Businessman David Perdue defeats Rep. Jack Kingston in runoff to win Georgia GOP Senate nomination

Businessman David Perdue narrowly defeated 11-term Rep. Jack Kingston Tuesday in a Republican runoff election for Georgia's U.S. Senate nomination, setting up a general election race against Democrat Michelle Nunn with national implications. 
With all precincts reporting, Perdue led Kingston by approximately 8,500 votes out of over 480,000 cast. 
Perdue's victory validates the former corporate CEO's campaign as an outsider. The former CEO of Reebok, Dollar General and the failed textile firm Pillowtex, Perdue offered his private sector record and tremendous wealth as proof that he can help solve the nation's ills in a Congress largely devoid of experienced business titans. He spent more than $3 million of his own money blasting Kingston -- and other primary rivals before that -- as a career politician, including one ad depicting his rivals as crying babies.
"If we want to change Washington, then we've got to change the people we send to Washington," he would say as he met voters.
Perdue also received more votes than Kingston in the initial May primary, but both men fell well shy of the majority necessary to win without a runoff.
As he did in May, Kingston ran up huge margins across southeast Georgia, where he's represented Georgia's 1st Congressional District since 1993. In his home Chatham County, he won 86 percent, with about 12,500 more votes than Perdue. But Perdue erased Kingston's home base advantage by running more consistently around the rest of the state, particularly in the heavily populated Atlanta and its suburbs. Perdue won Fulton County and all the surrounding counties that make up the metropolitan area.
With the win, Perdue overcame a Kingston coalition that spanned the internal GOP struggle between tea party conservatives and traditional GOP powers. Kingston ran with the endorsement and more than $2.3 million in advertising support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a titan of the Washington establishment. But he also garnered backing from tea party leaders and Karen Handel, the tea party favorite who finished third in the May primary.
Kingston, 59, ran as an 11-term congressman in a year when voters have expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the nation's direction, arguing that his record proves his conservative credentials. He pitched his range of endorsements as proof of his appeal across ideological barriers.
Yet the returns suggest that wasn't enough to trump a political reality: Americans typically love their congressman but loathe Congress as a whole.
Kingston said leading up to the runoff vote that he would back Perdue in November if he won the nomination, saying that the higher priority is displacing Nevada Sen. Harry Reid as majority leader. Republicans need six more seats to win Senate control and cannot afford to lose retiring Sen. Saxby Chambliss' seat.
"David Perdue is a strong leader with a proven business record, who will come to Washington with fresh ideas and a passion for solutions," Chambliss said in a statement late Tuesday. "Georgia deserves a representative who will work to solve our fiscal crisis and put our country back on track."
National Democrats view Nunn, the 47-year-old daughter of former Sen. Sam Nunn, as one of their best opportunities to pick up a GOP-held seat. She's raised more than $9 million and reported $2.3 million left to spend earlier this month. Perdue reported less than $800,000, but his personal wealth ensures that his campaign doesn't have to worry about money.
Perdue's win could require a strategic shift for the new Republican nominee and his Democratic opponent, since they now can't simply run against the sitting Congress and its discord.
Nunn, an Atlanta nonprofit executive, uses her father, an old-guard Southern Democrat who served four terms, as an example of what kind of senator she'd be. She also eagerly highlights her tenure as executive of Republican former President George H.W. Bush's foundation.

Federal courts issue conflicting rulings on legality of ObamaCare subsidies

WASHINGTON –  Two federal appeals court rulings put the issue of ObamaCare subsidies in limbo Tuesday, with one court invalidating some of them and the other upholding all of them. 
The first decision came Tuesday morning from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The panel, in a major blow to the law, ruled 2-1 that the IRS went too far in extending subsidies to those who buy insurance through the federally run exchange, known as HealthCare.gov. 
A separate federal appeals court -- the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals -- hours later issued its own ruling on a similar case that upheld the subsidies in their entirety. 
The conflicting rulings would typically fast-track the matter to the Supreme Court. However, it is likely that the administration will ask the D.C. appeals court to first convene all 11 judges to re-hear that case. 
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest stressed Tuesday that different courts have reached different conclusions on the subsidy issue, and said the latest ruling against the subsidies “does not have any practical impact” at this point on the ability of people to get tax credits. The White House later said the D.C. decision was "undermined" by the Fourth Circuit decision. 
Still, the D.C. court ruling nevertheless strikes at the foundation of the law by challenging subsidies that millions of people obtained through the federally run exchange known as HealthCare.gov. 
The suit maintained that the language in ObamaCare actually restricts subsidies to state-run exchanges -- of which there are only 14 -- and does not authorize them to be given in the 36 states that use the federally run system.  
The court agreed.
“We reach this conclusion, frankly, with reluctance. At least until states that wish to can set up Exchanges, our ruling will likely have significant consequences both for the millions  of individuals receiving tax credits through federal Exchanges and for health insurance markets more broadly,” the ruling stated.  
The case, Halbig v. Burwell, is one of the first major legal challenges that cuts to the heart of the Affordable Care Act by going after the legality of massive federal subsidies and those who benefit from them.
The decision said the law "unambiguously restricts" the subsidies to insurance bought on state-run exchanges. 
The dissenting opinion, though, claimed political motivations were at play. “This case is about Appellants’ not-so-veiled attempt to gut the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ('ACA'),” the dissent stated. 
The ruling, though likely to be appealed, could threaten the entire foundation of the newly devised health care system. Nearly 90 percent of the federal exchange’s insurance enrollees were eligible for subsidies because of low or moderate incomes, and the outcome of the case could potentially leave millions without affordable health insurance.
“Today’s decision rightly holds the Obama administration accountable to the law,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said in a written statement adding, “… As it has on so many occasions, the Obama administration simply ignored the law and implemented its own policy instead.”
The next step for the Obama administration would be that they request a so-called en banc ruling, which means there would be a vote taken by all of the judges on the court. An appeals court can only overrule a decision made by a panel if the court is sitting en banc.
Earnest said the Department of Justice will likely appeal to the full D.C. Circuit Court and defended the administration’s position that Congress intended “all eligible Americans” to have access to the subsidies regardless of which entity set up the exchange.
“We are confident in the legal position that we have,” Earnest said.
Ron Pollack, founding executive director of Families USA, said in a written statement that the ruling “represents the high-water mark for Affordable Care Act opponents, but the water will recede very quickly.”
He added, “It will inevitably be placed on hold pending further proceedings; will probably be reheard by all of the 11-member active D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals members, who predictably will reverse it; and runs contrary to" the ruling from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. 
The appeals process could eventually lead to the U.S. Supreme Court deciding on the legality of the subsidies, but Pollack, whose group supports the law, believes that won’t happen.
Of the 11 judges that could rehear the case, seven are Democrats and four are Republicans.
Halbig v. Burwell, which previously had been called Halbig v. Sebelius, is one of four federal lawsuits that have been filed aimed at targeting the idea of tax credits and other subsidies afforded under ObamaCare.
A total of $1 trillion in subsidies is projected to be doled out over the next decade. 
A U.S. District Court previously sided with the Obama administration on Jan. 15.

