Daniel Off To Israel . CNN Is Incapable of Being Honest When Reporting About Israel!

Ok, so I am biased. I also do not own a pen nor a cell phone so sue me, what difference does it make.

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Report: FAA Backed Down After Israeli Threat to Ramp Up

Israel threatened to go disproportional on Gaza, if the FAA ban on US flights to Israel wasn't rescinded.

By: Shalom Bear

Israel reportedly told the United States that it understands the rules and the reasoning behind the FAA ban on US flights to Israel, according to Arad Nir of Israel Channel 2.

Israel reportedly told the US that this situation (of the FAA ban) can’t continue, so in order to resolve it, Israel will need to significantly and disproportionately ramp up its attack on Gaza, and put an immediate stop to all the rocket attacks, thus allowing US flight to Israel to resume.

Nir claims the message was understood and the FAA ban was rescinded

Our son has been in touch with family in Israel and is contemplating going over Tuesday to help with the harvesting of tomatoes because Israel is short handed and, because of the rocket disruption, Israel is paying a significant economic price which is what Hamas wishes to inflict knowing they cannot defeat Israel militarily.

Daniel studied both in Egypt and Israel, is fairly fluent in French, Hebrew and Arabic and is becoming so in Spanish and can also speak a little Russian and Mandarin Chinese.

His trip along with 17 others is being financed by a wealthy Pittsburgh philanthropist and friend of Daniel after Daniel solicited him.

What goes around comes around.  Daniel's grandfather, my father, helped Israel arm itself beginning in 1945 some years before it became a state.

God speed Daniel - we are proud of you.!

Comments from our son: " It looks like the mission is going to be Tuesday to Sunday.  I think I am going to go.  I will probably go to NY today, spend a few days with the family and then drive into the city and leave from there.  I can fly back to Pittsburgh from Israel and be home Sunday.

I recognize the danger and such, but sometimes there are things you just have to do and now is one of those times.  Like I said in the email, if it were up to me we would all be over there already, living.  For another time.  Love you guys. "(See 1 below.)
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Obama's feckless behaviour may be partly responsible for reuniting former enemies in The Middle East. (See 2 and below.)

The stupidity of it all. (See 2a and 2b below.)
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Israeli Ambassador REAMS OUT CNN for not reporting UN statement that says 
Hamas makes:

http://therightscoop.com/israeli-ambassador-reams-out-cnn-for-not-reporting-un-statement-that-says-hamas-makes-un-schools-a-target/

I recently reported on my own experience with a noted CNN reporter when I was in Israel.  I challenged his biased reporting and got back a standard answer.

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Obama needs another reset button! (See 3 below.)

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Dick

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1)

James T. Conway: The Moral Chasm Between Israel and Hamas - WSJ

By  

JAMES T. CONWAY

Gen. Conway, who retired in 2010, was the 34th commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

Americans are understandably concerned when they hear that the majority of Palestinian casualties in the fighting between Israel and Hamas have been civilians and when they see images of houses in Gaza reduced to rubble and women wailing. Given the lack of corresponding Israeli civilian casualties to date, this creates the impression of an unequal—and hence immoral—fight between Israel and Hamas.

Although American empathy for noncombatants is a critical component of who we are as a people, it should not blind us to reality: Israel's military exists to protect its civilian population and seeks to avoid harming noncombatants, while its adversary cynically uses Palestinian civilians as human shields while deliberately targeting Israeli civilians.

I recently had the opportunity to see for myself the moral chasm between how the Israeli Defense Forces and Hamas treat civilians during military operations. 

In May I joined a dozen other retired U.S. generals and admirals on a trip to Israel with the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Just outside Hamas-ruled Gaza, we toured a tunnel discovered less than one kilometer from an Israeli kindergarten. Unlike tunnels that I had seen during the Iraq war that were designed for smuggling, this Hamas tunnel was designed for launching murder and kidnapping raids. The 3-mile-long tunnel was reinforced with concrete, lined with telephone wires, and included cabins unnecessary for infiltration operations but useful for holding hostages.

