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Canada has shut down its embassy in Cairo as a result of continuing unrest in Egypt. “As a security precaution and to ensure the protection of all staff, we have closed our embassy in Cairo until further notice,” Rick Roth, a spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, wrote in an e-mail to the Montreal…

Archaeologists say they have found the remains of the Biblical Israelites’ Tabernacle at site of ancient Shilo. The Tabernacle precedes the Temples and dates to the period between the conquest of the Land of Israel by Joshua and the rise of King David. According to a report in Yisrael Hayom, the archaeologists will display their…

A Catholic priest has been publicly beheaded by Syrian terrorists after he was accused of collaborating with President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. Franciscan Father Francois Murad was executed along with two other people in the countryside of Idlib in northern Syria on Sunday, the New York Daily News reported. The brutal beheading was filmed and posted…

Illegal entry to Israel from Egypt is a mere fraction of what it was just last year, new data from the Immigration and Population Authority has revealed. While 9,570 citizens of various African countries entered Israel illegally in the first half of 2012, only 34 did the same in the first six months of 2013…

Students from New York City’s Yeshiva University kick off their eighth season in southern Israel on Tuesday as camp leaders in the cities of Dimona, Arad, Be’er Sheva, Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi. The month-long immersion service-learning initiative provides 300 children from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds with Jewish values and just plain summer fun.…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) President Peter Mauer on Monday of a recent case in which a Hamas prisoner freed on humanitarian grounds soon gloried in his return to terror. The ICRC, which often advocates on behalf of prisoners in Israel, never once convinced Hamas to allow a representative to visit…

The headquarters of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo were stormed and ransacked on Monday following deadly clashes there between supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi who hails from the Islamist group, according to an AFP correspondent. The building in Cairo’s Moqattam district was set on fire before people stormed inside and began throwing…

Arab road terrorists threatened Israeli travelers Sunday evening in Judea (Yehuda) on the southern leg of Highway 60 between Jerusalem and Kiryat Arba.   A homemade explosive device was hurled at a vehicle with Israeli license plates on from the Palestinian Authority Arab village of El Aroub, just south of Gush Etzion. The improvised bomb struck…

As four ministers from Mohammed Morsi’s government resigned in the wake of the mass protests demanding his resignation, the Muslim Brotherhood announced Monday afternoon that it would “defend itself” from anti-government protesters, in the wake of the trashing of its headquarters in Cairo earlier Monday. Egypt seemed to once again be spinning out of control,…

Egypt was locked in a tense standoff on Monday after a day of huge rallies in which at least ten people were killed. The protesters demand the resignation of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and some of them are saying that the military needs to step in, if Morsi refuses to step down. The dead were…

Ronit Avrahamof Shapira, known to many as Ronit the newscaster from Youtube political satire Latma, survived a road ambush by rock-throwing terrorists Sunday night. She was in the family car that was being driven by her husband, Eliezer (“Leizi”), and their small children. Shapira told the tale on her Facebook page. “The rock terror has reached…

A woman serving in the Border Police thwarted a planned stabbing attack by a female Arab terrorist in Hevron Monday morning. The terrorist, who is a resident of Hevron and in her 20s, arrived at one of the entrances to the Cave of Machpela around 11:00 a.m.. She had come from the casbah area. The…

The EU mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah on Sunday condemned the recent execution of two Palestinian Authority Arabs in Gaza by Hamas authorities, a statement quoted by the Ma’an news agency read. “The de facto authorities in Gaza should refrain from carrying out any executions of prisoners and comply with the de facto moratorium on…

The Israeli economy continues to do well in the face of ongoing problems in the world economy. Israel’s unemployment rate remained a relatively mild 6.9% in May, the same as in April. Experts said that the relatively stable employment situation was a sign that the Israeli economy was flexible and versatile enough to withstand the…

MK Yoni Chetboun (Bayit Yehudi) said Sunday that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry apparently does not believe in the two-state solution he himself is trying to advance. “There is an obsession on the verge of lunacy around the idea of two states, and many people follow the idea like prisoners of war,” Chetboun told…

Four people died on Sunday as millions gathered in Egypt on the anniversary of President Mohammed’s Morsi inauguration. Kol Yisrael radio reported that 17 million people hit the streets. Three people died in Assiut, the report said, and a fourth in Bani Seuf, south of Cairo, Al Jazeera reported that the Cairo headquarters of Morsi’s…

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz was elected on Sunday for another term as the chair of the Likud secretariat. About 80% of the 3,600 members of the Likud Central Committee took part in the elections for the Likud’s institutions. In addition to the chairmanship of the secretariat, the members also chose who will preside over the…

The Israeli Mission to the United Nations, along with the President of the General Assembly, hosted last week a conference at the UN on promoting entrepreneurship as a means to tackle the world’s most pressing problems. This event follows a December 2012 resolution on “Entrepreneurship for Development,” when 141 member states supported an Israel-initiated resolution…

Saudi Arabia has sent seven people to jail for up to ten years for posting status messages calling for anti-government protests, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says. According to a statement issued Sunday by the New York-based human rights organization, the seven activists were all from the country’s Eastern Province and were convicted and sentenced to…

A car crash Saturday involving an official Palestinian Authority convoy left nine people injured. Six of the wounded belong to a single Israeli family. The crash was caused by PA security officers driving in a convoy with newly appointed PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah. As they drove near the town of Tekoa in the Gush…

Israelis will get a chance to weigh in on any planned peace deal with the Palestinian Authority, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced Sunday during the weekly Cabinet meeting. “There won’t be a diplomatic agreement that endangers Israel’s citizens, and I believe – I think it’s vital – that any agreement, if we reach one, will…

