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Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas is to apply immediately to join the International Criminal Court, senior officials said Wednesday, after the UN Security Council rejected a resolution to recognize the PA as a “Palestinian state”. Abbas will sign the Rome Statute later Wednesday, adhering to the founding treaty of the ICC, where the Palestinians could…

In response to the incessant Hamas rocket barrage during Operation Protective Edge that led international airlines to impose a temporary flight ban on Ben-Gurion International Airport in mid-July, Israel concluded a drill on Tuesday to have an alternate airport in the southern Negev for just such instances. Ben-Gurion decided to hold a drill of closing the…

The United Nations (UN) Security Council failed on Tuesday night to adopt a resolution on Palestinian statehood, AFP reports. Only eight countries voted in favor of the resolution, two voted against, and there were five abstentions. The resolution needed nine votes in its favor to have passed. France, China and Russia were among the countries…

Cash-strapped Channel 10 has received a six-month reprieve from Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein. The Second Authority for Television and Radio, which oversees Channel 10, announced Tuesday night that Weinstein stated that the decision regarding the channel will be postponed by six months, until after the March elections and the establishment of a new government. During…

Chinese state media on Tuesday reported that the Asian economic superpower, which holds the world’s second largest GDP, will begin negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with Israel next year. China likewise will look to advance free trade talks with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates next year, reports China…

Russia expressed regret at the failure of the Palestinian Authority (PA) resolution at the UN Security Council on Tuesday, describing it as a “strategic error.” “Russia regrets that the UN Security Council did not manage to adopt the draft resolution,” Russia’s envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said after the vote late on Tuesday. “We consider this a strategic…

Israeli diplomats forcefully responded to the UN Security Council vote Tuesday night that saw the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) unilateral bid for recognition as a state and demand for Israeli withdrawals by 2017 defeated. Nine votes were needed to pass the resolution, which would then have likely been shot down by an American veto. Instead the…

Think of Judea and Samaria (Shomron), the Biblical regions of the West Bank, and most likely the first thing that springs to mind is political strife and negative news headlines. However, there is another entirely different story taking place in this region which is rarely seen. In a quiet corner of Western Shomron, you will…

Arab farmers in the Shiloh Bloc of Samaria, where Arab assailants have in the past caused massive damage to Jewish agriculture, prepared to arrive Wednesday to plow adjacent to the Jewish communities of Esh Kodesh and the Yeshuv Hada’at Farms, under the permission of the IDF. The plowing was given permission by the IDF’s Civil…

The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s draft resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Judea-Samaria failed in a UN Security Council vote Tuesday night – and an Israeli businessman may have contributed to the resolution being shelved.  Businessman Hezi Bezalel has been working in the past few weeks behind the scenes to ensure that the draft resolution…

Anti-Semitism in France is, unfortunately for the country’s Jewish residents, a growing industry – and French Jewish community activist Avraham Azulai, who is running for a spot on Jewish Home’s Knesset list, is seeking to enter politics in order to pave the way for the many French Jews he expects to emigrate to Israel in…

Israel needs a strong Likud – and a strong Binyamin Netanyahu leading it, said MK Miri Regev. Speaking Wednesday, after she cast her vote in the Likud primaries taking place throughout the day, Regev said that party members had the opportunity to fashion a winning ticket that would appeal to a wide range of Israelis…

US President Barack Obama had already played six games of golf during his Christmas vacation in Hawaii, but on Sunday his seventh round nearly landed him in the PR sandbox as it forced two US Army captains to move their wedding from the site. The soldiers, Natalie Heimel and Edward Mallue Jr., had planned to hold…

A Palestinian house in the village of Yatta, near Hevron in the Judea region, was firebombed last night in what appears to be a “price tag” attack. Five children and two adults were in the house at the time of the attack, in which several incendiary devices were hurled into the property through a window.…

Wednesday marks the last day of 2014, and year-end figures released today by The Jewish Agency for Israel and Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption show it has been a record year for aliyah (immigration). Around 26,500 new immigrants arrived in Israel in 2014 marking a 32% increase over last year and a ten-year high…

One of the world’s largest publishing houses is distributing school Atlases in Middle Eastern countries which totally erase any reference to the State of Israel, it has been revealed. HarperCollins’ subsidiary Collins Bartholomew, which specializes in maps, are selling “Collins Middle East Atlases” to English-speaking schools in the Gulf states which depict Jordan and Syria extending all…

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist organization behind the Palestinian Authority (PA) complained loudly on Wednesday, after the unilateral PA bid demanding statehood and Israeli withdrawals was shot down in a vote at the UN Security Council. PLO Executive Committee Member Hanan Ashrawi said “the UN Security Council vote is outrageously shameful,” reports AFP. The unilateral PA…

Israel in recent days signed the UN’s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), in which the country commits not to sell weapons to terrorists and criminal groups. Israel has taken on provisional membership in the treaty, and will review the matter after a 24 month test membership period. The treaty became effective on December 24, and has…

The IDF has frozen a directive to pull military patrols from communities along the Gaza border, Channel 10 reports Wednesday – at least, until Sunday.  Soldiers guarding the Jewish communities most at risk from Hamas infiltration attempts or rocket fire will remain at their posts until then, the news agency said, and Thursday – the original…

A new research study led by NASA has reversed commonly held theories about carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, finding that the emissions in fact are absorbed by tropical forests at a higher rate than they are released by them, leading to a boost in growth in the forests. The study found tropical forests absorb 1.5 billion…

The Palestinian Authority is claiming it has the necessary nine-vote majority to enable it to pass a resolution through the UN Security Council calling for recognition of a “Palestinian state” as well as an Israeli withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and “East Jerusalem”. The vote is due to take place tonight (Tuesday) at 10 p.m. GMT,…

Bentzi Gopshtain, director of the Lehava anti-assimilation organization, has recently been the subject of a police crackdown and intensive media scrutiny – but according to him, the arrests and press attention have only strengthened his organization and vindicated its legality. The 45-year-old father of eight and resident of Kiryat Arba adjacent to Hevron in Judea…

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird has joined calls urging the United Nations Security Council to vote down a resolution drafted by the Palestinian Authority calling for an imposed solution on the Arab-Israeli conflict. The UN Security Council will vote later Tuesday on a draft resolution submitted by Jordan on behalf of the PA, demanding recognition as a…

Controversy embroiled Shas chairperson Aryeh Deri submitted a letter of resignation Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud), after being discredited in video recordings released to the media showing Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef zt”l slamming Deri. The dramatic step comes after Deri submitted his resignation to the Shas Council of…

The UN Security Council will vote later Tuesday on a draft resolution from the Palestinian Authority (PA) unilaterally demanding recognition as a state and Israeli withdrawals, Jordan’s ambassador and diplomats said. “We have decided that we are going to pass to a vote at the Security Council on the resolution,” Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar told reporters, according to AFP. Diplomats said…

After Israel last Thursday secretively returned for burial the bodies of Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, the two terrorists who carried out the massacre on a Har Nof synagogue in Jerusalem last month murdering four Jews at prayer and a police officer, the Palestinian Authority (PA) lost no time praising the two “martyrs.” In the horrific attack the…

The past several days have been filled with headlines concerning the Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party. Headed by former Shas chairman Eli Yishai – who broke away from the hareidi-Sephardic party in acrimony following a very public falling-out with its leader Aryeh Deri – it has remained in the media spotlight since its founding just…

As 2014 winds to an end, the very last plane of olim (immigrants) from North America making aliyah to Israel with the organization Nefesh B’Nefesh landed on Tuesday morning, closing a record year of immigration. The final plane held the last 60 olim, as Nefesh B’Nefesh records a 7% increase in immigrants from North America…

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino on Tuesday visited a base in the Judea and Samaria region of the Border Patrol’s special mista’aravim unit, an elite squad of undercover forces disguising themselves as Arabs to covertly stop terror. In the course of his visit, Danino presented commanders of the unit with the Police Commissioner’s Shield of Excellence award…

At midnight on Tuesday night, the gasoline prices for gas stations around Israel will be updated. The price for a liter of 95 octane unleaded Benzene for self-service (including VAT) will drop by 63 agurot to 6.27 shekels (roughly $1.60), constituting a 9.13% drop from last month. For the same gasoline with full service an…

Malaysian officials have confirmed that they have found the debris field for AirAsia Flight QZ8501, which disappeared on Sunday over the Java Sea with 162 people on board.  The debris field, which includes several bodies, a life jacket, and a cabin door, was found by Indonesian military officials Tuesday floating in the sea off Borneo island.  Indonesian…

Shas MK Nissim Zeev, who founded the party in 1983, spoke in a special interview with Arutz Sheva on Tuesday about the drama unfolding between Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and Ha’am Itanu leader Eli Yishai, as well as the leaked footage of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. In the recordings, Rabbi Yosef is seen in private meetings condemning Deri for…

Eight ministers and 39 employees of the Ramallah-based Palestinian unity government arrived in Gaza through the Erez crossing on Monday, in the second visit of its kind since the unity government was formed in June. Government spokesman Ihab Bseiso told the Ma’an news agency that the visit aims to foster “real cooperation between all political…

After years of calling for Israel’s destruction, is Hamas actually prepared to talk with the Jewish state? According to a report on Monday in the British Independent, the group may be considering it. According to the report, Hamas is reviewing its strategy with the changing times. It is conducting an internal debate, with proposals which…

The chairmen of 20 regional councils in Judea and Samaria have penned a letter to the heads of Israel’s security establishment demanding that an attack labelled as a hit-and-run be recategorized as a terror attack. On December 1, three Arabs plowed into 63 year-old Avraham Ben-Tzion with his own stolen vehicle as he was standing…

It is Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri, not spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, zt”l, who orchestrated Shas’s lean leftward and vote for the Oslo Accords, according to footage leaked on Channel 2 Monday night.  In the footage, R’ Ovadiah Yosef, zt”l is seen conversing with a Shas confidante, noting that Deri was the one who established the policy…

The corruption investigation into Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party and the drama surrounding Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri could see many voters move their allegiances to Jewish Home, Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman (Jewish Home) stated Tuesday.  Wortzman, in a special interview with Arutz Sheva, stated that his party has already begun to benefit from…

