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MK Zevulun Kalfa resigned in protest on Tuesday after secular former soccer player Eli Ohana was given the eighth spot in the Jewish Home list, sparking anger throughout the party – Ohana has since bowed out, but now Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett, who appointed Ohana, won’t take Kalfa back. In the 18th spot on the…

Three Israeli startups raised a total of $75 million according to their announcements on Wednesday, reports Haaretz. ClickTale, whose software enables website owners to track user behavior on their sites, said investors led by the U.S. private equity firm KKR had pledged $35 million in investments. TheMarker said that Addallom, a U.S.-Israeli cyber-security startup, is close to…

Two terrorists from the Hamas stronghold of Gaza breached into Israeli sovereign territory on Thursday night, where they were arrested. The two were nabbed in the Eshkol Regional Council just outside of Gaza, adjacent to the kibbutzim of Sufa and Holit, after having broken through the security barrier. After being located the two claimed to…

A judge in Florida’s Broward County on Thursday declared that Guma Aguiar, the Jewish philanthropist who disappeared off Fort Lauderdale in June, 2012, is dead, according to NBC Miami. Aguiar, 35, was last seen on a surveillance video taking a fishing boat out into choppy waters. His 31-foot long boat surfaced early the next morning off Las…

The war between Israel and Gaza drove the Palestinian economy of Gaza and Judea and Samaria into its first contraction since 2006, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday, according to the AFP news agency. While the Palestinian Authority-run areas of Judea and Samaria managed a 4.5 percent expansion last year, Gaza’s economic activity declined…

The state-run Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) is to reduce energy supplies to Arab residents of Judea and Samaria due to Palestinian Authority (PA) electric debts worth over $450 million that have been accumulating for many long years, an official said Thursday. “Due to a mounting debt worth nearly 1.8 billion shekels ($459 million), we have decided that as of today, electrical…

After circuitous negotiations about a technical bloc unity list between Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit, and after Yishai’s MK Yoni Chetboun threatened on Thursday to leave the party, it appears a joint list has been assembled at the last minute. Chetboun threatened to quit over the inclusion of Otzma…

A gunman was arrested on Thursday in one of the studios of Dutch news broadcaster NOS after disrupting the main evening news and reportedly demanding airtime. According to the BBC, staff were evacuated from the building, located in the Media Park in the central city of Hilversum. The man, smartly dressed and carrying a long…

At least 26 people were killed on Thursday in a series of terrorist attacks targeting army and police positions in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the website of the Al-Ahram newspaper reported. The attacks included car bombs and mortar rounds, and civilians were among those killed, according to the report. 36 people were injured in the attacks in…

Former Minister Benny Begin is returning to the Likud, after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided on Thursday to place Begin in the #11 spot on the Likud Knesset list, which is reserved for a candidate of his choice. Begin was placed in an unrealistic spot in the Likud primaries before the elections of 2012, when…

Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett expressed regret Thursday at the decision of former soccer start Eli Ohana to drop out of the party’s Knesset list, and to eschew politics altogether. Despite the sharp criticism leveled at Bennett for the move – recruiting a secular figure who made his career and fortune by working on Shabbat,…

A day after two IDF soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack on an army patrol along the Lebanese border, life was seemingly back to normal in northern Israel. Although there is a marked rise in the number of soldiers and army vehicles in the area, schools and businesses are open as usual, and the…

MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beytenu) filled a petition Thursday morning moving to forbid radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) from running in elections for the 20th Knesset.  Members of the Likud, Jewish Home, and Shas parties also joined the petition.  Zoabi has openly supported Hamas – the Islamist terrorist movement sworn to Israel’s destruction – on numerous occasions,…

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting late Wednesday night to discuss a flareup in violence between Israel and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border.  Along with IDF soldiers Major Yochai Kalengel and Sgt. Dor Nini, who were killed when Hezbollah fired antitank missiles at two IDF vehicles, a Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper was killed in Israel’s retaliatory…

Former soccer player Eli Ohana, chosen earlier in the week by Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett to complete the party’s Knesset list, told Bennett Wednesday night that he would not run after all. In a statement Thursday, Ohana said that he had discussed the matter with Bennett late Wednesday, “and I asked him to take me…

In the final hours of his curtailed trip to the United States, President Reuven Rivlin toured around New York City, visiting the 9-11 memorial site and meeting with former US President Bill Clinton and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.  At Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Towers, Rivlin laid a wreath on the newly…

Islamic State terrorists say they will execute a Jordanian pilot “immediately” if Amman does not hand over a female suicidebomber by sunset Thursday, as Japan waits in anguish for news of a journalist the extremists are also holding. In a new audio recording, a voice identifying itself as Japanese freelancer Kenji Goto says his captors will kill Maaz al-Kassasbeh…

Israelis concerned that Hezbollah is digging underground tunnels into Israel in order to carry out Hamas-style attacks on Israeli civilians can relax – at least for now, said Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. “We have been examining every single complaint by residents of the north who say they hear construction and drilling sounds underground, and so…

Canada strongly condemned Hezbollah’s deadly attack on an IDF convoy Wednesday, and reiterated its belief in Israel’s right to defend itself from “brutal terrorist organizations.” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, fresh from his recent trip to Israel, issued the statement Wednesday night.  “Canada condemns the assault by Hezbollah on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that tragically killed…

Fears have been raised over the growing number of Israeli Arabs traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. But ISIS isn’t the only jihadi group there recruiting Israeli citizens; one Israeli Arab recently decided to join the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria – and is suspected of returning to Israel with the intention…

Jordan said Thursday that it would not release an Iraqi female jihadist until it receives proof that a Jordanian pilot held by Islamic State (ISIS) is still alive. ISIS has threatened to execute the airman unless Jordan frees Sajida al-Rishawi by sunset Thursday in exchange for Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. “Jordan is willing to exchange Sajida al-Rishawi for the Jordanian pilot. At this point we want…

The BBC angered many with a controversial show on Sunday, ahead of Tuesday’s International Holocaust Memorial Day, which asked “is it time to lay the Holocaust to rest?” The shocking question spurred one student to take action, demanding that the British media giant denounce the show. Joshua Eibelman, a junior at Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, told…

The Israeli Defense Forces will resume Thursday their search for Hezbollah terror tunnels leading into moshav Zar’it, on the Lebanese border.  Detection services were shut down for security reasons Wednesday following Hezbollah’s attack on an IDF convoy in the Har Dov area, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed. Seven additional soldiers were injured and are recuperating…

Riccardo Pacifici, the leader of Rome’s Jewish community and the grandson of victims who were murdered in Auschwitz, found himself locked in the Nazi death camp on Tuesday night, and when he tried to escape he was arrested by Polish police and interrogated. Pacifici was at the death camp with a TV crew, including host…

An interview with Jewish Home Candidate Yinon Magal on journalist Reno Tzror’s popular Army Radio morning show “Ma Bo’er” quickly turned sour Thursday.  The interview, intended to discuss former soccer player Eli Ohana’s almost immediate resignation from Jewish Home Thursday morning, soon devolved into a series of shouts and accusations of incitement and libel.  Magal – who is secular and was…

Failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, thrust into the spotlight by the demand by Islamic State (ISIS) that she be released in a prisoner exchange, is an important symbol for the jihadists, experts told AFP. Closely linked to ISIS’s predecessor organization in Iraq, Rishawi is on death row in Jordan for her role in 2005 suicide bombings in Amman that…

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into allegations that Shiite militiamen massacred Sunni residents in the eastern province of Diyala, his spokesman said on Thursday. “The prime minister has ordered an investigation into the matter,” Rafid Jaboori told AFP, without elaborating. Witnesses and Sunni leaders have accused Shiite fighters of executing more than 70 residents on Monday after military…

Iran was behind the attack on an IDF patrol on the Lebanese border Wednesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu argued Thursday. Speaking at a memorial service for late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu said that “Iran is the party that is arming, funding, and organizing the terror groups that operate on our border, in the north and the…

With the deadline for submission of their final lists just hours away on Thursday afternoon, political parties are going through last-minute gyrations to fill out their lists – or to ensure that the representatives already on their lists don’t back out at the last minute. That is a scenario that Eli Yishai’s Yahad Party was…

The UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting from 2100 GMT on Wednesday to discuss the flare-up of violence on the Israeli-Lebanon border, diplomats told AFP. France requested the urgent talks in the 15-member council after two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish UN peacekeeper died in the exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah terrorists. The violence raised fears…

Despite a message from Hezbollah Wednesday night that it was not seeking to increase tensions with Israel, security officials in Israel said that Israel would respond to the Hezbollah attack on an IDF patrol earlier “at a time and place that suits the IDF,” the spokesperson said. Israel would not let the attack that killed…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the IDF’s clashes with Hezbollah on Wednesday night.  Ya’alon began by giving condolences to the Kalangal and Nini families, who each lost sons in the attack. He then addressed the security situation.  “Iran and Hezbollah are trying, and will continue to try, to harm Israel in any way, from the…

The struggle to attain security along Israel’s northern borders is only beginning, IDF spokesman Major General Moti Almoz stated Wednesday night.  Almoz said that tensions in the north did not begin last week – after several incidents were reported along the border after an IAF airstrike in Syria – and “it will not end tomorrow.”  “This is…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the parties responsible for the attack on Har Dov earlier in the day that claimed the lives of two IDF soldiers would “pay the full price for their actions.” Netanyahu made the comments Wednesday evening before a meeting of top army and government officials discussing the attack by…

The United States stood by Israel Wednesday as it exchanged fire with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon in their most serious clashes in five years. “We support Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense and continue to urge all parties to respect the blue line between Israel and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. She added that Washington condemned Hezbollah’s shelling…

Labor-Hatnua is still in the lead with 25 seats, according to the latest elections poll. The Camile-Fuchs organization poll for Channel 10 places Likud in second place with 23 seats – as has been consistent in polls throughout the week.  However, there is a slight gain for Jewish Home, up to 16 seats instead of 15.  The…

Dozens of residents of the northern border town of Rajar (Ghajar) are stranded, unable to get back to their homes due to the Hezbollah attack on IDF forces earlier Wednesday. Two Israeli soldiers were killed when Hezbollah terrorists fired on IDF vehicles in the Har Dov area. The town of Rajar, which straddles the border…