As Egypt prepares for a “million man protest” against President Mohammed Morsi on Sunday, the opposition Tamarod said that more than 22 million people have signed a petition demanding Morsi’s departure and a snap election. “Our petition has gathered 22,134,465 signatures,” Tamarod spokesman Mahmud Badr told journalists on Saturday, according to AFP. Thousands of Egyptians…

Three children at a Jewish summer camp in northwest Indiana were injured on Saturday as a result of a lightning strike in an open field, The Indianapolis Star reported. Local police said one of the children was in critical condition in the incident which occurred at the Goldman Union Camp Institute, a Jewish camp run…

US Secretary of State John Kerry extended for a third day on Saturday his shuttle diplomacy between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, raising speculation of progress in reviving long dormant “peace talks.” In a sign of Kerry’s desire to keep negotiating, AFP reported, he paid a rare visit to Jerusalem during Shabbat – the sabbath day.…

The US State Department has identified the American student killed in Egyptian riots as Andrew Pochter, 21, of Chevy Chase, Maryland. He was stabbed by a protester Friday, according to reports. Another man, an Egyptian, was also killed. He was in Alexandria to teach English and improve his Arabic, according to his family. “He went…

MK Miri Regev (Likud) attacked fast food chain McDonalds’ Israel franchise owner, Omri Padan, for his decision to boycott the city of Ariel because it is located on what he sees as “occupied territory.” “Mr. Padan established Peace Now,” she said on Channel 10 Saturday night. “He is a leftist, he is a defeatist, he…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been having “positive” meetings in the Middle East, reports said on Friday. Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon, their second meeting in 24 hours. The contents of the meeting were not disclosed, but an American official was quoted by Kol Yisrael radio…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met in Jerusalem on Friday afternoon, their second meeting in 24 hours. The contents of the meeting were not disclosed, but the two agreed to meet for a third time on Saturday night. Kerry is currently on his fifth trip to the region since…

The Israeli Foreign Ministry renewed on Friday its travel warning to Israelis traveling and staying in Egypt. The Foreign Ministry said it recommends avoiding traveling to Egypt and called on all Israelis currently in the country to reconsider the rest of their stay. Israeli citizens who choose to stay in Egypt, said the warning, are…

Gaza’s Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, on Friday urged Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas not to begin talks with Israel, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry continued his efforts to get the sides back to the negotiating table. “We ask brothers in the Palestinian Authority and Abu Mazen (Abbas) not to fall yet again…

An American citizen was killed in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria on Friday during clashes between supporters and opponents of President Mohammed Morsi, Al-Ahram reported. A total of two people were killed in the city on Friday, the report said, the second victim being an Egyptian man. The American man died from a stab…

A Hollywood blockbuster depicting a worldwide zombie apocalypse has become yet more fuel for the fire in the debate on Israel. According to many PA supporters, the film’s depiction of Israel as one of the few countries on earth not immediately overwhelmed by zombies indicates a clear pro-Israel bias. The movie stars actor Brad Pitt…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Israel on Thursday evening and met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, as part of his efforts to restart peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The meeting lasted for more than four hours. Earlier Thursday, Kerry met in Jordan with King Abdullah and discussed the peace…

A retired United States general and former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is under investigation for allegedly leaking details related to the Stuxnet virus that hit Iran in 2010, NBC reports. Retired Marine general James Cartwright is reportedly being questioned over allegations that he provided reporters with information about Stuxnet. Cartwright was…

A 19-year-old soldier was killed Thursday in a fall from a train. The cause of the accident is not yet clear. He had apparently been hanging from the outside of the train, possibly after attempting to get back on the train after getting off. At some point he fell, and was pulled under the train…

Efraim Halevy, who has previously served as the Head of Israel’s Mossad Intelligence Agency, is the incoming Chairman of a program that will help certify the Jewish identities of thousands of immigrants, primarily from the former Soviet Union. These certifications are mandatory under Israeli law for any couple of questionable ancestry who are looking to…

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, has been indicted on charges of killing four people and using a weapon of mass destruction. He faces 30 charges linked to the April 15 terror blasts, which killed three and injured more than 260 others. Seventeen of the charges could bring life in prison or even the…

Speaking at a ceremony marking the 109th anniversary of the death of the father of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stressed that any peace deal with the Palestinian Authority must be based on Israel’s ability to defend itself if the agreement breaks down. Speaking just hours before US Secretary of State John Kerry’s…

The Shin Bet, working in cooperation with the IDF and police, has exposed a PFLP terror cell from Shechem and Hevron with links to a terror network abroad. A member of the cell, Aed Fahri Marka, carried out a shooting attack against Israeli hikers near Ein Prat (Wadi Kelt) in Judea, in early May. Marka…

Among the weapons seized were handguns, M-16 assault rifle parts, dozens of magazines and a large variety of ammunition and military equipment. Three suspects were arrested in connection with the weapons and transferred to security forces for questioning. Overall, 19 terror suspects were arrested overnight throughout the Jordan Valley and Judea and Samaria regions. In…

Cyprus has signed a deal with the US-Israeli Noble Energy firm to build a liquified natural gas plant to exploit its untapped reserves. A memorandum of understanding was signed between the island nation and a partnership group comprised of U.S.-based Noble Energy International and Israeli companies Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration, AFP news agency…

Billionaire commodities trader Marc Rich, who fled with his parents from the incoming Nazis as a small child, and U.S. justice as an adult until winning a pardon, has died at the age of 78.  He passed away Wednesday in a Swiss hospital from a stroke. Avner Azulai, Israeli managing director of the Marc Rich Foundation, told media the…

White House officials met this month with Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, a deputy of radical Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who has been banned from entering the United States, reported the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT). The June 13 meeting took place on the same day the Obama administration…

