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The period between October and December 2014 was the most active on the Israel real estate scene on an annualized basis since 2002, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. During the fourth quarter, 8,100 new homes were sold in Israel, while Israelis also bought some 20,000 second-hand homes. One of the reasons for the…

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a possible Republican in the 2016 presidential election, said on Wednesday that he is “eager” to hear Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next month, Reuters reported. Bush also said he was surprised by the White House’s reaction to the planned speech, which is organized by congressional Republicans. “I…

Iranians will vote for a new parliament on February 26, 2016, the country’s elections watchdog said on Wednesday, according to AFP. The date was announced by a Guardians Council spokesman who was quoted by the ISNA news agency. After the previous parliamentary elections in March 2012, reformists virtually disappeared from the assembly — which now…

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner suggested Wednesday that the United States and Israel were meddling in her country’s business, reports The Associated Press (AP). The comments came ahead of a protest organized by investigating attorneys demanding answers in the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman. Kirchner, who made the comments while visiting a nuclear power…

Both Iran and Iraq, seeking to increase their share of the Asian oil market, are offering unprecedented discounts in that region. Both nations have cut their crude oil prices to Asia for next month to lower than they have been in 12-15 years. Iraq’s Basrah Light crude will sell at the lowest price since at…

In an “answer video” to a campaign video posted last week by Yesh Atid, Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu presents his opinion on Yair Lapid’s activities as Finance Minister. Matching minute for minute the three hour forty one minute Yesh Atid video, which purports to list the accomplishments of the party in the current Knesset, the Kahlon…

The failure by world donors to deliver billions of dollars of aid to rebuild Gaza is jeopardizing efforts to avoid a new flareup in the Palestinian territory, a senior United Nations official warned Wednesday. UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the Security Council that donors who had promised $5.4 billion to the Palestinians at the Cairo conference four months ago…

A security detail has been assigned to Tzipi Livni, Channel 2 reports Wednesday, after she received multiple threats against her life. The Knesset security department made the decision after assessing the level of the threats, as well as after noting that – due to her rotation agreement with Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog – she qualifies as a…

The White House on Wednesday denied keeping Israel in the dark over ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, but suggested its ally had cherry-picked information to bolster opposition to the deal, AFP reports Wednesday.  Amid strains in the US-Israeli relationship over negotiations to reach a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, White House spokesman Josh Earnest rejected suggestions Israel was being frozen out. “There were some…

The fight against Islamic State (ISIS) has helped strengthen the relationship between Israel and Jordan, a senior security source stated Wednesday night. “The relationship between Israel and Jordan is very good,” the source stated to Walla! News on condition of anonymity, adding that the fight against ISIS has given the two countries a shared goal and common…

French prosecutors called Wednesday for five teenagers suspected of vandalizing hundreds of Jewish graves to be charged, arguing there was a clear “anti-Semitic motive” behind their alleged act. Some 250 tombs were vandalized last week at a Jewish cemetery in the northeastern town of Sarre-Union. Five adolescents aged 15 to 17 were detained for questioning over the incident, in which tombstones…

Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner Wednesday faces her first mass protest – a silent march to be led by prosecutors and opposition leaders – over the mysterious death of a prosecutor who accused her of a cover-up in a 1994 bombing, AFP reports.  As many as 300,000 people were expected to turn out for the march, marking one month since the unexplained death of…

United States donors are giving the Israel Museum a collection of more than 350 artifacts “considered among the most significant private holdings of antiquities in the world,” the museum said Wednesday. It said in a statement that “select objects” from the collection of New York art patrons Robert and Renee Belfer would go on show at the museum in Jerusalem from…

An Egyptian court has sentenced a student to one year in jail for insulting Islam and promoting atheism on a Facebook page, his lawyer and judicial sources said Wednesday. It is the second such ruling in Egypt since January when another 21-year-old was jailed for three years for declaring on Facebook that he is an atheist, according to AFP. Judicial sources…

Indian ​Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Wednesday to end India’s status as the world’s number one defense importer, saying he wanted 70% of hardware to be manufactured domestically by the turn of the decade, as defense ties between the country and Israel continue to blossom. Speaking at the start of a major aviation industry conference, Modi told hundreds of foreign and local…

Major General Eyal Zamir, currently Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Military Secretary, will be appointed Head of IDF Southern Command. He will replace Major General Sami Turjeman, who has held the position in the last two years.  Zamir’s appointment is one of several that have been announced by the new IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen.…

Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists have spared no brutal methods in their conquest of Iraq and Syria, executing by burning, stoning and beheading, but a cruel new tactic the group is using to expand its reach involves cutting off civilians from the basic necessities of water and electricity. In fighting the “atheists,” a term it applies…

Loading… Even despite the lack of Arab claims to the land on which Migron stands in Samaria’s Binyamin region, security forces evacuated the remaining buildings in the town early Wednesday morning, thereby completing the final destruction of the community. In evacuating the last of the buildings, the forces followed a High Court ruling from January 6…

Adva Biton, the mother of four-year-old terror victim Adelle who passed away Tuesday after a two-year fight with serious neurological damage caused by an Arab rock attack, has turned to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a heart-wrenching plea to have her daughter buried in her hometown. The funeral is to take place on Wednesday at…

Anti-assimilation NPO Yad L’Achim says it has received hundreds of complaints regarding missionaries taking advantage of the election campaign in Israel to try and convert Jews out of their religion. Cult members from abroad – including those belonging to J’s Witnesses and Messianic Jews – have arrived in Israel to distribute missionary material in the…

International MBA for the Start-up Age For the third year in a row, Israel’s prestigious Technion University is opening its doors to the world with its international Start-uP MBA program. Taught entirely in English, the program offers elite students from around the world the opportunity to learn from the Start-up Nation in one of the…

The Supreme Court has accepted both the appeals by MK Hanin Zoabi and Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel, it announced Wednesday – against the decision of the Central Election Committee (CEC) who decided to disqualify them from participating in the next Knesset. Earlier this month, the Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify Zoabi, with 27 votes for and…

This too, shall pass, was the message mayors of cities, towns, and villages throughout Israel had for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a day after the State Comptroller knocked him and his wife Sara for “excessive spending” of state funds on cleaning services and entertainment. In a letter of support to Netanyahu, designed to counter the nearly-unrelenting…

Israel is readying for another snowstorm in the 2014-15 winter season Wednesday, after snowfall last month in Jerusalem, Judea-Samaria, and the North and more than one false alarm for more.  Northern communities have been scrambling before snow predicted for the Golan Heights over the weekend, and communities have been gathering food and medical supplies, reinforcing…

MKs on the right slammed the High Court for allowing United Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi to run for the Knesset in the upcoming elections, overturning a decision by the Central Elections Committee to ban her and Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel, who was also reinstated as a candidate. MK Yariv Levin (Likud) said that the…

Israel has been in election fever with near daily polls and constant jockeying for position between the political parties, but one expert says the younger generation is completely disconnected from the approaching March 17 vote because of how superficial the Knesset has become. Arutz Sheva spoke with Yigal Galai, director of a public relations office who established…

Most religious-Zionists, including haredi-religious-Zionists (hardalim), do not want to see women as rabbis or halachic decisors (poskim). A survey held in advance of Besheva Magazine’s 12th annual Jerusalem Conference by Maagar Mochot found that 54% of the religious-Zionists think it would be wrong to let women serve as rabbis and as poskim. Eighteen percent think…

Denmark prepared Wednesday to bury a Jewish man murdered in a weekend terrorist shooting spree as questions mounted about whether more could have been done to prevent the attacks. Dan Uzan, a 37-year-old volunteer security guard, was killed outside Copenhagen’s main synagogue in the second of two shootings that sent jitters across Europe, reports AFP. Security services in Denmark have come under…

Kurdish peshmerga forces have repulsed a major attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group southwest of Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital Arbil, officials said Wednesday. “The attack which was launched at 8 p.m. (5 p.m. GMT on Tuesday) was foiled. It lasted four hours and we killed 34 IS(IS) members,” Sirwan Barzani, the local peshmerga commander, told AFP. He said around 300 jihadists had attacked the villages…

Bosnian police on Wednesday arrested six people on suspicion of planning to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS) group or organizing the trips, prosecutors said. Bosnia’s prosecutor said in a statement the six were members of “radical religious movements” and that some were on their way to Syria where they “intended to join the forces of Islamic State…

Italian officials have expressed serious concerns that they could face an invasion by Islamic State forces, which have been on a rampage in Libya. In recent days, Libyan ISIS terrorists executed 21 Coptic Christians on a Mediterranean beach – with the location chosen deliberately to imply that the group would be seeking to bring its…

While the public has been focused on the State Comptroller’s report which was highly critical of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s expenditures from the public coffers, the Comptroller has also sharply criticized the management of the Presidential Residence under former President Shimon Peres. The Comptroller’s office found numerous defects in the management of the Presidential Residence during Peres’s period in fields…

French investigators believe they have established that the jihadists who struck Paris last month were in direct contact before the attacks, a security source said on Tuesday. Phone records appear to show that Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly met the night before they started three days of terrorist violence in and around Paris on January 7. They are thought to…

In response to the IDF Civil Administration’s demolition on Tuesday morning of the Geulat Tzion community near Shiloh in Samaria, as well as several other homes in the area, Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party pledged that once accepted into a coalition it will demand a paradigm shift in the way the government views Judea…

President Francois Hollande vowed the state would protect French Jews with all its force as he led a ceremony Tuesday at a Jewish cemetery where hundreds of graves were vandalized. “I know some are asking if they can live in peace in their country, and ask who will protect them against those who wish them…

One intrepid student is continuing his quest to demand the BBC redress its offensive TV show broadcast last month two days before International Holocaust Memorial Day, in which it asked “is it time to lay the Holocaust to rest?” Joshua Eibelman, a junior at Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, launched a petition demanding the BBC renounced the controversial…

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira issued a harsh report against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, accusing him of excessive spending of state funds. The report finds that the Prime Minister’s Residence has been conducting improper expenditures, possibly breaking the law in the process. The details were sent to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to check for…

