Author: admin

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas attempted to clean up his image on Wednesday, in an interview with Channel 10, after he made a number of threats against Jews and Israelis earlier this month.  Abbas’s interview began with him denying that the recent uprisings in Jerusalem are an “intifada” – even after his “unity government” partner…

Israel officially closed immigration from Ethiopia last year, as all of the Ethiopian Jews had been brought to Israel – as had those from the Falash Mura community, whose Jewish origins are spotty at best. But many of the Falash Mura families, who are from communities that intermarried with non-Jews, still have relatives in Ethiopia…

Israeli drinks firm SodaStream, hit by international boycott calls, said Wednesday it was shutting a controversial factory in Judea-Samaria on Wednesday, in a decision it said was linked to a 9% fall in sales.  The firm, which manufactures a device for making carbonated beverages at home and which was embroiled in a row earlier this year involving Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson,…

Like many other Jewish and Israeli organizations and officials, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has criticized the Obama Administration for its open hostility to Israel of late – especially the recent insult to Prime Minister Netanyahu by an unnamed official. The ZOA took the opportunity to sum up the anti-Israel bias in the White…

Susan Rice, National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama, denied on Wednesday that there was a crisis in Israel-U.S. relations, The Atlantic reports. “The relationship is not in crisis. The relationship is actually fundamentally stronger in many respects than it’s ever been,” she said during a forum in Washington, a day after The Atlantic quoted…

The United Nations (UN) Security Council on Wednesday held an emergency session over Israel’s plans to build 1,000 new homes in Jerusalem, Al Jazeera reported. According to Haaretz, while the Security Council condemned Israel over the construction, which it claimed “violates international law”, it did not agree on actions against Israel which the United States…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Likud Central Committee chairman MK Danny Danon have agreed to bring the issue of holding the Likud primaries earlier than scheduled for a discussion at the Central Committee, it was reported on Wednesday. According to Army Radio, the two met and agreed that the Likud Central Committee would convene on…

The Jerusalem light rail has found itself a victim of increased rock attacks by Arabs in recent months, but a report by the State Comptroller Wednesday said that the rail system – or rather the taxpayers who funded it – had also been victims, of corruption, cost overruns, and inefficiency in the building and running…

Thousands of civil servants in Gaza queued outside post offices Wednesday, waiting to receive their first paycheck from the Palestinian Authority (PA)-Hamas “unity government” over four months after it was formally established, AFP correspondents said. However, thousands more – all holding jobs in the military and security services – were not being paid and it was unclear if and when…

An article published Tuesday in The Atlantic drew ire from Israeli officials, Republicans and supporters of Israel, after it quoted anonymous senior Obama administration figures describing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as “chickens**t.” But another part of the article has drawn offense from a different group entirely. The author of the article in question, Jeffrey Goldberg, claimed he…

Israel’s closure of the Temple Mount to all visitors – Jews and Muslims alike – following the shooting of Temple Mount rights advocate Yehuda Glick  is tantamount to a “declaration of war,” Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stated Thursday.  “This dangerous Israeli escalation is a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and…

Yehuda Gilck, a leading advocate for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, has been very seriously wounded after being shot in Jerusalem on Wednesday night, Arutz Sheva has learned.  Glick was shot outside the Begin Heritage center in the capital, witnesses said, after a terrorist pulled up in a scooter or motorcycle and shot him before fleeing…

Doctors at the Sha’arei Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem are fighting to save the life of leading Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, the director of the hospital, Professor Yonatan Halevi, said on Wednesday night. In a brief statement outside the hospital, Halevi told reporters that Glick, who was shot outside the Begin Heritage center in…

MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), who was in attendance at Wednesday evening’s event at the Begin Center in Jerusalem before the shooting of leading Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, said that “the writing was on the wall”. “The shooter made ​​sure that it was Yehuda before he shot him,” Feiglin told Arutz Sheva, adding that the…

Police have decided to close off the Temple Mount for all worshipers effective immediately. Wednesday night’s announcement came following a security assessment which was conducted following the shooting of Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick. Moshe Edri, the commander of the Jerusalem District of the police, announced that the decision to close the Temple Mount…

To a long list of failed Israeli policy decisions that promise to turn into major problems down the line add the country’s approach to – rocks. According to the State Comptroller’s report issued Wednesday, Israel is likely to run out of important minerals that are mined at rock quarries by the end of the decade.…

The government on Sunday will consider a proposal to expand Israeli labor laws to Judea and Samaria. The laws would apply to workers in those areas as they do to Israeli communities within the 1948 armistice lines, and would apply equally to Jews and Arabs working in Area C, under Israeli security and civilian control.…

Sweden on Thursday officially recognized the Palestinian Authority (PA) as the “state of Palestine,” Stockholm’s foreign minister said, less than a month after the government announced its intention to make the controversial move. “Today the government takes the decision to recognize the state of Palestine,” Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said in a statement published in the Dagens Nyheter daily. “It is…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s incitement is to blame for Wednesday night’s attempted murder of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said Thursday morning.  “The attempt to murder Glick is a serious step up in the ongoing Palestinian incitement against Jews and against Israel,” Ya’alon said.  “When Abbas distributes lies and…

The Islamic Jihad terrorist responsible for the attempted murder of Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick was an employee at the Terasa restaurant, located inside the Begin Heritage Center where Glick was talking moments before – and was employed at the cafeteria there despite having served time in Israeli prison for terrorism charges.  32 year-old…

Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) on Thursday instructed Knesset guard commander Brig. Gen. Yosef Griff to deploy a security attachment to accompany MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud), in a unique security detail unlike the routine attachments given to MKs. Edelstein also asked Griff to provide security to any MK, from the political right or left, who…

IDF forces conducting a routine patrol along the Syrian border on the Golan Heights came under fire from Syria on Thursday afternoon. The force reported that it had been targeted by gunfire, and proceeded to conduct a search for the sources of the attack. No wounds or damage was reported as having been caused by…

The chairman of the religious Zionist Jewish Home, Minister Naftali Bennett, and the chairwoman of secularist Hatnua, Minister Tzipi Livni, presented on Thursday to the Government Secretariat a request that the government officially ratify a compromise decision regarding contested changes in the process of conversion into Judaism, which threatened to bring down the coalition. The…

After the shooting of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick Wednesday night, police closed off the Temple Mount to both Jews and Arabs, for fear that mounting tensions between both sides would erupt into a full-fledged riot. But witnesses Thursday said that the ban had apparently been partially lifted: Arab Muslims were observed on the Mount,…

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) praised a sense of “closure” regarding the attempted murder of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick on Thursday, after Yamam SWAT teams eliminated the Islamic Jihad terrorist responsible just hours after the shooting. “This is closing the circle,” Aharonovich wrote on Facebook. “SWAT forces, along with the Israeli police,…

Security forces killed an Islamic Jihad terrorist, 32 year-old Mu’taz Hijazi of Abu Tor in East Jerusalem, on Thursday morning, suspicion that he was involved in the shooting of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick.  According to one report, the forces tried to arrest the suspect, but were forced to shoot him after he retaliated violently.  “In a joint…

In the wake of the shooting of Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, MK Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) said that he would file a bill with the Knesset making it illegal to employ convicted terrorists. Glick’s shooter, according to reports, was an Islamic Jihad terrorist who had been imprisoned in Israel for a number of crimes…

The cancellation of the Tel Aviv municipality’s planned trips to Jerusalem is more than just a security move, Ammunition Hill historical site representatives revealed Thursday – it is also a financial blow with major political implications.  Alon Wald, the son of Capt Rami Wald hy”d, who chairs the department of events at the historical site,…

Four Jewish activists were arrested on Thursday, after a flurry of protests against the attempted murder of prominent activist Yehuda Glick, as well as ongoing discrimination against Jews, broke out at the entrance to the Temple Mount. While throngs of people gathered to protest, the four men arrested had literally “crossed a line” as far…

The Temple Institute has condemned last night’s attempted murder of Yehudah Glick, a former director of the Institute, and said that Israeli authorities must shoulder their share of the blame for the attack. “Yehuda is a selfless champion of the right for Jews to pray at the Temple Mount who works tirelessly towards this goal,…

The crisis in relations between the Israeli government under Binyamin Netanyahu and the US administration of Barack Obama, which has stooped to name calling against Netanyahu, has received a mixed reaction among Israeli politicians. “Netanyahu is behaving like a political pyromaniac and has brought relations with the United States to an unprecedented low,” Opposition Head…

While President Obama and the United Nations continue to adamantly oppose any Ebola-related travel-ban, the US Department of Defense-funded Ebola study that was reported by Arutz Sheva earlier in the month has been updated with results which continue to show a dramatic reduction in the likelihood of importation of Ebola into a country if an…

The brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization continues its campaign of propaganda videos, calling on Muslims to come from around the world to Iraq and Syria where they have seized large tracts of territory, and to guard and expand the “caliphate.” In the new video, which has since been removed by YouTube, a “shahid” (martyr)…

The same Tuesday night that a senior official in US President Barack Obama’s administration was quoted calling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “chickens**t,” yet more officials indicated the US is warming up to cooperation with Iran – the Islamic regime seeking nuclear weapons that has repeatedly declared its desire to destroy Israel. Senior US and Arab…

In a new documentary video entitled UNRWA Goes to War, journalist David Bedein builds a seemingly incontestable case against UNRWA, showing the close symbiotic relations between it and the terror group Hamas. The video shows that not only did UNRWA schools serve as repositories for rockets in the last Gaza war, and not only were…

As part of its countermeasures to deal with the “silent intifada” of Arab terror gripping the capital, the Jerusalem Municipality last week launched an aerial surveillance unit to aid the police and enforcement officials in their struggle against Arab violence. The Municipality explained that the new unit will provide real-time intelligence information to aid forces…

Even as the Jerusalem Municipality and police step up their efforts to crack down on terror in the capital through the aid of surveillance balloons, Arab rioters attacked a Jewish car on Wednesday right by the Jerusalem District Court – for the second time this week. The Arab assailants launched a barrage of rocks on…

There is no rent control in Israel – but there should be, a student group said. And if the Knesset does not pass a law regulating rents, students will stage a mass walkout, going on strike in protest over the high cost of rent in Israel. MK Stav Shaffir (Labor) is one of the sponsors…