US Secretary of State John Kerry voiced confidence on Wednesday that Israeli and Palestinian leaders both wanted peace as he called for progress “as soon as we can” in moving towards talks. After stops in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Kerry arrived in Jordan where he was to focus his energies on drawing Israel and…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon hinted Wednesday that Israel may call up its combat soldiers for a major operation in the near future. Yaalon spoke as he and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu observed a Golani Brigade drill in the Golan. “I was impressed by the Golani Brigade’s capability, preparedness and skill,” he said. “Golani, like many…

After 65 years, the Knesset is finally considering a law to officially designate Israel as a Jewish State. Three different political parties are involved in submitting the bill. The new “ Israel, the Jewish National State” bill, as it is being called, is the product of a cooperative effort by MK Ayelet Shaked of HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home),…

Opposition forces say that Syrian Army regulars are again using chemical weapons in the battle to win the savage civil war raging across Israel’s northern border. The rebels reported late Tuesday night that forces fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dropped bombs Monday containing a combination of tear gas and the lethal nerve agent, sarin…

A Palestinian Authority resident Arab has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for attacking a young Israeli couple in Tel Aviv and brutally raping the young woman. Ahmed Bani Jaaber of Shechem confessed to the crime as part of a plea bargain. Jaaber’s female victim opposed the plea bargain, because it did not require…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that peace with the Palestinian Authority can only be achieved through negotiations. The comments came in the wake of reports that, after refusing to talk to Israel for three years, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has caved in to pressure from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and…

Israel believes that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s willingness to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may be a ploy meant at buying time so he can make more unilateral moves at the United Nations, officials said Tuesday. The officials spoke to Channel 2 News a day after reports that said Abbas has caved in to…

An Israeli security guard who shot dead a Jewish man at the Western Wall is suspected of murdering him after “a verbal confrontation”, a court protocol revealed on Tuesday, according to AFP. The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court also allowed to publish the name of the suspect of the Friday shooting — Hadi Qabalan, a resident of…

What lies down the road for Israel? A study released by the Central Bureau of Statistics Tuesday indicates that there will be fewer Jews relative to the population, and a lot more elderly. In 2035, the study says, Israel’s Jewish population will reach 8.3 million, 73% of the country’s projected 11.4 million residents. Currently, there…

An ancient road that led from Yafo (Jaffa) to Jerusalem has been found in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina. The road is believed to date back to the Roman period (second to fourth centuries BCE). The road was discovered during an excavation conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority prior to the installation of a…

About 58% of the Arab citizens of Israel say that the Palestinian Authority Arabs would be justified in starting a violent rebellion (“intifada”) if the diplomatic process does not advance. A similar percentage advocate an “intifada” by Israeli Arab citizens if their situation does not improve considerably, according to a poll, which was carried out…

French intelligence agents arrested three suspected members of an Islamist terror cell on Tuesday, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said, a day after six others were held in an anti-terror swoop, the AFP news agency reported. The latest arrests in the south of the country targeted “three individuals known for their jihadism who were being tracked,”…

Two wounded Syrians were admitted to Israel overnight for hospital treatment, a military spokeswoman told the AFP news agency on Tuesday, the latest in several dozen cases to be allowed across. The two men entered Israel via the Quneitra crossing on the Golan Heights. There was no word on whether they were civilians, rebel fighters…

Six people were arrested in the Paris region on Monday in coordinated raids on members of a suspected radical Islamist cell allegedly planning terrorist acts on French soil, a source close to the investigation told the AFP news agency. The suspects, aged between 22 and 38, were “all known to police for serious delinquency” and…

After refusing to talk to Israel for three years, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has caved in to pressure from U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and has agreed to meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Channel 2 News reported on Monday that Abbas has told his associates that he would be willing to meet Netanyahu,…

Syrian government forces used chemical weapons against rebel-controlled areas in two Damascus neighborhoods on Sunday, Bloomberg reports, citing a Washington-based group backing the Syrian opposition. If confirmed, the attacks would indicate the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad is undeterred by the decision of the U.S. and other nations to increase military support for the…

Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who is now a fugitive, is said to still be on the ground in Moscow, after absconding there from Hong Kong Sunday. Reports had said that Snowden was preparing to fly to another country, possibly Cuba, but a daily flight to Havana left Moscow without Snowden…

A Jewish man was attacked by two Arabs on the Jerusalem Promenade early Monday evening, according to Israel Police. The victim, a man in his early 20s, was jumped as he was walking along the promenade in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in southern Jerusalem.         Both of the young Arab men who attacked the…

Evoking the memory of his father, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel would defend itself in all circumstances, and act against Gaza terrorists who disrupt the daily life of Israelis with rocket attacks. “My policy is to strike at those who try to attack us. We will allow no ‘trickles,’ no ‘accumulations.’ This is…

The tension in Syria between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims is spilling over into the rest of the Arab world. In a savage incident in Egypt Sunday, thousands of Sunnis lynched and murdered four Sh’ites in the Giza-district village of Zavia Abu Muslam, beating them and burning their houses down. Some 3,000 Sunnis, led by Salafist…

Researchers at Hebrew University, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School have figured out which neurons transmit the itchy message that prompts a person to start scratching. The study was conducted by a group led by Dr. Alex Binshtok at HU’s Department of Medical Neurbiology at the Institute of Medical Research Israel-Canada, and the Edmond…

An American citizen was among ten foreign tourists to be shot and killed when gunmen burst into a hotel in northern Pakistan early Sunday, CNN reported. Matt Boland, the acting spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, issued a statement saying, “The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad expresses its deepest condolences to the family and friends…

An Egyptian court said on Sunday that the Hamas rulers of Gaza and Lebanon’s Hizbullah terrorist group helped prisoners, including current President Mohammed Morsi, escape during the 2011 uprising. AFP reported that the head of the court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya asked the state prosecutor to investigate the circumstances of the January…

