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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has made its first investment in an Israeli company by funding start-up Visualead, a provider of QR code technology, the companies said in a statement Tuesday. QR, or quick response, codes are a type of barcode. Alibaba and Visualead have also entered into a strategic cooperation agreement, the statement said, but gave no figure for…

The Japanese government said Tuesday it will not give in to “terrorism” after a video emerged in which Islamic State (ISIS) threatened to kill two Japanese men unless a $200 million ransom was paid, according to AFP. “Our country’s stance – contributing to the fight against terrorism without giving in – remains unchanged,” chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told a news…

Judea and Samaria district police on Tuesday arrested two residents of the town of Itamar in Samaria who are members of the town’s security team, on suspicion that they were involved in defending residents against an Arab riot in which rioters were supposedly wounded. The event took place two-and-a-half weeks ago on Shabbat, with the Arab rioters claiming they were…

Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid’s stance on legalizing marijuana is malleable, he revealed Monday – dependent on how the legalization process works in other countries.  Lapid has previously taken a tough stance against soft drugs, and was adamant against the process during the last campaign.  However, when asked about the issue by an audience member…

Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman could not have committed suicide, a colleague of his insisted Tuesday morning – and was probably murdered by terrorists ahead of a probe into the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) .  “The local press is presenting this as murder,” Professor Arie Kacowicz, an expert on South American Affairs at Hebrew University of Jerusalem,…

The Islamic State (ISIS) group threatened to kill two Japanese hostages unless Tokyo pays a $200 million ransom within 72 hours, ina video posted on jihadist websites on Tuesday. In the video, a black-clad terrorist brandishing a knife addresses the camera in British English standing between two hostages wearing orange jumpsuits. “You now have 72 hours to pressure your…

The Jewish Home list for the 2015 elections will remain the same, the party announced Tuesday, despite a last-minute overnight recount of the primaries votes.  Two candidates, Professor Asher Cohen and Shimon Riklin, swapped places far down the list – some thirty spots down – but the change is so minor that it does not affect…

An Iranian general and a senior Hezbollah commander killed in yesterday’s airstrike in the Syrian Golan Heights were not actually the intended targets, a senior Israeli military source told Reuters Tuesday. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as Israel has not officially claimed responsibility for the airstrike, said the Israeli Air Force was targeting what…

The Iran-backed Shi’ite terrorist organization in Yemen, the Houthis, have besieged the presidential palace in the capital city of Sana’a where they have grabbed de facto control in recent months, and even opened cannon fire on the palace to force their demands to be met. The Houthis are threatening President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, demanding that he…

Up to four thousand people from Muslim former Soviet Central Asian countries are believed to have joined Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, a report published on Tuesday said. Often driven by poverty, some “2,000 to 4,000 have in the past three years turned their back on their secular states to seek a radical alternative,” the International Crisis…

The latest Panels Politics polls carried out on behalf of the Knesset Channel reveals no significant changes in the standing of the parties running for the 20th Knesset – but suggests a dramatic victory for the Right were the two largest nationalist parties to run on a joint list. As in the last poll, the first of…

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to stand firm Tuesday after the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group threatened to kill two Japanese nationals, saying the ISIS threats would not intimidate him to freeze a multi-million dollar aid package. His remarks were made several hours after the jihadist group released a video threatening to kill two Japanese hostages if Tokyo did not pay…

The Yad L’Achim anti-assimilation organization announced that six invitations to Jewish weddings have been received at its offices over the past few weeks – and all from women whom the organization helped rescue from Arab villages. In addition, a seventh woman announced that her son – born to an Arab father – will be circumcised in…

Kulanu’s party platform includes a strong stance on national security, General (ret) Yoav Galant, the #2 candidate on Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu list, stated Tuesday. “Without military-strong security you cannot do anything here,” Galant stated, according to Walla! News, while speaking at the Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem. “Israel must strengthen its ability to defend itself, and we…

Palestinian Authority (PA) chief negotiator Saeb Erekat threatened a new approach vis-a-vis Israel in the wake of about $127 million in taxes collected for the PA being frozen, a response to the PA joining the International Criminal Court (ICC) to sue the Jewish state. Erekat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist group’s executive committee, told…

Two hundred members of the Salafi Jihadism movement of Islam demonstrated violently in front of the French Cultural Center in Gaza on Monday.  The protest in Gaza City was organized as a reaction to the cartoons of Prophet Mohammad published on the front page of the latest issue of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo last week. Demonstrators waved black flags reminiscent of…

In the wake of deadly Paris terror attacks which left 17 dead, the Secure Community Network has urged Jewish institutions to report any threats, vandalism, or attacks.  SCN is the official homeland security initiative funded by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. The security arm sent a memo on…

Pensioners’ Minister Uri Orbach is on the mend, his office stated to the press Monday night, after he was admitted to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek hospital for intensive medical treatments Sunday.  Orbach is still not out of danger, his aides stated, but he has made positive progress in curing his pneumonia.  “Orbach thanks the diverse people…

Renowned Israeli poet Natan Zach sparked controversy anew Monday when he published an ad in Haaretz showing support for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.  The simple announcement reads as follows: “To Abu Mazen [Abbas] blessings on your way to the International Criminal Court at the Hague.” It is signed by the poet in the bottom left-hand corner.  The…

Syria has begun destroying its remaining chemical weapons production sites, despite being hampered by bad weather and logistical problems, the world’s chemical watchdog said Monday. “Destruction operations commenced in December,” Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) spokesman Peter Sawczak told AFP in The Hague, without elaborating. Syria had said previously demolition of the 12 hangars and tunnels would begin…

Egyptian jihadists claimed Monday to have bombed a pipeline in the Sinai that carries gas to Jordan, saying it was targeted over Amman’s role in the United States-led war on the Islamic State terrorist organizations. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, Egypt’s deadliest terrorist group which has pledged allegiance to ISIS, tweeted unverified pictures of the claimed attack, without saying when it was carried…

Former head of Military Intelligence and Res. Gen. Amos Yadlin has joined the Labor party, Labor announced Monday. Yadlin has been appointed to the #11 spot, at Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog’s specific request.  Herzog specifically stated Monday night that “Yadlin is our pick for the next Defense Minister.”  Yadlin is potentially well-qualified for the position;…

United States Senator John McCain on Monday urged the deployment of international ground forces to combat terrorists in Syria andIraq, as he toured the Middle East with a Senate delegation. “For months we’ve been bombing [Syrian border town] Kobane and we still haven’t driven ISIS out,” the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman told reporters in Jerusalem.  “Since the air campaign started… ISIS…

The IDF has raised the terror alert level on Israel’s border with Syria in the Golan Heights, foreign media reported Monday night, after the IAF reportedly attacked a Syrian military target Sunday.  Several “Iron Dome” missile defense batteries have been deployed along the border, ahead of possible attacks from both government and rebel groups in…

More than 2,000 Iranians protested on Monday outside the French embassy in Tehran, chanting “Death to France” and urging the ambassador be expelled because of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, AFP reported. The demonstration was in response to French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s use of the cartoon in an edition published a week after…

Canadian special forces exchanged gunfire with Islamic State (ISIS) fighters in Iraq in recent days, in the first confirmed ground battle between Western troops and ISIS, a senior officer was quoted by AFP as having said Monday. The Canadians came under mortar and machine gun fire while training Iraqi troops near front lines and shot…

Germany’s “anti-Islamization” movement PEGIDA vowed at its first press conference Monday to take to the streets again next week, after a march was cancelled over a terrorism threat. Asked about plans for future rallies in the eastern city of Dresden, the leader of the populist group, Lutz Bachmann, said that “next Monday obviously there will…

The number of anti-Muslim incidents in France has soared since the Islamist attacks in Paris two weeks ago, an organization that tracks Islamophobia said Monday. The National Observatory Against Islamophobia said 116 anti-Muslim incidents had been reported to authorities since the January 7-9 shooting spree by three French jihadists that killed 17. The two-week tally was more than double the…

United Nations (UN) peacekeepers serving in the Golan Heights saw drones flying before an Israeli airstrike on Syria that killed an Iranian general, a UN spokesman said Monday, according to AFP. Six Hezbollah terrorists were killed in the raid near Quneitra on the Syria-controlled side of the Golan Heights, including Jihad Mughniyeh, the head of…

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday said the fight against “terrorism” needs a new Muslim religious discourse in addition to security and military measures, AFP reported. “The rise in terrorism… requires a thoughtful response from the international community,” Sisi told the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi. “The fight must not only be…

Argentina’s government said Monday there was no indication that anybody else was involved in the death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who had accused President Cristina Fernandez of shielding Iranian suspects in the nation’s deadliest terror attack, The Associated Press (AP) reports. Nisman, who had been investigating the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center…

Duke University was to be the first school in the United States to sound the Muslim call to prayer over its school-wide speaker system. The prayer call was to occur once a week, on Fridays at 1 PM, and last for three minutes. The decision, announced just last week, caused an immediate backlash and opposition…

The Meretz party on Monday evening released the results of its primaries for the 20th Knesset. MK Ilan Gilon came in first, and will be placed in the number two spot on the Meretz list, after party chairwoman Zehava Galon. He was followed by current Meretz MKs Issawi Frej, Michal Rozin and Tamar Zandberg. Former…

An Argentine prosecutor who accused President Cristina Kirchner of obstructing a probe into the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) reportedly died just hours before he was due at a Congressional hearing Monday. According to several Argentine television stations citing judicial sources, Alberto Nisman was found dead overnight in his apartment in the trendy Puerto Madero neighborhood of the…

US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to London on Thursday to host with his British counterpart a meeting of members of the coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. Kerry’s spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the one-day talks with foreign ministers from about 20 countries, including Arab states, would focus on “our shared efforts to degrade and defeat ISIL,”…

The European Union (EU) is to appeal a decision by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg last December to remove Hamas from its official terrorist organization blacklist, according to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday. In a meeting on Monday, foreign ministers from the 28 EU-member states decided “to appeal the judgement regarding Hamas…

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in the midst of an historical three-day visit to Israel after arriving on Sunday, and during meetings with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu he expressed full support for rapidly expanding economic cooperation between the nations. “There is no reason for Japan, which places innovation as an engine of economic growth, not…