The fight against Islamic State jihadists is taking place online as well on the battlefield, with 18,000 Twitter accounts linked to the group suspended in recent months, according to a US expert. ISIS supporters “are under significant pressure, with the most active and viral users taking the brunt of the suspensions” J. M. Berger, a fellow at the Brookings Institution…

U.S. President Barack Obama told CNN he will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in March because his trip to Washington comes too close to Israel’s upcoming elections. “I’m declining to meet with him simply because our general policy is, we don’t meet with any world leader two weeks before their election,” Obama…

The Israel Electric Company said Wednesday that it would shut off power to some communities in the Palestinian Authority this week, unless the PA paid off its enormous debt. According to IEC officials, the PA owes it over NIS 1.8 billion ($450 million). The IEC has long tried to collect its money, with the PA adamantly refusing…

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan on Wednesday evening once again verbally attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, accusing him of sabotaging Israel’s relationship with the United States. Speaking at an event in memory of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Dagan warned against Netanyahu and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett’s policies, saying they were dangerous to Israel.…

Spain on Wednesday said Israeli fire had killed a Spanish UN peacekeeper serving in south Lebanon and called on the United Nations to fully investigate the violence. The Security Council condemned the death of the Spanish corporal who died from wounds sustained during an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters on the…

The Islamic State group (ISIS) has used Japanese hostage Kenji Goto to relay a new threat to kill a Jordanian pilot, unless Amman hands over an imprisoned female jihadist by sunset Thursday, monitoring group SITE Intelligence said. The new threat came after Jordan offered Wednesday to exchange Sajida al-Rishawi, a would-be suicide bomber, for the…

UN relief efforts in war-torn Syria are struggling to reach 40 percent of civilians in need and face a major funding shortfall, a senior UN aid official said Wednesday, according to the AFP news agency. As the war heads toward a fifth year, some 4.8 million Syrians or around 40 percent of the total 12.2…

An antitank missile has been fired at an IDF vehicle from the Har Dov area (Shebaa Farms) in an apparent Hezbollah ambush Wednesday morning, and there are reportedly seven casualties, who are receiving treatment. ZAKA emergency services initially said that three people were hurt.  The IDF spokesman said that an antitank missile was fired at an IDF vehicle that was…

The Labor party has asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to launch an investigation against the Jewish Home party for alleged incitement, following a video clip that the party produced targeting Labor candidate Yossi Yona. The clip was produced in a way that imitates Hamas propaganda clips, complete with a green background, a Hamas TV logo and…

Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party held an emergency meeting on Tuesday night to discuss Bennett’s decision to reserve a seat for former soccer player Eli Ohana. While Bennett said at the start of the meeting that the decision was final, that didn’t stop a furious outburst from his close colleagues, possibly signifying serious impact on…

Three days before the March 17 elections the Nachala Movement, which supports the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, is going to have a large rally in Tel Aviv’s iconic Rabin Square, narrowly beating out leftist organizations for the venue. Daniella Weiss, a member of the movement’s management, told Arutz Sheva that all of the Knesset parties will be invited…

Associates of MK Yoni Chetboun, of Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu, have claimed that in the last few days Chetboun and his family have received threats from Otzma Yehudit activists.  According to their report to the Knesset, Otzma Yehudit supporters told Chetboun that if there is no agreement on a joint list between Ha’am Itanu and Otzma…

The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg has penned an article that tears into Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for his upcoming speech before Congress, which he says is a “desperate-seeming end-run around” US President Barack Obama. The idea for delivering the speech without consulting the White House was “concocted” by Israel’s US Ambassador Ron Dermer, he claims, despite the speech invitation…

British media has long been accused of a strong anti-Israel bias, and even generating anti-Semitism. Those claims have surfaced once again when during an interview with UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis for International Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday, a TV anchor with Sky News went as far as to suggest that Israel “fuels anti-Semitism.” The anchor, Adam Boulton, began by asking whether the…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) commented on the IDF nighttime strikes on Syrian artillery, which was a response to the two rockets fired by Hezbollah terrorists from territory controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad which struck the Golan Heights on Tuesday afternoon. “The air force strike tonight on territory controlled by Assad in Syria against targets of…

Jerusalem-based research group NGO Monitor revealed on Tuesday the fundamental flaws in radical leftist group B’Tselem’s report on Operation Protective Edge, and with the release of the report on Wednesday it turned out that the group indeed claimed that Israel deliberately struck Gaza homes – all while minimizing the context of Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure. The report presents…

Antitank missiles were fired at two IDF vehicles from the Har Dov area (Shebaa Farms) in a Hezbollah ambush Wednesday morning. Six casualties in light to moderate condition have been taken to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat. Additional casualties were evacuated to Rambam Hospital, but so far, no information has been released about their condition. Two soldiers were…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has called for a fierce and swift IDF response to clashes in the north on Wednesday, after Hezbollah fired two antitank missiles at IDF forces from the Har Dov area Wednesday morning, wounding six people.  Liberman, speaking with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a meeting on Chinese-Israeli foreign relations, adamantly…

The Arab world has also been rocked by the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, according to the Middle East Research Media Institute (MEMRI) – as the attacks opened up an unprecedented debate on free speech. US-based Egyptian author Magdi Khalil and Tunisian scholar Shakir Al-Sharafi clashed in a heated TV debate on the subject, aired on Al-Jazeera‘s TV show the…

On Wednesday, Hezbollah terrorist fired mortar shells at IDF vehicles in the area of Har Dov in the northern Golan – a serious enough incident, but an open one that the IDF can fight. It’s the kind of attack that takes place once in awhile, but residents of northern Israel have learned to take them…

The Haredi Workers’ Group convened for the first time Tuesday night, in a historic meeting where representatives were chosen to officially represent haredi workers’ needs to different political parties before the March 2015 elections.  During the meeting it was made clear by the participants that this is not a political conference but will translate into a…

While Hezbollah continues to provoke, threaten, and attack Israel, many ordinary Lebanese say they have had enough of the terror group using the country’s territory to attack Israel – because it is they, not Hezbollah, who sustain the damage of an Israeli response. While reports in the Lebanese media said that “gunshots of joy” were heard in…

From every quarter, the global attacks against Israel are escalating. No sooner did the summer’s rocket barrages from the Islamist terror organizations in Gaza come to an end than an unprecedented wave of murderous terrorist violence in Israeli cities commenced. At the same time the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has moved into high…

A last gasp meeting between Yachad – Ha’am Itanu’s rabbinical counsel apparently bore fruit, as Eli Yishai’s party and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit party reportedly are to sign on an agreement by 6 p.m. on Wednesday – or else decide to run separately once and for all. Ben-Ari wrote on Facebook “with G-d’s help…

Likud’s primaries took place in early January, but just now the fight for the 20th seat – one of the last realistic spots on the party’s Knesset list – has come to an end Wednesday, with Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely squeaking past former minister Avi Dichter by a mere 101 votes. As a result, Hotovely will receive…

Given the escalating security situation in the North, United Hatzalah HQ has raised emergency readiness levels for rescue units in the Carmel, Asher, Galilee and Golan regions within the range of missiles that enable up to 60 seconds’ advance warning before they strike. Volunteers in the rest of the country have been instructed to maintain increased…

Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett has reacted to a storm of criticism over his decision to place ex-soccer star Eli Ohana in the party’s number 10 slot for election in the 20th Knesset, saying the past day has been the toughest of his political career so far. “I don’t remember a day like this,” Bennett…

As talks to form a joint list reach the zero hour ahead of a Thursday deadline to submit Knesset lists, MK Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party has made an odd offer, retracting its original position regarding spots on a joint list with former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit. According to reports, contacts between the two…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem on Tuesday, marking International Holocaust Memorial Day and the liberation of Auschwitz. “My responsibility as Prime Minister of Israel is to ensure that the State of Israel will never again be threatened with destruction,” began Netanyahu. “My responsibility is to see to…

Large numbers of foreign fighters are among the ISIS jihadists killed in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane, a senior US official said Tuesday, saying the concerted campaign was halting the Islamists’ march. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) announced the “liberation” of Kobane on Monday, depriving the Islamic State group of a…

There have been two high-profile stabbings in Tel Aviv in recent months committed by Arab residents of Judea and Samaria who illegally crossed the 1949 Armistice line – and yet a Jewish resident of a haredi suburb of the city on Tuesday was arrested bringing Arab illegals into the Tel Aviv area in his car trunk.…

Hatnua chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Tuesday blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the announcement by ten Senate Democrats that they would postpone a vote on a new Iran sanctions bill until March. Livni, who gave a speech at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, attacked Netanyahu and said that it was his decision to accept an…

Iran has threatened in a message to the United States that it will attack Israel, after an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general was killed in a reportedly Israeli airstrike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights last Sunday. The general, Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, died alongside six terrorists – including a senior terrorist leader Jihad Mughniyeh – of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization, as…

The BBC has been accused of “race-baiting” for inviting radical anti-Israel MP George Galloway to appear at a high-profile show hosted in Finchley and Golders Green, which is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the UK. “Question Time” sees commentators and political figures take part in a panel discussion on hot political topics,…

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Arutz Sheva on Tuesday in time for International Holocaust Memorial Day that the battle over the Holocaust lives on – and is being waged on the field of public memory. According to Zuroff, aside from the widespread scourge of Holocaust denial, a new phenomenon has reared…

New York was all set for one of the worst winter snowstorms in its history, with an emergency declared on Monday, but the brutal blizzard failed to pan out and on Tuesday travel bans were lifted in New York and New Jersey. Several north-eastern states declared an emergency situation after up to three feet of…

The UN agency for Palestinian Arab refugees said on Tuesday that it cannot afford to repair Gaza homes damaged in last year’s war with Israel – because donors have failed to live up to their pledges to pay. “The agency has exhausted all funding to support repairs and rental subsidies,” said the United Nations Relief…

A fatal car crash which occurred Tuesday on Highway 55 near the Shomron community of Ginot Shomron, forced the closure of the road for several hours. Instead, drivers were instructed to take a detour and drive through the Arab village Azzun – where they were greeted by rock throwers. Despite the military presence along the…

A top appointee in President Barack Obama’s 2012 election campaign is now working to defeat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the upcoming March election in Israel, according to the Daily Caller website. According to the report, Jeremy Bird, who was the national field director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, is now working for an Israel-based group,…

