The OSCE monitoring mission on the Russian-Ukrainian border has registered no violations of international law by the Russian side during its week-long stay at the Gukovo and Donetsk checkpoints, mission head Paul Picard said.

During his press conference, Picard was asked to comment on Western claims that Russia is shelling Ukrainian territory and has starting deployment troops to the country.

"In these two border crossings we haven't seen such happenings," he replied.

The observers were assessing two checkpoints - Gukovo and Donetsk - on the border with Ukraine's Lugansk Region, which are separated from each other by around 30km.

Gukovo checkpoint is currently closed from the Ukrainian side, but traffic at the Donetsk border crossing is "high," Picard stressed.

Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev has signed a decree on the full ban for imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit from Australia, Canada, the EU, the US and Norway.

The ban will last a year, starting August 7.

The Prime Minister also said Russia has stopped transit flights by Ukrainian airlines to such destinations as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey, adding that the country was considering a ban of transit flights for European and US Airlines to the Asia-Pacific region.

Western sanctions were a "dead-end track", but Russia has been forced to respond to the measures taken by the western countries, Medvedev added.

Alcohol imports from both the EU and the US will not be restricted.

After easily defeating his primary challenger on Tuesday, Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) delivered a scathing victory speech slamming his opponent for running a "smear campaign" against him.

"I ran for office to stop people like you," Amash said, referring to his primary challenger, Brian Ellis.

"You owe my family and this community an apology for your disgusting, despicable smear campaign. You had the audacity to try and call me today after running a campaign that was called the nastiest in the country," he continued.

Amash ended up defeated the Chamber of Commerce-backed Ellis by 14 points.

As the Washington Post points out, Ellis in one campaign ad cited a quote from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) claiming the Arab-American Amash is "Al Qaeda's best friend in Congress."

Amnesty International has called for an investigation into the abuse of power by pro-Kiev "vigilantes," including Ukrainian ultra-radical MP Oleg Lyashko. The organization described instances of abductions and physical abuse of victims.

So-called "interrogations" carried out by Lyashko - which he has boasted about on his official YouTube page - alarmed the human rights watchdog. Amnesty issued a report calling for the lawmaker to be held accountable for his actions.

"Amnesty International has recently raised its concerns with the Ukrainian authorities about one particularly errant MP who has been 'detaining' - in effect abducting - and ill-treating individuals across the region," the organization said in a statement.

The US dollar, the dominant global currency since 1944, may lose some of its luster due to the American-led sanctions against Russia over the turmoil in Ukraine. The greenback has been fading in favor since the global financial crisis in 2008.

The US-led sanctions against Russia may have backfired on the US because it threatens to "hasten a move away from the dollar that's been stirring since the global financial crisis [in 2008]," Rachel Evans at Bloomberg wrote. In an unexpected turn of events, Hong Kong's central bank has bought more than $9.5 billion since the start of July "to prevent its currency from rallying as the sanctions stoked speculation of an influx of Russian cash," she noted.

"OAO MegaFon, Russia's second-largest wireless operator, shifted some cash holdings into the city's dollar," according to Bloomberg. "Trading of the Chinese yuan versus the Russian ruble rose to the highest on July 31 since the end of 2010, according to the Moscow Exchange."

The office of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted on Wednesday that it is allowing the transfer of hundreds of millions of shekels to the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip every month.

Most of the funds enter Gaza in currency exchanges for the dollars and euros Hamas smuggles into the territory following fund-raising trips to Iran and other supportive Middle East regimes. In a letter to the Prime Minister's Office earlier in the week, the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center warned that the government was actively aiding the perpetuation of Hamas rule in Gaza, despite its own stated policies.

Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner explained that without the influx of Israeli shekels, the currency of record in Gaza, Hamas would be financially unable to rule. By allowing the entry of shekels into Gaza, Darshan-Leitner noted that Israel is breaching an economic embargo of Gaza by Western powers that Israel itself insisted upon, and is helping a terrorist organization to launder money, a direct violation of the Terror-Funding Act of 2005.