The IDF – along with the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence arms – rehearsed for nightmarish terror scenarios Sunday. Special security units carried out a surprise large scale rehearsal for an extreme terror scenario involving dozens of civilian deaths. The forces practiced a scenario in which there were three terror attacks along Israel’s borders. The scenarios…

The Border Police and civilian police carried out a large scale operation Sunday night to net suspects in the terrorism that has turned life into a nightmare for Jewish motorists in Judea and Samaria in recent months. However, it appears that the swoop was mostly in response to fire bomb and explosive attacks against security…

The Islamic Jihad terrorist group in Gaza announced on Sunday that it was temporarily suspending ties with Hamas, which rules the region, accusing Gaza authorities of being responsible for the death of one of the group’s members. According to the Ma’an news agency, Raed Qassim Jundeyeih, a member of Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades, died on…

The IDF Central Command says that the number of rock attacks in Judea and Samaria has declined sharply in recent weeks, from an average of 50 per week to about 10. The Commander of the Etzion Brigade, Col. Yaniv Alaluf, told the IDF Website that the IDF has stepped up arrests of suspects in rock…

Jacob Aharon Frenkel, 70, will replace Stanley Fisher as is Governor of the Bank of Israel, a post which he already held once, between 1991 and 2000. Since December of 2009, Frenkel has served as the Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, which executes the international strategy of the American financial services firm. He also serves…

The moon will appear especially large tonight, an event referred to as a “super moon.” “Tonight, not only will the moon be full – it is also at the closest point [in its orbit] to the earth,” Dr. Yigal Pat-El, head of the star observatory in Givatayim, told IDF Radio. “Its distance from Earth moves…

Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired three rockets into southern Israel on Sunday night. The rockets landed in open areas in the Bnei Shimon Regional Council and near the city of Netivot. There were no physical injuries or damages. Residents reported hearing a siren shortly before midnight. The siren was heard in the Bedouin city of…

A Jerusalem court on Sunday ordered the release of a Jewish youth who had been arrested on charges of praying on the Temple Mount. The youth was also cleared of charges that he attacked an Arab during his visit to the Mount. The youth was ordered to stay away from the Temple Mount for 15…

Singer Mohammed Assaf of Gaza – winner of the Arab Idol contest – has been named as UNRWA special ambassador. Assaf became the first Palestinian Authority Arab to win the Arab world’s version of the American Idol vocalist competition on Saturday night. The news raced across the entire region, with families from Gaza to northern…

One of the exhibits at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem centered on research into the human brain, with a spotlight on Israeli research. Francine Hazan of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Brain Campaign Coordinator and exhibition co-organizer, told Arutz Sheva: “In this day and age, we need to understand ourselves better, and on the other hand,…

Israelis protested a government proposal to export 40 percent of the country’s newly discovered natural gas reserves in demonstrations on Saturday night. At least four people were arrested in the protests held on Jerusalem’s main streets. Several hundred protesters gathered to express their outrage over a proposal to export future natural gas findings, although the…

After days of trying to convince him otherwise, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced he has accepted PM Rami Hamdallah’s resignation. The move leaves the Palestinian Authority with a chairman serving beyond his official term of office, without a prime minister, and without a finance minister.  It is unclear who Abbas will try to appoint…

Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who exposed secrets about the federal government’s surveillance programs, has reportedly left Hong Kong for a “third country.” The South China Morning Post reported Sunday that Snowden was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination. Snowden has talked of seeking asylum in…

Hamas hanged two men accused of collaborating with Israel on Saturday, a statement from the interior ministry of the terror group’s government in Gaza said, according to the AFP news agency. The ministry said that it had executed the two men in accordance “with what Palestinian law stipulates”, identifying them as “the collaborator with the…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will meet on Sunday with prime minister Rami Hamdallah in a new bid to defuse a political crisis that prompted the premier to submit his resignation, a senior PA official told AFP on Saturday. The 11:00 a.m. meeting at Abbas’s offices in Ramallah will be their third in 48…

A wedding singer from Gaza on Saturday became the first Palestinian Authority Arab to win Arab Idol, in a contest which has captivated millions of viewers, Al Jazeera reported. Mohammed Assaf, 22, beat finalists Egyptian Ahmed Jamal and a Syrian woman, Farah Youssef, on Saturday in the singing competition broadcast by the Saudi-owned MBC Group.…

Economics Minister and Bayit Yehudi party head Naftali Bennett told the Washington Post Friday that Israel “will not allow itself to be threatened by a maniacal regime that holds nuclear weapons,” in response to a question about the Iranian threat. “I think what matters are not the words but the centrifuges. We have to be…

Michael Itzkovich, 57, from the community of Lapid in central Israel, died Friday after being bitten by a snake on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). He had gone there with his wife and 17-year-old daughter, for a weekend of rest and relaxation. The family struck camp at a beach that serves the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned the international community not to be fooled by Iran’s new “moderate” president. Speaking to the Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth on Thursday, Netanyahu said that the elections in Iran “reflect a deep dissatisfaction of the Iranian people with its regime. Unfortunately, this result doesn’t have the power to change Iran’s nuclear…

Any construction currently taking place in Judea and Samaria is based on plans that were approved long ago and not on any new bids, Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) said on Friday. “We are building all over Judea and Samaria according to plans that were approved two years ago,” Ariel said in an interview…

A new law passed by the Hamas government in Gaza banning co-ed schools has left many Christians fearful that their schools are in danger of closure, according to the Beirut-based Al-Akhbar daily. The new law, which mandates gender segregation in all schools, also bans men from teaching at girls’ schools. The law will likely force…

The newly-appointed Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is likely to withdraw his resignation after meeting with Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, a senior official said Friday, according to the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency. Hamdallah left a first meeting with Abbas on Friday without making any statements to the press, and Abbas’s office did not comment following…