Delta, US Airways halt flights to Israel due to instability

U.S. air carriers Delta Air Lines and US Airways, a unit of American Airlines Group , on Tuesday said they have halted flights to Israel to ensure passenger safety.

Delta said in a statement that it has suspended operations "until further notice" to and from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv and its hub at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. The Atlanta-based carrier said it was doing so in coordination with the Federal Aviation Administration "to ensure the safety of our customers and employees."
Esther Castiel, who heads US Airways' operations in Tel Aviv, said the FAA had "issued a request not to travel to Israel. All U.S. carriers are stopping."
She added that it was not clear whether the travel halt was for one day or more.
The decision came after Hamas, the militant group that dominates in the Gaza Strip, and its allies fired more rockets into Israel, triggering sirens in Tel Aviv. One hit a town on the fringes of Ben-Gurion International Airport, lightly injuring two people, officials said.
United Airlines did not immediately return a request for comment.

Ain't it a Joke?

Judge tosses senator's ObamaCare lawsuit

MILWAUKEE –  A federal judge on Monday dismissed a U.S. senator's lawsuit challenging a requirement that congressional members and their staffs obtain government-subsidized health insurance through small business exchanges, saying the senator had no grounds to sue.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, filed the lawsuit in January after the Office of Personnel Management decided months earlier that lawmakers and their staffs should continue to receive health care benefits covering about 75 percent of their premium costs after leaving the health insurance program for federal workers.
Johnson said the decision would make him decide which staff members qualified for subsidized insurance, potentially creating conflict in his office. He also said it forced him to participate in a program that he believed was illegal and that it could make voters view him negatively because his staff received benefits the general public did not.
But U.S. District Judge William Griesbach said Johnson and a staff member who filed the lawsuit with him didn't have grounds to bring the suit.
Johnson's belief that subsidies provided to lawmakers and their staffs are illegal isn't a strong enough reason to disqualify him from the rule put in place under the Affordable Care Act, Griesbach said. The judge also said Johnson failed to show voters would view him negatively if his staff received subsidized insurance.
And, the judge said, Johnson could simply avoid the problem by failing to designate any employees as official congressional office staff, a classification that qualifies them for the benefit.
Johnson faulted Griesbach for dismissing the lawsuit on "the legal technicality of standing" and not fully considering his arguments.
"Americans increasingly — and correctly — believe that their government in Washington is out of control, out of touch and lawless," he said in a statement. "By its decision today, the court has chosen not to address the important constitutional issues at hand."
Johnson's spokeswoman, Melinda Whitemarsh Schnell, said he was discussing the decision with lawyers and deciding whether to appeal.
The White House responded to a request for comment Monday by referring to remarks White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest made the day Griesbach heard oral arguments in the case. Earnest noted then that even some Republicans didn't agree with Johnson's decision to sue.
"What the President believes is that the whole goal of the Affordable Care Act in the first place was to lower health care costs, to expand access to quality, affordable health insurance for every American, including those who were employed by small businesses," he said.
The Affordable Care Act approved by Congress includes provisions that say the federal government can offer congressional members and staffers only health care plans that come through an exchange. It was meant to end generous subsidies to lawmakers and force them and their staffs into the same situation as uninsured Americans.
Johnson argued that the OPM's decision essentially allowed the Obama administration to rewrite the law. He also said using small-business exchanges to serve congressional staffers constituted an illegal scheme because the federal government is a huge employer.
But he told reporters after oral arguments on July 7 that he had designated "a majority" of his 40 or so staffers to go through the small-business exchanges. He said he bought private insurance for himself outside the exchanges.

Israeli fighter planes hit homes and a high-rise tower in Gaza Monday and seven Israeli soldiers, including an officer, were killed in a firefight there as more violence overshadowed hope for peace negotiations.
Sirens wailed and loud explosions rocked the streets of Gaza as Israeli planes continued to strike homes and Hamas fired more rockets. 
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo Monday for a new round of negotiations to end two weeks of deadly fighting. 
Across Gaza, Israeli fighter planes hit homes and a high-rise tower, burying families in the rubble. The strike on the Gaza City tower brought down most of the building, killing 11 people -- including six members of the same family -- and wounding 40, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
Israeli tanks, meanwhile, shelled a hospital in central Gaza, killing four people and wounding dozens as the daily death toll surpassed 100 for a second day. Israel said the shelling targeted rockets hidden near the compound, and accused militants of using civilians as shields.
At least 565 Palestinians have been killed and more than 3,600 wounded in the past two weeks, al-Kidra said.
On the Israeli side, seven more soldiers were killed in clashes with Gaza fighters Monday, bringing the military death toll to 25 -- more than twice as many as in Israel's last Gaza ground war in 2009. One of those killed was reported to be a lieutenant colonel.
A press statement issued by the U.N. Security Council expressed "serious concern at the escalation of violence," called for the protection of civilians under international humanitarian law, and said it was troubled by the growing number of casualties. 
Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. supports the Egyptian proposal for a halt to the hostilities that Israel accepted and Hamas rejected last week. Hamas remains deeply suspicious of the motives of the Egyptian government, which has banned the Muslim Brotherhood, a region-wide group to which Hamas also belongs.
Two Islamic insurgents snuck into southern Israel from Gaza Monday, using one of a network of Hamas tunnels aimed at infiltrating the country. Roads were closed and residents were warned to stay indoors in the morning until the Israeli military gave the all-clear, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.  Monday marked the 14^th day of what Israel is calling “Operation Protective Edge.”
Israel's Ambassador to the U.N., Ron Prosnor, defended the Israeli military's actions, saying that Israel had been forced to defend itself against rocket attacks launched by the Islamic militant group Hamas and adding that Israel's military was exercising restraint. 
Hamas and its allies fired multiple missiles across southern and central Israel, and heavy fighting in the north and east of Gaza persisted, Reuters reported Monday.
Despite the rising death toll, there was no sign of a decrease in the violence. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Monday he is prepared to continue the offensive "as long as necessary" to halt rocket fire and other attacks from Gaza on Israelis.
Hamas says that before halting fire, it wants guarantees that Israel and Egypt will significantly ease a seven-year border blockade of Gaza.
"The resistance (Hamas) will not respond to any pressure," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a text message, in a reference to the renewed cease-fire efforts.
Israel launched a ground offensive late last week, preceded by a 10-day air campaign. Air and artillery strikes have targeted Gaza's border areas in an attempt to destroy tunnels and rocket launchers. The Jewish state accepted an Egyptian call for an unconditional cease-fire last week, but resumed its offensive after Hamas rejected the proposal.
Israeli tank shells struck a hospital in central Gaza on Monday, a health official and a doctor at the facility said. The health official said the shells killed at least four people and wounded 60, including 30 medical staff. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Al-Kidra said 12 shells hit the Al Aqsa hospital in the town of Deir el-Balah. He said the shells landed in the administration building, the intensive care unit and the surgery department.
Live footage on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV station showed wounded being moved on gurneys into the emergency department.
"There is still shelling against the hospital," Fayez Zidane, a doctor at the hospital said. He said he found bits of a rocket, presumably from one of the projectiles.
Sunday marked the single deadliest day in Gaza since the conflict erupted on July 8, with more than 100 Palestinians killed, according to Palestinian health officials. At least 65 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in Shijaiyah, while thousands of terrified Palestinian civilians fled the devastated area, which Israel says is a major source for rocket fire against its civilians.
Among the Israeli dead were two American-born IDF soldiers: California-born Max Steinberg, 24, and Texas native Sean Carmeli, 21.
Hamas militants tried to sneak into Israel through two tunnels early Monday. The Israeli military said 10 infiltrators were killed after being detected and targeted by Israeli aircraft.  Hamas fighters have persistently tried to infiltrate Israel in the past week through a vast network of hidden tunnels, aiming to attack villages and army encampments that dot the border area.
Hamas also fired 50 more rockets at Israel, including two at Tel Aviv, causing no injuries or damage. Since the start of the Israeli operation, Hamas has fired almost 2,000 rockets at Israel.
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri in Gaza claimed his group had captured an Israeli soldier Sunday. It named the man as Shaul Aron and showed his ID papers, but did not release any picture of him alive, Reuters reported. An announcement on Gaza TV of the soldier's capture set off celebration in the streets of West Bank.   
Israel's U.N. ambassador denied the claim, and Israel's military said it was still investigating. ``We still cannot rule it out,'' military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said Monday. The capture of an Israeli soldier would increase pressure on Netanyahu to intensify the military campaign.
Also Monday, an Israeli airstrike hit the home of the Siyam family in southern Gaza, near the town of Rafah, said the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The strike killed 10 people, including four young children and a 9-month-old baby girl, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
``This is not the time to talk of a ceasefire,'' Gilad Erdan, communications minister and a member of Netanyahu's inner security cabinet told reporters Monday. ``We must complete the mission, and the mission cannot end until the threat of the tunnels is removed,'' he Erdan said, according to a Reuters report.

