US Accuses Russia of Violating 1987 Missile Treaty

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U.S. President Barack Obama (R) and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin talk before the first session of the G20 Summit in Los CabosThe Obama administration has accused Russia of violating a 1987 nuclear missile treaty by testing a ground-launched cruise missile and says the U.S. is prepared for immediate high-level dialogue with Moscow over the matter.

An administration official told Fox News in a statement that the violation “is a very serious matter which we have attempted to address with Russia for some time now.” The New York Times first reported the accusation.

President Obama informed Russian President Vladimir Putin in a letter Monday of the U.S.’ determination that Russia broke the agreement. The official said the U.S. is prepared to engage in “senior-level bilateral dialogue immediately” with Russia with the goal of assuring Washington that Moscow will return to compliance with the treaty.

“The United States is committed to the viability of the I.N.F. Treaty,” the official said. “We encourage Russia to return to compliance with its obligations under the Treaty and to eliminate any prohibited items in a verifiable manner.”

According to the Times, Russia started testing the missiles as early as 2008, and the Obama administration flagged them as a possible violation at the end of 2011.

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'We are Looking at the Beginnings of a Holocaust'

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Photo Credit: YOEL BALINKO / ISRAELI-JEWISH CONGRESS

Photo Credit: YOEL BALINKO / ISRAELI-JEWISH CONGRESS

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 Affairs 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 degenerated into violence and many of which have featured racist rhetoric. “We are potentially looking at the beginning of another Holocaust now.

These events will only grow in scale across Europe.”

Addressing legislators and representatives from a number of European governments, including those of Denmark, Holland and France, the oligarch and former head of the Russian Jewish Congress called for Jewish communities across the continent to “unite and consolidate.”

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Synagogue Vandalized In NE Miami-Dade

By Maggie Newland.

For the second time in just a few days messages of hate targeted members of South Florida’s Jewish community.

Early Monday morning, spray painted swastikas and the word “Hamas” were discovered on the pillars of the Congregation Torah Ve’emunah, at 1000 NE 175th Street, in northeast Miami-Dade.

“This is absolutely a desecration of something holy. It’s a disgusting thing to see,” said Michael Katz who worships at the synagogue.

A member of the community watch discovered the vandalism around 1 a.m.

“As I was rolling by I noticed some coloring on the wall,” said Yona Lunger. “I back up again, looked again and I said ‘Wow, it’s a swastika’…It’s very disturbing, very disturbing.”

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Netanyahu: Be Ready for 'Prolonged' Gaza War

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benjamin-netanyahu-speech__13223894__mbqftemplateidrenderscaledpropertybildwidth465Signaling 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 a 70-year-old woman, and wounding 50 in the town of Jebaliya, which was among the areas warned to evacuate, the Red Crescent said.

Many Jebaliya residents said they did not dare attempt an escape. Sufian Abed Rabbo said his extended family of 17 had taken refuge under the stairway in their home.

“God help us. We have nothing to do but pray,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press by phone. “I don’t know who left and who stayed, but in our street, we are all very scared to move.”

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Iraq Crisis: End 'Very Near' for Christianity after Isis Takeover, Says Bishop

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Ahmad Mousa

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Ahmad Mousa

The vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq has warned the end for Christians in the country appears “very near” as he appealed for help after a deadline set by Islamic militants to convert or be killed expired.

Canon Andrew White, dubbed “the bishop of Baghdad” for his work at St George’s church in the capital, spoke after the ultimatum handed to Christians in the northern city of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq Levant (Isis) to convert, pay a tax or be put to death passed last week.

For those Christians who did not comply with the decree by 19 July, Isis warned that “there is nothing to give them but the sword.” Many have since fled their homes and Rev. Andrew-White told BBC Radio 4 Today desperate Christians were trapped in the desert or on the streets with nowhere to go.

“Things are so desperate, our people are disappearing,” he said. “We have had people massacred, their heads chopped off.

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Isis Militants Blow Up Jonah's Tomb

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Photo Credit: Uncredited / AP

Photo Credit: Uncredited / AP

Islamic State (Isis) militants have blown up a revered Muslim shrine traditionally said to be the burial place of the prophet Jonah in Mosul, residents of the city said.

Residents said on Thursday that the militants first ordered everyone out of the Mosque of the Prophet Younis, or Jonah, then blew it up.

The mosque was built on an archaeological site dating back to the eighth century BC and is said to be the burial place of the prophet, who in stories from both the Bible and Qur’an is swallowed by a whale.

It was renovated in the 1990s under Iraq’s late dictator Saddam Hussein and until the recent blitz by Isis that engulfed Mosul, remained a popular destination for religious pilgrims from around the world.

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Facebook Page Publishing Identities of French Jews to Encourage Attackers; 15 Men Assault a Jew in Paris Suburb After Confirming Photo

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Photo Credit: Screenshot / Facebook

Photo Credit: Screenshot / Facebook

A violent mob of more than a dozen men in France assaulted a Jew at his home in a Paris suburb after confirming that his photograph had been published by a French Facebook page identifying Jews to be targeted for physical intimidation, The Union of Jewish Students of France, the UEJF, said in a statement on Friday.

