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Turkey’s Foreign Minister warned on Friday against attacking Iran and called for diplomatic dialogue with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. Speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would lead to “a disaster.” Channel 2 News quoted Davutoglu…

Russia accused the West on Friday of being an “accomplice” to the violence in Syria, saying the country’s opposition bore full responsibility for ending the ongoing violence in the country. AFP quoted Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov as having said that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s promise to stage a new constitutional referendum meant that…

Hamas’ Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, arrived in Tehran for an official trip on Friday. The Iranian Fars news agency reported that Haniyeh was welcomed by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi at Tehran’s International Airport. The visit is taking place following an official invitation extended to Haniyeh by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the report…

Malaysian police detained a young Saudi journalist and poet who fled his country after Twitter comments he made about the Prophet Mohammed led to public calls for his execution. Hamza Kashgari was taken into custody after flying into Malaysia’s main international airport on Thursday, police spokesman Ramli Yoosuf told AFP. “Kashgari was detained at the…

Twenty-five people were killed and 175 people were wounded in two blasts targeting security bases in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Friday. Earlier it was reported the exposions had killed 11 people — soldiers and civilians. Some children were also reported killed in the attack. “Civilians and members of the military were martyred and…

At a time that the United States is trying to squeeze Iran and isolate her, Pakistan is doing the opposite. Pakistan has invited Iran and Afghanistan to a trilateral meeting on February 16 to discuss the situation after the departure of United States and NATO forces from Afghanistan. The Pakistani commentators are being smug, now…

Somalia’s Shaba’ab has officially joined the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri announced the news Thursday in a video posted on jihadi Internet forums. “Today I have glad tidings for the Muslim umma (nation) that will please the believers and disturb the disbelievers, which is the joining of the Shaba’ab al-Mujahedeen movement…

Arabs from the village of Burin near Shechem tried to infiltrate the Shomron (Samaria) community of Givat Ronen on Thursday evening. The Arabs managed to break the bedroom window of a house in the community, but the owner noticed them, and local residents began chasing them back towards Burin. Local residents told Arutz Sheva that…

On the same day that Hamas warned of an impending electricity crisis in Gaza within 72 hours, it was reported that Gaza has begun exporting tomatoes to Saudi Arabia. The export was coordinated by the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza and included 15 tons of tomatoes. The tomatoes were transferred to…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday warned against some of recent statements coming from Lebanon. In the past few days it has been hinted that the Lebanon-based Hizbullah terror group may create a provocation against Israel in order to divert attention from what is happening in Syria, where President Bashar Assad continues the lethal crackdown…

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz was censored by the Defense Ministry because of a remark he made hinting at an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Channel 2 News reported on Thursday. The incident occurred during Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s 70th birthday celebration in his office in Tel Aviv. The party was attended by…

Bedouin tribesmen kidnapped 18 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, near the border with Israel, on Thursday, according to a report on Israel’s Channel 10 News. Security officials were quoted in the report as having said that the kidnapping came in retaliation for the killing of tribesman who was shot by the Egyptian army while trying…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned Thursday that sophisticated weapons could be transferred from Syria to Lebanon and to the Hizbullah terror organization, should Bashar al-Assad fall. “You have to be alert to the possibility, so that during the fall of the regime there will not be the transfer of sophisticated Syrian weapons to Hizbullah and…

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has warned its citizens against traveling to the Maldives due to a revolt by police. A Muslim island nation in the Indian Ocean, the Republic of Maldives is in chaos after a military-backed coup wiped out a nine-year-old democracy earlier this week. President Mohamed Nasheed was toppled from power after having become…

The State of Israel has awarded the nation’s highest honor to elder diplomat Henry Kissinger and five other notables. Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz, whose life work is the Steinzaltz edition of the Talmud; famed Israel Philharmonic Orchestra director Zubin Mehta; the Rashi Foundation, and two others received Israel’s Presidential Medal Thursday. The awards were presented at…

According to reports from the Free Syria Army, the Syrian military has moved forces stationed in the southern part of the Syrian Golan Heights closer to Israel. The Syrian military did not come close to the border with Israel. However, armored forces that were stationed along the Syria-Jordan border, which were recently reinforced, were moved…

US forces have assassinated an Al Qaeda terrorist chief in a targeted air strike in Pakistan. A pre-dawn drone strike attack killed Badr Mansoor near the Afghan border, according to Pakistani officials and a member of the terrorist group. Badr Mansoor ran a training camp in North Waziristan, and reportedly sent fighters to Afghanistan.  He…

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and other security officials assured leaders in the American Jewish community that there is no concrete threat to Jewish targets in the country, Army Radio reported on Thursday. Last week it was reported that Israel has placed its consulates and embassies around the world on high alert, and…

Israel has refrained from deporting refugees from the Ivory Coast in recent months because of unrest there – but now that the situation in the country has improved, Israel has informed refugees from that region that they need to go home. And in a related issue, the Immigration Authority has informed refugees from Southern Sudan…

According to reports in the Arab media Thursday, Hamas top terrorist Khaled Mashaal, fearing to return to Syria, will be setting up shop in Qatar. Mashaal is currently in Qatar, where he met earlier this week with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to sign an agreement on a PA unity government. According to the report…

French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Wednesday that military action was no way to deal with nuclear-minded Iran, The Associated Press reported. Sarkozy made the comments at a dinner hosted by France’s main Jewish group and his likely presidential election rival was in the audience, the report noted. He reiterated his country’s ironclad commitment to…

President Shimon Peres reached out to the Iranian people Wednesday evening, saying “there is no need for us to live as enemies.” In a special address to the Knesset marking its 63rd anniversary, Peres spoke about the peace process with the Palestinian Authority, but also talked about the Iranian nuclear threat. In direct remarks to…

Iranian Armed Forces Deputy Chief of Staff for Cultural Affairs and Defense Publicity Brigadier, Massoud Jazayeri, said that Israel and the United States are in “no position to launch a military strike against Iran” and that the decision to do so would have grave consequences. The Iranian commander stressed that they do not take the…

President Shimon Peres told the Knesset in a speech on Wednesday that it was “up to the Palestinians to choose” between the path of terrorism or dialogue for peace. Peres made the remark during his address marking the 63rd anniversary of the establishment of Israel’s parliamentary body. His wide-ranging talk focused on a number of…

Syrian security forces are claiming to have captured an “armed gang” whose members possessed weapons manufactured in Israel and in the United States, local media reported on Wednesday. According to the report on the government-run SANA news agency, the weapons, which were seized in a neighborhood in the city of Homs, were described as “high-quality…

The commander of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff is set to meet for talks with the head of Egypt’s ruling Supreme Military Council over Cairo’s travel ban on a group of American pro-democracy activists. General Martin Dempsey is set to fly to Egypt this week for a “long planned” visit to meet with Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi as well as…

Over 2,000 people from throughout the country toured Samaria Wednesday in honor of Tu B’Shvat, as guests of the Samaria regional authority. The tourists included members of employees unions from several leading factories and firms, graduates of the Betar Movement, olim and students from the U.S. and France, and over 1,000 Likud members. The archeological…

Israel has discovered a new off-shore gas field, this time even closer to Lebanon, which warns it will go to war to defend its claim on gas finds. The new field, dubbed “Tanin I,” is north of the giant Tamar field, both of them located off the Haifa cost. Lebanon has gone to the United…

Nearly one-third of all U.S. terrorist attacks in a 38-year period took place in only five counties. Manhattan, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Washington, DC are the leaders, according to a University of Maryland study. The research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, covered 2,600 incidents classified as terrorist acts and which…

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud on Monday ordered the arrest of a Saudi columnist “for crossing red lines and denigrating religious beliefs in God and His Prophet,” the London-based Al Hayat daily reported. Hamza Kashgari went into hiding following public and official outrage over tweets he made that were labeled “blasphemy” and “abuse…

Police arrested four people, charged with committing hate crimes, after a man was attacked in the Monsey area of the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York. Monsey has a large Jewish population, including sizable religious Zionist, hassidic and hareidi communities. Two men, allegedly, approached a 19-year-old and “hit the victim in the head with a double-sided knife.”…

Palestinian Authority-controlled Shechem is allocating 300 tractors to plow and claim land in 25 locations near Jewish communities in Samaria, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency. Shechem governor Jibreel al-Bakri said that helping Arab farmers to cultivate the land is an unprecedented  action. The PA will provide farmers with fuel for their tractors. The…

Former kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit flew to Paris Wednesday to meet with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He and his parents, Noam and Aviv, are citizens of France. The soldier, whose freedom was secured last October in a deal to release 1,027 Palestinian Authority terrorists from Israeli prisons, met with Sarkozy at Elysee Palace. The French…

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah addressed on Tuesday the Israeli assumption that in the event of an Israeli attack in Iran, his terror group will respond and fire rockets at Israel. In a speech he gave and which was quoted by Israel’s Channel 2 News, Nasrallah stressed that his organization has full freedom of action in…