Time expiring for Congress to vote on Obama's $3.7B emergency request for border crisis

Congress has only a few days left before August recess to approve President Obama’s request for an additional $3.7 billion for the border crisis, with no scheduled voting dates and little apparent optimism for passage.
The House and Senate Appropriations committees, where the first key votes will take place, each said Monday that no date has been set.
The Republican-led House is expected to pose the biggest hurdle for the president’s emergency-spending request, amid tens of thousands of children and others from Central America attempting to cross the southwestern U.S. border in recent months.
Kentucky GOP Rep. Hal Rogers, chairman of the lower chamber’s appropriations committee, has already said Obama is asking for “too much” and that non-emergency needs are either covered in fiscal 2015 spending bills or could be handled through Congress’ routine appropriations process.
Rogers also has indicated his committee is trying to “pull together” an emergency package, but details have yet to emerge.
House Speaker John Boehner last week said he didn’t have “as much optimism as I’d like to have” about passing an emergency plan before the recess to deal with the border crisis.
The House has eight working days remaining before the break begins August 1.
In the Democrat-controlled Senate, Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski, chairman of that chamber’s appropriations committee, indicated last week that she wants Congress to pass the emergency, supplemental request.
Mikulski has -- like Obama and most other Capitol Hill lawmakers --framed the request in terms of a “humanitarian” need or crisis, with Democrats and Republicans essentially arguing that efforts to amend the White House request is tantamount to holding the children hostage.
“The crisis actually begins in Central America where brutal, violent gangs … are trying to recruit boys into organized crime, drug smuggling and human trafficking and girls into human trafficking and other just dangerous and repugnant circumstances,” Mikulski said Wednesday. “I hope that in passing the appropriations. … We need to meet these urgent humanitarian needs.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid suggested last week that GOP-led concerns about border security are exaggerated and said “radical Republicans would rather hold these kids ransom,” than consider reasonable solutions.
On Sunday, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz said that the way to help the children is to "eliminate the magnet,” which is Obama's 2012 executive memo that makes some young illegal immigrants eligible for deferred deportation.
Should Congress fail to pass the request before recess, members could avoid the issue until after the November mid-terms, with both parties making failed passage an election issue on which to blame the other.
Beyond the spending amount, the bill also could get held up by a 2008 law that allows children from non-bordering countries to enter the United States legally.
The law was intended to help victims of human trafficking but appears to be contributing to the current crisis by ensuring court hearings for the children now arriving from Central America.
In practice, the process often allows the children to stay in the United States for years as their cases wend their way through the badly backlogged immigration court system. And oftentimes they never show up for their court dates.
Obama administration officials along with Republican lawmakers want to change the law so that Central American children can be treated the same way as Mexican minors, who can be turned around quickly by Border Patrol agents.
But Democrats and advocacy groups say such a change would put the kids in jeopardy.
“We will oppose this link even if it means the funding bill goes down,” said Kevin Appleby, director of migration and refugee policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. If the changes go through, “They’ll be sent back to their persecutors with no help whatsoever, and possibly to their deaths.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

