Free Republic

The situation facing European Jewry is “simply intolerable, unacceptable and inexcusable,” Israeli Jewish Congress president Vladimir Sloutsker told MKs and foreign diplomats at a special session of the Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee on Monday. Calling the rise in anti-Semitic incidents accompanying Israel’s invasion of Gaza an “SOS situation,” Sloutsker warned that if left unchecked, such behavior could lead to another European genocide. “Never before since the Holocaust, have we seen such a situation as today,” he said, referring to the continent-wide demonstrations by pro-Palestinian activists, a number of which have generated into violence and many of which have...

Germany's biggest newspaper, Bild, was forced to climb down over the weekend after a highly critical and controversial comment piece which attacked Islam as a barrier to integration appeared in its Sunday sister paper. "I don't believe in God, but at the same time Christianity, Judaism or Buddhism don't bother me. Only Islam bothers me more and more," wrote Nicolaus Fest, vice editor-in-chief of the Bild am Sonntag newspaper in the editorial published on Sunday. Fest then laid out why Islam's "criminality," "murderous contempt" and "honour killings" did not belong in Germany, in comments which prompted a raft of hostility...

Signaling an escalation of Israel's Gaza operation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israelis Monday to be ready for a "prolonged" war, and the military warned Palestinians in three large neighborhoods to leave their homes and head immediately for Gaza City. The warnings came on a day of heavy Hamas-Israeli fighting in which nine children were killed by a strike on a Gaza park where they were playing, according to Palestinian health officials — a tragedy that each side blamed on the other. Israeli tanks also resumed heavy shelling in border areas of Gaza, killing five people, including three children and...

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...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Fusion TV´s Jorge Ramos that part of the reason Hamas hides rockets in schools and civilian areas is "Gaza is small." "I´m not a military planner but Hamas puts it´s missiles, it´s rockets in civilian areas, part of it is Gaza is pretty small and its densely populated," she said as neglecting the question of whether or not Hamas should have rockets in area to begin with.

Simon Cowell is used to heaping abuse on strangers, not taking it from them. The former American Idol judge made a fortune by mocking the singing abilities of the Fox show's contestants. Now, Cowell is getting nasty messages from strangers, but the stakes are far higher. Cowell gave $150,000 to the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces last year, but the donation is only now hitting the news cycle, according to YNET News. As a result, Cowell began receiving images of dead Palestinian children on Twitter and has been accused of helping Israel invade Gaza. One of the tweets said...

President Barack Obama spoke out Monday against gender oppression in Africa that he said is “crippling” parts of the continent, urging young leaders there to empower women and eliminate traditions like female genital mutilation and violence against women. Obama held up an inaugural class of young African fellows who are getting six weeks of leadership training in the United States as inspiring examples of what the continent can achieve. He drew cheers as he announced their program is being expanded and renamed after former South African President Nelson Mandela.Obama said the world’s security and prosperity depends on “a strong, prosperous...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration pushed back strongly Monday at a torrent of Israeli criticism over Secretary of State John Kerry's latest bid to secure a cease-fire with Hamas, accusing some in Israel of launching a "misinformation campaign" against the top American diplomat. "It's simply not the way partners and allies treat each other," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Her comments were echoed by the White House, where officials said they were disappointed by Israeli reports that cast Kerry's efforts to negotiate a cease-fire as more favorable to Hamas. "Israel has no better friend, no stronger defender than...

The IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a Turkish NGO, is organizing “Freedom Flotilla II” to go to the Gaza Strip, loaded with humanitarian aid. Bulent Yildrim, the organization’s president, said Sunday the organization was trying to get the legal procedures and paperwork done to send the vessel into Gaza, according to the Middle East Monitor. No sail date has been set. He added the ship would be flanked by Turkish military to avoid the bloodshed that took place the last time Turkey tried to send a flotilla.Haaretz reported Sunday a shipment of medicine had arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport intended for Gaza....