The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday that it will not allow screening of Hollywood’s Biblical epic “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” mirroring similar bans by Egypt and Morocco, according to AFP. The National Media Council, charged with vetting films for release in the UAE, said the Ridley Scott movie about Moses’s escape from pharaonic Egypt contained “religious and historical mistakes.” “The film…

IDF soldiers were forced to open fire after a suspected improvised explosive device was thrown at soldiers from a car driving past Beit Ummar, a spokesperson told AFP Tuesday, seriously wounding a teenaged Palestinian Arab terrorist. Family members told the news agency the incident happened as Mohammed Awwad, 17, was traveling in a car with his 19-year-old brother back to…

President Reuven Rivlin spoke at the International Joint (JDC) and Economics Ministry conference for hareidi employment Tuesday, where he noted that the hareidi community in Israel has ceased to be a minority.  “One of the things I learned from my teachers is to separate fact and interpretation,” Rivlin said. “The fact is that already at the…

Hamas again criticized the political process of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the center of which is a draft resolution calls for Israel to “end the occupation” – that is, to withdraw from Judea and Samaria – by 2017. Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for the Change and Reform Party in Hamas and a Hamas leader, called the resolution…

The Rishon Letzion Magistrates Court on Tuesday extended the arrest of several senior state employees suspected of being involved in a massive corruption scandal that was revealed last week, among them prominent members of the Yisrael Beytenu party. The arrest of Israel Anti-Drug Authority (IADA) CEO Yair Geler was extended till Friday. Efraim Peles, treasurer of…

Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King exposed surprising tidings on Monday night, revealing that the capital’s Municipality last Monday passed out 100 Christmas trees for free at the Old City’s Yafo Gate, in a move supporting Christianity in the 3,000-year-old Jewish capital. The official announcement from the Municipality’s website which King attached in a Facebook post read…

Jewish Home issued an urgent and unusual announcement on Tuesday distancing itself from statements made by a candidate for the party’s primaries, in which the candidate supported the concept of giving up parts of Israel to the Palestinian Arabs. “A Palestinian state – that’s not in our school (of thought),” read the announcement. “Jewish Home…

Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger cancelled a High Court for Justice injunction against the revised version of the Infiltration Law going into effect on Tuesday, paving the way for Israel to crack down on its illegal immigration issue.  NGO Israeli Immigration Policy Center’s director Orli Yogir welcomed the move.  “The rejection of the interim order is…

Former Finance Minister Yair Lapid slammed the 19th Knesset Tuesday, saying in comments about the Yisrael Beytenu corruption case that MKs were fighting internal corruption “every day” in the government over the past two years.  “These two years we had to fight every day against corruption, a culture of cronyism and ‘jobs,’ and the abuse of…

Shas’s Council of Torah Sages have rejected Chairman Aryeh Deri’s request to resign as the party’s leader Monday night, arriving specifically at Deri’s home in Har Nof, Jerusalem to deliver the news.  “We are full appreciation of how Deri has managed the party and direct him to continue serving as Chairman,” the rabbis announced, adding…

President Reuven and First Lady Nechama Rivlin held a Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebration at the President’s residence for 50 children who are the victims or related to victims of terrorist attacks.   Among the children who celebrated their Bar and Bat Mitzvah’s were three orphans whose parents were killed during the Second Intifada: Yigal…

A female aid worker from Sierra Leone has become the first person to bring Ebola to the United Kingdom, BBC News reports Monday night, and is in isolation in a Glasgow hospital.  The aid worker, whose identity is being kept under wraps, had arrived in Glasgow via Casablanca and London’s Heathrow airport, and arrived in Scotland Sunday…

Defense Minister Moshe (Bogie) Ya’alon (Likud) has ordered the promotion of the legislation planned by El-Matan to become part of the municipality of Ma’ale Shomron, as well as a tourist attraction.  El Matan, found in Samaria, was established in 2001 by residents of nearby towns on the Nahal Kaneh Nature reserve. It is considered an unauthorized outpost by…

President Barack Obama on Monday said he was not ruling out the possibility of reopening a U.S. Embassy in Iran, reports The Associated Press (AP). Obama was asked in an NPR interview whether he could envision opening an embassy there during his final two years in office. “I never say never,” Obama said, adding that…

Palestinian Authority (PA) envoys are pressing on with changes to a draft UN resolution on statehood Monday, meeting with Arab countries to decide when the text should be put to a vote at the Security Council, according to AFP. Security Council member Jordan called the meeting of the Arab Group at the United Nations to discuss the new draft that…

Former New York Times Middle East bureau chief Chris Hedges was uninvited from speaking at a University of Pennsylvania conference following the publication of an incendiary column.  That column, from December 15, closely compares Israel to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.  Hedges, who now works as a columnist for Truthdig.com, was scheduled to speak April 3…

The Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center slammed on Monday a Mass in Zagreb to commemorate Croatia’s World War II pro-Nazileader, calling it a “badge of shame” for the Catholic Church. “It’s hard to believe that in the center of the capital of a member of the European Union, very close to Zagreb’s Jewish community, hundreds of people gathered yesterday to…

Labor and Likud are still tied for the top spot in the 2015 elections, according to a survey published by Channel 2 Monday night.  Both parties are due to gain 24 mandates in the 20th Knesset, with Jewish Home in third place with 16 seats.  The Arab parties would form the biggest bloc, if running together, with…

The United States reiterated on Monday that it does not support the unilateral draft resolution that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is promoting at the United Nations Security Council. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said Washington believes the resolution, which demands an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria by 2017, would not advance the goal of…

Indonesia has requested help from the United States to search for a missing AirAsia jetliner, officials in Washington said Monday, according to the AFP news agency. The State Department also confirmed that no Americans were on Flight QZ8501, which disappeared on Sunday over the Java Sea with 162 people on board. “Our embassy in Jakarta…

The Palestinian Authority’s envoys presented on Monday a more toughly-worded United Nations (UN) draft resolution on statehood that could come up for a vote at the Security Council this week, AFP reports. Arab ambassadors met at UN headquarters for about two hours to endorse the text that contains new provisions on declaring eastern Jerusalem the…

The IDF will on Thursday pull out its security forces from Israeli communities that are not located near the security fence with Gaza, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced on Monday evening.  The move was made after evaluating the security situation, with the understanding that the IDF provides optimal security to the communities in the Gaza…

The United States military on Monday carried out an airstrike against the Islamic terrorist group Al-Shabaab in Somalia, NBC News reported, but the Pentagon did not say whether the intended target, described only as a senior leader, was killed. A U.S. official told NBC News that no ground forces were involved. “At this time, we…

Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri said on Monday night that he is determined to resign from his position, despite the fact that the party’s Council of Torah Sages had earlier rejected his request to resign as the party’s leader. In a letter to party activists, Deri said his resignation, though a painful move, was required in order…

After the Parisian suburb of Valenton in October named a street after Fatah arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti, now another suburb of the French capital Aubervilliers has followed suit, raising a furor by granting Barghouti “honorary citizenship” last weekend. Responding to the Aubervilliers decision, members of the Jewish community contacted the municipality and demanded that it reconsider, noting “this…

Shevah Stern, head of the Likud’s “National Headquarters” faction and a candidate in the Likud primaries running for the party’s Knesset list, has launched a public call on Prime Minister and Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu to obligate himself to arranging the legal status of Amona in Samaria and prevent the town’s destruction. Stern’s call for…

Engineer Fishel (Faisal) Benkhald, a Pakistani who according to his own estimation is the last Jew in the Muslim country, is struggling to preserve the Jewish cemetery in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city with a population of 20 million. Benkhald, whose father was Muslim and whose mother was an Iranian Jew, told the British The Guardian last…

For the past 30 years, when tourists would arrive at the stately entrance to the Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv at 110 Allenby St, the doors were usually locked. But thanks to a group of community activists and young locals, that is beginning to change. After decades of inactivity and some disrepair, the synagogue is…

Lod Magistrates Court has sentenced Raanana resident Michal Aloni to two consecutive life sentences for murdering her two young daughters in 2010. In October of that year, Aloni strangled six-year-old Roni and four-year-old Nathalie to death in a callous act of murder. Aloni plead temporary insanity, and her motive has not been determined, but a…

Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir of Otzma Yehudit told Arutz Sheva that while there has been a call for the nationalist party to run jointly with Eli Yishai’s Ha’am Itanu, Yishai apparently is leaning away from such a joint list – but running as a technical bloc may just be the answer for the two to form an ideological…

In what has become a “Christmas tradition” for the Palestinian Authority (PA), PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and other senior figures of the group once again made the ahistorical claim that Jesus was “Palestinian.” Abbas last Monday told the official PA paper WAFA “we celebrate the birth of Jesus, a Palestinian messenger of love, justice and peace,” as…

A unique visit occurred on Sunday when Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Dov Kalmanovich, himself a firebomb attack victim, came to the Sheba Medical Center to visit the parents of 11-year-old Ayala Shapira, who was critically wounded last Thursday in a firebomb attack. Ayala’s father Avner was also lightly wounded in the attack that occurred as the…

Britain is set to unveil a raft of tough new laws to tackle anti-Semitism Monday, following a shocking rise in the number of hate crimes against Jews over the summer. Writing in The Daily Express, the UK’s Communities Secretary Eric Pickles pulled no punches, warning that the “ancient evil” of anti-Semitism was rearing its head in the…

Several of the children of Shas spiritual founder Rabbi Ovadia Yosef z”tl visited their father’s grave on Monday, as part of a campaign to support Shas head Aryeh Deri after damaging recordings were released the day before showing the rabbi criticizing Deri. In the recordings, Rabbi Yosef is seen in private meetings condemning Deri for his corruption that…

Former Minister and Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) leader Avi Dichter will be returning to politics, Walla! News reports Monday – this time, running in the Likud primaries, to be held on Wednesday.  Dichter returns to politics after leaving Kadima in 2012 to join Likud, and after briefly serving until March 2013 as Home Front…

The Larissa Jewish cemetery was desecrated last Tuesday in the latest incident in a long string of anti-Semitic vandalism in Greece.  Larissa, a major city located in central Greece, is home to Greece’s third largest Jewish community. The graffiti found on the Jewish cemetery in the city was signed by a group called the “Larissa…

Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett was in Jerusalem Monday for the annual international rabbinical conference, and noted the significance of the yearly event taking place in the ancient Jewish capital. “We’re in a special era in Israel, an era when people can stand up without apologizing and say: ‘We believe in Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael…