High-ranking officer among 7 Israeli forces killed in Gaza fighting

A lieutenant general was among seven Israeli soldiers killed in a firefight in Gaza Monday, as more violence overshadowed hope for peace negotiations in the Jewish state.  
Sirens wailed and loud explosions rocked the streets of Gaza as Israeli planes continued to strike homes and Hamas fired more rockets. 
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo Monday for a new round of negotiations to end two weeks of deadly fighting.  A barrage of rocket attacks and days of ground assaults have left at least 27 Israelis and 550 Palestinians dead, and tens of thousands driven from their homes in Gaza.  
A press statement issued by the U.N. Security Council expressed "serious concern at the escalation of violence," called for the protection of civilians under international humanitarian law, and said it was troubled by the growing number of casualties. 
Kerry said Sunday that the U.S. supports the Egyptian proposal for a halt to the hostilities that Israel accepted and Hamas rejected last week. Hamas remains deeply suspicious of the motives of the Egyptian government, which has banned the Muslim Brotherhood, a region-wide group to which Hamas also belongs.
Two Islamic insurgents snuck into southern Israel from Gaza Monday, using one of a network of Hamas tunnels aimed at infiltrating the country. Roads were closed and residents were warned to stay indoors in the morning until the Israeli military gave the all-clear, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.  Monday marked the 14^th day of what Israel is calling “Operation Protective Edge.”
Israel's Ambassador to the U.N., Ron Prosnor, defended the Israeli military's actions, saying that Israel had been forced to defend itself against rocket attacks launched by the Islamic militant group Hamas and adding that Israel's military was exercising restraint. 
Hamas and its allies fired multiple missiles across southern and central Israel, and heavy fighting in the north and east of Gaza persisted, Reuters reported Monday.
Despite the rising death toll, there was no sign of a decrease in the violence. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Monday he is prepared to continue the offensive "as long as necessary" to halt rocket fire and other attacks from Gaza on Israelis.
Hamas says that before halting fire, it wants guarantees that Israel and Egypt will significantly ease a seven-year border blockade of Gaza.
"The resistance (Hamas) will not respond to any pressure," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a text message, in a reference to the renewed cease-fire efforts.
Israel launched a ground offensive late last week, preceded by a 10-day air campaign. Air and artillery strikes have targeted Gaza's border areas in an attempt to destroy tunnels and rocket launchers. The Jewish state accepted an Egyptian call for an unconditional cease-fire last week, but resumed its offensive after Hamas rejected the proposal.
Israeli tank shells struck a hospital in central Gaza on Monday, a health official and a doctor at the facility said. The health official said the shells killed at least four people and wounded 60, including 30 medical staff. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
Health official Ashraf al-Kidra said 12 shells hit the Al Aqsa hospital in the town of Deir el-Balah. He said the shells landed in the administration building, the intensive care unit and the surgery department.
Live footage on Hamas' Al Aqsa TV station showed wounded being moved on gurneys into the emergency department.
"There is still shelling against the hospital," Fayez Zidane, a doctor at the hospital said. He said he found bits of a rocket, presumably from one of the projectiles.
Sunday marked the single deadliest day in Gaza since the conflict erupted on July 8, with more than 100 Palestinians killed, according to Palestinian health officials. At least 65 Palestinians and 13 Israeli soldiers were killed in Shijaiyah, while thousands of terrified Palestinian civilians fled the devastated area, which Israel says is a major source for rocket fire against its civilians.
Among the Israeli dead were two American-born IDF soldiers: California-born Max Steinberg, 24, and Texas native Sean Carmeli, 21.
Hamas militants tried to sneak into Israel through two tunnels early Monday. The Israeli military said 10 infiltrators were killed after being detected and targeted by Israeli aircraft.  Hamas fighters have persistently tried to infiltrate Israel in the past week through a vast network of hidden tunnels, aiming to attack villages and army encampments that dot the border area.
Hamas also fired 50 more rockets at Israel, including two at Tel Aviv, causing no injuries or damage. Since the start of the Israeli operation, Hamas has fired almost 2,000 rockets at Israel.
Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri in Gaza claimed his group had captured an Israeli soldier Sunday. It named the man as Shaul Aron and showed his ID papers, but did not release any picture of him alive, Reuters reported. An announcement on Gaza TV of the soldier's capture set off celebration in the streets of West Bank.   
Israel's U.N. ambassador denied the claim, and Israel's military said it was still investigating. ``We still cannot rule it out,'' military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said Monday. The capture of an Israeli soldier would increase pressure on Netanyahu to intensify the military campaign.
Also Monday, an Israeli airstrike hit the home of the Siyam family in southern Gaza, near the town of Rafah, said the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The strike killed 10 people, including four young children and a 9-month-old baby girl, said Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra.
``This is not the time to talk of a ceasefire,'' Gilad Erdan, communications minister and a member of Netanyahu's inner security cabinet told reporters Monday. ``We must complete the mission, and the mission cannot end until the threat of the tunnels is removed,'' he Erdan said, according to a Reuters report.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry to deploy up to 1,000 National Guard troops to border

AUSTIN, Texas –  Gov. Rick Perry said Monday he is deploying up to 1,000 National Guard troops over the next month to the Texas-Mexico border to combat criminals that Republican state leaders say are exploiting a surge of children and families entering the U.S. illegally.
Perry, a vocal critic of the White House's response to the border crisis -- and who is mulling a second presidential run in 2016 -- said the state has a responsibility to act after "lip service" from the federal government.
He rejected suggestions that Texas was militarizing local communities by putting National Guard troops on the ground or that crime data along the border doesn't justify additional resources.
The deployment will cost Texas an estimated $12 million a month. Texas Adjutant General John Nichols said his troops would simply be "referring and deterring" immigrants and not detaining people -- though Nichols said the National Guard could if asked.
"We think they'll come to us and say, `Please take us to a Border Patrol station," Nichols said.
More than 3,000 Border Patrol agents currently work in the region, and Perry has repeatedly asked Obama to send the National Guard to the border. Much of the area has been overwhelmed in recent months by tens of thousands of unaccompanied children illegally entering the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn't respond to a request for comment Monday.
As governor, Perry is commander in chief of Texas military forces unless those forces have already been mobilized by the White House. But if Perry deploys National Guard troops it is up to Texas to pay for them, while an order from Obama would mean Washington picks up the tab.
"Gov. Perry has referred repeatedly to his desire to make a symbolic statement to the people of Central America that the border is closed," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. "And he thinks that the best way to do that is to send 1,000 National Guard troops to the border. It seems to me that a much more powerful symbol would be the bipartisan passage of legislation that would actually make a historic investment in border security and send an additional 20,000 personnel to the border."
Earnest also said the White House hasn't received the kind of "formal communication" with Perry's office that usually accompanies such deployments.
President George W. Bush sent 6,000 National Guard troops to the border in 2006, and Obama eventually extended that deployment while ordering a second wave of National Guard forces to Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico in 2010. But the second round saw reduced numbers of troops, and most of their work was limited to air patrols in counterdrug operations.
Perry announced last month that Texas would steer another $1.3 million each week to the Department of Public Safety to assist in border security through at least the end of the year. In a letter to Obama on June 20, Perry made several requests for help along the border, including 1,000 National Guard troops, additional helicopters and giving troops "arrest powers to support Border Patrol operations until sufficient Border Patrol resources can be hired, trained and deployed to the border."
It's not clear why Perry would need the Obama administration to authorize arrest powers and the governor's office has not offered details ahead of the announcement. Texas law simply states that the governor can "adopt rules and regulations governing enlistment, organization, administration" of the Texas State Guard.
In a White House letter to Perry on July 7, Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett laid out steps the administration was taking to deal with what the president had called an "urgent humanitarian situation," but did not mention the National Guard. Obama met with Perry two days later in Dallas, and the administration has worked with Mexico and other countries the immigrants are leaving to make it clear they will not be allowed to stay in the U.S.
On previous border deployments, National Guard soldiers have served in support roles -- administrative, intelligence gathering -- while the Border Patrol expanded its ranks. Some National Guard troops already participate in counter-drug operations on the border, though they don't have arrest powers.
Since October, more than 57,000 unaccompanied children and teenagers have entered the U.S. illegally -- more than double compared to the same period a year earlier. Most have been from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, where rampant gang violence and intense poverty have driven tens of thousands of people outside their borders.
Their numbers overwhelmed Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley, leading Perry and the Texas Department of Public Safety to argue that Border Patrol agents distracted by groups of children and families were leaving gaps.
Most of those children have been turning themselves in to the first person in a uniform they see.