An entire German high school class is being investigated by authorities, the Daily Mail reports Wednesday, after the 29 ninth-graders were found to have been communicating to each other in Nazi slogans on a regular basis. Students in class 9A at the Landsberg Gymnasiums near Leipzig had formed a specialized WhatsApp group for the anti-Semitic comments, and…

Israel’s poor are not getting ahead -but they are not falling behind, either, new numbers from the Central Bureau of Statistics show. In 2013, Israel’s top earners made 8.5 times those on the lowest income level, the CBS said, a statistic that has been more or less consistent for the past two decades. The numbers…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not cave into pressure, officials in his office stated on Tuesday night, in response to harsh comments attributed to Obama administration officials. Journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic quoted two officials in Washington who described Netanyahu, among other things, as “chickens**t” and ‘Aspergery’, highlighting continuing tensions in relations between the…

A senior IDF commander on Wednesday acknowledged to Galei Tzahal (IDF Radio) that the Iran-proxy terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon has likely dug terror tunnels into Israel. IDF Northern Commander Maj. Gen. Yair Golan equivocated by noting on Hamas’s use of terror tunnels, saying “we have no positive information meaning that there are tunnels. The situation is…

Minister of Construction and Housing Uri Ariel (Jewish Home), fired back early Wednesday afternoon at Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) for his refusal to transfer funds for paving roads outside the large “blocs” of Jewish population in Judea and Samaria. “The reality of a freeze cannot go on and we will not agree to…

Chairman of the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee MK David Rotem (Yisrael Beytenu) submitted the controversial Conversion Bill of MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua) to the Knesset on Wednesday. The full Knesset is to vote on the bill for a second and third reading next Monday, after appeals to the bill this Monday were overruled and it…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has responded directly to personal attacks made against him by “senior US officials” in a report published Tuesday evening. Speaking at a special Knesset session marking 13 years since the assassination of Tourism Minister Rehava’am Ze’evi (also known by his nickname “Ghandi”) by Palestinian terrorists, Netanyahu began by addressing the comments,…

A small but loud demonstration took place today outside the National Headquarters of the Israel Police in Jerusalem’s Ammunition Hill, close to the site of last week’s deadly terrorist attack. Activists from the Im Tirzu organization were joined by ordinary Jerusalemites and Jerusalem university students in calling for police to crack down on ongoing Arab…

Gunmen opened fire inside a Lebanese hospital on Tuesday, after a man refused to allow doctors to shave his stomach hair in order to perform an operation. The incident occurred at the Mortada Hospital in Lebanon’s Baalbek region, according to the Daily Star, and began when a surgeon said he would need to shave a patch of…

The Pentagon will buy another 43 F-35 fighter jets worth roughly $4 billion from aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, officials said Tuesday, four months after it was briefly grounded following an engine fire, according to  AFP.  Although final details have to be worked out, the “handshake agreement” will mean the price of each plane will drop…

The state prosecutor has submitted a recommendation to the Attorney General to prosecute radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad), for inciting violence against police officers, according to Channel 10. The charges apparently relate to footage earlier this year in which Zoabi can be seen verbally abusing two Arab Israeli police officers in Nazareth, and urging…

Two apps designed by Yeshiva University’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs (CPA), “This is Yeshiva University” and “Cardozo Life,” have won highly competitive awards from the University College Designers Association (UCDA), the US’s first and only association for professionals involved in the creation of visual communications for educational institutions. The YU apps received two out of four awards…

Islamist groups have decried the visit to the Temple Mount by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Tuesday morning. On his early-morning visit, mayor Nir Barkat toured the Mount together with a police escort, after weeks of intermittent clashes fueled by Islamist groups on the site.  But police said the day passed in “relative calm” after…

The United States said Tuesday it will boost security at government buildings, after threats from Islamist groups and following two attacks last week in Canada that killed two soldiers, AFP reports. The “precise actions” and “precise locations” were not specified in the statement by Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, who said they would vary,…

The back and forth banter between Jerusalem and Washington over Israeli plans to build new homes in its capital continued on Tuesday. As The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg quoted anonymous officials in the Obama administration who launched a verbal tirade against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki had some words of her own…

The Israel Hayom newspaper on Tuesday urged its readers to phone and e-mail the office of MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) in mass numbers, and voice their displeasure over the bill he authored and which would limit the distribution of free newspapers, such as Israel Hayom. The bill, first proposed in March, is scheduled to come…

“The United States administration is planning to throw Israel under the bus,” Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday night, responding to harsh words against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu which were attributed to senior officials in the Obama administration. “Israel is stronger than all those who curse it,” said Bennett, after Jeffrey Goldberg of…

Egypt has ordered residents living along the country’s eastern border with Gaza to evacuate within 48 hours but put that on hold after they protested, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. The ultimatum is part of Egypt’s buffer zone plan, which follows a lethal terror attack last Friday that killed 31 Egyptian soldiers in…

Israel is running out of hospital beds, the Ministry of Health reported Tuesday – with the number of beds per population declining 11% in nine years. As of mid-2014, there were just 1.87 beds per every 1,000 people in Israel, compared to 1.91 in 2010 and 2.09 in 2005. The Ministry of Health stated that…

Activists from grassroots Zionist student organization Im Tirtzu and concerned citizens will gather today (Tuesday) at 5:00 p.m. in front of the National Headquarters of the Israel Police at Ammunition Hill in northern Jerusalem, to protest the severe deterioration in security in the capital. The licensed protest will be held near the light rail station where three-month-old…

The Civil Administration has extended an appeals period for Palestinian Arabs against the declaration of nearly 4,000 dunams (about 1,000 acres) in Gush Etzion as state land, IDF Radio reports Tuesday.  Israel announced that it would declare 4,000 dunams as “state land” in September. The decision was one of Israel’s responses to the kidnapping and murder of Israeli teens…

A spokesman for Jordan’s mission to the United Nations said on Monday his country will request an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council meeting on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), reports The Associated Press (AP). The spokesman, Laith Ibrahim Obeidat, confirmed the request and said his country, a council member, will ask…

At least 850 people have been executed in Iran in the past 15 months as part of a worsening human rights situation under President Hassan Rouhani, who has been branded as a “reformist”, a UN official said Monday, according to AFP. Ahmed Shaheed, the rights rapporteur for Iran, described a “surge in executions,” giving Iran…

Palestinian Authority officials strongly condemned Israel on Monday after it announced plans for 1,000 new homes in eastern Jerusalem, the Ma’an news agency reports. Among those was senior negotiator Saeb Erekat, who said the decision “amounts to evidence of an intent to further commit crimes defined by and punishable under international law.” “The announcement by…

Israel’s UN Mission in New York is starting to go on the counter-attack against Hamas, and is seeking for the United Nations to officially declare Hamas a “terrorist organization.” The Israeli Mission commented that, “Surprisingly, to date the UN has not officially recognized any organization in the world as a terrorist organization.” This week, Colonel…

Those ubiquitous plastic bags from the supermarket: it seems every Israeli has a bunch of them rolled up under the kitchen sink, because you never know when they’ll come in handy. But all that is about to change. The Knesset approved Monday night in the first reading a bill that sets a price tag of…

The fight against Ebola has hit the high seas, Walla! News reports Tuesday – as Israeli ports have been advised to screen all passengers arriving in the Holy Land. Ports in Haifa and Ashdod will now screen all arriving passengers for signs of the Ebola virus, including vomiting, diarrhea, bleeding, or fever above 38 C (100.4…

US-Israeli relations have suffered over the past month, with the State Department making multiple condemnations against Israel for both building Jewish homes in Jerusalem and for increasing its fight against Palestinian Arab terror.  However, it has not damaged the military cooperation between them, as the Israel Aerospace Industries, together with representatives of the Israeli Ministry…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu vowed to ignore the torrent of criticism from the international community Tuesday, declaring that Israel would continue to build Jewish homes in Jerusalem. Netanyahu made the remarks during the cornerstone-laying ceremony at a new port in Southern Ashdod.  “We will continue to develop the ports in order to lower commodity prices,…

The Knesset Committee for Internal Affairs and Environmental Protection, headed by MK Miri Regev (Likud), has approved “continuity” for the Infiltration Prevention Bill on Tuesday, placing it on a short track for legislation. Laws are passed in the Knesset only after being approved by the plenum in the first, second, and third readings; if a…

Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) sharply criticized the American condemnation of building plans in the Israeli capital of Jerusalem, which were finally given government approval by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday. The plans included about 660 housing units in the northern neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, and about 400 more in Har Homa in Jerusalem’s…

The Israeli and Polish presidents on Tuesday hailed a Warsaw museum chronicling the vibrant 1,000-year history of Poland’s Jewish community devastated by the Holocaust, as an investment in future ties between their countries. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was “symbolic of our looking to the future”,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held an urgent meeting early Tuesday afternoon with the Chief Rabbis, Rabbi David Lau and Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef, in order to reach understandings that would defuse the coalition crisis on the Conversion Law. The meeting follows a vote in the Knesset’s Law, Constitution and Justice Committee Monday, in favor of the…

American Airlines canceled a London-bound flight out of Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday after a passenger’s phone picked up a WiFi network named “Al-Quida Free Terror.” LAX police officers boarded the plane about 10 p.m. and investigated the incident, reported the Los Angeles Times. A photograph posted online of one passenger’s phone shows it…

A Monday editorial in the main PA daily newspaper shows the extent to which the war against Israel is waged on the “incitement” front. The Ramallah-based Al-Hayat Al-Jadida referred to last week’s terrorist attack in which a Hamas member and resident of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan rammed his car into a crowd of Jews and…

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat toured the Temple Mount Tuesday together with the commander of the Israel Police’s David District, Brig.-Gen. Avi Biton, and City Director Amnon Merhav. The mayor ascended the Mount in order to get a close look at the police’s preparations for dealing with ongoing Muslim rioting in the compound. The visit was…

Israeli citizens are being driven into the poorhouse, Opposition chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog (Labor) stated on the Knesset plenum on Monday, and recent budgetary decisions are to blame.  “I was young and I am old, and I do see the righteous forsaken and his children seeking bread,” Herzog began, paraphrasing Psalms. “There are those who…