A 32-year-old father of three was killed on Friday afternoon after falling into a pit of water in Gush Etzion. The man and his three children were visiting an archaeological site near the community of Tekoa when, according to police, the ball with which the children were playing fell into a pit of water. The…

Two planes came dangerously close to each other in the air over New York City last week, NBC 4 New York has learned. The near-miss at 3:45 p.m. on June 13 is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration, the channel reported on Friday. A Delta Airlines Boeing 747 arriving at Kennedy Airport missed an…

The European Union failed on Thursday to blacklist Hizbullah as a terrorist group, fearing that such a move would lead to instability in Lebanon and the Middle East, Al Arabiya reported. Britain’s drive to reach a unanimous decision to blacklist Lebanon’s powerful Shiite group has failed to persuade the 27-nation bloc, diplomatic sources said. AFP…

Yair Lapid spoke to the Washington Post this week, in an interview that focused on the chances of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. “The most important thing is to go back to the negotiating table and talk until the white smoke comes out,” Lapid told interviewer Lally Weymouth. Weymouth expressed doubt that Prime…

A civilian guard shot a Jewish man at the Kotel (Western Wall) on Friday morning. Paramedics attempted to revive the man for 20 minutes, but were ultimately forced to declare his death. The incident took place in the public bathrooms at the site. No others were injured in the incident. The guard reported that the…

Former President Jimmy Carter is spearheading an effort to convince the United States to weaken sanctions on terrorist groups, The Hill reported.   Carter and other foreign policy experts sent a petition to Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday, asking him to exempt peace groups from policies that make it a crime to offer negotiation…

An estimated one million people protested in the streets of Brazil on Thursday. The rally was the country’s largest yet as protests continued to grow despite government concessions. The government has reversed the increase in transport fares that initially sparked the protests. However, protesters’ complaints have expanded to include inflation, corruption, high taxes, poor public…

Israel wants peace, but it is not willing to sacrifice its security for it, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Thursday evening at the closing session of the Presidential Conference. “For peace to be maintained, we must be strong in the present and in the future. Because a peace accord that compromises our security will…

Israel evacuated a Syrian wounded in that country’s civil war for treatment in Israel on Thursday evening, hours after the war once again spilled over into Israel. Yael Shavit, a spokeswoman for the Ziv Hospital in the northern Galilee town of Tzfat told AFP that the IDF brought in a 16-year-old Syrian male who was…

Lockheed Martin Aircraft Industries has announced that Israel will be the first nation to receive its F-35 stealth fighter jets, the most expensive weapon in U.S. history. The company’s vice president, Steve O’Bryan, made the announcement Tuesday at the Paris Air Show. The F-35 is a fifth-generation aircraft capable of evading radar and integrated air…

After just two weeks on the job, new Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah has had enough – and on Thursday, he tendered his resignation to PA chief Mahmoud Abbas. According to PA news service Ma’an, the reason for Hamdallah’s resignation is a sharp difference of opinion with Abbas over his responsibilities and areas of…

A London man broke into a Hachnasas Sefer Torah procession this Sunday, driving his car into the Jewish gathering. The Hachnasas Sefer Torah was held on Sunday in Stamford Hill, London into the Beis Midrash of Vizhnitz, the Behadrey-Haredim news portal reported. When the procession arrived in the area of Stamford Avenue, loud sirens were…

Rabbi Moshe Greenberg, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Bnei Brak and noted for continuing Jewish education activities despite a ban under Communist rule, passed away on Tuesday at age 84. Rabbi Greenberg passed on the eve of Yud-Beis Tamuz, the anniversary on the Jewish calendar celebrating the release of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak…

The United States has praised Israel for its efforts to battle human trafficking in the 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report released Wednesday by Secretary of State John Kerry. The report is considered the world’s most comprehensive resource of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts. It is the second year in a row that Israel has received a…

Russia says it will honor its contract to sell its powerful S-300 ant-missile defense system to Syria. But Moscow has yet to set an actual timeline on delivery of the goods. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russiya 24 TV state television in an interview on Thursday, “We respect all of our contracts, and we will…

The civil war in Syria once again spilled into Israel on Wednesday night, as a mortar shell that was fired during the fighting between President Bashar Al-Assad’s and rebels exploded in an open area in the Golan Heights. There were no physical injuries or damages as a result of the explosion. Channel 2 News reported…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said he supports U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s efforts to revive peace talks with Israel, AFP reported. During a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Ramallah, Abbas talked of the PA’s “commitment to the success of Kerry’s efforts to save the peace process in…

The opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) reported on Wednesday that chemical weapons had been used in a Damascus town by Hizbullah terrorists and forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad. According to Al Arabiya, the town of Zamalka, outside of Damascus, was targeted by chemical weapons, which caused victims to choke and led to a number…

US Secretary of State John Kerry leaves Friday on a 12-day trip during which he will return to the Middle East, hold high-level talks in Southeast Asia and make his first visit to India. At the start of his seven-nation tour, Kerry will head first for Doha to meet with top Qatari leaders and take…

North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un has reportedly given copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” to his top officials on the occasion of his birthday celebration last January, urging them to study it as a leadership skills manual, according to a report in New Focus International, an online news portal run by North Korean defectors. “Kim…

Israel is to export only 40 percent of the natural gas it extracts from newly discovered gas fields off its Mediterranean coast, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday. “The State of Israel will receive 60 percent of the gas produced which will allow it to meet its own needs for the next 25 years,”…

A group of Syrian rebels claims it killed four Hizbullah terrorists across the border in Lebanon this week. The “Syrian Mujahedeen Unit” posted a video on the Internet Tuesday, featuring one fighter saying his unit killed the men as they were crossing the border into Syria. The Sunni Islamist rebel group claimed the victims were…