The Shi’ite Houthi militia which is loyal to Iran and receives support from the Islamic regime has moved its conquest of Yemen into a new stage, opening its battle for the southern port city of Aden which controls access to the Red Sea and ultimately to Eilat and Israel. Earlier this month the Houthis established…

Col. (res.) Erez Wiener, who served as aide to former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi in the army, has joined Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu to act as the party’s election day headquarters director. “Erez is a very talented man who proved his skills during the dozens of years he served in the IDF,”…

Four-year-old Adelle Biton, who passed away following a rapid deterioration in her condition due to a bout with pneumonia, will be buried in her hometown of Yakir in Samaria, the family announced on Tuesday night. The Biton family said that the funeral will take place on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., despite the difficulties imposed by…

President Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday that following the March 17 elections, he will give the first chance to assemble a coalition to the MK with the best chances of doing so successfully. In this, he is essentially confirming Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett’s claim, that the size of the nationalist bloc matters more than the…

A Swedish cartoonist believed to have been the target of one of the deadly weekend Copenhagen shootings said on Tuesday that Danish police had underestimated the terrorist threat since January’s Paris attacks. “The attacker had good weapons, he had better weapons than the police… There was an escalation since the Charlie Hebdo attacks (in Paris)…

Swedish police detained four people Tuesday on suspicion of having used six companies to help fund the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, the Dagens Nyheter daily reported. Police said a “large raid” took place in Stockholm as part of a probe into money laundering and undeclared work but declined to comment further. Sources close to the…

Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett has proven adept at using viral videos to reach out to the Israeli electorate ahead of elections next month, communicating his party’s key messages and platform for the 20th Knesset. But in a new video released Tuesday, Bennett aims at a different audience entirely: the international community. Entitled “Israel – Fighting…

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weighed in on Hollywood according to reports Tuesday, in which he claimed the Oscar-nominated movie “American Sniper” about an elite US Navy Seal is an example of anti-Islam propaganda. Veteran actor-director Clint Eastwood’s film, which was released on December 25 and has garnered six Oscar nominations, tells the story of Chris Kyle’s four tours…

The United States and Turkey have agreed “in principle” on a deal to train and equip Syrian rebel forces, the State Department said Tuesday. “As we have announced before, Turkey has agreed to be one of the regional hosts for the train-and-equip program for moderate Syrian opposition forces,” department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. “We…

Argentina has asked the United States to include the probe into the deadly 1994 bombing at the AMIA Jewish community center in the nuclear talks with Iran, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Argentine courts have accused a group of Iranians of planning the attack which killed 85 people and is at…

A large majority of Americans believe that Republican congressional leaders should not have invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the White House, a new CNN/ORC survey release on Tuesday found. The poll found that 63% of Americans believe it was a bad move for congressional leadership to extend the invitation…

The Philatelic Service of the Israel Postal Service issued several fascinating educational stamps this month, spanning a variety of periods and disciplines. Among them is a stamp jointly issued with the Philippines that commemorates that country’s willingness to provide refuge to Holocaust-endangered European Jews.  The Philippine Commonwealth, in fact, accepted nearly 1,300 Jews – and…

A Jewish radio station in Denmark has been forced to temporarily shut down its programming following the weekend’s attacks in Copenhagen, reports The Copenhagen Post. It marked the first time in the station’s history that Radio Shalom did not broadcast its usual blend of programs about Jewish culture, music and history, the report noted. The…

Copenhagen police late Tuesday confirmed the identity of the suspected gunman behind the weekend’s double shooting as 22-year-old Omar El-Hussein, AFP reported. Police also said that in his first attack, on Saturday, El-Hussein had unsuccessfully tried to use several entrances to a cultural central that was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech attended…

The sun revolves around the Earth, a Saudi cleric insisted to a student panel Sunday – prompting a social media storm.  Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari told a student that the Earth is “stationary and does not move,” according to Al-Arabiya, justifying the statement with religious texts and statements. But then he tried to debunk the common knowledge about…

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, the spiritual mentor of MK Eli Yishai, who heads the Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party, has called on longtime Shas voters to consider voting for Ha’am Itanu. Yishai and MK Aryeh Deri were longtime rivals in the struggle over the leadership of Shas, which Yishai left last year to found his new party. “At…

The Israel Police and Civil Administration destroyed four homes in the community of Geulat Tzion near Shiloh Tuesday morning, along with other homes in the Shiloh area. Other hit sites included Havat Yishuv Ha’daat, where they destroyed two buildings; police and security forces then moved on to Adei Ad, only to be met with dozens…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has insisted repeatedly, in recent days, that Likud sees the Jewish Home as a major partner in its next government, and that the party will be in his coalition, no matter what. And yet, the more Netanyahu repeats the statement – the more Jewish Home Chairman Natali Bennett appears hurt by…

Terror victim Adele Biton was admitted earlier this week with pneumonia to Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikva, and is fighting for her life. Schneider staff said Tuesday that a medical team has been fighting to keep Adele alive in intensive care. Adele’s family has asked the public to pray for Adele Chaya bat Adva. …

Senior Citizens Minister Uri Orbach, who passed away Monday at the age of 54, was known for his ability to be liked by all and connect between people, regardless of their political position. This was perhaps best exemplified by the fact that MK Ilan Gilon of the leftist Meretz party was at Orbach’s bedside during…

The vast majority of traditional, national-religious, and haredi Israelis prefer to vote for religious or haredi parties, the latest pre-elections poll reveals Tuesday.  72% of respondents choose religious parties over secular parties, according to the ‘Me’agar Mohot’ Research Institute poll for the haredi Kol B’Rama radio station.  In total, 30% are voting for Jewish Home (down from…

Japan on Tuesday announced $15.5 million to fight terrorism in the Middle East and Africa, as Tokyo tries to demonstrate its resolve despite the murder of two citizens by ISIS, according to AFP. The amount doubles the $7.5 million in assistance that Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida pledged during a visit to Brussels in January. Kishida said…

Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King on Monday announced that Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has passed a plan to turn the strategic area of Nahal Og connecting Jerusalem with E-1 to the east into a landfill, reneging on a 2009 campaign pledge he had made. King explained on Facebook that Barkat had pledged before elections to support the “Eastern…

The head of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, received a death threat Monday – two days after a brutal anti-Semitic attack in Denmark.  “Menachem Margolin will be a dead man if he does not stop. We will stick a bullet in his head,” a man named Richard Wright wrote on the Jewish leader’s Facebook page, Channel…

Some 30,000 people gathered in Copenhagen Monday to commemorate the victims of twin shootings that shocked the nation, with the Danish premier telling the crowd that an attack on the country’s Jews was an attack on all of Denmark. “Tonight I want to tell all Danish Jews: you are not alone. An attack on the Jews of Denmark is an…

The Simon Wiesenthal Center called for a Europe-wide conference against anti-Semitism Monday, fearing that recent attacks against Jews in both Copenhagen and Paris could be the catalyst of a “pan-European epidemic.”  The prominent Nazi-hunting and Jewish rights group said that Saturday’s shootings in Copenhagen “set a mimetic pattern following last month’s atrocities in Paris,” outlining the perpetrators’ triple…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) will take off Monday night for New Delhi as part of an official visit to India. His visit will mark the first time an Israeli defense minister has traveled to the Asian nation.  During his visit, Ya’alon will attend the inauguration of a defense industries of Israel pavilion during an arms fair held in the city of…

Lebanon’s Shi’ite Iran-proxy terror group Hezbollah is not only fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but is also involved in fighting in Iraq, its chief Hassan Nasrallah revealed for the first time Monday. Nasrallah said in a speech beamed to supporters in southern Beirut “we may not have spoken about Iraq before, but we have a limited presence because of the…

With four weeks until elections for the 20th Knesset, Likud and Labor-Hatnua appear to be neck and neck.  According to survey conducted by the Midgam Institute for Channel Two, Labor, running under the moniker the “Zionist Camp” just barely inches by Likud with 25 seats.  Likud is one behind with 24 mandates. It has been noted that…

A Swedish cartoonist believed to have been targeted in one of the Copenhagen shootings over the weekend has been sent into hiding, police said Monday. Lars Vilks – who has faced several death threats since his cartoon portraying Islam founder Mohammed as a dog was published in a Swedish newspaper in 2007 – already lives under constant police protection. But police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun…

After a slew of damaging videos showing former Shas spiritual guide Rabbi Ovadia Yosef condemning party chairperson Aryeh Deri, which forced Deri to step down temporarily, tension has boiled over again as Rabbi Yosef’s children have refused a request to hand over tapes of their father for an election video. Walla! reports that senior members in…

Yeshiva University on Monday announced the launch of four skills-based technology career certificate programs beginning May 11, 2015. The programs will provide remote, collaboration-driven courses, focused on software technology and data analytics—crucial areas of growing need in the marketplace. The certificates will be offered through YU Global, Yeshiva University’s online learning initiative, and can be…

A woman in Boise, Idaho, is facing felony charges after police say she attacked a Jewish woman and stomped on her neck as part of a bizarre bid to convert her to Christianity. According to local television channel KTVB, the woman, identified as 58-year-old Margurite Dawn Haragan, has been charged with two counts of malicious…

Iran’s ultra-conservative weekly “9-Day” was banned on Monday for criticizing the government over its negotiations with world powers on the country’s nuclear program, AFP reported. The state body charged with monitoring the media ruled that the paper had published articles “insulting towards the Imam (Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini and against the regime’s nuclear…

​Austria on Monday joined in on the calls to local Jews to remain in the country, despite recent terrorist attacks in Europe. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that “a Europe without Jews would not be Europe”, according to the AFP news agency. Kurz’s remarks join those of other leaders in Europe who on Monday rejected…

Amid reports that the Obama administration is refusing to share information regarding Iran with Israel as “punishment” for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech before Congress, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius on Monday provided new details into the tensions between Jerusalem and Washington. According to Ignatius’s column, the mistrust between the Obama administration and Netanyahu…

France on Monday signed an agreement with Egypt for the first foreign sale of its Rafale fighter jet, in a deal that will boost Cairo’s military as it tackles jihadists, AFP reported. Paris hopes the 5.2 billion euro ($5.9 billion) deal for 24 Rafale fighters to be delivered later this year will prompt others to…