With the opening of the Knesset’s winter session Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu granted an interview to hareidi radio station Kol B’Ramah making it clear that he has never boycotted the hareidi public.  “The hareidi parties were not shunned by the coalition because of me,” Netanyahu said, explaining that “it was not me who objected to…

Dozens of residents of south Tel Aviv demonstrated in front of the government complex in Jerusalem on Monday night, demanding an end to the constant flow of infiltrators into the city which is driving crime rates sky-high.  “Bring back our neighborhoods now!” protestors screamed. A protest tent was also erected outside.  Shefi Paz, protest organizer…

At least 34 people were killed and dozens injured Monday by two bomb blasts in and around Baghdad, Iraq’s capital, BBC News reported.  Today’s casualties add to the list of hundreds killed in bomb attacks across Iraq in recent months.  The first attack occurred when a suicide bomber drove a Humvee – likely captured from government forces –…

Tunisia’s Ennahda party, the first Islamist movement to secure power after the 2011 “Arab Spring” revolts, conceded defeat on Monday in elections that are set to make its main secular rival the strongest force in parliament, Reuters reports. Official results from Sunday’s elections – the second parliamentary vote since Tunisians set off uprisings across much…

Two U.S. lawmakers are trying to pass legislation in Congress that will end federal benefits for people the government has identified as suspected Nazi war criminals, The Hill reports. The two lawmakers, Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), are putting the bill together in the wake of last week’s revelation that millions of…

Syrian rebels, led by Al-Qaeda loyalists. launched a major assault on the government-held city of Idlib on Monday in a bid to consolidate their control over the northwest, a monitoring group told AFP. Rebels seized control of most of Idlib province early in the three and a half year old civil war but troops have…

The EU said Monday it was seeking Israeli clarification of reports it planned to build another 1,000 homes in Jerusalem, threatening once again to sever ties with the Jewish state if it failed to follow the bloc’s plan for the Middle East, AFP reports Monday.  If the reports are confirmed, “it will call once again into serious question Israel’s commitment to a…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has called for clarification from Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Monday, after the Minister stated Sunday that he would ban Palestinian Arab workers from state-funded buses in Judea and Samaria following years of debate over the issue.  Deputy Attorney General, Dina Zilber apparently turned to the Attorney for the Ministry of…

Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped at least 30 boys and girls from the town of Mafa in Borno state in northeast Nigeria over the weekend, CNN reports.  The news of the kidnappings was slow to be revealed due to lack of telecom service in the region – a result of Boko Haram’s near five-year insurgency against the Nigerian government. However,…

The Knesset approved on Monday evening the first reading of the controversial “surrogacy law”, which was authored by Health Minister Yael German (Yesh Atid). 45 MKs voted in favor and 15 voted against the bill, which seeks to extend the eligibility for surrogacy so that same-sex couples as well as men and women without partners…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmud Abbas said Monday he has called for an emergency UN Security Council session over the constant cycle of Arab rioting and violence, according to AFP – blaming Israeli “aggression” for the unrest, both throughout Jerusalem in general and on the Temple Mount in particular.  Abbas’s comments surface amid high tensions in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, which…

The Islamic State (ISIS) on Monday released a new video featuring British hostage John Cantlie, in which he speaks from what is alleged to be the besieged Syrian city of Kobane. The film begins with footage shot from an “Islamic State Army” drone, according to The Guardian. The video differs from previous ones in which…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has given the green light for construction of about 1,000 new housing units in Jerusalem, in what some are spinning as an end to the building freeze in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria – an unofficial freeze that Israel took upon itself under US pressure during the Obama presidency. Netanyahu has given…

Chabad emissaries to the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, Rabbi Hezki and Chana Lifschitz, received a surprise telephone call from Israel on Saturday night after Shabbat, from none other than the Israeli Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau. Rabbi Lau expressed his gratitude to the couple for their selfless work in helping the Israeli victims of two…

As the Knesset opened its winter term Monday, Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) made clear that he does not think this is the right time to call new elections. “I think that in the end, common sense will prevail and everyone will understand that this is not the time to head for elections,” he told…

Rabbi Dov Lior has stepped down from his position as chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, located adjacent to Hevron in Judea, in a surprising announcement to the religious council that comes after 37 years serving in the post. After the rabbi steps down, the Religious Affairs Ministry is to decide on a replacement to serve…

I have been asked to explain why I wrote a book based on a single Jewish prayer, and more specifically, why I wrote on Adon Olam. Curiously, my response to this question begins and ends with righteous gentiles and would-be Jews; which is somehow fitting given that it is the time of year that we…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni vowed on Sunday night to “bury” a bill, approved earlier by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, that would enable the Knesset to override a High Court decision to strike down a law it had previously legislated. “As the head of the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, I will bury the High Court…

Media outlets two months ago touted “coexistence” as Muslim Arab Mahmoud Mansour (26) married Moral Malka (23), a Jewish woman he met in their native Yafo – now Mansour has been arrested for drug trafficking and assaulting a police officer. Mansour was arrested last weekend after more than 10 grams of cocaine were found on him, Channel…

The mother of Abdelrahman Shaludi, the Hamas terrorist who last Wednesday murdered three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun hy”d and 22-year-old Karen Mosquera hy”d with his car in Jerusalem, is a “martyr” according to his mother. Shaludi’s family raised a ruckus after police limited the number of attendees at the terrorist’s Sunday night funeral at the feet…

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin flies to Poland on Monday for the inauguration of a Warsaw Jewish museum,  meetings with his Polish counterpart and other senior officials, his office said.   “Later on Monday, President Rivlin will depart for Poland, on his first official visit abroad as president, at the invitation of the president of Poland,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has followed the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) directives banning Jews from praying on the Temple Mount – but on Monday, he and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon did let Palestinian Authority (PA) unity government President Rami Hamdallah pray at the site. The permission given to Hamdallah was announced through the semi-official PA news…

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat outlined the sorry state of security in the capital Monday, in a session of the Knesset’s Interior Committee. Barkat disputed the claims that the deterioration in security began around the time of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. “Even before Operation Protective Edge, the state of affairs in Jerusalem as regards riots,…

Before the start of the Winter Knesset session on Monday, members of the radical Arab Knesset party Balad held a press conference at the parliament building – in which they removed the Israeli flags from behind their seats to a corner of the room. Party spokesperson Sami Ali who arranged the hall before the conference…

Thousands of civilians on Sunday fled their homes in a battered district of northern Lebanon’s Tripoli, taking advantage of an informal truce in fighting between the army and Islamist militants, AFP reports. The lull comes after three days of heavy clashes in Tripoli, the country’s second biggest city, according to the report. The coastal city…

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa on Sunday condemned last Wednesday’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem. The condemnation came hours after a citizen of Ecuador, 22-year-old Karen Mosquera, died of injuries sustained in last week’s attack, in which three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun was murdered as well. “We will reject violence from wherever it comes,” Correa wrote on Twitter,…

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is analyzing a video recorded by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman in last week’s shooting attack in Ottawa. The National Post reported on Sunday that the video was recorded shortly before Zehaf-Bibeau embarked on the shooting spree, in which he killed a reservist at the National War Memorial and shot…

Shas chairman MK Aryeh Deri on Sunday threw his weight behind former Communications and Welfare Minister Moshe Kahlon, who last week officially cancelled his membership in the Likud party, as he prepares to form a new political party. “If [Kahlon] has ten more seats, we’ll be able to make changes together,” Deri was quoted by…

As a result of the recent escalation of terror and violence in Jerusalem, law enforcement agencies are working Sunday to bring more security forces to the capital. An additional 1,000 Israeli Police and Border Patrol forces will be on hand to oversee security in eastern Jerusalem.  Security forces are expected to work together with the Tax Authority, the Bailiff’s Office…

India has chosen to buy anti-tank guided missiles from Israel, rejecting a rival US offer, in the latest sign of burgeoning ties between the two states. The latest arms deal comes as India’s right-wing government clears projects worth $13.1 billion to modernize its ageing military, official sources said Sunday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government will…

Palestinian Arab workers may be barred from Judea-Samaria buses in the future, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon indicated Sunday, after years of complaints from Jewish residents – especially women – that they were being harassed by the workers in transit.  Ya’alon made the decision after a public hearing in November by MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home)…

Likud MK Moshe Feiglin has defended the decision by the Tel Aviv municipality to cancel school trips to Jerusalem over safety concerns, and blasted criticism of their decision as an attempt by authorities to avoid responsibility for the ongoing violence in the capital. Last night, it was revealed that eighth-grade field trips to the Kotel…

Israelis changed their clocks from daylight savings time to standard time on Sunday, causing much confusion as Israelis scrambled to rectify glitches with their cell phone carriers.  But MK Yifat Kariv (Yesh Atid) intends to file a bill this week to cancel the concept of time change entirely, she announced Sunday, stating that the yearly “spring…

Egypt is planning to establish an expanded buffer zone between the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Sinai, security officials in Cairo have stated. Forces are slated to clear the area of vegetation and structures in the coming days, as well as to remove thousands of Bedouins living in the area.  According to Egyptian newspaper, Al Yom a-Sab’a,…

Security sources reported Sunday that Hamas had conducted another experimental trial of firing rockets into the Mediterranean Sea. An Israeli citizen confirmed witnessing one of the launches from near the Gaza border. The test, conducted early Sunday morning, consisted of two rockets being launched from what used to be Gush Katif, in Gaza. The first rocket…

A new hotline has been established to help Ukraine’s Jewish Community, the United Jewish Community of Ukraine organization announced Sunday, in light of the ongoing unrest in the east of the country.  The service, “910,” will provide 24-hour emergency assistance to Jews throughout Ukraine, it said, including Jewish communities in both large cities and small…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called on Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Friday to condemn Wednesday’s terror attack in Jerusalem, which killed three month-old Chaya Zisel Braun hy”d and left eight wounded.  “President Abbas must condemn this attack and make clear that Fatah and the Palestinian Authority wholeheartedly oppose such acts of terror,” said Abraham…