President Barack Obama’s efforts to thwart new sanctions against Iran seem to have worked. A group of 10 Senate Democrats said on Tuesday they wouldn’t vote for new sanctions against Iran on the Senate floor until late March, according to The Wall Street Journal. In a letter to Obama, Sens. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), Charles…

Hours after former minister Avi Dichter appealed to the Supreme Court over the District Court’s decision to freeze the recount in Likud’s primaries, the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening accepted Dichter’s appeal and order the recount to resume. The decision means that the duel between Dichter and MK Tzipi Hotovely over the 20th spot on…

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has slammed as “utterly despicable” an Islamic State (ISIS) threat to kill a Japanese hostage within 24 hours unless Jordan releases a jihadi bomber. “This was an utterly despicable act, and I am appalled,” the Japanese prime minister told reporters Wednesday morning (local time), according to AFP. “While we are…

After weeks of tension and public calls for former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit and MK Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu to run on a technical bloc joint list, negotiations have fallen through after Yishai’s party made surprising last minute demands on Ben-Ari. The two parties were in zero hour talks on Tuesday night…

The IDF on Tuesday night attacked artillery targets belonging to the Syrian army, in retaliation for rocket attacks earlier on Tuesday towards the Golan Heights and Mount Hermon. “[The rocket fire] was a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the State of Israel,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement, noting that direct hits…

Kadima chairman MK Shaul Mofaz officially announced on Tuesday that he is retiring from political life and will not run for the 20th Knesset, though Kadima is still planning to run with a list in the March 17 election. “I must confess – I am not an outstanding politician. Politics is not something I strive…

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino faces yet another scandal in the police force Tuesday, after his direct subordinate was identified as the prime suspect in a sexual harassment case.  Deputy Police Commissioner Nissim Mor has been implicated in fraternizing illicitly with a junior female police officer. Mor, who was interrogated at the Police Investigation Unit, said…

Asked about the way he circumvented the White House in inviting Binyamin Netanyahu to address Congress, House Speaker John Boehner told CBS‘s 60 Minutes: “I gave ’em a heads up that morning. But there’s nobody in the world who can talk about the threat of radical terrorism, nobody can talk about the threat that the…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett confirmed Tuesday morning that he intends to place Dr. Anat Roth in the 14th spot in the Jewish Home’s Knesset list. Bennett noted Roth’s move from left wing to right wing views symbolizes Israelis’ awakening from pipe dreams of “peace.” Roth’s performance in the Jewish Home primaries was lukewarm, and she reached the 22nd…

The number of anti-Semitic acts doubled in France during 2014, with acts involving physical violence leading the increase, the country’s main Jewish group said on Tuesday. Some 851 anti-Semitic acts were registered in 2014, compared with 423 the previous year, with acts of physical violence jumping to 241 from 105, the CRIF said. The numbers were released as world leaders…

President Reuven Rivlin met Monday evening in New York with parents of IDF Lone Soldiers from the United States who fell in battle during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza over the summer, the Government Press Office announced Tuesday, accompanied by his wife Nechama.  The President and his wife met with Evie and Stuart Steinberg, parents of Sgt. Max Steinberg, and Rachel and…

The BBC is no stranger to controversial statements tinged with anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments, including shocking questions at the recent Paris anti-terror rally and talk of a powerful “Jewish lobby” – now it has raised ire again by suggesting it is time to forget the Holocaust. As the world on Tuesday observes International Holocaust Memorial Day…

The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group threatened Tuesday to kill a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian pilot within 24 hours if Amman refuses to free a jailed female jihadist. The video released on jihadist websites shows a picture of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto holding a photograph of captured Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh with a voiceover purportedly by Goto relaying the threat.…

Japan is working with Jordan to free both a Japanese journalist and a Jordanian pilot being held by Islamist extremists, officials said Tuesday, days after terrorists executed another hostage, according to AFP.  The self-styled Islamic State group apparently beheaded Japanese contractor Haruna Yukawa last week after a 72-hour deadline for a $200 million ransom passed without payment.  In a video released Saturday,…

To mark Israeli Space Week, about 300 IAI employees posed in a way that spelled out “IAI” for what they called a “satellite selfie”: a photograph taken by the cameras mounted on the IAI’s EROS (Earth Resources Observation Satellite) B satellite. “We looked up exactly on the specific minute in which the satellite passed over…

Former minister Avi Dichter is appealing to the Supreme Court over the District Court’s decision to freeze the recount in Likud’s primaries – a decision that would place MK Tzipi Hotovely in the 20th spot on the party list, and bump Dichter down to the much less realistic 26th. Dichter said that in the course…

The ubiquitous social media site Facebook crashed Tuesday morning, just after 8:00 am IST.  Attempts to access the site result in a “page not found” or loading loop, or alternatively end with an error message stating, “we are working on it and will fix the problem as soon as possible.”  The site was down in the…

MK Zevulun Kalfa has announced his resignation from the Jewish Home Knesset list, in an act of protest at the decision by party head Naftali Bennett to place former soccer star Eli Ohana in its number 10 spot. Kalfa, who is a member of the National Union/Tekuma faction which recently merged with Jewish Home, announced…

Panos Kammenos, whose nationalist Independent Greeks party has entered into an unlikely coalition government with the radical left-wing Syriza, once walked the corridors of parliament wearing a T-shirt that read: “Greece is not for sale.” At first glance, the bombastic 49-year-old leader of the ANEL party and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras of Syriza may seem…

European Parliament President Martin Schulz of Germany took part in the fourth International “Let My People Live!” Forum against anti-Semitism this week, where he had harsh words for the recent rise of the racist hate in Europe. “Auschwitz is the darkest point in the history of mankind, and for sure the darkest point in the history of my nation,” said…

The Roundtable of Speakers of Parliament in the European Union expressed “grave concern” Tuesday about the rise in anti-Semitism witnessed in Europe. “We, the gathered here today in Prague for the 70th commemoration ceremony of the Holocaust,” said the group, “express our grave concern about the rise in verbal, digital and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism…

Turkey will host a ceremony to commemorate Holocaust victims in its capital for the first time in a sign of solidarity with the Jewish community, an official said. “The ceremony will take place in Ankara for the first time, with the presence of parliament speaker,” the official told AFP. Holocaust International Remembrance Day was first marked in Turkey…

Belgian security forces arrested three suspected Islamist terrorists in fresh counter-terror raids after foiling a major plot to attack police earlier this month, officials said Tuesday. The three arrests were made in the western town of Harelbeke, close to the French border, the Belga news agency reported, citing the prosecutor’s office in nearby Courtrai. Belgium has been on high alert…

Labor is maintaining a strong lead over Likud in elections polls Tuesday, after a Panels Politics poll for the Knesset Channel held on Monday night gave leaders Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni a two-seat lead.  Labor wins the top spot, according to this poll, with 25 seats, vs. Likud at just 23. Jewish Home has weakened slightly at…

President Reuven Rivlin began the second day of his trip to the United States with a visit to the West Point US Military Academy.  Rivlin was greeted by the Dean of the Academic Board, Brigadier General Timothy E. Trainor and was welcomed with a Guard of Honor as well as the playing of Hatikva and The…

Many Hungarians chose “bad instead of good” in helping deport Jews to Nazi death camps, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Monday in his first acknowledgement of his country’s complicity in the Holocaust. “We were without love and indifferent, when we should have helped, and very many Hungarians chose bad instead of good, the shameful instead of the honorable,” Orban said at…

A radical Muslim leader pleaded not guilty in a Bosnian court Monday to charges of inciting terrorism for having encouraged his followers to fight alongside terrorists in Syria and Iraq. The radical cleric, Husein Bosnic, was arrested last year and charged with urging followers to leave for Syria and Irak to fight with Islamic terrorists when he preached in several Bosnian…

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit party has released its list for the 20th Knesset Monday, ahead of the Thursday deadline for the March 17 elections.  The list is as follows: 1. Dr. Michael Ben-Ari 2. Civil rights attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir 3. Lehava chairman Bentzi Gopshtain 4. Baruch Marzel  Party sources say that the…

The weekly BeSheva newspaper, an Arutz Sheva-associated publication distributed free around the country, has become the third-largest weekly journal in Israel. So reports the TGI (Target Group Index) consumers-and-media analysis organization.  BeSheva, a religious-Zionist publication, jumped to 7.3% in the second half of 2014 – up from 4.8% in 2013. With this, it surpassed HaAretz, which reached only a 7%…

Egypt’s Emergency State Security Court on Monday overturned an earlier decision to list Hamas as a terrorist organization, the Ma’an news agency reported. The court ruled that determining whether or not Hamas is a terror group does not fall under its jurisdiction. The same court had decided in March 2014 to ban Hamas activities in…

Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid announced his party’s Knesset list Monday night – mere days before the deadline to do so.  “We have learned from our initial mistakes that if we really want to make a difference, we will have to put the knife between our teeth and fight,” Lapid began the press conference.  Lapid then…

The IDF has begun digging trenches along the border with Syria, Walla! News reports Monday night, amid fears of real escalation between Israel and Islamists in neighboring Syria and Lebanon.  The mechanical engineering company of the IDF’s Northern Command has employed tractors and borders to dig the trenches, a source told the news site, amid specific concerns…

Member of the Jewish Home party’s Central Committee gathered Monday evening to confirm the party’s unification with Tekuma and to present its official joint list for the 20th Knesset.  “First of all I want to send a complete recovery to our friend (and fellow party member) Uri Orbach,” Jewish Home’s Chairman Naftali Bennett said.  “Today…

The left is gaining ground, according to a Channel 2 poll released Monday night, with Labor three seats ahead of Likud.  Labor is projected to gain 26 seats in the 2015 elections, according to this poll, with Likud a distant second at 23.  Jewish Home is perennially in third place, though down several seats at just 15,…

A former CIA officer was convicted on Monday of leaking classified details of an operation to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions to a New York Times reporter. According to The Associated Press (AP), jurors convicted the agent, 47-year-old Jeffrey Sterling of all nine counts he faced in federal court. On the third day of deliberations, the…

Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett explained on Monday evening the reasoning behind his recruiting former soccer legend Eli Ohana to the party. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Bennett said that he reached out to Ohana in order to attract more voters, resulting in a stronger Jewish Home after the elections. “Tonight is a happy night for…