Israel, fearing just such tunnel-building, has long tried to limit imports of concrete to Gaza for anything but humanitarian projects, yet somehow thousands of tons of the material have been diverted for terror use rather than building hospitals or housing for Palestinians. Since the beginning of ground operations into Gaza, the IDF has uncovered approximately 30 similar tunnels leading into Israel, in addition to the more than two dozen discovered prior to Operation Protective Edge. Hamas operatives have been intercepted emerging from such tunnels in Israel carrying tranquilizers and handcuffs, apparently hoping to replicate the successful 2006 kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, for whom Israel exchanged 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in 2011.

Beyond targeting Israeli civilians with kidnappings and with the indiscriminate firing of rockets, Hamas shows a callous disregard for the lives of the Palestinians it ostensibly represents. Earlier this month Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri appeared on Al-Aqsa TV and encouraged Gaza residents to act as human shields. They appear to have heeded the call: Israeli Defense Forces combat video has shown Palestinians rushing to rooftops after receiving warnings from Israel—via phone calls, text messages, and unarmed "knock-knock" small projectiles striking a targeted building—that a missile attack is imminent.

Nor is Hamas the only potential adversary of Israel that believes its civilians' propaganda value is worth more than their lives. From an IDF outpost overlooking the border, I saw housing tracts in Lebanon built with Iranian money after Israel's 2006 war with Hezbollah. The IDF has determined that the housing masks the launch sites for some of the more than 100,000 rockets that Hezbollah holds in reserve for attacking Israel and its citizens. As we have seen in images from Gaza, the occupants of these dwellings either will serve as human shields to deter Israeli pre-emptive strikes, or in the event of another war they will be valuable "collateral damage"—dying in the service of Hezbollah's propaganda mill.

This cynical inducement of civilian suffering for propaganda is in marked contrast to the IDF's treatment of noncombatants. While Hamas is encouraging the sacrifice of its civilian population—and its cowardly leadership is ensconced in underground bomb shelters—the IDF reports that in the conflict's first week it provided more than 4,400 tons of food to Palestinians in Gaza, about 900 tons of natural gas and about 3.2 million liters of diesel fuel. All this despite 1,700 Hamas rockets fired at Israel.

Meanwhile, the Rutenberg power plant outside Ashdod in Israel supplies Gaza with electricity, though the Palestinian Authority's payments are badly in arrears. This supply only stopped when a Hamas rocket destroyed the power lines to Gaza on July 13, plunging 70,000 Palestinian households into darkness. Despite the rocket fire, Israel repaired the transmission lines, restoring electricity to Gaza.

I do not relate these experiences to argue for an Israeli moral perfection that does not exist, or to suggest that the IDF should be immune from criticism even if it commits genuine abuses. The tragic reality is that no matter how much the IDF tries to avoid collateral damage, its operations will kill some number of civilians. That won't be close to the carnage of noncombatants in the Syrian civil war, but it won't matter. As one Israeli commander told me, "The world judges Israel differently," regardless of its efforts to minimize civilian casualties.

I suspect that he may be right. If so, it is essential for the IDF to be as vigilant in shaping the information environment as it is in intercepting rockets from Gaza.

Gen. Conway, who retired in 2010, was the 34th commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps.

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2)

