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Syria’s foreign ministry said Wednesday it was skeptical about Turkish efforts to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) group, in its first official reaction since Ankara began airstrikes against the jihadists, AFP reports. “It is better late than never, but are Turkish intentions to fight the terrorists of Daesh (ISIS), Al-Nusra Front, and Al-Qaeda-linked groups genuine?”…

Dr. Sam Minskoff and David Lev discuss the controversial subject of where Jewish organizations and individuals fit in with regards to seeing those close to them wanting to make aliyah. This is not such an easy topic as we do see an important role for communities in terms of helping individual Jews realize their own…

A court on Wednesday handed down jail terms of up to 20 years after a trial of 32 people charged with running one of Belgium’s largest jihadist recruitment networks sending fighters to Syria, AFP reported. Many of the defendants were tried in absentia, among them Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was sentenced to 20 years, the Belga…

Justice Minister MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) vowed to prevent further court ruling demolishing homes in Judea-Samaria on Wednesday, noting in a special Arutz Sheva interview that she has established a legal taskforce to work on the issue.  Shaked noted at the outset that Supreme Court rulings must be respected – even when the public does not agree with…

A 42-year-old man from a small New York town on the edge of Lake Erie on Wednesday became the latest American charged with alleged support for extremists in Iraq and Syria, officials said. Prosecutors say that Arafat Nagi from Lackawanna pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Iraq and Syria, and its leader Abu Bakr al Bagdadi. He…

The remains of long-missing flight Malaysia Airlines 370 may have been found Wednesday, after investigators unearthed at least one decaying part of a Boeing 777 off the coast of the island of Reunion, near Madagascar.  A section of a Boeing’s wing floated onto the La Reunion beach earlier Wednesday, prompting immediate rumors about its possible link to…

The Hamas movement that holds de facto rule in Gaza on Tuesday sent a threatening message to UNRWA, the UN body tasked with “Palestinian refugees,” which recently admitted it’s going bankrupt and will have to close schools. In an announcement published by the terror group, it said UNRWA is “giving up its role” of providing…

A majority of Americans would like Congress to reject the nuclear deal with Iran, a new CNN/ORC poll released on Tuesday found. The poll found that 52% of Americans believe Congress should reject the deal, while 44% say it should be approved. The new poll found a sharp partisan gap on whether Congress should approve…

Sources in the Palestinian Authority (PA) told the Ma’an news agency on Tuesday that Cyprus has pushed an initiative to revive the peace process between the PA and Israel. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades reportedly phoned PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday and briefed him on the initiative before talking to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,…

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, moved Tuesday to dismiss speculation that his country’s nuclear deal with major powers could hit difficulties, saying he had “no concern or worry” about its implementation, according to AFP. Zarif’s remarks came during a news conference with visiting EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, as they seek to ensure…

Former CIA Director Michael Hayden reacted on Tuesday to the impending release of Jonathan Pollard. Hayden, who had opposed an early release for Pollard, said “there may be a little grumbling here and there in the intelligence community” over the release, but also said he would not object, reported the Reuters news agency. “I’m not…

Vox on the Box discovers just how far followers of the Chasidic movement will go to pray by their Rebbe’s kever (gravesite).  Rav Nosson Maimon, executive director of the Breslov World Center,  provides historical background on the dynasty which brings tens of thousands each year to Uman, as Shira speaks to them one by one.…

Al-Qaeda and other rebels led a major offensive Tuesday in northwest Syria, pushing back government troops in an area bordering President Bashar Al-Assad’s coastal heartland, a monitoring group said, according to AFP. Since Monday night, the Army of Conquest alliance has seized a number of positions from the Syrian army in Sahl al-Ghab, a large…

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius arrived in Tehran on Wednesday in an historic visit, becoming the first French foreign minister to arrive in the Islamic regime in 12 years – but local Iranians were less than happy to see him. Dozens of Iranian university students and activists protested Fabius’s arrival at Tehran International Airport, according…

Syrian and Lebanese sources are claiming an Israeli airstrike has killed several pro-regime forces in Syria. According to the pro-Hezbollah Al-Mayadeen, an Israeli airstrike hit a vehicle in Quneitra in the Syrian-controlled Golan Heights, close to the border with Israel. Hezbollah’s official Al-Manar TV station claimed two pro-regime militiamen were killed in the strike, which it claims…

At more or less the same time in which bulldozers began tearing down the Draynoff houses in Beit El, following a High Court order, a consultation was held at the Prime Minister’s Office in which the immediate construction of 300 housing units in Beit El was approved. The 300 units were promised by the Israeli government…

The underground remains of the Great Synagogue of Vilna, which was destroyed by the Nazis during the Holocaust, have been uncovered in a Ground Penetrating Radar survey. The survey, conducted in June 2015, leads the way to an excavation next year to dig up what remains of what was Lithuania’s greatest synagogue before the war, which…

Canada said Wednesday it will buy missile defense radars modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome from German defense contractor Rheinmetall. The defense ministry put the cost of the 10 medium range radar systems at Cad$243.3 million ($187.2 million), according to AFP.  Canada’s National Defense Minister Jason Kenney hailed the deal, saying the technology had proved useful for Israel. “Much like Israel’s successful Iron…

An Iraqi politician has called for his country to make peace with Israel, while branding Iran “insane” and blaming the Arab and Muslim world for creating ISIS by fomenting “a mentality of vengeance and nullification of the other.” Mithal Al-Alusi, a Sunni Muslim and leader of the Iraqi Ummah Party, made his comments in an interview with the Kuwaiti…

MK Motti Yogev (Jewish Home) is not going to apologize for the harsh remarks against the High Court, he said Wednesday, despite a fierce backlash from fellow MKs.  “Despite the valid zoning plan and the construction permit, the High Court ruled unjustly, in a way befitting charlatans,” an angry Yogev had stated earlier Wednesday. “A D9 [bulldozer] shovel…

Turkey’s allies know it is playing a double game with its twin onslaught against Kurdish rebels and the Islamic State group (ISIS or IS) but are turning a blind eye to keep NATO’s only Muslim member on side, analysts said. The very public show of solidarity for Turkey’s fight against “terrorism” at an emergency NATO meeting…

An explosion wounded seven people at the base of a Palestinian terrorist group linked to Syria’s Assad regime in eastern Lebanon on Wednesday, a security official told AFP. The explosion rocked a position in the town of Qusaya of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC), a hardline group with close…

Several Border Policemen refused to take orders to demolish a series of homes destroyed in Beit El on Wednesday, a source at the scene stated to Arutz Sheva, and will now likely face jail time for their loyalty to the residents.  “We met here many religious Border Police troops and policemen […] religious people for whom…

Staff at the Ramat Gan Safari conducted tumor-removal surgery on Samouni, an eight year-old African lion on Wednesday, in a special operation caught on film.  The lion’s trainers noticed swelling in Samouni’s abdomen recently and was diagnosed after an emergency biopsy.  Safari animal veterinarian Dr. Yigal Horowitz performed the two-hour operation, and the lion is expected to…

The Yisrael Beytenu party filed a no-confidence motion against the government on Wednesday, in direct response to the demolition of the Draynoff housing project in Beit El.  The no-confidence motion, entitled “the failed conduct of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense regarding the demolition of houses in Beit El,” suggests that the entire…

The UN envoy to Syria on Wednesday invited Syrians to take part in what he called “thematic” discussions to keep alive stalled efforts to negotiate an end to the war. “Sadly there is still no consensus on the way forward,” Staffan de Mistura told the UN Security Council after two months of meetings with key players in the conflict. “The…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Ankara is ending the peace process with the Kurds in the face of attacks against Turkish targets, even as his fighter jets launched an attack on Kurdish forces. “It is not possible to carry on the (peace) process with those who target our national unity and brotherhood,” Erdogan told…

New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) spoke to Arutz Sheva on Tuesday about his arrest last Thursday in front of the office of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), which came after Hikind used civil disobedience to press Schumer to block the Iran nuclear deal. In the protest, Hikind and eight other Jewish activists were arrested for sitting down on the sidewalk in…

There are heavy concerns that the families who returned to Sa-Nur in northern Samaria during the early pre-dawn hours of Tuesday morning will be expelled by security forces in the coming hours on Tuesday night. The dozens of families, together with 200 supporters from all around Israel, returned to their abandoned homes in the town to mark…

Numerous Jewish activists took part in an event in support of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, held at the New York home of Jewish activist Dr. Joseph Frager on Monday night (local time). In an exclusive interview with Arutz Sheva, Huckabee spoke about his recent comments criticizing US President Barack Obama for the Iran nuclear deal,…

Syrian troops and Kurdish fighters ousted the Islamic State (ISIS) group from Hasakeh Tuesday, more than a month after the jihadists launch an assault on the northeastern city, a monitoring group said.  Government troops and Kurdish forces, who share control of the city, had been battling since June 25 to push ISIS forces out of the city, which is the capital of Hasakeh province.…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday met with Nicos Anastasiades, the president of Cyprus, warning that Iran poses a formidable threat to Europe and noting that its terror proxy Hezbollah operates cells across the continent. Just last month, a member of the Lebanese Shi’ite terror group was jailed in Cyprus for plotting attacks on Israeli targets on the Mediterranean island. Netanyahu, on an official…

Hundreds of people have been gathering since Tuesday morning adjacent to the Draynoff compound in Beit El, which was stormed overnight by security forces despite the ongoing legalization process to save the buildings from demolition. In the late afternoon residents made renewed attempts to break back into the buildings, a development that has led to clashes with…

American lawyer and writer Samuel Pisar, one of the youngest Holocaust survivors and former adviser to US President John F. Kennedy, has died in New York aged 86, a French Jewish group said Tuesday. Pisar was “one of the rare very well-known survivors, along with Elie Wiesel and Simone Veil,” said French Jewish community leader Roger Cukierman, who said he had lost…

Representative Sander M. Levin, a Democrat from Michigan and the longest-serving Jewish member now in Congress, said Tuesday he would support the Iran nuclear accord, reports The New York Times. “Israel’s security has and always will be of critical importance to me and our country,” he said in a lengthy statement explaining his decision. “I…

United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien said Tuesday he hoped to secure better humanitarian access to Syrians most in need during his maiden visit to Damascus next month. Speaking to the UN Security Council, he expressed hope that the visit “will provide an opportunity to constructively engage with the government to address some of the…

