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John Kerry is upset by heavy criticism from Israelis — left, right and center — of his recent cease-fire diplomacy. But that’s only half the story. More significant is the consternation of America’s Arab partners, starting with the president of the Palestinian Authority. Mahmoud Abbas was stunned that Kerry would fly off to Paris to negotiate with Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey in talks that excluded the PA and Egypt. The talks also undermined Egypt’s cease-fire proposal, which Israel had accepted and Hamas rejected (and would have prevented the vast majority of the casualties on both sides). “Kerry tried through...

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...

The White House on Friday blasted Hamas for violating a 72-hour cease-fire agreement, calling the abduction of an Israeli soldier “barbaric.” White House spokesman Josh Earnest acknowledged reports that Hamas had used the cease-fire as cover to carry out an attack on Israeli soldiers. “That would be a rather barbaric violation of the cease-fire agreement,” Earnest said on CNN’s “New Day.” “Hamas is entirely responsible for upholding their end of the bargain, and it’s apparent that they did not do that."

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.

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...

After agreeing to a 72-hour ceasefire less than 24 hours ago, Hamas has once again broken another temporary truce agreed to by both sides. It is believed Hamas has kidnapped an Israeli soldier and the fighting is continuing. More from Fox News:

Iran will step up its uranium enrichment program by sharply increasing the number of centrifuges used to make nuclear fuel, a senior official said Wednesday, in direct defiance of Western demands. The statement by Iran’s nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, is likely to escalate tensions. The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program could be headed toward weapons production and has imposed punishing sanctions to try to persuade Tehran to stop enrichment. Iran has denied the charges, saying its program is peaceful and geared toward generating electricity and producing radioisotopes to treat cancer patients. …

As has so often been the case for nearly four years, one needs to go to the editorial pages of the nation's two leading financial publications, the Wall Street Journal and Investor's Business Daily, to get to the truth behind news developments, especially the ones with potential to cast the Obama administration in a bad light. There may not be a better example of the press ignoring the obvious than the circumstances surrounding Mohammed Morsi's dictatorial power grab in Egypt. Morsi gained substantial perceived world standing when the U.S. government praised him lavishly (or is it slavishly?) for his involvement...

White House officials remained silent during the extended Thanksgiving weekend, as Egypt’s pro-democracy groups called on President Barack Obama to condemn Thursday’s power grab by their country’s Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. Morsi decreed Nov. 22 that his pronouncements and edicts were beyond the reach of judicial review. The announcement was met by resistance from the nation’s top judges, who said they would fight Morsi’s unusual self-elevation to near-dictator status. “I am waiting to see, I hope soon, a very strong statement of condemnation by the U.S., by Europe and by everybody who really cares about human dignity,” declared Mohamed ElBaradei,...

As clashes between Egyptian police forces led by Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi and Egyptian protesters angry at Morsi’s power grab escalated, the US embassy in Cairo weighed in. You may remember the embassy’s last embarrassing tweeting escapade on 9/11, when embassy staff tweeted apologies for a YouTube video even as the embassy was stormed. Today, as the embassy fell under assault, they tweeted:

Large billboards saying “Thank you Iran” have appeared next to three major road junctions in the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented public acknowledgment of the weapons terrorist groups in the Strip receive from the Islamic Republic. The message was written in Arabic, English, Hebrew and Farsi above a picture of an Iranian manufactured Fajr 5 rocket like the ones fired at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during the recent round of hostilities. “Iranian rockets struck at Tel Aviv. They reached Jerusalem. Therefore it was our duty to thank those who helped our people,” Islamic Jihad leader Khader Habib told Reuters.

IDF soldiers stationed along the border fence with Gaza say they have received new orders on opening fire, which allow Arabs in Gaza to endanger soldiers and Israeli civilians in nearby communities. "Between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. there are hundreds and possibly thousands of people roaming near the fence, including uniformed Hamas men," a soldier told Channel 2. His identity was disguised to avoid trouble from the IDF. "They crossed the fence several times and went into our forces' positions and destroyed IDF property. The forces cannot push them away from the fence because they may not even fire...

