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Israel Says Ground Troops Out of Gaza as Cease-Fire Takes Effect

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Fox News.

The Israeli military has said that all of its ground forces have been removed from Gaza as a 72-hour cease-fire went into effect Tuesday.

The truce, agreed upon Monday by Israel and Hamas, took effect at 8 a.m. local time Tuesday (1 a.m. Eastern Time). The Times of Israel reported that a barrage of rockets were fired from Gaza minutes before the cease-fire was due to take effect. The paper also reported that Israeli’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two rockets over central Israel, while two other rockets fell into open areas in southern Israel near the Gaza border, causing no damage or injuries.

There were also signs of tensions created by the Gaza fighting spreading to Jerusalem and the West Bank, including two attacks police say were carried out by Palestinian militants.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the withdrawal would go forward after forces completed the destruction of the last of the 32 known tunnels used by Hamas militants to cross between Gaza and Israel to carry out attacks on soldiers and civilians.

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Why Jon Voight is speaking out on Gaza and Hollywood activism

By Max Schindler.

Hollywood celebrities on both sides of the political aisle are alternately supporting – and condemning – Israel’s month-long military operation in the Gaza Strip as the death toll climbs to more than 1,700 Palestinian and 67 Israeli casualties.

Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight is the latest to jump into the verbal fray. But the Middle East conflict has already heard from movie actors, radio jockeys, musicians and music producers. If there were a scorecard, it would be tilted toward public sympathy with the Palestinians.

Last week, Spanish actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem, along with Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, denounced Israel’s aerial campaign in an open letter to a Spanish newspaper, calling for the European Union “to condemn the bombing by land, sea and air against the Palestinian civilian population in the Gaza Strip,” adding:

“Gaza is living through horror these days, besieged and attacked by land, sea and air. Palestinians’ homes are being destroyed, they are being denied water, electricity [and] free movement to their hospitals, schools and fields while the international community does nothing.”

Their letter was “one of the most strident messages from any global cultural figure regarding the current conflict,” reported The Guardian, and their comments provoked a fierce backlash from a number of other celebrities.

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Georgia and Israel Join Forces to Defeat Shared Threats

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Photo Credit: Ilia Yefimovich / Getty

Photo Credit: Ilia Yefimovich / Getty

By Christopher Collins.

In a release sent to the news media on Sunday by the Deal for Governor Communications office, the state of Georgia, which buys millions in Israeli bonds annually, is currently engaged in cooperation with Israel on the front lines from anti-terrorism and cyber-security to trade and investment policy.

The write-up by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton also appeared in the Washington Times said that as the U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship deteriorates at the national level, our states, local institutions and businesses are actually forging ever-closer relations with key Israeli institutions.

Relations between President Obama and his administration and the government of Israel has reached an all-time low to the point where Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told President Obama and his administration to back off and to stop second-guessing him on how he is dealing with Hamas.

Part of the fostering anger stems from Secretary of State, John Kerry’s proposal in calling for negotiations on Hamas demands, including opening border crossings into Gaza and relaxed boating restrictions off the Gaza coast. In addition, its language reportedly upgraded Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, to an equal plane with Israel, something that is annoying Netanyahu.

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Israel Strikes Gaza as Troops Start Redeploying

By Associated Press.

Israel struck several targets in Gaza on Sunday as ground troops began a gradual redeployment in some locations along the border area, a day after the government signaled it would scale back its 27-day-old offensive.

Israel had earlier said that a soldier it had feared captured by Hamas militants was instead killed alongside two other soldiers Friday near the southern town of Rafah in an ambush that shattered a cease-fire and ignited heavy shelling, leaving dozens of Palestinians dead.

On Sunday artillery shells slammed into two high-rise office buildings in downtown Gaza City and large explosions could be heard seconds apart, police and witnesses said. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said 30 Palestinians were killed Sunday, including nine in a single strike in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel said it carried out 180 strikes Sunday.

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Israel: Soldier Reported Captured was 'Killed in Battle'

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The soldier that Israel claimed Hamas militants captured Friday, as a temporary cease-fire to the conflict in Gaza rapidly unraveled, is dead, Israel’s military said.

“Lieutenant Hadar Goldin … was killed in battle in the Gaza Strip on Friday, August 1,” the Israel Defense Forces announced early Sunday.

It’s not clear whether Goldin, 23, was captured as the IDF had previously said, or whether he died alongside two other soldiers in an armed clash in Gaza. Military spokesman Peter Lerner said Goldin was promoted to lieutenant posthumously.

Speculation about his fate was already up in the air after the armed wing of Hamas, the al Qassam Brigades, announced it had lost contact with a group of its fighters in the Rafah area — the same area where Goldin was reportedly taken.

In a statement posted on its website, the militant group says it assumes all the fighters died in an Israeli airstrike, including possibly an Israeli soldier. The group — which denied having info on Goldin — stopped short of saying the soldier was captured, using the phrasing “assuming he was captured by the fighters.”

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72-Hour Truce in Gaza Ended in Less Than 2 Hours

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It was the start of a three-day truce, the best hope yet to end a 25-day-old war that has taken an enormous toll on both Palestinians and Israelis.