Arutz Sheva was on scene as no less than 275 new olim (Jewish immigrants) from Ukraine landed in Israel on Tuesday, as part of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ)’s eighth Freedom Flight. Most of the new arrivals are refugees from the war-torn eastern section of Ukraine, and they were greeted by Bnai Akiva volunteers and IDF Border…

Damning evidence was found when US special forces killed Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Sayyaf in May, revealing that NATO-member Turkey has in fact been collaborating with the brutal jihadists. The British Guardian reported on Sunday that when Abu Sayyaf’s compound was raided in eastern Syria, it was discovered that Turkey is the main buyer of smuggled ISIS…

Amanda Korody, a Canadian woman found guilty of taking part in a terrorist bomb plot, also wanted to infiltrate a synagogue and kill Jewish children, according to a report in the Western Canadian newspaper, the Times Colonist. Both Korody and co-defendant, John Nuttall, her husband, are self-described Muslim converts. Police notes presented in British Columbia…

Clashes broke out in the town of Beit El in the Binyamin region on Monday night, as police forces in large numbers arrived in preparation for the demolition of the Draynoff Homes, which the High Court had ordered to be demolished. Dozens of youths gathered in the area in an attempt to prevent the evacuation…

A group of former diplomats on Monday sent a letter to Congress, urging members of both chambers not to reject the deal between Iran and the West, Politico reports. The letter, signed by former undersecretaries of state and former American ambassadors to Israel, states that the group has determined the deal “will leave Iran no…

The back and forth between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas continued on Monday, with a Fatah official saying that Hamas must hand over rule of Gaza as a condition to forming a unity government. Speaking to the Ma’an news agency, Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad said Hamas has to “lift their hands” from Gaza and…

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, on Monday rebuked fellow candidate Mike Huckabee for invoking the Holocaust in criticizing President Barack Obama over the nuclear agreement with Iran, The New York Times reported. Bush argued that Republicans needed “to tone down the rhetoric” if they hoped to recapture the…

International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda on Monday appealed a recent ruling by a special panel of judges that she must reconsider her previous decision not to investigate alleged war crimes committed by IDF troops when they boarded the Mavi Marmara ship in May 2010, Haaretz reported. In an unusual move, the ICC judges…

Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that it would increase its monthly aid to the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) budget from $14 million to $20 million, the Ma’an news agency reported. The increase brings Saudi Arabia’s yearly aid to the PA budget to $60 million, matching the United Kingdom’s budget aid, according to the report. The PA’s…

In this week’s show, Jay Shapiro discusses the nuclear agreement with Iran. “The goals of fascism, Nazism and communism were to enslave the individual. The goal of Islam today is not only to enslave the people and deny their rights but also to destroy the history of the west”, says Shapiro. Click here to download…

More than 200 French Jews, half of whom are children, arrived in Israel Tuesday aboard a special Aliyah flight organized by The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption. Although the plane arrived in the wee hours of the morning, the immigrants were warmly received at a festive welcome event at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The current…

Dozens of families and hundreds of activists returned Tuesday before dawn to the ruins of Sa-Nur, one of four towns in northern Samaria torn down in the Disengagement of 2005, to mark a decade since their expulsion. The IDF told the residents Tuesday that if they do not leave the location independently, they will be…

MKs from the Arab Joint List ascended the Temple Mount on Tuesday, in protest of Jewish visitors and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) visiting the site on Sunday, the day of Tisha B’Av, the Jewish national day of mourning over the Temple.  According to NRG, members of the List met with members of the Jordanian Waqf…

MK Eitan Broshi (Zionist Union / Labor) lashed out Tuesday against fellow Zionist Union MKs Merav Michaeli and Stav Shafir, on the issue of funding for the Defense Ministry’s Settlement Section. Michaeli and Shafir are vocally opposed to a bill co-sponsored by Broshi and MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), for regulating the status of the…

Education Minister MK Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) spoke with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday, and demanded a clarification from him over the impending demolition of a series of homes in Beit El. “Ten years since the Disengagement, someone forgot that this time, the nationalist camp has public and political power,” Bennett stated Tuesday morning.  “The Defense Minister…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he does not want to tear down the Draynoff compound in Beit El. “We are working to strengthen the settlement enterprise, and doing so while obeying the law,” he said. Meanwhile, however, actions on the ground indicate that security forces are preparing for demolition of the homes, pending…

A Sheikh has been spotted teaching martyrdom and terror to little children on the Temple Mount in footage captured Monday – and the Israel Police can be seen standing idly by, doing nothing. In the footage, published by the Middle East Research Media Institute (MEMRI), a Sheikh teaches the children about rewards for martyrdom – virgins –…

Arab League foreign ministers will meet in Cairo early next month to discuss clashes on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official said Monday. Sunday’s incident saw Arab rioters clash with Israeli Police at Judaism’s holiest site on Tisha B’Av, an annual day of Jewish mourning. Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters that foreign ministers from 15…

Reports of Jonathan Pollard being released are an independent issue – not another ploy from the Obama administration to rally support for the Iran nuclear deal from a reluctant Israel, Education Minister Naftali Bennett insisted Monday.  “There is no connection between the hoped-for release of our brother Jonathan Pollard and the story of the Iran…

US presidential candidate Mike Huckabee lashed back at US President Barack Obama on Monday, noting that Obama does not take the Iran nuclear threat seriously.  “What’s ‘ridiculous and sad’ is that President Obama does not take Iran’s repeated threats seriously,” Huckabee said, referring to Obama’s disparaging remarks about Huckabee’s stance on the issue. “For decades, Iranian…

Yesh Atid chairman MK Yair Lapid definitely plans to run for Prime Minister during the next elections, he revealed Monday night – and has learned a few lessons from the 20th Knesset elections in March.  “We learned that the Left is not a leader,” Lapid said, speaking to Knesset reporters. “None of us were able…

Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg of Tzfat (Safed) heavily manipulated the public’s trust in the rabbinic system to sexually assault women, an officer involved in the case stated Monday. “All the complainants are religious women who came to the rabbi, who is considered as very charismatic, and they came to ask for advice,” Police Superintendent Galit Winograd,…

Fresh from forging a controversial deal with Iran, which critics have blasted as a capitulation to Tehran’s demands, the Obama administration is willing to be just as “flexible” with North Korea, a US government envoy has said. Sydney Seiler, US special envoy for now-defunct six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, told Reuters Monday he hoped…

Mainstream media specifically discriminated against right-wing journalists during the Disengagement in 2005, journalist and MK Yinon Magal (Jewish Home) stated Monday, accusing the then-Editor in Chief of Channel 10 News Avi Barzilai of trying to remove him from the channel at the time due to his political views.  “I was the only journalist broadcasting from the rooftops,”…

US President Barack Obama responded to controversial remarks from Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on Sunday, saying the Iran deal “will take the Israelis and march them to the door of the oven.” “[It] would be considered ridiculous if it weren’t so sad,” Obama stated, at a news conference in Ethiopia.  “Maybe this is just an…

The United States and Turkey have agreed to work together to drive Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists from northern Syria, senior American officials said Monday, according to the AFP news agency. The announcement came as Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu vowed to press ahead with parallel strikes against Kurdish militants. The potentially game-changing accord with the…

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, on Monday denounced what he called “aggressive statements” by Iran, intensifying the verbal sparring between the regional rivals after a global deal on Tehran’s nuclear program, AFP reported. On Sunday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokeswoman accused Saudi ally Bahrain of making “unfounded allegations” to foment “tension in the region”, after…

MKs from the Joint Arab List intend to ascend the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, on Tuesday, in protest to Jews and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) visiting the Mount on Sunday, during the annual Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av mourning the Temples’ destruction.  The Arab MKs claimed they were protesting “police brutality” at…

Iran’s financial assistance to Hamas has stopped completely, a senior Hamas official stated Monday night.  “All assistance has stopped – both civilian aid to the Gaza Strip and military assistance to Hamas,” Hamas politiburo chief Moussa Abu Marzouk admitted in an Al Jazeera interview. “It’s difficult for us to deal with.”  Iran had provided a great deal…

Israel is expanding to become a global power, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated Monday.  First, he addressed economic expansion on the international front. “Two days ago I spoke to my friend Indian Prime Minister Modi,” he said. “We discussed cooperation between India and Israel.” “We are at a very major turning point in which we are…

Mossad has determined that three Iranian Jews – the brothers Cyrus and Ibrahim Karamani, and Norallah Rabizadeh – were murdered when they fled Tehran in 1997, as they tried to make their way to Israel, reported Ynet Monday. They were supposed to meet a smuggler who would guide them across the border to Pakistan, but never…

Kurdish fighters seized a key town in northern Syria from ISIS on Monday, cutting a supply lifeline from the jihadists’ de facto Syrian capital, a monitor said.  “The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) took full control of Sarrin on Monday after three weeks of intense clashes,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for…

Jerusalem district police arrested a Jewish youth on Monday for his “crime” recorded on video the day before, when he said while leaving the Temple Mount that “Mohammed is a pig,” in reference to the founder of Islam. The youth was arrested on Monday morning after arriving at the Kotel (Western Wall), and was brought…

Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva said Monday that it was buying the generic drug business of Allergan, the maker of Botox, for $40.5 billion, consolidating its position as a world leader in generics. Teva will pay $33.75 billion in cash and offer $6.75 billion of its stock to Allergan, the company said, in a major move that will further shake up the industry.…

An Arab MK found an opportunity yesterday (Sunday), on Tisha B’Av, to tell Army Radio that there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. MK Masud Ganaim (Joint Arab List) was interviewed, along with MK Yinon Magal (Jewish Home), about the day’s clashes on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. When the interviewer asked MK Ganaim about attacks…

Ali Barakeh, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, has told Arabic newspaper named Al-Araby al-Jadeed that because of financial problems, UNRWA is no longer hiring new employees and the next school year may open four months late. Barakeh said that Hamas has learned of efforts to place UNRWA – the body tasked with aid to Palestinian “refugees” – under…

Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the radical Islamic Movement in Israel, has called for terrorist violence on the Temple Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – so as to prevent Jewish access to the holy site. Referring to peaceful Jewish visits to the site – which are often met with harassment, most recently witnessed on Sunday during…