The return of the axis of evil  Analysis: After Syrian civil war created rift between Hamas, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, Gaza  conflict may be bringing them all back together.  By Roi Kais Is Hamas making a public comeback into the axis of evil? Amid its disappointment at the stance taken by many Arab  countries, particularly Egypt, in regards to Israel's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, the Islamic movement is being  embraced by its natural allies in the resistance axis – especially Iranand Hezbollah. The relations between Hamas and its two natural allies cooled off after Hamas leaders spoke in favor of the Sunni  rebels in Syria, as the Hamas members are Sunni as well, and against the Bashar Assad regime, which is supported  by Alawites and Shiites. Iran is a mostly Shiite state and Hezbollah is a Shiite organization.  The Hamas leadership abroad, led by political bureau chief Khaled Mashal, left its headquarters in Damascus after the  start of the civil war. The Syrian regime is showing no signs of forgiveness towards Hamas and Mashal, but it is taking  advantage of the escalation in Gaza to divert the world's attention from what happening in Syria. Hamas' Mashal (L) and Hezbollah's Nasrallah (Archive photo: AP) As he began his third term as president last week, Assad used his inauguration speech to mock the Arab states  which are failing to help Gaza, calling on them to send weapons and fighters to the Strip just like they aided the rebels  in Syria. Assad's advisor, Bouthaina Shaaban, was quoted in recent days as saying that "aggression against Gaza is  aggression against Syria." Iran and Hezbollah did not settle for declaring their support for Gaza, but made direct contact with the person leading  the current battle in Gaza from Qatar, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal. Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah,  who has been monitoring the situation from Lebanon, spoke to Mashal and Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ramadan  Abdullah Shalah on the phone. He also met with Shalah in Beirut during Operation Protective Edge. In these conversations, Nasrallah praised Hamas' performance, expressed his organization's willingness to cooperate  against Israel and voiced his satisfaction at what he heard from Mashal, that the battle could lead to "the second victory  of July." The first "victory of July," according to Nasrallah, was the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The axis of evil summit: Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah (Archive photo: AP) The conversation itself should not be taken for granted, especially in light of the fact that in the past few months Mashal  has not been receiving much praise in Hezbollah's media outlets in Lebanon on the backdrop of the events in Syria  and Egypt and Hamas' automatic link to the (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood movement. During Operation Protective Edge, Hezbollah's journal gave the credit for what is happening in Gaza first of all to the  Islamic Jihad's military wing and only then to Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, although Hamas' military wing  is clearly leading the battle. Gaza uniting resistance Nasrallah, who is still rolling in the Syrian mud and losing fighters in the Syrian civil war as Hezbollah continues to aid  Assad's army, hopes that the developments in Gaza will divert the fire towards Israel, at least in the intra-Lebanese  arena. The first signs of that in the Lebanese arena could be seen in the united show of support for Gaza's residents  by both pro-Hezbollah and anti-Hezbollah media outlets. The Hezbollah-affiliated As-Safir newspaper has also detected this trend. According to the headline of one of its articles  on the talks between Nasrallah, Mashal and Shalah, "Gaza is uniting the resistance." According to the Lebanese paper, the Islamic Jihad movement – and particularly its leader Shalah – is playing a  key role in bringing Hamas closer to Hezbollah and Tehran in recent months. Shalah, unlike Mashal and his  leadership, did not burn the bridges with the resistance axis following the events in Syria, but remained in touch with it. In addition to his conversation with Nasrallah, the newspaper reported, the Hamas leader has received as many as  three phone calls from Tehran in the past few days – from Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, from Iranian Foreign  Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and from one of the Revolutionary Guards commanders. Sources in Hamas' political leadership said Monday that Mashal had received another phone call from the Iranian  foreign minister, who expressed Tehran's support and appreciation for "the Palestinian resistance" in the face of "the  Israeli aggression." Mashal thanked Zarif and stressed that the Palestinian people were defending themselves  against "the Israeli war machine." Sources quoted by the Lebanese newspaper said that before Zarif's latest call, the Iranian officials had expressed their  willingness to aid Hamas in different ways in its battle against Israel. They also praised the performance of Hamas and  the other factions and the "surprises" they had in store for Israel, which "restored the faith in Hamas' role." The newspaper further quoted knowledgeable sources who claimed that "the battle in Gaza plays a significant part in  restoring the status of the resistance factions