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U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visits southern Israel, Gaza Strip • Ban: The build-destroy, build-destroy cycle in Gaza must be broken • Ban tours terror tunnel near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, calls threats posed by rockets and tunnels "not acceptable." The U.N. Human Rights Council's investigation of Operation Protective Edge will go ahead as planned, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two met in Jerusalem earlier this week. Israel tried to convince Ban that an internal Israeli probe of the recent Gaza operation would be sufficient, but Ban made clear he would await the results of the...

Revealed: U.S. Cut Off Arms Supply to Israel During Gaza WarPosted By P. David Hornik On October 22, 2014 @ 12:50 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 11 Comments Last August 14 the Wall Street Journal reported that, in July, after Israel had launched Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Washington had surprised Israel by turning down an Israeli request for “a large number of Hellfire missiles.” Hellfires are an important air-to-surface precision weapon, suited to the kind of warfare Israel was waging against Hamas and other terror groups in Gaza.But as Amir Rapaport, a veteran Israeli military-affairs writer and editor...

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, launched a scathing attack on a United Nations organization from the podium of the UN itself when he denounced its Human Rights Council as a “terrorist rights council”. […] In a controversial address to the General Assembly, he contended that the council’s treatment of Israel was “biased” and rooted in a global upsurge in anti-Semitism. Mr. Netanyahu argued that it was Hamas, the faction that controls the Gaza Strip, that should be investigated for war crimes as it used civilians as human shields and fired missiles at Israel from batteries planted by mosques and...

NEW YORK (AP) — Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel on Friday of conducting a "war of genocide" and a "series of absolute war crimes" during the 50-day summer conflict in Gaza, but stopped short of saying he will pursue war crime charges against the Jewish state at the International Criminal Court...

Elder of Ziyon just published a fascinating update on the widely reported story from late July, in which Gaza’s only power plant was allegedly completely “destroyed” by an Israeli missile strike. Here’s how the Guardian covered the incident in a July 30th report by Harriet Sherwood.The report, quite naturally, didn’t mention that Israel not only denied attacking the power plant, but explained that they didn’t bomb anything in the vicinity of the power plant that day. Here are the relevant paragraphs from Sherwood’s report: Flames and clouds of black smoke billowed over Gaza‘s only power plant on after it was...

GAZA CITY, Gaza—More than a month after The Daily Beast reported evidence suggesting Israeli soldiers carried out the summary execution of six men amid fierce combat in late July, there are no signs that the Israeli government is investigating the matter. It has declined to respond to repeated inquiries. The independent organizations Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which the Israeli authorities have barred from Gaza, are unable to follow up in detail. And a United Nations investigation of abuses on both sides is barely under way.The Daily Beast has continued its own investigation, however. And the picture that’s emerging...

Analysis: Military sources say Pentagon's assessment of Shujaiya shelling alarmed even Secretary of State John Kerry August 27, 2014 4:00AM ET by Mark Perry @markperrydc The cease-fire announced Tuesday between Israel and Palestinian factions — if it holds — will end seven weeks of fighting that killed more than 2,200 Gazans and some 69 Israelis. But as the rival camps seek to put their spin on the outcome, one assessment of Israel’s Gaza operation that won’t be publicized is that of the U.S. military. Still, even though the Pentagon shies away from publicly expressing judgments that might fall afoul of...

As a 72-hour ceasefire takes hold in Israel, New York Times Gaza-based reporters remain locked in a peculiar moral equivalency between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas bent on the nation's destruction, with reporters taking pains on social media and television to stick up for Hamas, dismissing the idea of Hamas harassment of journalists as "nonsense," and even criticizing Hillary Clinton for taking on the group.. Reporter Anne Barnard appeared on Sunday's edition of CNN's Reliable Sources, hosted by former Times colleague Brian Stelter. When Stelter asked Barnard about the "biggest misconceptions" in the coverage offered by naysayers "thousands of...

U.S.-Israeli relations sink to new low. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a “particularly combative” phone call Wednesday over efforts to secure a lasting peace in Gaza, a sign that relations between the two countries have fallen to a new low, according to a Wall Street Journal report from Jerusalem. White House officials are said to think Netanyahu and his national-security team are both reckless and untrustworthy. The U.S. administration was caught off guard when it learned the Israeli military had been quietly securing tank rounds from the Pentagon during the Gaza conflict.

Fox News has obtained a copy of an internal report by a United Nations audit committee that reveals how Hamas diverted internationally supplied moneys and concrete for the construction of terror tunnels and the purchase of weapons. And guess who is right in the thick of things.... UNRWA. While controversy continues to swirl around the huge Hamas tunnel network in Gaza, an internal United Nations audit report reveals that a U.N. Development Program office that funds and monitors spending on construction in the territory allowed at least five non-staff contract employees to handle “core” procurement  processes that only staffers...

