Free Republic

Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) on the first day of classes Monday visited the “Reishit” school in Tel Aviv, a rapidly growing religious school in the traditionally secular city. At the school, located in southern Tel Aviv, Ben-Dahan spoke before hundreds of students. Reishit boasts some 400 students, the highest number in its history. If the students "work hard they can get to anywhere they want. Any one of you can be an IDF general, a rabbi, minister, or director of a large company," remarked Ben-Dahan at the school. "We need faith in religious and state...

Former IAF Chief Maj. Gen. (res.) David Ivry says, in a new article, that Israel needs to rethink the concepts of ‘deterrence’ and ‘decisive victory’, which are less relevant in today's assymetrical battlefields. “Limited-scale, asymmetrical conflicts have become the norm. All-out wars between states where both parties invest all of their national resources in an attempt to achieve a decisive victory have become less relevant,” writes Ivry, who is now President of Boeing Israel, in a paper for the BESA Center. “David Ben-Gurion’s conceptual trinity of ‘deterrence’, ‘early warning’ and ‘decisive victory’ is no longer fully valid,” he explains. “These...

alestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas is livid over the decision by the government earlier Sunday to assign about 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea and Samaria as state land. Most of the land involved is in the Gush Etzion region. The decision opens the possibility of further construction in the region. The decision is one of Israel's responses to the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel, and Gilad Sha'ar. The three were kidnapped in Gush Etzion and their bodies were found several weeks later in a field near Hevron. Speaking Sunday evening, Abbas spokesperson...

Seventy-five UNDOF peacekeepers in the Golan Heights fled Syrian territory for the Israeli-controlled Golan on Saturday after their positions were attacked by rebel forces. An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that a number of UN peacekeepers entered Israel. He spoke on condition of anonymity. Channel 2 said 75 UN troops had crossed the borders, after two UN positions on the Syrian side of the border were targeted by al-Nusra rebel forces. Earlier in the day, the Philippine defense chief said that Filipino peacekeepers in the Golan Heights were attacked by Syrian rebels, who are also holding dozens of Fijian troops hostage....

In late November 2012, while Matteo Renzi was making an ill-fated bid for leadership of the Italian centre-left, a young MP from his Democratic Party (PD) piped up on Twitter to remark: "OK, Renzi has quite a lot to learn about foreign policy … He won't make the pass mark, I fear #thirdgrade." When he won the PD primaries the following winter, Renzi – canny as ever – hired his sharp-tongued critic as the party's spokesperson on Europe and international affairs. Once prime minister, he ushered her into the top job at Italy's foreign office. Now, the shoe is firmly...

On Monday September 8th, 2014, at 1:15 p.m., the UN Permanent Mission of Palau, and the Engr Aja Eze Foundation are sponsoring a conference on “Global Anti-Semitism: A Threat to International Peace and Security” at the United Nations Headquarters facility in New York City. The counter-anti-Semitism conference will feature speakers who will explain how the rising tide of anti-Semitism will have a catastrophic effect on the safety and security of the world. The opening statements will be made by H.E. Dr. Caleb Otto, Amb. UN Perm. Mission of Palau, and H.E. Mr. Ron Prosser, Amb. UN Perm. Mission of Israel....

Notorious anti-Israel British MP George Galloway was hospitalized on Saturday after being assaulted in London. Galloway, who leads the far-left Respect Party, was posing for pictures in the UK capital when he was punched repeatedly by an attacker, who apparently "made reference to the Holocaust", a spokesperson told the media. The precise motive is not yet clear but police say they arrested a suspect, named as 39-year-old Neil Masterson of London, for religiously-aggravated assault, as well as common assault against a man who attempted to defend the radical MP. The suspect is due to appear at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court on...

Iranian military leaders have openly boasted that they have begun to send weapons to Palestinian Arab terrorists in Judea and Samaria and elsewhere in the region, the Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday. The report quoted a top Iranian military commander who confirmed that weapon shipments to Judea and Samaria have already begun and that more will be sent to other “Palestinian resistance groups.” “Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of Iran’s volunteer Basij force, told the state-run Fars news agency on Wednesday....

Minister of Construction and Housing, Uri Ariel of the Jewish Home, estimated Thursday that his party will not leave the government anytime soon. Regarding the differences of opinion within the Security Cabinet in the course of the war, Ariel told IDF Radio: “I do not think our criticism was illegitimate. Every minister has his opinions and his points of interest and I think that after we voiced our support for the operation, if there are opinions, they should be stated.” "There are so many things that we still have to do, that I believe we will not leave the government,”...

Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi, who is the head of the Muslim Scholars Association and who serves as spiritual mentor for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, attacked the Islamic Caliphate State established by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in large parts of Syria and Iraq. In an interview with a Turkish news agency, Qaradawi said that the caliphate is meaningless as it does not meet the requirements as dictated by Islam. It should be noted that Sheikh Qaradawi supports Hamas, operates a jihad against Israel, and in the past has made rulings permitting suicide bombings ...

A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official last Friday opposed his organization's aspirations to sue Israel for "war crimes" at the International Criminal Court (ICC). His reason - such a move might prevent Arabs under PA jurisdiction from "shooting Israelis." The official, Abbas Zaki, is a leader in PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. His comments came in an interview on the Lebanese Palestine Today TV, which was translated by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). "I'm against signing the Rome Statute (i.e., joining the ICC) as long as our country is occupied. If tomorrow you shoot, they'll say you signed an agreement,"...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday night attempted to respond to the outpouring of criticism for his unilateral decision the night before, in which he sealed a ceasefire deal with the terrorist group Hamas. "With the establishment of the ceasefire I can say that this is a great military and diplomatic achievement," claimed Netanyahu, accompanied by Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. Netanyahu stated "Hamas has been hit critically and didn't receive any of the demands it set." Palestinian Authority (PA) officials revealed that in the deal Gaza received an immediate ease of the blockade...

Middle East Quartet Envoy, Tony Blair, applauded the ceasefire in Gaza and called to focus on a long-term plan to restore the region, which would include opening the Strip to the world, under the control of the Palestinian Authority. “Such a plan can allow Gaza residents to lead better lives, and Israeli citizens to live in safety and security,...

Israel is claiming victory in the 50-day war with Hamas, which temporarily ended in a ceasefire that went into force Tuesday. "We were victorious in the negotiation phase,” said Liran Dan, Head of the National Information Directorate in the Prime Minister's Office, in an interview with IDF Radio Wednesday. “The military blow that the IDF dealt Hamas – the hardest it has experienced since it was founded – was heavy and meaningful. What we saw is that in a prolonged and well executed campaign, Hamas suffered a harsh military blow and damage to the most heavily constructed arrays it built.”...

In welcoming the long-term ceasefire in Gaza, United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced hope on Tuesday that it will set the stage for talks on a final Israeli-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace deal. "The secretary-general remains hopeful that the extended ceasefire will act as a prelude to a political process as the only way of achieving durable peace," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said, according to AFP. Ban warned that "a brighter future for Gaza and for Israel depends on a sustainable ceasefire" and that "any violations of the ceasefire would be utterly irresponsible." .....

The first night of the ceasefire was peacefully quiet: no violations were reported on the part of either side. .....

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israel and Hamas agreed Tuesday to an open-ended cease-fire, halting a seven-week war that killed more than 2,200 people, the vast majority Palestinians, left tens of thousands in Gaza homeless and devastated entire neighborhoods in the blockaded territory. Hamas declared victory and bursts of celebratory gunfire erupted across Gaza, but the terms of the deal fell far short of Hamas' demand that Israel and Egypt open Gaza's borders. Under the Egyptian-brokered deal, Israel is to ease imports into Gaza, including aid and material for reconstruction. It also allows Palestinians to fish six nautical miles...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lly2AfFW8kw

Terrorist factions in Gaza are apparently split once again over the possibility of accepting an Egyptian ceasefire proposal, with Hamas stubbornly refusing to accept it and at least two Islamic Jihad leaders claiming a truce will come into effect imminently. Islamic Jihad official Khaled al-Battash told interviewers a ceasefire would be coming into effect "within hours", along the same basis as the ceasefire following Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, as outlined by an Egyptian proposal. The truce deal would include provisions for the rehabilitation of Gaza after a month and a half of fierce fighting, as well as an...

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is continuing his quest to unilaterally achieve a Palestinian state. Aides to Abbas on Sunday told The Associated Press (AP) that he will soon appeal to the international community to set a deadline for Israel to withdraw back to the pre-1967 borders and make way for an independent Palestinian state. Abbas is expected to unveil his proposal as part of a "day after" plan following the current war in Gaza, likely at a meeting of the Palestinian leadership on Tuesday, said the aides, who spoke on condition of anonymity. With no end in sight...