An Israeli company has come up with a way to close incisions without stitches or staples, leaving a seamless closure. The technology, IonMed Plasma Tissue Welding, uses a cold plasma biowelding device called the BioWeld1.  The system is designed and engineered to be reliable and easy to use. About the size of a shoebox, the…

Former President Bill Clinton was awarded Israel’s highest honor Wednesday morning. Presented by President Shimon Peres, Clinton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the fifth Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem. In opening his speech, Peres referred to “my dearest friend, President Bill Clinton – and when I call you my friend I know that…

The IDF has arrested three Palestinian Authority police officers who shot and murdered a young Jewish father as he returned from prayers at Kever Yosef (the tomb of the Biblical patriarch Joseph) in Samaria. Arab media outlets reported the arrests in May, but they were only officially confirmed by Israeli sources on Wednesday with the…

Former President Bill Clinton told participants at Israel’s Fifth annual Presidential Conference in Jerusalem on Wednesday, “There are no perfect solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict.” Speaking to the audience after receiving Israel’s highest honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Shimon Peres, Clinton said the key to the situation is to “expand the definition…

Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired three Qassam rockets at southern Israel early Wednesday morning. Two of the rockets were fired at the city of Ashkelon, and the third one was fired towards the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. The rockets exploded in open regions, causing no physical injuries or damages. The rocket attacks come after a…

The ever-optimistic President Shimon Peres touted peace on Tuesday evening, as he spoke at a celebration of his 90th birthday which kicked off the annual President’s Conference. “I greatly appreciate that you have chosen to celebrate the birthday of a man whose only sin was to grow a year older,” Peres said. He added that…

Senior leaders of the Islamist Hamas terror organization will meet on Tuesday in Ankara with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a diplomatic source told the AFP news agency. The group’s exiled leader Khaled Meshaal, along with Gaza’s prime minister Ismail Haniya, will discuss Erdogan’s planned visit to the Gaza Strip as well as the…

United States and Taliban officials will engage in Afghanistan peace talks Thursday, senior U.S. administration officials said. The officials say prisoner exchanges will likely be among the topics discussed in the Doha office, which opened Tuesday after months of delays. Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s High Peace Council is expected to follow up with its own…

Neil Tennant, the singer in the pop duo Pet Shop Boys, on Monday rejected calls from pro-Palestinian Authority activists to cancel the band’s Tel Aviv concert, scheduled for June 23, the Israel Hayom daily reports. According to the newspaper, last week, a group on the pro-Arab site Innovative Minds mobilized to pressure the British pop…

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has not had a “close connection” with the city’s Jewish community, NYC politician Peter Vallone Jr. told Arutz Sheva. Vallone, who is running for Queens Borough President, noted that his own ties to the city’s Jewish community are particularly strong. He said he cannot recall an issue on which…

For the first time, an El Al plane has been outfitted with a C-MUSIC system to protect it against shoulder-fired missiles. The plane, a Boeing 737, conducted test flights with the new system in place. The MUSIC DIRCM systems are to be installed in every civilian plane traveling to a high-risk area. Arkia and Israir…

Hungarian prosecutors on Tuesday charged a 98-year-old top Nazi war crimes suspect over his brutal role in organizing the deportation of some 12,000 Jews to World War II death camps, the AFP news agency reports.  Laszlo Lajos Csatari, who has been under house arrest in Budapest for a year, was “actively involved in and assisted the…

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, in Jerusalem for the 90th birthday celebration of Israeli President Shimon Peres, visited the Western Wall and expressed “continued admiration” for Jewish heritage. Clinton prayed, placed a note in the Kotel, and toured the Western Wall tunnels. He was also given a warm welcome by Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch. “I…

In a speech at Hebrew University Monday, singer Barbra Streisand expressed her dismay at what she called the “discriminatory behavior” against women by members of the hareidi community. “There are women who are forced to sit at the back of the bus,” Streisand said, adding that it was just as shocking to her to hear…

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton decided to donate the $500,000 he was paid for his speech on Monday evening back to the Peres Academic Center at which he spoke. The money for the speech was slated to have gone to the Clinton Foundation, but according to Professor Ron Shapira, president of the Peres Academic Center,…

U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday agreed that they disagree about the situation in Syria. At the same time, reported the AFP news agency, the two leaders pledged to at least try to keep alive a frail and much-delayed effort to hold a Geneva peace conference. The U.S. and Russian…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unveiled on Monday a new stamp in memory of Israel’s seventh prime minister, the late Yitzchak Shamir. The stamp was unveiled in a special ceremony attended by Shamir’s son Agriculture Minister Yair Shamir, Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, Israel Post Chairman of the Board Sasi Shilo, Israel Post CEO Haim Elmozino and…

The Egyptian government has declared a high alert in the Sinai Peninsula following a high level of Al Qaeda terrorist activity in the region. The terrorists have set up a military base in central Sinai, Egyptian security officials told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency on Monday. Curfews have been imposed on the Sinai cities of…

In a sometimes rambling speech, an aging Bill Clinton praised Israel’s high tech accomplishments, suggested ways to improve the world’s economies, described the work he has been doing since he retired from politics, and lectured Israel on the need to give in to PA demands that it withdraw from the lands liberated in the Six…

An Orthodox Jewish family in Toronto woke up this week to a swastika and the words “watch your children” scrawled on their garage door, the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a news release Friday. According to a report on CTV, the vandals entered the family’s garage and added more anti-Semitic graffiti on furniture…

Thousands of Islamists rallied in Cairo on Friday in support of calls by Sunni Muslim clerics for a holy war against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The demonstration took place outside a mosque where Saudi preacher Mohammed al-Oreifi called in a sermon for a “jihad in the cause of Allah in Syria”, the…

Two bombs struck a large military airport outside the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday night, the main rebel army said, according to CNN. The first of a series of explosions was near a checkpoint near the main door of the al-Mazzeh airport, and the second was near an exterior wall, said Louay Mikdad, a…