A 93-year-old man has been charged in a German court with 170,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday. The defendant, whose name was not disclosed in line with privacy laws, allegedly served in…

Danish police have arrested two men named as accomplices in Saturday’s attacks on a café and on a Copenhagen synagogue on Monday morning.  Little is known about the men, excepting that they are “young” and will not be identified due to their age.  “The two men are charged with helping through advice and deeds the…

Human rights groups have launched a new campaign to free Syrian activists held by the government or rebels as they mark the third anniversary of the arrest of prominent lawyer Mazen Darwish, AFP reports Sunday.  The “Hearts in our Hands” campaign is intended to draw attention to the plight of thousands of Syrians, particularly journalists, medics and lawyers, who have disappeared…

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday urged France’s Jews to stay in the country after a fresh call by the Israeli premier for European Jews to emigrate to Israel. “My message to French Jews is the following: France is wounded with you and France does not want you to leave,” Valls said, according to AFP.  His comments came after two people…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed “shock and outrage” Monday over Saturday’s Cophenhagen attacks which left two dead and five injured. The League said the shootings against a synagogue and a controversial cartoonist in Denmark “should serve as another wake-up call to all of Europe” to the continued clear and present danger posed by individuals motivated by radical…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies Monday that the agreement being forged by the US and other powers with Iran will free Iran from its current diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions. An animated Ya’alon said that on the other hand, if there is no deal, there…

The Egyptian army announced in a statement on Monday morning it had conducted air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Libya, including training camps and arms depots. “We believe that avenging the blood of Egyptian, and extracting retribution from the killers and criminals is a duty we have to carry out,” the army statement…

A spokesman for the Danish Jewish community on Monday turned down an offer by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to emigrate to Israel following a deadly weekend attack on a synagogue in Copenhagen. “We’re very grateful for Netanyahu’s concern but having said that, we are Danish – we’re Danish Jews but we’re Danish – and it…

Colel Chabad hosted its fourth annual Bat Mitzvah celebration for orphans last week at the Gutnick Hall in Jerusalem. 36 girls and their families participated in the event.  The organization, founded in 1788 by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, is the oldest continuously-running social welfare organization in Israel.  Since its founding, Colel Chabad has increased…

The IDF will experience a changing of the guard on Monday, as Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz steps down as IDF Chief of Staff, and will be replaced by Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon will promote Eizenkot to Lt. Gen. as well during the ceremony, according to Channel 2, marking his term…

Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon once again attacked the upper echelons of the government Sunday night, blaming various ministers and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for Israel’s housing and cost of living crises.  “I intend to fight,” Kahlon stated, at a packed Kulanu pre-elections event in Ashdod attended by other party candidates. “I am standing at the…

With the State Comptroller and Ombudsman’s report on the expenses of the Prime Minister’s Residence due to be published Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah hosted interior designer and media celebrity Moshe Glamin on a tour of their official home on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. The tour revealed a somewhat dilapidated house, with…

Israel’s Channel 2 television news has quietly backtracked on its report from Sunday, according to which the United States has announced that it will no longer update Israel on the progress of its talks with Iran – because Israel uses this information to meddle in US politics. The White House has bluntly denied the report.…

Nine people, including three children, were killed Monday in rebel fire on a government-held neighborhood in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s state news agency SANA said. It said they were killed in Hay al-Seryan, in government-controlled west Aleppo, but gave no further details. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, also reported nine deaths, but said that 4…

Loading… Thousands were in Jerusalem Monday for the funeral of Jewish Home party MK and Minister for Senior Citizens Uri Orbach, who passed away Monday aged 54 after battling a long illness. Orbach, a former journalist, was known as a popular figure across Israel’s often fractious political spectrum, famous for his quick wit and sense of humor. Prime…

Despite having formed a unity agreement last April torpedoing peace talks, Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction seem to be slowly sliding into open warfare in Gaza, as an attempted assassination on a Fatah official on Monday caps off incessant back and forth car bombings. Mamoon Sweidan, the Fatah official who serves…

Germany said Monday it wants Jews to stay and promised to ensure their security following a deadly attack on a Danish synagogue and calls from Israel for European Jews to emigrate.   Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany was “glad and also grateful” to have a Jewish community, when asked about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s…

Five adolescents aged 15 to 17 have been taken into custody in eastern France for questioning over a massive vandalism attack against Jewish graves, a local prosecutor said on Monday. All five are from the region of Sarre-Union in Alsace, where around 300 tombs were defaced over the weekend. The youngest came forward after being shocked…

Syrian refugees make up the majority of children living and working on the streets of Lebanon, with many of them illiterate and surviving by begging, a study released Monday said. The research was commissioned by Save the Children, UNICEF, the International Labor Organization and the Lebanese labor ministry, reports AFP. It surveyed 18 areas in Lebanon and identified more than 1,500…

The Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Salim Joubran, ruled Monday to prevent the live broadcast of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before the United States Congress next month.  The Central Elections Committee’s ruling is specifically addressed to the Israel Broadcasting Authority, the Israeli News Company (Channel Two), and Channel Ten, who are all set to broadcast…

Labor Chairman Yitzhak Herzog was confident about his party’s chances Monday, telling an interviewer that he was convinced his “Zionist Camp” would be the largest party in the 20th Knesset.  Speaking with Nissim Mishal on Nonstop Radio, Herzog claimed that Labor would break ahead in the March 17 elections and pass Likud.  “The chances of me creating…

President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday appeared to suggest he was against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress. Though he did not specifically mention the speech, Rivlin, who spoke at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, called on the Israeli leadership to present its position on important issues to the public…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted in an interview published Sunday that he was unconcerned by Turkey’s “isolation” on the world stage, despite deteriorating relations with several former allies, according to AFP. “I do not mind isolation in the world,” Erdogan was quoted as telling the Hurriyet newspaper after a tour of Colombia, Cuba and…

Former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi was on Sunday placed on trial on charges of endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar, but he once again declared that he does not recognize the court’s authority. Morsi, who was toppled by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule, insisted…

The Islamic State (ISIS) group released a video on Sunday purportedly showing the beheading of Egyptian Coptic Christians the group captured in Libya, reports AFP. The footage released online shows handcuffed hostages wearing orange jumpsuits being beheaded by their black-suited captors on a seashore in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. In the latest issue of…

The latest round of winter rain dumped copious amounts of precipitation on most of northern Israel. The biggest recipient of rain was Nahariya, which received 213 millimeters of rain. The latest round of rain brought the total amount of precipitation in Nahariya to 605 millimeters, which gives the town and the area around it 100%…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night sent his condolences to the people of Denmark over the terrorist attacks over the weekend in which two people were killed, including a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue in Copenhagen. “I would like to note the activities of the authorities in Denmark [against terrorism] and offer my…

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Sunday night that his country would respond to the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya by the Islamic State (ISIS). Earlier, ISIS released a video purportedly showing the beheading of the Coptic Christians it had captured in the Libyan capital Tripoli. The footage released online shows handcuffed…

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Quartet’s Middle East envoy, on Sunday called on Hamas to clarify whether it is part of a “broader Islamist movement with regional designs” or if it would accept a long-term peace alongside Israel. Blair’s comments were made during a visit to Gaza, in which he warned of “another…

Copenhagen police have shot dead a man they say opened fire on them, Sky News reports Sunday morning, and have stated that he is the lone shooter responsible for a double attack on a ‘Blasphemy Conference’ and a synagogue.  “It is estimated that the person shot dead is responsible for two of the attacks,” said a police spokesman, Walla!…

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder urged the Danish government to protect the Jewish community in Denmark on Sunday, one day after a double attack on a café and on a Copenhagen synagogue which killed two people and injured five others.  “The World Jewish Congress deplores these despicable attacks, and stands in solidarity with…

A large percentage of Israel citizens believe Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should not have interfered in the selection committee of the Israel Prize, a survey published Sunday finds.  The survey, conducted under the supervision of Professor Kamil Fuchs, found that 40 percent of respondents believe Netanyahu should not have gotten involved in choosing the panel of…

Some 50 people, many of them children, were hidden inside the synagogue in Copenhagen that was shot at Saturday afternoon. They were guests at a Bat-Mitzvah that was taking place in the synagogue at the time, and when they heard shots they ran for cover in the basement of the building. Speaking to the NRG…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted to the attacks with a call for European Jews to emigrate to Israel. He said: “This wave of attacks will continue. Of course, Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home. “We are preparing and calling for the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should not hesitate to visit the Cave of the Patriarchs (Machpelah Cave), despite warnings by Arab terror groups that he “not dare” do so, said members of the Hevron Jewish Community. “Hevron is the basis of historic Jewish rights in the Land of Israel,” said a spokesperson for the Community. “The…

Likud intensified its campaign strategy against left-wing opponents Saturday night with a clip depicting the Left allowing Islamic State terrorists to enter Israel.  The video shows actors dressed as ISIS fighters holding ISIS flags and driving in a pick-up truck en route to Jerusalem. ISIS terrorists stop a car on the way and ask for directions in…

Moshe Kahlon may not have revealed who he will recommend for prime minister in a Saturday night interview, but his criticism of incumbent Binyamin Netanyahu was clear.  Kahlon, the Chairman of Kulanu, told Nadav Peri of Central Headquarters on Channel Ten, that he intends to recommend the person who he believes will be able to extricate Israel…

Six months after the end of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Israel has warned the international community that Hamas is actively preparing for another war.  Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor wrote to the UN Security Council this week over the “alarming development in our region,” according to Walla! News, noting that “Hamas is preparing…

As the campaign progresses toward a decision, the scope of the conspiracy to overthrow the Israeli Right is becoming clear.  Powerful and potent individuals, groups and organizations have combined together to brainwash the public and contaminate the proper democratic process.  I do not recall an election, at a time when national security is of utmost importance, filled…

Retired Major General Amos Yadlin, Labor-Hatnua’s choice for Defense Minister in the 20th Knesset, systematically attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s security platform on Sunday.  In a studio interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Yadlin responded to Netanyahu’s latest campaign clip, which portrays the Left allowing Islamic State terrorists to enter Israel.  ““Netanyahu has stopped frightening us. The myth that…