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, the rabbinical guide for former Shas chairperson Eli Yishai’s recently founded Ha’am Itanu party, denied on Sunday night that recordings damaging to Shas head Aryeh Deri which surfaced during the day were released by Yishai. In the recording, Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef z”tl is seen in private meetings condemning Deri for…

Police forces arrived on Monday morning to the Tel Aviv suburb of Givat Amal to evict the last remaining eight families who continue to refuse to evacuate the area. MK Ilan Gilon of the radical leftist Meretz party together with the families have holed themselves up in the homes and refuse to leave. Hundreds of…

A rare Sumatran tiger in the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo has killed and eaten her two five-week-old cubs in a blow to its captive breeding program, its chief vet said Monday.   The mother tiger, named Hana, had given birth to three cubs after being mated with a tiger from Germany called Avigdor, Nili Avni-Magen told…

A police gag order was released revealing that the Jerusalem district attorney on Monday submitted an indictment against two Arab brothers from eastern Jerusalem, who were arrested for planning a terrorist attack for Hamas in the capital. The brothers, 28-year-old Shaban bin Ahmed Hamad and 23-year-old Mohammed bin Ahmed Hamad, were accused of membership in…

The council of Arab UN ambassadors gathered on Monday to discuss the Palestinian Authority (PA) resolution set to be proposed at the UN Security Council, unilaterally demanding recognition and Israeli withdrawals – however, the vote on the resolution set for Monday looks to be postponed yet again. Last Friday PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat announced…

IDF forces who were deployed to prevent Arab terrorists from hurling potentially lethal rocks at Israeli cars located Arab terrorists attacking cars near the Tapuach Junction in Samaria, and in the ensuing confrontation shot one of the terrorists to death. A message from the IDF Spokesperson unit clarified that the soldiers conducted the standard procedure…

Indonesia resumed at dawn Monday (local time) the search for an AirAsia plane that went missing in the Java Sea with 162 people on board a day earlier, a search and rescue official told AFP. “We have resumed the search for the missing AirAsia plane at 6:00 a.m. We are heading to east Belitung island,”…

Hamas on Sunday denied a Kuwaiti newspaper’s report that Qatar has informed Hamas that it would be temporarily halting its financial support, reports i24news. The Kuwaiti Al Jarida reported last week that the move was made in order to push Hamas to change its policy against Egypt, which the Gulf state has just reconciled with.…

The Islamic State (ISIS) group has killed 1,878 people in Syria during the past six months, the majority of them civilians, a British-based Syrian monitoring organization said on Sunday, according to Reuters. ISIS also killed 120 of its own members, most of them foreign fighters trying to return home, in the last two months, said…

Channel 10 went dark on Sunday night at about 10:30 p.m. Israel time, at the instruction of the channel’s employees union. Instead of regular programming, the channel displayed a picture of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, alongside the words, “In three days, Channel 10 will close. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who serves as Minister of Communications,…

Jerusalem councilman Moshe Lion, a close associate of Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, was detained and questioned for several hours on Sunday in connection with the corruption scandal involving members of the Yisrael Beytenu party, it has been cleared for publication. Lion, who unsuccessfully tried to run for mayor of Jerusalem, was released following the questioning…

Jordan has reportedly asked Turkey for help in rescuing a Jordanian pilot captured last week by Islamist terrorists during a mission in Syria, the Hurriyet daily newspaper reported Sunday night. According to the report, the Jordanian government has appealed to Turkey’s Embassy in Amman to help save Moaz Safi Yousef al-Kassasbeh, the 26-year-old pilot who…

Former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon, who is running in the March elections as head of the newly founded Kulanu party, warned Sunday against a “social disengagement” in Israel. “In Israel of 2014, the equation is simple: The weaker you are – the more you pay. This situation has to change, and this situation is going…

Whatever polls appear in the coming days, there is one statistic that election-watchers need to keep in mind: 61% of Jewish Israeli Hebrew-speaking voters have not made up their mind for whom to vote in next March’s elections. That number comes from a poll taken over the weekend by TRI Strategy, a well-known polling firm…

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu) announced his resignation from politics Sunday evening. Speaking at a Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting, Landau revealed he did not intend to run in the coming elections next March. “I spoke with the foreign minister (Avigdor Liberman) and informed him that I would not be presenting my candidacy for the…

The comments heard there may not always be so “kosher,” but the food they eat most definitely is, Jerusalem’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar said of the Knesset Sunday. “The kitchens here are among the most kosher I have ever visited anywhere in Israel,” Rabbi Amar said after a tour of the kitchen. Rabbi Amar…

With elections on the horizon, members of the Knesset Interior and Environmental Protection Committee decided that the time was right for some new legislative regulations – specifically, on the size and strength of bonfires. According to the new regulations, bonfires cannot exceed a diameter of four meters (12 feet), and cannot be higher than three…

The government on Sunday authorized an expenditure of NIS 17 million ($4 million) for the reclamation of lands in the Arava that were damaged in the recent major oil spill. The government intends to collect most of that money from the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company, the firm that was responsible for the pipeline that exploded…

A senior officer in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) has been killed in Iraq, according to Iranian officials. AFP cited a statement from the elite Iranian military force declaring simply that “Brigadier General Hamid Taghavi was martyred during a mission to advise the army and Iraqi volunteers… in the city of Samarra,” north of Baghdad. Taghavi is…

IDF soldiers and National Service volunteers should be given the right to vote in the Jewish Home party primaries on January 14, 2015, according to MK Moti Yogev. Yogev turned to the party’s CEO, Nir Orbach, and the Chairman of the Election Committee for Jewish Home, Shay Natan, as well as the head of the…

The Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, spent Christmas in Israel with his family, as part of a nine-day vacation, which includes some work meetings with government and business leaders.  While in Israel, as a visiting dignitary, Pence and his family were invited to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ annual Christmas dinner in Ramallah.  According to…

In 79 days, Israelis will go to the polls and vote for the makeup of Israel’s 20th Knesset – but before that happens, the parties need to decide on their lists of candidates.  So while election fever hasn’t quite set in just yet, primaries fever has. That is, at least for the three parties that…

Treasury and Histadrut labor union officials on Sunday agreed on a framework to raise the minimum wage in Israel to NIS 5,000 per month for full-time workers. The increase will be built into future Histadrut labor contracts, and later advanced for legislation in the Knesset. Officials will discuss a schedule to implement the increases with…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attended a meeting on security in Jerusalem on Sunday with top officials, including the Public Security Minister and Jerusalem Chief of Police. At the meeting, it was decided that 400 more police officers would be deployed in Jerusalem. According to police data, the number of security incidents in the city has…

Hamas on Sunday prevented dozens of children orphaned during its 50-day war with Israel from entering Israeli territory in a pre-arranged trip, organizers and officials said – despite Israel making the effort to allow the children to visit.  The week-long visit was planned for 37 children whose parents were killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in July and August…

Residents of the Samaria community of El-Matan, where Arab terrorists last week firebombed a car, badly injuring an 11 year old girl, are demanding that the government reopen a road that had been closed to them. The road, they say, is much more secure than the one they are currently forced to use. In a…

Kids have a right to speak out, even if that speaking out is done against serving in the IDF, according to Itai Benowitz, principal of the Israel Arts and Sciences Academy (IASA) in Jerusalem, after a group of 53 graduates of his high school released a letter Sunday calling for a boycott on serving in…

Some 10,000 full-time married yeshiva students received on Sunday their last-ever government stipend, ending a tradition that has been extant for 33 years. Since 1981, students who learn in yeshiva full-time have received around $1,000 a month, depending on family size, to help support their families. The legislation for the stipends was prepared by former…

An explosive recording has been released showing former Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef slamming current party chairman Aryeh Deri for corruption, as tensions continue to escalate between Deri and is arch-rival Eli Yishai.  Aired on Channel Two, the never-before-seen recordings are from a meeting held in 2008 between Rabbi Yosef and several members of…

Officials in Shas were confused and embarrassed on Saturday night, following a rant by Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the head of the party’s Council of Torah Sages, in which he insulted former Shas leader Eli Yishai, who recently left Shas to form his own party. In remarks made over the weekend, Rabbi Cohen seemed to refer…

Dr. Anat Roth used to be an activist with the leftist Peace Now organization and an advisor to former Labor leaders Ehud Barak and Amram Mitzna, but now has had a “change of heart”. Roth announced on Saturday night that she would be running for the Knesset with the Jewish Home party. She will be…

Egypt announced it has banned a Hollywood film based on the Biblical book of Exodus because of what censors described as “historical inaccuracies”, reports the BBC. The head of the Egyptian censorship board said these “inaccuracies” included the film’s depiction of Jews as having built the Pyramids, and that an earthquake, not a miracle by…

Yesh Atid chairman, MK Yair Lapid, on Saturday vowed that his party would never split Jerusalem, even at the expense of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Speaking at an event in Holon, Lapid also launched a verbal tirade against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his lack of diplomatic action following Operation Protective Edge…

Several Jewish Home MKs have welcomed the candidacy of senior Walla! News editor and Sayeret Matkal veteran Yinon Magal for the 2015 elections Sunday, praising his values and outspoken resolve to stand up for the State of Israel.  “I have known Yinon for over 30 years, as a soldier and an officer in Sayeret Matkal, and…

Indonesia air traffic control has lost track of a flight to Singapore, Indonesia’s air transportation director general, Djoko Murjatmodjo, told AFP Sunday – with 162 people on board.  AirAsia flight QZ8501 from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, an Airbus A320-200l, lost contact with air traffic controllers on Sunday morning, and air and sea rescue searches have begun,…

Judge Ido Druyan of the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court, convicted Yitzhak Rochberger Sunday morning of falsifying documents, corporate fraud and breach of trust. Rochberger, the former mayor of affluent Tel Aviv suburb Ramat Hasharon, was indicted in May 2013. He was charged with falsifying corporate documents, fraud, and breach of trust in a corporation for his actions during…

Ben Ammi Ben Israel, the spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites in Dimona, died Saturday, leaving his followers in shock.  “It was an honor and a blessing to have known him,” community spokesperson Yafah Baht Gavriel told Haaretz Sunday morning. “We will continue to live our lives according to his teachings.” Baht Gavriel could not…