Despite the perception that there is a “crisis” in relations between Israel and the US, the relationship between the two countries is quite healthy, according to Amos Gilad, Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs and Chairman of Security Relations with Regional and Strategic Partners of the Ministry of Defense. If there are perhaps tensions between…

Israeli-Palestinian talks on a lasting Gaza truce are to resume after mid-November, instead of Monday as initially planned, the chief Palestinian negotiator Azzam al-Ahmad told AFP Sunday. The announcement came after other Palestinian officials said the talks had been postponed due to Egypt’s closure of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip. Egypt closed…

Terror victims’ organization Almagor is angry at President Reuven Rivlin for invoking the murder of baby Chaya Zisel Braun – who was run over by an Arab terrorist Wednesday – at a memorial ceremony for the Kafr Kassem massacre of 1956. At the ceremony, Rivlin called for an end to “the cycle of bloodshed.” “On…

Dr. Orit Galili-Zucker, who headed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political communication team between 2011 and 2013, has caused an uproar on Facebook by blaming baby Chaya Zisel Braun’s parents for “irrational” decisions that cost their daughter’s life when a terrorist ran her over.  Galili-Zucker also drew a parallel between the Brauns and the trekkers who…

The murderer of 20 year-old Israeli Shelly Dadon, hy”d, is expected to retract his confession on Monday, Channel 10 reports, ahead of the trial over the murder being held in the Haifa District Court. Police found Dadon’s body in an abandoned Migdal Haemek parking lot on May 1.  Dadon had no criminal record; she had been on her way…

Karen Yemima Muskara, 22, has died Sunday, four days after she was mortally wounded when a terrorist plowed into a Jerusalem crowd with his car Wednesday. She is the second victim of the attack to die. The first, baby Chaya Zisel Braun, died Wednesday. Karen is a citizen of Ecuador who reportedly came to Israel…

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation approved on Sunday a bill submitted by MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) that would enable the Knesset to override a High Court decision to strike down a law it had previously legislated. The bill would add a clause to the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom, allowing the re-legislation of…

While Israeli officials over the weekend extolled the extension of daylight savings time to its latest date ever in Israel, others are less enamored of the system. In Russia, they change the clocks this weekend as well – and they will stay that way. From frazzled nerves to uncomfortable cows, Russia’s three year experiment with…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has decided to end the de facto building freeze in Judea and Samaria and intends to approve thousands of new housing units and roads at a cost of millions of shekels, reported Channel 2 Sunday. The move is seen as a bid to strengthen the alliance with the nationalist wing of…

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday took up the issue of establishing a national database for pharmaceutical prescriptions. A law proposed by MK Gila Gamliel (Likud) would allow any pharmacy in Israel to draw information about a patient’s prescriptions from the health fund clinic’s database, essentially enabling all pharmacies to be part of the…

There is no connection between the instability in the Middle East and the Israeli-Arab conflict, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Saturday. Ya’alon’s comments in an interview with The Washington Post come one day after it was revealed that the Obama administration snubbed the Israeli Defense Minister and denied him meetings with Vice President Joe…

The Congress of South African Students (Cosas) provoked anger on social media on the weekend when its members decided to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza by placing the heads of pigs in the kosher section of Woolworths stores, reports the News24 website. A photo which appeared on Twitter shows a man with a pig’s head,…

The city of Tel Aviv has cancelled scheduled school trips to Jerusalem in the wake of the ongoing tensions in the city, Channel 10 News reported on Saturday night. According to the report, eighth graders from all schools in Tel Aviv were scheduled to visit Jerusalem this week for a Bar/Bat Mitzvah trip, but the…

A food cart that hands out anti-Israel propaganda with each of its sandwiches has received funding from a foundation run by Secretary of State John Kerry’s wife, The Washington Free Beacon reports. Conflict Kitchen, a pop-up restaurant located at the intersection of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, seeks to use food to…

A senior Hamas official threatened Israel with violence on Saturday. Khalil al-Haya, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, said that Israel will be the first to pay the price for the delay in rebuilding Gaza after the recent war. Speaking with Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV, Al-Haya said that the demands placed as conditions for rebuilding Gaza…

Egypt’s government has declared a three-month state of emergency in the lawless Sinai Peninsula, in response to two attacks which killed 31 soldiers Friday – making it the deadliest day since the start of an Islamist insurgency in Sinai. Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi said jihadists terrorists pose a threat to the very existence of the…

The time changes from Israeli Daylight Savings Time (IDST) to Israeli Standard Time (IST) in the early hours of the morning on Sunday, when the time will “fall back” from 2:00 am to 1:00 am on the morning of October 26.  To enjoy the extra hour of sleep, Israelis are reminded to set their cell…

Dozens of masked terrorists blocked traffic and burned trash cans on a main road in Abu Tor in Jerusalem on Saturday night, in the latest outburst of unrest in Jerusalem’s “silent intifada.”  The rioters also threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Jewish Israelis, injuring one. The wounded man was treated at the scene; Israel police…

Yitzhar residents are frustrated with the heavy restrictions still being placed on community activities – over eight months after a series of clashes between a small group of extremists and the IDF placed the local yeshiva (Torah academy) under government control.  The yeshiva was initially seized by Border Policemen in April, following clashes between an extreme element…

Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar, declared the constant cycle of violence in Jerusalem an “intifada” on Saturday night, making rumors of a so-called “silent intifada” official despite declarations from the Israeli security establishment that statements to that effect are exaggerated. “Escalating the resistance in the city is the solution to Israeli aggression,” Zahar told Hamas news…

Legal action is escalating against Israeli Arabs who join Islamic State (ISIS), after some thirty Israeli citizens were revealed to have left their hometowns to join jihadists in Syria earlier this month.  Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (HaTnua) will set a bill making joining ISIS a criminal act in the Ministerial Committee of Legislation on Sunday,…

Washington confirmed Friday that the Palestinian Arab teenager who was shot dead by the IDF after he attempted to throw firebombs was a US citizen, according to AFP.  “The United States expresses its deepest condolences to the family of a US citizen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defense Forces during clashes in Silwad on October 24,” State…

Israeli Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) is reportedly considering moving to the City of David neighborhood in Jerusalem, in a show of solidarity with Jewish residents under attack by Arab extremists. The City of David is located  in an area known to Arabs as Silwan, and is one of a number of Jewish enclaves in…

Israeli police braced for the funeral Saturday of a Palestinian terrorist who drove into a crowd, killing a three-month-old baby, with tensions further stoked after the IDF was forced to shoot a Palestinian teenager terrorist dead Friday.  Police were “ready for anything” after fresh disturbances in Arab east Jerusalem prompted four arrests overnight, spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP. Tensions…

British recognition of a “Palestinian state” has encouraged an upswing in terror, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) stated Friday – by giving political legitimacy to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas “unity government” regardless of its culpability for attacks against innocent Israelis.  It was a reward for this terrorist attack on Israel to make such…

The names of the two Israeli women who were killed in a bus crash in Nepal were cleared for publication on Friday evening: Shira Dabush, 30, from Ramat Gan, and Omer Shemesh, 21, from Hod Hasharon. The Israeli Foreign Ministry is in contact with the families of the two victims, and the Israeli ambassador in…

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian Arab teenager Friday during clashes with rock-throwing protesters near Ramallah, Palestinian medical officials and security sources told AFP. They named the dead youth as Orwa Hammad, 17, and said he was shot in the village of Silwad. The IDF said that troops opened fire towards the teenager upon identifying…

A car bomb in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula killed 25 soldiers on Friday, AFP reported. The attack is one of the deadliest attacks against security forces since the military deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last year. Security officials said 26 other soldiers were wounded in the attack near El-Arish, the main town in north Sinai. Security…

Two nurses infected with Ebola while caring for a dying patient in Dallas have been declared free of the virus, The BBC reported Friday. One of them, Nina Pham, had a meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, hours after being discharged. “I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today,” she…

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) exchanged some Facebook banter on Friday, revolving around Israel’s ceding of territory in order to achieve peace with the Palestinian Arabs. It began on Friday afternoon, shortly before Shabbat, when Bennett posted a response to an interview Livni gave and in which she…

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman behind Wednesday’s shooting attack in the Canadian capital Ottawa, had applied to renew his Libyan passport but was denied, CBC News learned on Friday. Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in Ottawa Wednesday before attacking Parliament Hill. Zehaf-Bibeau, whose father is Libyan, applied for the…

A student with a “blank stare” opened fire in the cafeteria of a high school north of Seattle on Friday, killing one person and wounding at least three others before fatally shooting himself, police and witnesses said, according to NBC News. A hospital official said three patients were in “very critical condition” after the 10:30…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was denied meetings with top American officials during his visit to the United States this week, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Friday, citing officials in Washington. While Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon did see Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, the officials said the…

Jerusalem’s Committee for Planning and Construction will discuss on Tuesday a plan to build 1,600 housing units in the hareidi neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, Haaretz reports Friday – four years after the same announcement caused an international uproar.  The construction at Ramat Shlomo caused a crisis in Israel-US relations in 2010, when 1,600 units were approved just as US…

Earlier this week, pro-Hamas Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) sparked outrage saying that IDF soldiers are “worse terrorists than ISIS,” and apparently the latest outburst by the MK is the last straw in the building public rage against her. While ISIS members “kill one person each time with their knife, the IDF [kills] tens of…

The brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terror regime conquering large portions of Iraq and Syria has been gaining huge popularity in the West with aggressive recruitment – so much so that a new study reveals it is more popular in Europe than in many Arab states. A Washington Institute study conducted in September and published last…

Knesset Chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) sharply criticized Arab MK Hanin Zoabi’s (Balad) latest tirade – in which she called the IDF “worse terrorists than ISIS” – and warned she is trying to “destroy Israel.” “She crossed all lines,” Edelstein told Israel Hayom. “I would expect that all MKs from the right and the left would support having…

India’s Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is set to make a high-level visit to Israel next month, in the first Home Minister visit since a 2000 trip that began resurgent bilateral ties – the visit comes after India last month approved a $144 million missile purchase from Israel. Singh, whose position is roughly parallel to…