in Lebanon, Palestine and the region. It requires a new type of  cooperation whose first signs are terminating the misunderstandings of the previous period and reuniting the  resistance front based on Palestine being the key issue and Israel being the greatest threat to the region's Arab and  Islamic people." A senior Hamas source told the newspaper that "the conversation between Mashal and Nasrallah is a very important  step towards rebuilding the Arab and Islamic resistance front in the battle against the Zionist enemy." Nasrallah smelling blood Osama Hamdan, who is in charge of Hamas' international relations, addressed the issue in recent days, saying that  "the relationship with Hezbollah and Iran today is much better than people tend to think. The relationship with Hezbollah  is a few levels better than the optimists would expect. There is one enemy and it has one tactic. That is why an ongoing  effort has been made to exchange knowledge. There is permanent cooperation and coordination on the ground." From Iran to southern Lebanon. Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei (L), Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah (Photo: Reuters) Sources close to the Hezbollah organization told the El-Nashra website on Tuesday that "we must not let the  resistance in the Gaza Strip fall." They added, however, that in light of the current performance of the resistance in Gaza , there was no need for Hezbollah to join the battle. They also claimed that Hamas' military wing had never abandoned  the resistance, even over the disagreement on the Syrian issue. The same sources argued that the weapons being used by the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the rockets they  have in store were received after the beginning of the crisis in Syria. As for the conversation with Mashal, one of the  sources said that "it's not that Hezbollah went to Mashal, it's he who came back to the resistance." The building relationship between Hezbollah and Hamas has also been detected by Tariq al-Hamid, the editor of  London-based Saudi newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat, who is known as one of Nasrallah's strongest critics over  Hezbollah's involvement in Syria. In an article he published Wednesday, titled "Nasrallah smelled the blood," al-Hamid wrote: "Like a shark in the sea,  the Hezbollah leader smelled the blood in Gaza and moved closer using his head, in order to take the opportunity to  try to erase his Arab past stained with the blood of Syrians." According to al-Hamid, Nasrallah sees the war in Gaza as an opportunity to polish the image of his bloodstained  organization and an opportunity to attack the Egyptian stance and Egyptian initiative, which has gained international  and Arab support. "If Nasrallah's statements are sincere, what he should do is not open a front with Israel but only withdraw from Syria  and leave its residents alone, instead of murdering the Syrians more brutally than the Israelis are doing in Gaza. It’s  enough to say that the number of Syrians killed so far has crossed 170,000 people. "Hezbollah's plan is clear. It wants to use the Palestinian blood to achieve its goal (improving Hezbollah's image)." 2a) Hamas resists Kerry's  attempts at Gaza cease-fire deal - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  SO WHAT DOES  KERRY  DO NEXT? HE GIVES THEM Millions OF OUR DOLLARS SO THEY CAN BUY  MORE  ROCKETS AND  BUILD  MORE TUNNELS July 24, 2014: An Israeli tank moves through the morning mist near the Israel and Gaza border. (AP Photo/ Dusan Vranic) Secretary of State John Kerry's proposals for a cease-fire that would halt the fighting in the Gaza Strip have  been resisted by the Islamic militant group Hamas, who insist that any truce agreement must meet the group's  main demand that a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory be lifted. "When it comes to the balance of power in this crisis between us and Israel, they are the executioners, the  aggressors, the occupiers, the settlers, and we are the true owners of the land," Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal  said Wednesday in a televised speech from his home-in-exile in Doha, Qatar. "We will not accept anything but  the end of the siege." The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that diplomats from the U.S., Israel, and other Middle Eastern  countries are reworking a cease-fire proposal made by Egypt's foreign ministry last week. The paper reports  that the new proposal would call for both Israel and Hamas to cease military operations in the coming days  before calling on the U.S. and the international community to begin talks on a long-term economic program for  Gaza. Hamas rejected the initial Egyptian cease-fire proposal on the grounds that it had not been consulted by Cairo,  and claimed that the plan did not provide for the lifting of the blockade or the release of militant prisoners from  Israeli custody. The Journal reports that Hamas' demands to open up the movement of goods into Gaza are likely to be met with  resistance by Israel unless it is allowed to monitor the trade for weapons bound for Hamas. Meanwhile, Israeli military officials told The Journal this week that Hamas's fighters are better-equipped and  better-trained than in previous clashes in 2009 and 2012, said an Israeli military officer who requested anonymity. The militants are using a strategy of avoidance, relying on snipers and improvised explosive devices