Amir Ohana, the head of Likud’s Gay Forum, has announced his candidacy in Likud’s upcoming primaries, saying he wants to show that members of Israel’s gay community, who traditionally gravitate to the Left, should not have to sacrifice right-wing beliefs.  In an interview with Channel 10 News, Ohana, who is running for a position on Likud’s…

Four days before the Palestinian and Iranian soccer teams were to meet for a friendly match, the Palestinian Football Association cancelled the match due to “technical” problems, Al-Monitor reports. The cancellation sparked outrage and rumors that it had been instigated by Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. In a letter addressed to the Iranian team,…

Hamas on Saturday continued to condemn the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) draft resolution to the United Nations (UN) Security Council, as the Security Council prepares to vote on the resolution, likely on Monday. Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said, according to the Ma’an news agency, that the draft resolution in favor of Palestinian statehood was “disastrous,” and…

A firebomb was thrown Saturday night at an apartment balcony in southeast Jerusalem in what police are calling a terrorist attack.  Fire broke out on the balcony at the building located on Meir Nakar Street in the Armon HaNatziv (East Talpiot) neighborhood. It was extinguished quickly. No injuries were reported but the balcony itself was damaged.  Fire…

President Christina Fernández met Yair Tawil and several members of his family at her office on Tuesday to hold the unusual ceremony, dating back over 100 years. According to Argentinian folklore, the seventh straight son born to a family will transform into the feared “el lobison.”  The werewolf shows its true nature on the first…

Walla! News editor Yinon Magal has joined Jewish Home, he announced Sunday morning, and he is not apologizing for it.  Magal is running the Jewish Home party primaries, he stated Sunday, in hopes of serving in the 20th Knesset on party Chairman Naftali Bennett’s list. The two made the announcement in a viral video spoofing the…

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has published a report documenting photographs of Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers “killing time” at the Lebanon-Israel border.  Preliminary information suggests the pictures were taken in October, but were released only recently, along with verbal threats against Israel. Several photographs published contain the caption: “We have arrived to the…

Moscow State University has launched an ambitious project to collect and cryogenically freeze the DNA of “every creature that has ever lived,” in an effort it compares to the Biblical Noah’s Ark aiming to make a backup of life on earth – in case it ever becomes needed. The university bagged a 1 billion ruble…

As election fever continues the polls keep churning out, with the latest conducted for Reshet Bet radio released Saturday showing Likud and Labor still neck and neck, and Yisrael Beytenu hampered by a recent corruption scandal surrounding senior ministers of the party. The poll, conducted by the Rafi Smith Institute, indicates that Likud and Labor would tie…

The condition of 11-year-old Ayala Shapira, who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack last Thursday night in Ma’ale Shomron located in Samaria, has stabilized after undergoing a successful initial surgery on Friday. Dr. Itay Pesah, a senior doctor at the children’s ward of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer where Shapira is receiving treatment,…

In a letter signed by 250 academics, politicians and other public figures from the radical left, a call went out for a wide Jewish-Arab unity on the left to conquer the Knesset and change Israel. In the letter, the Jewish leftist radical leaders called on their Arab compatriots to join them, writing “the breakup on…

In response to a letter from the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP), which comprises over 350 prominent Israeli rabbis, Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) affirmed that peace negotiations with no backing from the other side is a dangerous thing. “There is no doubt in my mind that empty words like ‘negotiations’ or ‘peace agreement’ that…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Saturday evening, and as the talks began spoke about the threats facing the Jewish state. “We are now faced with two great challenges. The first comes from the Palestinians. The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has compared Israel to ISIS (Islamic State),” reminded Netanyahu.…

The Iranian military, as part of its massive ongoing six-day military drill that began last Thursday, held tests on Saturday unveiling a new weapon in their arsenal: “suicide” drones. During the drill Iran’s air force demonstrated the domestically produced exploding drone, meant to strike targets on land, air and sea. Commander of Iran’s land forces…

ISIS has lost more ground to Kurdish fighters in the embattled city of Kobane in northern Syria, according to local reports. “Kurdish forces now control more than 60 percent of the city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “ISIS has even left areas that the Kurds did not…

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said on Friday that the United Nations (UN) Security Council would vote on the PA’s resolution calling for Israel to “end the occupation” later Friday or on Monday at the latest. According to a report on Kol Yisrael government radio, Erekat said that some revisions have been…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday slammed European countries for criticizing deteriorating press freedom in Turkey, Reuters reported, saying they should instead try to find a solution for what the increasing Islamophobia in Europe. Turkish police earlier this month raided media outlets close to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of forming…

Sony’s controversial movie “The Interview” banked $1 million at the box office on Thursday, and it could make a couple million more over the long holiday weekend, CNN reported Friday. “The audience reaction was fantastic — the limited release, in under 10% of the amount of theaters originally planned, featured numerous sellouts and a first-day…

Likud and Labor are still neck-in-neck for the top spot, according to a Panels Politics poll for Maariv Weekend Edition – but the chances of building a coalition are greatly impacted by whether or not the Arab parties run on a joint list.  In the event Hadash, Balad, and the United Arab List (UAL) run together, according to the…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) visited the scene of the firebombing attack in Ma’ale Shomron in Samaria on Friday morning, where he met with top-ranking IDF commanders to review the security situation in the sector.  Ya’alon praised the “rapid” deployment of “military operations and security forces on the ground following the attack.” “We will put…

Reports in a Kuwaiti paper Friday morning indicate that Qatar has temporarily cut its funding for the Gaza-based Muslim Brotherhood-offshoot Hamas terrorist organization, in an attempt to cull favor with Egypt and lead to rapprochement between the two rival nations. The report in Al Jarida cited a senior Egyptian source saying that Qatar has informed Hamas leaders…

In a controversial yet subtle move, United Synagogue Youth (USY) passed a new resolution that drops the binding “expectation” that leaders will not date non-Jews, and replaces it with a “recogni[tion of] the importance of dating within the Jewish community.” USY is the youth movement of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. The new amendment was adopted this week…

MK and former Deputy Minister Michael (Mickey) Ratzon will be running in the Likud primaries for the 20th Knesset Likud list, he told Arutz Sheva on Friday.  Ratzon was dismissed from the government in 2006 after he objected to the 2005 Disengagement Plan, and was booted from the government by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Ratzon ran again…

The Iranian army on Thursday began a massive military drill sprawling from the farthest eastern expanses of the Islamic regime all the way to its southern maritime borders opposite the principality of Oman, in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Aden. A full 13,000 Iranian soldiers are taking part in the six-day drill,…

Chairman of Ha’am Itanu Eli Yishai believes that his party’s chances could be enhanced if he published recordings of the Shas party’s spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef z”tl.  “Maran [Rabbi Yosef – ed.] never said he supported the Oslo Agreements,” Yishai said on Radio Israel, referring to the 1993 accords that Shas under Aryeh Deri enabled…

Security forces believe they have apprehended the terrorists responsible for Thursday night’s firebomb attack, which left a young girl in critical condition. Speaking to 11-year-old Ayala Shapira’s mother on Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon revealed that it appeared the attacker had been apprehended. His identity has not yet been released. IDF forces quickly deployed in…

The Arab sniper responsible for Wednesday’s skirmish along the Gaza border circled the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion for hours, Walla! News reports Friday – and only struck after one of the soldiers took off his coat, letting down his defenses for a few critical seconds.  Southern Division soldiers serving near Gaza stated Thursday that the work on the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday morning made a phone call to express his support for the family of 11-year-old Ayala Shapira, who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack near Ma’ale Shomron in Samaria Thursday night that also lightly wounded her father Avner. Netanyahu called Deputy Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan to be updated about…

Ha’am Itanu chairperson MK Eli Yishai held a conference for his new party on Thursday night at the Kise Rahamim Yeshiva in Bnei Brak headed by Rabbi Meir Mazuz, Yishai’s rabbinic counsel. Hundreds of students of the yeshiva took part in the conference, in which Yishai said “a message comes out from here this evening.…

The Yesha Council of Judea and Samaria on Friday morning strongly condemned the High Court ruling to destroy the community of Amona in the Binyamin region of Samaria within two years. “The High Court didn’t do justice, morals or law,” said the Council. “Unfortunately again the hostility and bias of the High Court was proven, when it decided…

As the deluge of polls continue, the latest findings show Likud has a slight edge over Labor, according to a TNA poll for Walla! News Friday – but the right-wing bloc overall is weakening.  According to the poll, Likud would be a front-runner in the Knesset with 24 seats, followed by Labor with a close second at…

A “code red” siren sounded in the Hof Ashkelon area Friday afternoon, in Yad Mordechai and Netiv Ha’Esrai. The IDF has now stated that the alarm is a false alarm, and that there were no hits, injuries, or damage.  The alarm follows an attack last Friday, whereby a Qassam rocket was launched from Gaza into…

Kulanu party chairman Moshe Kahlon commented Friday on the corruption case launched against Yisrael Beytenu ministers, promising to fight corruption as a phenomenon and rid Israel of monopolies. Kahlon, who previously was a senior Likud minister, also said that he was following in the steps of Likud leader and former Prime Minister Menachem Begin.  “Corruption…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, on Friday addressed the massive corruption scandal exposed this week and to which members of his party have been linked. 30 senior figures, including Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum and former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, both of Yisrael Beytenu, have been brought in for investigation…

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Friday that his group remains committed to the agreements reached in Cairo at the end of Operation Protective Edge last summer and will continue to meet them, as long as Israel continues to do so as well. Speaking in an interview with Hamas’s television channel, Haniyeh added that over…

A roadside bomb struck an Egyptian army vehicle late Thursday, killing an officer and a soldier in the insurgent flashpoint of the Sinai Peninsula, security officials said, according to the AFP news agency. The attack occurred south of the town of El-Arish, scene of frequent attacks by Islamist terrorists on security forces. One army officer…

As she promised to do, MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) on Thursday filed a complaint with the police against MK Danny Danon (Likud) over his animated campaign video. Zoabi claimed that the video, in which she and members of her party are portrayed as villains who are kicked out of a bar by Danon, who is…

An arsonist set fire to a mosque in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna on Thursday, injuring five people, police said, according to the BBC. About 15 to 20 people were attending midday prayers in the mosque, located in the ground floor of a residential building, when the fire broke out. Local media footage showed smoke…