A terror attack may have been thwarted in Queens, the New York Police Department admitted late Thursday night, after an axe-wielding man savagely attacked four rookie police officers in broad daylight Thursday afternoon. The assailant deliberately targeted the officers, surveillance footage shows – running at them with the hatchet without a word while they were…

A bus traveling from Kathmandu to Langtang has fallen off a cliff and into a ravine in the Himalayas, Nepalese sources told Arutz Sheva on Friday morning.  The bus fell 150 meters (492 ft.) after coming off a narrow road in Belkot, Nuwakot district, about 75 kilometers (46 miles) northwest of Kathmandu, according to Kantipur Television.…

More statements have surfaced from Palestinian Authority (PA) chief negotiator Saeb Erekat’s Thursday speech, in which in addition to threatening unilateral UN Security Council moves against Israel next month, he blamed Israel for the Hamas terror attack in Jerusalem on Wednesday. “We regret all loss of life. At the same time we reiterate that the Israeli…

This article is the third and final installment of a unique series in honor of Japanese Culture Week. For the first in the series, click here; for the second, click here. What do Judaism, traditional Japanese taiko drumming, African-American gospel music, and the Shinto religion of Japan have to do with each other? For Heavenese, a…

Members of a Shia militia manning a checkpoint near the front lines of the battle with ISIS in northern Iraq stopped a pickup truck with a rather unusual passenger this week: a lion. It is not clear where the lion came from, or what happened to it after it was found, but fighters from the…

A New York doctor living in Harlem was diagnosed with Ebola on Thursday, after having returned last week from Guinea where he is thought to have treated patients suffering from the epidemic with Doctors Without Borders. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday evening at Bellevue Hospital Center that the tests had come…

Two-year-old Krzys zooms down a slide in Warsaw and shrieks with delight, paying no mind to the workmen who are busy demolishing the playground walls. At first glance, there is nothing special about the old walls. But take a closer look and it becomes apparent that a couple of stones are inscribed with Hebrew. The tombstones, known as Matzevot,…

A set of differing polls reveals an odd lacuna in Israeli leadership Friday, with the public presented in the findings as apparently being unclear over its feelings for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  Forty-five percent of Israelis want to see a different Prime Minister elected next Knesset term, with just 29% approving of Netanyahu so far,…

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) visited the shiva (mourning) house Friday of the parents of three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun, hy”d, the baby who was murdered after a Hamas terrorist rammed his car into a crowd of pedestrians Wednesday night.  “There are no words I can say to comfort a young couple who have lost their…

The US is investigating reports that terror group Islamic State (ISIS) used chemical weapons against the Iraqi military, after separate accounts from both an unnamed Iraqi Defense official and hospital workers treating the victims told authorities that chlorine gas had been used.  Eleven Iraqi policemen were rushed to hospital last month complaining of dizziness, vomiting,…

Jewish Home chairman, Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, came in first in a poll of public satisfaction regarding how ministers discharge their jobs – edging out Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In the poll, which was published Thursday by the Knesset Channel, 38% of the public expressed satisfaction with the way Bennett was doing his job, compared…

Palestinian Authority (PA) chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday said his organization will push its unilateral UN effort to have Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria by 2016 in November, after US warnings postponed such a push from October. “If he (Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu) believes that he can sustain the status quo and (that)…

Hundreds of activists from the Otzma Yehudit movement, associated with the Otzma Leyisrael party that just barely missed out of the last elections, gathered Thursday night at the Ammunition Hill light rail station where three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braud hy”d was murdered by a Hamas terrorist the night before. In the protest that cried out against…

Despite the attack by a Hamas terrorist in Jerusalem on Wednesday that murdered a three-month-old baby and wounded eight others, indirect negotiations between the terror group and Israel apparently are to restart next Monday. The revelation was made Thursday by a leader of the Islamic Jihad terrorist group, which along with Hamas waged war on…

Police will restrict the entry of Muslim worshippers to the Temple Mount on Friday, after receiving intelligence information which indicates that Arab youths plan to riot and cause disturbances. In the wake of the information, the Commander of the Jerusalem District of the police, Moshe Edri, announced that only men aged 40 and over and…

Female drivers in Saudi Arabia will be dealt with “strictly”, authorities said on Thursday, according to AFP, before a right-to-drive campaign culminates on the weekend. The kingdom is the world’s only country where women are not allowed to operate cars. Activists said in early October they were revving up their campaign using social media. But…

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin on Thursday gave an interview to Israel’s Knesset Channel, in which he said his nation is interested in expanding military ties with the Jewish state. “We spoke about the importing of drones from Israel,” said Klimkin after meeting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other officials. “That’s really important in the supervision…

A Border Patrol officer serving in eastern Jerusalem has for the first time revealed the police helplessness in dealing with the “silent intifada” that has been gripping the capital in recent months, as Arab rock, firebomb and even gunfire attacks rise sharply. Speaking on Channel 2‘s “Shesh Im” TV program Thursday, a day after a Hamas…

This article is the second in a unique series in honor of Japanese Culture Week. For the first in the series, click here. As America and Europe become ever more critical in foisting political agendas on their relations with Israel, the Jewish state is turning its eyes to the east – where it has found…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened a security consultation Thursday afternoon with Interior Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich, Israel Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, ISA (Shin Bet) Director Yoram Cohen, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and Jerusalem District Police Commander Moshe Edri at Israel Police headquarters in Jerusalem. The prime minister was introduced to the Jerusalem District police officer…

Magen David Adom (MDA) released a tape recording of an emergency call Wednesday by a female witness to the Jerusalem terror attack, in which three-month-old Chaya Zisel Braun hy”d was murdered. The call for medical aid was made seconds after Hamas terrorist Abdelrahman Shaludi wounded nine by running his car through a crowded light rail station…

A physician with Doctors without Borders who recently returned from West Africa is being tested for Ebola at a New York City hospital, health officials said on Thursday, according to Reuters. The doctor developed a fever and gastrointestinal symptoms, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said in a statement quoted by…

The gunman who carried out Wednesday’s shooting attack in the Canadian capital Ottawa had recently applied for a passport and was hoping to leave for Syria, the country’s top cop said on Thursday, according to the Globe and Mail. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Commissioner Bob Paulson said 32-year-old Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who acted alone and…

In a surprising move, the leader of what has become known as the “Berlin Protest” or the “Milky Protest” announced on Thursday that he will be shutting down his Facebook page and returning to Israel. Naor Narkis, who launched the Facebook page exposing the lower cost of living in Berlin and encouraged young Israelis to…

Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Perry (Yesh Atid), formerly the head of the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet), warned on Thursday that the situation in Jerusalem is a “ticking time bomb” which will lead to a full-fledged third intifada. “We are witnessing a very serious escalation in Jerusalem,” Perry told Army Radio, a day after…

A day after Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat threatened to join UN institutions and present a proposal to the UN Security Council as a method of getting the world to recognize “Palestine” – and thus put pressure on Israel to make major concessions – PA officials said that they would hold off on the…

A day after the tragic attack in Jerusalem, resulting in the death of an infant girl, assaults against Jewish targets by Arab extremists continue.  Masked Arabs threw rocks at a children’s kindergarten Thursday morning. The kindergarten is located in the Ma’ale ha-Zeitim neighborhood next to Ras al-Amud, in eastern Jerusalem. No injuries or damage were…

The US-led air campaign against the Islamic State terrorist group in Iraq and Syria has killed 553 jihadis, according to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. According to the Observatory, 464 of that number belonged to the Islamic State – also known as ISIS or ISIL – while a further 57 were members of Al Qaeda’s official branch…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman made a connection Thursday morning between the attacks that occurred in Jerusalem and Ottawa – both state capitals – on Wednesday. The comments were posted on his official Facebook page.  “The terror attacks that took place yesterday, at almost the same time in both ends of the world, show that terrorism…

A large explosion near a bus station in northern Nigeria left five people dead and 12 others injured, police said Thursday morning. The blast occurred Wednesday night in Azare town in Bauchi state, about 600 kilometers (370 miles) north of the capital, Abuja, police spokesman Mohammed Haruna wrote in an e-mailed statement. A man left a…

While thousands of Jews visited the Tomb of King David on Mt. Zion over the Sukkot holiday, many of them had no place to sit while saying Psalms (tehillim), the prayers written by King David himself. That’s because, according to Rabbi Yaakov Silviya, an activist who is involved in the struggle over the fate of…

A new round of expert-level talks between delegations from Iran and the group of six world powers entered the second day in a row in Vienna, reported Iranian government news agency Tasnim Thursday. The talks, which began in Austria on Wednesday, are co-chaired by Hamid Baeedinejad, the director general for political and international affairs at…

Abdelrahman Shaludeh, the terrorist who carried out Wednesday’s attack in Jerusalem, was very active on social media making no secret of his hatred of Israel and of Jews, and his desire to participate in terror attacks. Wednesday’s attack occurred when Shaludeh arrived with his car at the Givat Hatachmoshet (Ammunition Hill) Light Rail stop and…

A 46-year-old Haifa resident was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of attacking a security guard and spraying pepper spray around a local Kupat Holim (health clinic) branch. As a result of the incident, six patients suffered eye burning sensations from the spray, which does not usually cause permanent damage but does induce severe discomfort.  An initial investigation…

This is the last picture taken of Chaya Zisel Braun, the three-month-old baby girl murdered last night when an Arab terrorist drove his car into a crowd of people at a Jerusalem Light Rail station. The picture was taken at the Kotel (Western Wall) where her parents were praying just hours before her life was…

After the terror attack in Jerusalem on Wednesday by Hamas member Abdelrahman Shaludi that killed a baby, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday vowed that future attacks will feel the “harshest response.” “Jerusalem is united and was, and always will be, the eternal capital of Israel. Any attempt to harm its residents will be met with the…

Against the backdrop of Wednesday’s terrorist murder, President Reuven Rivlin addressed the growing Arab violence in Jerusalem at the memorial for murdered minister Rehavam Ze’evi,who was popularly known as “Gandhi,” at the Har Herzl cemetery. Ze’evi was murdered by PFLP assassins on October 17, 2001, at the Hyatt Hotel in Jerusalem. “The murderous event that took…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s senior aid Sultan Abu Al-Einen already hailed the Hamas murderer of a baby in Jerusalem on Wednesday as a “hero” – now Abbas’s Fatah party is keeping the terror glorification going. Abdelrahman Shaludi of the Shiloach (Silwan) neighborhood rammed his car into a crowd of Israelis at the Ammunition Hill…