The Facebook page, ‘Jeunes Révolutionnaires Français’, JRF, or ‘Young French Revolutionaries’, posted the names and photos of 32 Jews. The assault on one of those listed took place on Thursday night in Bobigny, Seine-Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb. The assailants were armed with iron bars.

On the ‘Secret Tel Aviv’ Facebook page, Daniel Cohen called the group anti-Semitic, and exhorted Facebook users to report the JRF page to site administrators for removal.

On Facebook, Cohen wrote, “An anti-Semitic page is publishing names and pictures of French Jews in order to target them physically! A few have already been attacked at their homes, one last night by 15 people on one Jewish guy. We need to remove this page!”

The JRF captioned its page with the photos of the Jews to be targeted, “Smile, you’re caught! JRF watches! # AntiLDJ,” referring to the LDJ, the French initials of the Jewish Defense League, an organization created to teach Jews how to defend themselves from anti-Semitic attacks.

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Finally Free: Persecuted Sudanese Christian Meriam Ibrahim Welcomed to Safety in Italy by the Pope

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Meriam Ibrahim, the Sudanese Christian who faced death for not renouncing her faith within Sudan, is finally free. After a failed attempt to leave the country a month ago, the Italian government stepped in and used its historic ties with the region to organize her safe passage out of Sudan.

Yesterday, Ibrahim, her husband, and two children were flown to Italy on an Italian government jet. On the journey back to Italy, Italian politician Lapo Pistelli posted the picture below on his Facebook page.

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US Official: ISIL Is 'No Longer a Terrorist Organization–It's a Full-Blown Army'

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

By now, we all know how wrong President Obama was when he repeatedly said on the campaign trail in 2012 that al Qaeda is on the path to defeat. Indeed, it seems like we’ve got a much bigger problem on our hands. According to top U.S. officials, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is “worse than al Qaeda.”

Via The Hill (emphasis mine):

“It is al Qaeda in its doctrine, ambition and increasingly, in its threat to U.S. interests,” Brett McGurk, deputy assistant secretary of state, told lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. “In fact, it is worse than al Qaeda.”

McGurk said the group, which splintered off from its parent, al Qaeda in Iraq, had strengthened its capabilities and was “no longer a terrorist organization. It is a full-blown army.”

Elissa Slotkin, acting principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for policy, added that the group has threatened: “We’re coming for you, Barack Obama.”

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Iran Calls on Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas to ‘Ink Defense Pact’ Against Israel

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Photo Credit: YouTube / Screenshot

Photo Credit: YouTube / Screenshot

By Joshua Levitt.

Iran’s semi-official state news agency Fars on Tuesday cited Commander of Iran’s Basij Force, Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, as calling on the “resistance groups in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon to sign a defense treaty to help and support each other” against Israel.

“We ask the resistance forces in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon to endorse a defense pact so that an attack on any of them will be an attack on all of them and if the Zionist regime makes an aggression against any of them, all of them will grow united to confront it,” Naqdi said in Tehran on Monday night.

Fars’s brazen headline, ‘Iran Urges Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese Resistance Groups to Ink Defense Pact,’ was further confirmation of accusations made by U.S. Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that Tehran’s foreign policy is “subversive, sectarian, and set on goals that would come at the expense of U.S. interests in the region.”

Pundits have long accused Iran of working through its proxies in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza, but Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza has brought what had been said in private out into the open, with Iranian leaders proudly announcing that they have been supplying Hamas with missiles and drones, even as Iranian diplomats try to convince the world they are peaceful nation deserving of a nuclear program.

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Photo Credit: twitter / Benjamin Netanyahu

Photo Credit: twitter / Benjamin Netanyahu

Watch: Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Just Issued A Powerful Warning About Terrorism To The World

By Justin Koski.

On Tuesday, a U.N. delegation led by secretary General Ban Ki-moon met with Israel’s leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

At the visit, Netanyahu showed the Secretary evidence of the Hamas rockets that have been raining down from Gaza for the past few weeks.

The Prime Minister also showed detailed photos of the locations in Gaza where Hamas had dug tunnels inside a kindergarten and near a school.

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Kerry, Aides Undergo Metal Detector Screening Before Meeting With Egyptian President

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Photo Credit: ABBAS MOMANI / AFP / Getty

Photo Credit: ABBAS MOMANI / AFP / Getty

Secretary of State John Kerry defied a Federal Aviation Administration ban and flew into Israel’s main airport Wednesday in a sign of sheer will to achieve a cease-fire agreement in the warring Gaza Strip despite little evidence of progress in ongoing negotiations aimed at halting fighting that’s left at least 31 Israelis and 650 Palestinians dead.

Kerry’s arrival in Israel came as Israeli troops battled Hamas militants near a southern Gaza Strip town as dozens of Palestinian families trapped by the fighting scrambled to flee the area.

It also came as Israel closed the border crossing into Gaza at Erez “until further notice,” citing the heavy fighting.

Kerry planned to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during what appeared to be a crucial day in the flailing talks.

Kerry reported some progress, reports the Reuters news agency, which quotes him as saying soon after he got to Jerusalem for a meeting with Ban,”We have certainly made some steps forward. There is still work to be done.”

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