An Israeli company is partnering with Lockheed Martin for joint research and development (RD) to see if its radiation shielding technology – initially designed to protect nuclear first responders from gamma radiation – can be used to defend astronauts exploring deep space. StemRad, based in Tel Aviv with a branch in Palo Alto, California, works with militaries, nuclear…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday urged Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to stick with the Kurdish peace process despite escalating violence, her office said, according to AFP. Merkel assured Davutoglu of the “solidarity and support of Germany in the fight against terrorism” but also recalled “the principle of proportionality in the implementation of necessary…

Education of the younger generation has been a priority for Hamas ever since it took over Gaza in 2007. Education to violence and war, that is – and especially the encouragement of “martyrdom” in the name of “jihad” against Jews. Hamas has used all forms of communication – electronic, audio, visual, and in-person, within the…

In a sign that Israel may be trying to restart talks with the Palestinian Authority, Minister Silvan Shalom, who was appointed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to be in charge of peace talks, met last week in Jordan with the PA’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat. In recent months, since the formation of the new Israeli government,…

As residents of Beit El and supporters of the community rallied Sunday night, demanding that the government follow through on its plan to ensure that the Draynoff Houses in the community are left standing, the High Court yet again sought to put a halt to plans to prevent the demolition of the homes. The court…

Three men, all from the Druze community, were killed Sunday in an accident between a taxi and a private car on Highway 70 near Tamra, in the lower Galilee. Magen David Adom emergency rescue teams that arrived on the scene of the crash determined the deaths of Nur Shehade, aged about 25, of Mashhad, and…

A report Sunday said that Mahmoud Abbas was planning to resign his post as Palestinian Authority president within the next two months. The report on Israel’s Channel One said that the PA chief was leaving because of health issues, specifically due to “fatigue.” Abbas, who is 80, has already notified the PLO central committee of…

Israeli Arabs’ Islamic Movement called Sunday on Arabs to “react” to the insults hurled Thursday at the prophet Mohammed by an exasperated Jewish woman near the Temple Mount, by strengthening the Muslim grip on the Al Aqsa mosque through maintaining a presence there and resisting Jewish attempts to “burst into it.” The newspaper Falastin attributed Muslim…

Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia said on Sunday that he is leaning toward supporting the Iranian nuclear deal, because the alternative would be war, The Associated Press (AP) reports. Speaking to CBS’ “Face the Nation”, Manchin said he had spoken to leaders in four of the five countries that negotiated the Iran nuclear…

Not only was Gush Katif evacuated and demolished ten years ago – so was northern Samaria, with the community of Homesh the most important of the four Jewish towns that were razed by IDF bulldozers. While Jews were forbidden to live in those communities, the IDF has kept up its presence in the area, and…

Turkey has no plans to send ground troops into Syria but has agreed with the United States that air cover should be provided for moderate rebels fighting Islamic State (ISIS) forces there, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday night, according to Reuters. Davutoglu was quoted as telling a round table with Turkish newspaper editors that…

Middle East expert Professor Moshe Sharon told Arutz Sheva on Sunday that, 10 years after the “Disengagement” from Gush Katif, Israeli leaders still have not learned a lesson. “It is obvious that the expulsion from Gush Katif was a very bad mistake, and I do not want to use harsher words. The mistake is not…

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Sunday called for a united front among Middle Eastern nations to fight terrorism, the Lebanese-based Daily Star newspaper reported. Zarif’s comments were made in his first regional trip since his country reached an agreement with world powers on the country’s nuclear program, an agreement that raised fears among…

Rivaling factions of Australia’s Labor party, currently in opposition, agreed Sunday on a resolution that should the party come to power, it would consider recognizing Palestinian statehood, i24news reported. The motion stipulated such course of action on a lack of progress in the currently stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), the…

Shelling was reported in southern Yemen on Sunday night, just as a humanitarian truce between rebels and Saudi-backed pro-government forces came into force, the BBC reported. The Houthi rebel artillery pounded residential areas near the city of Taiz, witnesses said. However, the capital Sanaa and central Yemen are understood to be quiet. Before the truce…

Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) has published a collection of recent declarations on official PA television that the Jewish Temple never existed, that the “Palestinians” predated the Jews in Jerusalem by “centuries,” and the like. The latest posting by the internationally-known media watchdog organization PMW does not attempt to refute the claims, but simply brings them…

Ambassadors of NATO states will meet on Tuesday at Ankara’s request for talks on a spike in violence between Turkey, the Islamic State group and PKK Kurdish militants, the military alliance said Sunday. “Turkey requested the meeting in view of the seriousness of the situation after the heinous terrorist attacks in recent days, and also…

Prosecutors filed charges Sunday against Suleiman Abu Karon, a Bedouin resident of the village of Bir Hajj. Karon last week was arrested after he rode an all-terrain vehicle into an IDF firing range on the Tze’elim army base. Because of Abu Karon, the army was forced to stop training activities for ten army units. The…

A Jewish youth dared flout the police’s regulations forbidding Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount on Sunday, the day in which Tisha B’Av was observed this year, and was immediately pounced upon by police, who whisked him away. The Shema Yisrael – Hear, O Israel – prayer is considered the most basic of all prayers…

The first stage in the evacuation of the IDF’s Tzrifin base is now complete, freeing up over 10,000 square meters for construction of the “city of the future,” planned for the site when the army withdraws from it altogether by the end of the decade. The Tzrifin base is generally used for administrative and educational…

Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) slammed US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday for suggesting Israel would be blamed if Congress blocked the nuclear agreement with Iran.  “The State of Israel will speaks about its view on the Iranian nuclear issue, as related to its security and existence. No one has the authority to threaten it,” Steinitz,…

House Democrats are President Barack Obama’s “last line of defense” against congressional opponents of the nuclear deal with Iran, according to The Hill. The website, which specializes in covering Congress, said Saturday that “some lawmakers are speculating that as much as half the House Democratic Caucus might be willing to buck the White House” and vote against…

Residents of Beit El and supporters of the community are set to rally Sunday night, demanding that the government follow through on its plan to ensure that the Draynoff Houses in the community are left standing. In the wake of a High Court decision that would have required the buildings to be demolished, the Civil…

The Jordanian government has issued a response to violence on the Temple Mount Sunday – condemning not the Muslim rioters themselves but the Jewish visitors they were attempting to attack. In a statement issued Sunday afternoon Jordanian Information Minister Mohammed el-Mumini condemned what he described as the “storming” of Al Aqsa Mosque by “Jewish settlers,” headed…

A senior Fatah member was killed in southern Lebanon today (Saturday), according to a security official. The source, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP that “Colonel Talal al-Ourdouni was shot dead by two unidentified men while he was walking in the southern part of Ain al-Hilweh camp.” He added that Ourdouni had two bodyguards,…

Canadian Minister of National Defense and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney has released an official statement commemorating Tisha B’Av. The statement, which was published yesterday (Friday) invited his fellow citizens to remembering the way Jews have been mistreated. Following an explanation of the history and customs of the fast day, Kenney wrote: “On Tisha B’av, Jewish communities…

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has announced a five-day humanitarian ceasefire in its strikes on Houthi jihadists, according to Saudi Arabian state news. The ceasefire will begin tomorrow (Sunday) at 11:59 pm local time. The coalition has been supporting exiled President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi by carrying out airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthis since March 26.…

Notorious ISIS executioner “Jihadi John” is believed to have fled into unknown Syrian territory. A source told the British Mirror that Jihadi John, real name Mohammed Emwazi, fears he is no longer useful to the jihadist group and that he is being hunted by UK and US special forces. The source claims that ISIS would…

Egypt is testing out its “new” Suez Canal, having sent the first cargo ships through today (Saturday) in a trial run. The 72 kilometer-long canal lies close to the original route but will be able to handle larger ships and two-way traffic. The project has been moving quickly. Construction began less than a year ago,…

Iran will not abandon Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group after reaching a nuclear deal with world powers, the Shia Islamist group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday. “Did Iran sell its allies down the river during the nuclear talks? No, there was no bargaining” between Iran and the United States, he said in a speech broadcast on a large…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote about Tisha B’Av on his Facebook profile today (Saturday), saying emphasizing that Jerusalem will remain united and part of Israel. “This evening we commemorate the fast of Tisha B’Av, in which the Jewish people remembers the tragedy that befell us when the Temple was destroyed, Jerusalem was destroyed, and the…

Israel’s justice minister sought Saturday to quell speculation that the potential release of jailed spy Jonathan Pollard was a US gesture to ease Israeli anger over the Iran nuclear deal.   “There is no political or diplomatic involvement here,” Ayelet Sheked told Israel’s Channel 2. “It is an American legal procedure: the parole commission needs…

US President Barack Obama spoke with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta today (Saturday), during a visit to Kenya. President Obama landed in Kenya yesterday. This is his first visit to his father’s home country since becoming president. Since arriving he has visited a memorial for the 1998 US embassy bombing and spoken at a business summit.…

Turkey’s military Saturday carried out a new wave of air and artillery strikes against ISIS jihadists in Syria and Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, in an escalating campaign Ankara says is aimed at rooting out terror. AFP reports that the two-pronged operation against ISIS and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) — two groups who…

Army Radio Commander Yaron Dekel has invited Culture and Spots Minister Miri Regev to tour the military station in the wake of harsh criticism railed by Regev against the army’s music station Galgalatz.  In an interview last week, Regev claimed that “it’s not acceptable that at an army station, most of the songs are in a foreign language.”…

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton denied on Saturday that she used a private email account to send or receive classified information while she was secretary of state. “I did not send nor receive anything that was classified at the time,” Clinton said at a campaign stop in Iowa, according to the Reuters news agency. The…

An Australian nurse was charged with terrorism offenses for allegedly supporting the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria on Sunday after he voluntarily returned home from the troubled country. The 39-year-old Melbourne father of five, named in local media as Islamic convert Adam Brookman, briefly faced a Melbourne court on Sunday after surrendering himself to officials in Turkey on Tuesday, Australian Federal Police said.…

An Israeli official told The New York Times on Saturday that the country would continue to criticize the nuclear agreement with Iran and would not be pressured to stop voicing its objections. The statement came in response to comments Friday by Secretary of State John Kerry, who warned that Israel might be blamed if Congress…