A South Korean teenager who went missing in Turkey near the Syrian border had images of what appeared to be Islamic State (aka ISIS, or IS) terrorists on his home computer, police said Monday, amid suspicions he likely has joined the brutal jihadist group. The 18-year-old, identified only by his surname Kim, went missing January 10 during a trip to…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas unleashed vitriolic invective on his unity partner Hamas, the terrorist organization ruling Gaza, claiming on Saturday that it had reached secret agreements with Israel to create a Palestinian state in Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. Hamas “is still seeking its old dream of an independent Islamic state in Gaza, which matches…

Supporters of Iran sanctions in the American Senate have unveiled a toned-down bill aimed at gaining enough votes to override a presidential veto, AFP reported on Sunday. According to the report, on Thursday the Senate banking committee will discuss and vote on the re-jigged bill proposed by Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Robert Menendez, two…

In response to the reported Israeli airstrike in Syria that killed Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Hezbollah’s former operations officer Imad Mughniyeh, the Lebanese-based terrorist group has threatened Israel with retaliation — but noted that it would be limited. “The attack on six Hezbollah members will be answered with a painful and unexpected response, but it…

The Likud party has officially launched an “Anglo” campaign division, designed to engage voters from English-speaking countries. The effort, ehich will be managed by professional consultants Elie Bennett and Jeremy Wimpfheimer, will have the specific goal of increasing the number of Anglo voters who place the Likud ballot in the ballot boxes on March 17. Estimates…

The IDF published the names of the recipients of citations and medals for their service during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza on Monday.  About half of the candidates will receive their awards from the IDF Chief of Staff, Benny Gantz; the other half will receive their awards from generals of lesser rank.  Fifty-three IDF soldiers…

Alan Gross, the United States contractor released from prison in Cuba last month, will be among 22 guests of First Lady Michelle Obama as President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address, the White House said Monday. Others invited to watch the annual presidential speech to Congress from the First Lady’s box Tuesday night include an astronaut, a 13-year-old boy from the…

The Election Commission of Likud, led by Justice Menachem Ne’eman, has officially placed MK Tzipi Hotovely in the #20 spot for the Likud list, it announced Monday. Hotovely replaced new candidate and former Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) head Avi Dichter, originally slated for the #20 spot. Dicther, seen by some as a “moderate”…

Ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi on Sunday testified for the first time in his espionage trial, and launched a tirade against his successor whom he accused of removing him in a “coup”, AFP reported. Morsi was toppled by former army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in July 2013 after mass protests demanding the…

Bangladesh police said Monday they have arrested four suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group including a “local coordinator” who was planning to establish a self-declared “caliphate” in the country. The suspected coordinator Mohammad Sakhawatul Kabir and three others were detained in the capital following raids on Sunday, Dhaka Metropolitan Police said in…

The 1,000-member Meretz central committee will choose its list for the 20th Knesset on Monday.  Primaries are being held at the Exhibition Grounds in Tel Aviv. Voting opened at 2:00 p.m. and will close at 10:00 p.m. As votes are being calculated via a computer, official results should be announced an hour or so after the vote. …

Eli Yishai is expected next week to present new names on the list of his Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party for the 20th Knesset, a senior source told Walla! News Sunday night. Among the potential candidates are Rabbi Moshe Hager, a retired colonel and head of the Yatir pre-militarily yeshiva (Torah academy), according to the daily. Rabbi Hager is expected…

The Turkish coastguard intercepted in Mediterranean waters a ship carrying 333 mainly Syrian migrants bound for the European Union, the official Anatolia news agency said Monday. In an operation employing over 300 coastguard personnel, the coastguard captured the commercial vessel in open water off the Turkish port of Mersin in the northeastern Mediterranean close to…

President Reuven Rivlin held a working meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzō Abe on Monday afternoon. Abe is in the midst of a three-day official visit to Israel – his first to the country. The visit, part of a six-day tour of the Middle East, is aimed at promoting regional stability and peace as well as boosting…

Indonesia could help combat the threat of homegrown extremism by banning its citizens from travelling abroad to fight with terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State (ISIS), a think-tank said Monday. The Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said new laws banning any involvement with foreign terrorist groups overseas were necessary to help stem the flow of fighters from…

John Baird, Canada’s foreign minister, who is considered a staunch ally of Israel, met early Monday afternoon with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem. Netanyahu welcomed Baird and lauded him as “a great fighter for peace and security, and a great warrior for truth.” “You have always showed a willingness to fight for what is…

The government is set to embark on a major program to encourage commuters to take public transportation or use bicycles in congested cities in central Israel. The program, which will cost NIS 6 million ($1.6 million) will entail licensing dozens of vehicles to travel new routes within cities, transporting drivers who leave their vehicles at…

The Jewish Home and Likud responded with anger to the strongly hinted accusation by Major General (res.) Yoav Galant, that the IAF strike that killed Hezbollah’s Golan Commander, Jihad Mughniyeh, was politically timed so concide with the election campaign. Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett reacted by saying that “accusing the government of carrying out military…

The UK must redouble its efforts to “wipe out anti-Semitism”, Home Secretary Theresa May said Sunday. According to the BBC, May said she “never thought I’d see the day when members of the Jewish community” would be fear staying in Britain. She was spoke at a service in London in memory of the victims in the terror attacks…

Israel has tons of natural gas offshore, but for Israeli households, it’s the wrong kind of gas – and the gas they need, propane heating and cooking fuel, is in very short supply these days. Due to recent fierce storms in the Mediterranean – the same storms that dumped snowfall and rainfall on most of…

Major General (res.) Yoav Galant, who is a leading candidate in the Kulanu party’s Knesset list, hinted strongly Sunday that the killing of Jihad Mughniyeh in Syria may have been timed to help Binyamin Netanyahu do well in the upcoming national elections. “There are ongoing security needs, and in these contexts I suppose that operations…

Shots were fired Saturday night outside the unoccupied home of Vice President Joe Biden in Delaware. Biden was not at home when the incident occurred, the Secret Service told reporters. Speaking to CNN, Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said “a vehicle drove by the vice president’s residence at a high rate of speed and fired…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon refused to say anything Sunday eveing about the reported IAF strike in the Syrian Golan that killed Jihad Mughniyeh, a senior Hezbollah man whose father, Imad Mughniyeh, was also assassinated by Israel. However, Yaalon did respond to the reports from Hezbollah about the incident, and said that they contradicted Hezbollah’s own…

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 describes the “A Soul for a Soul,” initiative, a very special project run by the “Efrat” organization, as described by Efrat’s own Dr. Eli Schossheim. “At first, the idea was to enable…

Hungarian Jews and Soviet army veterans gathered on Sunday to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation by the Red Army of the Budapest ghetto in World War II. Several hundred people, including dozens who survived the ghetto, attended the memorial service in the Grand Synagogue, Europe’s largest place of Jewish worship. “Many would not…

Miss Lebanon is coming under fire after appearing in a “selfie” photo with Miss Israel, with some Lebanese calling for their country’s contestant at the Miss Universe pageant to be stripped of her title for “consorting with the enemy”, reports the Telegraph. Miss Israel, Doron Matalon, posted a photo of herself and Miss Lebanon, Saly…

At a meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, President Reuven Rivlin decried the decision of the International Criminal Court to pursue an investigation against Israel. The decision by ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to investigate Israel for “war crimes” was, he said, “a gift to terrorists and a violation of the sanctity of international justice. Israel…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz and his intended replacement, Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, have decided on a round of appointments of senior IDF staff. Major General Roni Numa will be appointed to head the IDF’s Central Command, which includes Judea and Samaria. He will replace Maj. Gen. Nitzan Alon, who has been…

Yitzchak Herzog and Tsipi Livni, the two heads of the Labor Party – renamed ‘Zionist Camp’ for the duration of the current elections – own property worth tens of millions of shekels, and both have significant savings and stock holdings, Channel Two disclosed on Sunday. Herzog is the owner of several properties in Tel Aviv, the…

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday urged Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to renew peace talks instead of pursuing efforts at the International Criminal Court (ICC) or United Nations. “There is no other way than direct negotiations. Unilateral steps will not solve the conflict, but just give more power to the extremists,” Rivlin was…

Belgium is asking Greece to extradite one of the suspects arrested there over a possible link with the alleged Islamist plot against Belgian police, prosecutors said Sunday, according to the BBC. The statement came hours after Belgium said there was no connection between those detained and the alleged plot. The federal prosecutor’s office now says…

Iran and major powers will meet again next month to try to narrow differences over Tehran’s nuclear program after making limited progress on Sunday, Reuters reported. All sides agreed to step up efforts to reach a political understanding by the end of March with a view to clinching a full-blown deal by their self-imposed deadline…

MK Miri Regev (Likud) on Sunday night had sharp criticism for Major General (res.) Yoav Galant, who hinted earlier that an IAF strike that killed Hezbollah’s Golan Commander, Jihad Mughniyeh, was politically timed to coincide with the election campaign. “I heard the accusations of Yoav Galant over the complex and most important military operation in…

Intelligence sources said on Sunday night that Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of Hezbollah’s former operations officer Imad Mughniyeh, was planning terrorist attacks against Israelis in the Golan Heights. The sources said that Mughniyeh, who was killed in an airstrike in the Syrian Golan allegedly carried out by Israel, was the head of a “broad and…

In paradoxical television statements Sunday, MK Shelly Yechimovich (Labor) criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for his obsession with power, while also stating she would not rule out forming a government with him and Likud.  On Thursday, Netanyahu said that the Likud would not sit in a coalition with the joint list of Yitzhak Herzog’s Labor and Tzipi Livni’s…

Yachad-Ha’am Itanu chairman Eli Yishai called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to dismiss Likud MK Yoav Kish Sunday, after Kish revealed he supports dividing Jerusalem.  “I call on the prime minister to immediately remove Yoav Kish from the Likud list, given his support for an agreement dividing Jerusalem,” Yishai stated, urging Likud not to have double standards regarding…

In her latest interview, Tzipi Livni once again blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the Palestinian Authority’s request to join the International Criminal Court.  That request resulted not only in the PA formally joining the international body, but also prompted a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, which was announced Friday.  Speaking Sunday morning…

Veteran CNN news anchor Jim Clancy resigned on Friday, one week after posing a strange series of anti-Israel tweets on a Twitter thread discussing the Charlie Hebdo attack.  Neither Clancy himself nor CNN gave an explanation for his departure, which was reported by AdWeek and confirmed by the news network. Clancy has worked as a news correspondent at CNN for…