to hit Israeli  forces rather than engaging in face-to-face fighting where they would be at a big disadvantage, he said. They  have infiltrated Israel through five cross-border tunnels, even as the army moves to destroy others. Israeli tanks and warplanes continued to bombard the Gaza Strip on Thursday. Israel said that three of its  soldiers had died Wednesday, bringing the military's death toll to 32 since ground operations in Gaza began on July 17 with the aim of halting rocket fire from Gaza and destroying a sophisticated network of cross-border  tunnels. Two Israeli civilians and a Thaiworker in Israel have also been killed. The 16-day conflict has claimed the lives of 736 Palestinians, most of them civilians, Palestinian health officials  say. Gaza health officials say at least 15 people were killed Thursday when Israeli tank shells hit a compound  housing a U.N. school in the northern Gaza Strip. A U.N. spokesman  Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said the 15 were among hundreds of people seeking shelter in the school  from heavy fighting in the area. At least 150 people were injured. The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that seven people were killed by tank shells at the school in the  northern town of Beit Hanoun. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon released a statement through a spokesman condemning the bloodshed  at the school. U.N. staff members were reportedly among victims killed in the attack.  Thursday's incident was the fourth time a U.N. facility has been hit in fighting between Israel and Palestinian  militants in Gaza.  UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency, has said it has found militant rockets inside two  vacant schools, but has yet to confirm the latest reports of the deaths. Six members of the same family and an 18-month-old infant boy were killed Thursday when an Israeli airstrike hit the Jebaliya refugee camp in the early morning hours, according to Gaza police and health officials.  Twenty others were injured in the strike, they said, and rescuers were digging through the rubble of flattened homes, looking for survivors. An airstrike on a home in the southern Gaza town of Abassan killed five members of another family, said Gaza  health official Ashraf al-Kidra. Abassan is near Khan Younis, in an area that saw intense fighting on Wednesday. Heavy fighting was reported along the border of central Gaza, according to Gaza police spokesman Ayman  Batniji. Israeli troops fired tank shells that reached parts of the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps. There were  no immediate reports of injuries. Clashes also erupted between Palestinian fighters and Israeli troops in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, and the sound of explosions was audible across the town, Batniji said. Israeli naval vessels meanwhile fired more than 100 shells along the coast of Gaza City and northern Gaza, the  spokesman said, adding that rescue teams were unable to operate in the area because of the heavy fire. More than 2,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza since July 8, and the Israeli military says it has uncovered more than 30 tunnels leading from Gaza to Israel, some of which have been used by Hamas to carry  out attacks. Israel imposed the blockade in 2006 after Hamas and other militants abducted an Israeli soldier in a deadly  cross-border raid. It tightened the siege in 2007 after Hamas seized power from forces loyal to Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, but had eased some of the restrictions in recent years. Egypt tightened its own restrictions last year after the overthrow of a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo and  has destroyed many of the cross-border smuggling tunnels that sustained Gaza's economy, and which were also used by Hamas to bring in arms. 2b)Israel must be permitted to crush Hamas By Michael Oren  Michael Oren was Israel’s ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013. He currently is a fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya and the Atlantic Council. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary of State John Kerry and the foreign ministers of  Great Britain and France all are rushing to achieve a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Their  motive — to end civilian suffering and restore stability to the area — is noble. The images of the  wounded and dead resulting from the conflict are indeed agonizing. However, these senior statesmen  can be most helpful now by doing nothing. To preserve the values they cherish and to send an  unequivocal message to terrorist organizations and their state sponsors everywhere, Israel must be  permitted to crush Hamas in the Gaza Strip. This is the lesson of previous rounds of fighting between the Israeli Defense Forces and terrorist  strongholds. In Lebanon in 2006 and in Gaza in 2008 and again in 2012, Israel responded to rocket  attacks on its cities with fierce counteroffensives. Fighting against a deeply dug-in enemy that both  blended in with the local population and used it as a shield, Israel’s best efforts to avoid civilian  casualties invariably proved limited. Incensed world opinion generated immense pressure on  governments to convene the U.N. Security Council and empower human rights organizations to  censure Israel and stop the carnage.  