Argentina’s President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, announced on Monday night that she plans to disband Argentina’s intelligence agency, in the wake of the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman last week. Speaking in a televised address and quoted by the BBC, Kirchner said she would draft a bill to set up a new body to…

The United States Central Command confirmed on Monday night that Kurdish forces have pushed back the Islamic State (ISIS) group and now control 90 percent of the key Syrian town of Kobane. ISIS, which has overrun large areas of Syria and Iraq, had poured men and weapons into an offensive to secure Kobane, which is…

President Reuven Rivlin on Monday held a working meeting in New York with United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, upon whose invitation Rivlin will address the UN special session for International Holocaust Remembrance Day.  Rivlin thanked Ban for all he has done to promote Holocaust remembrance at the UN, saying, “I want to thank the…

Film director Steven Spielberg on Monday warned that Jews are again facing what he called the “perennial demons of intolerance”, from anti-Semites who are provoking hate crimes and trying to strip Holocaust survivors of their identity, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Spielberg’s warning was made in a speech to dozens of Auschwitz survivors the evening before…

The Jewish Home party surprised Israelis on Monday evening by announcing that former Israeli soccer superstar Eli Ohana had joined the party. Ohana, 50, played with the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team for many years and also with several European teams. He is currently the manager of the Israel national under-19 soccer team. He is expected…

The United States said Monday that the battle for control of the Syrian town of Kobane was continuing, despite claims by Kurdish leaders that their forces have recaptured the area from Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists. Kurdish forces, backed up by coalition air strikes, had made progress in recent fighting but “Kobane remains contested,” State Department…

It has become known as “Survivors’ Street” – a small road in Haifa where about 100 Holocaust survivors are living out their last days side-by-side, keeping alive memories and testimony of the Nazi genocide. The quiet and shady street was initially only the home of a social center that supplied meals to the elderly in this northern Israeli port…

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit party and MK Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu were in last minute talks Sunday night to form a joint list and ensure both parties don’t miss out in the coming elections, but apparently those talks have fallen through, and Otzma Yehudit says a person close to Yishai is responsible. According…

A week after the Chief Rabbi of Iran sharply blamed the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris for causing their deaths by “insulting” Mohammed, the founder of Islam, members of the Iranian Jewish community have revealed he made the statements “under the pressure of the authorities.” In the rare statement to Iranian media, Rabbi Mashallah…

Israel’s ambassador to the United States stressed on Sunday night that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Washington, where he will address Congress, is not meant to show disrespect towards President Barack Obama. Netanyahu’s acceptance of an invitation from House Speaker John Boehner to address Congress weeks before the election in Israel was met with a…

With elections just seven weeks away, Israel’s journalists are fully fledged participants in the contest between left and right, as a leading article in Monday morning’s Israel Hayom website shows. In the seven years since its first issue rolled off the press, Israel Hayom – the freebie newspaper that became Israel’s most widely read daily…

Leftist Israeli filmmakers are known for negatively portraying IDF soldiers, as recently exemplified by “5 Broken Cameras,” but a new documentary is seeking to push the envelope and go back in time to the 1967 Six Day War. The film, “Censored Voices,” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, reports the New York Times. It takes snippets from interviews conducted…

As Australian troops join US-led efforts to combat Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists, one of the country’s political figures has reportedly taken matters into his own hands and gone to the Middle East to fight them himself. Matthew Gardiner, a former trade unionist and ex-president of the Northern Territory branch of the opposition Labor Party, left Australia to join a Kurdish…

Several young Arab assailants armed with rubber straps, sticks and rocks entered the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa on Sunday, where they began beating passersby with the sticks and shouting “slaughter the Jew” in Arabic. According to one of the testimonies from the attack, at around 11 p.m. the Arab youths arrived at Michael Street in the…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been conducting a nearly four-year bloody crackdown on his own people, said US plans to train vetted rebels to fight Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists were “illusory” as they would eventually defect to the jihadists, in an interview published Monday. The Syrian leader also questioned talks to be held in Moscow this week, telling Foreign…

Members of a Muslim gang who carried out a terrifying anti-Semitic attack in England last summer have pleaded guilty to racially aggravated common assault, according to the UK’s Daily Mirror. Newcastle Crown Court heard how the four anti-Semitic attackers – Balawal Sultan (18), Kesa Malik (19), Hassnain Aliamin (18), and a 16-year-old minor who cannot be named for legal reasons – had traveled…

Reservists from the Intelligence Corps’ Unit 8200 who penned a letter protesting their IDF service during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza over the summer will be dishonorably discharged, the IDF stated Monday.  In September, the soldiers, who include a number of extremist leftist activists, complained that their service “harms innocents” in an open letter published across…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman met with his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow Monday. At the meeting, the two ministers discussed the continuing and strengthening of relations and cooperation between Israel and Russia. The pair also signed a memorandum of understanding between the two countries’ foreign ministries.  Liberman and Lavrov focused particularly on issues regarding the wider Middle East…

The saga over the Likud primaries continued Monday as MK Tzipi Hotovely won her appeal to the Tel Aviv District Court against the Likud Court’s decision to hold a recount.  Fully accepting the petition of Avi Dichter, who was originally placed in the 20th spot on the Likud Knesset list, before being relegated to the unrealistic 26th spot, the Likud court…

Ronen Moshe, the media adviser to Kulanu party chairman Moshe Kahlon, and the owner of the public relations firm Together, is suspected of bribery and fraud in aggravated circumstances, as part of the corruption case surrounding Yisrael Beytenu, Walla! News reports Monday. Moshe, who has been arrested for his alleged role in the case, will be kept under police custody…

Americans on the East Coast have been bracing themselves for a record snowstorm Monday, after the National Weather Service issued a blizzard warning for “historic” and “life-threatening” snowfall.  Up to 36 inches (3 ft.) of snow is predicted to fall in parts of New England over the next day, bridging multiple states, according to the latest…

New Saudi King Salman is expected to use President Barack Obama’s stopover on Tuesday to push for greater US involvement in resolving Middle East crises, analysts say. Obama, accompanied by his wife Michelle, is cutting short a visit to India to convey his condolences after the death of ailing King Abdullah last Friday.   Following…

Did Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog reveal classified information about the operation that killed an Iranian general and Hezbollah’s Jihad Mughniyeh, a week ago? Speaking at a conference in the Emek Israel College Sunday, Herzog spoke about diplomatic and security-related subjects and said, “I am telling you, today, every moment there is something. What do you…

Rabbi Mordechai Frizis, former chief rabbi of Salonika in Greece, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Monday to explain the results of the Mediterranean nation’s recent elections. “The results show a revolution in Greek politics. For the first time the leftist radical party Syriza won a majority with half of the seats in the parliament,” related Rabbi Frizis.…

Acquisitions by Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox and others have enriched hi-tech Israeli entrepreneurs less than four weeks into 2015, reported financial website Globes on Monday. Since the start of the year six acquisitions of Israeli start-up companies by by US companies have totaled $862 million. This compares to a total of $4.3 billion in acquisitions of…

Zalman Shoval, formerly Israel’s ambassador to the United States, told Arutz Sheva on Sunday that while the timing of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech before Congress is problematic, the problem can be solved using diplomacy. The speech has been received with an icy response from the White House and has also been criticized by…

For the first time in five years, Hamas has decided to allow “Zionist” products into Gaza, the local Ministry of Economy said Sunday. Imad al-Baz, assistant deputy of the ministry, said soft drinks, clothes, coffee, and other Israeli goods would be allowed into Gaza, reported the Ma’an news agency. “The last war led to the…

Egypt’s Prime Minister, Ibrahim Mahlab, on Sunday extended a curfew in parts of North Sinai by another three months, the website of the Al-Ahram newspaper reported. The curfew was initially imposed on October 25, following two deadly attacks in El-Arish, which killed dozens of soldiers and were claimed by Egypt’s deadliest terrorist group, Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis. Following the attack,…

The Central Committee of the Labor party convened in Tel Aviv on Sunday evening and overwhelmingly approved the joint Labor-Hatnua list, which is calling itself “the Zionist Camp”, for the upcoming elections. Speaking at the conference, Labor chairman Yitzhak Herzog declared, “We are the real Zionism. No one will teach us about Zionism.” “There is…

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Sunday accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of conspiring with the Al-Qaeda terrorist group. “It’s very clear. Because whenever we make advances in some place, they attack in order to undermine the army. It’s very clear,” Assad told the American Foreign Affairs magazine in excerpts of an interview that will…

A reporter from Argentina who fled the country after breaking the story that prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead shortly before he was about to make explosive allegations about President Cristina Kirchner, has landed in Israel, AFP reported Sunday night. “Now safe in Tel Aviv. Thanks everybody. We’ll talk soon,” the report, Damian Pachter, tweeted.…

New testimonies which emerged Sunday in the lawsuit of Manny Naftali, the former housekeeper of the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sarah, allege that the Prime Minister’s wife verbally abused her employees. The court has ruled that the trial itself will not start until after the March…

Official Palestinian Authority (PA) publications are repeatedly blaming Israel for the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris earlier this month, Palestinian Media Watch reports Sunday.  The daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida has featured multiple attacks on Israel for the shooting rampage, which sent shockwaves through the West after Al-Qaeda terrorists Said and Cherif Kouachi shot and killed 12 members of the satirical news magazine for…

Jewish Home and Tekuma, which ran on a joint list in the last elections, agreed to do so again in the upcoming elections, but there are rumors that Jewish Home may choose to scuttle the deal at the last minute. Jewish Home’s Central Committee will convene Monday to ratify the agreement, which reserves five of…

White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said on Sunday that the US relationship with Israel remains strong despite the tension around Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Washington, scheduled for early March. “I’m not going to get hyperbolic or emotional about this,” McDonough said on NBC‘s Meet The Press. “Our relationship with Israel…

Five civilians and two soldiers were killed and dozens wounded when rebels fired a barrage of rockets and mortar rounds Sunday at central Damascus, a monitoring group said. The rebel attack came two days after they threatened to retaliate for deadly air raids by the Syrian regime against an opposition-held area on the edge of…

Most Israelis would prefer Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to remain in his post during the 20th Knesset, according to a poll released Sunday, instead of other “security experts” touted by major parties for the post for the next government.  Ya’alon was favored by far by the respondents of the survey, conducted by TRI for Channel 10 news, with 35.7% of…

