(J-Post)The 72-hour cease-fire which began Tuesday morning at 8 a.m. appeared to be holding Tuesday afternoon prompting Israel to send a negotiating team to Cairo for indirect talks with Palestinians factions aimed at reaching a long-term truce.
Israel had previously said that it would wait to see if Hamas honored the cease-fire before dispatching a delegation to take part in the talks that it had thus far avoided.
“The delegates left under an hour ago. I assume they’ve already arrived in Egypt,” an Israeli official told Reuters on Tuesday afternoon.
A flurry of rockets was fired at the South, the Shfela region and areas outside of Jerusalem in the West Bank just prior to the onset of the cease-fire. One rocket hit a house near the Palestinian West Bank town of Bethlehem, police said and residents said. (more…)

While western leaders hem, haw, send out strongly worded letters and hold UN sanctioned press conferences to espouse their pontifications about a Hamas/Israeli ceasefire,  Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi quietly goes about the business of deconstructing an entire terror network. 
From Paris to New York leaders are lining up to take credit for a cease fire, but the reality is it’s el-Sisi’s coordinated support for Netanyahu that’s breaking the back of Hamas.  Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait and even moderates in Libya all recognize the strategic and methodical approach of the Egyptian leader.    You won’t find these reports in the Western Media.  Well done Team Egypt ! 
EGYPT – The Egyptian army announced on Monday that its military had destroyed three tunnels on the border with the Gaza Strip, killing eleven fighters in the process.
“Army troops raided terrorists’ hideouts in Northern Sinai, killing 11 terrorists in the ensuing clashes,” spokesman Mohamed Samir wrote on his official Facebook page.
He said the army destroyed three vehicles and eight motorbikes used by the militants.
“Three tunnels on the border with the Gaza Strip have also been destroyed,” added the army spokesman. (more…)

After Hamas previously refused the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire, Egypt’s President el-Sisi gave the PA some much needed straight talk; telling both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority they needed to (“both”) come to consensus *before* Cairo could/would mediate any agreement with Israel.   The approach worked:

[*we would be remiss if we did not note that el-Sisi will not be attending the African Summit in DC]

EGYPT – A Palestinian delegation including Hamas agreed joint demands Sunday to present to Egyptian mediators in Cairo for a truce with Israel, including an end to the Gaza blockade, officials said.
The delegation, which includes members of president Mahmud Abbas’s Palestinian Authority and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, will meet the Egyptian mediators later on Sunday.
Cairo will then relay the demands to Israel, which baulked at sending negotiators after accusing Hamas of breaching a 72-hour truce moments after it began on Friday.
The Palestinians, who met earlier on Sunday to hammer out a joint position, agreed on “a ceasefire; Israeli troop withdrawal from Gaza; the end of the siege of Gaza and opening its border crossings,” said Maher al-Taher, a member of the delegation.
The Palestinian demands also include fishing rights up to 12 nautical miles off Gaza’s coast and the release of Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas and Abbas, said Taher, a senior official with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
A Hamas official confirmed the agreement, saying: “These are the main points, but they must be discussed with the Egyptians. We hope things go smoothly.” (more…)

This is really a great example of how sunlight on truth can become antithetical when the media who find it have an opposing agenda.

(Via The Blaze)  A correspondent covering the Gaza conflict for a Finnish media outlet reported seeing a rocket being launched from Gaza City’s main hospital, Shifa, but later lashed out at the pro-Israel media for its “disgusting” use of her report as a “propaganda weapon.”
The report filed by Aishi Zidan of Finland’s Helsingin Sanomat noted that the rocket was fired from the backyard of the hospital. Israel has widely derided Hamas for what it calls a human shields policy, hiding its military assets and firing from behind civilian sites including mosques, schools and hospitals.

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Close your eyes as you listen to the end of this video.

If the crowd chanting “all hail Hitler, all hail Hitler” were not Arabs, but instead white male skinheads, what do you think the political left would be saying about the group?
How would the Southern Poverty Law Center be describing the group?   What would the police be doing with the group?   How would the liberal media be describing the protest ?
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Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Egypt’s Khalil el-Sisi just need to be left alone and they will ultimately deal with Hamas and The Muslim Brotherhood.   The U.S. and EU just need to butt out.  [And we are genuinely serious when we say that.]   Just let those two guys handle the radical islamists…. 