A vote to raise Israel’s minimum wage will be one feature of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet meeting Sunday morning.  After over a month of discussion on how to implement a gradual raise of the minimum wage to NIS 5,000 (~1,250) a month by 2017, the issue will finally go before the Cabinet.  Histadrut labor union…

Solidarity demonstrations for the Charlie Hebdo satirical French magazine that was attacked by Islamists earlier this month has left ten dead in Niger, President Mahamadou Issoufou said, in attacks by local Islamist groups.  Five people died after demonstrations in capital Niamey Saturday and another five died on Friday in the town of Zinder, he said, after Islamists set churches…

Thanks to the revelations shared by a high-ranking government official, Swedish Foreign Minister, Margot Wallstrom’s motives for indefinitely postponing a planned trip to Israel and accusing Israel of “overreacting” and “aggressiveness,” may have become clear.  The official revealed to Yediot Aharonot Saturday that Wallstrom canceled her trip after she was notified she would have to provide her own security personnel…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) may have moved forward with its attempt to prosecute Israel for “war crimes” in the International Criminal Court (ICC) – but it would drop the case if Israel stopped building Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria, a PA official close to Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday.  The senior official, speaking from Ramallah to Walla!…

Yoav Kish, the Likud party’s Dan Region representative for the 20th Knesset, may have just hurt Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s chances of keeping right-wing votes away from Jewish Home.  Kish, who placed 19th on the Likud list, said he would support the division of Jerusalem in the interest of a peace deal and two-state solution. …

Politicians and other officials have had strong reactions to the Likud video published Saturday night depicting the rest of the Knesset as an unruly kindergarten.  “The Likud will continue to engage in kindergarten, we will continue to engage on issues important to the management of the state,” Yisrael Beytenu responded Sunday morning to Channel 2. In…

Lebanese terror group Hezbollah is on the verge of bankruptcy, according to a report in Newsweek. The terror group’s financial troubles are a fallout from the dramatic slide in the price of oil, the report claimed. Hezbollah receives most of its funding from Iran, but Tehran – which is losing tens of millions weekly because of the lower prices for what is…

The attacks in Paris and the radical Islamist cell dismantled in Brussels have challenged the idea of the “lone wolf” terrorist who works alone, without the help of a jihadist organisation, analysts say. Every terrorist that has attempted or carried out attacks in the West in recent years – down to the Kouachi brothers who struck…

Lia Isakov, a 6-year-old from Mevasseret Tzion, is facing an aggressive form of leukemia for the third time in her short life. She has undergone 150 chemotherapy sessions and has received a bone marrow donation from her brother Isiel, a soldier, but her disease keeps on coming back. Her mother, Ina, told reporters that she…

With the International Criminal Court opening an investigation against Israel and anti-Semitic incidents becoming more frequent, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu suggested Sunday that Israeli businesspeople change their focus from Western Europe to other areas. Such a change, he said at Sunday’s cabinet meeting, would be an appropriate response to the ongoing “Islamization” and “anti-Zionist” positions countries…

Once poised to overrun the Syrian town of Kobane, Islamic State (IS or ISIS) has suffered a damaging blow to its ambitions at the hands of Kurdish fighters and United States-led warplanes. The setback in the mainly Kurdish town on the Syria-Turkey border has knocked the momentum out of the terrorists’ advance and dashed their hopes of a swift…

Senior Citizens’ Minister Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) is going into hospital for “urgent and important” medical treatments, he announced Sunday, and asked his supporters to pray for his well-being.  ”My dear followers, now I have to take the time to treat urgent and important medical issues for my health,” Orbach wrote. “Thank you for your…

Hezbollah’s television station, Al Manar, reported Sunday that an IAF helicopter fired rockets at Jabhat al-Nusra targets near the Golan border, in the early afternoon. According to Elnashra, a news source with close ties to Hezbollah, a senior Hezbollah operative was hurt. Jabhat al-Nusra is Al Qaeda’s Syrian arm. According to Al Manar, two rockets were…

Police in the United Kingdom are investigating “racially aggravated criminal damage” after posters promoting the Newham Council’s Holocaust Memorial Day were defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti this weekend.  The words “Liars” and “Killers” were graffitied onto the posters advertising the January 27 event.  The Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, called the vandalism a “despicable and…

Labor-Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni is expected to announce the induction of a new candidate to the Labor party Sunday: journalist Ksenia Svetlova.  Svetlova is a writer and commentator on Channel 9, a news agency for the Israeli Arab community. She holds a doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies from Hebrew University of Jerusalem and has contributed to several…

At least 18 people have been killed in unprecedented fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops in the northeastern city of Hasakeh, a monitoring group said Sunday.   The clashes, which erupted in the early hours of Saturday, were continuing for a second day, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “So far, eight…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman declared on Saturday that there is “no chance” that his Yisrael Beytenu will sit in the same coalition with the leftist Meretz party, thus significantly hurting Yitzhak Herzog’s chances of heading the next government. “[Meretz chairwoman] Zehava Galon is out of the question. There’s no common ground. There is no chance,”…

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will host a meeting in London on Thursday of members of the coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) group, officials said Saturday, according to AFP. The one-day talks will involve foreign ministers from about 20 countries, including Arab states, to discuss progress so…

Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir is expected to formally inform Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman on Sunday that he will not run for the next Knesset. There have been speculations over the last week that Shamir would be the next Yisrael Beytenu MK to resign from the Knesset, and he was notably absent from the list…

At least four people were arrested in Athens on Saturday as part of a probe into a jihadist cell that was dismantled in Belgium this week, a Greek police source said, according to AFP. Belgium later said, however, that there was no evidence that the arrests in Greece were indeed connected to the cell that…

Hamas on Saturday welcomed the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to launch an inquiry into possible “war crimes” committed by Israel against Palestinian Arabs. Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas which rules the Gaza Strip, said the Islamist group “appreciated the move”, according to Reuters. “What is needed now is to quickly take…

The four Jews murdered at a kosher supermarket in Paris two weeks ago – Philippe Braham, Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab, and Francois-Michel Saada hy”d – were laid to rest in Jerusalem last Tuesday, with thousands of Jews turning out to show their support. Arutz Sheva was on the scene as participants in the massive funeral spoke of the sorrow following…

Gunmen on Saturday seized Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi’s chief of staff, whose nomination as prime minister last year was rejected by Iranian-backed Houthi Shi’ite terrorists controlling the capital, an official said. “An armed group set up a checkpoint in Hada,” a southern district of the capital city Sana’a, and “captured (Ahmed Awad bin) Mubarak with…

Days after a lethal Belgian raid on Islamist terrorists and with the country on high alert, Rabbi Abraham Gigi, Chief Rabbi of Belgium and representative for the Conference of European Rabbis, exposed how the Jewish community passed the Shabbat under heavy guard. “A quiet Shabbat passed for the Jewish community in Belgium, albeit a tense one,” said the…

Scores of people paid tribute on Saturday in the Tunisian capital of Tunis to Yoav Hattab hy”d, the son of the chief rabbi of Tunisia, who was murdered two weeks ago in an Islamist terrorist attack on a Paris kosher supermarket. Gathered outside Tunis’s Grand Synagogue, around 150 people carried candles and pictures of Hattab, placing them between two Tunisian flags.…

Around 3,000 people in Turkey are believed to be linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group, a Turkish intelligence report said on Saturday, warning of possible attacks by extremists.   The report called for enhanced surveillance of the 3,000 people, including identifying their rank within the extremist group or whether they were active within…

A South Korean has gone missing in Turkey near the border with Syria, a foreign ministry official said Saturday, following reports that the man had joined the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. “The man disappeared on January 10 after he left a hotel” in the southern Turkish town of Kilis near the border with Syria, the…

The last message that Yoav Hattab, 21, sent before entering the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket last Friday – where his life was cut short in a brutal act of terrorism – was an SMS message urging a friend to observe the upcoming Shabbat. 11:24 Yoav: … try to make the Shabbat as soon as you arrive 11:52 Friend: That is…

A full 185 Arab residents of Gaza were given rare permission by Israel to hold prayers last Friday on the Temple Mount, where they promptly waved banners of the Hamas terrorist organization and burned French flags, protesting satire magazine Charlie Hebdo‘s recent cartoon of Mohammed. The magazine’s Paris headquarters were targeted in an Islamist terror…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening released a strong statement of condemnation on the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision last Friday, in which it chose to launch a preliminary probe into charges of Israeli “war crimes.” “Israel rejects the absurd decision of the ICC prosecutor,” said Netanyahu. “It’s absurd for the ICC to ignore international…

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is not letting up with his verbal attacks against Israel. A day after he said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had committed crimes against humanity comparable to those behind the Paris attacks, Davutgolu on Friday accused his Israeli counterpart of terrorism and further said that Israeli “provocations” such as the…

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday reiterated once again that he will veto proposed bipartisan legislation to impose new sanctions on Iran so long as diplomatic negotiations over a nuclear deal remain underway. “I will veto a bill that comes to my desk,” Obama said in response to a question from ABC News at a…

Nearly 200 Palestinian Arabs from Gaza were allowed by Israeli authorities to travel to Jerusalem on Friday to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported. According to the report, a group of 185 Palestinian Muslims left the coastal enclave via the Erez crossing into Israel for an exceptional visit to the…

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor on Friday opened a preliminary probe into possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, including during last year’s Gaza war, AFP reports. The prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said her office would conduct its “analysis in full independence and impartiality”. Her decision comes after the Palestinian Authority (PA) formally joined…

Sweden’s foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, said on Friday that Israel had overreacted to her country’s recognition of “Palestine”, and that it had irritated close allies with its reaction. “It is unacceptable how they have been talking about us and everybody else,” Margot Wallstrom said in an interview with the daily Dagens Nyheter and quoted by…

Britain is to step up police patrols in areas with high Jewish populations, Prime Minister David Cameron said Friday, while warning that it was impossible to provide “100 percent protection”. The move came in the wake of last week’s Islamist attacks in Paris, as well as a foiled plot in Belgium on Thursday, reports AFP.…