The tension in relations between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas reached a new peak this weekend, after a period of mutual accusations over the responsibility for the failure of the political partnership between the parties. The latest chapter in the saga came on Saturday, when Salah Bardawil, a senior Hamas figure, sharply attacked PA chairman…

Moti and Smadar Mat, parents of fallen soldier Sgt. Lee Mat who was killed in Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, have taken on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Sunday over conflicts over what can be included on their son’s tombstone.  Sgt. First Class Mat, 19, was killed with two fellow Paratroopers when…

The founder of France’s far-right National Front party, Jean-Marie Le Pen, will be charged with denying the Holocaust for saying Nazi gas chambers were a “detail” of World War II.  Le Pen, 87, was summoned to stand trial before a Paris court several weeks ago, though a trial date has not yet been set, sources…

Jerusalem police clashed Sunday morning with a group of Arab youths, some of them masked, who barricaded themselves overnight inside the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.  The youths collected stones, wooden boards and planks, and fireworks to make firebombs in preparations for a riot with Israel Police as well as to disrupt those visiting the…

The Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) has hidden crucial details about the terrorist murderer of Malachi Rosenfeld, 26, who succumbed to wounds sustained in a shooting attack near the communities of Shvut Rachel and Kida on June 29. The murderer was one of several terrorists arrested in a terror cell busted last week in a mass operation…

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) suggested on Sunday that the potential release of jailed spy Jonathan Pollard has no connection to Israeli anger over the Iranian nuclear deal.  “It seems to me that today there is a critical mass of security experts and former defense ministers saying it’s time he got out of jail,” Bennett…

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid vociferously attacked the Kibbutz Movement on Friday after learning that representatives from “Breaking the Silence” spoke at its annual youth event.  “Here is more proof the Israeli Left has gone off the rails: ever year the Kibbutz Movement holds the ‘Rhapsody’ event in which hundreds of youths participate. This year they decided…

An internal government review found that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent at least four emails from her personal account containing classified information during her time heading the State Department, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. In a letter to members of Congress on Thursday, the inspector general of the intelligence community concluded…

In what was a stunning rebuke to US President Barack Obama’s claim that “Every pathway to a [Iranian] nuclear weapon is cut off,” Israel UN Ambassador, Ron Prosor, flatly contradicted Obama Thursday and stated, “This agreement grants Iran not one, but two paths to the bomb. Iran can get the bomb by cheating, or it…

Less than a day after indicating in a Senate hearing that the Iran nuclear deal would have the US defend Iran from Israel, US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Israel on Friday that a unilateral strike on Iran’s covert nuclear program would be a “huge mistake.” Appearing on the NBC “Today” TV show, Kerry was asked if…

An international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program will not alter Tehran’s staunch support for the Syrian government and may even strengthen Damascus, Syria’s foreign minister said Friday. Speaking at a conference in Damascus on “confronting terrorism,” Walid Muallem said those who hoped to persuade Iran to abandon Syria’s government would be disappointed, according to AFP.  “There is a lot of talk…

There are 18 Jewish legislators acting on behalf of the Democratic Party in the US Congress, and they are perhaps the key to victory on both sides – for both opponents of the agreement with Iran and its supporters. “Everyone is looking for us,” Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D – California), who is Jewish, told Arutz Sheva.  “Last…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership warned of renewed attempts of “extremist settlers” in support of the Israeli government to “break into” the Temple Mount during the Tisha B’Av national day of Jewish mourning (this Sunday), and to “contaminate” the site via their mere presence there. The Supreme Council for Islamic religious rulings, headed by Grand Mufti of…

The Obama administration is preparing to release Jonathan Pollard, American officials said Friday, according to The Wall Street Journal. Some of the officials expressed hope the move will smooth relations with Israel in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal, the newspaper reported. Pollard, who was arrested on charges of spying for Israel in 1985…

MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu) responded on Friday to comments made by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon condemning Ilatov’s plan not to allow anyone who does not sing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, to be appointed as a judge in Israel. Ya’alon maintained that going through with the idea presented by Ilatov, the newest member of the…

Two Swedish men were charged in Sweden on Friday over “terrorist crimes” committed in Syria in 2013, the first in the Scandinavian country to be arrested over such offences, AFP reported. The suspects, aged 30 and 32, were arrested Thursday and have both denied any wrongdoing when they were brought before a court Friday in…

Turkish F-16 air force jets on Friday evening took off from their base on a new mission to bomb targets controlled by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists in Syria, television reports said, according to AFP. The war planes took off from their base in the southeastern city in Diyarbakir to carry out a second wave of…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday warned that if Congress does not approve the deal recently signed with Iran, Israel might be blamed for it and become more isolated. Kerry’s comments came in a speech at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. “I fear that what could happen is if Congress…

In this program I shall bring you an exciting report about the extraordinary technological achievement of reading a burned scroll from the 6th Century, which contains parts of the oldest written Torah ever found, as well as a fascinating look behind the scenes at the laboratory where Dead Sea Scroll fragments are being preserved.   Also: More evidence of…

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Thursday said she believed a “two-state solution” is the only resolution for the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), Reuters reported. Responding to a question from an audience member at an event in South Carolina who asked her whether she thought a two-state solution was possible, Clinton…

German’s Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel on Thursday rejected criticism over his visit to Iran this week, The Associated Press (AP) reports. Gabriel’s three-day trip alongside German business leaders was criticized by local Jewish groups and opposition lawmakers, who urged Germany to consider its special responsibility toward Israel, which considers the Islamic Republic…

In the interest of their safety, Israel will reduce the number of Israeli Arabs who are allowed to enter Gaza, it was announced Thursday. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Major General Yoav Mordechai, recommended the move in view of the prevailing security situation in the coastal enclave. The head of the IDF’s…

Rebels including Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate on Thursday launched a fresh offensive on the major southern city of Daraa, saying their aim was to “purify” the area, AFP reports. Operation “Storm of Truth” was announced on Twitter by the Southern Front, an alliance of rebel groups, “to purify the province of Daraa from the filth of…

“These are the words which Moses spoke unto all Israel beyond the Jordan; in the wilderness, in the Arabah, over against Suph, between Paran and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. “It is eleven days journey from Horeb unto Kadesh-barnea by the way of mount Seir. And it came to pass in the fortieth…

The uncle of the man who shot four U.S. Marines and a sailor in Tennessee was released nearly a week after he was detained by Jordan’s intelligence services, his lawyer said Thursday, according to The Wall Street Journal. The lawyer, Abdelkader Ahmed Al Khatib, said no charges were filed against Asaad Ibrahim Haj Ali after…

A Holocaust survivor who set up a pro-Israel stall at a trade union festival is saying he was hounded from the event by pro-Palestinian campaigners who called him a “Nazi”, according to the Express website. The survivor, Henry Schachter, set up the Bournemouth Action for Israel stand at the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival in Dorset, in…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned on Thursday that the West was taking huge risks with the nuclear deal recently signed with Iran. “The time that has passed since the signing of the agreement with Iran continues to disclose the size of the risks that the West took upon itself, and its willingness to agree to…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership warned of renewed attempts of “extremist settlers” in support of the Israeli government to “break into” the Temple Mount during the Tisha B’Av national day of Jewish mourning (this Sunday), and to “contaminate” the site via their mere presence there. The Supreme Council for Islamic religious rulings, headed by Grand Mufti of…

Scientists have long scoffed at the Torah account of how the serpent in the Garden of Eden walked upright before being cursed, but a newly found 113-million-year-old fossil proves that snakes indeed once had four legs. Back in the first days after Creation, the Torah relates how G-d cursed the serpent for deceiving Eve into…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) sharply criticized MK Robert Ilatov (Yisrael Beytenu) on Friday morning, after Ilatov – the newest member of the Knesset’s Judicial Selection Committee – stated that anyone who does not sing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, cannot be a judge in Israel. Ya’alon maintained that preventing anti-Israel judges from sitting on the bench is a “bankruptcy of moral values.” …

The Hamas leadership continues to directly call for terror attacks against Jews in Judea and Samaria. Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas politburo member, wrote on Facebook that “expressions of the struggle in the West Bank are the natural fulfillment of the right of our people to struggle against the occupation in all its forms, and…

US President Barack Obama admitted Friday that the Iranian nuclear deal gives Iran – the leading state sponsor of terror – ample funding to extend its terror network, in a revealing interview with BBC.  “Does the IRGC [Revolutionary Guard] or the Quds Force have more resources?” he asked. “Probably, as the economy in Iran improves.” Obama denied, however,…

Former Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) on Friday slammed his erstwhile ally Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, claiming he could do a better job of opposing the Iran nuclear deal than Netanyahu. In an interview with Yedioth Aharonoth, the party chairman said “they’re just laughing at us when they start talking about Iran. You don’t need…

The Qumran edition of the Book of Lamentations (Eicha) will be on display for a four-day period, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced this week, in a special exhibit in honor of Tisha B’Av on Sunday. The writing on the scrolls dates from 30 BCE – 70 CE and has never been presented to the public…

International inspectors and Western officials involved in the disposal of Syria’s chemical arsenal revealed in a series of interviews to the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that they were deceived, and President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has retained significant parts of its chemical arsenal. While the US celebrated the removal of 1,300 tons of chemical weapons in a two-year mission by…

The Knesset this week approved harsher punishments against Arab terrorists hurling rocks at Israeli cars, in attacks that have tragically proven lethal in the past – unsurprisingly, Palestinian “human rights” organizations and terror groups have protested the measures. According to the law – which has caused mainstream Israeli media to “discover” the incessant terror phenomenon – those throwing…

Israel has given retired US-supplied Cobra combat helicopters to Jordan to help it fend off insurgent threats on its Syrian and Iraqi borders, a US official with knowledge of the deal told Reuters Thursday. The supply of the choppers was initiated last year and has been approved by the US, which provided mechanical overhauls for the aircraft…

Senators on the Foreign Relations Committee are grilling Secretary of State John Kerry over the deal that the P5+1 countries reached with Iran over its nuclear program. Kerry was greeted with applause from a handful members from the radical CodePink group. But the mood changed immediately as Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn) called the hearing to order. Corker…

Israel may have made historic concessions during Ramadan, issuing vast quantities of permits to Palestinian Arabs entering Jerusalem’s Temple Mount and the rest of Israel in an effort to create “goodwill,” but apparently the gestures did the exact opposite. The official Palestinian Authority (PA) daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, ran an op-ed by its columnist Taleb Al-Silwadi accusing Israel of making…