On Friday morning, Israeli troops were in the southern Gaza Strip preparing to destroy a Hamas tunnel, said Israeli military officials. Suddenly, Palestinian militants emerged from a shaft. They included a suicide bomber, who detonated his explosive device. In the chaos, two Israeli soldiers were killed. The militants grabbed 2nd Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, and pushed him back through the tunnel, according to the Israeli account.

Within minutes, the war was back.

“The cease-fire is over,” declared Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a senior spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces. Ground operations will continue, he said, “and our aircraft are in the sky as we speak.”

By Friday afternoon, Israel was heavily shelling areas near the border city of Rafah, where the soldier’s capture occurred. Hamas officials were disputing the timeline of the clashes, accusing Israel of breaking the cease-fire. And the United States and the United Nations, the architects of the truce, were condemning the killing of the two soldiers and Goldin’s abduction while seeking ways to save the peace talks scheduled to take place in Cairo over the weekend.

Photo Credit: Washington Post

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Anti-Jewish Slogans Return to the Streets in Germany as Mideast Protests Sweep Europe

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Photo Credit: Fabian Bromann / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Fabian Bromann / Creative Commons

Before the start of a pro-Palestinian rally — one of the scores being staged almost daily here since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza — an organizer on a bullhorn yelled out the do’s and don’ts as ordered last week by the Berlin police.

No burning the Israeli flag. No shouts of “Death to Israel.” And absolutely no repeating the slogan “Jew, Jew, cowardly pig, come out and fight alone” — a rhyming chant in German that had become increasingly common at pro-Palestinian rallies here before being nipped in the bud by German authorities.

Some demonstrators may have said such things, conceded Leila El Abtah, a 29-year-old protester who is the daughter of a Palestinian father and a German mother. But, she insisted, even thoughtful criticism against Israel is being misinterpreted here as hate speech. “There are more of us speaking out about Israel now,” she said. “Because of what happened during Hitler’s day, it is making Germans nervous.”

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Israeli Official To Obama: ‘Leave Us Alone’

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Photo Credit: MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty

Photo Credit: MANDEL NGAN / AFP / Getty

By CBS News/CBSDC/AP.

A top Israeli official wants President Barack Obama to stop meddling with the Jewish state during its conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

Speaking to Israel’s Army Radio, Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel criticized Obama telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there should be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

“Leave us alone,” Ariel told Army Radio, directing his words at Obama. “Go focus on Syria.”

Obama spoke with Netanyahu Sunday about the rising number of Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the worsening humanitarian crisis.

“Building on Secretary Kerry’s efforts, the President made clear the strategic imperative of instituting an immediate, unconditional humanitarian ceasefire that ends hostilities now and leads to a permanent cessation of hostilities based on the November 2012 ceasefire agreement,” the White House said in a statement, adding that the president reiterated that Israel has a right to defend itself from rocket attacks from Hamas.

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Molly Riley

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Molly Riley

Joan Rivers Slams Media On Israel-Gaza Coverage: Hamas Winning War ‘Because Of The PR’

By Jamie Weinstein.

Comedian Joan Rivers isn’t backing down from her outspoken support for Israel in its conflict against the terrorist group Hamas.

“Here we go again: If New Jersey was lobbing rockets over into New York, there would be no Newark,” Rivers said during an interview on Howard Stern’s radio show Monday, before quipping about the destruction of Newark: “Which is not such a terrible thing.”

Rivers says the media are handing Hamas a victory that the terrorist group isn’t earning on the battlefield.

“You know whose won this war? Hamas, because of the PR,” she said.

Asked by Stern why more celebrities are not speaking out in favor of Israel’s cause, Rivers lamented: “Because there is anti-Semitism all over the world and it breaks my heart.”

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You’ll Have to Pinch Yourself After Hearing What Harry Reid Has to Say About America and Israel

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Senator Harry Reid took to the Senate floor on Monday to call on Congress to approve aid to Israel. In so doing, he took a step away from fellow Democrats and liberals, who continue to portray the State of Israel as the aggressor.

via Washington Free Beacon:

“Mr. President, our great country has many friends in the world…but certainly our deepest attachment is what we have with Israel…

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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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In Israel’s Desperate Hour, Obama Leads from Behind

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

“We have your back,” President Obama told Israelis when he visited that embattled country recently. Way back, apparently. Mr. Obama’s administration famously claimed to “lead from behind” in overthrowing Libya’s strongman, Khaddafi. Young Sergeant Benjamin Anthony spoke to the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Washington Summit this week. Sgt. Anthony described a different vision of leadership. Ahalai he gave as the Hebrew word for “after me.” Officers in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) they should lead from the front. That used to be America’s idea of leadership, too.

You cannot say Secretary John Kerry isn’t alert to his opportunities. He sees another chance to be a peacemaker. He is rushing to the Mideast to broker a cease-fire. Sgt. Anthony says Israel needs a victory over HAMAS terrorists who have been hiding rockets in schools and hospitals.

Kerry wants Israelis to stop trying to root out those who have sent more than 9,000 rockets into Israel. Canada’s National Post recently reported that the UNWRA—the world body’s refugee agency—closed down a school it was operating in Gaza after a cache of HAMAS rockets was discovered next door. The UN bureaucrats did what they usually do: they turned the rockets over to “local authorities.” In Gaza, that means they gave the rockets back to HAMAS. The cartoonist wasn’t kidding when he said HAMAS means “hiding among mosques and schools.”

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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.

Read more from this story HERE.