Middle East expert Professor Moshe Sharon, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said on Tuesday that the reconciliation agreement that was signed between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction and the Hamas terror group unveiled Abbas’ true colors. Abbas and the head of Hamas’…

Israel is planning to place military aircraft in Cyprus, according to a Channel 10 News report on Tuesday. The report cited Israeli officials who said the issue may be raised during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Nicosia later this month. The officials added, however, that a final decision on the matter has not yet…

Israeli politicians aren’t the only ones wrangling over how to deal with the Muslim call to prayer. An Islamist lawmaker in Cairo on Tuesday plunged Egypt’s parliament into chaos when he insisted on making the call to prayer during a heated debate in the plenum over violent clashes between security forces and protesters. MP Mamdouh…

The Obama administration refused to comment on the reconciliation agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas in Qatar on Monday. Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the agreement, calling it “a moral blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism.” The American administration, however, refused to comment on this development, as US State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland…

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman met Tuesday in Washington. The meeting reportedly lasted for 45 minutes, during which they discussed Iran’s nuclear program, stalled negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah, and the destabilizing situation in Syria. According to a Foreign Ministry statement Lieberman thanked Clinton for the US’ firm stand…

Thousands of citizens have signed up for the Knesset’s “open house” events Wednesday, which will mark the parliament’s 63rd birthday. The Knesset has had to close registration for the day’s events after being overwhelmed by thousands of applications in the past few weeks. The Knesset asks that those who registered in advance show up an…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his top officials to stop “blabbing” about a potential military strike targeting Iran’s nuclear program. According to the Hebrew-language Maariv, Netanyahu earlier this week took a number of military officials and government ministers to task for speaking too freely about Israel’s military plans. “Stop blabbing, already,” he reportedly told the…

The new Palestinian Authority (PA) interim government will be presented on February 18 in Cairo, according to Azzam al-Ahmed, a member of the central committee of Fatah and the head of the terror group’s delegation to reconciliation talks with Hamas. The interim government is to function until elections are held for the presidency and parliament,…

Fatah, the Palestinian Authority’s ruling party, has thrown all caution to the wind and praises terrorists on its new and official Facebook site despite increasing U.S. Congressional concerns over incitement. The site also shows all of Israel being labeled as “Palestine.” The United States doled out $150 million to the Palestinian Authority last year and…

Ramin Mehmanparast, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said that the latest sanctions on Iran, intended to hinder the country’s ability to conduct international commerce, are part of a “psychological war.” The American administration imposed “new penalties on Monday, giving U.S. banks additional powers to freeze assets linked to the Iranian government and close…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, said that the “only thing that ensures our existence, security and prosperity is our strength.” Netanyahu asserted that, “We are obligated to continue to develop the military, economic and social strength of the State of Israel.” The PM’s statement was made against the backdrop of recent events. The Iranian regime…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington next month has raised speculation of a meeting with President Barack Obama over whether an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities is the best plan of action or whether a pre-emptive military strike would not have the desired results. The Prime Minister’s schedule has not been detailed, but his…

Former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, spoke to Sean Hannity of Fox News about the dangers of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons as well as other pressing issues plaguing the region. Giuliani said that President Obama has “no clue” what us going on in the Middle East and that he is living in a…

Iran’s palriament on Tuesday announced it would summon President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for questioning over a long list of alleged policy failures. It follows a petition by a group of lawmakers for a review of policy decisions by Ahmadinejad, who has come under increasing attacks in recent months from the same hard-liners who brought him to…

The writer is a member of the Arutz Sheva staff. Often, what is reported in the media is just as significant as the way in which the information is relayed as well as what stories and details get omitted, determined to be ‘unfit to print.’ Politically savvy readers quickly learn that they must read between the lines,…

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists who are serving time in the Israeli Ramon prison have announced their intention to start a hunger strike as of Tuesday. A statement issued by the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs of the Hamas government in Gaza said that the approximately 700 prisoners in the Ramon prison will begin a gradual hunger…

The foundation of a large fortress from the First Temple period was exposed in an excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) conducted at Giv’at Yonah in Ashdod. Giv’at Yonah, according to various traditions, is identified with the burial place of the prophet Jonah, and the archaeological finds that were exposed verify the existence of life…

A senior Muslim leader has called to boycott Russian and Chinese products as a response to the two countries’ veto of a UN Security Council resolution on Syria over the weekend. Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi made the comments in a television program which aired on the Al Jazeera television network on Sunday. The comments were translated…

Hundreds of Rome’s Jewish residents, led by the community’s rabbis, recently wrote letters in the Chabad movement’s Sefer Torah for Jewish Unity which is being written at the initiative of Israel’s national airline, El Al. The local community hosted El Al’s CEO, Eliezer Shkedi, and the company’s rabbi, Rav Yochanan Hayut, for Shabbat on January 28.…

The new Palestinian Authority government will allegedly to be declared on February 18, with elections set for later this year. Fatah Executive Committee member Azzam al-Ahmad, who headed the delegation that negotiated with the rival Hamas terror group, made the announcement Monday. PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the Palestine Liberation Organization…

A soldier training to enter the elite IDF Sheldag (Kingfisher) unit died at the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba on Monday. The soldier, Dvir Moore Aonicovs, was rushed to the hospital this weekend after complaining of discomfort and weakness. After a series of tests at the military base he was transported to Soroka, where…

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday endorsed a new doctrine explaining why it would be ‘legally and morally justified’ to commit genocide and wipe Israel off the map. The article was written by Khameini’s close adviser Alireza Forghani and endorsed by the Supreme Leader whose writings played a critical role in its drafting. The…

An Iranian newspaper report claimed Monday that the bomb used to assassinate a nuclear scientist last month was “made in the USA.” The bomb used to kill Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was one of two that were delivered to Iran via members of PJAK, the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan, a  Kurdish separatist group,…

On one of the most anticipated and media-hyped days of the American calendar, President Obama spoke to NBC’s Matt Lauer, just prior to the awaited NFL championship game. The President, as has become customary on Super Bowl Sunday, gave an interview and attempted to answer some of the dominating questions distracting the public. Iran’s nuclear ambitions and…

Israel’s security agencies see an increased danger to top Israeli official as the fourth anniversary of the death of Hizbullah senior terrorist Imad Mughniyeh nears. According to the Yisrael Hayom daily, the alerts include tip-offs that President Shimon Peres is being targeted. The level of alert among the President’s bodyguards has been raised accordingly. Security…

Forces loyal to Syrian strongman Bashar Assad renewed their attack on the city of Homs Monday. At least 50 people have died since morning, according to reports from the city in western Syria. The Syrian opposition says Syrian Air Force combat helicopters have been firing missiles at targets in the city. Ground forces have been…

Qatari mediation efforts between rival PLO groups Fatah and Hamas have succeeded and the twin terror organizations have signed a reconciliation agreement, it was reported Sunday. The impasse over the identity of the interim prime minister has been solved — but there are already threats within Hamas to split the organization. The Qatari suggestion, which…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday responded to an agreement signed by Fatah and Hamas in Doha saying the Palestinian Authority “can’t have it both ways.” The agreement ends an impasse between the rival factions over who will head the interim unity government and will also allow Hamas and its terror confederates to be inducted into…

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Sunday he does not think Israel has decided whether to attack Iran over its disputed nuclear program. In an interview with NBC quoted by The Associated Press, Obama said, “I don’t think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do.” Obama reiterated that the United…

Professor Moshe Ma’oz of the Hebrew University’s Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the Faculty of Humanities expressed doubt on Sunday Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government is on the verge of collapse. Speaking with Arutz Sheva, Ma’oz recommended that no one eulogize Assad just yet. “Even though there is a desire that the…

Hamas has endorsed a proposal by Qatar that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas assume the role of prime minister in an interim unity government that would prepare for general elections, The Associated Press reported on Sunday, citing to two officials close to the contacts. The arrangement, which was proposed by Qatar’s emir during Abbas and…

President Shimon Peres’ bodyguards were involved in an altercation with three Arabs Sunday evening, Channel 2 television reported. The reason for the fight is not yet clear. The incident reportedly took place outside Peres’ temporary residence at Kfar David (Mamila) in Jerusalem. The president had to leave his permanent residence about six weeks ago, because…

Twenty months after the Mavi Marmara incident, a Turkish ship carrying medical aid for Gaza has arrived at Ashdod Port in Israel. Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reports that Turkish Deputy Premier Bekir Bozdag confirmed this news Saturday. The ship will unload its cargo at Ashdod, and Israel will then transfer the supplies into Gaza. Bozdag…

A 15-year-old missing Jewish teen was found by police on Sunday in an Arab village located in the Triangle, an area west of Hadera populated mainly by Israeli Arabs, whose towns form a large triangle on the map. The girl, Nofar Ben Hamou from Lod, went missing a few weeks ago after she met an…

The Histadrut Labor Federation has set a general strike for Wednesday after having received the go-ahead from the National Labor Court, which lifted an injunction it imposed last week. The court agreed the government has been dragging its feet on negotiations to provide direct employment benefits for contract workers despite a promise from the Finance…