In the spring of 2002, the Israeli military had the Palestinian town of Ramallah under siege. The IDF had captured three of the four Palestinian television stations. While in control of these media outlets, the Israeli military implemented a very disturbing plan: they began broadcasting pornographic movies to the Palestinian households.

For those who are familiar with the tactics frequently used by Israel against thePalestinian people, such a thing will come as no surprise. And they have done far worse. Yet, there's something especially twisted about this event.

Predictably, a spokesman for the IDF flatly denied that the military was involved in this and went so far as to blame Arafat for the broadcasts. This was a blatantly ridiculous statement, as the television stations broadcasting the pornography were occupied by Israeli forces at the time. An Israeli spokesman for the Foreign Ministry admitted that this was "shameful," and said, "I cannot believe Israeli soldiers would engage in such despicable behavior." Perhaps he was partially correct and this wasn't simply a random prank executed by a few "Israeli soldiers." In fact, I find this explanation difficult to believe. This was more likely part of a larger propaganda campaign involving media personnel acting on authorization which went beyond the basic ground troops.

[ Editor's note: You just can't make this stuff up. This is one of the most deranged, most ludicrous statements I have ever heard a president make, an off-the-planet kind. But it gets worse.

It takes contempt for the public to put something out like this, even if Obama's staff had prepared it. It shows we have a government by psyops, and that WE are the target of that attack by our own leadership, as evidenced my this most recent manure truck dumped on our front lawn.

Dear Mr. President, You actually claim Russia is "moving into Ukraine...really?" So what do you think Victoria Nuland's $5 billion was for, and all the color revolutions we have been supporting, even after we got our Nobel Peace Prize president, who has made a joke of that award, cheapened it?

We have our State Dept., CIA, NATO and military contractors running all over the place in Ukraine, creating mayhem along with the Israelis. The graft has already started with "children of politicians" lining up to get a piece of the action, like VP Joe Biden's son. The list is growing already, the usual suspects.

American military forces bombed at least two targets in northern Iraq on Thursday night to rout Islamist insurgents who have trapped tens of thousands of religious minorities in Kurdish areas, Kurdish officials said.

Word of the bombings, reported on Kurdish television from the city of Erbil, came as President Obama was preparing to make a statement in Washington.

Kurdish officials said the bombings targeted fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria who had seized two towns, Gwer and Mahmour. Residents who had fled those areas by car were heard honking their horns in approval. But Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said on Twitter that the reports of the bombings were false.

Obama administration officials had said earlier in the day that Mr. Obama was considering airstrikes or airdrops of food and medicine to address a humanitarian crisis among as many as 40,000 members of religious minorities in Iraq, who have been dying of heat and thirst on a mountaintop where they took shelter after death threats from ISIS.

"We must expel Arabs and take their place." - David Ben-Gurion, October 5 1937, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 41, No. 2 (Winter 2012), University of California Press, pp. 245-250.*
1980's

For 30 years, from the War of Independence until today [1981], we [Israel] have been fighting against a population that lives in villages and cities.(1) In South Lebanon we struck the civilian population consciously, because they deserved it... the Israeli Army has always struck civilian populations, purposely and consciously ... the Army... has never distinguished civilian [from military] targets ... [but] purposely attacked civilian targets when Israeli settlements had not been struck.(2)

There were retaliatory actions against civilian Arab populations; the air force operated against them; the damage was directed against such structures as the canal, bridges and transport.(3) The picture that emerges is of an Israel wantonly inflicting every possible measure of death and anguish on civilian populations in a mood reminiscent of regimes which neither Mr. (Prime Minister) Begin nor I would dare to mention by name.(4) There was a rational prospect, ultimately fulfilled, that afflicted populations [i.e., innocent civilians deliberately bombed] would exert pressure for the cessation of hostilities.(5)

We don't have a solution, and you [Palestinians] will continue living like dogs, and whoever wants to go will go, and will see how this procedure will work out.(23)

2000's

[After Israel won the Six Day War in June 1967] We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one ‑ progressive, liberal ‑ in Israel; and the other ‑ cruel, injurious ‑ in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture.