Extremists from the haredi Eida Haredis organization are once again giving out financial grants to people who refrain from voting in the 2015 elections.  Posters appeared on notice boards in several communities declaring the doling out of non-voting grants, under the title, “All Votes Count – for Grant Money.”  “Due to the upcoming elections, it will be…

Former Arkansas Governor and probable Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee pulled no punches at a Jerusalem press conference Sunday morning, throwing his weight firmly behind the decision to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress and fiercely criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of Iran’s nuclear program. Huckabee, who is a regular visitor to and vocal supporter of Israel,…

The majority of the Israeli public wants to see a televised debate over elections issues between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other party leaders, according to the latest elections poll.  69.7% of respondents to the TRI Strategic Studies poll for Channel 10 affirmed that they would like to see a pre-elections debate, vs. just 17% who are uninterested…

Jerusalem District Police arrested on Sunday Hillel Glick, 19, the son of Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick. He was arrested on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Glick’s family say the teenager was arrested in the aftermath of police being alerted to a soccer game played by Arab children on the Mount.  According to police, the young…

The grassroots Samaria Regional Council has produced a highly controversial animated video (embedded above) that shows leftist groups that “tattle” on Israel and the IDF in a way similar to how Nazis depicted Jews in their anti-Semitic propaganda. The video’s message is that while leftists may think that Europe has changed since the Holocaust, the Europeans see them in the…

Danish authorities have named the terrorist who murdered two people Saturday: Omar Abdel Hamid Hussein, 22, who was born in Denmark. Saturday’s terror attacks in Copenhagen bore several similarities to last month’s assaults in Paris, experts said, but warned more needed to be known about the Danish attacker before drawing direct parallels. In the words of French…

The US administration under President Barack Obama has stopped updating Israel on the progress of talks with Iran over that country’s nuclear program, in retaliation for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s intention to speak in Congress March 3 at the invitation of Republican Speaker John Boehner. According to Israel’s Channel 2, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman,…

A new poll shows that recent trends indicating a strengthening of the Likud and a weakening of Jewish Home are continuing. The Geocartographia poll conducted by Professor Avi Degani on behalf of i24 News showed the Likud strengthening further to 27 seats, while Jewish Home had fallen to 11. Barely a month ago, Jewish Home…

France’s interior minister said Sunday several hundred tombs have been defaced at a Jewish cemetery in east of the country, in what he called “a despicable act”.   “The country will not tolerate this new injury which goes against the values that all French people share,” said Bernard Cazeneuve without giving further details of the…

The condition of the Minister for Senior Citizens, Uri Orbach (Jewish Home), who has been seriously ill for several weeks, took a turn for the worse Sunday evening. Doctors at Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem are fighting for the minister’s life. The Orbach family asked the public to continue to pray for the health of…

The IDF insisted in November 2014 that the driver of a Palestinian Arab commercial vehicle who attempted to run over the soldiers as they were on duty near a guard stand outside of Kafr Al-Arub was “not a terrorist.”  But on Sunday, a senior command official involved in the case broke a months-long silence over the…

House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday accused the White House of “animosity” towards Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, whose planned speech before the US Congress has stirred up a political furor in both countries. Boehner defended his decision to invite Netanyahu to give an address on Iran’s nuclear program before Congress next month, flouting diplomatic…

The Commander of an Iranian Air Defense Base, Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli, says Iran’s new radar system, named ‘Sepehr’ (‘Sky’), enables the country to monitor every enemy takeoff and launch, at a range of up to 2,500 km. Israel is less than 2,000 km away from Iran. Over 40% of Sepehr’s deployment has been completed without…

A group of Palestinian Arab rappers threatened legal action Sunday against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party for using their song in an ISIS-themed campaign ad for Israel’s March election. The contentious new ad, which Likud released on Saturday, implied that a vote for the Left would benefit the jihadist Islamic State terror group, also know as…

With the takeover of Yemen by Shia Houthi rebels, who are closely allied with Iran, life for the few Jews who remain in Yemen is becoming intolerable, witnesses who escaped to Israel said. Last week, six Yemenite Jews, all members of the same family, arrived in Israel and told members of the community in the…

Japan, reeling from the murder of two nationals by Islamic State terrorists, will offer an extra $15 million in aid to fight terrorism in Middle East and Africa, a report said Sunday. Japan hopes to demonstrate its resolve not to cave in to terrorism with the fresh assistance, which will be announced at a global counter-terrorism conference starting on Wednesday in Washington,…

Police in Madison, Wisconsin, are investigating 30 cases of property damaged by graffiti on the Far West Side overnight Friday. The graffiti included some swastikas and anti-Semitic expressions, along with derogatory words directed toward women and minorities, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Madison Police Officer David Dexheimer told the local WISC TV that garage…

Three Jewish House Democrats have sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) calling on him to end the “political firestorm” they claim he created when he invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress, reports The Washington Post. The three, Reps. Steve Israel (N.Y.), Ted Deutch (Fla.) and Nita…

Members of Argentina’s government rallied behind President Cristina Kirchner on Saturday, tossing aside allegations she protected Iranian suspects in an investigation into the 1994 bombing at the Jewish center in Buenos Aires. “It’s utter nonsense,” interior and transportation minister Florencio Randazzo said of the allegations, according to the AFP news agency. An indictment filed Friday…

One person was killed and two police officers were wounded in an attack near a synagogue in central Copenhagen on Saturday night, according to Reuters. According to The Guardian, the victim who died was a 55-year-old who was shot in the head and later died of his injuries. Local police have said that the two…

Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog said on Saturday night that if the “Zionist Camp”, the joint Labor-Hatnua list which heads, wins just one more seat than the Likud, he will head the next government. Herzog’s comments in an interview on Channel 2 News come several days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cited “authoritative sources” as saying…

Americans believe the Islamic State group poses the most serious threat to the United States in the next decade, according to a poll released Friday. Eighty-four percent of those quizzed by Gallup said ISIS jihadists, who have grabbed large areas of Iraq and Syria in a brutal onslaught, and terrorism in general presented a “critical threat,” according to AFP.  Respondents put…

Fourteen year-old Palestinian Arab terrorist Malak al-Khatib was released from prison Friday, AFP reported, after leftists protested in Israel and abroad against ‘Israeli brutality’ for apprehending the teen after she attempted to attack Israelis.   Khatib was allegedly met in Tulkarem by her parents, extended family, and the mayor upon her release, before returning home to the Arab…

Al Qaeda in Yemen is expanding its operations in the country and threatens to control another division of the Yemenite army, security officials said this week.  According to the officials, Al Qaeda operatives captured a garrison for the Yemeni army’s 19th brigade in Shabwa Thursday, killing five soldiers. The same day, it overran the base for the 23rd Mechanized…

Shots have been fired at a Copenhagen cafe’, Danish media reports Saturday night, during an event for free speech featuring a speaker who has faced multiple threats for drawing cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.   One person, a 40 year-old civilian, was killed during the attack, which took place just before 4:00 p.m. local time Saturday. …

Nearly 100 fighters on both sides have been killed in a week of fighting in southern Syria between regime forces and rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. The army, backed by fighters from Lebanon’s powerful Shiite group Hezbollah, began an offensive at the beginning of the week in Daraa, the province bordering…

A joint Likud-Labor government is not on the table, Deputy Environmental Protection Minister Ofir Akunis stated Saturday. “Labor will not be invited to the government,” Akunis explained, during an address at a cultural event in Nes Ziona. “Buji [nickname for Yitzhak Herzog – ed.] and [Tzipi] Livni have a worthless and brutal smear campaign against the…

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz deflected criticism addressed at the IDF and the government for its handling of the terror tunnel threat during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza Saturday, noting that the political leadership did know about the threat before the war started.  However, “I do not want to address what the Cabinet ministers said,”…

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner was formally accused Friday of shielding Iranian officials from prosecution over a 1994 bombing at a Buenos Aires Jewish center, prosecutors said, according to AFP. The prosecution move advances the case against Kirchner that was being pursued by late prosecutor Alberto Nisman before he died mysteriously on the eve of congressional…

Six men of Chechen origin are facing terrorism charges in France over a suspected recruiting ring sending jihadist fighters to Syria, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Friday, according to The Associated Press (AP). The men, aged 32 to 38, were handed preliminary charges for alleged preparation of terrorist acts and for terror financing, according to…

John Cantlie, the British journalist being held hostage by the Islamic State (ISIS), has told his family to “let me go” and “get on with your lives,” Russia Today reported on Friday. Cantlie published a piece in the latest issue of ISIS’s English-language propaganda magazine Dabiq. “Despite being a prisoner, I’ve been shown respect and…

United States President Barack Obama on Friday condemned what he called the “brutal and outrageous murders” of three young Muslims in North Carolina this week, saying the FBI had opened an inquiry into the murders. “No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look…

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has lent his support to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to Congress, which has become an issue of contention between Democrats and Republicans as well as between Israel and the United States. According to the Reuters news agency, Wiesel is urging President Barack Obama…

Secular Turks opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday boycotted schools and took to the streets to demand a secular education and denounce a claimed creeping Islamization of the schools system. The protests were led by Turkey’s largest religious minority the Alevis, who adhere to an offshoot of Shiite Islam, as well as leading…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday backtracked on his earlier decision to disqualify two leftist judges from the Israel Prize’s Literature Committee. Netanyahu’s decision came after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein advised the Prime Minister against his interfering in the procedures related to the Israel Prize during an election period. The two professors who were dismissed…

MK Ya’akov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), explained on Thursday that he refused an invitation to participate in a televised debate ahead of March elections in order to prevent Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid from continuing his “incitement” against haredim. Earlier this week, Channel 2 News invited all the leaders of the various parties to a televised debate,…

The Hamas terror group reacted on Thursday to the decision by the Central Elections Committee in Israel to ban extremist Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from running in the upcoming elections. “This is a racist decision which refutes Israel’s claims that it is a democracy,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared on his Facebook page. At…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday criticized U.S. President Barack Obama over his silence following the killings of three young Muslims in North Carolina this week, Reuters reported. Speaking alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a state visit to Mexico, Erdogan said the silence of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of…