The northern British city of Manchester outstripped London last year in anti-Semitic incidents, figures released Thursday showed. The Community Security Trust (CST), which records anti-Semitic incidents, noted last year was the fourth highest figure since incidents have started being recorded 28 years ago.  Anti-Semitism has been encouraged in some UK media, Israeli Ambassador to Britain…

Security personnel have made an arrest in connection with the terror stabbing of a guard at the entrance to the Jerusalem suburb of Maale Adumim in December 2011, it was released for publication Sunday. Ala’a Hanaish, 21, was taken into custody in a joint Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and police operation a week and…

The Al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Jihad terrorist group in northern Sinai has claimed responsibility for attacking the Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan overnight Saturday. It was the 12th such attack in a year’s time.  The group claimed the attack was carried out in “revenge for the death of its leader in an Egyptian prison.”…

Minister of Defense Ehud Barak approved Sunday the decision by the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, to appoint Major General Amir Eshel as the new commander of the IAF. Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel will replace Maj. Gen. Ido Nechushtan. Lt. Gen. Gantz expressed his appreciation for the other candidates for…

Iran is upset over a television promotional spot for Israeli cable provider HOT, and is threatening to ban an electronics firm whose product is featured in the spot. The commercial shows the characters from a popular show, Asfur, portraying Mossad agents dressed up as women, at an outdoor cafe somewhere in Iran.  The characters are…

The Iranian parliament’s official website has published an article calling on the government to attack Israel before the end of the year. According to Israeli TV Channel 2‘s veteran Middle East expert, Ehud Yaari, the article cites three reasons for the call. First – a religious fatwa allowing such a strike. Second – threats from…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delieverd a terse retort Sunday to the threats issued Friday by Iran’s “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and tied it to events in Syria.   “We have received a reminder about what kind of a neighborhood we live in,” Netanyahu said at the start of the Cabinet session. “We heard the…

Talia Ben-Eliezer, daughter of MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor), was released over the weekend after being arrested at an airport in New York late last week for purchasing painkillers without the required documentation. 39-year-old Ben-Eliezer was passing through security at the airport when she was told by the officers that an arrest warrant was issued against…

The renewed flare-up of tensions between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands two months before the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war in which Britain defeated Argentina has prompted Britain to demonstrate her seriousness to defend the islands. Prime Minister David Cameron accused Argentina of colonialism because it sought to recover the islands despite…

Saboteurs blew up an Egyptian pipeline that supplies gas to Israel and Jordan, for the 12th time in the past year, security officials said told AFP. The officials told the French news agency that the latest attack occurred overnight Saturday (local time) as masked gunmen planted explosives under the pipeline in the Al-Massaeed area, close…

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed Russia and China’s veto of a Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis on Saturday, saying it “undermines” the United Nations. AFP quoted a statement by Ban in which he said he “deeply regrets” the failure to agree on a resolution condemning the deadly crackdown on protesters by President Bashar…

About 1,000 Palestinian Authority Arabs marched in Hevron on Saturday in protest of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s austerity plans. AFP reported that in the largest protest to date against economic measures announced last month, the demonstrators chanted, “Salam Fayyad, get out! You are an agent of the United States and Israel.” The protesters also…

Israel has placed its consulates and embassies around the world on high alert, and has warned Jewish institutions in North America, South America, and Europe, to be on guard – because Iran may be planning terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets. The warnings were distributed last week by Israeli security officials over the past…

In a move that was decried by the U.S., France, and Arab countries, Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.S.-backed proposal at the UN Security Council to condemn Syrian leader Bashar al-Assed for violence against Syrian citizens. The resolution that had demanded that Assad resign was backed by the Arab League, and the League…

Some 1,500 Israelis from around the country are set to tour Samaria on Wednesday, Tu Bishvat, as part of a special program organized by Samaria residents to introduce more Israelis to a part of the country they may have been reluctant to visit. The project, sponsored by the Samaria Regional Council, has so far brought…

Iran is conducting yet more military exercises in the Straits of Hormuz. Iranian officials said that the exercises were in response to a European boycott of Iranian oil, and that Iran would not “submit” to Western pressure against it. The new exercises, the official said, were aimed at preparing Iran for a battle against a…

After laborious negotiations behind the scenes to achieve consensus on a UN Security Council resolution on Syria failed, the West threw up its hands and essentially put the Arab peace plan to the vote. If the Western countries believed that an Arab initiative would escape a Chinese and Russian veto they were mistaken. Arab opinion…

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened Israel on Friday, saying the Islamic Republic will help any nation or group that confronts the Jewish State, The Associated Press reported. In remarks to worshippers during Friday prayers in Tehran which were broadcast on state TV, Khamenei said Iran would continue its nuclear program and warned that…

At least four people have been killed in the latest unrest in Egypt, the BBC reported. The report said that a demonstrator and a soldier died on Friday in Cairo in clashes outside the interior ministry as police fired tear gas at stone-throwing crowds. An additional two people were killed in Suez. A building opposite…

Hamas blamed Fatah on Thursday for the deadlock in progress toward reconciliation, saying it has avoided holding a meeting on a framework for the leadership. Hamas’ spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency that Hamas was committed to holding the meeting of the PLO interim leadership, but that Fatah was avoiding the…

Iranian officials announced they have successfully launched a new satellite into orbit, the latest in the Islamic Republic’s space program. Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the satellite was launched Friday. It is reportedly designed to collect data on weather conditions and monitor for natural disasters. IRNA also said the Navid, or Gospel in Farsi,…

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday said that Iran and like-minded nations needed to “define the New World Order system.” Ahmadinejad made his remarks at the inauguration ceremony of the International Conference on ‘Hollywoodism and Cinema’ in Tehran on Thursday. “Nations loving justice and affection should define the new world system,” he said. During his…

Arutz Sheva’s Russian-language bureau reported Friday that 38 people have died in the last 24 hours due to the intense cold that prevails in Ukraine. These most recent deaths bring the winter death toll in Ukraine to 101. Of those, 11 people died in the hospital, 64 in the streets and 26 in private homes.…

In the event anyone had doubts about Tehran’s ill-intent towards Israel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is doing his utmost to set the record straight. Ahmadinejad on Wednesday met with Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Abdullah and stressed the “inspiring role that the Palestinian people’s resistance has played in provoking Muslim nations to stand against their tyrannical rulers.”…

Former CIA director R. James Woolsey spoke to Arutz Sheva on Thursday, on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference. Addressing the security situation in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring, Woolsey said revolutions are usually divided into three phases: The first phase is very enthusiastic, the second phase is…

Nearly 400 people were injured in Cairo on Thursday, in clashes between police and protesters angered by the deaths of 74 people on Wednesday after a soccer match in the city of Port Said. The BBC reported that thousands of people marched towards the interior ministry, where police fired tear gas to keep them back.…

The IDF responded on Thursday night to a barrage of Qassam rockets fired at Israel by attacking terror targets in Gaza. According to a statement issued by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, IAF aircraft struck two weapons storage facilities in northern Gaza, three smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza and a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza.…

Russia has threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution on Syria if it is put to a vote on Friday, the BBC reports. According to the report, Russian officials said they need more time to consult Moscow on the draft text of the resolution, which has already been watered down in an attempt to…

The visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to China should be viewed as a Chinese-European summit because no leader in Europe commands the clout wielded by the German Chancellor. Merkel has two major items on the agenda: An attempt to persuade her hosts to help beef up the financial firewall to restore investor confidence in the euro…

Egypt’s media went into a frenzy over Israel’s plans to build a major electrical plant in Ashdod, in what some pundits in Cairo claim is an attempt to undermine Egypt’s plans to export electric energy to Europe. Calling the project Israel’s “High Dam,” after Egypt’s major Nile dam and electrical power station, the reports note…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered a forceful message Thursday regarding the urgency of stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program, hinting that a military strike on Iran could be imminent. “He who says ‘later,’ may find that it is ‘too late,’” Barak said, incorporating the English words into his speech at the Herzliya Conference. “Today, unlike the past, there…

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is “a strong likelihood” that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June, according to the Washington Post‘s David Ignatius. Israel believes that after this time, Iran will have entered a “zone of immunity” that will enable it to build a nuclear bomb at its leisure, Ignatius…

The Hamas terror movement on Thursday dismissed rumors it plans to open its new politburo offices in Qatar. “We have no intention to open an office in Doha,” Hamas’ Gaza chief Ismail Haniyeh told reporters in Doha. “All of Doha is an office for our movement thanks to the love and cordiality that the Qatari…

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan warned Thursday that if entrenched oil negotiations with the north do not include a deal on other key issues, including the contested Abyei region, it could mean war. “It would not be fair to my people to support an agreement that invites more conflict by failing to resolve underlying…

Facebook has launched its newest innovation — a filing to become an IPO – a publicly traded company on the stock market. The international social networking site, which boasts more than 845 million users around the planet, is hoping for the “FB” ticker on its shares, but is not yet listed on the exchange. The…