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been executing prisoners at a rate of up to three per-day in 2015, embarking on a killing-spree denounced by rights group Amnesty International as “staggering.” A new report by Amnesty documents how the theocratic regime has put to death nearly 700 people over the past six months alone. 694 people…

Palestine, the official paper of the Hamas terrorist organization, on Thursday published an article accusing the Palestinian Authority (PA) of abusing humanitarian aid set aside by Venezuela for needy Palestinian Arabs, promptly fattening its own pockets with the aid. Journalist Faiz Abu Shamala of the paper wrote that after last summer’s war launched by Hamas against…

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday conferred with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on “conditions for implementing” the Iran nuclear accord, Hollande’s office said, according to AFP. The two also agreed to “step up bilateral cooperation in this new context,” the presidency said in a statement. Hollande “expressed the wish for Iran to contribute positively…

The UN’s special envoy to the Middle East told the Security Council on Thursday that Israeli and Palestinian statements about a commitment to peace need to be translated into “concrete and sustained actions on the ground.” “Now is the time to act decisively to reverse the growing perception that the two-state solution is on life-support,…

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Commander of Iran’s Basij (volunteer) Force, on Thursday aired a whopper of a conspiracy theory, claiming that Israel and the US – which Iran just signed a nuclear deal with – are behind Islamic State (ISIS). Naqdi, who just this Tuesday said the nuclear deal makes Iranians hate America “100 times more”…

Turkey has agreed to expand its cooperation with the United states in the fight against Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in neighboring Syria and Iraq, defense officials said Thursday. The Wall Street Journal and Turkish dailies Zaman and Hurriyet reported that Turkey will allow the US military to launch airstrikes against the fighters from Incirlik Air Base in eastern Turkey. But a US…

Arutz Sheva got the chance to interview New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) on Thursday, just before he and eight other Jewish protesters were arrested for their act of civil disobedience in lying on the sidewalk in front of the office of Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The assemblyman’s protest aimed to pressure Schumer – who reportedly is wavering on whether or not to support the deal reached with Iran last…

On Tisha B’Av this Sunday, a fast day mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temple, Jewish activists plan to protest against the discrimination against Jews on the Temple Mount and the impunity given to Arab terror-supporters on the holy site, in a call to build the Third Temple. The Temple Mount and Land of…

NASA announced Thursday that it has discovered a planet very similar to Earth inside the Milky Way galaxy. It’s about 1,400 light years from Earth and orbits its star every 385 days, very similar to Earth’s orbital length. NASA described the planet, dubbed Kepler 452b, as an “Earth 2.0.” The planet is 60% larger than…

Likud Central Committee members are exerting heavy pressure on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to allow the ruling Likud party to apply the Israeli version of the Norwegian Law.  The law, which passed its first reading late Wednesday night, would allow one minister or deputy minister from each party to resign from the Knesset – paving the way…

The Obama administration will begin its effort to “sell” the Iran nuclear deal to Congress on Thursday, as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hear testimony from key administration officials on why Congress should approve the deal. Speaking before the Committee Thursday will be Secretary of State John Kerry, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, and Treasury…

One of Egypt’s most wanted men, a former special forces officer turned Islamist terrorist commander, condemned President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Wednesday and called for a holy war against his government, Reuters reported. An audio message attributed to Hisham al-Ashmawy, who security officials suspect masterminded the recent car bomb assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor, said…

United States President Barack Obama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed in a telephone call on Wednesday night to work together to “stem the flow of foreign fighters and secure Turkey’s border with Syria,” the White House said in a statement, quoted by Reuters. According to the statement, the two leaders also discussed deepening…

This Sunday, Israel will be observing the Fast of Tisha B’Av, marking 1945 years since the destruction of the Second Temple. On this day of tragedy and national mourning, are thoughts and prayers are all focused on the loss of the Holy Temple. This week’s Temple Talk asks aloud, ‘Has the world gone insane?’ and…

Spanish intelligence agents were working urgently on Wednesday to track down three journalists from Spain, the latest foreigners to go missing while reporting in war-torn Syria, AFP reported. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said “no theory is being ruled out” in relation to the disappearance of the three, missing for 10 days in a war zone…

Palestinian housing minister Mufid al-Hasayneh on Wednesday laid a brick for the first Gaza home to be rebuilt since the Israel-Hamas war a year ago, AFP reported. Until now the only repairs have been to homes which were partially damaged, while 18,000 totally destroyed houses remain in ruins. Hasayneh laid the brick at the Harara…

After a six year struggle, Lotte Brachfeld, 79, has finally been recognized by the State of Israel as a Holocaust survivor, Channel 2 reported Thursday.  Brachfeld, who was three-years-old when World War II broke out, lived in the Warsaw Ghetto until her parents escaped to the Soviet Union. She applied to the Finance Ministry in 2009 for…

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović arrived to the Knesset on Thursday as the special guest of Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein.  Edelstein welcomed Grabar-Kitarović in a meeting held in his Knesset office with the President and her entourage.  “We are pleased to welcome you and are aware that you are a true friend of Israel. The Knesset is…

A leading Turkish daily fired its most senior commentators after he sent a tweet bitterly critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policy on Islamic State (IS) jihadists, AFP reported Thursday.  The Milliyet daily said that commentator Kadri Gursel’s employment had been terminated as the tweet was not in line with the paper’s editorial policies. From his Twitter account @KadriGursel, the journalist…

A militant group allied to Turkey’s outlawed Kurdish party has shot dead in Istanbul an alleged member of ISIS who had fought in Syria, media said Thursday.   The reports come amid soaring tensions in Turkey following Monday’s suicide bombing in the town of Suruc on the border with Syria that killed 32 and that…

EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini announced Thursday that she would visit Iran as part of her next Middle East tour. According to German news agency DPA, Mogherini will visit both Iran and Saudi Arabia next week, traveling to the latter first before moving on to Tehran. According to a statement by her office, Mogherini said…

Iranian school textbooks, like those of other nations, imbue youngsters with their countries’ most important values. In Iran, studies show, this means apocalyptic war and victory over the USA and the West. Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs who served in the past as liaison between Israel and the U.S. Congress,…

Arutz Sheva spoke this week with two activists as Israel marks ten years since the implementation of the Disengagement.  “It’s hard to believe ten years have passed since the expulsion from Gush Katif,” Dror Va’ananu, the International Coordinator of the Gush Katif Committe, said. “We the former Gush Katif residents went through so many challenges.” “First…

A senior Iranian government official has claimed Tehran has already successfully negotiated more than $2 billion-worth of trade deals with European companies, following last week’s deal over its nuclear program. “We are recently witnessing the return of European investors to the country. Some of these negotiations have concluded, and we have approved and granted them…

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) spoke in favor Wednesday of a bill promoted by MK Sharon Gal (Yisrael Beytenu) which mandates that politicians who make statements against Israel be barred from running for the Knesset.  According to Israel’s current law, a potential candidate for the Knesset can only be disqualified for his/her actions against…

Twitter users in Turkey could again access their accounts on Wednesday following an hours-long blockage after a court decision banning the publication of images of a deadly suicide bombing in all print, visual and online media, a Turkish official said. “We notified Twitter about 107 URL addresses that must be removed in compliance with the court order,” the official told AFP,…

The Israeli hip-hop duo Kafe Shahor Hazak (Strong Black Coffee) has been personally selected to open American RB singer Chris Brown’s concert in Israel next week.  The duo consists of Ethiopian-born musicians Ilak Sahalu, 25, and Uri Alamo, 23 – cousins who immigrated to Israel as children and were raised in Netanya.  Brown was introduced to the group, Channel 2 reports,…

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi voiced fervent support for Israel in a speech before the Knesset on Wednesday afternoon, calling it “the nation-state of the Jewish people.” During his speech, which followed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s, Renzi addressed his visit to Tel Aviv University the previous day, tying that in to a denouncement of the boycott movement against…

The Gesher organization released on Tuesday the first comprehensive index of social attitudes toward the issue of unity in Israel.  The Israel Unity Index, commissioned as part of the Jerusalem Unity Prize, will serve as an annual gauge over what is considered one of Israeli society’s biggest challenges.  According to the study, conducted on a sample…

The European Union may take larger steps against Israel’s economy after pushing ahead this week with its decision to label Israeli goods made in communities in Judea and Samaria.  The European Council on Foreign Relations has argued, in a paper to be published on Wednesday, that the EU is violating its own law and must take firmer…

Residents from the Arab village of Silwad northeast of Ramallah held a mass celebration on Monday night – over the death of an Israeli whom Hamas terrorists targeted in a shooting attack earlier this month.  A convoy of cars ran through the village waving the Hamas flag and shouting encouraging slogans over the death of Malachi…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday evening with Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and warned that the deal between Iran and six world powers could turn out exactly the way the deal with North Korea. The North Korea nuclear deal was sealed by then-U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1994. In 2006 the Communist rogue state performed its…

The Israel Police’s Coastal District cleared for publication Wednesday, Channel 10 reported, video evidence of a gang from Wadi Ara in northern Israel, whose members stalked IDF soldiers in order to steal their weapons.  The gang’s four members are accused of following soldiers day-after-day for months as they traveled by train from Binyamina to their homes in the Sharon…

Saudi Arabia is just as wary of the deal between Iran and the West as Israel is, Saudi state media indicated Wednesday, after King Salman bin Abdulaziz expressed concerns over the Islamic Republic’s terror regime and accountability in a meeting with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.  Carter “stressed the United States of America’s keenness on enhancing peace…

Hollywood actor Seth Rogen, and his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, announced Wednesday plans to throw friend and fellow star James Franco a bar mitzvah.  The Jewish rite of passage will be held in Los Angeles in October as part of a variety show for the couple’s Hilarity for Charity foundation. The Rogens founded Hilarity for Charity, which…

US Speaker of the House John Boehner vowed to “do everything possible” to stop the deal between Iran and nuclear powers from being approved by Congress, he said during a press briefing Wednesday.  “While the president’s Iran deal may have been applauded at the United Nations, I think he faces serious skepticism here at home,”…