These measures succeeded where the terrorists’ rockets failed. Israel was compelled to back down. And the terrorists, though badly mauled, won. Admittedly, their bar for claiming victory was  exceptionally low. While Israel must achieve a clear battlefield success to win, the terrorists merely  had to survive. But they did more than survive. Under the protection of cease-fires and, in some  cases, international peacekeepers, they vastly expanded their arsenals to include more lethal and longer-range missiles. While reestablishing their rule in the streets, they burrowed beneath them to  create a warren of bombproof bunkers and assault tunnels. Such measures enabled Hamas, as well  as Hezbollah, to mount devastating attacks at the time of their choosing, confident that the  international community would once again prevent Israel from exacting too heavy a price. So the cycle continued. Allowed to fight for several weeks, at most, Israel was eventually condemned  and hamstrung by cease-fires. The terrorists, by contrast, could emerge from their hideouts and begin to replenish and enhance their stockpiles. That is precisely the pattern established in the second  Lebanon War and repeated in Operations Cast Lead and Pillar of Defense in Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas sustained losses but, rescued and immunized by international diplomacy, they remained in power and became more powerful still. Israel, on the other hand, was forced to defend its right to  defend itself. Jihadist organizations no different from the Islamic State and al-Qaeda gained regional  legitimacy, while Israel lost it in the world. The cycle can end, now and decisively. As Operation Protective Edge enters its third week ,  responsible world leaders can give Israel the time and the leverage it needs to alter Hamas’s calculus.  They can let the Israeli army ferret Hamas out of its holes and make it pay a prohibitive cost for its  attacks. They can create an outcome in which the organization, even if it remains in Gaza, is defanged and deprived of its heavy arms. Of course, Hamas will resist demilitarization, and more civilians will  suffer, but by ending the cycle once and for all thousands of innocent lives will be saved. Life in Gaza is miserable now, but if Israel is permitted to prevail, circumstances can improve markedly. U.S.- and Canadian-trained security forces of the Palestinian Authority can take over key crossings  and patrol Gaza’s porous border with Egypt. Rather than be funneled into Hamas’s war chest,  international aid can be transferred directly to the civilian population to repair war damage and  stimulate economic growth. Terrorist groups and their state patrons can be put on notice: The game  has changed unalterably. And by letting Israel regain its security with regard to Gaza — with all the pain it entails — the United  States and its allies will be safeguarding their own. Though bitter, the fighting between Israel and  Hamas raging in Gaza’s alleyways is merely part of the far vaster struggle between rational nations  and the al-Qaeda and Islamic State-like forces seeking their destruction. Relative to that global conflict, Operation Protective Edge may seem small, but it is nevertheless pivotal. To ensure that it concludes  with a categorical Israeli win is in the world’s fundamental interest. To guarantee peace, this war must  be given a chance.  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3)Russia has now amassed around 15,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, the U.S. ambassador to  NATO said on Friday, and the Pentagon warned that movement of Russian heavy caliber artillery systems  across the border into Ukraine is "imminent." The Pentagon went further, suggesting Russia is escalating the military action there. U.S. Ambassador to  NATO Douglas Lute offered the troop estimate during a security forum in Colorado, saying there were "now up again over about 15,000 Russian troops amassed along the border with Ukraine." Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said the U.S. has seen the powerful rocket systems moving  closer to the Ukraine border and they could be put into the hands of Russian-backed separatists as soon  as Friday. He says he doesn't have an exact timeline. U.S. officials warned this week that they had new evidence that Russia intended to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to the separatist forces in Ukraine. Warren told reporters Friday  that the delivery could happen at any time, adding "it's that close" to the border. Warren also said that Russia continues to fire artillery across the border into Ukraine. "For the last several days Russian forces using Russian artillery from Russian soil have conducted attacks  against Ukrainian military positions in Ukraine," said Warren. "This is unquestionably an escalation from a  military perspective." He declined to say what impact the attacks have had on Ukraine's military, but said the attacks are coming from the southern border area, near Rostov-on-Don. Warren said the U.S. has seen no indications of Ukraine firing back into Russia and there have been no reports of civilian casualties. He said the number of Russian troops along the border continues to slowly  but steadily increase. Close to 12,000 are there now. The Ukrainian army on Friday said soldiers had come under artillery fire from the Russian side of the  border overnight and were attacked by rebels in several other places in the restive east. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------