Efraim Halevy, former head of the Mossad, said the Syrian situation is Iran’s Achilles heel. Halevy identified Syria as being a key to the current Middle East situation, saying: “If there is a change in Syria, this will have wide international ramifications… The future of what happens in Damascus will impact all of the Middle…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak made a special point Thursday of praising Germany’s stance on Iran as he headed into talks in Tel Aviv with German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle. Barak prefaced his comments with a referral to the “special relationship” between the two countries. “It is influenced by memories of the past, by looking ahead…

At least 73 people are dead after a melee erupted at the end of a soccer match in Port Said, Egypt. According to some reports, Egyptian security forces opened file on stampeding fans. The carnage took place after the final whistle was blown in the central game of Egypt’s top league, with a surprise 3-1…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said that he would be willing to resume negotiations with Israel, but conditioned it on Israel submitting “an encouraging and helpful proposal that can be built upon.” The Hebrew-language Ma’ariv newspaper reported that Abbas made the comments at a press conference with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, after…

In his address at the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference on Tuesday, Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan expressed pessimism regarding the prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Prince, who emphasized the importance of regional cooperation in his remarks, said that today, conditions are not ripe for negotiations between Israel and…

Is Hamas about to end its long-time alliance with Iran? According to a report on Kol Yisrael radio on Wednesday, Arab sources are saying that a new camp within Hamas which is interested in ending the terror group’s relationship with Iran. The report said the group’s deputy politburo chief Moussa Abu Marzouk is a member…

A special UN-backed court probing the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 said on Wednesday it will try four members of the Hizbullah terror group in absentia. The Hague-based court said in a statement quoted by AFP, “The trial chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has decided to try the…

A spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group condemned on Wednesday the presence of Arab delegations at the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference in Israel. “This is a new level in political normalization and this conference specifically has cultural dimensions which are embodied in the humiliating participation of some Arab and…

Gaza terrorists on Wednesday evening launched a slavo of six Qassam rockets at Israel’s southern communities. All of the rockets landed in open fields in the western Negev. No property damage of physical injuries were reported. Earlier on Wednesday terrorists in Gaza fired a single Qassam rocket into Israel, which also landed in an open…

The daughter of Libya’s late strongman Muammar Qaddafi on Tuesday sought a hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to request it intervene on behalf of her brother Saif al-Islam Aisha Qaddafi wants to the court with information about her brother’s welfare, who has been indicted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity…

Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, painted a worrying picture of the military threat to Israel in a speech at the annual Herzliya Conference on Wednesday. “The threats against Israel have not disappeared,” he said. “What was relevant in the past remains relevant. Eight Syrian military divisions are stationed between the Sea of…

Thousands of infiltrators continued to sneak into the Jewish State through the south illegally last month, according to the Population, Immigration and Border Authority. According to statistics released Wednesday by the government, 2,295 infiltrators crossed the southern border with Egypt. Among them were 1,805 men, 429 women and 61 children. Even more made the same…

The term “lone IDF soldier” usually refers to olim without families in Israel but now includes hareidi religious youth rejected by their families for abandoning their way of life that precludes army service. Army service of hareidi religious youth has been an ongoing controversy in Israel, where the IDF had created a special hareidi religious…

Nine Muslim terrorists admitted in a London court Wednesday they planned to assassinate two rabbis, the city’s mayor and attack the stock exchange and American embassy. They were arrested in December 2010 in a counterterrorist raid before they were able to carry out their plan to stage a multi-pronged attack on the Parliament and on…

Egyptian Justice Minister Abdel Abdel-Hamid rejected a letter Tuesday from U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson asking him to” review a travel ban imposed on Americans. At least six U.S. citizens have taken refuge in the American Embassy in Cairo to ensure their safety. State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed at a briefing in Washington that the…

Iran is maintaining close contact with the Muslim Brotherhood and wants diplomatic relations in Egypt, Iran’s foreign minister says. “Tehran is in constant contact with the Muslim Brotherhood” and will send an ambassador to Cairo if Egypt agrees, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. An Iranian-Egyptian alliance would give…

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer painted a stark picture of the global economy saying the world faced an “approaching crisis.” “We have a partial description of the approaching crisis,” Fischer said at the Herzliya Conference on Wednesday. “These are the IMF forecasts – its recent forecasts – that they posted just one week ago.…

Rioting Arabs in the Jerusalem enclave of Isawiya clashed with Israeli soldiers and police officers in eastern Jerusalem. Injuries were reported on both sides. The riot stemmed from a confrontation on Tuesday afternoon in the center of Isawiya after Israeli forces arrested Ayyoub Ubeid in his home. Israeli police say Ubeid was detained for questioning…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bluntly told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday there will be no new construction freeze in Judea and Samaria. Ban asked Israel earlier in the day to reinstate the freeze on all construction in Jewish communities in the region, saying at a news conference it was “not helpful” to the…

IDF forces detained five men from the village of Qalqiliya in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday morning. Troops raided a number of houses in Kafr Qaddum, before seizing Ali Juma, 20, Ahmad Juma, 20, Aqba Obeid, 33, Majd Abu Khaled, 23, and Abdul Latif Obeid, 18, area residents told the Palestinian Authority affiliated Maan News Agency.…

US airstrikes targeted leaders from Yemen’s active al-Qaeda branch killed four suspected terrorists on Tuesday. Among the dead was Abdel-Monem al-Fathan, suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors and injured 39 others. The attack on the U.S. destroyer occurred while it was in the Yemeni port…

  Mossad director Tamir Pardo is in Washington for talks about a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear installations, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Tuesday. Pardo’s visit, which would normally be conducted in secret, was revealed by US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, 78, who made the faux pax at committee hearing. The hearing was being…

President Shimon Peres on Tuesday gave the keynote address at the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference. In his speech, Peres spoke of the Iranian nuclear problem and about the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. “At this time ours and the world’s central problem is Iran,” said Peres. “Iran seeks regional hegemony and even…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has won Tuesday’s race for the leadership of the Likud party with an overwhelming 80 percent of support, according to initial results. Netanyahu’s rival in the race, Moshe Feiglin, garnered 20% of votes, according to the initial count. In a victory speech he made shortly after initial results came in, Netanyahu…

Most of the polling stations in Judea and Samaria opened two hours later than the other stations in the nationwide Likud primaries Tuesday. Activists in several communities said that voters’ books are missing in their stations, making voting impossible. The Feiglin campaign headquarters blamed the Netanyahu camp for at least part of the confusion. “As…

The fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad is sealed, according to Abdullah Gül, the president of Turkey, which until recent months had forged a warm relationship with Syria and Iran. “Some think that we want war in Syria. Turkey has done everything in its power for a transformation under the leadership of the president. We…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made an “urgent speech” Tuesday afternoon urging Likud voters to cast their ballots due to low turnout for the party primaries. Political analysts say Netanyahu fears an embarrassing outcome against rival Moshe Feiglin, who is expected to garner 20% or more of the vote. “If people are complacent, stay at home,…

Soldiers from the Golani Brigade arrested Mamun Ismail Salame Stut on Tuesday. Stut was one of 1,027 terrorists released in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in October. Over 100 of them were allowed to return to their homes in Judea and Samaria. His arrest makes him the first released prisoner to be re-arrested since…

Canadian foreign minister John Baird, visitng Israel this week, stressed his country’s strong support of Israel. “Israel has no greater friend in the world than Canada,” Baird said at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial on Monday. Baird also said: “Canada does not stand behind Israel; Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel,” which he repeated…

Israel’s Interior Ministry has called on the National Immigration Authority to return illegal immigrants from South Sudan to their country of origin. Many illegal immigrants from South Sudan sought refuge from Islamic genocide and a better economic forecast in Israel during the sectarian violence that marred the African nation in recent years. However, following the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is “ready to go to Ramallah” to meet with Palestinian Authority / PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and open negotiations, according to an interview published Monday night by the PA-linked Ma’an news agency. In Arabic-language comments typed live through the chat function on his official Facebook page, Netanyahu told Arab journalists, “We…

American citizens trapped in Cairo are taking shelter in the U.S. Embassy in the Egyptian capital, as the dispute between the two countries escalates. “We can confirm that a handful of U.S. citizens have opted to stay in the embassy compound in Cairo while waiting for permission to depart Egypt,” State Department spokeswoman Kate Starr…

One must give Vladimir Putin credit. He has been churning out lengthy policy manifestos at the rate of nearly one a week. The first was on democracy and reform; last week was Putin’s take on the nationality issue and this week it was time for the economy. Here Putin faced a challenge. Having been in power…

Monday’s high-profile meeting between Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal and King Abdullah II of Jordan will not result in Amman’s ban on the terror group being lifted, a senior official says. The meeting “will only break the ice, following years of estrangement,” the official told Gulf News, but “Hamas will not be allowed to reopen…

The Iranian Defense Ministry unveiled a domestically developed laser-guided smart bomb in Tehran on Monday. The new laser guided munitions, dubbed “Bassir,” was put on display by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi in a ceremony at Iran’s Defense Industries Organization. Vahidi told reporters the new munitions are capable of targeting static and mobile…