Mixed Messages Cartoon

Israel expands Gaza offensive after two soldiers killed by Hamas

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/20/gaza-crisis-un-chief-set-to-visit-region-as-casualties-mount-on-both-sides/

Israel's army expanded its operations in the Gaza Strip Sunday, one day after bulldozers uncovered and demolished 34 shafts and about a dozen tunnels that officials say could have been used to carry out attacks, while Palestinian authorities reported intensified airstrikes as Israel's ground offensive deepened.
The Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah came under heavy tank fire before dawn Sunday, with Palestinian health officials claiming that eight people, including the son of a senior Hamas militant, were killed. 
Throughout the night, loud explosions shook Gaza as Israeli flares lit up the night sky and fighter jets flew low over the densely populated territory.
The Hamas military wing said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces in Shijaiyah and a nearby neighborhood. The sound of gunfire could be heard from the center of the city. In a separate confrontation, Islamic Jihad fighters ambushed Israeli troops near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, the group said, adding that Israeli helicopter gunships had joined the battle.
An Israeli military spokeswoman told Sky News that "Two days ago, residents of Shijaiyah received recorded messages to evacuate the area in order to protect their lives." The Israeli military has singled out the neighborhood as one of the major sites from which Hamas has launched rockets targeting Israeli cities and towns. 
Meanwhile The Jerusalem Post reported that two Israeli soldiers were killed in a firefight with a 13-man Hamas squad that entered Israel via a cross-border tunnel from Gaza Saturday morning. At least one Palestinian was killed in the clash. 
The deaths of the two soldiers bring the Israeli military death toll to five in the three days since ground operations began. Two Israeli civilians have also perished from Hamas rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli territory.
The Hamas soldiers were dressed in Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) uniforms, and were armed with automatic weapons, RPGs, syringes, sedatives and handcuffs, The Jerusalem Post reported. The IDF believed they planned to kidnap an Israeli and go on a killing spree in a community.
Shimon Daniel, a retired brigadier general and former head of the Israeli military's engineer corps, told The Associated Press the military knew that Hamas had a large number of tunnels designed to assault Israel.
"I think finding 13 tunnels in such a short time is a great achievement," he told Channel 10 TV.
Daniel said demolishing the tunnels is dangerous. Troops must assume the passages are booby trapped. Soldiers first close off the area and check for additional openings. Then robots go inside to look around, he said.
After that, the tunnels are destroyed either by special explosives or by heavy equipment. He said it can take up to 12 hours to destroy each tunnel.
"These tunnels aren't for hiding. They are intended for large attacks in Israeli communities and army bases," chief military spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz said.
Footage released by the Israeli military showed tunnels being demolished by army excavators and other equipment on the ground and by airstrikes from above.
Since the start of Israel-Hamas fighting almost two weeks ago, 378 Palestinians have been killed and 2,700 wounded, according to Gaza Health Ministry official Ashraf al-Kidra. One-fourth of the deaths have been reported since the start of the ground offensive late Thursday.
Health officials claimed that at least 30 people were killed in the bombardment of Gaza's Shijaiyah neighborhood Sunday, and five more bodies were believed to be buried under the rubble of homes.
Israel says it is going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties and blames them on Hamas, accusing it of firing from within residential neighborhoods and using civilians as "human shields."
The military said it has hit more than 2,500 targets in Gaza, including 1,100 rocket launchers, during the 13 days of fighting. It said that some 70 militants were killed and another 13 brought to Israel for questioning.
Gaza militants have fired more than 1,760 rockets at Israeli cities since July 8, the military said.
The military said also it had received intelligence reports that Palestinians had strapped explosives to animals and intended to send them toward soldiers. A donkey laden with explosives approached soldiers later on and blew up causing no injuries, it said.
An Egyptian truce proposal was rejected by Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade as part of any cease-fire agreement.
Israel's ground attack came after it became increasingly exasperated with rocket fire from Gaza, especially after Hamas rejected an Egyptian cease-fire plan earlier in the week.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri on Saturday repeated a call for the two sides to adopt the cease-fire, saying it is the only offer on the table, despite efforts from Hamas backers Turkey and Qatar to broker a deal.
"This initiative still presents the chance for the two sides to cease fire, ending the bloodshed," he said. "It meets the needs of both sides. We will continue to propose it. We hope both sides accept it."
In a fresh effort to broker a truce, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon was due to arrive in Qatar Sunday to help mediate the Gaza conflict. A cease-fire is "indispensable" for urgently needed humanitarian efforts to succeed, the undersecretary-general for political affairs Jeffrey Feltman told an emergency meeting of the Security Council on Friday.
Israeli officials have said the offensive could last up to two weeks or possibly longer.
Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major three-week ground operation in January 2009 and another weeklong air offensive in 2012. It now controls an arsenal of thousands of rockets, including long-range projectiles, and has built a system of underground bunkers.

Illegal Immigrants / Cartels suspected as high-caliber gunfire sends Border Patrol scrambling on Rio Grande

Bailey: " This is another of Obama's big mistakes, not securing the border."

EXCLUSIVE: RINCON PENINSULA, Texas -- U.S. Border Patrol agents on the American side of the Rio Grande were forced to take cover Friday night when high-caliber weaponry was fired at them from the Mexican side of the river, sources told FoxNews.com. 
The weapons were fired at the U.S. side of the riverbank in the area of the Rincon Peninsula across the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Mexico, at about 8:30 p.m., sources said. Bullets ricocheted into an area where Border Patrol agents were positioned, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, told FoxNews.com. 
Border Patrol sources confirmed Gohmert's account, and said the shots may have been fired by .50-caliber weapons. 
"We don't have any armor that can stop a .50-caliber round, so our Border Patrol agents had to take cover when the rounds were richocheting around them," said Gohmert, who has been in the area for the last week to get a first-hand look at the border situation.
"When the shooting stopped, about 40 to 50 people came out on the U.S. side and turned themselves in. So clearly the rounds were being fired to suppress every effort to stop anybody intervening with anyone or anything coming across," Gohmert added. "We have no idea what or how many or whom came across with the other illegal immigrants."
Sources said they believe the gunfire came from members of Mexican drug cartels, which include former military members trained in shooting that type of weaponry. 
Border Patrol sources said the rounds were clearly identifiable because .50- caliber weapons make a distinctive noise when fired. Sources said they also believe this is the first time that Border Patrol agents have taken direct fire from the Mexican side of the river in this area. 
"I don't know why we're out here like sitting ducks," one Border Patrol source said. "We need help."
As of Saturday evening, a Border Patrol spokesman did not immediately return FoxNews.com's request for comment. 
The Rio Grande sector has been the busiest part of the 2,000-mile border with Texas in recent months as a surge of illegal immigrants, many from Central America, has poured in to the U.S. in the mistaken belief that U.S. policy allows for them to remain in America once they make it in. More than 60,000 unaccompanied children had crossed in the last nine months. But Border Patrol officials have warned that the deluge has left the border largely unattended, and vulnerable to cartel infiltration.

political cartoon

Krauthammer: Obama’s remarks on Malaysia airliner reflect philosophy of disinterest

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Friday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that President Obama’s first public remarks on the downing of a Malaysia Airlines jetliner over eastern Ukraine were “passive” and a part of a philosophy of disinterest.
“ The only way to explain the unbelievable passive nature of his speech today…there was no passion there was no interest in this. And I think if you want to explain it rationally, maybe he thinks the U.S. doesn't have to do anything,” said Krauthammer.
In his remarks at the White House Friday, Obama stopped short of blaming Russia for the downing of flight MH17, which crashed Thursday on farmland in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard.
But he did not absolve Russia of any involvement saying, “evidence indicates that the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile that was launched from an area that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists inside of Ukraine.”
Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor, said Obama was basing his remarks on a misguided notion of Russian and European intentions. “This is really bad, it's going to embarrass the Russians, and they're going to lose on this.” he said.
“Putin has 80 percent support in his country. The propaganda in the country is not reflecting anything resembling the truth. He's not going to lose any support at home.
“This is a war which Putin singlehandedly has started, supported, armed. It's his thugs who pulled the trigger on weapons either he supplied or trained the thugs on, and he's pretending it's the fault of the Ukrainians.”
Krauthammer added, “and the president is unwilling to say the truth, which, in fact, his own U.N. ambassador had said. He's relying on the Europeans, who will never act. They never act on anything unless they're led by the U.S.”
Krauthammer also said Obama’s cautious language regarding the crash site indicated a lack of seriousness, adding, “the president says 'the site has to be secured' in the same way he said 'Assad has to go.' And it has the same weight, zero.”