Labor would gain 26 seats in the 20th Knesset, according to a TNS poll for Walla! News – the highest number of seats predicted for the leftist party in polls so far.  Likud has slipped behind with just 23 seats, according to this survey, although Jewish Home enjoys a post-primaries boom with 18 seats – a considerable hike up…

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his French counterpart Laurent Fabius on Friday laid a wreath at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris, where four Jews were murdered last Friday by an Islamist terrorist. The two top diplomats set down the garland of red roses, carnations and white lilies, bearing a white bow with gold…

Belgium was on high alert Friday after two suspected jihadists were killed in a police raid, while German and French police made fresh arrests to put Europe further on edge a week after the Islamist attacks in Paris that left 17 murdered. The series of raids across the continent highlighted fears about young European citizens traveling to fight with Islamic State…

Labor is enjoying a post-primaries boom, according to a Channel 2 poll Thursday, and is set to pull ahead of Likud by two mandates.  The Labor party will gain 25 seats in the 20th Knesset, according to the poll, beating Likud at 23 seats.  Jewish Home remains perennially in third place with 16 seats, however, and…

Arutz Sheva paid a condolence visit to the family of 63-year-old Francois-Michel Saada hy”d, one of four Jews murdered last Friday in an Islamist terror attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris. Saada’s son Yonatan spoke about his father, noting he always “tried to unite people and gather people,” patiently working to resolve any conflict between members…

Labor would never join a government with Likud, Labor-Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni opined Friday – because, according to her, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refuses to heed the beck and call of US President Barack Obama.  “Unity is not a technical matter of distribution of files, but a matter of a shared vision,” Livni told Army Radio. “Netanyahu…

Senior Hamas MP Fathi Hammad on Wednesday accused Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, along with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) unity government Hamas formed with Abbas, of being part of the “siege” on Gaza. Hammad, formerly Hamas Interior Minister, told the Palestinian Arab Ma’an News Agency that Abbas and the unity government are cooperating with the blocking of reconstruction…

Jihadists have executed 17 men in recent days in areas they control in eastern and northern Syria to avenge a string of assassinations targeting their fighters, a monitor said Friday. “The Islamic State (ISIS) group has executed 16 men in Deir Ezzor and one more in Raqa, to send a message to all their opponents after recent assassinations of 12…

Omri Yadlin, President of Sapir Academic College, stated Friday afternoon that the college’s managing board had decided to remove an offensive art exhibit in which Jewish sacred objects were desecrated and used as underwear. Yadlin wrote in a letter to students that “the controversy over the exhibit has gone on for a while. As long as…

Hope for Israel is in the ability to change leaders, Labor Chairman Yitzhak Herzog stated Thursday – and hailed the results of a Channel 10 poll which placed Labor with a clear lead over Likud.  Herzog blamed current Prime Minister and Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu for the deterioration of US-Israel relations, saying there is “a clear link between…

Turkey has been receiving increasing criticism for the ease with which Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists and other jihadists slip through its border to Syria; one British jihadist claims Turkish police completely sympathized with his ISIS cause while he was in jail – going as far as buying him Domino’s pizza. Shabazz Suleman (19) was a student at…

The final Jewish Home party list has been released Friday, after all of the votes from some 43,890 voters were counted.  The list reveals small changes in comparison to the 90% vote list released Thursday. Walla! News editor Yinon Magal is now #6 instead of #7, trading places with Uri Orbach; Motti Yogev has moved up two spots, and is now…

Did Pope Francis justify the brutal Islamist attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris last Wednesday, in which 12 people were murdered in cold blood? The Vatican has snapped into overdrive trying to play down controversial comments made by the pope this Thursday, which are seen as blurring the lines of free speech. On a flight to…

Belgian police raided an Islamist terrorist cell planning attacks against police on Friday as dozens of people were arrested in sweeps across Europe, keeping the continent on alert one week after the Paris attacks. Two suspected jihadists were shot dead in a police raid in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers on Thursday night and prosecutors…

Less than a week after the massacre at its Paris headquarters, a founding member of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo accused the paper’s slain editor of provoking the attack and dragging his staff down with him.  The brutal attack last Wednesday left 12 people murdered by Islamist terrorists, including five staff members, among them the editor-in-chief Stephane Charbonnier, known…

The Supreme Court has thrown out a suit by a Lebanese terrorist leader, who incredibly enough was seeking damages from the Jewish state for his claims of torture while in Israeli custody. The court on Thursday ruled that the nearly 15-year-old attempt by Mustafa Dirani to claim $1.3 million in compensation was not actionable in Israeli courts. This was because after his release in…

The young woman from the Russian Muslim region of Dagestan suspected of carrying out a deadly suicide bombing in Istanbul last Tuesday was the widow of a Norwegian extremist, with whom she had traveled to Syria to join Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, a report said Friday. A policeman and the suicide bomber were killed in the attack on January 6 in…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) responded cynically on Friday to Belgium’s killing of two jihadists in a counter-terror police raid the night before, noting how the European Union (EU) has so quickly and sharply criticized every case of Israel killing terrorists. Writing on his Facebook page, Liberman responded to the crackdown that has seen…

Poll fever continues ahead of March 17 elections, and while results have shown Likud and Labor neck and neck, the latest survey by Channel 10 gives Labor a full four mandate gap over Likud. According to the poll, conducted by the Dialog Institute under the supervision of Prof. Camil Fuchs, Labor – which erased the word “Zionism” from its Arabic ad…

British politicians on Thursday criticized publisher Oxford University Press over its advice to omit pigs and sausages from books for children sold abroad, in a politically correct attempt not to “offend” the Muslim or Jewish communities. The existence of the recommendations was revealed during a debate on BBC Radio 4 on freedom of expression in the wake of the attack against…

“Good news from eastern Jerusalem!” reported Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King on Wednesday, sarcastically announcing that the Municipality finally enforced building laws in a region where illegal Arab construction is rampant; their target – sukkah boards left up at a synagogue. Writing on his Facebook page, King wrote sardonically “the Jerusalem Municipality and Jerusalem police are enforcing the…

Belgian police launched a “jihadist-related” anti-terrorism operation in the eastern town of Verviers on Thursday, with reports saying there were three deaths. Public broadcaster RTBF reported three deaths and said explosions were heard at the scene, but there was no immediate confirmation. The incident comes as Europe is on high alert after 17 people were…

The brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization that has conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria continues to impose Islamic Sharia law sprinkled with generous helping of executions – one of its favorite methods, crucifixion, was put on display this week in rare form. In the last two days, ISIS terrorists crucified 15 Syrian civilians…

The United Nations (UN) on Thursday demanded that Israel unlock millions of dollars in taxes it collected for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and froze as a penalty, in response to the PA applying to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in breach of the Oslo Accords to sue Israel. A senior UN official claimed to the UN Security…

Rabbi Yaakov Ariel, President of the Hotam Forum of Torah-based research foundations, issued a call Thursday to lawmakers to pass laws that will stregthen the Jewish family in the face of what he terms a liberal attack upon it. The rabbi noted that this week’s Torah portion tells the tale of Pharaoh’s decree to kill every male…

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization, threatened to attack Israel on Thursday, citing the pretext of reported Israeli airstrikes on missiles in Syria headed for Hezbollah. Nasrallah, who spoke in an television interview with Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen to be broadcast Thursday night, said his Iran-proxy Shi’ite terrorist group is well armed and always ready to fight Israel, according to excerpts of the…

Jewish schools in Brussels and Antwerp decided to cancel classes on Friday due to increased terror threats, the Belgian Joods Actueel website reports. Belgium is on a heightened terror alert after authorities raided a terror cell in the eastern town of Verviers, killing two suspects in a firefight and arresting a third. According to the…

Two Italian aid workers abducted in Syria last summer have been released, the Italian government said Thursday, according to AFP. “Greta Ramelli and Vanessa Marzullo are free, they will return to Italy soon,” the government said in a tweet from its official account. Officials did not immediately release any further details of how the two…

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, warned the world body on Thursday that it was encouraging the Palestinian Authority (PA) to run away from peace negotiations. Speaking to the UN Security Council, Ambassador Prosor said the PA sees the UN as its “personal vending machine” and stressed that it is the PA which…

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri on Thursday called for unity and called on those who left the party to return – including Eli Yishai, who recently broke off from Shas to form his own party. Speaking at a campaign rally in Ashdod, Deri said, “I call from here on all those who have left – we…

Envoys from the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia will meet later this month to discuss the next steps to address the Israeli-Palestinian Arab crisis, officials said Thursday, according to AFP. The gathering of the group, known as the Middle East diplomatic quartet, will take place January 26 in Brussels to…

The suspected terror cell that was the target of a raid in Belgium on Thursday “received instructions from ISIS”, a senior Belgian counterterrorism official told CNN. Some members of the cell had traveled to Syria and met with ISIS, which plotted the attacks as retaliation for U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, the Belgian source…

Moshe Kahlon on Thursday formally introduced his Kulanu party’s list for the March 17 elections and declared that his campaign would focus on social issues. Speaking at a campaign rally in Kibbutz Givat Brenner in central Israel, just south of Rehovot, Kahlon said that former Finance Minister Yair Lapid had wasted a good opportunity to…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett presented his party’s list for the upcoming Knesset elections Thursday. In the convention at Kfar Maccabiah, an upbeat and animated Bennett said that “the old elites don’t understand; the rules were changed and nobody told them.” “It is true,” he said, “that if a polling booth were placed only in…

Many journalists throughout Europe showed their solidarity with Charlie Hebdo last week, by republishing its cartoons and proclaiming “Je Suis Charlie” on their front covers – a poignant show of defiance following last Wednesday deadly attack which saw much of the magazine’s editorial staff decimated in a bloody attack by Islamist terrorists at its central Paris…

As the counting of Jewish Home primary votes winds to a close Thursday, the winners have begun to express their gratitude and joy over the results.  MK Ayelet Shaked who received the highest number of primary votes – and will be placed third on the party’s list behind Chairman Naftali Bennett and Tekuma head Uri Ariel – was…

The Chairwoman of the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization, Nava Shoham Solan, sent a moving condolence letter to Valerie Barham, whose husband Philippe was murdered in the kosher supermarket attack in Paris last Friday.  Braham, 45, was an advertising manager at a computer consultancy. He leaves behind his wife Valerie and three children.  Solan is the widow of Major…