Video footage of two extremist Israelis who set a bilingual kindergarten alight in November 2014 has been released to the public Wednesday night, in light of the district court’s decision to sentence brothers Shlomo and Nachman Tuito to prison for their actions.  Loading… Judge Zvi Segal ruled that Shlomo (20) will serve two years in prison;…

Defense Ministry security guards at the Kerem Shalom border crossing thwarted an attempt Wednesday to smuggle a motorcycle, which was hidden inside a refrigerator, into Gaza. As part of security checks carried out on all goods being transferred from Israel into Gaza, Kerem Shalom Border guards examined a Gaza-bound Israeli truck containing old electrical equipment.  During the…

The vast concessions to Iran made in the nuclear deal last Tuesday, which ultimately allow the leading state sponsor of terror to be able to obtain a nuclear arsenal in ten years, are apparently not enough for a top Iranian general. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Naqdi, Commander of Iran’s paramilitary Basij Force, said on Tuesday that…

A candidate for the leadership of the British Labour party on Tuesday said the party should not have voted in favor of the motion to recognize the Palestinian state, The Independent reports. The candidate, Liz Kendall, argued that recognizing Palestine was not the “right thing to do” and argued that a “responsible opposition” would not…

The back and forth between Republican presidential candidates Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump continued on Tuesday, Politico reported. Trump ramped up his attacks on the South Carolina senator, who made headlines Monday for calling Trump a “jacka**”, by giving out Graham’s private phone number in a speech in front of supporters. Trump began by calling…

The United States Treasury imposed sanctions on three Hezbollah military officials and a businessman tied to the group on Tuesday, citing their support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. According to the AFP news agency, the Treasury named Mustafa Badr Al Din, said to be in charge of Hezbollah’s military operations in Syria;…

Turkey said Tuesday it had identified a suspect in Monday’s suicide bombing on the border with Syria blamed on Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, AFP reports. Thirty-two people were killed and more than 100 wounded on Monday when a bomb ripped through a gathering of young socialist activists preparing to take aid over the border into the…

An uncle of the man who killed four Marines and a sailor in Tennessee has been in custody in Jordan since a day after last week’s attacks, a lawyer told The Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday. The lawyer, Abed al-Kader Ahmad al-Khateeb, told the news agency that he was barred from seeing his client and…

Jewish actor and singer Theodore Bikel died on Tuesday morning of natural causes at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, said his agent Robert Malcolm, according to The Associated Press (AP). He was 91. Born in 1924, in Vienna, Austria, Bikel moved with his family to what was then Palestine (today Israel) when he was…

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Tuesday announced that negotiations toward an expanded and modernized Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA) had concluded. Harper’s office said in a statement that the updated CIFTA will notably provide expanded market access opportunities for agricultural, fish and seafood products through the reduction or elimination of Israeli tariffs on a…

Former Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul failed three times running in presidential elections; now it remains to be seen if his candidly anti-American and pro-Iranian statements Monday will affect the current campaign of his son, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Ron Paul – who has called to cut American defense aid to Israel and criticized America as being “one-sided”…

A 21 year old Arab man was shot and killed by Border Police in Birqin, west of Jenin, before dawn Wednesday. A riot developed as IDF forces carried out an arrest of a wanted terrorist. Border Police forces fired at the rioters and the man – who is a resident of Birqin – was hit…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the Knesset Wednesday in honor of visiting Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi, and said that Israel is being accused by the world despite having committed no crime. “We are not without mistakes, but when we are painted as the source of evil in the world, that is a blatant lie…

The Knesset’s Ethics Committee decided Wednesday not to discuss complaints filed against Likud MK Oren Hazan. The decision was reached after Knesset Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon said the committee has no authority to discuss complaints dealing with the alleged behavior of a Knesset member before he entered the Knesset. The complaints were filed following a…

The UK’s left-wing Labour Party looks set to veer even further leftward, as the most extreme candidate in the race to lead the party – who counts Hamas and Hezbollah among his “friends” – emerges as a clear favorite to win. After starting off as an outsider, polls show MP Jeremy Corbyn with a handy…

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari reported video evidence on Facebook Wednesday attesting to the firebombs routinely hurled by Arab terrorists at the Jerusalem home of Rabbi Dov Lior, former chief rabbi of Hevron and Kiryat Arba. Video uploaded by the ex-MK shows remains of a firebomb at the very doorstep of the rabbi’s home, located in the Beit Orot neighborhood…

An American airstrike in Syria has killed a key figure in the Khorasan terrorist group, an offshoot of Al-Qaeda, the Pentagon said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press (AP). Muhsin al-Fadhli was killed in a July 8 air attack while traveling in a vehicle near Sarmada, Syria, Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis said in a…

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is likely to take punitive measures against the Belgian Charleroi soccer team over the anti-Semitic behavior of its fans at last week’s game against Beitar Jerusalem, Channel 1 News reported on Tuesday. According to the report, UEFA will summon group ownership for a hearing after Charleroi fans taunted Beitar…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem. ​ After praising the bilateral ties with Italy, Netanyahu noted that earlier in the day he met with visiting US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, and spoke with him about the Iran nuclear deal sealed last Tuesday.…

Several senior Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum attended a conference marking 10 years since the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria Tuesday. The 2005 “Disengagement Plan” saw some 10,000 Jews expelled from their homes in Gush Katif (Gaza) and four villages in northern Samaria. Right-wing politicians warned the move would result in…

Two Israeli citizens were among three people indicted at a New York court for their part in a complex security fraud plot, which included computer hacks of banking giant JPMorgan Chase Co., among other financial institutions. A joint operation by the FBI and Israeli law enforcement agencies resulted in the arrests of four men in Israel and…

Marking ten years to the town’s destruction, hundreds of Israelis on Tuesday visited Sa-Nur, one of four Jewish communities in northern Samaria that was uprooted in the 2005 Disengagement plan that saw Gush Katif in Gaza emptied of Jews as well. Science Minister Danny Danon (Likud) spoke to Arutz Sheva at the event, which was also attended by…

Three Spanish freelance journalists have gone missing in Syria where they were reporting from the northwestern Aleppo region, the head of a Spanish press federation said on Tuesday. Jose Manuel Lopez, Antonio Pampliega and Angel Sastre entered Syria via southern Turkey on July 10 “and there has been no news of them since July 12,” said Elsa Gonzalez, president of the Federation…

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) on Tuesday outlined her plan to fight the European funding of anti-Israel radical leftist groups, and her plans have already begun to be acted on. Over the course of Tuesday and one day last week Hotovely held a series of meetings with foreign ministers, deputy foreign ministers and ambassadors of European states…

When the last plaintive shofar blast echoed through the Washington D.C. Convention Center of the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) Policy Conference extravaganza of support for Israel, July 13–14, 2015, it was not the record attendance of 5,000 fired-up pro-Israel Christians that marked a turning point for the 10-year old group. Nor was it the…

US President Barack Obama has insisted the recent deal with Iran over its nuclear program has not let Tehran “off the hook” over its continued support of global terrorism, or for the US citizens it still holds captive. Speaking as criticism of the deal continues to resonate throughout the world, Obama told attendants at the annual…

The defense team for former SS sergeant Oskar Groening, also known as the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz”, on Monday filed an appeal against his conviction of 300,000 counts of accessory to murder, CBS News reported. Groening was convicted last week and sentenced to four years in prison, but will remain free until his appeals are heard.…

United States Vice President Joe Biden and a team of senior White House officials on Monday attempted to placate the American Jewish community’s concerns about the Iranian nuclear deal, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The officials held an hour-long conference call with leaders and rabbis, an audio recording of which was obtained by the website.…

World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder hailed British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday for his proposal to combat the spread of Islamic extremism in England, which includes steps to counter the growth of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and rhetoric. Cameron unveiled the British government’s five-year plan to defeat homegrown extremism in a speech…

The United States and Cuba officially re-launched diplomatic ties on Monday with the opening of a Cuban embassy in Washington, AFP reported. Some seven months after President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro agreed to restore ties snapped in 1961 during the Cold War, Havana and Washington restored diplomatic relations and reopened full…

Tony Stubblebine, founder of Coach.me, shares tips for developing new habits. How can you translate your desire for change into practical action? Can you use these techniques for all branches of your life, including personal finance? In the second half of the show, meet Jason Koprowski, business manager and leadership coach. What are growth metrics,…

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, on Monday wrote to colleagues backing the nuclear agreement with Iran, Reuters reported. Pelosi’s letter came as congressional Republicans railed against a UN vote on the deal. “As you may be aware, I believe that this agreement is a major accomplishment. I am pleased that…

Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, who is suspected of killing five Marines in Tennessee last week, was in Qatar at least once during a 2014 trip to the Middle East, according to two U.S. government sources who spoke to Reuters on Monday. The sources said reasons for the stopover were still unknown. On a seven-month trip to…

The White House on Monday condemned an apparent suicide bombing in Turkey that  killed at least 30 people and was blamed on the Islamic State (ISIS) group, AFP reported. Spokesman Josh Earnest said the White House “strongly condemns the heinous terrorist attack that occurred in southern Turkey,” which Ankara said appeared to be the work…

In the past, the battles of Vienna in 1529 and 1683 resulted in the defeat of the Muslims by the Christians. Jay Shapiro thinks that the signing of the new treaty with Iran in Vienna will result in the defeat of Judea-Christian civilization by the Muslims. Click here to download the podcast

Efraim Zuroff, chairman of the Simon Wiesenthal Foundation, arrived in Copenhagen Monday in order to file an official complaint against a 90-year-old Nazi war criminal who participated in the murder of thousands of Jews in Belarus during the Holocaust. The identity of the man and his role in the war were well-known in Denmark, but…

An Israeli backpacker in his 20s died Monday during a trip to Peru under unclear circumstances. His family has been notified. The Foreign Ministry’s situation room is working with the local authorities regarding the transfer of his body to the capital Lima, and is in touch with his family in Israel, according to Walla! News.  The…

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter met Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday to try to ease tensions over the Iran nuclear deal, as the Israeli leader urged lawmakers in Washington to reject the agreement. The two men greeted each other with a long handshake before entering the meeting that lasted nearly two hours, making no comment about the tensions over the nuclear…

The IDF Disabled Veterans Organization demanded Tuesday that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the IDF respect the agreement signed with them in 2013 on the subject of recognition of disabled IDF veterans and their rights, following the expected publication of a governmental plan to streamline the IDF. One of the changes expected in the overhaul includes…