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man who was arrested as he tried to smuggle drugs into the ultra-conservative kingdom. “Salman Khan Taj Mohammad, a Pakistani… was arrested as he was caught smuggling a large amount of heroin” into the country, the Saudi Interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. The…

A spokesman for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says Israel will not leave the Jordan Valley, regardless of whatever final status agreement is made with the Palestinian Authority. Responding to rumors claiming that he was prepared to compromise on an Israeli presence in the region, Netanyahu told a Likud faction meeting Monday evening, “I will sign…

According to the Washington Post the Pentagon is rushing to deploy a large floating base to serve as a “mother ship” for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, Al Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates. The project became public Tuesday when the Military Sealift Command posted a bid request to…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a contractor to help it build a new “app” to gather up-to-the-minute information from Internet social networks. The project is not as simple as it sounds, however. The FBI first wants to analyze the information that is disseminated publicly and openly on all the various social networks –…

El Al Airlines was grounded at Ben Gurion International Airport Monday night, as officials tried to get its computers back on line. The grounding, though temporary, was due to a failure in the computer system of Israel’s national airline. The cause of the system failure was unknown. As a result, flights were temporarily delayed, both for…

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, took a few moments from his busy schedule to update Arutz Sheva on the stalled Palestinian Authority statehood bid at the United Nations. First and foremost, things are not over yet,” Prosor cautioned. “The Security Council bid is a dead end because of the American veto.” However,…

As opposed to leaks in the home that are a nuisance and expense to owners and a financial boon to plumbers, political leaks are designed to serve a purpose. This description easily fits a leaked EU document about German ministerial plans to provide the Greek government in Athens with an EU budget babysitter. The “nanny” from Brussels…

Syrian President Bashar Assad unleashed his tanks on his citizens Sunday and Monday, as the carnage worsened following the Arab League’s suspension of its mission that was supposed to help bring a truce to the civil war. The Syrian army has retaken suburbs of Damascus that temporarily had fallen into the hands of the revolution…

A Canadian jury on Sunday found a Montreal Muslim father, wife and son guilty of the first degree murder of the parents’ three teenage daughters and a co-wife in the Muslim practice known as “honor killing.” After 15 hours of deliberations, the jury found Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba, 42; and their son Hamed,…

The General Security Service and Israel Police foiled a shooting attack planned by an Israeli Arab in collaboration with an Islamic Jihad terror cell in Tulkarem last month. The would-be terrorist Mohammed Abu Ali, 20, of Qalansawe was granted citizenship by virtue of family reunification. Previously he had been a PA Arab living in Tulkarem.…

A special non-Sabbath voting session for observant Jews and Seventh Day Adventists in the GOP primaries will be held Saturday evening at an educational center built by Sheldon Adelson, who backs Newt Gingrich, and challengers are upset. The voting is scheduled for the Sabbath, but Adelson, a casino magnate who made billions in Las Vegas…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to deliver an “alternative to the Tal Law within six months” on Monday. Netanyahu met Monday with IDF reserve soldiers at the so-called ‘suckers tent’ protest camp in Tel Aviv who oppose extending the law. The reservists maintain hareidi men who do not serve in the IDF are not pulling…

Americans are watching closely as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu heads off a challenge for Likud party leadership from perennial nationalist candidate Moshe Feiglin. Most major networks and news wires in the U.S. have carried the news of this week’s Likud party primary, set for Tuesday, January 31.   As lukewarm a fan of Israel’s prime…

Minister of Energy and Water, Dr. Uzi Landau, instructed the Israel Electric Company (IEC) Sunday to press ahead with the laying of an underwater cable to Cyprus. The IEC is to prepare a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that it will sign along with DEH Quantum Energy, a firm controlled by the Electric Company of Greece,…

US representatives have met with representatives of the Taliban in Qatar. The two sides are reportedly trying to work out a confidence building measure by staging a prisoner exchange. The Americans will release some Taliban bigwigs being held in Guatanamo, while the Taliban will release an abducted aid worker, a captured American soldier and a member…

The Pentagon is reportedly working on the development of the “mother of all bombs” — a bunker buster than can destroy an Iranian underground nuclear power plant. According to a report published by the UK-based Daily Mail newspaper, America’s top military authority has secretly asked Congress for funds to create its largest bomb ever. A…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed pessimism Sunday about the prospects for peace with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu said that Palestine Liberation Organization negotiator Saeb Erekat refused to discuss even basic core issues at the fifth and final “exploratory” meeting with his Israeli counterpart, attorney Yitzchak Molcho, last week in Amman. Moreover, PLO officials had already…

Twice this week, Palestinian Authority official television broadcast warm greetings from the mother of Hakem Awad, who butchered five members of one family, to her son. The mother, as well as an aunt of Awad, spoke by telephone on “For You,” a show that specializes in messages to terror prisoners, Palestinian Media Watch reported. Hakem…

Leaders of the Conference of Presidents met with convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, JTA reported on Friday. The delegation met with Pollard at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, where Pollard has served 27 years of a life sentence for espionage. “We returned with a renewed commitment to work for Mr. Pollard’s release…

The US ambassador to Israel on Friday said the United States would not remain idle and be complicit in a second Holocaust. “We must not allow another genocide to take place against the Jewish people or any other. And we should take seriously those who make such threats,” Ambassador Dan Shapiro said at the main…

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is including two senior weapons experts on its next mission to Tehran. The nuclear watchdog issued a clear statement on the team’s focus, which would be obtaining information from Iranian officials about the country’s nuclear program. For more than three years, Iran flatly refused to discuss charges it is covertly seeking atomic…

In Libya its a case of “meet the new boss; same as the old boss.” The UN’s top human rights official said Friday that Libya’s transitional government must take control of its prisons and prevent further atrocities against detainees. “There’s torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights…

Egyptian security officials reported a Bedouin man shot and killed a French tourist Saturday in the Sinai, in an apparent act of retribution after clashes with police. According to the online Egyptian Independent, Alexander Crister, 42, suffered multiple gunshot wounds after a man, distraught over the death of his relative in an anti-drugs raid, opened…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to inform Likud ministers on Sunday that any Likud minister who votes for the Outpost Law will be fired from government. The bill, authored by Minister Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home), would forbid eviction and demolition orders for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria that have stood for four years…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a conference for Likud activists in Petah Tikva on Saturday night, ahead of the party’s primaries this coming Tuesday. The conference was attended by nearly a thousand members of the Likud. As the conference was going on, residents of the Binyamin community of Migron and other nationalists demonstrated outside in…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday that the world must stop Iran quickly before it reaches the point where even a military attack would not stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Barak said, “The situation is urgent, because the Iranians deliberately drifting to what we…

At least 384 children have been killed during Syria’s ten-month uprising and virtually the same number have been jailed, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. “As of Jan. 7, 384 children have been killed, most are boys. Some 380 children have been detained, some less than 14 years old,” Rima Salah, acting…

Senior Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said on Friday that Iran is already a nuclear state and that Americans have not realized that. “The United States says it will not allow Iran to be nuclear, but it is so blind that it hasn’t noticed that Iran has already become a nuclear state,” Khatami was…

Kazimierz Smolen, a 91-year-old Auschwitz survivor who after World War II became director of the memorial site, died Friday, The Associated Press reported. Smolen died on an historic day: the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. AP reported that he died in a hospital in Oswiecim, the southern Polish town where Nazi Germany operated…

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he is keeping a watchful eye on the tension between Israel and Iran, over the country’s alleged clandestine nuclear program. Speaking to ABC News, Obama would not say whether the United States believes the Israelis are preparing a military strike to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.…

Israel provided a rare moment of unity at the CNN-sponsored Republican debate in Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich both sought to woo critical Jewish voters in the sunshine state. During the debate Jacksonville resident Abraham Hassan asked the candidates, “How would a Republican administration help…

Four Jewish pilgrims from the United States were arrested before dawn on Friday in Shechem as they sought to pray at Joseph’s Tomb. The four, associated with the Bratslav Hassidic group were confronted at gunpoint by Palestinian Authority police and taken into custody before reaching the grave site. They were handed over to Israeli police…

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said on Thursday that the League’s peace plan, which aims to end Syria’s political crisis, will be submitted to the United Nations Security Council early next week, the Al Jazeera network reported. According to the report Elaraby told reporters in Cairo on Thursday that the meeting with UN officials will be…

When military leaders in Egypt announced they had lifted Cairo’s emergency law, earlier this week, they neglected to mention they left themselves a loophole. Rights activists say Cairo’s interim junta left itself a loophole for police to continue to use exceptional powers to arrest and detain civilians without cause, which they describe as “thuggery”. The…

Former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi warned, Thursday, that Israel could not afford to cut its defense budget and should prepare itself for war. “In comparison to 10 years ago, the possibility of a conflict is not something that we just need to talk about,” Ashkenazi said during a lecture at the Institute for…

More than three months after he was released from Hamas captivity and returned to his home in Mitzpe Hila, Gilad Shalit attended a Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball game at the Nokia Hall on Thursday evening. Shalit, who is a fan of the team, was invited to be the guest of honor at one their games…