With Moshe Kahlon setting his Kulanu party up as the focus for voters who want a “better deal” from Israel, in the form of lower prices for home and basic goods, other parties have been marshaling their MKs to counter claims by Kahlon that only he is capable of bringing down prices. And speaking on…

In the wake of a spate of deadly terror attacks across France last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron and United States President Barack Obama have vowed to stand united against Islamic terrorism.  In a joint editorial published Thursday in The Times, the two world leaders noted that security was necessary for economic strength and that they would work together…

A Lebanese newspaper reported that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas told Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi that the Palestinian Authority would not file a case against Israel in the International Criminal Court if negotiations between Israel and the PA resumed “in the coming weeks.” According to the report in the Al-Ahabar newspaper, Abbas made the comments…

The US Senate is taking another stab at changing the White House’s policy of keeping the American Embassy to Israel out of Jerusalem. On Tuesday, US Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Dean Heller (R-NV) proposed a law that would remove the president’s authority to invoke national security as a reason to ignore Congressional resolutions on…

European Jewish leaders have called on the European Union to appoint a special task force with its own special envoy to combat rising anti-Semitism in Europe. The request was made Wednesday during a meeting between the EU’s foreign affairs chief and European Commission president Frederica Mogherini, and a delegation from the European Jewish Congress (EJC),…

Police on Thursday raided the offices of the Israel Lands Administration and arrested a senior employee on charges of influence peddling. According to police, the employee is accused of using his/her position to push through land deals that favored specific real estate developers, possibly for material benefit. The government-run Israel Lands Administration is essentially the…

Hareidi newspaper Hamevaser received international attention in recent days after it cropped out the images of female leaders from a photo of the march held in Paris following the terror attacks there. In its latest issue, the UK’s Waterford Whispers News cut out all the men from a photo, in response to Hamevaser‘s action. The…

A senior ISIS terrorist who appeared in a recent shocking video showing a young child executing two suspected spies has become the latest high-profile jihadi from the group to be killed in Syria. Abu Saad al-Daghestani featured in a graphic video released by the “Islamic State” terrorist group on Tuesday, in which two Russian-speaking men are…

Police on Thursday found a likely stolen pistol at the home of an Arab resident of Deir el-Assad in the Galilee, and also found that the man was suffering from an unusually clogged toilet – the toilet was clogged with hundreds of pistol bullets. Officers in the “Organ – Karmiel” unit of the police searched the house of…

The Jewish Home has launched its campaign song – “We’re Brothers.” The song was composed by Eyal Cohen, who was a finalist in the last season of “The Voice,” a television musical reality show featuring singing talents. Singing the song alongside Cohen is Ofir Ben Sheetrit, who also reached the finals of The Voice. The…

Amid a massive corruption scandal that has focused on senior party members, Yisrael Beytenu has been nosediving in the polls, and four key MKs have already left in rapid succession – indications on Thursday are that Agricultural Minister Yair Shamir may be next. Shamir did not submit his candidacy for the party’s Knesset list, reports Walla!,…

While the French magazine Charlie Hebdo managed to insult Muslims around the world with its comical depictions of Mohammed, a UK satirical publication is taking a different tack – making fun of an issue in the hareidi Jewish community by not printing images. In its latest issue, the UK’s Waterford Whispers News used the Photoshop…

The controversial art display at Sapir Academic College in the northern Negev near Sderot, which triggered a protest when it opened to the public last Tuesday, has reached a new low in offending Judaism in the name of “art.” The offensive artworks notably included hamsa palm-shaped Jewish amulets with “slaughter the Jew,” “in blood and fire we will…

A German newspaper accidentally published an anti-Semitic cartoon on its front page, under the incorrect assumption it was a previous cover of the satirical French weekly Charlie Hebdo, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.  Charlie Hebdo’s editorial offices were attacked last Wednesday by two radical Islamic terrorists who murdered 12 people.  Beliner Zeitung, the German daily, paid tribute to the French magazine a week ago Thursday by publishing…

Actor and peace activist Michael Douglas will be the recipient of the 2015 Genesis Prize.  The Genesis Prize is awarded annually by the Genesis Prize Foundation, in partnership with the Office of the Prime Minister of the State of Israel and the Jewish Agency for Israel. The award recognizes an accomplished and internationally renowned individual who is considered a…

An Israeli insurance firm is offering “terrorism insurance” for locals who visit Europe. Maccabee Insurance, a division of the health fund that specializes in travel insurance, is offering Israelis a policy that promises a high payout if a member of the plan is killed or injured in a terror attack on the continent. According to…

In an address before Israel diplomats, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) struck out against European leaders who tolerate anti-Semitism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and CNN – all against the background of the attack in Paris last week on a kosher grocery store. “One of the reasons for increasing anti-Semitism in Europe is that the leaders…

Labor party head Yitzhak Herzog introduced his party’s Knesset list at an event Wednesday night, telling listeners that they were “looking at the new leaders of Israel. I have never been prouder.” Shouting over the din of supporters proclaiming him as the next prime minister, he said “I believe we have the best group standing here,”…

Last week’s jihadist terror attacks in Paris triggered worldwide outrage, and among those most touched were Jews in the United States, fearful that they heralded a new wave of anti-Semitic violence. France is home to the third largest Jewish community in the world, after Israel and the United States, and transatlantic ties of faith and family are strong. Horrified…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took part in a Taglit-Birthright Israel mega event on Wednesday night in Jerusalem’s Binyanei Hauma International Convention Center, where he spoke about the terror attacks in Paris last week. Speaking about an event on Sunday, Netanyahu said “I was proud to represent Israel alongside world leaders as we marched in Paris, united…

An Arab car thief was shot in the parking lot of a branch of the Rami Levy supermarket chain, in the Gush Etzion region of Judea on Wednesday. Detectives from the Hevron region were conducting special operations against car thefts in the are, particularly focusing on the supermarket’s parking lot as it has been hit frequently. They…

Residents of Beit Hagai, located south of Hevron in Judea, are fuming over the decision to arrest the town’s security coordinator over suspicions of shooting at an Arab terrorist who tried to break into the town last Saturday during Shabbat. Yair Lior, a spokesperson for the community, told Arutz Sheva that the arrest decision is part of…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction on Tuesday decided to remind its followers of the deep friendship between former Fatah head and terrorist Yasser Arafat, and Iraqi president and dictator Saddam Hussein. A picture of Arafat and Hussein warmly shaking hands was posted on the faction’s official Facebook page, reports Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), expressing the…

Turkey on Wednesday blocked web sites where the satirical covers – featuring a cartoon of Mohammed – of France’s Charlie Hebdo magazine were available on-line. The sites were blocked after the government got a court order, based on claims by the government that the caricatures of Mohammed that appeared on-line were offensive to Turkey’s Muslim population. Charlie…

Police Chief Yohanan Danino on Wednesday slammed what he called “a threat to the continued existence of Israel” – no, he wasn’t talking about Arab terrorism, but rather the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Specifically Danino claimed the “threat” was posed by public officials who ascend the Mount hoping to pray at the holy site…

A Washington Post journalist detained in Iran for months has been indicted and will stand trial, The Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday. The report of the indictment by the official IRNA news agency did not elaborate what charges the journalist, Jason Rezaian, faced. The report came the same day as U.S. Secretary of State John…

In yet another sign that the Hamas-Fatah unity government is dysfunctional, Hamas-affiliated parliament members in Gaza on Wednesday reactivated the coastal enclave’s parliament, which had been suspended since the unity deal was agreed upon in April. According to the Ma’an news agency, the convening of the session, which was attended exclusively by Hamas legislators, represents…

A prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires on Wednesday accused President Cristina Fernandez of secretly negotiating with Iran to avoid punishing those responsible, reports The Associated Press (AP). The 1994 bombing remains unsolved, but Argentina and Iran reached an agreement in 2013 to investigate the attack that…

The FBI has arrested an Ohio man for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers whom he allegedly considered enemies, ABC News reports. Christopher Lee Cornell, of Cincinnati, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of attempting to kill a U.S.…

The latest issue of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which was the target of a terrorist attack last week, will be widely distributed in Toronto and in other parts of Canada. The magazine made a defiant return on Wednesday with a new issue that sold out across France in record time. The satirical magazine once…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, held intensive talks on Tehran’s disputed nuclear program on Wednesday, returning for an evening session before handing off to their deputies, officials told Reuters. Kerry and Zarif “had substantive meetings for approximately five hours today and they discussed a broad range of…

French authorities have reportedly identified the accomplice of Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four people in a siege on a kosher supermarket in Paris last Friday, the Express reported Wednesday. Forces are now looking for a man from a suburb of the French capital who they believe may have acted as Coulibaly’s driver, according to police…

Jewish Home will hold their primaries Wednesday as planned, after the Central region District Court rejected a temporary injunction on holding the vote issued at the last minute by the Lod District Court. During the hearing, Judge Varda Maoz clarified that the injunction would not prevent the primaries from being held at 10:00 am, but did call…

Three Israeli security guards who worked at the US consulate resigned in the wake of a plan to hire 35 Palestinians from East Jerusalem as armed security guards who are currently undergoing training in Yericho (Jericho). One of them has gone so far as to accuse the consulate of creating “an armed Palestinian militia.” According to the report…

MK Shelly Yechimovich received the most votes in Tuesday’s primaries in the Labor party, according to preliminary results published Wednesday morning. Yechimovich will be placed in the number 3 spot on the Labor party’s list for the Knesset, due to the unity agreement between Labor and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party. After Yechimovich, who lost the…

Meretz Chairman MK Zahava Gal-On intends to petition the Attorney General to stop plans from Minister of Construction Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) to house immigrants from France in Judea and Samaria.  Ariel sent a letter asking the Yesha Council where the flow of immigrants from France could settle, as France reels from a string of anti-Semitic attacks.  France led the list of countries…

The White House voiced alarm Tuesday at a surge in anti-Semitism in Europe and the world, after last week’s attack in Paris on a kosher supermarket, in which four Jewish people were murdered. “The violent assault on the Jewish community in France that took place on Friday afternoon (…) was the latest in a series of very troubling incidents in Europe…