An Egyptian court on Thursday ordered the release of two jailed Al-Jazeera journalists pending retrial, after they spent more than 400 days in prison in a case that sparked worldwide outrage, AFP reported. Mohamed Fahmy, who is Canadian and whose family hoped he would be deported, must pay 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($33,000) bail. His colleague,…

The ex-wife of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died mysteriously after accusing President Cristina Kirchner of a cover-up in a 1994 Jewish center bombing, on Thursday criticized the probe into his death. Speaking at a congressional session called by opposition lawmakers, Sandra Arroyo Salgado condemned the prosecutor and judge investigating Nisman’s death for going public…

Former Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum, who was forced to resign from the Knesset due to suspicions of her involvement in the corruption scandal involving senior members of the Yisrael Beytenu party, on Thursday revealed a secret plot that was hatched to unseat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The details, revealed in a report on Channel…

A covert cell operating under the Iranian government is fueling the bloodshed throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Fox News revealed Thursday. Unit 190, a secret arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force made up of about two-dozen employees, has for years smuggled arms to these conflict zones, the network said. After an…

Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, was confirmed on Thursday by the Senate, AFP reports. The Senate — by a vote of 93 to five — overwhelmingly approved Carter, an accomplished defense technocrat with degrees in Medieval history and theoretical physics. Obama welcomed the Senate’s swift confirmation of Carter’s nomination. “With his…

An explosion went off Friday at a police checkpoint in the southern Turkish town of Suruc close to the Syrian border causing injuries, reports said. The cause of the blast was not clear but Turkish media said emergency service vehicles rushed to the scene, reports AFP. NTV television said at least one policeman was wounded in the blast. Suruc lies just over…

Hakol Shafit, the Channel 1 TV show of right-wing satire Latma, was greeted with mixed reviews last Thursday when it debuted and broke the leftist monopoly on television satire – while it still is getting some skeptical criticism over some weaker skits, the show’s second airing seems to have recaptured the magic that originally gained Latma…

“Price tag” vandalism attacks by “right-wing extremists” against Palestinian Arabs have decreased 45% since 2013, Channel 2 reports Friday.  While in 2013 were 92 reported incidents of vandalism and sabotage against the Palestinian Arabs, in 2014 there were 51 such cases, according to the news channel. In addition, crimes labeled as “Jewish nationalist crimes” – including cases of “mutual violence”…

Terrorists in Iraq have seized a major synagogue and holy site in Amara, the Elder of Ziyon blog reported Wednesday – and have already destroyed much of it.  According to the Iraqi media site quoted by the blog, the synagogue will become the new southern headquarters of the terrorists, whose name and affiliation are unspecified. All roads…

Senior sources in Jewish Home criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyau on Friday morning for trying “to eliminate the party,” which they claim he is doing to establish a coalition with his Labor rivals after elections. In response to the statements made by the sources to Yedioth Aharonot, Netanyahu wrote on Twitter that the leftist media “wants to…

Yet another controversy is underway at the Sapir College in Sderot this week after it’s anti-Jewish art display – this time, over the use of a common letterhead in the religious community.  Observant Jews in Israel and abroad often mark the phrase בס״ד in the corner of all documents, meaning bisiyata dishmaya, translated loosely as “with…

Police officers will now be required to sign an affidavit affirming that they have not been involved in criminal activity or sex offenses, Channel 2 reports Friday, after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein halted a newer policy of polygraph tests.  While the polygraph tests have ceased, the addition of an affidavit to the acceptance process for future officers…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz at his Tel Aviv office Thursday, ahead of latter’s stepping down and the IDF Chief-of-Staff changeover ceremony, to be held on Monday in Jerusalem.  “I would like to thank you for your long years of service on behalf of the security of the state,…

It’s poll time again as Israel continues to ramp up ahead of the March 17 elections, and in the latest findings Likud squeaks past the “Zionist camp” of Labor and Hatnua, while Jewish Home falls into fifth place for the first time in this election’s polling. According to the Maariv poll published on Friday morning, Likud gets…

Fugitive hassidic sect leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland will be extradited from Holland, a Dutch court ruled Thursday night; Berland’s attorneys are expected to file an appeal.  Berland was hospitalized last month for heart-related illness, further delaying an extradition process which has dragged out for months.  Meanwhile, the Jewish community in the Netherlands are not happy, to say…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) met on Thursday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Ukrainian parliament chairman Volodymyr Groysman. Speaking with Yatsenyuk, Liberman discussed economic and technological cooperation and the two examined the idea of a free trade zone between the countries. The two made plans to hold the next joint economic commission meeting…

The projected right-wing bloc is stable at 42 seats, according to an elections poll published Friday – whereas the left continues to reach new lows.  Likud is in first place once again with 25 seats with Labor close behind at 23, according to the poll, conducted by TNS for Walla! News.  Back in third place is Jewish…

Any peaceful solution to the fighting in Syria must involve iron-handed President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Friday. “President Assad is part of the solution,” de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna, according to AFP. “I will continue to have very important discussions with…

The flurry of Friday polls continues, as a third survey conducted this time for Reshet Bet gives Likud a hands-breadth advantage over the “Zionist camp” of Labor and Hatnua, beating them out 25 to 24 seats. The poll, conducted by the Smith Institute, strengthens recent results showing a tie at third place, with Jewish Home and the…

Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, who is the Labor-Hatnua list’s candidate for Defense Minister if that list heads the next government, accused the government of being too “weak” against Hamas, Channel 10 reports Friday.  “This government is weak against Hamas – instead of beating them vigorously, [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu chose to conduct negotiations with them,” Yadlin stated,…

Likud MK Miri Regev responded on Friday morning to the “secret deal” exposed the previous evening by Yisrael Beytenu MK Faina Kirshenbaum, through which a “centrist” bloc had previously been agreed upon to oust Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in elections. According to the deal, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Kahlon’s new…

Police and a prayer hall were among potential targets for attack uncovered by police investigating two terrorists seized in Sydney with an Islamic State (ISIS) flag and knives this week, Australian police said Friday. Officers said Wednesday they had thwarted an imminent terror attack which was “consistent with the messaging coming out of IS(IS)” when they arrested Omar Al-Kutobi and Mohammed Kiad…

France’s major TV and radio networks were formally criticized by the French broadcast regulator Thursday for serious “breaches” in the way they covered last month’s Islamist terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and a kosher supermarket which left a total of 17 murdered. The warnings were issued for: showing two of the Islamist gunmen walking up to cold-bloodedly shoot dead…

Israel will not pay compensation to the family of anti-Israel ISM activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an IDF bulldozer in 2003 in Gaza, the Supreme Court decided Thursday. Corrie had been standing in front of a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer and acting as a human shield to try and interfere with the razing of…

New research by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reveals that the list of journalists Hamas claimed were killed by the IDF during Operation Protective Edge last summer is simply manipulative, misrepresenting facts to attack Israel on the global stage. The findings are important because the Palestinian Authority (PA) is seeking to try Israel…

Yemen is sliding into chaos, UN special envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar, told Al Arabiya News Channel late Wednesday, saying “we believe the situation is very dangerous. Yemen is on the brink of civil war.” “The United Nations’ position vis-à-vis the Yemeni crisis is clear: conflicts should be resolved by peaceful means,” Benomar added. “The United Nations…

The Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), an affiliate of Yeshiva University (YU), is holding its Annual Gala Evening of Tribute on March 8 at The Grand Hyatt in New York City to honor Jewish leaders and educators. The dinner is to be held in honor of Herb Smilowitz z”l, who sat on the RIETS board…

A top United Nations (UN) official warned on Thursday that another war will break out in Gaza, calling on Israel to lift its “blockade” and for Hamas – the terrorist organization with the genocide of Jews written in its charter – to stop fighting. The UN also called for an additional $705 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza and Palestinian…

Islamic State (ISIS) made an as yet unverified announcement on Thursday claiming to have captured an Israeli Arab from Jerusalem who was recruited by the Mossad. While numerous Arab citizens of Israel have illegally entered Syria through Turkey to join ISIS and other rebel factions, this would be the first time that Mossad sent a…

A new research study, the first of its kind, which was presented to the British Parliament shows an “unprecedented” shift with Muslim children in the UK nearly doubling in a mere decade. Of all schoolchildren in England and Wales one in 12 are now Muslim, after the number of Muslims in the UK jumped by over 1.1 million…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops shelled rebel-held villages in southern Syria on Thursday, as a snowstorm slowed an advance led by Lebanon’s pro-Assad Hezbollah terrorists near the Israeli Golan Heights, a monitor said. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian army shelled Jizeh and the west of Atman village in the southern province of Daraa, reports AFP. Battles raged…

The left-wing politicians and media in Israel have been pummeling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife for years with allegations of unjustified spending on everything from a bed on a plane to pistachio ice cream. The last few weeks have been particularly grueling, with the media focusing on allegations that Sarah Netanyahu pocketed money she…

The virulently and violently anti-Semitic postings of a Turkish man living in Austria constitute a legitimate expression of displeasure with the State of Israel, an Austrian prosecutor said Tuesday.  The Turk, identified as only Ibrahim, posted a picture of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler along with the fictitious quote: “I could have annihilated all the Jews in the world,…

Yehuda Yifrach, a journalist and resident of Tekoa in the Gush Etzion region, described in a Facebook post Thursday how he was nearly stoned to death by an Arab gang as he was driving Thursday. “How is one supposed to deal with having been a victim of a murder attempt?” he asked on the social media…

Some 40 Arab political activists have received training in the United Stated from leftist  and Jewish groups on how to become more “politically active and aggressive,” Channel One reported. The activists, which include mayors, deputy mayors, and other officials in towns and villages across Israel, received training in how to “fight for their rights,” said members…

A Japanese journalist accused the government of muzzling the press Thursday after officials confiscated his passport to stop him from traveling to war-torn Syria. Freelance photographer Yuichi Sugimoto, 58, said he will file an appeal over the move, and was prepared to take legal action to get his travel documents back. “Losing my passport means losing my job as a freelance…