IDF Spokesman, Brigadier General Motti Almoz addressed the controversy over plans to overhaul the military and make it more efficient. Almoz said that there is no “world war” between the IDF and the government over the plan, dubbed the “Gidon Plan.”  The plan is intended as an alternative to the government’s Loker Plan, which is to be presented…

US Secretary of State John Kerry has acknowledged that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s continued vows to defy the US are “very disturbing.” “I don’t know how to interpret it at this point in time, except to take it at face value, that that’s his policy,” Kerry told Saudi-owned television station Al-Arabiya Tuesday. “But I do…

The Jerusalem Municipality has approved funding for the Reform Movement’s Hebrew Union College and other non-Orthodox institutions, according to a report on Army Radio Tuesday. It is not completely clear whether UTJ and Shas representatives were fully aware that they were approving this funding when they voted upon it. The radio station quotes Councilman Hanan Rubin of the Hitorerut…

Less than two months after an eventful visit, American pop diva Mariah Carey is due to return. According to Israel Hayom, Carey will play Israel in August, performing at the Amphi-Park in Rishon LeZion in front of 10,000 fans.  The event is expected to be far smaller than her usual fare, and Carey will give a ‘greatest…

At a ceremony held by the German embassy in Paris on Monday, the German government awarded medals of honor to Jewish lawyer Serge Klarsfeld and his German wife Beate, who have relentlessly hunted down Nazi war criminals for many dozens of years. The two, who have been vocal supporters of Israel, were given the German Order of Merit…

The US military flatly denied Tuesday a claim from a Kurdish militia source that it  coordinates air strikes against ISIS in Syria with Bashar al-Assad’s regime forces. Both Syrian and US-led coalition planes have been seen in recent days over Hasakeh in northern Syria, where the so-called Islamic State is battling local Kurdish fighters. An…

US President Barack Obama’s rapprochement efforts led the US and Cuba to officially re-launch diplomatic ties on Monday with the opening of a Cuban embassy in Washington, but pro-democracy activists in Cuba say Obama has abandoned them. Berta Soler, leader of a key Cuban opposition group called Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White), told Al Jazeera that “we’re…

A brazen campaign to erase an ancient Jewish village from the map is being led by European-funded NGOs, a report has revealed, once more casting a spotlight on the leading role played by European state funding in the anti-Israel movement.. The illegal Arab settlement of Khirbet Susiya, located next to the Jewish town of Susya in Judea, is currently the…

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s top foreign affairs adviser revealed on Tuesday that despite the nuclear deal sealed last Tuesday, international inspectors will not be allowed to visit Iran’s covert military sites that are said to house its secret nuclear weapons program. The aide, Ali Akbar Velayati, was quoted by the semi-official Fars News Agency saying…

The Yohanan Locker Commission into the IDF has issued a raft of controversial and far-reaching recommendations, which include major budget cuts throughout the Israeli military. The Commission’s stated objective is to grow Israel’s defense budget from 55 billion shekels to 59 billion over the course of the next five years. That budget covers all IDF…

The international organization of teachers’ unions is meeting this week in Ottawa, Canada to vote on several anti-Israel resolutions including calls for a BDS boycott of the Jewish state – but that anti-Israel message will not be met by silence. NGO Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) on Tuesday will present to the 7th World Congress of Education…

The Iranian nuclear deal has not only prompted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other officials to declare that Israel will defend itself – it has also prompted the IDF to take drastic measures to act on that plan.  On Monday morning, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot presented to the General Staff the Gidon Plan, a…

To remember IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, who was killed in Operation Protective Edge one year ago tomorrow, hundreds of youths of all backgrounds gathered in Tel Aviv for a unique memorial – a graffiti-based tribute to the IDF soldier whose body Hamas is still holding. The memorial was actually an extension of an idea that…

The Knesset Ethics Committee on Monday issued a warning to MKs: Watch your mouths, because Knesset members who insult, curse, or slander them – directly or behind their back – will find themselves in big trouble. According to the Committee, there is no MK who has not at one time or another engaged in “nasty”…

Most Israeli Jews favor retaking Gush Katif (Gaza) from Hamas, a decade after Israel withdrew from the area and handed it over to the Palestinian Arabs during the Disengagement, a poll published on Monday showed. Some 51 percent of Israeli Jews said they were in favor of rebuilding Gush Katif where more than 8,000 Israelis lived prior to the…

The UN Security Council held the critical vote on the Iranian nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and the West on Monday afternoon, at 9:00 am EST (4:00 pm IST) in New York.  Anticipation is high ahead of the vote, after New Zealand announced Friday that the vote would be held “under silence.” In an “under silence”…

Education Minister Naftali Bennett on Monday defended Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from barbs being issued by Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid. Bennett, defending Netanyahu on his handling of the Iran nuclear issue, told Lapid that “every good soldier knows that you don’t conduct an investigation during the battle. If you don’t want to help the…

Hamas has strongly denied a Fars news agency report which claimed that leader Khaled Meshaal would send hundreds of Hamas “military wing” fighters to help in the war against the Shi’ite Houthis in Yemen.  Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said that this report is untrue, since the Saudi leadership did not present the idea. He…

Tensions surfaced in Jewish Home Monday, as a loud shouting match broke out between party chairman Naftali Bennett and party members and representatives from Beit El, where the government is poised to demolish several homes. The Beit El contingent demanded that Bennett and the party take a strong stance against the plan – but instead,…

The Knesset on Monday evening approved the second and third readings of a bill that toughens the punishment handed out to rock throwers. 69 MKs voted in favor of the bill, while 17 voted against. The law stipulates that the offense of obstructing an officer by throwing rocks or other objects is punishable by five…

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) spoke to Arutz Sheva about the Iran deal on Monday, hours after the UN Security Council unanimously implemented a draft resolution actualizing the Iranian nuclear deal with the West.  “The Iranian deal is a mortal threat to Israel and to world peace,” Bennett said. “I think everyone knows it.”  “The days which…

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited Israel on Monday in a bid to ease concerns over the nuclear deal with Iran, signaling Washington was ready to boost military cooperation with the Jewish state, according to AFP.  Israel was Carter’s first stop on a regional tour following last week’s historic agreement between Iran and world powers, underlining the importance of the relationship between the two countries despite…

Israel’s ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor took on the United Nations Security Council on Monday, just after it unanimously approved a draft resolution implementing the Iranian nuclear deal with the West.  “You have awarded a great prize to the most dangerous country in the world,” Prosor began. “I hate to be the one to…

The European Union said Monday it will explore setting up a new international format to breathe life back into the stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, AFP reported.  EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini, fresh from her role in the Iran nuclear deal, said she was working on an idea for an “international support group.” “We have invested a lot as the…

British Prime Minister David Cameron laid out a comprehensive five-year plan to combat Islamist extremism in the United Kingdom (UK) on Monday, in a riveting speech tackling the issue of “Islamic poison” head-on.  He stressed, first and foremost, that he seeks to “tackl[e] Islamist extremism – not Islam the religion.”  In a radical move, he added…

Germany believes Iran should rethink its stance on Israel as last week’s nuclear deal means it must “bear new responsibilities, at home and abroad,” a top German official said Monday, AFP reported.  The comments from Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s Economy Minister and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy, came during a trip to Tehran aimed at rebuilding badly affected trade ties. Gabriel, the most senior Western…

The Islamic State (ISIS) group is banning private internet access in its Syrian bastion Raqa, forcing residents and even its own fighters to use internet cafes where they can be monitored, activists say. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activist group Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently both reported the new restrictions on internet access. The activist group posted online a…

An indictment was submitted to the Central District Court on Monday against the two murderers of David Bar Kapara, the 70-year-old Israeli farmer they beat to death last month. Details of the murder were revealed in the indictment against Mujahid Ali Mahmoud Dar Assi (21) and Alla’a Harbi Abed Al-Fatah Assi (22), both illegal aliens with terror records who had infiltrated into Israel…

The Italian Foreign Ministry on Monday reported that four Italians have been kidnapped in Libya, reports the Associated Press. In a statement released by the ministry, it was revealed that the four were abducted near a complex of the Eni oil and gas company, located in the city of Mellitah in western Libya. All four are…

MK Dov Khenin, a Jewish member of the Arab Communist Hadash party that merged into the Joint Arab List, turned to Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) on Monday in a request not to demolish an illegal Arab settlement built on an ancient Jewish village. The Israeli Supreme Court has given the green light for the demolition of…

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court is to discuss on Monday the case of a Jewish youth who was arrested near Kiryat Arba in Judea on Sunday night, during one of a series of protests against the intended demolition of homes in Beit El located north of Jerusalem in Samaria. The Honenu legal aid organization has revealed that the…

In two districts of Syria’s Hasakeh city, Kurdish fighters and regime forces rest before returning to battle the Islamic State (ISIS) group, a shared enemy being fought jointly for the first time. Although the two forces are fighting in different parts of the northeastern city, where control is divided between the Kurds and the government, both are necessary to defeat the…

An agreement for direct non-stop flights between Israel and Japan has been signed – and Israeli bumble-bees might be the first passengers. Representatives from Israel El Al Airlines and Japan’s largest aviation company, All Nippon, signed the deal at a recent meeting in Tokyo. Up to 14 direct flights between the two countries will take…

Agricultural Minister Uri Ariel and MK Bezalel Smotrich, members of the Jewish Home party who represent the National Union faction of the party, participated Sunday night in a meeting that discussed the movement’s future in light of the “creeping building freeze” many residents of Judea and Samaria say is occurring. Those who claim that this…

Dr. Harold Rhode, a former analyst for the Pentagon on the Middle East and today a lecturer at the Ariel University in Samaria, on Sunday told Arutz Sheva that the deal between Iran and the West was in fact an American concession to Iran. “There were no negotiations, only an American concession to Iran,” said…

Judge Rachel Barkai of the Be’er Sheva Administrative Court rejected on Sunday a request by infiltrators and leftist organizations to issue an intermediate order forbidding the state from detaining them. The infiltrators had refused the state’s orders to leave Israel and go to a third country – i.e., a country that is not Israel, but…