Marine Held in Mexico: If Congress can't get Obama's attention to free Tahmooressi, We the People must

When justifying the release of five vicious Taliban terrorists detained at “Gitmo” in exchange for U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, the president said, “We don’t leave our people behind.” He was subsequently accused of violating a law requiring him to notify Congress thirty days before releasing any Gitmo detainees.
Apparently breaking the law is no problem for the Obama administration. He has often bragged, “If Congress won’t act, I will. I have a pen and a phone.” In other words, he is willing to issue Executive Orders to dictate what he wants done.

How can the White House claim the president is unaware of Sgt. Tahmooressi's “unjust” and, “wrongful” deprivation of liberty in violation of ‘the rights of American citizenship?”

Earlier this year, in June, the Supreme Court decided there are some limits on the powers of our Chief Executive in deciding two cases – one on “recess appointments” when Congress is in session and a second suit on Obama-Care violations of the 1^st Amendment to our Constitution.
And now, we have yet another example of presidential law-breaking. This one doesn’t require the courts to intervene – just “We The People” need to act. Here’s the law:
U.S. Code, Title 22, Chapter 23, Section 1732. It is entitled, “Release of citizens imprisoned by foreign governments.”
Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen of the United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty by or under the authority of any foreign government, it shall be the duty of the President forthwith to demand of that government the reasons of such imprisonment; and if it appears to be wrongful and in violation of the rights of American citizenship, the President shall forthwith demand the release of such citizen, and if the release so demanded is unreasonably delayed or refused, the President shall use such means, not amounting to acts of war and not otherwise prohibited by law, as he may think necessary and proper to obtain or effectuate the release; and all the facts and proceedings relative thereto shall as soon as practicable be communicated by the President to Congress.
One need not be a vaunted “Constitutional lawyer” or even a “Nobel Laureate” like our current head of state to see how this law relates directly to the case of U.S. Marine Sergeant Andrew Tahmooressi – now enduring his fourth month in a Mexican prison.
The facts as we know them have been well articulated – even demonstrated – by Greta Van Susteren, host of “On The Record” on Fox News Channel:
Sergeant Tahmooressi completed two combat tours and received two meritorious promotions for battlefield service in Afghanistan. This spring, the honorably discharged 26-year-old veteran was planning to relocate from his home in Florida to California. 
Late on March 31, disoriented by poorly-lighted, graffiti-covered traffic signs, he inadvertently drove his pick-up truck, loaded with all his possessions – including three legally purchased firearms -- into Mexico at the San Ysidro, Calif., Port of Entry crossing. 
Realizing his error, the young Marine immediately dialed 911 on his cell phone and was connected to a dispatcher on the U.S. side of the border. Informed that no help could be provided to him on the Mexican side of the border he told Mexican authorities that he had three firearms in his truck. He was immediately taken into custody – where he has languished for nearly four months.
When I raised the issue of 22 USC, Sect. 1732 (above) with members of Congress and asked if the president was complying, I was told, “No. But he has an ‘out.’ The law says ‘Whenever it is made known to the President that any citizen of the United States has been unjustly deprived of his liberty by or under the authority of any foreign government, it shall be the duty…’ All Obama has to do is claim the case of American citizen Andrew Tahmooressi has never been made known to him.”
How can the White House claim the president is unaware of Sgt. Tahmooressi’s “unjust” and, “wrongful” deprivation of liberty in violation of ‘the rights of American citizenship?”
Members of Congress from Florida, California and elsewhere have written nearly a dozen letters to the president about Sgt. Tahmooressi. More than 100,000 Americans have responded to online petitions at WhiteHouse.gov; FoxNews.com, FreedomAlliance.org and AndrewFreedomFund.com, among others have written about his plight.
Our president has ignored them all. Apparently he’s been too busy with political fundraisers and vacuous speeches about the “Republican war on women,” economic injustice, and Congressional ineptness. There just hasn’t been time to pick up that famous phone and call Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
If Congress can’t get Obama’s attention on freeing an unjustly imprisoned Marine, We The People must. Join the effort to demand that our president obey the law. Otherwise the phrase “Leave no one behind,” is meaningless.
Col. Oliver L. North (ret.) serves as host of the Fox News Channel documentary series "War Stories with Oliver North." From 1983 to 1986, he served as the U.S. government’s counterterrorism coordinator on the National Security Council staff. North is the founder of Freedom Alliance, an organization providing college scholarships to the children of military personnel killed in the line of duty and author of the new nationwide bestseller, "Counterfeit Lies," a novel about how Iran is acquiring nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them. Click here for more information on Oliver North.

Gaza crisis: UN chief set to visit region as casualties mount on both sides

Israeli troops battled Hamas militants in Gaza on the second day of a ground operation Saturday, as the head of the United Nations was set to visit the Middle East in an effort to bring an end to a nearly two-week conflict that has reportedly claimed hundreds of lives.
A Gaza health official on Saturday said the Palestinian death toll from the 12-day offensive topped 300, The Associated Press reported, while the Israeli military announced that three soldiers were wounded in a gun battle with armed Palestinians Friday night in the northern Gaza Strip.
Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Kidra said overnight airstrikes killed 12 people, raising the death toll from the offensive to 310 Palestinians. An Israeli soldier was killed after the start of the ground operation, and an Israeli civilian was killed earlier this week.
The sound of tank fire and heavy machine guns mixed with the mosques' morning call to prayer along the Gaza-Israel border. The Israeli military said three soldiers were wounded in overnight fighting, one seriously. Israeli troops were staying close to the border and have yet to enter heavily populated areas.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will leave Saturday for the Middle East to help end the conflict, the U.N. political chief said Friday.
At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said a cease-fire is "indispensable." But the only way to make it stick is for the international community to "assume its responsibility to urgently help restore a serious prospect for a two-state solution that brings an end to the decades-long conflict and occupation," he said.
Israel launched the ground operation late Thursday after hundreds of airstrikes on the Hamas-ruled territory failed to halt unrelenting rocket fire that has increasingly targeted major Israeli cities.
An Egyptian truce proposal was rejected by the Islamic militant group Hamas, which has ruled the strip since 2007 and has demanded the lifting of an Israeli and Egyptian blockade as part of any cease-fire agreement.
Israeli officials say the offensive is aimed at destroying both rocket launchers and Hamas tunnels dug into Israel, and that it could last up to two weeks. The military reported making steady progress, uncovered 13 tunnels, but said dozens remain and would not give a time frame for its operation.
Israel's military chief, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, visited troops on the Gaza border early Saturday and said "a strategic national patience is necessary" to complete the mission.
Gaza militants have fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel over the past 11 days, and rocket fire continued overnight. Israel has launched more than 2,000 airstrikes over the same period.
Gaza militants have remained defiant despite the rising death toll.
"The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip will not surrender to the enemy and will not raise the white flag," Islamic Jihad leader Ziad Nakhala told a Palestinian radio station.
"We are open to all possibilities as long as the enemy does not respond to the demands of the resistance."