Former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin on Thursday attacked the Likud, Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu parties ahead of the March elections. In a post on his Facebook page, Diskin warned that the three are “destructive” to Israel’s future. “Each of us needs to ask himself whether he wants to continue down…

Nationalist MKs attacked on Thursday evening the decision of the High Court that the new community of Amona in the Shomron (Samaria) be demolished within two years. In its decision, the Court said that despite the facts that the details of ownership of land have not yet been fully established, “the homes in Amona are…

Police in Turkey have arrested a 16-year-old student on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the BBC reported on Thursday, citing local media. He was reportedly arrested on Wednesday after criticizing the ruling AK Party during a speech at a student protest in the central Anatolian city of Konya. The teenager could face up…

Just days after fire was opened at a synagogue in Paris, a kosher restaurant in the same city was attacked in a similar manner. According to the French-language JSSNews, an air gun was fired towards the Al Haeche kosher restaurant in the 19th district of the French capital. The attack took place overnight Tuesday, and…

Palestinian Arab factions on Thursday called on Egypt to resume its status as broker in the negotiations between them and Israel to maintain a Gaza ceasefire, the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper reported. The factions met in Gaza to discuss what was described “Israeli violations” In a press conference after the meeting, Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior leader…

An Israeli delegation is reportedly in Egypt Thursday to search for the remains of 22 missing soldiers. According to Egyptian media reports, the delegation arrived early this morning from Amman, Jordan. The bodies are believed to include those of 16 soldiers who went missing during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, as well as others missing in…

Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a graduation ceremony of Israeli Air Force pilots at a special ceremony at Hatzerim Air Base in southern Israel on Thursday. Speaking to those present, the prime minister promised a tough response to any attempts to break the state of calm along any of Israel’s borders. “The State of Israel is building…

The IDF continues to be plagued by a major vandalism and theft problem at one of its most southern bases – and no solution is in sight, the Regavim organization said Thursday. IDF officials, the group said, have refused to deal with the issue, and instead refer questions and inquiries on the matter to other…

Quadra is an exclusive residential complex under construction in one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Location is king in real estate, and the location of this complex is excellent. It is situated in the Makor Hayim neighborhood adjacent to the chic areas of Baka and the German Colony, just a short walk from…

Bruchin community founder and CEO of the Eshkolit Forum Zahi Dickstein will be running for the Likud leadership in Judea-Samaria, he announced Thursday, ahead of the party primaries.  Dickstein, 36, is married with six children. He was a former adviser to former Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar and held executive positions in the Yesha Council, as…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett has surpassed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in both the amount of donations and the number of individual donors in the campaign for elections for the 20th Knesset.  The data was revealed Wednesday night on Channel 10’s economic program Laila Calcali (Economic Night). Netanyahu, the previous leader in campaign donations, has collected NIS…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used a special Christmas address to highlight the plight of Christians in the wider Middle East, while contrasting Israel as a safe-haven for the region’s Christian minorities. “Christian communities across the Middle East are experiencing a particularly difficult time,” Netanyahu said. “They’re experiencing violence, execution and fear. This has become the…

Israel’s Civil Administration announced its intentions to renovate the Tomb of Samuel, the traditional burial site of biblical Hebrew prophet Samuel (Shmuel), which is located in the Palestinian village Nabi Samwil in Judea.  Samuel’s Tomb, situated atop a steep hill 1.3 kilometers north of Jerusalem neighborhood Ramot, has some severe safety problems. These include very steep…

Former Likud MK Ayoub Kara, who is running for a spot on the Likud list in next week’s primary, told Arutz Sheva in an interview Thursday that the main issue in the upcoming elections is the stark contrast between the “clear right” and the “clear left.” While social and economic issues have so far taken…

The High Court on Thursday ordered the state to dismantle the new community of Amona within two years. If the decision stands, it would be the final one in a long-running legal struggle of Amona residents to ward off the tractors of the Civil Administration, which have long been poised to demolish the community’s homes.…

Ministers, MKs, and community leaders expressed outrage at Thursday’s attack on a Ma’ale Shomron resident and his eleven year old daughter. Deputy director of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, said that all the resources of the Council are being thrown into the search for the culprits and into developing methods to prevent a repeat.…

In a letter sent by Netanyahu to Weinstein, the prime minister wrote that the agreement to raise the minimum wage was reached before the decision to have early elections, and therefore can be carried out at this time. However, Weinstein stated that the state did not agree to set the minimum wage to be kept…

Eleven year-old Ayala Shapira, who was injured in the firebomb attack near Ma’ale Shomron Thursday night, is being treated for numerous injuries and burns she sustained in the attack. Shapira is in serious condition. Doctors said they are “fighting” to save her life. Ayala was driving in a car with her father, Avner, on the…

An Israeli driver, Avner Shapiro and his 11 year old daughter Ayala were attacked by Arab terrorists who threw a firebomb at his vehicle Thursday night. The two suffered burns, but managed to escape from their burning vehicle. They were treated on the scene by Magen David Adom rescue workers and taken to the burn…

“It’s quite possible that in the next Knesset, the political party with the greatest number of women MK’s will be Jewish Home,” says Sarah Eliash, a known and respected figure in the world of Israeli religious education and the growth of Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, and a candidate in the coming primaries for…

There could soon be three parties aiming to gain the votes of members of the hareidi Sephardic community. Former Shas MK Rabbi Chaim Amsalem this week called a meeting of activists of his Am Shalem (“the Complete Nation”) movement, in what many saw as an opening bid to declaring the party’s intention to run in…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was summoned to a hearing by the Likud’s Comptroller, Shai Galilee, to discuss accusations that Ya’alon has been using a Defense Ministry employee for his personal political campaign. According to Galilee, the employee uses a Ministry phone to call party members and inform them on when political events held by Ya’alon…

Two days after automatic gunfire was sprayed at the David Ben Ichay synagogue on Paris’s 3 Danjon Street, Rabbi Noam Lutzki has spoken about the terrible attack – and called his escape a “real Hannukah miracle.” “It was at 9:30 pm or so,” the Rabbi stated, to hareidi newspaper Hamevaser. “I was sitting in my office adjacent to…

Jeff Seidel is still reeling from a harrowing rock attack on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, he stated in a special interview to Arutz Sheva Wednesday night, after Arab terrorists hurled cinder blocks at his car.  Seidel, who is the CEO and Founder of the Jeff Seidel Student Center, and two friends were attending a funeral on…

Jewish Home, the only party other than the Likud to remain in Binyamin Netanyahu’s government, will take over several of the ministerial portfolios left behind by the firings and resignations of ministers from Yesh Atid and Hatnua. Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett and at least one other current minister from the party – most likely…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, stated that the IDF would continue to quash escalation along the Gaza border Wednesday, after a skirmish left a soldier critically injured. “Instability is a regular feature in the life of the IDF and every border of the State of Israel,” Gantz stated Wednesday afternoon, at the…

Daniel Nachman Biton has been named as the 7 year old boy who died in a fire overnight Tuesday/Wednesday in Beit Shemesh, it was cleared for publication Wednesday. Initial reports stated that the boy was 10 years old.  The boy’s father, aged 45, was seriously injured in the fire and taken to the Hadassah Ein…

A special committee reviewing the long list of heroic acts by IDF soldiers during Operation Protective Edge has decided to award the Medal of Courage – the second most prestigious award – to Givati Brigade Deputy Commander “Eitan,” who entered a Hamas terror tunnel in August in pursuit of the abductors of Lt. Hadar Goldin,…

Conventional wisdom had it that Israelis had largely stopped buying apartments as they waited for former Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s zero-VAT sales plan to kick in, but Central Bureau of Statistics numbers released Wednesday show that the public had already several months ago given up on the possibility of getting an apartment at an 18%…

Israel will not accept a deterioration of the situation along the Gaza border, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz stated Wednesday afternoon.  “Hamas must figure out that if it will continue to undermine the security situation on the Gaza border it risks an Israeli response, which could snowball to a general and comprehensive military operation that will…

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren will be joining Moshe Kahlon, the Kulanu party head announced Wednesday. Kahlon courted Oren, he said, because of his “responsible political positions, which are an important strategic objective for Israel.” Oren’s diplomatic finesse would be necessary to restore Israel’s standing in the international arena, Kahlon said at…

More details have emerged over the capture of a Jordanian pilot flying over Syria who was shot down by Islamic State forces and taken captive, Jordanian sources revealed Wednesday night.  Earlier Wednesday, initial reports surfaced stating that the coalition plane had been shot down, near the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s…

The Ministry of the Interior in Gaza is deploying security forces on the border with Israel and intensifying its presence in the area in order to prevent Palestinian Arabs from crossing into Israel from Gaza without documents, the Ma’an news agency reported on Wednesday. The announcement came hours after a gunfight erupted on the border…

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday that he is confident that a lasting agreement can be struck with world powers over his country’s disputed nuclear program, AFP reported. Tehran and the so-called P5+1 group of nations have been locked in talks since February on a permanent nuclear deal aimed at ending a…

Hamas announced on Tuesday that it opposes the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) draft resolution presented to the UN Security Council which demands that Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria by 2017, reports the Xinhua news agency. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in an emailed statement that the draft resolution presented by the PA to the…

Two Arabs from the Tul Karem area were caught red-handed Sunday digging in a protected archaeological site. The two were found at the bottom of a 4.5 meter hole in the Emek Hefer area, where an archaeological dig of an 1,800 year old Roman-Byzantine era village. The two had in their possession sophisticated digging equipment,…

The Otzma Yehudit (lit. Jewish Strength) party, headed by former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, held its inaugural conference in Ramat Gan on Wednesday evening, and declared, “We are the real right.” “We want Michael Ben-Ari to go to the Knesset to represent what we think,” party member Baruch Marzel told Arutz Sheva. “We think that…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Wednesday that Israel is not interested in an escalation in Gaza but will respond to any acts of aggression from terrorists in the region. He spoke following a security assessment that was held in the wake of a shooting incident near the border with Gaza, which left an IDF…

Belgium’s Minister for Animal Welfare, Ben Weyts, has advised a European Jewish group of his intention to “enforce in all aspects” a Belgian law facilitating the practice of ritual slaughter of animals, The European Jewish Press (EJP) reported Wednesday. Weyts made the clarifications to the European Jewish Association (EJA), a Brussels-based umbrella group which represents…