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the religious-Zionist Jewish Home party, “is tipped as a possible future prime minister,” according to the Financial Times. Bennett told the Times that Israel’s counter-terror war in Gaza this summer had prompted a rightward shift among voters that will reflect in the make-up of its next government, which he said…

Following Wednesday night’s car attack in Jerusalem, the Legal Forum for Israel has turned to Minister of Transportation, Yisrael Katz, to input a driver’s license disqualification law for those convicted of terrorist activities. Attorney Yossi Fuchs, the Forum’s consul, wrote to Katz that the terrorist who carried out the attack, Abdelrahman Shaludeh, was tried and convicted in the past of hostile terrorist…

The terrorist violence gripping Jerusalem continues unabated Thursday afternoon, after a three-month-old infant was murdered the day before by a Hamas terrorist in a car, and a kindergarten in the capital was attacked earlier Thursday morning. A bus driver became the latest victim of the “silent intifada” as he drove near Gethsemane park at the…

Dr. Eli Harari, founder and retired chairman CEO of Israeli flash storage firm SanDisk, is to be honored by the United States with a National Medal of Technology and Innovation. This award is the United States’ highest honor recognizing achievement and leadership in advancing the fields of science and technology. The award will be given…

“It’s time to pull ourselves together,” Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said on Wednesday evening following the terrorist attack in Jerusalem in which a baby girl was killed and eight people were injured. “The Israeli government has failed in the past year to provide security for the residents of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital. What happened tonight is…

The Canadian parliament is in lockdown Wednesday, after a series of shots were fired by an unknown gunman or gunmen. Footage of the shooting in the Parliament building can be seen here:  The attack began at the National War Memorial outside of the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. A soldier in uniform and carrying an unloaded…

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin (Likud) released an official response to a Hamas terrorist’s rampage in Jerusalem on Wednesday night, which injured eight people and mortally wounded a three month-old baby. Hamas later welcomed the announcement of the attack.  “The atrocious murder of an innocent baby girl, a victim of indiscriminate terrorism, should disgust all those…

A baby girl was killed and eight people were injured Wednesday, after a terrorist hit them with his car outside the Givat Hatachmoshet (Ammunition Hill) Light Rail stop.  “A private car hit passengers from the light rail near the police national headquarters. The car’s driver attempted to escape and was shot, apparently by a police officer from…

Hundreds of ‘Messianic Jewish’ missionaries raided Jerusalem during the Sukkot holiday, where masses of Israelis were taking advantage of the holiday vacation. The missionaries tried to lure in innocent Jews, claims the organization Yad L’Achim.  Members of Yad L’Achim said that some missionaries stood on Mamila Avenue, in Jerusalem, which leads to the Old City.…

Ireland’s upper house of parliament on Wednesday passed a motion calling on the Dublin government to recognize “the state of Palestine”, AFP reports. Much like last week’s vote in Britain, the move is a symbolic one that is unlikely to change policy. The motion called on the “government to formally recognize the state of Palestine…

The United States on Wednesday condemned the terrorist attack at a Jerusalem Light Rail station. “We express our deepest condolences to the family of the baby, reportedly an American citizen, who was killed in this despicable attack,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement quoted by AFP. “We urge all sides to maintain…

93-year-old Benjamin C. Bradlee, former executive editor of the American newspaper The Washington Post, passed away Wednesday evening. He died at his home in Washington, after several years of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.  Bradlee was the editor of the Post from 1968 to 1991. By ruling the newspaper with an iron fist, The Washington Post became…

A Hamas spokesman openly welcomed news of a terror attack in Jerusalem by one of its terrorists, which left nine people injured and killed a three month-old baby. “This is a natural response to the crimes of the occupation and invasion of our land by the Jews, particularly on the Al-Aqsa Mosque (Temple Mount –…

The Israel Football Association has said its piece regarding the punishment it plans to mete out to the Bnei Sakhin soccer team for its strong show of support for traitorous former MK Azmi Bishara. Instead of throwing the team out of the Premier Israel league, or even suspending it from games, the Association decided to…

Jerusalem Councilman Moshe Lion, who ran for the post of Jerusalem mayor last year, on Wednesday blamed Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat for the security deterioration in the capital. Lion was speaking following the terrorist attack at the Ammunition Hill station of the Jerusalem Light Rail, in which a three-month-old baby was murdered and eight people were injured.…

Jewish Music superstar Yaakov Shwekey is himself a show-stopper, but in his latest benefit concert for United Hatzalah at the Jerusalem Theater, he stopped the show in honor of someone else — seven-year-old Raphael Assoulin. Assoulin is battling cancer for the second time in his young life: triumphing over brain cancer a few years ago,…

A man jumped the White House fence on Wednesday and was attacked by Secret Service dogs before being arrested, a Secret Service spokesman said, according to Reuters. “Dogs got him,” the spokesman said, referring to the intruder. Video showed Secret Service agents surrounding the man on the north lawn of the White House, which was…

Canadian police are investigating a man identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau as a possible suspect in the shootings on Wednesday around parliament in Ottawa, a source familiar with the matter said, according to Reuters. Police said the male suspect in the attacks was dead but did not confirm he was Zehaf-Bibeau. Some U.S. government sources said…

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal declared on Wednesday that the terrorist group has proof that Mohammed Deif, the leader of its “military wing”, was not killed by Israel. Speaking to Vanity Fair magazine, Mashaal declared, however, that Hamas would not make this proof public. “Israel failed to assassinate him, but was able to kill his wife…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday evening with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and asked to convey the condolences of the Israeli people in wake of the terrorist attack in Ottawa. Netanyahu expressed his full support for Canada’s fight against terrorism, in which Israel and the international community are partners, the Prime Minister’s Office…

The “silent intifada” of violent Arab terrorism continues to strike in Jerusalem, where on Tuesday night, between the northern neighborhoods of Shuafat and Atarot, two Jewish men were the victims of an intense rock throwing attack on municipality-owned land. Oded Hania told Arutz Sheva he was driving in a car with a friend on the traffic route…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Jordan Tuesday that Israel has no intention of changing the status quo on the Temple Mount. This means that Jews will continue to be forbidden to pray on the Mount. A bill submitted by MK Miri Regev (Likud), according to which Jews will be allowed to pray on the Mount,…

The world-leading Israeli defense company Elbit Systems announced Wednesday that it has been awarded contracts from an unnamed Asian country for roughly $85 million, as Israel’s Asian ties continue to blossom. Most of the contract is for an avionics upgrade program to the American-made Northrop F-5 fighter jet, and the rest is for the supply…

A resident of Gaza was arrested on Wednesday morning by security forces after having illegally infiltrated into Israeli territory. The man was not armed, raising questions as to the intent of his infiltration that investigators will seek to answer. In the Eshkol Regional Council area roughly 500 meters into Israel the man was nabbed by…

MK and reservist colonel Motti Yogev (Jewish Home) toured the embattled neighborhoods of Shiloach/Silwan and Shuafat in eastern Jerusalem Tuesday, and suggested that the military be deployed to deal with Arab violence there. At Shiloach’s Yemenite Village, Yogev visited houses recently bought by Jews and said that “the Arab neighbors made us feel welcome and…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to withdraw support from the Conversion Bill proposed by Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party has won him praise from Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef. The rabbi sent a letter of support to the prime minister, reported Channel 2 News. “I wish to commend the honorable prime minister for his courageous decision,”…

With college and university sessions starting up again next week, the Israel Higher Education Authority on Wednesday released a report analyzing the number of students in institutions, where they live, what they are studying, etc. The study included statistics for 65 institutions of higher education, including seven universities, 65 colleges, and 21 teacher training institutes.…

The global recruitment pull of the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group continues to surprise, as three American teenage girls from a suburb of Denver were stopped in Germany on their way to join ISIS in Syria, US officials revealed Tuesday. The three girls are all US citizens, and consist of two sisters of Somali…

The crux of his remarks, on which Langfan further elaborated in his op-ed “The Sick Logic of Wealthy Jewish Met Opera Donors,” was that by legitimizing the Palestinian terrorist murder of an American Jew in a wheelchair “because there is an Arab-Israel conflict,” the Met in fact put a “bulls-eye on the forehead of every American…

Israelis are starting to flock to veganism and forego all meat and animal products, to the point where even the IDF now has options for vegan soldiers. “Four percent of Israelis define themselves as vegans, it’s the most vegan country in the world,” according to Omri Paz, organizer of the “Vegan Fest” fair, where stands offered pea-based hot…

In an interview with Yedioth Aharonoth, Justice Minister and Hatnua party chief Tzipi Livni revealed Wednesday that she intends to establish a united political front with Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid “for the advancement of the peace process.” “I have been holding conversations with Yair Lapid recently,” she told the newspaper. “I will say…

Tens of thousands of Jews are expected Wednesday night at the Tomb of Shimon Hatzaddik, identified in Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers, a Talmudic compilation of wise sayings and concepts by the Sages) as one of the “last of the Great Assembly” – the Anshei Knesset HaGedolah, which helped fashion Jewish religious life during…

Israel has been providing the international coalition to defeat Islamic State (ISIS) with intelligence, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon confirmed Monday – but has no intention of physically joining the campaign.  Ya’alon revealed Israel’s involvement during an interview with PBS’s Charlie Rose.  First, however, he expressed confidence in the operation – specifically the chances of eliminating…

More Israelis will be able to go to Australia to visit or work, after a new agreement between the two countries was signed Wednesday. Israel’s ambassador in Australia signed the deal with government officials there to allow up to 500 Israelis to enter the country annually on work/tourism visas. The visas will be granted to…

An Israeli NGO is set to release a report it says shows tens of cases in which the European Union has actively worked to breach the Oslo Accords signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, by changing the facts on the ground in Area C to unilaterally harm Israel in final status talks with the Palestinians.…