Two Arab youths attacked a group of Jewish children in Jerusalem’s Homat Shmuel (Har Homa) neighborhood. About ten Jewish children established a play encampment near the neighborhood, where they played and studied Torah after school. Sunday afternoon, two Arab youths arrived on the scene, attacked the children, causing bruises to two of them. They tried…

Former United States vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin criticized President Barack Obama for his handing of the Syrian conflict, Al Arabiya news reported. “We’re talking now more new interventions,” said the Republican former governor of Alaska. “Until we have a commander in chief who knows what he’s doing… I say let Allah sort it out.” Her…

A report on Channel Two Monday said that the brother of Hizbullah head Hassan Nasrallah was killed recently in a fierce battle in the Syrian city of Al-Qusayr. Khader Nasrallah was buried in the village of Kfar Kana in south Lebanon on Sunday, Channel Two said. If true, it would make Nasrallah one of dozens,…

Hassan Rohani, Iran’s new President, is being termed a “moderate” in Western media, but it appears that his moderation stops when it comes to Israel. In his first speech as Iran’s new leader, Rohani quickly launched into a diatribe against Israel, blaming the Jewish state for Iran’s economic problems. Those problems largely have their roots…

A BBC documentary claims that Israeli spoon-bending psychic Uri Geller once worked for the CIA. Geller, counted a friend from personalities as diverse as singer Michael Jackson to author and lecturer Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, was alleged to have been also employed by Israel’s international intelligence agency, the Mossad. Some reports have also raised the question of…

One thousand new housing units for Jews will be built in the Etzion Bloc, in Judea, the Minister of Construction and Housing annnounced. Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) met Wednesday with the Etzion Bloc Regional Council head Davidi Perl and discussed continued construction in the region, despite international pressure not to build homes for Jews…

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday opened a new Holocaust exhibition at the former Auschwitz death camp, vowing Israel would do everything to prevent another genocide of the Jewish people. Sixty-five years on, “the only thing that has truly changed is our ability and our determination to operate in order to defend ourselves and…

Almost 93,000 people have been killed thus far in the Syrian civil war, according to a report presented Thursday by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pllay. “The constant flow of killings continues at shockingly high levels – with more than 5,000 killings documented every month since last July, including a total of…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Iran maintains the right to a peaceful nuclear program. While he denounced the regime’s threats against the Jewish state as “unacceptable” he sought to justify the remarks by saying that  “Iran is in a very difficult region.” “And when we hear threats from Iran against its neighbors,…

Nearly 15 million people have signed a petition to hold early presidential elections, in a campaign seeking to “remove confidence” in Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt Independent reported. Tamarod, the opposition campaigned meaning “rebel” in Arabic, was launched in May, attempting to 15 million signatures to outnumber the votes gained by Morsi in last…

At least 14 people were killed and 30 wounded when a suicide car bomber struck outside the Supreme Court in the Afghan capital on Tuesday. The court lies a few hundred meters (yards) from the gates of the U.S. Embassy in a central part of Kabul. Police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai said the bomber drove an…

Women are welcome in the IDF, but should not always have the same roles as men, said Rabbi Avichai Ronsky, a former Chief Rabbi of the IDF. Rabbi Ronsky’s remarks caused a stir Tuesday evening at a special panel on women in the IDF hosted by the Israel Democracy Institute. “The military is not a…

Nemesysco, an Israeli technology, analyzes the human voice and spots different emotions as they are reflected through voice patterns. The technology was presented last week at the Israel Defense Exhibition (ISDEF) 2013 which was held in Tel Aviv. Amir Liberman, founder and CEO of Nemesysco, told Arutz Sheva that the voice analysis is used “for…

Underwater archaeologists have found an ancient structure built from large basalt stones, its base 6 to 10 feet below the sea bed of the Sea of Galilee, Lake Kinneret. The cone-shaped monument, estimated to be approximately six thousand years old, is composed of numerous three-foot-long volcanic stones. It measured at some 230 feet in diameter,…

Tensions are rising in Turkey as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan begins to lose patience and orders police to “intervene” with protesters across the nation. Attacks on demonstrators were reported in various cities, particularly in the capital, Ankara, and in Adana, according to a report in the English language edition of the Turkish Hurriyet newspaper.…

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Sunday that Islamist rebels in the city executed 15-year-old Muhamma Qatta’ in the Sha’ar neighborhood of Aleppo, before the horrifed eyes of his parents.  The punishment came after the boy was overheard by someone during an argument while he was working. “Even if Muhammad comes back to life,…

Israel’s Tourism Ministry is showing an impressive record, with figures in May hitting an “all time record for incoming tourism.” Last month saw a five percent increase in the number of tourists and visitors, with 336,000 visitors entering the country. Of those, 283,000 were tourists who stayed more than one night in the country and…

A restaurant in Montreal has been targeted by a firebombing attack for the second time in three nights, local news site CTV reported. There were about 30 people in Chops Resto Bar, a kosher Asian-fusion steakhouse with sushi bar, on Queen Mary Rd. near Decarie Blvd. shortly after midnight when a Molotov cocktail was thrown…

Meyer Habib, formerly the Deputy Chairman of the French Jewish umbrella group CRIF (Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France), was elected on Sunday to the French parliament, the first time for an observant Jew. Habib, who resigned from his position as Deputy Chairman of CRIF so that he could run, is close to Prime…

The State of Israel last week compensated two families of Palestinians Authority Arabs who were killed in 2005 by a Qassam rocket fired by Gaza-based Hamas terrorists. Channel 10 News reported on Sunday evening that the two PA Arab men who were killed worked in the greenhouses of the Ganei Tal, one of the Jewish…