Labor-Hatnua representatives to the Central Elections Committee have voted in favor of the disqualification of 20th Knesset candidates Hanin Zoabi and Baruch Marzel.  Zoabi is currently an MK for Balad and plans to run on the Joint Arab List. Marzel, an Otzma Yehudit member, is running with Yachad-Ha’am Itanu as part of a technical bloc…

Religious and haredi Jersualemites expressed concern Thursday over an event sponsored by the Jerusalem municipality for Friday. The Front Stage Event, usually held during the summer months, is making a mid-winter appearance at Cinema City in Jerusalem on Friday. The event is set to begin at 10 AM, but it’s unlikely to end by 4:50…

The White House has finally clarified that it does indeed view the attack on a kosher supermarket in France last month as an anti-Semitic attack, despite a clumsy statement by President Barack Obama which appeared to suggest otherwise. The controversy began on Monday when, in an interview with Vox, Obama attempted to explain his administration’s policy on terrorism by stating: “It is…

Americans think that it was a breach of protocol for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to invite Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress the way he did, but they still want members of Congress to attend Netanyahu’s speech, a HuffPost/YouGov poll finds. The poll found a 23-point margin in favor of those who…

Several months ago Johnny Daniels, founder of Mimaamakim (From the Depths), announced the launch of “Project Matzeva” meant to locate and renovate scattered matzevot (gravestones) from around Poland and return them to the Jewish cemeteries. In the years following World War II, many Polish residents used Jewish gravestones as building and paving material. To rectify the situation Polish…

Those who would prefer not to vote than to vote Binyamin Netanyahu to another term as Prime Minister are making a grave error, said Samaria Residents Council head Benny Katzover. “Unfortunately it is true that there is really no alternative to Netanyahu, so I can understand why some voters are boycotting the election. But those who…

Thursday’s weather report looks nasty with rain, wind, and cold expected in both the north and central regions of Israel. The south, for its part, will be very hazy and air pollution levels remain high there.  Snow is falling on Mount Hermon and in other areas of the north, and there is concern of severe flooding…

MK Yariv Levin on Wednesday accused the left of being “irresponsible and hysterical” for opposing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress in the US. “The speech is to take place before the elections, but also before the close of talks in the next round of talks with Iran.” If Netanyahu waits until after…

Hayat Boumeddiene, widow and co-conspirator of Amedy Coulibaly, the terrorist who shot and killed four people at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris, has surfaced in territory held by the Islamic State, the Iraq and Syria based group said. An interview in the latest issue of Dar al Islam, the Islamic State’s French-language magazine,…

Jerusalem, the “city united together” according to King David’s Psalms, is truly replete with daily and hourly acts and displays of kindness, brotherhood, and unity. Certainly very high up on this list was the Friendship Circle of Central Jerusalem’s annual “Day of Enrichment and Empowerment” for its 89 dedicated volunteers this past Sunday.  An impressively fast-growing Jewish…

Intelligence Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz warned Thursday that Israel could act unilaterally against Iran over its nuclear drive, saying Tehran has failed to make concessions in talks with world powers.   “I won’t be too specific but all options are still on the table,” Steinitz told reporters. “We never limited Israel’s right of self-defence because…

The Central Elections Committee, headed by Arab judge Salim Joubran, voted on Thursday to disqualify Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel from running in elections under the joint Yachad – Ha’am Itanu list. The decision squeaked by with a 17 to 16 majority. Now the High Court will investigate the decision and make a final ruling;…

An influential Iranian general who has reportedly been near the front line against the Islamic State (ISIS) group was quoted Thursday saying the Sunni jihadists are “nearing the end of their lives”. General Qassem Suleimani, the once rarely seen commander of the powerful Qods Force, has become the public face of Iran’s support for the…

The District Attorney of Jerusalem filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court against three men accused to causing the death of Orit London.  London was kill when the apartment building in which she lived in Pisgat Ze’ev was set on fire by the three suspects.  The defendants are all charged with manslaughter and arson. One is charged with…

Will Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu form a right-wing government if he is reelected? Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett is not so sure. Speaking to a high school group Thursday, Bennett said that it was possible – perhaps very possible – that Netanyahu’s first choice would be for a national unity government. “Before the elections everyone…

The Anti-Defamation League issued harsh criticism Thursday for the far-left lobby J Street and its campaign to mobilize American Jews against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  The campaign, entitled, “I am a Jew, and Bibi does NOT [sic] speak for me,” calls on American Jews to sign a petition against Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Washington to be sent…

Security forces prevented weapon-making materials from being smuggled into the Gaza by sea for the sake of Hamas’s “military wing,” the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) revealed Wednesday.  Naval forces detained a vessel on its way from Sinai into Gaza, as well as three Gazans onboard, in mid-January, the ISA said. The craft…

The Orli kosher restaurant in Edgware, London was vandalized at approximately 5:30 pm local time Wednesday night, the Community Security Trust (CST) tweeted Wednesday – after a youth gang apparently either threw rocks or fired shots at the establishment.  No one was injured, the CST affirmed – although it remains unclear what happened during the…

Likud is making a comeback over Labor, according to the latest elections poll. Likud would garner 27 seats in the 20th Knesset, according to the Channel 1 survey published Wednesday night, followed by Labor at distant second with 23 seats. The Arab parties have overtaken Jewish Home for third place, with 12 seats and 11 seats, respectively. …

As polls continue to show Meretz weakening, the leftist party is desperately searching for ways to survive and pass the minimum number of votes needed for Knesset representation – and the party has decided to attack its fellow travelers on the left. In a new video released Wednesday, Meretz takes on Tzipi Livni, who is…

The government in Germany has come under criticism for creating a new commission on anti-Semitism – but failing to include in it a single Jewish person, reports The Associated Press (AP). Julius Schoeps from the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies called it “a unique scandal” that the Interior Ministry didn’t include any Jewish scientists…

A leading Israeli NGO has slammed the European Union over its alleged role in financing illegal Arab settlements in Judea and Samaria, saying its direct attempts to “subvert” Israeli internal affairs amounted to a form of “colonialism.” The remarks, made by the grassroots Im Tirzu organization, came in response to an article in the UK’s Daily Mail, which cited…

A fierce sandstorm lashed Egypt, Israel and Lebanon on Wednesday, forcing the closure of the Suez Canal and grounding domestic flights in Israel, officials said. The skyline of Cairo was barely visible as dust blown in from the surrounding desert hung in the air and shrouded the Egyptian capital for a second day. A few incoming flights were diverted to…

In the latest of a string of attacks, a vehicle in which a Hassidic rebbe was riding in on Wednesday on its way to the Mount of Olives was hit by heavy rocks, as rioting Arabs attacked the vehicle. The Rebbe of Koznitz was on his way to say memorial prayers on the Mount when…

Yisrael Beytenu will continue to run under the slogan “Ariel for Israel, Umm al-Fahm for Palestine,” the Central Elections Committee (CEC) declared Wednesday.  CEC Chairman Justice Salim Jubran shot down a petition from Meretz MK Issawi Freij against the center-right party for the slogan, claiming that it discriminated against Israeli Arabs by proposing to give…

Officials of the Yahad-Ha’am Itanu party, headed by former Shas MK Eli Yishai, filed a complaint with police Wednesday over vandalism and damage to the party’s headquarters in Holon. Police have opened an investigation. So far, there is no evidence as to the specific identities of the perpetrators, but the vandalism – which included graffiti that…

The new United Arab List on Wednesday introduced its campaign for the Knesset elections – and it’s aimed not only at Arab voters. The theme of the campaign is “The United List is Israel’s Answer to Racism,” and posters and ads that will appear throughout the country will feature the phrase, in Arabic and in…

A young French Muslim artist was attacked in Paris, Le Monde reported last week – simply because he preached coexistence.  Four men attacked the street artist Combo as he pasted some of his art on a Paris street earlier this month. Combo is well-known for his street art around Paris, and he recently painted a mural with…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he would be willing to consider a televised debate with heads of other parties running for the Knesset. The announcement came a day after Channel 2 News invited all the leaders of the various parties to a televised debate, adding it plans to hold the debate even if…

MK Ofer Shelah of Yesh Atid, considered a close associated of party chairman Yair Lapid, on Wednesday echoed recent comments made by other Yesh Atid members that the party was leaning leftward. In an interview with Haaretz, Shelah was asked who Yesh Atid would recommend as Prime Minister after the elections. “We keep saying that…

Greece is planning joint military exercises with Israel, Cyprus and Egypt, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said Wednesday, according to AFP. The decision comes amid continuing tensions between Cyprus and Turkey over oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. Kammenos, visiting close ally Cyprus, said the two countries, along with Israel and “possibly” Egypt would begin…

President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he would not flinch from sending special forces to kill top Islamic State (ISIS) extremists, as he called on Congress to authorize operations that stop short of a full-scale invasion, AFP reports. Tantamount to a declaration of war, Obama asked Congress for authority to take the fight to the…

Eli Yishai, chairperson of Yachad – Ha’am Itanu, marked Gush Katif Day marking ten years since the expulsion of all Jews from Gaza on Wednesday by pledging not to stay in any coalition that even discusses the possibility of expelling Jews from their homes. “The expulsion from Gush Katif is a bleeding wound in the heart…

Terrorist attacks in Jerusalem have faded into the background in recent weeks after an intense spate of high-profile attacks late last year, but in Ma’ale Hazeitim on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives in the east of the city, the daily terror continues unabated. On Wednesday morning a gang of Arab terrorists descended upon the Jewish neighborhood’s…

Jordan Valley Regional Council chairperson David Elhayani told Arutz Sheva that an urgent solution needs to be found for the crocodile farm next to the town of Petzael in the region, before the region finds itself under a crocodile invasion. “The farm was established in the 90s and served as a tourist highlight, thousands of people arrived to see…

The Iran-proxy Lebanese-based terrorist organization Hezbollah planned to assassinate former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert six years ago, according to an Arabic report on Wednesday. The report, revealed by the London-based Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, indicate Hezbollah planned the assassination as a response to the assassination of Hezbollah field commander Imad Mughniyeh in a 2008 car bombing in Beirut. Mughniyeh’s son Jihad…