The United States arrested and charged an Iranian semiconductor scientist with violating U.S. export laws by buying high-tech U.S. lab equipment, The Associated Press reported on Thursday. The report cited prison records showing the U.S. is holding 54-year-old Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, a microchip expert and assistant professor at Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology, in…

The current U.S.-led push to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions through steadily increasing economic and diplomatic pressure is beginning to show results and it would be “premature” to resort to military force, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said on Thursday. In an interview with the American weekly…

Israel presented this week, for the first time, its principles regarding the borders of a future Palestinian state. The borders were presented during Wednesday’s meeting in Jordan between attorney Yitzchak Molcho and the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. One of the principles presented by Molcho is that, in a final settlement, most of the…

Hamas’ Gaza chief Ismail Haniyeh’s recent official tour opened the door to financial cooperation between the terror group and Turkey, a high-ranking Hamas official told the Al-Sharq newspaper on Thursday. The official told the newspaper that Turkey has agreed to carry out a project to support Hamas and rebuild Gaza. According to the official, Hamas…

American policy towards Egypt appears to be on a contradictory course. On the one hand, Under Secretary of State, Robert Hormats, part of a delegation conferring last week with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, told his interlocutors that Washington would provide “more immediate benefits” to the Egyptians. The State Department was seeking to provide positive feedback to…

The Egyptian military foiled a planned attack on a natural gas plant in the Sinai Peninsula on Thursday, the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. According to the report masked men in two four-wheel cars approached the plant, which is located 10km south of the city of El-Arish, and attempted to plant explosives, but found the…

The head of the National Union, MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh), launched a counterattack against politicians who he says want to push religious men out of the IDF, and replace them with women. MK Katz presented the Knesset with recent research conducted by the IDF with the U.S. military that shows women in combat units have…

Israel has called off its serious travel warning regarding after Thai authorities detained Lebanese suspect, uncovered arms cache. Two weeks after Thai authorities detained a Lebanese man with suspected links to Hizbullah, Israel has called off its serious travel warning regarding the Southeast Asian country. The arrest was made after the United States warned of…

More than two thirds of young men from Samaria who join the IDF serve in combat units. IDF statistics show that 67.1% of the young men who enlist serve in combat, as opposed to the national average of 39.5%. 81.2% of Samaria’s draft-age men join the IDF after completing high school, after Hesder yeshiva studies…

President Shimon Peres Thursday called upon the Iranian people to topple the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Speaking at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, Peres blamed the Iranian president for harming the chances for peace in the Middle East. He urged the international community to encourage the Iranian people to bring down Ahmadinejad. “The…

An Israeli hacker team called “IDF Team” succeeded Thursday in temporarily disabling the website of the Iranian English language television station, and of the Teheran Health Ministry. The sites were hacked at about 4:30 p.m. Israel time and were operational again about one hour later. The attack was in retaliation for Muslim hackers’ attacks yesterday…

British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech before the Council of Europe, the 47 nation grouping that is responsible for the European Court of Human Rights. Britain has been discomfited by the court’s activism and decisions. A recent parliamentary study foud that Britain lost 75% of the cases in which it was sued. While some of the…

PLO officials went on the offensive and sought to blame Israel for the failure of exploratory contacts with Israeli negotiators as they met with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday. The meeting comes as Ashton visits the region for three days in a bid to keep the meetings from stalling. Israeli officials have…

Officials in Gaza City and Ramallah confirmed reports that the Palestinian Authority would likely cancel elections scheduled for May which began to circulate earlier this week Fatah leader Thiab al-Loh told the Ma’an News Agency on Thursday that elections need to be prepared for in advance and at the moment “we are at the beginning….now…

Hamas Gaza-chief Ismail Haniyeh indicated Wednesday he has added Iran to the itinerary of his international tour. Hainyeh recently returned from the first leg of his tour to drum of support and funds for Hamas in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, and Turkey where Islamists have made major political gains in recent polls, especially after the Arab…

The US Federal Reserve says it will extend its freeze on interest rates until the end of 2014 in its longest longest-running response to the ongoing global financial crisis. Reserve officials say the US economy “moderately” expanded in recent weeks, but that unemployment remained at a high level, the housing sector remained in a deep…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman voiced pleasure Wednesday with the European Union’s newest sanctions against Iran and said that this is the first time that determined and meaningful steps have been taken against Iran. These steps, he said, will be felt in Iran. Lieberman was speaking to Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs…

The threat posed by a missile attack on Israel is not as terrible as people think, according to Haim Rosenberg, the former head of long-term planning at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. In a paper published by the BESA Center at Bar Ilan University, Rosenberg explains that at this time, missile attacks by Muslim countries…

MK Michael Ben Ari is still being refused a visa to enter the United States – but the lawmaker says Hamas terrorists are allowed to visit. In an interview with Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew news service, Ben Ari said Wednesday that he is “still waiting” for a visa to visit the U.S.”  Ben Ari noted that…

Palestinian Authority hackers briefly managed to pull down a few sites in Israel Wednesday night in the ongoing cyberwar launched by Iran and anti-Israel Arabs. Among the sites that fell prey to attacks were the home pages of El Al Airlines, the Dan Bus Company, the Israel Festival, Israel’s CinemaTek and Ha’aretz newspaper. The home…

The final “exploratory” meeting between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization ended Wednesday in Amman with no progress, official said. PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli attorney Yitzchak Mocho made little headway in their fifth meeting, the last before the January 26 deadline set by the Quartet of peacekeeping nations to break the impasse and…

Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, formerly a Minister for Congressional Affairs at Israel’s Embassy in Washington, said on Wednesday that he believes that the pro-Israel Republican candidate, Newt Gingrich, who won Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, has a good chance to beat Mitt Romney and run against President Barack Obama in November’s presidential election. “The public is…

Google has come under fire over plans to track user’s across all of its websites and use the information to alter the person’s search results. The Internet giant indicated it would combine data across its Web sites, and track all of its users search activities, to stitch together a fuller portrait of users, and consumers…

Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti on Wednesday said the Israeli-Arab conflict will only come to an end when Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 lines. Arch-terrorist Barghouti’s remarks were made after he testified in court in Jerusalem in a case filed by Israeli Kleinman family against the Palestinian Authority. Asked by reporters whether he intends to run…

The websites of the Tel Hashomer and Assuta medical centers came under cyber-attack on Wednesday. Both websites, which represent two of the largest medical centers in central Israel, were down for maintenance throughout the morning. A spokesman for Tel Hashomer confirmed the site came under cyber attack saying no harm came the site or its…

US Special Forces rescued an American and a Dane in Somalia on Wednesday after a shootout with the pirates who had taken them hostage. The raid in the Horn of Africa nation freed aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted. The pair were kidnapped from the town of Galkayo in the semi-autonomous…

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) told U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Wednesday that the plan for two countries west of the Jordan River has reached a dead end. Eldad advised him to talk to his higher-ups in Washington about the need to develop an alternative plan, with an emphasis on opportunities that will…

Iran continues to claim it is reaping the rewards of European sanctions even amid a deep currency crisis that rocks Tehran. In fact, the oil ministry in Tehran claims the embargo would leave Iran unscathed while inflicting “heavy economic loss” on the “people of Europe, who have been affected by crisis”. The result would be…

Minister of Public Diplomacy Yuli Edelstein told the World Jewish Congress on Tuesday that it was a misnomer to say Iran has a “nuclear program.” Rather, Edelstein said, Tehran has “a program to destroy Israel.” Speaking at the WJC in Brussels to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Edelstein said, “Tehran doesn’t have a nuclear program…

President Shimon Peres met on Tuesday with European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. During the meeting, Peres said he welcomed the oil embargo imposed by the EU on Iran and said Israel appreciated the latest sanctions. “I want to express our appreciation for the last resolutions taken by the…

NATO is not considering any involvement in Syria or Iran, the alliance’s top commander in Europe said on Tuesday. “In terms of Syria, I can tell you from a NATO perspective, we are not conducting any planning, we are not doing any detailed analysis, we are simply monitoring the situation,” Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s Supreme…

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, warned on Tuesday against the world’s silence in the face of the Iranian nuclear threat. “It’s never been clearer that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons,” Prosor was quoted by Channel 10 News as having said during a debate in the UN Security Council. “Iran’s efforts to develop…

The terrorists who were arrested in Azerbaijan were planning an attack against the Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Michael Lotem, Russian media reported on Tuesday. The report said that Azerbaijan officials thwarted a terror plot by Iran’s special intelligence units in the capital, Baku. Earlier on Tuesday, Azerbaijan officials said they uncovered an Iranian-linked Muslim gang…

U.S. President Barack Obama made the annual State of the Union speech on Tuesday, and spoke on issues such as the American military, the economy and the hottest issue currently being debated: Iran’s nuclear program. He began by listing the U.S. military achievements during the last year, noting that “for the first time in nine…