The Jerk Cartoon

Why TV reporter shouldn’t have been demoted for racially charged rant on cop-killer

Bailey: " Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth. Because the truth hurts you, especially if you've began to believe your own lies are the truth!" " Sean just told the truth and this is how he is rewarded!"


I’m a big proponent of journalists playing by the rules.
Reporters, in particular, need to be fair to all sides, provide the facts, and not spew personal opinions.
So why am I defending Sean Bergin, the New Jersey reporter who admits he flouted those common-sense rules?
Because he wound up losing his job, and I don’t believe the punishment fit the crime.
Since this was a racially charged matter, it quickly went viral. Fifteen years ago, it would have been a local Jersey controversy. Now it’s all over the web and on cable news.
The backstory is that Bergin was covering a cop-killing case, the brutal murder of officer Melvin Santiago, who was responding to a robbery call. He hesitated when the station asked him to interview the widow of the shooter, Lawrence Campbell. She said her husband should have killed more police officers if they were planning to kill him, sparking a furious reaction.
It was in the course of explaining this to viewers that Bergin went on a bit of a rant:
“It is worth noting that we were besieged, flooded with calls from police officers furious that we would give media coverage to the wife of a cop killer. We decided to air it because it is important to shine a light on the anti-cop mentality that has so contaminated America’s inner cities. This same, sick, perverse line of thinking is evident from Jersey City to Newark and Patterson to Trenton. It has made the police officer’s job impossible and it has got to stop. The underlying cause for all of this, of course: Young black men growing up without fathers. Unfortunately, no one in the news media has the courage to touch that subject.”
Now Bergin went too far. He was overgeneralizing without providing facts. By saying “the underlying cause for all of this” is young black men from fatherless families, he cast each one as a potential criminal.
But it also took courage to say what Sean Bergin did. He spoke with great emotion about the death of a policeman.
So how did the station react? First, News 12 suspended Bergin. Then it demoted him to a $300-a-week post in which he’d be given on light feature assignment each week. “It is News 12′s policy that reporters must be objective and not state personal opinions on-air,” a spokesman said before adding the usual claptrap about not discussing personnel issues. (Isn’t it amazing how news organizations report on everyone else’s personnel problems but their own?)
Bergin quit, as the station must have known he would. Perhaps News 12 didn’t want to take the heat for firing him; instead, executives left him with little choice but to leave.
To his credit, Bergin admits he broke the rules. He told Megyn Kelly that “I was trying to add context and balance. And, yes, and then, look there's no doubt I went off the reservation, I made a couple rogue remarks at the end. I knew what I was doing.” He thought he would get a reprimand, perhaps a temporary suspension.
Bergin says he spoke out “because this has got to stop. Somebody has to have the guts to stand up and point at this and say, hey, man, we got -- you know, we got to start talking about this. I know it's a touchy subject. I know it's a sensitive issue.”
Again, the debate over this touchy subject is better carried out by analysts and commentators, not reporters popping off. But I doubt News 12 would have dumped Bergin if he’d “editorialized” on some less controversial subject.
But as I told Bill O’Reilly, imagine if the station had suspended him for a couple of days for breaking the rules, then seized the moment by assigning him a three-part series on the roots of urban crime, fatherless families and racial animosity toward the police.
Instead, the station looks like it is fleeing controversy—and Sean Bergin is looking for a job.

Netanyahu orders Israeli military to prepare for 'significant expansion' of Gaza ground offensive

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military Friday to prepare for a "significant expansion" of its ground operation against Gaza militants.
Netanyahu said the military's primary goal would be to destroy underground tunnels used by Hamas to attack the Jewish State. The announcement came hours after Israeli ground troops and tanks struck more than 100 terror targets in Israel's first major ground offensive in Gaza in just over five years.
The offensive follows an Egyptian effort earlier this week to halt hostilities. Israel accepted the terms, but Hamas refused, demanding that Israel and Egypt first give guarantees to ease the blockade on Gaza.
“Since there is no way to deal with the tunnels only from the air, our soldiers are doing it now from the ground," Netanyahu said at the opening of an emergency cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv, the Jerusalem Post reported. “We decided to launch the action after we tried all the other ways, and with an understanding that without this operation the price we will have to pay later would be much higher."
Tanks, infantry and engineering forces were operating inside the coastal strip. In a statement, the military said it targeted rocket launchers, tunnels and more than 100 other targets. Throughout the night, the thud of tank shells echoed across Gaza, often just a few seconds apart. Several explosions from Israeli missile strikes shook high-rise buildings in central Gaza City. Pillars of smoke could be seen from the Israeli side of the border.
At Gaza's main Shifa Hospital, casualties quickly began arriving, including several members of the same family wounded by shrapnel from tank shells. Among those hurt were a toddler and a boy of elementary school age, their bodies pocked by small bloody wounds.
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in the early stage of the ground operation, including three teenage siblings and a 3-month-old boy who died after a shell hit his family's Bedouin tent in southern Gaza, The Associated Press reported, citing Gaza health officials.
The Israeli military said a number of soldiers were wounded throughout the night, and one soldier, Staff Sgt. Eitan Barak, 20, was killed in the fighting. The circumstances behind his death were not immediately clear. Hamas' military wing said it ambushed Israeli units in the northern town of Beit Lahiya and caused casualties but Israeli media said it was likely a case of friendly fire between Israeli troops.
"The ground offensive does not scare us and we pledge to drown the occupation army in Gaza mud," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
Israeli officials have said the goal is to weaken Hamas militarily and have not addressed the possibility of driving the Islamic militants from power.
However, Hamas has survived Israeli offensives in the past, including a major ground operation in January 2009 from which it emerged militarily weaker, but then recovered. Hamas has since assembled thousands of rockets and built a system of underground bunkers.
Israel had been reticent about launching a ground offensive for fear of endangering its own soldiers and drawing international condemnation over Palestinian civilian deaths.
Since the July 8 start of the air campaign, more than 260 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,000 wounded, Palestinian health officials said. In Israel, one civilian died and several were wounded.
Israeli public opinion appears to strongly support the offensive after days of unrelenting rocket fire from Gaza and years of southern Israeli residents living under the threat. Gaza militants have fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel over the past 11 days.
Israel said it launched an open-ended assault on several fronts, with the primary aim being to destroy underground tunnels into Israel built by Hamas that could be used to carry out attacks.
On Thursday, 13 heavily armed Hamas militants tried to sneak in through such a tunnel, but were stopped by an airstrike after they emerged some 820 feet inside Israel.
Israeli defense officials said soldiers faced little resistance during the first night of the ground operation, but the longer troops remain in Gaza, the greater the risk for heavy casualties on both sides.
Forces are expected to spend a day or two staking out positions and are working in the north, east and south of the Gaza Strip. Then, they are expected to move to the second phase, which is to destroy tunnels, an operation that could take up to two weeks.
Once Hamas is able to study the military's positions and movements, it may push back more forcefully, the officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the military's strategy.
"The mission is progressing well," said Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, Israel's military chief. "There were a number of incidents overnight that we overcame and moved forward."
Prior to the Israeli Cabinet meeting, several ministers said they expected a prolonged offensive.
"This operation must be completed to its end and that includes a significant incursion into Gaza," said Uri Ariel, a Cabinet minister from the hardline Jewish Home party.
"We need to go in and finish the job. We need to eliminate every terrorist. They have no immunity."