Jerusalem District Police Commander, Major General Moshe Edri, presented a comprehensive plan to quell Jerusalem’s “silent intifada” on Wednesday – one day after declaring intent to form a new task force to combat the violence.  The plan includes reinforcing police officers, including special forces (Yamam) in both covert and overt operations against rioters in the holy city,…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) said Tuesday he shared with his US counterpart his country’s concerns about thedirection of talks between world powers and Iran on its nuclear program. In an audio message released by Ya’alon’s office after his meeting with Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon, Ya’alon said they also talked about the conflicts in Iraq and Syria and…

Qatar, a key provider of funds to terrorist groups including Hamas, has its sights set on control of the United Nations (UN) as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is poised to step down in 2016 after his second five-year term. The gas-rich Gulf state’s Emir said he would back former Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad…

Arabs threw rocks in three different locations in Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, as the unrest in the city and its vicinity continues. In Wadi Joz, rocks was thrown at a bus. The vehicle’s windshield was damaged, but there were no injuries. In Beit Hanina Arabs threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle, which sustained damage, but…

UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday to move away from unilateral actions stoking tensions and make the “tough compromises” needed to end their decades-old conflict.   Ban spoke to the UN Security Council after returning from a visit to the Middle East where he saw first-hand the destruction in Gaza…

Israel’s top police officer on Tuesday pledged a new task force to combat ongoing violence in Jerusalem, after Arab extremists hurled Molotov cocktails at an apartment purchased by Jewish families in an attempt to drive them out just hours after they moved in. “We are moving ahead with a comprehensive program incorporating the latest technology,…

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is pressing Israel not to pass a bill allowing Jews to exercise their religious rights and pray on the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, a senior official of the Hashemite kingdom revealed on Tuesday. Jordanian Ambassador to “Palestine” Khalid al-Shawabka told the Palestinian Arab Ma’an News Agency that a bill proposed by…

The IDF has confirmed rumors, circulating since last summer’s war with Gaza terrorists, that Hamas was planning a massive attack on Israeli communities by hundreds of terrorists who would infiltrate into Israel via the vast network of “terror-tunnels” dug from Gaza into Israeli territory. In an exclusive Vanity Fair report, IDF spokesperson Lt. Colonel Peter Lerner finally…

Britain’s most senior police officer revealed shocking statistics on Tuesday, according to which five UK citizens are leaving each and every week to join the brutal Islamic State (IS or ISIS) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe was quoted by the Huffington Post saying: “the advance of IS across Iraq and…

A judge has ordered a mental health evaluation for the man accused of scaling the White House fence and running into the building with a knife, The BBC reported on Tuesday. Omar Gonzalez, 42, has pleaded not guilty to several charges stemming from the incident. He was tackled inside the White House on September 19,…

Canada’s federal government on Tuesday raised its internal threat level due to an increase in “general chatter from radical Islamist organizations” such as the Islamic State (ISIS), the Canadian Press reports. Jason Tamming, a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, said the move means intelligence has indicated an individual or group within Canada or…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu plans to warn the heads of the parties in his coalition that unless they compromise on issues of religion and state, the coalition will fall apart and new elections will be held, Channel 2 News reports. According to the report, Netanyahu plans to relay this message in a meeting with the…

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, declared Tuesday that if the United States vetoed the PA’s UN resolution for a timetable to “end the Israeli occupation”, the PA would apply for membership to 522 international organizations and statutes. Erekat said in a statement quoted by the Ma’an news agency that the PA should…

An Egyptian military court sentenced to death seven members of an Al Qaeda-inspired jihadist group Tuesday for carrying out deadly attacks on the army, military officials said. Two other members of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) were sentenced to life in prison, which amounts to 25 years in Egypt, AFP reports. The Sinai-based group has claimed…

Members of the Jewish Home party welcomed on Tuesday evening the election of two new Chief Rabbis for Jerusalem. Former Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar was elected as the new Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, while Rabbi Aryeh Stern of the Halacha Brura Institute was voted in as Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi. In a statement,…

The Pentagon said on Tuesday that U.S. airstrikes around Kobane, coupled with pressure from Syrian Kurdish fighters on the ground, had helped to keep Islamic State terrorists from taking the city but it warned the town could still fall. “The constant pressure from the air and … the pressure from the ground by these Kurdish…

United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Tuesday he was setting up an investigation into attacks on United Nations facilities during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, as well as into the use of UN sites to store weapons, according to Reuters. Speaking at a monthly meeting of the UN Security Council on the Middle…

Rabbi Eli Sadan, founder of the first and leading pre-military yeshiva academy in Eli, says the State of Israel is not yet ready for a Torah-observant IDF Chief of Staff. He later added that he feels the same way regarding a religious prime minister. Speaking with Channel 10, Rabbi Sadan says that given the situation…

The terrorism wave in Jerusalem and the vicinity continued on Monday evening, as Arabs threw firebombs towards “Beit Ovadia”, a home in the Shiloach (known as Silwan by local Arabs) neighborhood, near Ir David (City of David). Miraculously, there were no injuries among the residents of the house, who moved in just one day earlier…

A former National Union of Students (NUS) President voiced condemnation for the Goldsmith University and its Student Union’s rejection of a motion to commemorate the Holocaust.  The motion brought before the student body posed recognizing “the unspeakable horrors” of the Holocaust, other genocides, totalitarianism and racial hatred. The motion also called on the union to organize commemorative…

Official action is being taken over the offensive posters showing religious IDF soldiers as pigs on Monday, one week after they have begun circulating again in hareidi neighborhoods such as Meah Shearim and Bnei Brak. Yesh Atid MKs Shimon Solomon and Ronen Hoffman have filed a police complaint with the Tel Aviv District Police over…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has announced that he opposes the Conversion Bill sponsored by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and her Hatnua party, and that he supports the hareidi position regarding conversions, reported Amit Segal on Channel 2 Monday. After months in which heavy pressure against the bill was brought to bear by hareidi factions, elements…

Arabs from the village of Dura al-Kara in Binyamin infiltrated into the Jewish community of Beit-El Monday night, and threw two Molotov cocktails at the home of Avi Zarbiv. Zarbiv told Arutz Sheva that there were no injuries.  “The Molotov cocktail bombs hit my balcony and my bedroom window. The balcony window broke and caught…

Two kosher butchers have admitted to doctoring non-kosher meat and selling it to Jewish institutions for “years,” German newspaper Juedische Allgemeine reported earlier this week, during proceedings against them in the Frankfurt District Court.  Leslie W., 48, and his partner Akiwa H., 56, are being tried for fraud after they sold more than 88,000 pounds of non-kosher meat…

The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced a rare find of “tremendous historical significance,” it announced Tuesday: a fragment of a stone engraved with an official Latin inscription dedicated to the Roman emperor Hadrian. IAA researchers stated during the announcement that the stone fragment, found during a series of excavations north of Damacus Gate, may be…

The Palestinians have never been interested in a “Two-State solution,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon stated Tuesday – but only in hurting Israel.  “Their goal is not to establish a Palestinian state along ’67 borders, but to destroy the Jewish state,” Ya’alon stated, in an interview on PBS. “That is the reason why they have never said…

MKs have been left sizzling over the fact that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) appears to be negotiating with the hareidi parties currently in the opposition, Yediot Aharonot reports Tuesday. The government struck down a controversial conversion bill over the past 48 hours, leading to an uproar from all sides of the political spectrum and speculation that elections…

Former Olympic and Paralymic sprinter Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to five years in prison by a South African court Tuesday for the “culpable homicide” of his girlfriend in 2013. Judge Thokozile Masipa announced the sentence after she convicted him of culpable homicide, or negligent killing, but acquitted him of murder last month. Pistorius’ lawyers had…

Students in high schools near Gaza suffered academic lapses due to Hamas’s war on Israeli civilians, according to matriculation exam results released by the Ministry of Education on Monday. 5.64% fewer students in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council passed their matriculation exams, the data revealed – 64.07%, down from 69.71% last year.  A decrease is…

Former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani has penned an article in The Daily Beast in which he explains why he joined a demonstration outside the Metropolitan Opera on Monday night before the first performance of the opera “The Death of Klinghoffer.” As a story attempting to recount the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, “the opera…

There was such a large police presence and so many police barricades that anyone passing by would think that terrorists were at large. There were no terrorists on Broadway—although terrorists would soon be mounting the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. The police were protecting the right of the Opera House to present the Palestine Liberation…

The funeral of Israel’s first religious female IAF navigator, Lt. Tamar Ariel z”l, will be held in the cemetery in her home community of Masuot Yitzhak on Tuesday.  New details about Ariel’s death during the avalanche earlier this month that ravaged Nepal’s Thorong La mountain pass were revealed to Galei Yisrael radio Monday. A survivor, Eitan Idan, revealed to…

MK Yoni Chetboun (Jewish Home) praised Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s reported decision to remove the proposed Conversion Law from the agenda of Sunday’s government session. The bill, proposed by the Hatnua party’s MK Elazar Stern, would have made it possible for local rabbis to carry out official procedures of giyur – conversions into Judaism –…

The Moked 100 police hotline in Jerusalem received a report Tuesday morning that a toddler, estimated to be about two years old, was spotted wandering around the Beit Hakerem neighborhood, alone.  Officers from the Moriah unit took the girl into custody and embarked on the difficult task of returning her to her parents.  The police…

Hundreds took part on Tuesday afternoon in the funeral of Lt. Tamar Ariel z”l, Israel’s first religious female IAF navigator who was tragically killed last week in a lethal Nepalese avalanche. The 25-year-old’s body arrived in Israel on Monday night along with that of Agam Luria z”l (23), who was likewise killed in the disaster that claimed the…

This article is the first in a unique series in honor of Japanese Culture Week. Jerusalem held the official opening ceremony of Japanese Culture Week on Monday, as the Israeli capital became awash with the culinary, musical and visual experiences of the Land of the Rising Sun – it’s “close neighbor” according to the visiting…

A new report by the Temple Organizations Headquarters harshly criticizes the police for their inability to secure Jewish access to the Temple Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – during the recent Sukkot holiday. The report, which was released Tuesday by the group’s leader Assaf Fried, detailed how police continue to arrest Jews who…