Once an influential force in Jewish life but relegated centuries ago to a near-pariah status, the Karaite sect of Judaism was given renewed vigor Sunday as the High Court ordered the Chief Rabbinate to authorize slaughter (shechita) of meat by Karaite ritual slaughterers. The Universal Organization of Karaite Jewry sued the Rabbinate after the latter sought…

For once and for all, said Zionist Union/Labor Chairman Yitzchak Herzog Sunday, the Zionist Union is not going to join Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition. Speaking at a party meeting, Herzog sought to dispel rumors of the past several days, which indicated that there was a possibility – even a likelihood – that the party would join the…

Today’s show is all about people giving to others, volunteering, looking beyond ourselves, climbing out of ourselves, being selfless, healing the world with goodness and kindess – all high forms of derech eretz. Our first guest is Bonnie Rosenbaum of Ramat Beit Shemesh, who brings cakes to soldiers and most recently was one of 40…

Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) has lashed out at US President Barack Obama for his handling of the lethal attacks on army sites in Chattanooga, Tennessee last Thursday, calling the shootings an “act of war.” Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, a Kuwaiti-born naturalized US citizen, went on a shooting rampage at a naval base and army…

Magdalena Chudzicka, a mother of four, is rolling out her welcome mat. Her family is among dozens in Poland opening their homes to Syrian Christians fleeing war and Islamic State (ISIS) persecution, part of a ground-breaking drive by the Catholic nation’s tiny Protestant community to save lives. “The war in Syria is all over our TV screens, but until…

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, who is also Germany’s economy minister, on Sunday said Iran must recognize Israel in order to have economic relations with Germany. “Questioning [Israel’s] right to existence is something that we Germans cannot accept,” Gabriel said at the start of a three-day visit to Tehran, according to the German dpa news…

The Herzog College in Gush Etzion is once again holding its annual Tanakh study conference, attended by more than 7,000 people. The conference, which began on Sunday, will run until Thursday and will include more than 200 lessons in Hebrew and English on subjects such as poetry, gender, geography, art, architecture, relationships, leadership and more…

Conspiracy theories of a powerful Jewish cabal or a Western plan to destroy Islam must be challenged in efforts to counter radicalization, British Prime Minister David Cameron will say on Monday, AFP reports. The remarks will come in a speech in the central English city of Birmingham, in which Cameron is to announce a five-year…

Former President George H.W. Bush, who broke a bone in his neck after falling last week, was released Sunday from a Maine hospital, reports CNN. “A very grateful President GeorgeHWBush was discharged from @MaineMed after four days of treatment for a fractured vertebrae,” his spokesman Jim McGrath tweeted. The 91-year-old Bush, the oldest living former…

Arutz Sheva spoke with Attorney Haim Meir, who is representing the Gross family – which in January 2014 tragically lost its two infant daughters, Yael (2) and Avigail (4), to poisoning caused by a pest control professional. Last week the family launched a lawsuit worth 11.6 million shekels (over $3 million) against the exterminator, the company that provided…

The Iran nuclear deal does not mean military action is off the table when it comes to stopping Tehran from obtaining an atomic bomb, United States Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Sunday ahead of a visit to Israel. “One of the reasons why this deal is a good one is that it does nothing to…

United Torah Judaism may be on the verge of splitting apart after its Agudat Yisrael faction attempted Sunday to prevent a Cabinet discussion on Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked’s Norwegian Law bill.  Should the bill pass, it would allow Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman to resign from the Knesset and allow former MK Yaakov Asher, of UTJ’s Degel…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved on Sunday a bill that allows one minister or deputy minister from each party to resign from the Knesset – paving the way for new MKs to enter.  The bill, modeled after the Norwegian Law, was introduced by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home party.  The law will…

Enlistment to combat units of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for the August 2015 recruitment season began on Sunday morning throughout Israel.  Hundreds of youngsters arrived at conscription centers across the country, embracing family and friends before boarding buses to the major military base in Tel Hashomer.  New recruits for the Golani Brigade were the first to put on the traditional…

Haredi leaders appear to be taking stock of several recent sexual harassment scandals, Kikar Hashabbat reports Sunday.  On Sunday, Rabbi Shalom Arush, Breslov leader and head of the Chut Shel Chessed yeshiva (Torah academy), announced that he will stop meeting with women during public reception hours in light of the scandals.  Rabbi Arush explained that the move…

MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) rushed to defend his party chairman on Sunday morning after Yair Lapid’s diatribe against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu incurred the wrath of several top Likud members.  On Saturday, Lapid called for a commission of inquiry in light of the recently forged deal between Iran and the West, blaming Netanyahu for “failing the State of…

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s latest speech mocking the US and declaring “Death to Israel” proves the futility of the Iranian nuclear deal with the West, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated at the opening remarks to his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday.  “If anyone thought that the far-reaching concessions to Iran will change its policy, they received an overwhelmingly aggressive response…

An Israeli designer may have recently unveiled the world’s largest mezuzah, a casing with parchment bearing the Shema prayer that is affixed to the door frames in Jewish homes and buildings. Yaakov Merdinger worked for five months on this mezuzah, which measures 182 cm (about 5’11”) in height, 7 cm (2.75 inches) in diameter, and weighs about 9 kilograms (19.8…

The United Kingdom (UK) has lifted the threat of an arms embargo on Israel, the Independent reports, after a year-long review of sales in light of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.  In August 2014, the UK threatened to halt exports during a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel during the war, arguing that its exports may have been used…

The pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has formed a new lobby group to oppose the nuclear deal reached last week with Iran.  The group, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, was formed with the mission of educating the public “about the dangers of the proposed Iran deal,” spokesman Patrick Dorton told The New York Times.…

That Israel is called “Israel” is a matter of custom, not law. Unlike Israel’s national anthem, national symbol, or national flag, there is no law officially setting the State of Israel’s name as the “State of Israel.” The only place where that term is used is in the Declaration of Independence, but that is not…

A new law that would significantly restrict the definition of “kosher” at food establishments was approved for legislation Sunday by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation. The bill, sponsored by Shas, goes beyond the current system of “positive affirmation” of kashruth, in which an eatery displays a certificate that it has been inspected by the Rabbinate,…

An Israeli Arab citizen who tried to get out of paying taxes by absconding to Palestinian Authority-controlled areas was sentenced to 46 months in prison Sunday, after he was “retrieved” from PA-controlled areas by the IDF. The culprit, Hassan Gabua, was sentenced after agreeing to a plea deal in which he admitted to filing receipts…

Israel hopes to become a world leader in medical tourism – one of the fastest growing areas of the travel and leisure business, as patients from around the world seek top quality medical care at discount prices. Currently, Israel is a top destination for patients from Russia and Eastern Europe, who come to Israel for…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked members of Congress to work for a better nuclear deal with Iran Sunday and said there was no way to compensate Israel if the nuclear agreement is finalized. “I think the right thing to do is merely not to go ahead with this deal. There are many things to be done…

Security forces have arrested members of a Hamas military infrastructure who murdered Malachi Rosenfeld ten days ago, and wounded three others. Rosenfeld, 26, succumbed to wounds he sustained in a terrorist shooting attack near the communities of Shvut Rachel and Kida on June 29. The same cell carried out another shooting attack two days earlier, at an…

Senate Republicans – and some Democrats as well – claim the Obama administration is about to leapfrog Congress by asking the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to approve the nuclear deal with Iran before letting Congress review it and decide whether it wants to approve it. According to The Hill, the issue is uniting Republican…

Facebook not only considers Jewish areas of Judea and Samaria (Shomron), but also parts of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as outside of Israel, according to exposé published Sunday.  The social network updated its advertising system recently allowing editors of popular pages the chance to gear their posts toward a specific geographical location. However, a great…

Officials have denied that US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter will offer Israel a military arms deal during his upcoming visit Sunday, nor that the visit is related at all to the Iran deal, the Associated Press reports Sunday.  Carter is scheduled to meet with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, to whom he is particularly close, and Prime…

The shooter who killed five Marines in Tennessee on Thursday texted his close friend a link to an Islamic verse hours before the attack, Reuters revealed on Saturday. According to the report, the verse included the line: “Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him.” The friend thought…

Islamic State (ISIS) group fighters fired missiles containing toxic gas at Kurdish forces in Syria last month, the forces and a monitoring group said Saturday, according to AFP. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights both reported the late June attacks in Hasakeh province in northeastern Syria, the news…

Remains belonging to victims of Nazi anatomy professor August Hirt have been found at a forensic medicine institute in eastern France, local authorities said in a statement Saturday, according to AFP. Eighty-six Jews had been sent to the gas chambers in 1943 and their bodies brought to the eastern French city of Strasbourg, then under Nazi occupation and where Hirt…

Jonathan Pollard may finally be released in November 2015, a source stated Friday, some 30 years after his arrest on spying charges in the US.  According to the report, which first aired in the Algemeiner, the Justice Department is “seriously considering” releasing the 61 year-old on November 21.  While Pollard’s release has been reported, anticipated, and…

The White House on Saturday condemned a car bombing in Iraq by the Islamic State group (ISIS) that killed at least 90 people. The attack, one of the deadliest in Iraq’s turbulent history, was carried out Friday as the country marked Eid al-Fitr — the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan. The car bombing “purposefully and viciously targeted Iraqi…

Iran, embarking on a diplomatic offensive in the wake of its nuclear deal with world powers, told fellow Muslim countries on Friday it hoped the accord could pave the way for more cooperation in the Middle East and internationally, Reuters reported. The country’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, made the comment in a message to…

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, met Saudi King Salman during a pilgrimage to Mecca, in a rare encounter since a two-year rift, state news agency SPA reported Saturday. It said Meshaal headed a Hamas delegation on a two-day visit for the mini-pilgrimage to the Muslim holy city of Mecca in the west of the kingdom. “The delegation offered Eid greetings” to King Salman…

MK Yoel Razvozov (Yesh Atid), the head of the Knesset’s sports caucus, sent a letter to Attorney Generla Yehuda Weinstein on Friday, asking him to examine the legality of the La Familia organization after it was implied to be involved in a Beitar Jerusalem game which saw fans throw smoke bombs onto the pitch.  In a…

The Iran deal may have loosened Washington’s ban on all contact with Tehran, but the Islamic Republic will not respect the US any more for it, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei stated Saturday.  “We have repeatedly said we don’t negotiate with the U.S. on regional or international affairs; not even on bilateral issues,” he said. “There are…