter-offensive In the past 48 hours, Israel was pressured to accept its fifth “humanitarian” ceasefire in Gaza by President Barack Obama, US Secretary of State John Kerry, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came close to folding, whereas Hamas saw the truce as applying only to Israel and therefore used it as a call to arms. The slogan Israel broadcast: Quiet will be met with quiet and fire with fire, was seen by Hamas as a sign of Israel weakening. This impression was confirmed on Sunday when...

Although many consider the opening act of World War I to be the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo - its centennial was just a month ago (28 June) - the first actual declaration of war took place a hundred years ago today, when Austria-Hungary initiated hostilities against Serbia, after the latter rejected a draconian Austrian ultimatum intended to give Austria a free hand in bringing Franz Ferdinand's killers to account. As a result, Russia - self-appointed protector of the "South Slavs" - mobilized against Austria, which panicked the Germans (fearful of a two-front war against both France...

Israel Monday rebuffed the UN Security Council’s call for an immediate and humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. In a call to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Binyamin Netanyahu said that the text relates only to the needs of “a murderous terrorist organization which attacks Israeli civilians.” It fails to address the harm inflicted on Israeli citizens and Hamas’ misuse of UN facilities for launching attacks on those citizens. Netanyahu delivered his reply as Hamas renewed rocket attacks at noon Monday, with Israeli resuming air strikes on rocket targets towards evening.

The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed revenge against Israel for its ongoing military incursion into Gaza, which has already killed hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis. “You [people of Israel] are trees without any roots which were planted in the Islamic lands by the British,” Brig. Gen. Hossein Salami said at this week’s Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, Fars News Agency reported. That statement referred to the Balfour Declaration, which led to the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and the eventual creation of the state Israel in 1948. “We will chase you house...

Here's the question, not of the day, but of the month: Who's Winning the War in Ukraine? That may sound like a simple question, but it isn't. That question leads to a second question "In whose eyes?" It also depends on the definition of "war". And it also depends on the definition of "win". And finally it depends on which media source you believe. Military Aspect From a military aspect, I have seen reports from both sides. The Western media portrays Ukraine on the march with the rebels surrounded, and losing ground. Is that accurate reporting? I will let you...

Fighting briefly subsided in Gaza on Sunday after Hamas agreed to a 24-hour humanitarian truce in the Strip. Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu, however, slammed the group for failing to accept its own ceasefire and continuing to fire. "In response to UN intervention and considering the situation of our people and the occasion of Eid, it has been agreed among resistance factions to endorse a 24-hour humanitarian calm, starting from 2 pm on Sunday," Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman said in a statement. Eid al-Fitr, also called Feast of Breaking the Fast, is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide...

In the July 24 edition of The Wall Street Journal there was a commentary, “Wanted: Converts to Judaism” by the chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Arnold M. Eisen. I thought to myself that this was an extraordinary time to be suggesting conversion to a faith that is literally under attack in Israel and being attacked by the reemergence of anti-Semitism in Europe. Here in America we are witnessing the most pro-Islamic and anti-Semitic administration in the history of nation.

Israeli ministers, who on Friday unanimously rejected US secretary’s offer, reported to describe him as ‘negligent, incapable of handling the most basic matters’ Israeli government sources on Saturday night accused US Secretary of State John Kerry of “completely capitulating” to the demands of Hamas and its champion Qatar in drafting the Gaza war ceasefire proposal that Israeli ministers unanimously rejected on Friday. The unnamed sources, quoted by Israel’s Channel 2 TV, said Kerry “dug a tunnel under the Egyptian ceasefire proposal” — which Israel accepted and Hamas rejected last week — and presented the Israeli government with a text that...