Faten Nassraldin, 34, from Dalit El Carmel, is expected to soon become the first female Druze officer in the Israel Police, the corps announced on Tuesday.  Nassraldin began her tenure at the Israel Police four years ago, in the Criminal Investigations division in Zichron Ya’akov (near Haifa). But on Tuesday, she received her post and…

One of two Canadian soldiers run over by an Islamist extremist has died from his wounds Tuesday morning, according to NBC news. Late Monday night, Canadian police shot dead the attacker – a “homegrown” jihadist fanatic – after the 25 year-old man attacked soldiers without warning in a parking lot in his hometown. Martin Couture-Rouleau, a…

A new set of rules and guidelines has been released for IDF soldiers, it was revealed Tuesday, so as to improve the military’s image and increase soldiers’ sense of seriousness regarding their duties.  Oren Ebman, until recently head of the Ground Forces and Division Commander, last week published a list of rules for the use of…

Speculation was rampant Monday night that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to shelve the Conversion Bill, introduced by MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua), is part of his preparations for new elections, possibly next spring. Several media outlets reported on Monday night that the reason behind Netanyahu’s move is to get closer to the hareidi parties in…

President Reuven and First Lady Nechama Rivlin hosted the Global Forum of the National Library Monday evening. Members of the Israel National Library attended, as well as other notable international figures in the field of culture, academia, and science.  The President began his opening address by stating: “I welcome you here tonight, and your decision…

Israeli and Palestinian Arab negotiators are to resume talks on a durable Gaza ceasefire next week in Cairo, a senior official in Hamas said Monday, according to AFP. “Hamas and the Palestinian factions will take part in a session of indirect negotiations with the occupation (Israel) on the 27th of this month at the invitation…

Iran is taking further action to comply with an interim nuclear agreement with six world powers, a monthly UN atomic agency report released Monday and seen by Reuters shows. The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) made clear that Iran is meeting its commitments under the temporary deal, as it and major powers…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made clear on Monday that if Hamas rebuilds the terror tunnels, Israel will stop the rehabilitation process of Gaza. Ya’alon, who is visiting the United States, made the comments during a meeting with United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at UN headquarters in New York. “We want the people of…

Former Nazis should not be collecting Social Security benefits, the White House declared on Monday, a day after an Associated Press (AP) investigation revealed that millions of dollars have been paid to war crimes suspects and former SS guards even after they were forced out of the United States. “Our position is we don’t believe…

The bodies of Agam Luria, 23, and Lt. Tamar Ariel, 25, who were killed in last week’s deadly avalanche in Nepal, arrived in Israel on Monday night. Ariel, who was Israel’s first religious female air force navigator, will be brought to rest on Tuesdy afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at the cemetery in her home town of…

The body of a fourth Israeli killed in last week’s deadly avalanche in Nepal has been identified by search and rescue teams. 36-year-old Michal Cherkesky of Givatayim was missing for six days before her body was discovered Monday morning. Her family had told reporters they were “praying for a miracle”, and that they feared she was…

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has spelled out his plan for restoring order to neighborhoods in Jerusalem where Arab attacks on Jews have become daily occurrences, and said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu also forcefully demanded action by the security forces in a recent high-level discussion.  Barkat enumerated the neighborhoods currently under attack – from Armon…

Israeli billionaire Haim Saban was thrown a surprise 70th birthday party by his wife Cheryl Saban on Saturday night, and he used the occasion to call on former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to run in the 2016 presidential elections. Saban had planned to hold his birthday party on the Hawaiian island of Lanai according to MSN…

Sources in the Hezbollah-led ruling March 8 Alliance of Lebanese political parties revealed that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah refused UN special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura’s request to meet last Thursday, instead sending his deputy Sheikh Naim Qassem Hezbollah views the request by the UN envoy to meet Nasrallah as a victory to the terrorist organization,…

Palestinian Authority (PA) foreign minister Riyad al-Malki on Monday appraised that the PA will succeed in garnering enough UN Security Council votes to demand Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria by a certain deadline. “I will inform the Israelis of their diplomatic downfall in the Security Council before the start of next year,” al-Malki told…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, who heads Yisrael Beytenu, said Monday that his party intends to resubmit a court motion asking that the Balad party be disqualified from running for Israel’s Knesset. Liberman wrote on his Facebook page that “The Balad party has turned into an arm of Hamas, and it helps it while using the…

On Sunday morning the IDF claimed “color red” rocket sirens sounded in the Gaza Belt and Negev regions were a false alarm – on Monday, “color red” sirens were heard yet again in the Eshkol Regional Council area near Gaza, and again the IDF claimed a false alarm. According to Yedioth Aharonoth, the alarm was reported as…

MK Yoni Chetboun (Jewish Home), Chairman of the Knesset Caucus for Israel in France, sent a letter to the mayor of Paris suburb Valenton Monday morning calling for a name change to a street named after arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti.  Barghouti, who has called for an armed uprising against Israelis on multiple occasions since his imprisonment, is…

A 12-year-old boy collapsed Monday on the steps of his school Chafetz Chaim on Ha’Ahim Suleiman Street in Rishon Letzion.  United Hatzalah medics and a Magen David Adom (MDA) team were immediately called to the scene. The boy, in critical condition, was taken to Assaf Harofeh Hospital while medics gave him CPR. Doctors soon pronounced…

Members of Knesset, Orit Struk and Yariv Levin, heads of the Land of Israel Lobby in the Knesset, have prepared ten laws for applying sovereignty over ten different areas in Judea and Samaria. We discussed with MK Struk the laws that have been proposed and that are awaiting for the right moment to be moved along in…

American C-130 military transport aircraft made “multiple” airdrops of weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters fending off Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in the strategic Syrian town of Kobane, despite Turkey labeling the Kurds “terrorists.” According to US Central Command on Monday, the drops consisted of equipment from Kurdish authorities in Iraq, and were…

After a similar move last month led to American condemnation and Arab riots, nine Jewish families on Sunday night moved into their homes in Jerusalem’s Shiloach (known as Silwan by local Arabs) neighborhood. The neighborhood is located adjacent to the City of David, an area thought to be the heart of the Jewish capital in…

An Israeli firm will supply Egypt with natural gas, a company spokesman said Monday, more than two years after sabotage halted the flow of Egyptian gas to Israel. For more than a decade Israel relied on Egypt for roughly 40 percent of its gas needs in line with an export accord signed in 2005 by the two countries which are…

Some 2,500 people attended a rally against anti-Semitism in the English city of Manchester Sunday, as British Jews remain concerned over a spike in anti-Jewish hate crimes in the UK. Anti-Semitism rose dramatically worldwide during this summer’s war between Israel and terrorists in Gaza, but Europe was particularly hard-hit by the wave of hatred. While…

A group of Dutch Christians vowed to boycott a Church’s exhibition on “jailed Palestinian children,” a member of the group told the Trouw daily newspaper, over protests that the art display promoted anti-Semitic views.  The Dutch Coalition for Palestinian Children in Israeli Detention brought the exhibition to Utrecht’s famous Domnkerk Church, or St. Martin’s Cathedral, last…

IDF spokesman Brigadier General Moti Almoz spoke Monday morning addressing an upcoming update of IDF soldiers’ living expenses (monthly salaries).   “Soldiers do not get paid for their military service, but rather living expenses,” Almoz informed. “The problem is the increase in cost of living recently. In 2015, the monthly payments will be updated for…

Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country – has been declared officially free of Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday.  WHO may declare an Ebola outbreak over if two incubation periods of 3 weeks pass without any new cases. The last reported case in Nigeria was discovered 6 weeks ago on September 5.  The…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon reiterated on Sunday that Israel and the United States share an important relationship which Israel appreciates. Ya’alon, who is visiting the U.S., met with New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We greatly appreciate your personal support for Israel; in your statements and in your attitude you give us moral and ethical…

The daughter of the leader of Gaza’s Hamas terror militia, Ismail Haniyeh, received emergency medical treatment in an Israeli hospital in Tel Aviv earlier this month, according to Reuters news agency. Ichilov Hospital confirmed the report and said that the daughter had been released over a week ago. “Ismail Haniyeh’s daughter was indeed hospitalized for…

Heaven has answered the newly introduced prayers for rain that began in Israel on Thursday, Shemini Atzeret – in spades. Major thunderstorms whooshed through the center of the country Sunday night, downing trees and causing power disruptions in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and points in between. Debris fell on Road 1, the main thoroughfare into Jerusalem…

Israel will continue to build in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday. Netanyahu was speaking at the inauguration of a new road to be named for former Prime Minister Yitzchak Shamir. The government commemorated the memory of Shamir in special ceremonies Sunday. Netanyahu also discussed the ongoing talks between Iran and Western countries, saying…

A recently published statistical analysis funded by US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) predicts that there will be approximately 230,000 Ebola infected people in the West African countries of Liberia and Sierra Leone by December 31, 2014. This would mean approximately an additional 220,000 cases by the end of 2014, above what currently exists in…

Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) has created a new firestorm with the latest in a long series of provocative remarks and actions. In an interview for Channel 2 News Online, Zoabi said that IDF soldiers are “worse terrorists than ISIS.” While ISIS members “kill one person each time with their knife, the IDF [kills] tens…

The British government will order a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and a network of Islamist groups accused of fuelling extremism in Britain and across the Arab world, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. Prime Minister David Cameron launched an inquiry into the Brotherhood earlier this year, prompted by concerns it was stoking an Islamist ideology…

MK Itzik Shmuli (Labor) blasted MK Hanin Zoabi on Sunday night, after she said that IDF soldiers are “worse terrorists than ISIS.” While ISIS members “kill one person each time with their knife, the IDF [kills] tens of Palestinians with one button,” she said. In a post on his Facebook page, Shmuli used unusually harsh…

President Barack Obama suffered a bit of an embarrassment on Sunday, when he made a rare appearance on the campaign trail but attendees chose to leave as he spoke. According to Reuters, Obama’s appearance came at a rally to support the Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland. With approval levels hovering around record lows, Obama…

Dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals and SS guards collected millions of dollars in Social Security payments after being forced out of the United States, an Associated Press (AP) investigation revealed Sunday has found. According to AP, the payments flowed through a legal loophole that has given the U.S. Justice Department leverage to persuade Nazi…