A total of ten Palestinian Arab terrorists were arrested overnight Wednesday/Thursday, after a special operation by the Samaria Brigade and the Duvdevan Unit of the IDF in Shechem (Nablus) exposed a weapons cache. Security forces seized 2 pistols and several cartridges, an Uzi submachine gun, improvised weapons, ammunition, at least one Kalashnikov rifle and one…

MK Moshe Mizrahi said Thursday morning that the massive corruption scandal exposed Wednesday indicates a serious affair that meets the criminal definition of organized crime.  Thirty senior officials were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of illegally allocating budgets to NPOs and different sources, transferring funds to regional council organizations, and laundering money through “straw company” fronts. Likewise the suspects…

The IDF soldier critically wounded in an exchange of gunfire between the IDF and Palestinian Arab terrorists along the Gaza border Wednesday has made a slight improvement, officials at the Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva stated Thursday morning. The soldier’s condition has stabilized, they said, and he is now conscious. The soldier is being treated…

The United States on Wednesday said that a Jordanian F-16 warplane was not shot down by the Islamic State (ISIS) as the group has claimed. A military statement quoted by The Associated Press (AP) said the plane crashed in northern Syria and confirmed that a pilot was taken captive by Islamic State forces. But evidence…

A Jewish cemetery in Greece was vandalized on Tuesday with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti signed by racist group “Larissa Skins.”  The capital and largest city of the Thessaly region of Greece, Larissa has a Jewish community dating back 2,000 years to the Roman period. Larissa is also home to the third largest Jewish community in Greece, which…

Israel has silently returned the bodies of the terrorists responsible for the Har Nof massacre last month, Radio Israel reports Thursday morning. Ghassan and Uday Abu al Jamal, who carried out the massacre on a synagogue during morning prayers, killing four rabbis and one Druze policemen, were silently buried overnight Wednesday/Thursday in an Arab neighborhood cemetery in Jerusalem.  Until…

Two bodies were found overnight Wednesday/Thursday, in a burned-out car on farmland near the Nesher power station, on Route 6 near Ramle.  Police found the car after several callers complained of heavy smoke emanating from under a bridge. Police and firefighting teams arrived at the scene and identified the car – a BMW, according to Walla!…

MK Hanin Zoabi’s Balad party announced on Wednesday that it plans to file a complaint with the police against MK Danny Danon (Likud), over a new animated campaign video released by Danon. The video is filmed as a Western, in which Zoabi is portrayed as the villain and Danon as the hero who will prevent…

The family of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, captured by Islamic State terrorists in Syria on Wednesday, have called on the organization to release him.  Al-Kasasbeh’s plane crashed Wednesday morning over Raqqa province in eastern Syria.  Although ISIS has suggested it downed the plane using an anti-aircraft missile, the United States military rejects their claim.  “Evidence clearly indicates”…

The Cabinet on Tuesday evening, in a telephone vote, decided to appoint MK Tzahi Hanegbi (Likud) as Deputy Health Minister (in addition to his role as Deputy Foreign Minister). As well, MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) was appointed as Deputy Science, Technology and Space Minister (in addition to her role as Deputy Transportation and Road Safety…

Labor leader MK Yitzhak Herzog and Hatnua chairwoman MK Tzipi Livni dismissed on Tuesday evening the remarks made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu about Jerusalem, accusing him of making a cynical use of the capital. “Bibi, like Bibi, exploits Jerusalem for his cynical needs,” the two said in a joint statement, adding that “the public…

Sony Pictures on Tuesday backtracked on its cancellation of the movie “The Interview”, saying it would make the controversial Seth Rogen comedy available at a limited number of theaters starting Thursday, according to CNN. The movie studio’s CEO, Michael Lynton, said Tuesday that “we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on…

MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) on Tuesday said a “wake-up call” was required in France amid a growing trend of anti-Semitism in the country. Shaked’s comments were made during a gathering in support of Avraham Azoulay, who is running in the Jewish Home’s primaries. Azoulay is formerly a resident of the French city of Toulouse…

A 10-year-old boy died in a fire that broke out in a private home in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday night. The boy’s father, aged 45, was seriously injured in the fire and taken to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. Four other people suffered moderate and minor injuries, including the mother of the family,…

After Gaza terrorists breached the truce last Friday with a rocket attack, they broke it again on Wednesday morning with a round of sniper fire targeting IDF forces in the vicinity of Kibbutz Nirim and Nir Oz.  The IDF soldiers were guarding work on the security barrier with Gaza in the southern part of the Hamas…

Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television, said this week that he was deeply troubled by the anti-Semitism in Europe in general, and in Britain in particular. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, where he was interviewed by Channel 2 News anchor Yonit Levi, Cohen said, “I’ve never felt so uncomfortable being a Jew in…

Despite the truce that ended Operation Protective Edge in August, Hamas terrorists in Gaza continue to ramp up preparations for the next war via ongoing rocket tests. Two rockets were fired from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday morning as part of the rocket tests, reports the IDF Spokesperson unit.  Hamas has been running…

The Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) claims it shot down a Jordanian air force jet over its de-facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria. ISIS released pictures of what it said was the pilot of the downed plain, after his capture by its fighters. Jordan is one of a number of Arab and western states…

Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party has come in for sharp criticism, after Liberman on Tuesday called for the expulsion of Jewish communities to placate the European Union (EU) as part of a regional peace treaty, and Yisrael Beytenu ministers were investigated for corruption. Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, chairperson of the Otzma Yehudit party, was…

A Pakistani government prosecutor said Wednesday he would file a petition next week challenging an order granting bail to the alleged mastermind of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. A judge in an Islamabad anti-terror court last week granted bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, accused over the siege in India’s commercial capital that left 166 people dead and was credited to…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has hired American strategist John McLaughlin of the Republican party to manage his campaign ahead of the March 17 Knesset elections. McLaughlin has over 30 years of international experience as a strategist and pollster, and ran Netanyahu’s campaign ahead of his 2009 election victory. He has worked with six Republican Senators…

Binyamin Netanyahu can once again be the Likud’s candidate for Prime Minister, the party’s election committee chairman ruled Wednesday. The ruling came in response to a statement by the party’s comptroller, Shai Galilee, who said that Netanyahu had disqualified himself because of violations of the Likud constitution – specifically, using party resources for his personal…

Heads of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria together with IDF representatives lit the eighth and final candle of Hanukkah Tuesday night at the grave of Yehoshua Ben Nun (Joshua) – the disciple of Moshe (Moses) from the Torah – located in the village Kifl Hares just north of Ariel in Samaria. Efraim Brigade…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party may have run on a joint ticket with Likud in the last elections, but in a closed meeting on Tuesday he sharply attacked Prime Minister and Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu’s political management. According to Liberman, Israel needs a peace agreement including the evacuation of Jewish communities because Netanyahu’s…

Thirty senior figures, including Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beytenu) and former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beytenu), have been brought in for investigation for involvement in corruption. A gag order was released on the case Wednesday morning, revealing that the suspects apparently illegally allocated budgets to NPOs and different sources, transferred funds to…

Former Justice Minister and Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at a Calcalist conference Wednesday, after Netanyahu blasted Livni and Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog Tuesday night for their plans to divide Jerusalem.  “Because Netanyahu has no solutions he scares the nation, and in his distress he draws out of Jerusalem,” Livni fired. “He…

My most distinct memory of Robert Wolfe was that day in October of 1999 when he stood in the dreary, grey rain outside a heretofore unknown archive in Sindelfingen, Germany, a suburb of Stuttgart. He was attempting to gain entry when the archive unexpectedly shuttered its doors and refused him. With the chilled drizzle running…

Speaking at an event Wednesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman slammed Likud members who have called him “soft” on the peace process. “I heard that Likud officials have been criticizing me for ‘leaning to the left,’” Liberman said at a conference sponsored by business daily Calcalist. “I want to tell them something: It was the Likud…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted Wednesday afternoon to a sniper attack by Hamas terrorists along the border with Gaza, which left one IDF soldier critically wounded. “Our policy is clear: a determined and firm response against any attempt to break the quiet in the south,” he said in a statement. “We will respond forcefully every…

The Zionist student group Im Tirtzu has complained to Technion University after a swastika was found on a sign at the Haifa-based university this Sunday, demanding that the university’s president condemn the incident and take steps against those behind it. In the letter to university president Prof. Peretz Lavie, the group wrote “there aren’t enough…

Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday “played dumb” about the corruption investigation being advanced by police against two ministers of his party, part of a massive effort that has seen 30 senior figures brought in. Speaking at a Calcalist forum, Liberman said “I’m not familiar with the case beyond what I heard in…

Likud MK and central committee chairman Danny Danon says he is confident he will succeed in having extremist MK Hanin Zoabi banned from running for election next March. On Tuesday Danon announced he was collecting signatures from members of Israel’s Central Elections Committee to bar the radical Arab MK from standing, in light of her…

Learn and Return (formerly Learn and Live), an organization that works to prevent Jewish girls from getting trapped in abusive relationships with Arabs, has issued call to the public to pray for the safe return of a 22-year-old girl whose whereabouts are unknown. The phenomenon of Arab men entrapping Jewish girls in abusive relationships has escalated in recent…

Alan Gross, the American freed last week after five years in a Cuban jail, has reached a $3.2 million settlement with the US government, media reports said Wednesday. The US government office he was doing work for in Cuba, the Agency for International Development, released a statement Tuesday confirming that a settlement had been reached,…

Energix Renewable Energies, the Alony Hetz Property and Investments Ltd. group controlled by Nathan Hetz and the Wertheim family, announced Tuesday that Israel’s biggest solar energy project, at Neot Hovav in the Negev, has received a permanent license for producing electricity, the Globes business newspaper reported. According to the company’s estimates, power production will yield…

The clinical PsyD program at Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology had one of the highest match rates of similar programs in the United States over a four-year period, according to a recent report on doctoral program match rates by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. The report is one of the…

President Reuven Rivlin and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz lit candles for the eighth and final night of Hanukkah on Tuesday with dozens of IDF soldiers. The soldiers present included members of the paratroopers, and armored corps engineers of the 7th Brigade of the Judea Regional Brigade in Southern Har Hevron. Speaking about…

A grassroots Old City initiative has turned the Old City of Jerusalem – where the miracle of the Hanukkah lights took place over 2,150 years ago – into the city of Menorahs this week. Families throughout the Jewish Quarter built their “dream” Menorahs – Hanukkah candelabra – and have placed them outside their homes, on…