Someone once said that whenever the savages fight the civilized, the savages always win. The same can be said when professionals face off against amateurs: the professionals win hands down, leaving the amateurs with egg all over their faces. The current situation in the Middle East offers a clear example. Hamas, a terror group that is always for sale to the highest bidder (whether it be Shiite Iran or Sunni Egypt), did Egypt’s bidding by rocketing Israel. The reaction from Israel was predictable and absolutely necessary: defend its citizens at any cost from the deluge of Gaza bombs. Hence we...

President Obama pushed Israel into accepting a ceasefire arrangement with Hamas, which was engineered by Hamas’s Muslim Brotherhood patron, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel is supposed to negotiate, through Egyptian intermediaries, an easing of border restrictions between Gaza and Israel. This would be the same Egyptian government that had sent its prime minister to Gaza to express solidarity with Hamas during the fighting. Hamas, on the other hand, is not required to give up its remaining stockpile of Iranian-supplied weapons, nor to commit to cease all further imports of Iranian missiles or missile parts....

Now that a cease-fire has been declared between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, there are several concerns that still must be addressed: Who was behind this escalation in the first place and why did it occur at this particular moment in time? Egyptians have been turning against the Muslim Brotherhood in recent weeks, which could help explain the situation in neighboring Gaza. This is mainly because of the deteriorating economic situation in Egypt since the Brotherhood came to power. … It was not difficult for the MB to request—and probably help their sister Hamas organization—in flooding Israel with rocket attacks...

The Egyptian revolution took another bad turn Thursday, as President Mohamed Morsi gave himself dictatorial powers over the legislature and courts. The world has feared that the Muslim Brotherhood would favor one-man, one-vote, once, and the Morsi coup is an ominous sign. "The people wanted me to be the guardian of these steps in this phase," Reuters quoted Mr. Morsi as saying on Friday. "I don't like and don't want—and there is no need—to use exceptional measures. But those who are trying to gnaw the bones of the nation" must be "held accountable." Mr. Morsi says his diktat will merely...

According to reports from Egypt, the Constitutional Court is seeking to impeach new Muslim Brotherhood president Mohammed Morsi after Morsi seized quasi-dictatorial power, sparking protests around the country. Morsi waited for the Obama administration’s praise over the Israel-Hamas ceasefire to make the move. Local media reports a courts spokesperson stating, “the judges are prepared to exercise the right to shift the head of state after he flouted the laws and the constitution.” The problem is that there is no operating constitution in Egypt; the constitution was suspended in March 2011, after the revolution, and no new constitution has been approved....

Egypt's president on Thursday issued constitutional amendments that placed him above judicial oversight and ordered the retrial of Hosni Mubarak for the killing of protesters in last year's uprising. Mohammed Morsi also decreed immunity for the Islamist-dominated panel drafting a new constitution from any possible court decisions to dissolve it, a threat that had been hanging over the controversial assembly. Liberal and Christian members withdrew from the assembly during the past week to protest what they say is the hijacking of the process by Morsi's allies, who they saw are trying to push through a document that will have an...

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed to a ceasefire for halting the eight-day Israeli Gaza operation Wednesday night, Nov. 21, after President Barack Obama personally pledged to start deploying US troops in Egyptian Sinai next week, DEBKAfile reports. The conversation, which finally tipped the scales for a ceasefire, took place on a secure line Wednesday morning, just hours before it was announced in Cairo. Clinton was sympathetic to this argument. Soon after, President Obama was on the phone to Netanyahu with an assurance that US troops would be in place in Sinai next week, after he had obtained President Morsi’s...

Israel decided to refrain from a ground invasion of Gaza after it was warned that such a move could spell the end of the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan, Channel 2 reported Thursday. According to the report, Mossad Head Tamir Pardo, who went to Cairo as Israel's representative in the contacts that preceded the ceasefire, was told in messages from Cairo and from Washington that the peaceful relations between Israel, Jordan and Egypt were at risk.