Hours before the voting in the Jewish Home primaries is scheduled to begin, Batya Kahana-Dror announced on Facebook that she is removing her candidacy. Kahana-Dror heads Mavoi Satum, an NGO that is sponsored by the New Israel Fund, which fights for the rights of agunot and mesoravot get – women who are unable to obtain a…

A group of former employees in the Hamas-run government in Gaza went on a hunger strike Tuesday, following a day of protests over unpaid salaries. An employees’ union official told the Ma’an news agency that former civil servants are carrying out sit-in protests inside the Palestinian cabinet’s headquarters until their salaries are paid. “Our sit-in…

Almost half of British Jewish people fear they have no long-term future in Britain or Europe, according to a new survey cited by AFP. The poll of 2,230 British Jewish people by the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) found that 45 percent feared Jews may have no future in Britain, and 58 percent were concerned they…

Al-Qaeda-linked terrorists have publicly executed a woman accused of adultery in northwestern Syria, a monitoring group said Wednesday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that in total 14 people had been executed for alleged adultery or homosexuality in the war-torn country since July, half of them women. It released a video showing fighters from Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, tying…

Following the horrific attacks in Paris last week that included a hostage crisis at a kosher supermarket, where four Jews were murdered by an Islamist terrorist, a large wave of French Jewish immigrants are expected in Israel in the near future – but how is Israel to deal with the assimilation rampant in France? Naftali…

The National Planning Council on Tuesday authorized the establishment of a new city that will be specifically geared to the hareidi community. Kassif, to be located in the eastern Negev, will have 16,000 housing units to start, and will include services, work opportunities, schools, and other features specifically designed to appeal to hareidi homebuyers. Planners…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Western “shortsightedness” and “support for terrorism” in the revolt against his authoritarian rule were to blame for last week’s attacks in Paris, state media reported Wednesday. In his first reaction to the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in which a total of 17 people were murdered by Islamist terrorists, Assad said he…

More hareidi men are working than ever, and the employment rate for hareidi women is about the same as it is for the general population, a new report by the Central Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. According to the report, in 2013 a full 56% of hareidi males aged 25-64 were working, a significant increase…

Muslims were well-represented at Sunday’s solidarity rally in Paris, as world leaders and international powers convened to join the general public in condemning the Islamist terror attacks last week which killed 17 people.  However, not everyone is convinced that Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula (AQAP) was responsible for the attack, despite their claiming responsibility…

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the West of “playing games with the Islamic world,” on Tuesday, according to the Daily Mail, warning fellow Muslims to be “aware.” “French citizens carry out such a massacre, and Muslims pay the price,” Erdogan said. “The West’s hypocrisy is obvious. As Muslims, we’ve never taken part in terrorist massacres. Behind these…

Hackers declaring support for Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists appeared on Wednesday to have taken over a Facebook page promoting North Korea’s state-run airline Air Koryo, deriding the communist nation’s leader Kim Jong-Un as a “crying pig,” according to AFP.  The hackers replaced the page’s photo banner with ISIS’s black and white flag, and filled its timeline with pictures declaring support for the jihadists…

Leader of the House of Commons and former British foreign secretary William Hague has told Britain’s Jews that there is no need for them to leave the country following recent terror attacks, and despite rising fears of anti-Semitism in the UK, reports Britain’s Jewish Chronicle. Speaking at JW3 community center after four Jews were murdered in…

Jew-hating French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has been detained by police for a Facebook comment appearing to back terrorist murderer Amedy Coulibaly, reported the BBC Wednesday. Coulibaly shot dead a policewoman and four Jewish men in separate attacks in Paris. The Paris prosecutor has begun an inquiry into whether Dieudonne was being an apologist for…

Elbit Systems Ltd. announced Wednesday that it was awarded contracts by the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMOD), in a total amount of approximately $54 million, for the supply and maintenance of advanced electro-optics (EO) systems, to be performed by Elbit Systems Electro-optics Elop Ltd. (“Elop”), a global leader in the field of electro-optics, over a…

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit has held a meeting with the rabbinical counsel of MK Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party, reacting to widespread calls for the two religious nationalist parties to run on a joint list. Ben-Ari and activist Baruch Marzel met on Monday in Bnei Brak with Rabbi Meir Mazuz, who serves as Yishai’s rabbinical patron,…

Women In Green (WIG) continues its campaign calling for voters to select parties and candidates who support Israeli sovereignty in one form or another in Judea and Samaria in the upcoming March 17 elections. In the latest stage of the campaign, various quotes from politicians indicating support for annexation in Judea and Samaria are presented with English subtitles.…

A Republican congressman from Texas offered a swift apology Tuesday after he essentially compared US President Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler in a tweet about last week’s deadly attacks in France. “Even Adolph (sic) Hitler thought it more important than Obama to get to Paris,” Randy Weber posted on Twitter, after the US leader failed…

In a meeting of the council of hareidi Talmud Torah school managers, MK Ya’akov Asher (United Torah Judaism, UTJ) declared that arranging the budgeting for hareidi academic institutions is a prerequisite for the hareidi parties to join any future Knesset coalition government. “One of the prerequisites of United Torah Judaism to enter any future coalition is a…

A poll shows that over 71% of expected Bayit Yehudi (the “Jewish Home” party) voters do not consider themselves religiously observant. This is a surprising finding for a party that is a successor to the decades-old, now defunct National Religious Party. The poll, conducted by famous Israeli pollster Mina Tzemach, found that only 28.3% of…

Troops marching through Jewish districts and foreign legionnaires patrolling grimly under the arches of the Eiffel Tower – Paris is witnessing a rare deployment of armed forces on home soil after last week’s terror attacks. In the Marais district in central Paris – home to many Jewish homes, restaurants and businesses – the road appeared calm on Tuesday. Then suddenly a…

The Jewish Home party’s primary elections are set to take place tomorrow, after a highly successful recruitment drive. But now, just hours before polling stations throughout the country are set to open, the vote itself may be under threat. Lod District Court issued a temporary injunction on holding the vote late Tuesday afternoon, and will…

French lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved continuing air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists in Iraq as part of a US-led coalition. Prime Minister Manuel Valls urged parliament to extend the operation saying “our mission is not over…we are faced with a war against terrorism.” While the vote is routine, and is required to extend any French military intervention after four…

The EU’s counter-terrorism chief said Tuesday it is impossible to completely prevent new Islamist attacks like those in Paris, and warned that Europe’s prisons have become a “massive incubator” for radicalization. Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s Counter-Terrorism Coordinator, told AFP that the Islamic State (ISIS) and Al Qaeda terrorist groups wanted to launch more attacks on the…

Egypt’s Grand Mufti on Tuesday warned the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo against publishing a new caricature of the Prophet Mohammed, saying it was a racist act that would incite hatred and upset Muslims around the world, Reuters reported. Charlie Hebdo is due to publish a front page on Wednesday showing a caricature of the…

France cannot hope to grapple with the threat of Islamist terrorism until it develops a coherent strategy to tackle the extremist discourse which fuels it, warns a prominent anti-extremism campaigner. Haras Rafiq, who is the Managing Director of the UK-based Quilliam Foundation, told Arutz Sheva that while French authorities do have a “security” strategy in place to arrest and…

An Egyptian court on Tuesday overturned former president Hosni Mubarak’s conviction on corruption charges and ordered a retrial, AFP reported. The former president remains in detention pending a judicial order. Supporters of the 86-year-old broke into cheers and chanted “Long Live Justice!” as the Court of Cassation in Cairo announced its decision, which concerns the…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva on Tuesday to meet his Iranian counterpart as global powers seek to accelerate talks to reach a deal on reining in Iran’s nuclear program, reports AFP. Kerry has said the aim of his talks with Zarif on Wednesday is to “take stock” and provide guidance for…

Former United States President Jimmy Carter suggested on Monday there was a link between the Paris terrorist attack on the French magazine Charlie Hedbo and the conflict between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, Breitbart reports. The comments were made on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. On the show, the former president was asked…

Hamas’s creative department has come up with a video clip that features a choreographed, musical scene in which terrorists murder a Jewish yeshiva student. The clip shows two people acting out the roles of Jews in a synagogue or yeshiva, apparently studying Torah, but doing so somewhat bizarrely next to a midel of the Al…

Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, has sent a condolence letter to rabbis and Jewish community members in France Tuesday, following an Islamist’s rampage on a kosher supermarket in Paris last week.  “Along with the Jewish world, we are horrified to hear about the terrible attack that occurred at a kosher supermarket in Paris,…

A high-ranking police official in Limoges, France committed suicide hours after interviewing the families of the Charlie Hebdo victims, the Telegraph reports Tuesday – and it is unclear whether the two are connected.  Helric Fredou, 45, the deputy director of the regional police office in Limoges took his own life Wednesday night in the wake of the attack, which…

The terrorists behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks last week remained armed with a cache of weapons throughout their getaway from Paris, surveillance photos posted by French media outlet Mediaparte reveal Tuesday – and one traveled with a rocket apparently strapped to his back.  The stills, from a gas station the two robbed in the town of Carpi-en-Valois, northeast of Paris, were…

The Jerusalem district attorney on Tuesday submitted an updated indictment to the district court against Yitzhak Gabai (22), Shlomo Tuito (20) and his brother Nahman Tuito (18), who are suspected of setting fire to the bilingual Hebrew and Arabic Max Rayne Hand in Hand Jerusalem School last November. In the new indictment that was filed with the approval of Attorney…

A shocking video posted online Tuesday appears to show ISIS using a young child soldier to execute two alleged Russian spies in Syria. The slickly-produced video – which bears all the hallmarks of previous ISIS propaganda productions – shows two men being interrogated in Russian about their alleged attempt to infiltrate the jihadi group on…

El-Al flight 326 has arrived in Israel Tuesday morning, carrying the bodies of four victims of Friday’s horrific attack on Paris’s HyperCasher supermarket and their families for the funeral.  ZAKA International volunteers prepared the bodies of Philippe Braham, 40; Yohan Cohen, 22; Yoav Hattab, 21; and Francois-Michel Saada, in his 60s, Monday ahead of the burial.  The official burial will be held before…

As much as 30-40% of France’s Jewish schoolchildren stayed home Monday, Channel 10 reports, on the first day of school after Friday’s attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris.  France has deployed nearly 5,000 security forces and police to protect the 700 Jewish schools in the country this week following the attacks, according to special instructions from Interior…