The storm that started settling in on Tuesday has clamped down on Wednesday, with the heavy misty haze and strong winds causing severe limitations of visibility at the Eilat Airport in Israel’s southern port city, leading to the closure of the airport. Video from the airport’s control tower reveals just how poor the visibility is. Given the weather…

Israel has been inundated by polls since the Knesset disbanded last December, but not to fear – a new “super poll” on Wednesday giving an average of the 38 polls conducted since then clarifies what the varying and dizzying numbers actually portend.  The average, conducted by Walla!, starts with a Knesset Channel poll from December 21 and goes through…

A member of Likud’s campaign staff warns that it is far from certain that Binyamin Netanyahu will form the next government, because Labor under Yitzhak Herzog may enlist the support of the united Arab party to form an anti-Netanyahu bloc and then give external support to a left wing minority coalition. The staffer, Erez Tadmor,…

After an extended legal battle, Civil Administration inspectors on Wednesday morning arrived at the road leading to Givon Hahadasha in Samaria just northwest of Jerusalem, where they demolished an illegal Arab commercial center that was built in breach of the law. The center was put up in a region where building is forbidden and endangers motorists…

Labor party candidate Professor Yossi Yonah is a member of far-left extremist group B’Tselem, it was revealed earlier this week – and Likud MK Danny Danon believes that Yonah’s membership is an indication that Labor is moving leftward.  “Labor is becoming a branch of Meretz,” Danon stated, in an interview with Arutz Sheva Wednesday. “Who would hide under…

Canadian terror suspect Awso Peshdary was arrested last week, and is expected to stand trial for a series of security offenses – including luring Ottawa’s youth to join the ranks of Islamic State (ISIS) and financing flights to Iraq for that purpose.  Peshdary may be connected to John McGuire, a student from the University of Ottawa…

Senators and Vice Presidents may be boycotting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next month – but the members of the Defenders of Liberty Motorcycle Club will be out in full force to support Israel’s leader as he warns the US against compromising on an Iranian nuclear deal. The group has hundreds of members…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has decided that Israeli media may air Binyamin Netnayahu’s upcoming speech before the US Congress, despite election laws that forbid the broadcasting of election “propaganda” by candidates and parties. Channel 2 reported that Weinstein sees the speech as having “clear news value” and that he has determined that it may be…

The Central Elections Committee is set to meet on Thursday to debate requests to bar the Knesset campaign of pro-Hamas Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, as well as Otzma Yehudit’s Baruch Marzel and Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu. While similar requests against Marzel have been rejected in the past, and Liberman is likewise expected to have the…

It’s the controversy that just won’t go away – and it’s hard to understand why. Since US President Barack Obama’s controversial comments during a recent interview, in which he downplayed the anti-Semitic nature of the deadly shooting attack at a kosher supermarket in Paris last month, government spokespeople have been falling over themselves to explain what exactly…

A Belgian court jailed the leader of an Islamist group that sent jihadist fighters to Syria to a 12-year jail term on Wednesday, and imprisoned several other members in one of the largest cases of its kind in Europe. Fouad Belkacem, 32, the chief of the Sharia4Belgium group, was convicted by a court in the northern port city of Antwerp…

Three Muslim students were shot dead on Tuesday night by a 46-year-old man in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At 5:11 p.m. police were called to the Finley Forest Condominiums on Summerwalk Circle, an area housing students and academics, where they arrested Craig Stephen Hicks of Chapel Hill and found the three victims already dead, reports WNCN.…

A decade after former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri was assassinated, with Hezbollah terrorists charged over the murder, hopes that the fallout from his death would free Lebanon from Syria’s influence have been dashed by the war raging across the border. “Ten years, 100 years, 1,000 years, we will stay faithful to you” declare the billboards going up around Beirut as…

Shas chairperson Aryeh Deri on Wednesday for Gush Katif Day made his first ever visit to the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem, commemorating the expulsion of all Jews from Gaza ten years ago. Three Shas MKs – Avraham Michael, Ya’akov Margi and Meshulam Nahari – accompanied Deri. At the end of the visit, he told Arutz Sheva “this is…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ruled on Wednesday that there is no “critical mass of evidence” that would allow the barring of Baruch Marzel of Otzma Yehudit, number four on the Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party joint list. Radical leftist organizations and political parties submitted a petition to have Marzel banned for vague allegations of “racism,”…

Jewish Home MK Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, Deputy Minister for Religious Services, told Arutz Sheva Wednesday that religious Zionists are too smart to buy Yesh Atid’s current advertising campaign, which tries to convince them that the secularist party is their true home. It is important, said Ben Dahan, to note that the woman Yesh Atid places…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas torpedoed the last “peace talks” with Israel by forming a unity partnership with Hamas, and is currently pursuing a unilateral International Criminal Court (ICC) lawsuit against Israel in breach of the 1993 Oslo Accords that formed his PA. But according to Abbas he will work to revive the talks with Israel,…

The British government has branded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “deluded”, following an interview in which the dictator claimed the death toll in Syria had been “exaggerated” and dismissed widespread evidence that his forces were using indiscriminate weapons against civilian population centers. In the interview, conducted in Damascus with the BBC, Assed also claimed his regime was being informed…

The White House on Tuesday pushed back against claims that US hostage Kayla Jean Mueller was killed by a coalition airstrike the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria. Revealing details of a February 6 strike on an arms facility carried out by the Jordanian air force, the White House said her cause of death was…

White House spokesman John Earnest struggled Tuesday to explain US President Barack Obama’s comments during a recent interview, in which the president said the threat of terrorism was being overstated by the media, and described the Islamist terror attack on a kosher supermarket as “a bunch of folks” being “randomly” shot. Questioned by journalists at…

Turkey has banned social media sites to cover up scandals surrounding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and arms deals reports, but it has now gotten a symbolic slap on the wrist by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for violating a singer’s freedom of speech. The Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported on Tuesday that Turkey was fined 4,250 euros…

The police Internal Investigations Department has announced it will stand on criminal trial an officer suspected of hitting a child from Yitzhar in Samaria, with an indictment for assault to be submitted in the coming days. The suspected assault occurred around a year-and-a-half ago. The child, identified in a TV report as Y. and who was 11-years-old…

Channel 2 News is attempting to organize a televised debate among the leaders of the various parties running for the Knesset in the March 17 elections. On Tuesday, the network invited via text message all the leaders of the parties to the debate. The invitation reads, “Just before the citizens of Israel go to the polls…

Australian police have foiled what they said was an “imminent” terror attack in Sydney by arresting two men and seizing a machete, a hunting knife, a video, and an Islamic State (ISIS) flag. New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn said it would be alleged that the attack being planned was “consistent with the…

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday called on world powers to “seize the opportunity” of a landmark nuclear deal with his country, AFP reported, and insisted Tehran had taken the “necessary steps” for an accord. Rouhani’s remarks appeared to be a response to U.S. President Barack Obama, who had said on Monday, “The issues now…

The Zionist Organization of America has harsh words for some American Jewish organizations, comparing their recent positions with U.S. “establishment” Jewry’s attitude towards those who tried to warn about the Nazi threat in the late 1930’s and early 40’s.   Anti-Defamation League leader Abe Foxman and Union for Reform Judaism president Rick Jacobs have condemned…

Kayla Jean Mueller, who died as a hostage of Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, took strength during captivity in her faith in God and the love of her family, she wrote in a letter relatives released on Tuesday. “I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free,” said a handwritten letter…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Tuesday, noting that despite the controversy surrounding his speech before the US Congress next month two weeks before elections, he does not intend to back down from accepting the invitation. Netanyahu began by sending “condolences to (US) President (Barack) Obama, the American people and the family of…

A British Christian minister with a long record of online anti-Semitism has been handed an ultimatum to stop speaking or writing about the Middle East conflict or lose his job. In a highly unusual move, the Church of England has also banned Reverend Dr Stephen Sizer from using social media for six months, after he posted…

The United States denied on Tuesday that it was coordinating air strikes with the Syrian regime against Islamic terrorists, renewing its insistence that President Bashar Al-Assad must step down, AFP reported. The comments were made in response to remarks made by Assad in an interview with the BBC, in which he claimed Damascus was being…

Syria will not allow foreign ground troops on its territory to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) group, Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on Monday. Speaking at a news conference in Damascus, Muallem also said Jordan had not responded to a Syrian request to coordinate efforts against ISIS after the group killed a captured Jordanian pilot.…

The assistant who supplied late Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman with the gun used in his mysterious death was fired on Monday, officials said, according to AFP. The justice ministry announced the dismissal of Diego Lagomarsino, a computer expert at the Argentine public prosecutor’s office and the last person known to have seen Nisman alive. Lagomarsino…

MK Eli Yishai, chairman of the Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party, said on Monday that he would ask to serve as Interior Minister in a future coalition, a move that will likely place him at odds yet again with longtime rival Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who is eyeing the same post. Yishai made his announcement at a meeting…

After taking Kobane, Syrian Kurdish forces are moving forward and have set their sights on taking back Tal Abyad from jihadists, AFP reported on Monday, citing a local monitor. Tal Abyad, located about 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of Kobane, is an Arab and Kurd town in the Syrian province of Raqa used by jihadists…

After having earlier announced that it will support the barring of radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from the Knesset, the joint Labor-Hatnua list, known as the “Zionist Camp”, has changed its mind. Army Radio reported on Monday that the “Zionist Camp” decided to backtrack on its support for the move after several members of the…

Prominent Jewish rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center on Monday condemned an Estonian modern art exhibition for making light of the Holocaust – claims the curator denied. The “My Poland: On Recalling and Forgetting” exhibition in eastern Estonia features eight works of contemporary art – ranging from photography to video to installation – that address the aftermath of World War II in Poland, 70 years…

The United States has delivered more than $25 million worth of military aid to the Lebanese Army, Reuters reported Sunday night, to help it “defeat the terrorist and extremist threat from Syria.”  “We are fighting the same enemy, so our support for you has been swift and continuous,”  US ambassador to Beirut, David Hale, stated at an event. …