ISRAEL – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t mince words in a phone call with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Friday.
Netanyahu reportedly warned Shapiro that President Barack Obama and his administration was “not to ever second-guess me again,” according to sources that spoke on condition of anonymity with The Associated Press.
The phone call came hours after a proposed cease-fire in Gaza quickly crumbled, with one Israeli soldier taken hostage and two more killed during an attack. While the Obama administration did not blame the abduction on Hamas, officials did say they hold the group responsible for events occurring in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu told Shapiro he “expected” the U.S., along with the U.N. and other international groups, to help him moving forward with a “strong and swift response,” because he knows best how to handle Hamas.  (read more)
Netanyahu speaks to Israel –  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Saturday to use as much military power as need and fight “as long as it will take” against terror group Hamas to restore peace in his country.
In a TV speech in Jerusalem that appeared in part directed at Israelis beleaguered by the fighting’s destruction and death toll, Netanyahu gave no indication of moving toward a cease-fire with Hamas, the Islamic militant group. (more…)

 

WASHINGTON –  Congress approved a $225 million package to replenish Israel’s missile defenses with its last order of business before a five-week recess, as the Jewish state’s cease-fire with Hamas unraveled and Israeli forces pushed deep into Gaza in search of a missing army officer.

The House’s 395-8 vote in favor late Friday followed Senate adoption of the legislation by voice vote earlier in the day. The money is directed toward restocking Israel’s Iron Dome, which has been credited with shooting down dozens of incoming rockets fired by Palestinian militants over 3 1/2 weeks of war. The bill now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. (more…)

For those who do not follow the ebb and flow of radical Islam in the region of Mid-East and North Africa the discussion of the current conflict in Gaza can be a little confusing.
The confusion is made worse because old paradigms of previous conflict are no longer present.   The political rise of the extremist elements represented by the various affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood -like Hamas- has totally changed the landscape.
Those hippie Brangelina, Bono leftists who historically, and insufferably, jump to defend the Palestinian cause because it’s the hipster thing to do, are oblivious to the new challenges of the Palestinian Authority – who themselves are no longer comfortable with the extremists of the Brotherhood/Hamas.
But that doesn’t stop the college idiots from donning the customary Palestinian Keffieh, sunglasses and hipster swag en route to the next Victoria Secret runway show.   Yeah, the irony totally lost on them.
Wait, what… huh?   I digress.
Perhaps, it’s the same reason why President Obama (and crew), and Secretary Kerry and his hipster #Hashtag Team, are totally disconnected from the current paradigm around Israel and the alliances who support them. (more…)

Gaza City (CNN)at least temporarily.  U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Thursday that an unconditional humanitarian cease-fire will begin at 8 a.m. Friday in Gaza (1 a.m. ET).
It will last 72 hours — or three days — “unless extended,” the United Nations and United States said in a joint statement.

“During this time, the forces on the ground will remain in place,” the statement said.   Hamas accepted the cease-fire, a spokesman for the militant fundamentalist Islamic organization texted Thursday.

Speaking to CNN moments after the announcement, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said it came “after careful deliberations with all the parties.”  (read more)

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Previously three different United Nations run schools in Gaza were found housing Hamas missiles and rockets for use against Israel.   The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)  claimed they had no idea the rockets were there, and no idea how they got there.  Now it is revealed a UN Clinic was built upon an entrance to numerous tunnels used to move weapons around Gaza, and the clinic was booby-trapped with explosives built into the walls of the clinic.   UNRWA is actively collaborating with Hamas.
ISRAEL – New details have emerged about the booby-trapped clinic explosion that killed three IDF Maglan unit soldiers in Gaza earlier this week – Sergeant First Class Matan Gottlieb, 21, from Rishon LeZion; Sergeant First Class Omar Chai, 21, from Savion; and Sergeant First Class Guy Algranati, 20, of Tel Aviv, hy”d.
Over eighty kilograms of explosives were built into the UN-funded hospital’s walls themselves, it was cleared for publication Thursday – revealing that the clinic itself was built to mask, and perform, potential acts of terror on the IDF.
Moreover, the clinic was built over tens of terror tunnels, according to the report. (more…)