Denmark’s main Jewish group on Tuesday called for police protection for its school and synagogue in Copenhagen, after four Jews were murdered last week in a hostage crisis at a kosher supermarket in Paris committed by an Islamist terrorist. “With the situation being like it is, we believe it’s very clear that Jewish targets are a high priority for the terrorists,”…

Moroccan police have detained three suspected supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group near the autonomous Spanish enclave of Ceuta, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. The arrests were made in the border town of Fnideq where two men were held last month on suspicion of running a cell recruiting young women via the Internet to join ISIS, the ministry…

Yemen’s president said Tuesday his country was a victim not an exporter of “terrorism,” in response to reports that one of the Paris gunmen received training from Al Qaeda in the violence-torn country. Said Kouachi, one of the two brothers behind the attack on French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, traveled to Yemen in 2011 and received weapons…

The latest “Panels Politics” poll conducted by the Knesset Channel shows the Labor party edging back into first place position with 24 seats, were elections to be held today. The results were released today (Tuesday), as some 50,000 Labor party members head to the polls in their party’s primaries, to decide on the list of…

An event featuring Jewish Home primaries candidate Ronen Shoval was disrupted by leftists Monday, and brought to an early end. The event was held at Beit Hatefutzot in Tel Aviv University, and featured Nobel Prize laureate Prof. Robert Aumann. Minister Naftali Bennett was also scheduled to appear but did not make it, apparently because his…

A religious scholar in Saudi Arabia has put a ban on a common childhood pastime, Gulf News reports Monday – building snowmen.  Mohammad Saleh Al Minjed released a fatwa (Muslim religious ban) on building snowmen recently, claiming that building any replica of any animal or human – even for fun – could not be condoned. Inanimate objects were fine to…

Twenty-four newcomers to national politics will be running for a seat on the joint Labor-Hatnua list in the Labor primaries Tuesday, according to Walla! News.  The news site listed nine of the lesser-known candidates on the list, giving a glimpse into what kind of initiatives Labor could introduce in the 20th Knesset.  Ayelet Nechmias-Varbin – a director…

As criticism mounts over the United States’ meager presence in France this past weekend, the White House admitted Monday that it had erred in not sending a higher-level representative to the mega rally in Paris against Islamic terrorism on Sunday.  “We should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.  …

Investigators from elite police unit Lahav 433, working in conjunction with the Israeli Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) uncovered that certain non-governmental organizations are being used to finance terrorist organizations.  The offices of the NGOs in question have been shut down.  They were suspected of financing “organizations which identify with the Islamic Movement and Hamas” and encouraging activists…

Temple Mount activist and assassination attempt survivor Yehuda Glick has reached out to legal rights group Honenu Monday, in an appeal to the High Court for Justice to testify about his ordeal in court during deliberations over the legality of demolishing his assassin’s home.  Two weeks ago, the High Court decided to suspend the demolition order for…

“CyberCaliphate,” a hacker group that claims association with terrorist organization Islamic State, apparently gained control of the official Twitter and YouTube accounts of United States Central Command on Monday (CENTCOM).  The US Central Command oversees the US’ military effort against the terror group in Syria and Iraq.  The hacker group immediately began posting messages showing…

The manager of the Paris kosher supermarket attacked on Friday plans to immigrate to Israel, his brother told a German daily newspaper.  In an exclusive interview Sunday, Joel Oalid, told the Bild newspaper that after the gruesome attack his brother, Patrice, 39, could no longer remain in Paris.  Patrice Oalid was shot in the arm during the…

The funeral for the four victims of Friday’s terror rampage at a Paris supermarket will be held at 12:00 pm Tuesday, after an early-morning burial at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot cemetery.  ZAKA International volunteers transferred the bodies of Philippe Braham, 40; Yohan Cohen, 22; Yoav Hattab, 21; and Francois-Michel Saada, in his 60s, to Israel from Paris Monday in preparation for…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday attacked Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for “daring” to attend the weekend’s anti-terror solidarity march in Paris, accusing him of leading “state terrorism” against the Palestinians. The comments were the latest verbal assault against Netanyahu and Israel in general by Erdogan, under whose rule Turkey’s relations with Israel have steadily…

President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday, and reiterated that the United States opposes the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) bid to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). “On the Palestinian ICC bid, President Obama reiterated the United States’ position that the Palestinian Authority does not yet constitute a state and…

An Iranian living in Yemen has been charged with promoting the Baha’i faith and trying to convert residents of the Muslim country for Israel’s benefit, state news agency Saba reported Monday. The man, arrested last year in Mukalla, southeast Yemen, had tried between 1991 and 2014 to “lure some Yemenis into abandoning Islam to follow this alleged faith”, according to…

Ten thousand Syrian refugees will be brought to Canada over the next three years, Canada’s Immigration Minister Chris Alexander has announced. The announcement, which was made last week, comes in response to a global appeal from the United Nations (UN) Refugee Agency to resettle 100,000 Syrians. The UN said war-torn Syria produces more refugees than…

As many as six members of a terrorist cell involved in the Paris attacks may still be at large, including a man who was seen driving a car registered to the widow of one of the slain gunmen, police officials said on Monday, according to The Associated Press (AP). Two French police officials said that…

Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir will likely be the next Yisrael Beytenu MK to resign from the Knesset, Channel 2 News reported on Monday. According to the report, the background for his resignation is the alleged connection between his ministry and the Yisrael Beytenu corruption case. The director-general of the Agriculture Ministry was recently detained and…

The Deputy Minister for Religious Services, Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home), is advancing a plan to recognize the rabbinical certificates of French rabbis, in order to hasten aliyah from France. Rabbi Ben Dahan’s bureau said that he visited France in November and met with rabbis and community leaders, who informed him of the problems…

Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum of Yisrael Beytenu has decided to resign from the Knesset, reported Channel 2 Monday. She plans to exercise her right to remain silent in the corruption investigation that she is at the center of. “With a heavy heart and after an extended period of indecision, I have decided that under…

US Secretary of State John Kerry announced Monday that he would travel to Paris later this week for talks with French officials, after the series of lethal attacks by Islamist terrorists last week. “I will be travelling there on Thursday and be there on Friday, part of Friday,” Kerry told reporters on a visit to India. Kerry said he wanted to be able “to…

France will deploy nearly 5,000 security forces and police to protect the 700 Jewish schools in the country, its interior minister said Monday, after last week’s deadly terrorist attacks, one of which targeted a kosher supermarket.  Bernard Cazeneuve said soldiers would also be posted as reinforcements, as he addressed parents of a Jewish school to…

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Monday that one of the three Islamist terrorists that killed a total of 17 people last week “undoubtedly” had an accomplice and vowed to continue the hunt. Amedy Coulibaly, who killed a policewoman in southern Paris last Thursday, and then last Friday four Jews in a kosher supermarket during a hostage crisis that…

The Knesset Members for Shas have been summoned to an unscheduled meeting at the party headquarters in Jerusalem, reported Kol Yisrael public radio Monday. Shas chairman Aryeh Deri – who resigned less than a fortnight ago – is expected to announce his retun to the leadership of the party, after the head of the party’s…

As the French Jewish community copes with tragedy following the brutal Islamist terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket Friday that left four Jews dead, members of the Betar Zionist movement in Paris are on high alert, patrolling the community to defend it from further attacks. The French Betar movement is based near the Porte-Vincennes area, where the…

Despite Egypt’s largely secular military-backed government, an Egyptian court has sentenced a student to three years in jail for announcing on Facebook that he is an atheist and for “insulting Islam,” his lawyer said Sunday. Karim al-Banna, a 21-year-old whose own father testified against him, was jailed by a court in the Nile Delta province of Baheira on…

The American creator of “Maus,” a graphic novel about the Holocaust, has denounced the “hypocrisy” of US media for refusing to republish the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo magazine, which was targeted in a bloody Islamist terror attack last week that left 12 dead. Art Spiegelman said he “admires” Charlie Hebdo and thought the satirical magazine fulfilled its “mission” of exercising…

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will make an historical visit to the Middle East starting this Friday through next Wednesday, with Israel featuring prominently as bilateral ties between the two nations continue to show signs of taking off. Abe’s is the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to Israel in almost a decade, since then-Prime…

MK Shelly Yechimovich (Labor) has asked the public to stop donating money to her election campaign Monday, noting that she has raised 274,700 shekels ($69,400) from 956 private donors and reached the permitted ceiling for donations. Labor-Hatnua’s primaries are being held Tuesday.  “The ‘Obama model’ which we used in Israel for the 2009 primaries – a platform…

A BBC news correspondent has apologized for his “poorly phrased question” during an interview Sunday night at the Paris “million-man march” against terror – comments which were slammed as anti-Semitic by Jewish rights groups. Tim Willcox was interviewing a French woman and daughter of holocaust survivors, who related fears held by many French Jews that anti-Semitism…

Khalid bin Mohammad Al Attiyah, Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced Monday that despite reports to the contrary, Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal remains in the country.  “All reports concerning the departure of Mashaal are not true,” Al Attiyah said at a joint press conference with Venezuelan counterpart Delcy Rodríguez in Qatar’s capital Doha.  Reports surfaced last week that Mashaal, Hamas’…

On Monday, two days before the Jewish Home primaries, Deputy Minister of Education Avi Wortzman abruptly fired his media advisor Udi Tenne, for offensive comments made against MK Shuli Muallem (Jewish Home).  Tenne, whose dismissal is “effective immediately,” wrote on social media that “it is unpleasant, but Shuli’s political campaign was based on the fact that…

Student leaders and grassroots community organizers are fighting for representation in the upcoming World Zionist Congress, claiming that the official Zionist movement has become “fossilized” and no longer relevant to Jewish young adults. The activists, representing a number of grassroots movements coming together as the Alliance for New Zionist Vision, say that “Zionism has been…

Former deputy minister with Yisrael Beytenu, Danny Ayalon, claimed on Monday to reveal the secret behind the recent slew of resignations from Avigdor Liberman’s party, saying Liberman had forced the party members to step down. Speaking in an interview with Kol Israel radio, Ayalon said the MKs were given an “offer they couldn’t refuse” by Liberman. Those MKs…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited on Monday the kosher supermarket in eastern Paris where four Jews were murdered by an Islamist gunman Friday. To the cries of “Bibi, Bibi” – his nickname – and under massive security protection, Netanyahu paid tribute to victims at the site, where Amedy Coulibaly took innocent shoppers hostage and murdered four. He…