The daily deluge of polls for the March 17 Knesset elections continue on Tuesday, with a Channel 10 poll showing the joint Labor-Hatnua list and Likud still neck and neck, with Labor just slightly ahead. The poll gives Labor 22 mandates and Likud 21. Jewish Home would get 17, and Yesh Atid gets ten mandates according to…

Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron held a special event in honor of Hanukkah together with leaders and members of the UK’s Jewish community. Speaking at the event, Cameron hailed the Jewish community as “the model of how to integrate successfully into a country,” and vowed to fight to preserve Jewish religion and culture…

Rahamim Malul, mayor of the city Rehovot to the south of Tel Aviv, was investigated under warning on Tuesday at the offices of the police investigative and intelligence department Lahav 433. The questioning of Malul is part of an investigative case headed by the department on suspicions that an attorney who in the past served…

Charlie Biton, a former leader of the Israeli Black Panthers group founded in the 1970s that fought for racial equality and social justice, told Arutz Sheva that despite a recent ongoing media spat, politicians on the left and right never really cared about the problem of poverty. “They’re all guilty and it doesn’t matter to any of…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the Bible Quiz for adults in Jerusalem on Tuesday night, in which he spoke about the Palestinian Authority (PA) demand for control of eastern Jerusalem in a future peace deal. “I heard that they are ready to give the Palestinians a capital in Jerusalem, I heard some guy, some lady…

Hananel Malka of Israel won the Fifth International Bible Quiz for adults, held in Jerusalem on Tuesday night. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu kicked off the quiz by speaking about the importance of studying the Bible, and the connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. “I study Bible every week with my son,…

Former Shas chairperson Eli Yishai, who recently launched his new Ha’am Itanu party, was supposed to hold his first show of force on Wednesday by opening a branch of his party in Be’er Sheva – that opening ceremony was cancelled at the last minute, leaving many asking why. An organizer of the event and a…

On Monday, the seventh day of Hanukkah, a truly unique and historic event took place for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. In the Old City of Jerusalem, hundreds gathered to witness the lighting of a hanukkiah, or menorah, using pure olive oil made to the precise specifications as the oil used to light…

Iraq has embarked on a unique project to combat terrorism, the Daily Mail reported Monday – by broadcasting the aftermath of terror attacks on a reality show.  The show, entitled “In the Grip of the Law,” forces Islamic State and other Islamist terrorists to return to the scenes of their crimes, where they experience the wrath of…

MK David Tzur has become the second Knesset member to resign from Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party on Tuesday, in an announcement indicating that he was retiring from politics.  Tzur stated to Livni upon his resignation that he supported Livni’s pact with Yitzhak Herzog’s Labor Party, and that he hopes other center parties would join a…

Israel’s Bank Leumi Group has admitted to helping American taxpayers hide assets and agreed to pay a $270 million fine to settle a criminal probe, the Department of Justice announced Monday, according to the AFP news agency. From at least 2000 until early 2011, Bank Leumi sent private bankers from Israel and elsewhere to meet…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and French MP Meir Habib met in Jerusalem Monday, where Habib introduced the Prime Minister to a viral campaign making waves throughout the French Jewish community – a “magic pill” to fight anti-Semitism dubbed “Antisemitox.”  “Antisemitox,” a project from the Organization of Jewish Europeans (OJE), is real – but not medicative. Boxes…

The Students for Israel organization has called for greater unity in the nationalist bloc Tuesday, penning a letter to former Shas MK and ‘Ha’am Itanu’ leader Eli Yishai and former Jewish Home MK Yoni Chetboun to join forces with former MK Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit party for the upcoming elections.  “We are writing demanding that…

The Arch of Titus, built by Domitian in 81 C.E., is a triumphal Roman commemoration of the bloody victory of his father Vespasian and brother Titus over Judea and their burning of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. For the Jews, the arch is not so much a commemoration as it is an…

North Korea’s internet is back online, cyber-experts at the New Hampshire-based Dyn stated to Reuters overnight Monday/Tuesday. Jim Cowie, Dyn’s chief scientist, added, however, that it is unclear whether North Korea’s internet will stay online as before.  “We’re yet to see how stable the new connection is,” Cowie stated. “The question for the next few hours is whether…

The Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera news network on Monday shut down its Egypt channel, quieting a major source of tension between the two countries at a time when regional efforts are underway to reconcile between the two countries over the Gulf nation’s support for Islamists, reports The Associated Press (AP). Qatar has been the main supporter of…

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told the Reuters news agency on Monday he opposed President Barack Obama’s plans to normalize relations with Cuba. Speaking by telephone from his home state of Kentucky, McConnell said he agreed with the Senate’s most outspoken critics of Obama’s new Cuba policy, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Democratic…

Levi Rosenblatt (22), who was stabbed in the head two weeks ago in a shocking nighttime attack on the Crown Heights’ 770 Chabad Lubavitch center in Brooklyn, New York, lit candles for the seventh night of Hanukkah on Monday at the Crown Heights police station. In the lighting ceremony, dozens of NYPD police officers and senior…

The Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, is commonly perceived to be the most extreme Islamist terror group in the world due to its high-profile campaign of gratuitous slaughter throughout Syria and Iraq. The group officially broke off from Al Qaeda last year, one of several reasons for the split being the belief among Al…

Following a string of high-profile Islamic terror attacks that have rocked France, yet another attack occurred on Monday night as automatic gunfire was sprayed at the David Ben Ichay synagogue on Paris’s 3 Danjon Street. According to the French Jewish JSS News, the attack occurred around 9:30 p.m. when the rabbi and his assistant were present.…

The brother of a man who attacked police in France has been arrested in Burundi, a local intelligence spokesman said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press (AP). Burundi intelligence spokesman Telesphore Bigirimana said that Brice Nzohabonayo was arrested Saturday after his brother, Bertrand Nzohabonayo, attacked French police in a suburb of Tours, leaving two officers…

Former Hatnua MK Elazar Stern is considering joining Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, sources close to Stern told Arutz Sheva Tuesday, after leaving Hatnua over its shift leftward Saturday night.  Stern’s confidantes stated that “there is much in common between Stern and Avigdor Liberman’s party, especially when it comes to religion and state.” Stern’s office…

Deputy Transport Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), warned Tuesday that voting for smaller “satellite parties” in the right-wing bloc – in her words – could lead to an easy win for the Left in the upcoming elections. “We’ve seen in the last government what happened when a right-wing party is strong but Likud is weak; the…

Israel’s Antitrust Authority said Tuesday that US giant Noble Energy and its Israeli partner Delek would not be able to continue holding offshore gas field Leviathan over monopoly concerns, AFP reports. The decision, pending a confirmation hearing, effectively dismantles the monopoly held by Noble and Delek over Leviathan and Israel’s smaller offshore gas findings. “The entry of Delek and Noble into…

The Hiddush organization for religious freedom and equality has turned to the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Justice Salim Jubran, to warn the hareidi parties not to involve religious rituals and symbols in their election campaigns – including selling amulets, doling out curses to detractors, and promising blessings for voters. Organization Chairman Uri Regev…

MK Danny Danon (Likud) has begun collecting signatures from members of the central elections committee calling to ban radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from running in elections this coming March. Danon’s campaign to ban the Balad party MK from campaigning for the 20th Knesset is based on article 7A of The Knesset Basic Law, which…

In an effort to raise awareness of the threat of cyberattacks among Jewish community organizations and synagogues, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducted an online seminar which provided information on the current threat landscape and tips on how to protect computer servers against malicious attacks. In the seminar, organized by the National Association for Temple Administration…

President Reuven Rivlin lit Hannukah candles at the President’s Residence Monday, together with survivors of the Holocaust. The event was entitled ‘Heroism and Rebirth’, and was attended by around 150 guests, including representatives and heads of the various Holocaust survivor organizations, Yad Vashem, and the children of survivors. “Your story is the story of an entire…

226 new immigrants from Ukraine, many of them refugees who fled the battle zone in the east of the country, landed Monday afternoon in Israel where they were greeted with a joyous ceremony.  This flight is the first of many bringing thousands of Jews from countries in distress to Israel in the coming years. The…

At least ten people were injured, five seriously, after a van rammed into shoppers at a Christmas market in the western city of Nantes Monday evening around 7:00 p.m. local time.  The driver charged at a chalet in a stall serving hot wine, in front of which several people were gathered, a witness told AFP. One…

Interior Minister Gilad Erdan has frozen a young Israeli Arab’s passport, Channel 2 reports Monday, and is considering revoking his citizenship, after the citizen was found to have joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Marwan Khaldi, from Nazareth, left Israel two months ago and has since severed all contact with his family, according to…

The family of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Ben Hamad Al-Thani, a well-known supporter of Hamas, may have become an unintentional donor to an organization benefitting disabled IDF veterans, Walla! News reports Monday, after buying an apartment in Paris belonging to the IDF Disabled Veterans’ Organization. The Qataris’s financial proposal was tens of percent the…

The Israeli journalists who were arrested Monday afternoon near the IDF checkpoint at Tulkarem, after they entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled Area A of Judea-Samaria without permission or IDF coordination, have been revealed as none other than Haaretz‘s Gideon Levy and Alex Levac.  Haaretz itself has blamed the IDF for the incident.  “Their job is to help the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah lit the seventh candle of Hanukkah Monday night with new immigrants from all over the world who had made aliyah to Israel in the past year.  “This year we have witnessed the largest aliyah in 10 years and counting,” Netanyahu said. “I welcome you all to the…

Legal rights group Shurat Hadin (Israel Law Center) is helping represent 11 families who charge the PA and PLO of inciting, supporting, planning and executing seven terror attacks which killed American citizens between 2000 and 2004. The trial, Sokolow vs. PLO, was recently cleared to be held on January 12, 2015 after the rejection of a…

Prosecutors in France announced Monday that Sunday evening’s rampage incident was not a terrorist attack.  The incident occurred when a driver, yelling “Allahu Akbar,” plowed into dozens of pedestrians in the eastern French city of Dijon, some 300 miles from Paris.  13 people were injured, two of them seriously, a source close to the investigation said…