Charges were filed in the Samaria Military Court Sunday against the terrorists who carried out the terrorist attack last month near Ma’ale Shomron, wherein a firebombing severely burned 11 year-old Ayala Shapira. The charges attributed to the terrorists – a 16 year-old and a man named as Muhammad Budan – include terrorism and attempted murder.  According to…

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee says that “serious threats” being made to Arabs and Muslims, following the release of the film American Sniper. The film is based on a book about sniper Chris Kyle, a Navy Seal, who served four tours of duty in Iraq from 2003-09 and killed more than 160 people, making him the…

The United Nations Security Council on Sunday condemned the murder of a Japanese hostage by the Islamic State group and called for the immediate release of a second fellow national held captive. In a unanimous declaration, the 15 members of the security body spoke out against the Islamic State group’s “brutality” in its apparent beheading of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa. “The…

Even the Simpsons have joined the world in commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz on Sunday, after artist Alexander Palombo drew the famous cartoon family wearing striped concentration camp uniforms and yellow stars.  Palombo later drew a panel of a ‘Simpsony’ Anne Frank with a “Never Again” sign as well, as part of what he said…

In a series of articles about the “Efrat” organization, Arutz Sheva presents a number of personal stories and anecdotes relating the group’s life-saving activities. This week’s article centers on Yardena, a mother of three who unexpectedly became pregnant a mere four months after a difficult labor and delivery. “It came as a surprise,” Yardena recounted. “I received the news of all of my…

The leftist and anti-austerity Syriza party has won the elections in Greece, international media reported Sunday, taking some 35-38% of the final votes, according to exit polls.  The win signals a reversal for the Greek government, as the ruling New Democratic Party came in distant second with 26-28% of the vote, according to BBC.  In third is…

Merger talks between Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party and Otzma Yehudit under former MK Michael Ben Ari have reached an impasse, Arutz Sheva has learned. Two issues are the main stumbling blocks before an agreement that would enable the two small parties to join forces and increase their chances of passing the minimum threshold.…

At least 15 people are dead in Cairo, according to Reuters, following clashes Sunday between police and Islamist protesters, marking the fourth anniversary of the uprising that ousted then-President Hosni Mubarak. The AP said 13 more people were injured in clashes in the Matariyah area of the capital. Al-Ahram reported that police shot dead an armed…

The Islamic State group’s radio confirmed on Sunday that its terrorists have executed Japanese security contractor Haruna Yukawa, following the release of a video announcing the hostage’s death, according to AFP.  “The Islamic State has carried out its threat… it has executed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa after the expiry of the deadline given,” the Sunni extremist group said on Al-Bayan…

Eli Yishai’s Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party may be the biggest surprise of the 2015 Elections, sources stated to Arutz Sheva Sunday – not just due to the many possible joint lists it could forge with the Otzma Yehudit party or Tekuma faction, but possibly with a third party as well. Various reports have surfaced over the past several…

The official Argentine Jewish community is planning to boycott the country’s official Holocaust commemoration. The state ceremonies will be held on  Tuesday, International Holocaust Day – and the Jews of Argentina will hold their own separate memorial ceremony the same day. The Jews are protesting the suspicious death – and subsequent investigation thereof – of prosecutor Alberto…

The international community is failing in its duty to protect civilians affected by the conflict in Iraq and Syria, US actress Angelina Jolie said Sunday in northern Iraq. In her capacity as special envoy for the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), the Hollywood star visited Syrian refugees and displaced Iraqis near Dohuk, in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, according to AFP.  “I’m shocked…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has declared that the PA’s membership of the International Criminal Court (ICC) would be fully active by April, the Ma’an news agency reports. Abbas said the most important issues to bring to the ICC were “Israeli settlements and assaults.” The comments, which were made Friday, came during Abbas’s visit…

MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said on Saturday night that the Likud upper court’s ruling from Friday to recount all the votes in the party primaries was contrary to the decision of the head of the Likud’s Election Commission, Judge Menachem Ne’eman, and would unnecessarily hurt the party. “Judge Ne’eman and the Election Commission ruled that…

Israeli book chain Steimatzky has dropped plans for an in-store promotion for the latest edition of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, with a cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed, AFP reported on Saturday, citing local media. Kol Yisrael radio said the chain had intended to hold a promotional event in a branch in the Tel Aviv area but later decided…

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said that the “credibility” of a video announcing the execution of a Japanese hostage by the Islamic State (ISIS) is “high”, AFP reports. “We have been looking into its authenticity, but unfortunately at the moment we cannot help saying its credibility is high,” he said on the public network…

The Jewish community in New York is in shock following the death of the self-proclaimed “Facebuker Rebbe”, Rabbi Dovid Winiarz, who was killed this past week in a car accident on the way a Jewish convention in Baltimore. Family and friends will visit the cemetery on Sunday, as the seven-day mourning period, the shiva, for…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman called on party activists Sunday to buy “thousands” of copies of the controversial “Mohammed edition” of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine, which they will then distribute to Israelis on a mass basis. Liberman called for the mass purchase after bookseller Steimatzky decided to cancel an in-store event celebrating the sale of…

President Reuven Rivlin departed for New York on Saturday night, where he will address the United Nations Special Assembly to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday. As well, Rivlin will hold meetings with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, visit West Point USMA, lay a wreath at the 9/11 Memorial, address members of the African-American,…

A light aircraft crashed Sunday morning near the Superland amusement park in Rishon Lezion in central Israel.  The plane crashed into a shed at the airstrip and then caught on fire. Difficult visibility conditions, including heavy fog, were the cause of the accident. The two people aboard the plane were killed. Their bodies were trapped…

Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid and several of his party’s members took to the streets Sunday morning with a new campaign declaration.  Standing at the entrance to the Kirya (a major IDF base) in Tel Aviv, Lapid promised that raising the salaries of IDF soldiers would be one of his requirements post-elections and would be the basis…

MK Ibrahim Sarsur, head of the Ra’am Ta’al Arab party, warned Israeli shops against selling copies of the French Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine. “There are red lines that cannot be crossed,” said Sarsur, who stated in an interview on Channel Ten that while he was all for freedom of speech, there was some speech that could…

Many bus commuters throughout Israel will be forced to find other modes of transportation Monday, as the Egged bus cooperative goes on a full-fledged strike. The strike will last for just one day, but union representatives for drivers hope that will be enough time to prompt management to negotiate on their demands. The strike was originally…

The distraught father of a Japanese hostage believed executed by his terrorist Islamist captors told Sunday how his mind had gone “totally blank” when he heard the news of his son’s death. “I thought ‘Ah, this has finally happened’ and was filled with regret,” Shoichi Yukawa said hours after a video appeared online claiming that self-styled military contractor Haruna Yukawa has been…

United States President Barack Obama called Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday to offer his condolences and express his and the US’s solidarity against terrorism.  Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa is believed to have been executed by Islamic State terrorists, after a video surfaced online Saturday claiming as much.  Japan has stated that although they cannot yet…

Jerusalem city Councilman and Land of Israel activist Arieh King has been working to prevent the sale of the last Jewish-owned property in the area of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate to Arabs – so far, to no avail, he said. The property is owned by a Jewish family from France who seems intent on selling the property,…

The Anti-Semitism Report for 2014 will be presented Sunday during Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s weekly Cabinet meeting, Channel 2 News reported.  The Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Avraham Duvdevani and WZO’s Department for Countering Anti-Semitism, Yaakov Haguel, will present the report as well as a comprehensive questionnaire conducted among Diaspora Jews.  The report contains an overview of…

As yet another round of talks between Western countries and Iran on the latter country’s scaling back its uranium enrichment program wrapped up with no progress last week, Iran announced that it would seek to enrich uranium to even greater levels. Iranian parliamentarians said over the weekend they would draft a new law to upgrade…

MK Rina Frenkel (Yesh Atid) is retiring from politics, she announced in a mass email to party members Saturday night.  “After two years of work as a member of the Israeli Knesset, I have decided not to run for the 20th Knesset, but instead – at this stage of life – to work in executive…

Increasing numbers of young women are altering the profile of Australians joining the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria, Attorney-General George Brandis said Saturday, enticed by the “false glamor” of the organization. “At an earlier time, perhaps even six months ago, we were concerned almost entirely about young men,” Brandis said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “But…

US President Barack Obama strongly condemned Saturday the killing of a Japanese hostage by the Islamic State group, though the execution has not yet been independently confirmed. “The United States strongly condemns the brutal murder of Japanese citizen Haruna Yukawa by the terrorist group,” Obama said in a statement, referring to ISIS, as he flew to India for a visit. Japanese…

A Syrian refugee child has been beaten by a restaurant manager in the Turkish city Istanbul for eating a customer’s leftovers, local media reported on Saturday. A photo circulating on social media shows the 11-year-old boy sitting bloodied on stairs after having been beaten Wednesday by the manager of fast food chain Burger King’s outlet in the Sirinevler district. The reason for…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has requested that veteran journalist Caroline Glick be appointed to the #11 spot on the Likud list, Likud sources stated Saturday night.  Glick is a veteran journalist who founded the satirical television series Latma, is the deputy managing editor for the Jerusalem Post, and the senior fellow in a Washington-based think tank, the…

Herzl Biton, the bus driver who was seriously injured while fighting terrorist Hamza Mohammed Hassan Matrouk during a stabbing spree in Tel Aviv Wednesday, described his ordeal in an emotional Channel 10 interview Saturday night.  “I had no choice, I had to save the passengers,” Biton stated, from his hospital bed in Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital. “He stabbed…

US-led forces have carried out dozens of air strikes in Iraq to back up Kurdish forces advancing against Islamic State jihadists near the strategic city of Mosul, the American military said Saturday. Over the past 72 hours, US and coalition aircraft conducted 46 bombing raids in support of Kurdish peshmerga troops near Mosul and 80 hours of reconnaissance flights, the…

A colleague who says he gave a gun to an Argentine prosecutor found fatally shot earlier this week has been barred from leaving the country, justice officials in Buenos Aires said. Authorities said Diego Lagomarsino, a computer expert and colleague who said he brought prosecutor Alberto Nisman a handgun Saturday night at his request, has been barred from leaving Argentina. Nisman…