Smoking gun? Intercepted calls point finger at Russian separatists in jet downing

Intercepted phone calls purportedly between Russian military intelligence officers and members of a pro-Russian separatist group that appear to capture the moment the rebels realized the plane they shot down was a civilian passenger plane could be the smoking gun that helps prove Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was downed Ukraine by the insurgents.
The tapes were released by SBU, Ukraine's security agency, and transcript was published in the Kiev Post. It appears to capture the chaotic moments after the plane was shot down — and the realization that it was a passenger plane rather than a Ukrainian transport plane, which had been targeted in recent days by the Russia-backed separatists.
"We have just shot down a plane," says a man the SBU identified as Igor Bezler, a Russian military intelligence officer and leading commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. 
That call came just 20 minutes after the crash and was placed to a person identified by Ukraine’s SBU as a colonel in the main intelligence department of the general headquarters of the armed forces of the Russian Federation Vasili Geranin, according to Ukraine security officials.
But in a second tape released by the agency, two men identified as "The Greek" and "Major" discuss the debris field and the fact the the plane was a civilian aircraft.

"We have just shot down a plane."- Igor Bezler, Russian military intelligence officer and leading commander of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic

“It’s 100 percent a passenger [civilian] aircraft,” Major is recorded as saying, as he admitted to seeing no weapons on site. “Absolutely nothing. Civilian items, medicinal stuff, towels, toilet paper.”
The Boeing 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by what U.S. intelligence sources confirm was a surface-to-air missile near the village of Chornukhine, Luhansk Oblast, some 30 miles inside the the border with Russia.
The second conversation, if verified as authentic, could dispel Russian separatist claims that it was the Ukrainian military that shot the plane down. According to the transpcript:
Major: "These are Chernukhin folks who shot down the plane. From the Chernukhin check point. Those cossacks who are based in Chernukhino."
Grek: "Yes, Major."
Major: "The plane fell apart in the air. In the area of Petropavlovskaya mine. The first '200' [code word for dead person]. We have found the first '200.' A Civilian."
Greek: "Well, what do you have there?"
Major: "In short, it was 100 percent a passenger [civilian] aircraft."
Greek: "Are many people there?"
Major: "Holy [expletive]! The debris fell right into the yards [of homes]."
In a third intercepted conversation released by the SBU — which the agency says took place about 40 minutes after insurgents seemed to realize they had shot down a civilian plane — Cossack commander Nikolay Kozitsin tells an unidentified separatist that the fact the Malaysia Airlines plane was flying over the combat zone likely meant it was carrying spies.
"That means they were carrying spies," Kozitsin allegedly says. "They shouldn’t be [expletive] flying. There is a war going on."
On Friday, emergency workers combed the sunflower fields and villages of eastern Ukraine, searching the wreckage of the jetliner. The attack on Thursday afternoon killed 298 people from nearly a dozen nations, including vacationers, students and a large contingent of scientists heading to an AIDS conference.

U.S. intelligence authorities said a surface-to-air missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, but could not say who fired it. The Ukraine government in Kiev, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting in the east and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels all deny shooting the passenger plane down. Moscow also denies backing the rebels.

By midday, at least 181 bodies had been located, emergency workers said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for the downing, saying it was responsible for the unrest in its Russian-speaking eastern regions — but did not accuse Ukraine of shooting the plane down and did not address the key question of whether Russia gave the rebels such a powerful missile.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk described the downing as an "international crime" whose perpetrators would have to be punished in an international tribunal.

Spending (Cartoon)

Israel says Hamas fires three mortars during humanitarian cease-fire window

Israel's military said Hamas had fired three mortars into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip during a five-hour humanitarian cease-fire window Thursday.
The Israeli Defense Forces tweeted that the mortars hit the community of Eshkol. There was no immediate word of any injuries or damage. Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfield had earlier told the Associated Press that two rockets fell in open areas in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries. Rosenfield said the rockets landed at 12 p.m. local time (5 a.m. Eastern Time), two hours after the cease-fire began.
It was not immediately clear whether the Israeli military would respond. 
Shortly before the cease-fire took effect, Israel said it had thwarted an attempted attack by 13 Islamic militants. Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner told The Associated Press that the would-be attackers attempted to sneak into Israel through a tunnel. They were spotted at the tunnel's opening approximately 820 feet inside Israel, near a kibbutz, and were struck by Israeli aircraft. Lerner said the military believed at least one militant was killed in the strike and that the remaining fighters appeared to have returned to Gaza through the tunnel.
Lerner said the attack "could have had devastating consequences" and said the militants were armed with "extensive weapons," including rocket-propelled grenades.
The attack was preceded by a volley of 15 rockets fired from Gaza into central Israel. The Times of Israel reported that IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz told Israeli television Channel 2 that the rockets were meant to be "an envelope for this attack."
"We knew this would come," Almoz said. "We knew specifically about this tunnel. We knew Hamas would try [to launch a terror attack] in any way it can."
Neither Hamas nor other Palestinian militant groups immediately claimed the attack. Lerner said that the incursion had not affected Israel's plan to support the truce. However, Almoz told The Times of Israel that the Israeli Defense Forces would not hesitate to launch new attacks to prevent rocket fire by Hamas, adding that the five-hour period was a "humanitarian window" to help "the population trapped in Gaza under a regime that uses it as hostages."
In the lead-up to the start of the temporary cease-fire at 10 a.m. local time (3 a.m. Eastern Time), Israeli aircraft struck 37 targets in Gaza early Thursday, including homes of two Hamas leaders, Fathi Hamad and Khalil al-Haya, according to the military.
The cease-fire had been requested by the United Nations so that emergency supplies, including food and water could be delivered into Gaza. 
The cross-border fighting has so far killed more than 220 Palestinians and an Israeli, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Egypt has meanwhile resumed efforts to broker a longer-term truce after its initial plan was rejected by Hamas earlier in the week. Hamas, which seized Gaza seven years ago, wants international guarantees that the territory's blockade by Israel and Egypt will be eased significantly and that Israel will release Palestinian prisoners.
An Egyptian newspaper reporting on the cease-fire negotiations claimed that Israel had refused to consider a Hamas demand that Gaza residents be allowed access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, considered Islam's third-holiest site. Another reported sticking point was Hamas' demand for the release of six prisoners initially freed by Israel as part of an exchange for a captured IDF soldier, but later re-arrested in the West Bank.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.