As Israeli operations against Hamas wind down, here are seven insights into the month-long conflict: Missile shield: The superb performance of Iron Dome, the protective system that shot down nearly every Hamas rocket threatening life or property, has major military implications for Israel and the world. Its success signals that “Star Wars” (as opponents maliciously dubbed it upon introduction in 1983) can indeed provide protection from short-range and also presumably from long-range rockets and missiles, potentially changing the future of warfare. Tunnels: Tunneling behind enemy lines is hardly a new tactic; historically, it has had success, such as the 1917...

On the heels of reports that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) promised funds to Hamas in order to procure the current 72-hour ceasefire, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal openly pledged $500 million to "rebuild" Gaza. Speaking at an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, al-Faisal accused Israel of trying "to wipe off Palestinian existence," and blamed the world for supporting "Israel's savagery against the people of Gaza." Calling for Arab unity at a time when internecine bloodbaths are raging throughout the Middle East, al-Faisal urged the Arab nations to stand together on...

Ziad Abu Halool says he is tired of seeing his neighborhood destroyed. He’s tired of having no running water for 10 days, no electricity for even longer. He’s tired of watching Hamas and other Palestinian militants fire rockets into Israel from his neighborhood — and tired of praying that Israeli retaliation won’t obliterate his house. So, after more than a month of war and devastation, Abu Halool speaks words that once seemed unthinkable: He says that although he despises Israel, he also blames Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups for his woes. They have “committed many mistakes,” said Abu Halool,...

According to Sky News, over 400,000 people downloaded Buycott, which makes it easier for shoppers to shun Israeli goods. The popularity of a new smartphone app that allows consumers to more effectively boycott products according to their political tastes has skyrocketed thanks to the international outrage sparked by the conflict in the Gaza Strip. According to Sky News, over 400,000 people downloaded Buycott, the app that gives users the option of making sure that the wares they purchase in stores do not financially benefit a cause to which they are opposed. Shoppers simply activate the app by waving it in...

The attack was meant to generate as many as ten thousand casualties, men, women and particularly children and hundreds of captives. Explosives were particularly placed underneath kindergartens to make certain that these “institutions” would be the first struck, even before any thing else. The known cost of the infrastructure – each tunnel costs upward of some $1 million – clearly shows that Hamas was planning a coordinated mega-attack. It must be understood that use of even one tunnel would inevitably trigger Israeli retaliation against the entire network

Israel Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lashed out Wednesday at the UN Human Rights Council, accusing it of granting "legitimacy to terror organizations" by investigating Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza. "UNHRC gives legitimacy to murderous terror organizations like Hamas and Daash (Islamic State)," he said, accusing the rights body of overlooking "massacres" committed elsewhere in the Middle East in favor of investigating Israel for defending itself against rocket attacks from Gaza. The UNHRC has selected Prof. William Schabas to head an investigation into Operation Protective Edge. Speaking in a 2013 panel, Schabas clearly revealed his great eagerness to bring...

Speaking in a 2013 panel, Prof. William Schabas, who has been tapped to head the United Nations' investigation into Operation Protective Edge, clearly revealed his great eagerness to bring about the prosecution of Israel over its actions in Gaza, even if that involved “twisting things and maneuvering” in the international legal arena. He said that it is his “profound belief, that international law can be used to demonstrate and underscore the violations committed by the state of Israel, and moreover can be used to hold accountable individuals who have perpetrated international crimes against the people of Palestine.” Asked about various...

Germany, France and Britain have proposed reactivating a European Union mission on the Egypt-Gaza border to help stabilize the Palestinian enclave after a month-long war, a German diplomatic source said on Wednesday. […] Egypt, which was not involved in the negotiation of the 2005 agreement, has repeatedly shut the Rafah border over the past year, significantly increasing pressure on Gazans, who already face a rigid land and sea blockade imposed by Israel. […] Egypt wants any discussion over Rafah to take place bilaterally with the Palestinian Authority, rather than as part of any deal between the Palestinians and Israel to...

Criticism of the government’s handling of the Gaza war is reaching fever pitch. No one seems to understand what direction Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pulling them in vis-a-vis Hamas. And everyone is getting the feeling that the terrorists increasingly determine the flow of life in Israel. Hundreds of families from the villages in the vicinity of Gaza protested what they said is the government’s failure to provide security in Israel’s southern regions. The sentiment, which is shared by Israelis across the country, is that the army pulled out of Gaza too early. A number of cabinet ministers agree. Foreign...

If body-counts and destroyed weaponry are the main criteria for victory, Israel is the clear winner in the latest confrontation with Hamas. There’s no doubt that Israel could conquer the entire Gaza Strip and completely wipe out Hamas’s military apparatus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has chosen not to do so and now enjoys his highest approval ratings ever. But counting bodies is not the most important criterion in deciding who should be declared the victor. Much more important is comparing each side’s goals before the fighting and what they have achieved. Seen in this light, Hamas won.