While Jewish Home officials have urged Yachad Ha’am Itanu’s Eli Yishai and Otzma Yehudit’s Michael Ben-Ari to unite, such a pact could actually harm a right-wing bloc, according to a new poll.  A survey from the Panels Politics institute for Otzma Yehudit published Saturday night projects seven seats for a technical bloc between the two…

Economics professor Manuel Trajtenberg has been appointed to the #11 spot on the Labor list, Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog announced Saturday night – despite earlier reports that former Military Intelligence (MI) chief Amos Yadlin had been slated for the reserved spot.  Herzog also explicitly stated that Trajtenberg is the party’s choice for Finance Minister, according…

A knife-wielding 18-year-old Arab from the Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya was caught and arrested in the vicinity of the President’s Residence in the capital on Friday night. The incident took place when one of the president’s security guards, who was on a routine security patrol, noticed the young man. The guard called a police officer…

Miss Lebanon can breathe a sigh of relief: Despite the fact that a photograph of her alongside with Miss Israel appeared on the internet, she will not be stripped of her title or punished. “According to the information we obtained, Miss Lebanon [Saly Greige] did not have bad intentions that necessitates her being stripped of…

Nationalist journalist Erel Segal on Friday informed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he would not run for the Knesset with the Likud. Segal’s announcement came a day after reports surfaced that Netanyahu was considering placing the 45-year-old journalist in one of the spots on the Likud Knesset list that are reserved for a candidate of…

The unending saga surrounding the Likud primaries continued on Friday, as the Likud court ordered a recount of all the ballots in the primaries. The court’s ruling came despite the opposition by MK Tzipi Hotovely, who was named the candidate in the #20 spot on the Likud’s Knesset list earlier this week. The ruling fully accepts the…

The Arab parties of Balad, Hadash and United Arab List, which decided to run on a joint list on Thursday, introduced the new union on Friday and declared their goal: to rid the Knesset of “the extreme right”, as they put it. Members of the new united party gathered for a press conference in which…

At least as many anti-Muslim acts have taken place in France since the terror attacks this month as for all of last year, a leading Muslim group reported Friday, according to The Associated Press (AP). The French Council for the Muslim Religion said 128 anti-Muslim actions or threats were reported from January 7-20, a number…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) assessed the Northern Command headquarters in Tzfat (Safed) on Friday, in a special meeting attended by the GOC Aviv Kochavi, Chief of Operations Gen. Yoav Har-Even and other senior IDF officials.  During the assessment, Ya’alon examined whether the Northern Command is sufficiently prepared for the possibility of an attack from Israel’s northern neighbors,…

Islamic State (ISIS) recruiting is not just a problem of the West, revealed Chinese vice-minister of Public Safety Ministry Meng Hongwei, as he spoke with Malaysia’s Minister of Home Affairs Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and revealed 300 Chinese have left to join the terrorist group. Meng, whose ministry is tasked with managing the country’s police force, told Hamidi…

Koby Kahlon, the brother of Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon and deputy mayor of Jerusalem, has denied serious allegations leveled against him of fraud and breach of trust Friday, claiming it is a political tactic.  “I say that this is a political move, and the case will be closed – on the police’s recommendation,” Kahlon stated.…

Despite repeated calls to run on a joint list so as to ensure both ideological religious nationalist parties can pass the recently raised threshold, Yachad – Ha’am Itanu chair Eli Yishai has apparently refused to run with Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit. Yishai met this Wednesday with Kiryat Arba and Hevron chief rabbi, Rabbi Dov…

Tutankhamun may be an ancient mummy, but he received a modern facelift, employees of Cairo’s Egyptian Museum stated Friday – after his burial mask’s beard fell off, and then was hastily glued back together.  It is unclear what caused the mishap, the museum’s conservators told BBC, as well as whether the beard was removed intentionally or…

Rabbi Aryeh Stern, who was elected Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem last October, took a visit to the OU Israel Center in the capital on Tuesday to learn about its activities. The rabbi, a student of the famous religious Zionist leader Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook zt”l, was a chief editor of the Halacha Brura and Berur Halacha…

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party may be turning to the national religious public for support, the party’s Education Minister Rabbi Shai Piron indicated Friday – days after the party established a branch for its religious voters.  “There are many religious people who feel that the haredi national religious are taking over the national religious dialogue, and feel left…

The Islamic State (ISIS) branch in “Bayt al-Maqdis,” an Arabization of the Hebrew Holy Temple and a term for Jerusalem, has started distributing publications explaining ISIS’s platform, in a campaign to expand its influence in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. On the opening page of the publication by ISIS in “Palestine” is written “this is our position,…

The mother of one of the Japanese captives being held by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists Friday urged the Tokyo government to pay the jihadists’ $200 million ransom, and pleaded that her son’s life be spared. As the terrorists’ deadline passed, there was no news from the prime minister’s office on the fate of Kenji Goto, a freelance journalist, or Haruna Yukawa, the self-employed…

Leftist sources in Israel have decried Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s acceptance of an invitation extended by the US Congress and changing the date to two weeks before March 17 elections; likewise US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry refused to meet Netanyahu, claiming a policy of not meeting foreign leaders close to elections. However, just 19 years…

Otzma Yehudit chair Dr. Michael Ben-Ari explained Friday what has been keeping his party from a joint list with Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu, a move called for by many given the likelihood indicated in polls that both parties may not pass the recently raised threshold running separately. “Eli Yishai refuses to meet with…

Israel’s former president Shimon Peres Friday said the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah was “a real loss for the peace ofthe Middle East.”  “He was an experienced leader and a wise king. He had the courage … to stand up and introduce a peace program for the Middle East,” said Peres, referring to the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. “I’m not sure…

The Belgian authorities are looking for a possible accomplice to Mehdi Nemmouche, who has been charged with murdering four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels last year, the prosecutor’s office said Friday. The prosecutor’s office said “we are looking for this person,” who has not been identified, when asked to confirm a report in La Derniere Heure daily. Responding…

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) dispersed rumors of a joint list with Likud on Friday, maintaining that the two parties will not be uniting for the 20th Knesset.  “I do not see such a union, we are very different parties,” Bennett claimed to Israel Radio. “Jewish Home is actually the only party opposed to a Palestinian…

Hank Sheinkopf, former adviser to ex-US President Bill Clinton during his election campaign from 1995 to 1996, spoke with Arutz Sheva about the complicated political relations between Israeli and American leaders. Speaking about the tense relations between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama, Sheinkopf remarked that how the world feels about Netanyahu is not important…

The Arab parties of Balad, Hadash and United Arab List, which split earlier on Thursday when MK Ahmed Tibi broke off to form his own one-man party, decided on Thursday night to unite their parties on a joint list. The decision could see their joint list come in as the fourth largest party in the…

President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi of Yemen resigned Thursday, according to government sources cited by the Associated Press. Immediately prior to this, Prime Minister Khaled Bahah offered his government’s resignation to Hadi, saying he did not want to be dragged into “an unconstructive political maze,” a reference to the ongoing fighting between Hadi and Iranian backed Houthi…

A senior Israeli official delivered an uncommonly harsh attack on US President Barack Obama’s administration Thursday evening, following the American report that alleged that Mossad Head Tamir Pardo had warned US senators against further Iran sanctions, in contradiction of Israel’s official stance. “The fraudulent claims against the Mossad Head were raised by the Americans yesterday,…

Almost half a year since Gilad Sha’ar (16), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Eyal Yifrah (19) hy”d were brutally abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists, top Israeli musicians along with the families of the murdered have released a powerful new song dedicated to their memories. Arutz Sheva was on hand to witness the moving scenes as famous…

A Polish university on Thursday restored doctorate degrees to 262 people, most of them Jewish, decades after genocidal Nazi Germany annulled them in the run-up to World War II. Descendants of the wronged men and women – many of them doctors and scientists who went on to have brilliant academic careers in Britain, France and the United States – attended a…

Yet another poll has been released in the run up to the March 17 elections, this time showing Likud getting a clear upper hand on the Labor Hatnua joint list that it has been running neck and neck with for top spot. According to the TNS Telecaster poll published Thursday night by Channel 1, Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud would…

A group of top European diplomats on Thursday spoke out against imposing new sanctions on Iran at this time, calling for talks between Western powers and the Islamic Republic to be given an opportunity to succeed. The call came in an opinion peace in The Washington Post authored by the following diplomats: French Foreign Minister…

The Jerusalem district attorney on Wednesday submitted an indictment at the local magistrates court against Muslim preacher Omar Abu Saara, who called to “slaughter” Jews in a speech on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Abu Saara is a 49-year-old living in eastern Jerusalem, and last November 28 he said in a speech…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is considering placing nationalist journalist Erel Segal, 45, on Likud’s Knesset list. Netanyahu is allowed to place candidates of his choosing in the 11th and 23rd spots in the Likud Knesset list. Segal hosts a television news talk show, Erev Hadash, on Channel 1, and a radio show on Israel Radio.…

While Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) has tried to allay fears claiming digging sounds residents on the northern border have been hearing for years are not Hezbollah constructing terror tunnels, a new video records what clearly appears to be the sound of underground digging. When asked about the noises earlier this month, Ya’alon claimed “no tunnels…

Arabs in a stolen Toyota vehicle attempted to run over IDF soldiers at Tapuach Junction in northern Samaria on Thursday evening. The Arabs approached from the direction of Hawara, driving wildly and bypassing the cars that were waiting in line. Their vehicle stopped at the checkpoint, but as policemen and Border Patrol officers approached the vehicle…

Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House Democrats, said on Thursday that Republican Speaker John Boehner’s invitation for Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address Congress was “inappropriate”. Pelosi, a Democrat from California, cited the upcoming Israeli elections, as well as the ongoing nuclear talks between Iran and the West. “If that’s the purpose of…

Experts on the negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear capabilities have taken issue with two main points made by U.S. President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address this week. “Our diplomacy is at work with respect to Iran,” Obama said, “where, for the first time in a decade, we’ve halted the progress…

Iraq on Thursday called on the international community to provide more weapons to help it push back the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, amid growing fears the jihadists are planning to bring their fight to the streets of Europe. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, speaking in London at a meeting of the international coalition against…

US Secretary of State John Kerry claimed Thursday that six months of airstrikes led by his country had stopped the advance of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS), even as his British counterpart warned that it would take years to crush the self-declared caliphate. The air strikes “have definitively put Da’esh on the defensive,” Kerry said, using…