Police in Paris on Monday arrested a 38-year-old man who tried to set fire to an Israeli flag that was placed at the entrance to the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, where Islamist terrorist Amedy Coulibali murdered four Jews last month. According to local police, the man was stopped and detained before he could carry out…

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said he could accept a compromise in nuclear talks with Iran, as long as the deal is not “contrary to our nation’s interests”. The comments were made Sunday to Iranian air force personnel and were reported by Reuters. As Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met counterparts in…

A group of Democrats in the House of Representatives are circulating a petition asking Republican Speaker John Boehner to postpone the March 3 speech by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to a joint meeting of Congress, Bloomberg reported on Monday. “As members of Congress who support Israel, we share concern that it appears that you are…

President Reuven Rivlin hosted the IDF Chief of Staff and the Forum of the General Staff on the occasion of the conclusion of the term in office of Lieutenant General Benjamin (Benny) Gantz Monday, before Gantz is due to step down from his post on Monday, February 16. Before the meeting began the President and Chief…

Damascus receives “information” about air strikes by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Tuesday. “Sometimes, they convey a message, a general message,” he said in an interview with the BBC in Damascus. “There is no dialogue. There’s, let’s say, information, but not dialogue.” Damascus has grudgingly accepted…

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky welcomed recent efforts by a group of British MPs to bolster the fight against anti-Semitism in the UK, he stated Tuesday, one day after the report proposed a multi-step front to combat hate.  “I welcome the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism’s publication of its new report on anti-Jewish hatred, as well…

Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama have assured the Israeli and American public that Netanyahu’s planned address to Congress will not harm the “unbreakable” US-Israel relationship – but a far-left NGO’s new campaign Tuesday seeks to reignite sentiment against Netanyahu.  The campaign, entitled, “I am a Jew, and Bibi does NOT…

Economics Minister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett reprimanded EU ambassadors to Israel Monday, during a series of closed meetings at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel.  “To isolate Israel and tie its hands economically, hoping we commit suicide, is immoral,” Bennett is heard saying on audio recordings published on Army Radio. “Instead of understanding that we are the…

Yesh Atid Chairman and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid presented his plan for the nationalization of the Jewish National Fund – Keren Kayemet LeYisrael (JNF-KKL) Tuesday, while standing in front of the JNF offices in Tel Aviv.  Lapid assured that Yesh Atid would introduce a bill during the 20th Knesset to “nationalize the JNF, put a…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) resumed air strikes on Tuesday against the Islamic State (ISIS) group which it had suspended after the jihadists captured a Jordanian pilot in December and burned him alive, the military said. “Aircraft of the F-16 squadron based in Jordan launched raids this morning against positions of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization, hitting their targets and returning safely…

Ahead of internationally famous rock star Alan Parsons’ performance in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, anti-Israel musician Roger Waters formerly of Pink Floyd published his call on Parsons to cancel the show as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Waters noted that Parsons responded to his letter and asked for the response not…

The “Zionist camp” unity party of Labor and Hatnua retraced its steps regarding support for the barring of openly pro-Hamas Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, after the Arab parties threatened they would not join a coalition formed by Labor. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) had harsh words for the Labor party on Tuesday, writing on Facebook…

The United States added German former rapper Denis Cuspert to its list of “terrorists” over his role as a fighter with the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, the State Department said Monday. The 39-year-old, who used to rap in Berlin under the name “Deso Dogg” and now goes by the name Abu Talha al-Almani, is one of…

Oscar winner Helen Mirren presented her new movie about Nazi-looted art in Berlin on Monday, saying Germany and Austria should not rest until all the works are returned, according to AFP. The 69-year-old British actress stars in US-British co-production “Woman in Gold,” premiering at the 65th Berlin film festival. Mirren plays Maria Altmann, who fought the Austrian government…

Former Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich derided Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett Tuesday, calling him “populist” and accusing him of fishing for votes in response to Bennett’s statements about crime in the Arab sector.  “It’s an unsuccessful statement,” Aharonovich stated, while meeting with the Hura Regional Council head, according to NRG. “There’s a lot of populism.”…

A small Japanese publisher on Tuesday issued 3,000 copies of a book of cartoons by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, including controversial drawings of Mohammed, according to AFP.  “Are You Charlie? Isuramu heito ka fushi ka (Is it satire or hate against Islam)” is an attempt to spark debate in Japan on the nature of free speech, said Akira Kitagawa, the head…

EU member states have been readying themselves to enforce sanctions on Israel for Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria, diplomats revealed Tuesday – and will strike hours after the March 17 elections. Israeli officials in recent weeks met with Europe’s most important foreign ministries at the EU headquarters in Brussels, an Israeli official told Walla! News on condition of…

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger may be criminally prosecuted over corruption charges, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein stated Tuesday, pending an upcoming hearing on the case.  Metzger has been charged with many offenses, including bribery, fraud and breach of trust, fraud under aggravating circumstances, theft via agent, conspiracy to commit a crime, money laundering and…

The race between a right-wing and left-wing government for the 20th Knesset has become neck-and-neck, according to the latest elections poll.  Likud and Labor face off with 23 seats each, according to the Panels Politics poll for the Knesset Channel.  Three parties tie for second (or third) place, with Jewish Home, the Arab parties, and even…

Controversial Labor-Hatnua candidate Yossi Yonah responded forcefully Monday evening to attacks against him and his candidacy by the Jewish Home party.  Yonah, a long-term professor of political philosophy and philosophy of education at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, is #23 on Labor’s list. He has also been linked to the radical leftist New Israel Fund (NIF) and…

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday that he is determined to address Congress next month over Iran’s nuclear program, brushing off US fears his intervention could derail talks with Tehran. “I am determined to address Congress, that is why I decided to go to Washington and present Israel’s position,” Netanyahu told participants at an election event by his Likud party. The…

Former Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid) said Monday that he has not ruled out sitting in a coalition with the far left.  “When a coalition forms, there is nothing that would prevent Yesh Atid from sitting with Meretz in that same government,” said Peri, who is running as #5 on Yesh Atid’s list…

Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, announced on Monday that he will not be attending Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress next month. “The president of the United States heads up our foreign policy. The idea that the president wasn’t even consulted — that is wrong and not a good thing for…

President Reuven Rivlin met in Israel Monday with members of the Cohen, Braham, and Saada families, whose relatives were brutally murdered in the terror attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris last month.  Rivlin addressed the families as well as listened to stories of their experiences and struggles since the attack.  “Together with all the…

Bahrain’s royal ruler told his Jordanian counterpart that he is ready to assist the kingdom in its fight against terror organization Islamic State, the royal palace in Amman said Monday. King Hamad of Bahrain, quoted in a palace statement, told King Abdullah II that he was “proud to provide all the help Jordan needs to combat terrorism and protect Islam from Daesh…

President Barack Obama on Monday insisted the United States retained an “unbreakable bond” with Israel despite his refusal to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a controversial trip to Washington next month. Obama, who is at loggerheads with Netanyahu over negotiations concerning Iran’s disputed nuclear program, said diplomatic protocol forbade him from meeting the Israeli leader, who is fighting for re-election on March…

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Monday a set of changes to different Canadian ministries at a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario.  One of those changes is the appointment of Conservative party politician Jason Kenney as the Minister of National Defense.  Kenney, who has also served as the Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and…

Kurdish forces backed up by US-led airstrikes have recaptured territory from Islamic State terrorists near the strategic city of Mosul in northern Iraq, the American military said Monday.  The advance is the latest push by Kurdish forces around Mosul, considered a crucial battleground for an eventual major counteroffensive against the ISIS by Iraqi government troops and the…

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is helping Ukrainian Jewry, its founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein announced Monday. Eckstein said the organization will deliver a total of $650,000 in emergency aid to Jews living in combat zones in eastern Ukraine, especially in the cities of Donetsk, Mariupol and Luhansk. The IFCJ is allocating the money to allow Jews…

“It’s time to put things on the table: the central element that stands behind the wave of mudslinging against me and my wife is Noni Mozes, the publisher of Yedioth Aharonoth and Ynet,” said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his Twitter account Monday morning, using the nickname by which Arnon Mozes is known. Mozes, he…

US President Barack Obama’s administration has responded harshly to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s accepting an invitation to address the Congress two weeks before elections, saying he did so without first notifying the White House – but was it lying? The fallout of the speech has led Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry to…

The two Jewish women who were involved in relations with Arab men and clashed with each other, leading to the lethal arson attack in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev late last month that claimed the life of a Jewish woman who happened to be living in the same building, have divulged more details in the shocking case.…

In the last several days the IDF has completed the destruction of a terror tunnel from Gaza that was meant to enable terrorists to attack Israeli civilians; the major part of the tunnel had been destroyed during Operation Protective Edge and the remaining passageways have just now been smashed. The routes of the tunnel that had not…

A leftist journalist claimed on Monday that officials in Washington are trying to convince Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to shelve his Congress address scheduled for two weeks ahead of elections, and are offering an alternative instead. Journalist Razi Barkai sai on Army Radio that the offer being made to Netanyahu is to call off the speech, and in…

Tokyo defended Monday its confiscation of the passport of a Japanese journalist planning to travel to Syria, as the country reels from the beheading of two citizens by Islamist State (ISIS) terrorists. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government took travel documents away from freelance photographer Yuichi Sugimoto, 58, for his own safety, after learning of his plan to cover…

The Israel Police are currently in a state of emergency as six generals out of the 16 who compose the senior command staff have either resigned or been fired in the last few months – with the three latest cases surfacing in rapid succession within the last month. Four of the officers involved were accused of…

Jordan announced it has carried out dozens of air strikes on the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, as a top US envoy said Iraqi troops would begin a major ground offensive against the jihadists in the weeks ahead. Jordanian air force chief Major General Mansour al-Jobour said Sunday the kingdom had launched 56 air raids since Thursday as part of…

The Zionist Camp, the name by which the joint Labor-Hatnua list for the Knesset is known, fired back at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night, after he declared he will not form a government that includes leftist parties. In a statement, the Zionist Camp said that Netanyahu’s remarks prove that voting for him means…