Lebanese judicial officials said on Tuesday that a former army general has been sentenced to two years in prison for giving information to Israel, The Associated Press reported. Tuesday’s sentence of former Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam, who has been in prison since mid-2009, means he will spend six more months in jail. In September, Karam…

Qaddafi loyalists from the infamous Brigade 93 seized the Libyan city of Bani Walid on Tuesday after clashes with fighters from the new regime erupted the previous evening. The Brigade is named for its key brutal role in smashing a 1993 revolt against the rule of late dictator Muammar Qaddafi – and liquidating the leaders…

Egypt’s military ruler said that the country’s decades-old state of emergency will be lifted on Wednesday. “I have taken a decision to end the state of emergency, in all parts of the country, except in fighting acts of thuggery, starting on the morning of January 25, 2012,” Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said Tuesday in a…

European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton is coming to the Middle East in an effort to pressure Israelis and Palestinians to formally renew peace talks before the January 26 deadline set by international mediators. Ashton is scheduled to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on Tuesday and hold meetings over three days…

Turkey warned French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday against signing a law that makes it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide. France’s parliament approved the bill late Monday over Turkish objections. Officials in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government insisted the vote didn’t directly target…

The Iranian “rial” currency sank again Monday after the European Union slapped sanctions on oil imports, leaving the rial 80 percent below its level last month. Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said that the Islamic Republic’s central bank would peg the dollar at 14,200 rials even though it takes nearly twice as many rials to…

Border Police at the entrance to the Patriarch’s Cave Tuesday morning foiled a terrorist attack by an Arab who tried to stab them to death. No one was injured. The terrorist, described as being in his 30s, aroused the suspicion of Border Police, who asked him to stop for a security check. He then pulled…

Security and military officials revealed Monday Tuesday that they have arrested two teenage Palestinian Authority terrorists who carried out a number of shooting, firebomb and rock-throwing attacks on Jewish civilians and soldiers. The youth, ages 16 and 17, were indicted in a military court in Samaria (Shomron). They admitted to shooting at a driver last…

Israeli security forces detained PA lawmaker Abul Jabbar Fuqaha from his Ramallah home on Tuesday morning. Fuqaha is the fourth Hamas-affiliated MP seized by Israeli forces on suspicion of terror involvement in five days. Fuqaha, 43, was released from Israeli jail in February 2011 after being detained for two years under Israel’s administrative detention laws…

Azerbaijan officials said they uncovered an Iranian-linked Muslim gang that plotted to assassinate Chabad rabbis and others in Baku. The rabbis teach at the Chabad Jewish school in Baku. Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry named one of the gang members as Balagardash Dadashov, an Azerbaijan citizen who lives in the Iranian city of Ardabil, according to…

US diplomats on Monday repeated their position that a solution to the Arab-Israeli crisis would only come through direct talks saying the Security Council makeup remained unfavorable to the Palestinian Authorities unilateral statehood bid at the world body. Addressing the American Jewish Congress in New York, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said…

The European Union has appointed a new Middle East envoy; Andreas Reinicke, Germany’s ambassador to Syria. Reinicke, who will represent EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in the region, replaces Marc Otte, who is ending his tenure in the post. The EU said in a statement that Reinicke will “contribute to achieving the EU’S policy objectives…

Guerillas loyal to Libya’s late leader Moammar Qaddafi attacked the former loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid on Monday – killing at least four revolutionary fighters. The murderous fighting in the town roughly 90 miles from Tripoli comes as the new government struggles to stamp out lingering resistance by pro-Qaddafi forces. After the fall of Tripoli…

Former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross has returned to The Jewish People Policy Institute, (JPPI) a Jewish think tank. The move comes two months after stepping down from his position in the Obama administration. Ross, who has a doctorate in Soviet studies from the University of California at Los Angeles, was chairman of the think…

Moscow has reached its limit and says it can “do no more” to help Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad remain in power. Senior Russian lawmaker Mikhail Margelov said Moscow’s veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Assad’s savage crackdown on dissidents, together with China, with the “last instrument” possible to keep Assad in office.…

Iran on Monday once again threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, in response to the European Union’s decision to impose harsher sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the British Telegraph reported. “If any disruption happens regarding the sale of Iranian oil, the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be closed,” Mohammad Kossari, the deputy head of…

The negotiations regarding a compromise that would prevent the demolition of the community of Migron are advancing and a deal is close, sources involved in the negotiations told Arutz Sheva on Monday. Under the agreement being formulated, the sources said, the residents will be allowed to move to permanent homes on state land without the…

The Israeli Air Force struck several targets in Gaza on Monday night, the IDF Spokesperson reported. The targets included a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza, two terror tunnels in northern Gaza and a third terrorist tunnel in southern Gaza. According to the statement, the aircraft scored direct hits and all safely returned to their…

The European debt crisis is still with us. Greece has still not finalized a  deal  with private creditors and a deal must be made quickly if Greece is not to default – a sword of Damocles hanging over both parties. The uncertainty over the Greek situation sent stocks tumbling on Wall Street. Over in Japan, businessmen…

The Lebanese-Swedish man arrested in Thailand after police found material for explosives in his store says they were put there by the Mossad, according to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. Atris Hussein, age 47, who carries a Swedish passport and lives in Hizbullah-controlled southern Lebanon, claimed total innocence. After American and Israeli terror alerts for Thailand,…

European Union ambassadors have agreed to slap an embargo on Iran’s oil exports. The decision will go into effect after receiving formal approval from the EU’s foreign ministers. The move is a last ditch attempt to punish Iran for its ongoing attempt to arm itself with nuclear weapons, and to dissuade it from going all…

The Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin) has warned Verizon and a realtor to stop supplying phone service and office space to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) or face criminal charges. The civil rights group lawyer, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, warned the companies in separate letters that they are violating an American law forbidding private groups or individuals…

Over 6,000 soldiers took 243 special bus lines to their bases Sunday morning, as Israel Railways and the IDF cooperated on a new arrangement intended to alleviate passenger overload on trains in the busiest hours of the week. The IDF and Israel Railways said that the arrangement’s first day of operation was a success. Deputy…

President Shimon Peres said Monday that the Jerusalem Mufti’s recent “Kill the Jews” statements “endanger the lives” of Jews and that action must be taken to prevent similar remarks, which he said can lead to a deterioration of relations between Jews and Arabs. He met with Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman, who promised an investigation of…

Security official and police on caught two Hamas legislators Monday who hid in a Red Cross building in Jerusalem for 18 months. The two men, Khaled Abu Arfa and Mohammed Totah, are legislators wanted for “Hamas activities,” said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.  They used the Red Cross facility as a hideout after warrants were issued…

Renowned Arab affairs expert Dr. Guy Bechor told Arutz Sheva Sunday that there is no reason for undue alarm at the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s elections. The peace treaty with Israel is on no real danger, he said. The Islamists “have no solution” for Egypt’s woes, he explained. “They lack the abilities…

The 22-member Arab League has officially voted to extend the mandate of the observer mission to Syria by one month. The mission would grow in size and will be trained by the United Nations, officials told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak with media. The observers’ prior mandate…

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) will resign from Congress this week, she announced in a video message posted Sunday.  Giffords, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head in an attack a year ago in her Arizona district, explained: “I have more work to do on my recovery so to do what is best…

Florida is considered a battleground state between the Republican and Democratic presidential nominee, as it was in 2000 and 2004. Therefore. as the Republicans prepared to move their primary roadshow to the Sunshine State in advance of the January 31 primary, president Barack Obama was looking for a way to upstage them. A mainstay of the Florida…

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday said sanctions have no effect on Iran and added that anybody who wants to threaten Iranians’ rights will be confronted proportionally, the Iranian-based IRNA news agency reported. According to the report, Ahmadinejad made the comments in an interview with a Mexican TV network after being asked about U.S. officials’…

The principal Palestinian Authority’s religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, denied on Sunday that he advocated for genocide of Jews in a speech two weeks ago. At an event marking the 47th anniversary of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, Hussein said that the killing of Jews by Muslims is a religious Islamic goal. The…

The Arab League agreed on Sunday on a path forward in Syria that instructs President Bashar al-Assad to delegate powers to his vice president following the formation of a national unity government. According to a report on CNN, the Arab League called on the Syrian government to start a dialogue with the opposition within two…

“I will finish Israel electronically,” warns “OxOmar, the Saudi hacker,” who adds, “I am one of the stronger haters of Israel. The end of Israel is very close.” He was quoted by Arabic language newspapers Sunday. He says he lives in Riyadh, a claim that is denied by the Saudi-based Arab News, which suggests he…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday suggested a “compromise” for the community of Migron in Samaria, under the death knell by the High Court, but some nationalists and the left-wing Peace Now rejected it. The Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) said all sides should engage in direct talks before taking any…

As preliminary talks continue in Amman between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), negotiators for the Jewish State and the Palestinian Authority reportedly became a bit wrapped up in details over the weekend. Specifically, PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat demanded that Israeli negotiator Yitzchak Molcho find a way to release Hamas lawmaker Aziz Dweik, parliamentary…