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz died overnight Thursday in hospital, state TV reported. Before the announcement, reported the BBC, Saudi television cut to Koranic verses, which often signifies the death of a senior royal. King Abdullah, who was said to be aged about 90, had been in hospital for several weeks suffering from a lung…

Teachers who have stuck with what many call the world’s hardest profession are to be recognized for their efforts by the Economy Ministry. On Wednesday, the Ministry announced it was going through with a plan to provide “experience bonuses” to teachers who have been working for 25 years. The bonus plan was proposed by MK Yoel…

A panicked Zehava Gal-On said Thursday that contrary to the impression many on the right have, the media is “not on our side.” Speaking on Israel Radio, Gal-On said that her Meretz party was not getting fair treatment from the media – because of its desire to “dump” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. That desire, the Meretz Chairwoman said,…

The hashtag #JeSuisCouteau which means “I am knife” has begun trending on Twitter as users flock to social media to heap praise on the Palestinian terrorist who stabbed 11 Israelis on a bus in Tel Aviv Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported.  The latest hashtag is an attempt to re-appropriate #JeSuisCharlie (I am Charlie) which swept the world after the massacre…

Malaysian authorities have removed detainees suspected of supporting the Islamic State terrorist organization from the general jail population after some were found preaching the extremist ISIS ideology to fellow inmates, the home minister said Thursday. “They have been found to influence other criminals in joining the ideology,” Zahid Hamidi told reporters, saying the ISIS suspects were being housed in dedicated cell blocks. “These…

Anti-Semitic graffiti along with the chilling order, “Leave Canada” were found spray-painted on a synagogue in West Edmonton, the capital of Alberta province in Canada.  The graffiti was located on the side wall of Temple Beth Israel in the Oleskiw neighborhood of West Edmonton, causing shock and anxiety to worshippers who noticed it as they walked into…

Muhammad Deif, leader of Hamas’s military wing, published a letter Thursday morning sending his condolences to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah.  The Al-Qassam Brigades chief commander has not been seen publicly since Operation Protective Edge last summer, in which he was reported to have been killed.  In the letter published on the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar website, Deif sends…

Herzl Biton, the driver of the number 40 bus that was attacked by a Palestinian terrorist Wednesday, is conscious after having been in a coma for just over a day. However, officials at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv noted, Biton’s life is still in danger, and he remains connected to a respirator. Biton was stabbed three…

It costs thousands of euros for a false passport and place on a boat to Turkey, but Syrian refugees stranded in Cyprus are ready to try anything. After already paying thousands last year to take a boat from Syria that was abandoned by smugglers at sea, many of the 345 refugees who were rescued and bought to Cyprus are…

Mossad Head Tamir Pardo denied on Thursday the report – which was carried by Bloomberg news – claiming that the Mossad disagrees with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu about the need to press new sanctions on Iran. The report said that Mossad officials advised US senators who were visiting Israel recently to hold off on further…

Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu is inclined to give up on the possibility of forming a joint list with the Jewish Home party.  Channel 10 News reported that a recent legal examination into the requirements of such a unity deal found that the process would not be applicable at this time.  As Labor-Hatnua has begun…

It has been revealed that Arab sports journalist Zuhair Bahloul, number 17 on the joint Labor Hatnua Knesset list, provided testimony on behalf of the family of an Arab citizen of Israel from the Galilee convicted of terrorism in a 2012 trial.  Although Bahloul did not praise the terror acts of Milad Khatib, he did not condemn…

MK Yoni Chetboun, who left Jewish Home to run with Eli Yishai’s new Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party, responded disparagingly to Jewish Home minister and Tekuma faction head Uri Ariel’s call for Yishai’s party to run with former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit. Ariel said Thursday “Yishai must pass the threshold, because if not…

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner said Thursday that the prosecutor who investigated a 1994 bombing of a Jewish center did not commit suicide – and claimed he was murdered in order to implicate her in a cover up of Iran’s involvement in the deadly attack,. “I’m convinced that it was not suicide,” Kirchner said in a stunning post on…

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah will be giving a rare public address next week to react to an Israeli air raid that killed six of his fighters in Syria, including two senior commanders, Hezbollah said Thursday. Nasrallah, who rarely appears in public for fear of assassination by Israel, “will speak on Friday, January 30 to commemorate the martyrs of Quneitra”, the…

The State Attorney’s Office told the High Court last week that it no longer opposes allowing Israelis to officially change their sex, even without undergoing an operation. The announcement was made in response to a motion filed by three women who were originally men, and The Aguda – The Israeli National LGBT Task Force. They demanded…

The new female haredi party B’Zhutan has already been threatened with excommunication and other forms of backlash by members of the haredi community, to the point that Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber has decided to get involved. Zilber on Thursday sent a letter to the Central Elections Committee chairperson, judge Salim Joubran, responding to the…

MK Shimon Solomon is retiring from the nitty-gritty aspects of politics, he stated in a letter he sent to members of his Yesh Atid party on Thursday, and will not be running in the 20th Knesset. “At the end of two years of work as a member of the Israeli Knesset, I decided not to run for…

Syria’s regime-tolerated domestic opposition and members of the main exiled group demanding the president’s ouster met Thursday in Cairo to discuss Moscow’s invitation to host talks with the Damascus government. The exiled National Coalition and top opposition figure Moaz al-Khatib have already announced they will not attend the talks aimed at finding a political solution…

Despite the White House’s cold response to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli leader is welcome to give a speech at “any time” in the United States, top US diplomat John Kerry said Wednesday. But he agreed it had been a “little unusual” to hear about the Israeli leader’s address to the US Congress next month from the office of…

Argentine investigators probing the death of special prosecutor Alberto Nisman have found a footprint and a fingerprint in a recently discovered access hallway to Nisman’s apartment, according to local media. The hallway that links Nisman’s apartment to another unit that belongs to a “foreign man” – who may be an Iranian. According to the Buenos…

Yael Kliger, a resident of Betar Illit and an activist for dialogue between different sectors in Israel, has sent a letter to the Attorney General asking him to open an investigation against comedian Orna Banai and Channel 2 television, on suspicion of incitement to racism and violence. Kliger’s complaint follows Thursday evening’s broadcast of comedy…

What do a rabbi, an archbishop, a top Islamic academic and former British prime minister Tony Blair have in common? Quite a lot, it turned out, at an unusual panel on religion at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday, where they found shared ground on extremism, violence and freedom of expression in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings…

MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the White House’s cold shoulder towards him Wednesday, after it stated that Netanyahu’s invitation to speak to Congress was a breach of protocol.  “Bibi [Netanyahu’s nickname – ed.] call for surveys, and in his usual fashion he reacts hysterically and ran to organize to get…

Following an appeal filed by Honenu, an NPO that fights for the rights of Jewish nationalist suspects, police released two members of Itamar’s security team Wednesday evening, two days after they were arrested. Honenu lawyer Adi Kedar filed an appeal against the incarceration of the two men, after witnesses failed to identify them in a…

The students of Yeshiva University  will hold their annual Seforim Sale, NorthAmerica’s largest Jewish book sale, from Feb. 1 to Mar. 1, 2015, in Belfer Hall, 2495 Amsterdam Ave on YU’s Wilf Campus in Manhattan. The sale is operated entirely by YU students—from ordering to setting up the premises, marketing and all the technology the project entails.…

Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) and his staff have implemented a new program to rebuild and expand Gaza Belt region communities Wednesday, to the tune of some 134.5 million shekel ($34.2 million).  The expansion program is designed to help more families slowly settle the region, which was hit hardest by Operation Protective…

The White House gave an icy response to news that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was invited to address Congress next month, saying it was a departure from diplomatic protocol, according to AFP.  “We haven’t heard from the Israelis directly about the trip at all,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said. “The typical protocol would suggest that the leader of…

Minister of Public Security, Yitzhak Aharonovich, held a special situation assessment meeting at the Rahat police station Wednesday, following a week of rioting in the southern Bedouin town that has left one man and over 20 injured. “We must not exercise restraint in response to the events in which police were attacked,” he said. “We…

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, on Wednesday called on the Security Council to condemn the terrorist attack on a bus in Tel Aviv, in which some 20 people were wounded. In a letter to the members of the Council, Prosor pointed out the incitement by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas, and…

The American political website Politico on Wednesday shed some light on the invitation extended to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address the United States Congress. According to the report, House Speaker John Boehner, who made the announcement about inviting Netanyahu, did not consult with the White House or the State Department over the invitation. Instead,…

Mohammad Reza Rahimi, Iran’s first vice president under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been sentenced to five years in prison and fined, AFP reported Wednesday. Appointed by Ahmadinejad after a controversial election win in 2009, Rahimi is the most senior official from that era to have been convicted. The Supreme Court’s verdict came after a…

Turkey’s Prime Minister said on Wednesday that his country’s ties with Israel can be restored if Israel “stops killing children”. Speaking to a reporter from Kol Yisrael radio on the sidelines of the Economic Forum in Davos, Ahmet Davutoglu also conditioned the improvement of relations between his country and Israel on the Jewish state accepting…

Argentina’s Jewish community called for “truth and justice” Wednesday, convening a demonstration at the site of a 1994 bombing in the wake of the suspicious death of the prosecutor investigating the attack, according to AFP. Alberto Nisman was found dead of a gunshot to the head in his home Sunday, the day before he was…

MK Shuli Mualem (Jewish Home) said on Wednesday evening that the terrorist attack in Tel Aviv was a wake-up call to people who still think peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA) is possible. “The attack today is another wake-up call for the peace camp to arise from its disillusionment,” said Mualem, who spoke at a…

Even after MK Tzipi Hotovely was named as the candidate in the #20 spot on the Likud’s Knesset list, the saga continued on Tuesday. Hotovely replaced Avi Dichter, originally slated for the #20 spot, and who was bumped to a less-realistic 26th place. Dichter filed an appeal within the Likud court, but the court failed…

In his annual State of the Union address on Tuesday night, President Barack Obama spoke about the “deplorable anti-Semitism” in the world. The speech dealt mostly with economy-related issues, but Obama also said in it that “As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened, which is why I’ve prohibited torture, and worked to…