Kulanu chairperson Moshe Kahlon vowed on Monday to disband the Israel Land Authority (ILA) – the government body tasked with managing state land that makes up 93% of the currently annexed territory of Israel – as part of a plan to lower housing prices. Speaking to veteran journalist Ben Caspit at the “Rocking the Market” event…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday met with leaders of the French Jewish community in the wake of the horrific attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris last Friday, in which four Jews were murdered by Islamist terrorists. “First of all, I would like to thank you, leaders of the French Jewish community, for the…

Egyptian authorities have decided to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza for three days for special cases, the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to Egypt said Sunday, according to the Ma’an news agency. The envoy, Jamal al-Shoubaki, said in a statement that the crossing would be open Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday on both sides. For the first…

Iran and the United States will explore ways to give impetus to nuclear talks when their chief diplomats meet in Geneva on Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday, according to Reuters. Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will confer ahead of a fresh round of negotiations between Iran and…

Austria has detained two teenage girls after they tried to travel to Syria to marry fighters from the Islamic State (ISIS), a spokesman for the prosecution was quoted by Reuters as having said Sunday. The girls, aged 16 and 17, had been sent back to Austria from Romania, where they were picked up by authorities…

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday hailed the unprecedented rally against terror in Paris as a strong message to the world, but added he would expect a similar reaction to attacks on Muslims and “Islamophobia”, according to AFP. Davutoglu joined dozens of other world leaders at the march in Paris to mourn the victims…

Signs are increasing that former MK Aryeh Deri is on the verge of returning to lead the Shas party, just two weeks after he handed in his resignation from the Knesset. The latest sign came Sunday in the form of a letter to Deri authored by Rabbi Shalom Cohen, head of the Shas Council of Torah Sages,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he appreciated the “very firm position” taken by French leaders against “the new anti-Semitism and terrorism” in France. “Our common enemy is radical, extremist Islam — not normal Islam,” Netanyahu said at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, after briefly joining other world leaders in a march against extremism…

Several hundred people gathered outside France’s embassy in Argentina Sunday in repudiation of the jihadist attacks in Paris that left 17 people dead earlier in the week, reports AFP. Demonstrators broke out in choruses of the Marseillaise and the Argentine national anthem outside the French diplomatic mission in Buenos Aires’s La Recoleta neighborhood. Signs carried…

The Clarion Project (“Challenging Extremism, Promoting Dialogue”, according to its website) reports that Turkish newspapers responded to the Islamic slaughter perpetrated against Charlie Hebdo (“Charlie Weekly”) by blaming the magazine. In the Western world, on the other hand, though it did not blame the victims, CNN and others refused to show the caricatures that were the…

An official with the Prime Minister’s Office told Kol Yisrael radio on Sunday night that France expressed reservations about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coming to Paris to participate in a rally in memory of the 17 victims of Islamist terror attacks in the city. According to the official, France did not specify the reason for…

The members of the Central Committee of the Tekuma-National Union party on Sunday elected their representatives who will be incorporated into the joint list with the Jewish Home party for the March 17 elections. Housing Minister Uri Ariel was elected to head the party, being the only candidate for the position. Attorney Bezalel Smotrich, Operations Manager for…

Eli Vaknin, a survivor of the terror attack at the kosher supermarket in Paris, spoke with IDF Radio Sunday morning about his ordeal. Vaknin was doing his Shabbat shopping when he saw a car stop and a man get out with two Kalashnikov rifles. “He was very muscular, with two guns, a commando knife and a bulletproof…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu left early Sunday morning for a two-day visit to France following the multiple terrorist attacks there last week, which saw 17 people murdered, including four at a Jewish supermarket.  Later on Sunday, Netanyahu, as well as many other world leaders, will attend a mass national rally in Paris to pay tribute to the victims. The rally is…

All entrances to Tzfat have been closed off because of heavy snowfall. In the Golan Heights, as well, highways have been closed off to traffic. These include Road 87 between the waterfalls and the Bashan, Road 90 between the fortresses and Metula, Road 91 from Kidmat Tzvi to Ein Zivan, Road 98 from Ramat Magshimim…

The offices of a German newspaper that reprinted Charlie Hebdo cartoons was the target of an arson attack early Sunday morning.  Vandals threw rocks at the offices of Hamburg Morgenpost, which published copies of cartoons by the French satirical magazine at the center of a terrorist massacre in Paris on Wednesday.  Many other German papers also…

The four Jews who were murdered on Friday in a terrorist attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris may be buried in Israel, Channel 2 News reported Saturday night. According to the report, the families of the four are seriously considering the idea of bringing their loved ones to rest in Israel. The CRIF umbrella…

Likud has edged past Labor in the poll average for the past week, with just over nine weeks left until Israel’s 20th Knesset election.  According to the Knesset Jeremy Weekly Average of six polls from four polling companies, the average breakdown of Knesset seats is as follows (seats in current Knesset are in square brackets,…

Yoav Hattab, 21, was an ardent Zionist who traveled to Israel for the first  time last month, a friend recalled at a gathering of French immigrants in Tel Aviv Saturday night. “We met on a trip to Israel two weeks ago,” said Leah Elyakim. “It was his first time here. He was from Tunisia, and until…

French prosecutors said Sunday they had linked the attacker of a Jewish supermarket to the shooting of a jogger in southern Paris just hours after a massacre by two other gunmen at the Charlie Hebdo weekly. In a statement the Paris prosecutor’s office said there was a link between “the bullets found in Fontenay-aux-Roses” where…

After receiving a tongue lashing by Likud for criticizing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s “weakness” during Operation Protective Edge, Hatnua Chairwoman Tzipi Livni is back in the ring with more critiques.  Livni, who is running in the March elections with the Labor party, spoke Sunday at the prestigious Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa to high school students. …

David Cameron, Angela Merkel and Binyamin Netanyahu were among world leaders who arrived Sunday at the French Elysee presidential palace, poised to take part in a historic march against terror. The British, German and Israeli leaders were also joined by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, all of whom will march…

In the wake of Friday’s terror attack at a kosher market in Paris,thousands of French Jews have begun making plans to leave the country, many sources in the community say – and hundreds showed up at an Aliyah Fair held by the Jewish Agency Sunday that was held under tight security in central Paris. The…

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Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharanky flew to France Sunday morning in order to participate in the mass rally, to be held later in the day, against global terrorism.  He will join Israeli representatives – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, Economy Minister Naftali Bennett and MK Eli Yishai – as well as a host of…

At least two of the gunmen who unleashed terror on France are believed to have been radicalized in prison, a fertile ground for extremism that authorities are struggling to contain. Both Mohamed Merah, the Al Qaeda terrorist who shot dead seven people in a series of 2012 attacks, and Mehdi Nemmouche, last year’s Brussels Jewish museum…

This week’s deadly terrorist attacks have again set off a competition between the French and Israeli governments to reassure and secure the affection of France’s increasingly nervous Jewish population. Not for the first time, Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used an attack by Islamic terrorists in France to urge the country’s Jews to relocate. “To all the Jews…

Channel 2 reported Sunday that there was some ugly international wrangling behind the scenes of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s changing plans for attending the rally in Paris Sunday. Netanyahu’s bureau said Saturday evening that the prime minister would not be attending the anti-terror rally, citing security considerations. A short time later, however, it turned out that…

The last person who should have been invited to the million-plus rally in Paris Sunday, said Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, was Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas. “If we want to fight terror, we have to call it by name. Both Abbas and the Emir of Qatar, who was also invited to the rally, have their…

Over the past several days, rabbis from Israel and around the world have sent condolence letters and messages to Rabbi Haim Korsia, Chief Rabbi of France, over the deaths of four Jews in the terror attack at a kosher grocery in Paris Friday. In a message to Rabbi Korsia, Jerusalem Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar…

Increased Internet surveillance and tighter border checks are “urgently” needed to foil jihadist attacks of the sort that rocked Paris this week, European, US and Canadian security ministers agreed Sunday. The gathering of interior and justice ministers at the French interior ministry was held before a massive anti-terror march in Paris that included dozens of…

The weapons wielded by gunmen sowing mayhem at Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris this week were powerful but – for those in the know – readily available in France, experts say. Kalashnikov assault rifles, the M82 grenade launcher, hand grenades, explosive material, Tokarev handguns: everything in the arsenals possessed by the Koubachi…

Tens of thousands of people rallied worldwide in solidarity with France on Sunday, with marchers across Europe and the Middle East chanting “Je suis Charlie” and holding pens in the air. From Jerusalem to London and Berlin to Beirut, crowds waved French flags and sang the anthem La Marseillaise following the Islamist attacks that killed 17 people.…

Over one million people, including dozens of world leaders, marched together through Paris Sunday in a historic show of solidarity and defiance after terrorist attacks in the French capital that claimed 17 lives. French President Francois Hollande and leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas marched at the front of the…

Unless the West is willing to face up to its enemies, all the rallies it musters against “terror,” as large as they may be, won’t do any good, said MK Moshe Feiglin. In a Facebook post Sunday, Feiglin pointed out what he said was the “irrelevance” of mass rallies against terror, of the type taking…

French law enforcement officers have been told to delete their social media accounts and to carry their weapons at all times because terror sleeper cells have been activated over the last 24 hours in the country, a French police source who attended a briefing Saturday told CNN. According to the report, Ahmedy Coulibaly, who attacked…

A delegation of the Almagor Terror Victims Association will visit France this week to take part in the funerals of the four victims of Friday’s kosher supermarket terrorist attack in Paris. The delegation will be headed by Almagor Chairman Meir Indor and by by Rabbi Yehuda Ben-Yishai, whose daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren – the…

Two men have been arrested after counter-terrorism raids in Sydney, Australian officials said Saturday, according to AFP. Officers arrested one man on Friday following raids at four properties in Sydney’s southwest that police said were “part of a long-running investigation and not as a result of any specific terrorism threat”, the report said. The 33-year-old…

The United States last week expressed its dissatisfaction over Turkey’s contacts with Hamas, and the terror group took exception. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in her daily press briefing on Thursday that Washington’s position on Hamas has not changed and classified the group as a “designated foreign terrorist organization that continues to engage in…