Hamas and Fatah continue to accuse each other of a lack of commitment to the reconciliation deal signed in Cairo last May.  Bethlehem-based Maan News quoted Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf as saying Saturday that “evidence on the ground shows that Hamas hasn’t fulfilled anything of the Cairo agreement.” Assaf said Hamas continues to detain Fatah…

CNN is projecting that Newt Gingrich will win Saturday’s South Carolina GOP presidential primary. The network’s projection is based in part on exit polls and early returns after polling places closed. According to exit polls, Gingrich received 38 percent of the votes, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney received 29 percent and former U.S. Senator Rick…

Iranian media reported on Saturday that a 43-year-old Iranian military officer was killed and another soldier was wounded in a shooting incident that occurred early on Saturday morning in the western Iran city of Khorramabad. According to the report, which was brought by Israel’s Channel 2 News on Saturday night, the incident occurred when two…

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday commented on Iran’s nuclear program as well as its latest provocations regarding the Strait of Hormuz. “We’re making it clear to Iran that its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its needless provocations, such as its threat regarding the Straits of Hormuz, place it on a dangerous path,”…

Recent demolitions of outposts are part of psychological warfare to prepare the public for mass expulsions, warns a Yesha leader. Sarah Eliyash, deputy chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), said she is calling for an urgent conference of Yesha leaders to break off relations with the government as a…

  An Arab resident of Shuafat, in northern Jerusalem, stabbed a Border Policeman in the neck Saturday, in the course of a riot. The policeman was evacuated to Hadassah Har Hatzofim hospital and his condition was defined as light. An initial investigation found that the riot began when an Israeli team tried to evacuate two…

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will discuss Sunday a bill that would define “exclusion of women” as a criminal act. The bill was proposed by MK Yitzchak Herzog (Labor). Herzog explained that “the phenomenon of women’s exclusion” has grown lately and needs to be stopped. He cited the objections to making religious soldiers watch women…

  Islamist parties won a large majority of the votes in Egypt’s election to parliament, held Saturday. The Head of the Election Committee said that the Freedom and Justice party, which represents the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, received 47% of the total vote, and Al Nour, a hard-line Salafist party, has another 25%. The Muslim…

President Barack Obama had sought to delay judgment on the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project for carrying tar sands oil from Alberta in Canada down to the Gulf Coast refineries. Obama realized that this was a wedge issue for the Republicans. The environmentalists, a key component of the Obama coalition, strongly opposed the pipeline…

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists are continuing the rock attacks at Israeli vehicles and it looks like they’ve come up with a new tactic: temporarily blinding the driver and then throwing the rock. An Israeli woman who was driving toward her home on Thursday was attacked in this manner and miraculously escaped unharmed. “Last night I…

French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Friday that any foreign military intervention against Iran’s nuclear program would trigger “war and chaos” across the Middle East and beyond, and said that harsher sanctions must be placed on the Islamic Republic. “Time is limited. France will do everything to avoid military intervention, but there is only one…

As part of his round of meetings in Israel, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey met with President Shimon Peres on Friday morning. The two discussed the recent political and security developments in the Middle East and in the world. The meeting was also by attended by IDF Chief of Staff,…

MK Hanin Zoabi, who rubbed elbows with well-known Hamas figures and was photographed during the act, is not alone, it was revealed on Friday. Photos found by Israeli security forces after the arrest of senior Hamas official Dr. Aziz Duwaik on Thursday found that Arab MKs Ibrahim Sarsour and Masud Ghnaim came to Duwaik’s home…

The Internet has begun to resemble the America of the Old West as lawless gangs of hackers target major institutions and government sites around the world. The hacker-gang Anonymous, which touts itself as a “hacktivist” group, reacted quickly to the US led shutdown of Megauploads and started hitting targets in revenge within minutes. “We Anonymous…

Israel’s top public relations official, on Thursday, told Israelis not to worry about the Arab-Israeli Hacker War that has erupted in recent weeks, saying Israel is “an Internet Superpower.” “First of all there are two different things,” Minister of Public Diplomacy Yuli Edelstein explained. “When it’s hackers versus hackers it’s not nice, but at the…

Lebanese Forces party leader Samir GeaGea on Friday said Hizbullah must understand “the game is over.” “In my opinion, events in the region, starting with Syria and ending in Iran, are capable of creating an appropriate atmosphere for the brothers in Hezbollah to be convinced that the game is over and they have to surrender…

Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Yaakov Amitai has quietly left Cairo, and flown back to Tel Aviv to spend Shabbat at home with the family. But he may not return until after January 25 –the first anniversary of the Tahrir Square Revolution. In Egypt, the day is being celebrated as a National Holiday. Amitai had already decided…

Rabbi Nehemiah Wilhelm of Chabad-Lubavitch of Bangkok spoke to Arutz Sheva in the wake of the recent security tensions in Thailand. Last Friday, authorities in Thailand detained a Lebanese man with suspected links to the Hizbullah terror group. A second suspect fled the country. The Counter-Terrorism Bureau subsequently issued a travel warning to Thailand, saying…

IDF soldiers on Thursday arrested a senior official from Hamas on suspicion of terrorist activity, Channel 10 News reported. The IDF Spokesperson confirmed the arrest. The official who was arrested is Dr. Aziz Duwaik, who has served as the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) since January 2006. He was reportedly arrested at a…

A poll conducted among U.S. citizens has found that 35 percent of them believe that the U.S. should attack Iran if sanctions do not stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. The poll, which was conducted by Rasmussen Reports, included 1,000 U.S. likely voters. Among other questions, they were asked how likely it is that stiff…

Four leading anti-government activists were killed Thursday by Assad loyalist forces in an ambush in the northwestern Idlib province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The ambush took place in the Zawiya hills, close to the border with Turkey. No names were available at the time of the report. According to the report from…

Just two days before the South Carolina primaries Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is set to end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. An aide confirmed Perry will not participate in the Republican debate Thursday evening, and will make a formal announcement to supporters and contributors in South Carolina at a press conference set…

Iranian Ambassador to South Korea Ahmad Masoumifar on Wednesday said there is a high demand for Iran’s crude oil supplies and Tehran has no problem maintaining exports. Masoumifar also shrugged off Iran’s shrinking pools of customers, saying “we (Iran) are producing about 80 million barrels [of oil] and there is demand for about 90 million.”…

The IDF and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, reported Thursday they arrested the regional commander for Islamic Jihad in Jenin in December. According to a joint statement the detainee maintained contact with the terror organization’s headquarters in Syria. From there, the Jenin commander received large sums of money to finance terror operations, as well as…

Several days after a hack attack by Saudi and other Arab hackers against the web sites of El Al and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Israel’s “IDF-Team” hacker group struck back against web sites of large banks in the United Arab Emirates, and in Gaza. On Tuesday, the same group hit the sites of the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is about to become the first Israeli prime minister to make a state visit to Cyprus. Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the island nation in February, according to a source in Jerusalem. Last week Cypriot Defense Minister Demetrius Eliades visited the Jewish State, and last November President Shimon Peres became the…

Yukiya Amano says Iran has failed to clarify its atomic development activities to the satisfaction of the United Nations nuclear watchdog body  — and now it’s his job to warn the world about its possible military intentions. Amano, chief of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday in an interview with the German-language…

Lebanese Army leader Samir Geagea warned the Hizbullah terrorist organization this week that it is better to make a “historic” deal to disarm before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is toppled from power, than to wait till he falls. Syria’s growing civil war is making it inevitable that the president will be deposed at some point,…

While Israel’s tourism stats are holding steady, despite the upheaval in the region, Egyptian tourism revenues dropped nearly 30 percent last year following its revolutionary ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. According to Egyptian Tourism Minister Mounir Abdel-Nour, the number of tourists who entered the country in 2011 was 9.8 million — 33 percent less…

The roar of jet fighter engines up close shakes the body to the bone and jars the senses. But the deafening noise is as regular as breathing for IAF ground crews who service the planes at Israel’s air bases. Last week, one experienced ground technician, used to hearing the same voice from an F-16 fighter’s…

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz held a round of working meetings on Tuesday as part of a conference in Brussels attended by chiefs of staffs of NATO countries. Israel, while not a NATO member, nonetheless maintains a presence at the alliance headquarters in Brussels and conducts joint defense drills with several NATO members. Gantz…

A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka, The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday. Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War, but a lack of physical evidence in the area has been…

IDF soldiers saved a 73-year-old Palestinian Authority Arab man with a severe heart condition on Tuesday, Channel 2 News reported. The man reportedly came to the Central Command’s Aryeh base, where the soldiers discovered that due to his heart problem he had developed a very severe lung edema. As soon as he arrived, the base…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday told Army Radio that Israel was “very far off” from making a decision on a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The remarks appeared to be part of an effort to allay American concerns that Israel is preparing for an attack despite Washington’s objections. Barak’s comment came a day…

Former US ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday blasted President Barack Obama’s sanctions-driven approach to curtailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in an op-ed he wrote for USA Today. “A nuclear armed Iran will be his most lasting legacy,” Bolton – a long-established proponent of a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program – wrote of Obama.…