A Rome court on Tuesday convicted six men of spreading pro-fascist and anti-Semitic ideas with banners, posters and graffiti in the Italian capital, according to The Associated Press (AP). A 1993 law forbids use of slogans, gestures and actions evoking Nazi and fascist ideologies or inciting racial hatred. Sentences for the convictions ranged from one…

Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch is calling for “lone wolf attacks” against the United States and the West in a new video, days after claiming responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo killings, the Australian Associated Press (AAP) reported Tuesday. One of the group’s ideologues, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, urged supporters to conduct what he called “individual jihad,” according…

Iran is honoring its commitment not to expand atomic activities that could be used to make weapons while it negotiates with six world powers on a lasting nuclear deal, according to a new confidential UN report released Tuesday and seen by The Associated Press (AP). According to the report, the monthly update by the International…

Former head of Military Intelligence, Res. Gen. Amos Yadlin, who joined the Labor party on Monday, may condition his remaining an MK on being appointed Defense Minister, Channel 1 News reported on Tuesday. According to the report, Yadlin has a written promise from Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni, who head the joint Labor-Hatnua list known…

Diplomats must take a fresh look at the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the hopes of reviving the negotiations after March elections in Israel, the EU’s foreign policy chief said Tuesday, according to AFP. “What I’m afraid of is that on one side the lack of process is in itself something that is deteriorating the…

Greece will extradite to Belgium an Algerian man with suspected links to a jihadist cell dismantled by Belgian security forces last week, a justice source said Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency. The 33-year-old suspect, who has said he is willing to be sent to Belgium because he wants to prove his innocence, was…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has responded to the attack on a bus in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning, in which an Arab terrorist stabbed at least 12 people, seriously wounding three and moderately wounding four others, with an additional five lightly wounded. “The attack is a direct result of the toxic incitement spread by the Palestinian Authority…

The United Nations (UN) Security Council on Tuesday condemned an attack by Houthi rebels on Yemen’s presidential palace and voiced strong support for President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi. In a statement adopted by the 15 members and quoted by AFP, the council said Hadi “is the legitimate authority” and that “all parties and political actors in…

The Gaza-based terrorist organization Hamas praised Wednesday’s stabbing attack in Tel Aviv, calling it a “worthy response” for the “suffering” Israel has imposed on Arab residents living under the Palestinian Authority (PA). In posts on social media, Azat al-Rishak, a top Hamas terrorist in Gaza, said that the stabbings were “the response to the crimes…

Herzl Biton, the driver of the number 40 bus that came under terrorist attack in Tel Aviv Wednesday, called his superior at the Dan bus company moments after he was stabbed and asked him to take care of his children if he dies. Biton is apparently very seriously wounded. Kazis Matzliah, Head of Traffic Department…

A joint list of Likud and Jewish Home would win 37 seats, a TNS poll for Walla! News conducted Tuesday determined.  The survey, which used a representative sample of 500 respondents aged 18 and over, featured two scenarios: the first if Jewish Home and Likud were to run together for March elections for the 20th Knesset, and the second…

A terrorist stabbing attack took place Wednesday morning on a bus in central Tel Aviv, on Begin Road, near Beit Maariv. The terrorist in an Arab man, reportedly from Samaria. Videos taken a few minutes after the attack show wounded civilians receiving first aid from emergency teams.   Another video shows the wounded terrorist after his arrest.…

Seventy years after surviving a Nazi death camp and losing several close family members to the gas chambers in German-occupied Poland, 82-year-old Ernst Grube of Munich argues relatives should be allowed to choose their own way of remembering Holocaust victims. Munich leveled an official ban more than a decade ago on what has become the most personal and popular Holocaust memorial…

A missing South Korean teenager suspected of joining Islamic State (ISIS) had a Twitter account, “Sunni Mujahideen (jihadist),” on which he tweeted his desire to enlist with the terrorist group, police said Wednesday. The 18-year-old middle school dropout, identified only by his surname Kim, went missing in Turkey earlier this month, and there is speculation that he crossed into Syria. “Many materials suggest…

French and European officials will unveil the details of counter-terror measures Wednesday to deal with threats of new Islamist attacks and strengthen cooperation in the wake of the recent lethal shootings in Paris. In the French capital, on high alert since jihadist attacks left 17 dead two weeks ago, Prime Minister Manuel Valls will outline promised measures to boost security forces. The…

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu will be running on separate lists for the 2015 elections, they declared jointly Wednesday.  Lapid originally approached Kahlon over a possible joint list, after polls indicated that a combination of the two parties would gain a significant increase in votes for both.  Both parties are running on…

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been invited to address a joint meeting of the US Congress next month to discuss security issues including violent extremism, House Speaker John Boehner announced Wednesday. “In this time of challenge, I am asking the prime minister to address Congress on the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of…

Iran’s Chief Rabbi has blamed the Charlie Hebdo attack on the magazine’s publishers themselves, Iranian media reported Tuesday night, saying that the attack was only a matter of time after the weekly published cartoons of the founder of Islam Mohammed.  In a rare statement Iranian media attributed to Rabbi Mashallah Golestan Ahmadinejad, the Iranian Jewish leader said that in his…

While the political battles rages on in the national struggle between the Jews and Arabs of Israel, another battle goes on behind the scenes, away from the public’s eye. For years, archaeology has been playing an increasingly crucial role in the battle of two opposing national narratives, however, while Israeli archaeologists and the Israel Antiquities…

The overwhelming majority of Israelis support equal representation of women in the Knesset, according to a Channel 2 poll released Wednesday – including a sizable portion of the haredi community.  76.3% of Israelis overall say that women and men must have equal representation, according to the poll, conducted by the GeoCartography Institute for WePower. Just 7.7% are…

Hamza Matrouk, the terrorist who stabbed passengers on a Tel Aviv bus Wednesday morning, learned his craft from the Internet, he told interrogators. Matrouk, who was shot in the leg and arrested as he tried to escape after stabbing and injuring a dozen people on a Dan company bus in Tel Aviv early Wednesday, was apparently…

The EU faces a “huge challenge” to reassure Jews about their future in Europe after Islamist attacks in Paris, a top official said Wednesday as it discussed fresh counter-terror measures. European Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said the 28-nation bloc was determined to respond in keeping with its core values of tolerance and inclusion,…

Hezbollah’s official media outlet has claimed that Saudi Arabia helped Israel to eliminate a delegation of Hezbollah terrorists and Iranian soldiers on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights Monday. The comments came during a report on the Al Manar TV channel about the Israel Air Force’s elimination of Jihad Mughniyeh and Iranian field commander, General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, earlier this…

Russia on Wednesday responded disparagingly to US President Barack Obama’s annual State of the Union address, claiming it showed that the United States wanted to dominate world affairs. “Americans have set a course for confrontation,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters. “Obama’s address yesterday shows that there’s just one thing at the heart of (their) philosophy: ‘We are number one’…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comical campaign video, in which he portrays his political opponents as unruly kindergarten children, was shot down on Tuesday by judge Salim Joubran, chairperson of the Central Elections Committee. Joubran accepted the petitions submitted by the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG) and Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party. MQG and Yesh…

A British jihadist identified by police as a “trained terrorist” who is believed to have faked his own death while fighting in Syria in an attempt to return home undetected, has admitted terror charges. Imran Khawaja, 27, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism, attending a training camp and possessing firearms in a hearing last year,…

The former head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency has said that he “agrees with the Pope” that people should avoid drawing pictures of Mohammed, and that if they do they can expect to provoke a terror attack. Speaking for the first time since stepping down as head of MI6, Sir John Sawers told an audience in…

The IDF has closed the old road between the towns of Avivim and Dovev in the northern Galilee, due to their close proximity to the border with Lebanon, in the latest sign of rising tensions in northern Israel. Likewise the road between the moshav Zar’it and the Lebanese border was closed as well. IDF forces have been on…

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s historic three-day visit to Israel was ended hurriedly on Tuesday due to an Islamic State (ISIS) hostage crisis involving two Japanese nationals, but his visit highlights the meteoric developments in the Israeli-Japanese alliance that has been blossoming since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Japan last May. Just how have Israel and Japan…

Syrian government air strikes on Tuesday killed at least 39 people, more than half of them civilians, in two main battlegrounds in the north of the country, a monitor said. “The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the deaths of at least 27 people… in air strikes targeting the outskirts of Tal Hamis,” said…

France arrested five Russians Tuesday accused of plotting a new attack as four men suspected of helping the gunmen behind the Paris shootings were brought before anti-terrorist judge. European nations, on high alert after the attacks that shook France to its core, have launched a wave of raids targeting suspected jihadist cells. French prosecutors said…

The United States on Tuesday demanded the “immediate release” of two Japanese hostages threatened with beheading by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists. “The United States strongly condemns ISIL’s threat to murder Japanese citizens,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, referring to ISIS by an alternate acronym. “We call for the immediate release of these civilians and all other hostages. The United States is…

Facebook allows people to connect from all corners of the globe, but that convenience also enabled an Indian jihadist who was arrested late last year to recruit a willing US-based jihadist and help him plan terrorist attacks on American soil. Anis Ansari was arrested last October for planning to conduct an attack on the American School…

A trip to Israel organized for Muslim-American leaders by a North Carolina imam has led to strident protests and even boycotts by dozens of pro-Palestinian groups.  The Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI) was launched in the summer of 2013 under the initiative of Imam Abdullah Antepli of Duke University and Yossi Klein Halevi of the Hartman Institute of…

Two flights were delayed and their passengers temporarily evacuated at New York’s JFK airport Tuesday, after a bomb threat was received. An anonymous caller reported a pipe bomb was aboard Flight 468 to an operator at Delta Airlines headquarters, law enforcement officials told NBC. Passengers were deboarded from two flights, because both shared the number…

Leaders of Israel’s 1.7 million Arabs declared a general strike throughout the country on Tuesday in protest at the recent deaths of two Bedouin men in confrontations with police, AFP reports.  Former United Arab List (UAL) MK Taleb al-Sana, chairman of an umbrella organization of Arab Israeli groups, said that schools and businesses wouldclose from the Galilee in the north to the…

Thousands of angry Argentinians took to the streets in Buenos Aires to protest Tuesday after prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his apartment Sunday morning. Nisman was about to reveal damning information regarding collusion between the Argentine government and Iran in covering up Iran’s role in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center…