That oppressive regime exists to this day [2002.](6)

Israel is an occupying power that for 40 years has been oppressing an indigenous people, which is entitled to a sovereign and independent existence while living in peace with us. We should remember that we too used very violent terror against foreign rule because we wanted our own state. And the list of victims of terror is quite long and extensive.

We do limit ourselves to denying the [Palestinian] people human rights. We not only rob of them of their freedom, land and water. We apply collective punishment to millions of people and even, in revenge‑driven frenzy, destroy the electricity supply for one and half million civilians. Let them "sit in the darkness" and"starve."

Through its army, the government of Israel practices a brutal form of Apartheid in the territory it occupies. Its army has turned every Palestinian village and town into a fenced‑in, or blocked‑in, detention camp. All this is done in order to keep an eye on the population's movements and to make its life difficult. Israel even imposes a total curfew whenever the settlers, who have illegally usurped the Palestinians' land, celebrate their holidays or conduct their parades.(7)

The main thing is, first and foremost, to hit them hard. Not just one hit... but many painful [hits], so that the price will be unbearable. The price is not unbearable, now. A total assault on the Palestinian Authority. To bring them to a state of panic that everything is collapsing ... fear that everything will collapse... this is what we'll bring them to...(16)

The troops will be preceded by a ferocious pillar of fire. After the shooting, the warnings, anyone remaining in the area, in one of the most densely populated urban sites in the world is either a terrorist or knows the price to pay.(8)

The commanders and soldiers who were sent to Gaza need to know that they are safe from various tribunals.(21)

The first time we went in, we were given orders to target our machine guns at every suspicious point that could be used to fire upon us. And we shot at anything that moved. The civilians in the area had already been told that we were coming in, so I don't feel bad for anyone hurt there. If they remained there, they must have been Hamas.(22)

I want aggressiveness - if there's someone suspicious on the upper floor of a house,we'll shell it. If we have suspicions about a house, we'll take it down... There will be no hesitation... Nobody will deliberate - let the mistakes be over their lives, not ours.(20)

The commanders and soldiers who were sent to Gaza need to know that they are safe from various tribunals.(21)

What happened in the Dahiye Quarter of Beirut in 2006, will happen in every village from which shots are fired on Israel. We will use disproportionate force against it and we will cause immense damage and destruction. From our point of view these are not civilian villages but military bases. This is not a recommendation, this is the plan, and it has already been authorized.(9)

With an outbreak of hostilities, the IDF will need to act immediately, decisively, and with force that is disproportionate to the enemy's actions and the threat it poses. Such a response aims at inflicting damage and meting out punishment to an extent that will demand long and expensive reconstruction processes. The strike must be carried out as quickly as possible, and must prioritize damaging assets over seeking out each and every launcher. Punishment must be aimed at decision makers and the power elite... attacks should both aim at Hezbollah's military capabilities and should target economic interests and the centers of civilian power that support the organization.

This approach is applicable to the Gaza Strip as well.(10)

I'm telling them to stop it. We are stronger; there will be more blood there. We have power, enormous power; we can do things that are devastating.(11)

Our response will be disproportionate. We won't go back to the rules that the terrorist organisations tried to dictate.(12)

Such a war will lead to the elimination of the Lebanese military, the destruction of the national infrastructure, and intense suffering among the population. There will be no recurrence of the situation where Beirut residents (not including the Dahiye quarter) go to the beach and cafes while Haifa residents sit in bomb shelters. Serious damage to the Republic of Lebanon, the destruction of homes and infrastructure, and the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people are consequences that can influence Hezbollah's behavior more than anything else.(13)

The people who go into a house despite a warning do not have to be taken into account in terms of injury to civilians, because they are voluntary human shields. From the legal point of view, I do not have to show consideration for them. In the case of people who return to their home in order to protect it, they are taking part in the fighting.(14)

Israel demonstrated real hooliganism during the course of the recent operation [Cast Lead], which I demanded.(15)