Hamas used children to help them dig numerous tunnels into Israel and Egypt, a 2012 paper written for the Journal of Palestine Studies reported. […] In December 2011, the paper’s author, Nicolas Pelham, accompanied a police patrol in Gaza and reported that “nothing was done to impede the use of children in the tunnels, where, much as in Victorian coal mines, they are prized for their nimble bodies.” He continued and said that “at least 160 children have been killed in the tunnels, according to Hamas officials.” …

U.S. Rep. (Michele Bachmann) and seven other congressmen have formally introduced (a bill) that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and impose sanctions on its supporters in the U.S. Though the chances of the bill passing with a Democrat majority in the Senate and Barack Obama as President are next to zero, it will force members in each House of Congress to pick a side on a matter of tremendous historical significance. The willingness of House Leadership (hello Speaker John Boehner) to bring the (“Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2014″) to the floor will...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says the United States must look to Qatar, an ally of the terrorist group Hamas, for advice in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. “And we have to confer with the Qataris, who have told me over and over again that Hamas is a humanitarian organization,” she told CNN’s “State of the Union” with Candy Crowley. […] In that same interview with CNN, Pelosi defended President Barack Obama’s “strong” leadership, dismissing a suggestion that Russian President Vladimir Putin considers him to be weak. …

Palestinian officials and witnesses said Israeli airstrikes slammed an urban street and a major hospital in the Gaza Strip on Monday, causing deaths and injuries. At least seven children playing in the street were reported killed, and casualties were reported near clinic facilities of Shifa hospital, the most sophisticated medical facility in Gaza. Earlier, a fragile holiday lull in fighting in the Gaza Strip had been punctuated by Israeli airstrikes and rocket launches by Palestinian militants in the wake of a call by the U.N. Security Council for an unconditional humanitarian truce. On the 21st day of the conflict, Israel’s...

As casualties mount and calls  for a cease-fire grow, the war  in Gaza is probably close to  quitting time. But nobody should be foolish enough to think that silencing the guns will mean a return to the pre-war status quo. For Israel, a business-as-usual approach is no longer possible. The barrage of Hamas rockets cannot be tolerated again because the weapons’ increased range puts the entire population in harm’s way. But something else also happened in the last two weeks, and the shock waves are just starting to roll through Israeli society. The discovery of Hamas’ vast tunnel system, which...

House of Worship or Palestinian Arsenal?Posted By Danielle Avel On July 25, 2014 @ 12:47 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 35 Comments While salvaging Qurans from the rubble of the Al-Farouq Mosque in Gaza, junior imam Muhammad Hamad told the New York Times, ‘This is a house of God” – as though this proved the mosque is a peaceful place of worship.  He said this after Al-Farouq had been targeted by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on July 12.  According to IDF spokesperson, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, intelligence indicated the mosque was used as “a Hamas rocket cache and gathering point...

I was instrumental in establishing the “Israeli National Skin Bank”, which is the largest in the world. The National Skin Bank stores skin for every day needs as well as for war time or mass casualty situations. This skin bank is hosted at the Hadassah Ein Kerem University hospital in Jerusalem where I was the Chairman of plastic surgery. This is how I was asked to supply skin for an Arab woman from Gaza, who was hospitalized in Soroka Hospital in Beersheva, after her family burned her. Usually, such atrocities happen among Arab families when the women are suspected of...

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 Pentagon has been unable to locate more than 40 percent of the firearms it has provided to Afghan security forces at a cost of $626 million, according to a report by a government oversight agency made public Monday. The report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) states that the Defense Department's two information systems that track weapons sent to Afghanistan are full of errors. That has sparked fears that at least some of the weapons may be available on the black market, with militants among the potential purchasers. According to the report and an article in...

Two kayakers adrift in Jamaica Bay with just one paddle unwittingly breached Kennedy Airport’s $300 million perimeter detection system. They could have been spotted by a boat patrol — except there wasn’t one. Port Authority boats don’t patrol the bay at night, police sources said.

Danny Dayan, head of the Council of Judea and Samaria, said Monday that asking Israel to stop its attacks on Hamas at this time was “a perversion of morality and diplomacy.” Israelis understand quite well, he said, that “they are fighting for their homes. No matter what we do the enemy will never be satisfied” without Israel's destruction. “We must continue fighting until our goals are reached.” Dayan was speaking in light of the heavy pressure being placed on Israel by US President Barack H Obama for an immediate and unconditional cease-fire. In his proposal, Obama said that the issue...