Likud chairman candidate, MK Danny Danon lit Hanukkah candles Monday night at the tomb of Shimon the Righteous in Jerusalem.  At the ceremony, Danon stated, “We must allow Jews the right to live anywhere in Jerusalem. We will continue the tradition of the Maccabees – living without fear of our enemies at home and abroad.” …

A moving Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony was held on Sunday at the rest station set up for IDF soldiers by residents in Hevron, the city of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs, and adjacent Kiryat Arba located in Judea. The ceremony was attended by Hevron-Kiryat Arba Regional Council Chairman Malachi Levinger, residents of the city and, of…

Some two hundred Palestinian Arabs descended on a Jewish-owned farm near the Samarian town of Elon Moreh and uprooted dozens of young olive trees last Friday. Local Jewish residents and members of the Samaria Residents Committee say they had been warning for several weeks of Arab provocations and riots in the area, and had turned…

A Jordanian Muslim preacher has called for Jews to be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, and even for a special “house of prayer” to be set up for them there. Despite its status as the holiest site in Judaism, Jews are banned from praying on the Temple Mount (as are other non-Muslims) due…

Police and volunteers are conducting a massive search for two young girls who have been missing since Sunday night, Amalia Melamed and Miki Zaks. Melamed is the daughter of journalist Ariana Melamed who wrote on her Facebook page “my daughter Amalia Melamed went missing since 10:30 p.m. and the police are searching for her and…

A Pakistani government prosecutor said Monday he had been forced to delay his appeal against a court order which grants bail to the alleged mastermind of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. A judge in an Islamabad anti-terror court last week granted bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, accused over the siege on India’s commercial capital that left 166 people dead and…

A month after he was stabbed in a planned Arab ambush on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, a young Jewish student has finally been recognized by the police as being wounded in “hostile activities,” meaning that the ambush is recognized as a terror attack. Police announced the recognition on Sunday to the youth’s lawyer, Attorney Hur…

An Arab terrorist on Monday arrived at the Nitzanei Oz crossing on the 1949 Armistice line from Tulkarm in Samaria in an attempted terror attack that was thwarted by security forces. The terrorist was armed with a knife and tried to stab one of the IDF soldiers who was stationed at the site. Soldiers at…

It was a visit to Jerusalem that inspired French Jew Alexandre Sartene to start the world’s third kosher vineyard outside Israel which, despite a rocky start, now exports as far as Brazil. “I find the idea of kosher wine divine,” says a proud Sartene, with a touch of the same humor that has seen him nickname his domain in…

Eight Palestinian residents of eastern Jerusalem were charged Monday with inciting terror attacks and promoting violence against Jewish citizens and security forces.  Arrested last Monday, the eight were detained the week before for “inciting hatred, violence and terrorism,” mostly with messages and videos on the social media site Facebook. The operation was the Israeli police’s “biggest aimed at repressing this…

Bentzi Gopshtain, director of the Lehava anti-assimilation organization that has become the subject of a police crackdown, remains in a five-day house arrest after being released from full arrest last Thursday on suspicions of “racism” and “incitement,” which the courts threw out. “I sat for several days in a very strenuous investigation,” Gopshtain told Channel 2 on…

After more than a month with no Jewish visitors allowed, over 1,500 Jews on Sunday night went to Kever Yosef (Joseph’s Tomb) in Shechem (Nablus) located in Samaria to pray at the grave of the Jewish patriarch from the Torah – only to find it vandalized. The Jewish visitors discovered that the electric system of…

The blame for Israeli citizens’ economic situations lies squarely with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, according to Yesh Atid.  The Alternative Poverty Report published Monday by the humanitarian Latet Organization painted a much grimmer picture than the report Bituach Leumi (National Insurance) put out last week.  According to Latet, one in three children in Israel live below…

The graphic sign features a cartoon depicting a hareidi soldier with his face distorted into a pig’s and sitting on the back of an elephant as the troops of Antiochus (Alexander the Great – villain of Hannukah story – ed.) march chasing hareidi children. At the top of the sign, is a group of haredi…

Two well-known Israeli journalists were arrested Monday afternoon near the IDF checkpoint at Tulkarem, after they entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled Area A of Judea-Samaria without permission or IDF coordination. The journalists openly rebelled against the IDF upon entering at a checkpoint, police stated, and “provoked [against IDF officers], spat, and cursed [at them].” A patrol…

An Israeli humanitarian agency is working to help some of the hundreds of thousands of families left homeless after Typhoon Hagupit (locally called Ruby) swept across the Philippines last week. IsraAID, in partnership with the AJC, dispatched an emergency response team to provide medical and psychological aid to those worst affected, and to distribute relief goods in…

Hamas has arrested a Palestinian Arab double agent working for Israeli intelligence, the Hamas-run Al-Majd security website stated Monday.  According to the report, which is based on a security source, the Palestinian agent in her forties was instructed by the Israeli intelligence agency to gather information on the whereabouts of senior officers in the military wings…

Regardless of their religious background, the holidays can be a particularly difficult period for many families – both emotionally and practically. This is particularly true for those who have lost a parent or spouse, as those left behind often struggle to cope with the emotional strain of celebrating without their loved ones. Recognizing this fact,…

Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students of the Bnei Akiva Or Etzion Yeshiva made a special visit to cheer up the elderly and instill the holiday spirit of Hanukkah, at the senior residence home adjacent to the moshav Kfar Achim east of Ashdod. “The meeting was moving and joyful, both for the elderly and for the stuents,”…

The military prosecutors decided to close the investigation case against Givati Brigade Commander Col. Ofer Winter, according to reports in Haaretz on Monday. Winter was investigated under warning last Thursday by the military police on suspicion that he knew about several incidents in his brigade and didn’t inform his supervisors about them. The incidents include complaints of sexual abuse…

In two separate incidents Sunday, Israelis who indulged in one of Hanukkah’s tastiest treats – the sufganiya, or jelly donut – got more than they bargained for. A nine year old girl and a 60 year old woman were both in the hospital Sunday night after they ate donuts that proved to be a bit…

Tunisia’s Beji Caid Essebsi on Sunday claimed victory in the country’s first free presidential election, with exit polls suggesting he won 55.5% of the vote, according to the BBC. Supporters of the 88-year-old celebrated in the capital Tunis. Campaigners for his rival, caretaker President Moncef Marzouki, say the results are too close to call. Critics…

India is considering changing its traditional pro-Palestinian Arab stance and abstain in United Nations votes related to the Palestinian Authority, The Hindu news website reported on Sunday. The move could amount to a tectonic shift in the country’s foreign policy. Two sources within the government confirmed to The Hindu that the change, which will be…

The gunman who fatally ambushed two police officers in their car in Brooklyn on Saturday invited passersby to watch his attack, The Associated Press (AP) reported Sunday. Moments before opening fire, the suspect, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, approached people on the street and asked them to follow him on Instagram, then told them, “Watch what I’m going…

North Korea on Sunday threatened the White House and other targets in the United States, CNN reports. The country accused the U.S. government of being behind the making of the movie “The Interview”, a comedy in which a pair of hapless television journalists is recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to assassinate North Korean…

Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) sharply criticized former minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday evening. Speaking at a gathering of Likud activists, Edelstein said that the upcoming elections were imposed on the Likud due to the coalition’s inability to function, which he blamed on the other parties in the coalition which refused to cooperate with…

Labor chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog and former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni vowed on Sunday that they will not divide Jerusalem, rejecting criticism of them from the nationalist parties. The two attended a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall, which was also attended by Rabbi David Lau, the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz,…

President Barack Obama said on Sunday the United States is considering putting North Korea back on its list of terrorism sponsors, after the hacking of Sony Pictures, reports the BBC. Speaking on CNN, Obama said a decision on the issue would be taken after a review, though he stressed that the attack was considered “an…

A driver shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he ploughed into groups of people in the eastern French city of Dijon on Sunday evening, AFP reports. 11 people were injured, two of them seriously, in the attack, a source close to the investigation said. “The man, born in 1974, is apparently imbalanced and had been in a…

Arab media reported on Sunday night that Syria had downed an Israeli drone in the Golan Heights. According to the report, which appeared on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and on official Syrian TV, an “unmanned aircraft of the Zionist regime was downed over the skies of Quneitra, close to the border.” In response, the IDF said,…

Oil prices have nosedived from $115 a barrel last August to under $60 a barrel by the middle of this month, with many analysts, in the wake of Arutz Sheva columnist and Middle East expert Dr. Mordecai Kedar, appraising that Saudi Arabia has intentionally caused the price drop as a weapon against Iran, over fears of…

A four-year-old boy was lightly wounded Sunday morning after rocks were thrown at a car he was traveling in near the Gush Etzion Junction. The rocks shattered the car’s window and the boy was hurt by the glass fragments.  Magen David Adom paramedics arrived on the scene to give the child medical care, before evacuating him…

Some polls have shown former Shas chairperson Eli Yishai’s new Ha’am Itanu party not passing the Knesset threshold in coming elections, and talk of a joint list with Uri Ariel’s Tekuma was ruled out Saturday night as the party voted to stay with Jewish Home – however, Yishai is not concerned. “The Tekuma decision helped…

Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett on Sunday morning led party members in praising the decision by the Tekuma/National Union faction to formally unite with his party, ending weeks of speculation over a possible split. “We are greater together than apart and we have great tasks ahead of us,” Bennett said.”The Land of Israel, its…

Chabad in Sydney has set up a menorah as a tribute to the victims of last week’s terror attack.  The attack began when an Islamist gunman took dozens of people hostage at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in central Sydney. Several captives managed to escape before police stormed the cafe 16 hours later. In the shootout…

Muslim extremists have been upping their violent campaign against Jewish visits to the Temple Mount in recent months, claiming that the presence of religious Jews is tantamount to an “invasion” which “defiles” the Al Aqsa mosque complex there. But while the site of Jews quietly touring the Temple Mount is considered a “provocation” (Jews are…

Yehuda Glick has announced he will run for a spot on the Likud Knesset list for upcoming elections, the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported.  The Temple Mount rights activist was shot multiple times by a terrorist during an assassination attempt in late October. The shooting occurred outside the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, where Glick had been speaking…

A poll published Saturday night on Channel 10‘s “Hamateh Hamerkazi” program found that respondents place responsibility for Israel’s weakening financial situation on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu more than on former Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid). The poll, conducted by members of the program, found that 46% held Netanyahu responsible for the financial situation, followed by…