Jordan announced on Sunday the start of the “Eager Lion” military exercises with the participation of 8,000 soldiers from 19 Arab and Western countries, Al Arabiya reports. Major General Awni el-Edwan, the Chief of Staff of Jordan’s Armed Forces’, said in a press conference held the military exercise will last until June 21 and will…

Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former undercover CIA employee, unmasked himself on Sunday as the principal source of recent disclosures about top-secret National Security Agency programs, the Washington Post reported. Snowden, who has contracted for the NSA and works for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, denounced what he described as systematic surveillance of innocent citizens…

An international conference that will discuss the legal status of land in Judea and Samaria is under way at Bar Ilan University. The conference will examine the various claims of Arab groups, including the Palestinian Authority, versus the rights of Israel to the land liberated in the 1967 Six Day War. The conference is titled “Israel…

Deputy CEO and COO of Ryanair said that the low-cost European airline will succeed in bringing millions of tourists to Israel. “We’ll bring 4-5 million tourists a year to Israel. Ryanair has boosted the number of tourists in 28 countries in Europe and the world, and we intend to this in Israel too,” said Ryanair…

Google and Israeli start-up Waze have agreed in principle on a deal in which the search engine giant will buy the road traffic information sharing application for $1.3 billion, reports Calcalist. The deal depends on various due diligence checks that have only begun, so it is still open to changes and has not been not…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Iran has been stepping up its cyber-attacks on Israel. “In the last few months,” he said, “we have identified a meaningful surge in the scale of cyber-attacks by Iran, which are being carried out directly by Iran and its proxies, Hizbullah and Hamas.” Netanyahu spoke at the International…

Arabs are the culprits behind the destruction Saturday of agricultural fields operated by the Jews of Hevron, say the local Jews. According to a resident of Hevron, Haim Bleicher, some of the Jews discovered the destruction, which included the uprooting of saplings, during their Sabbath family outings. The plot is part of a larger parcel…

Despite rumors of a building freeze in Judea and Samaria in the past months, construction in Jewish communities in the region grew sharply during the first three months of 2013. Construction was up 176% during the period, as compared to a year earlier. According to Channel Two, building in pre-1967 Israel actually slowed during the…

In a new report presented to members of the European Parliament, NGO Monitor details the damaging impact of highly secretive European Union funding for radical political advocacy Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). According to the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, EU funds are going to organizations involved in anti-Israel boycotts and violent demonstrations, which undermine the EU’s efforts to secure…

Tens of thousands of demonstrators packed the streets of Turkish cities on Saturday, challenging Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s call to end their civil uprising with a chorus of angry chants and a shower of red flares, AFP reported. The government said the protests were “under control” even as the largest crowds yet packed every…

Istanbul’s Sephardic Center has just produced the 100th issue of the world’s only Ladino monthly newspaper – El Amaneser — in the heart of the ancient Turkish city. It’s a breathtaking event in more ways than one, the centuries-old language flourishing anew among the Ottoman-era edifices. Not far from the site of nightly protests against the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin over the weekend that Israel will hold its fire against Syria – as long as Syria holds its fire against Israel. In a statement at the opening of the government’s regular Sunday morning Cabinet meeting Netanyahu said he had discussed the situation with Putin in a phone…

A London mosque that burned to the ground last week is believed to have been burned in revenge for last month’s terror attack on soldier Lee Rigby. Grafitti that read “EDL” (English Defense League) was found scrawled on the remains of the two-story Somali Bravanese Welfare Association building in which the house of worship was located,…

Alert Border Police officers thwarted an attempted terrorist attack at the Tomb of the Patriarchs (Ma’arat Hamachpelah) in Hevron on Saturday night. At 2 a.m. an 18-year-old Arab youth from the Abu Sneineh neighborhood of Hevron approached a security checkpoint outside the tomb brandishing a large kitchen knife and screaming. The two men stationed at…

In response to Holocaust denial comments made by a member of the Greek parliament, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) urged the Greek government to resolve differences within its coalition and swiftly pass new anti-racism legislation currently under consideration. On June 6, Ilias Kasidiaris, from the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn, referred to a Greek-Israeli businessman and the…

Israel has allegedly reiterated its warnings to Syria over activity in the Golan Heights, threatening in a document sent to the United Nations the IDF will attack Syrian tanks on its border. Jerusalem allegedly sent the warning to the U.N. Security Council via Herve Ladsous, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations (UNDOF), according to a report…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu denied Saturday that he is only pretending to seek a two-state solution, as Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon hinted broadly in a weekend interview. Danon’s comments “do not represent the position of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the government of Israel,” sources in the Prime Minister’s Office told the Times of…

Four planes, a police helicopter and 5 fire teams were fighting a large scale blaze in Israel’s south-western Lachish region Saturday evening. Firefighters succeeded earlier in putting out another fire that burned near Moshav Bircha, not far from Ofakim in the Negev. Another fire broke out Saturday near Moshhav Roglit, not far from Beit Shemesh,…

Yoram Kaniuk, one of Israel’s leading secular writers, died at age 83 Saturday. Kaniuk was born in Tel Aviv. At the age of 17, he joined the Palmach fighting force and was wounded in 1948, during the War of Independence. He married Miranda, a Christian woman. In May 2011, Kaniuk petitioned the Israeli Interior Ministry…

The world-renowned Ohr Naava Women’s Torah Center will begin to operate in Israel with Rabbanit Yemima Mizrachi, to assist young women who are in trouble. The group reaches out to girls and women, bringing them closer to Judaism. It specializes in assisting girls whose life has deteriorated in various ways and who have suffered from abusive…

The United Nations said on Friday that Russia cannot send troops to the Golan Heights peacekeeping force, after President Vladimir Putin said he was ready to bolster the force, AFP reported. Putin offered troops after Austria decided to withdraw its 377 soldiers from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) between Syria and Israel because of…

President Bashar Al-Assad’s troops have been using innocent civilians as human bait to lure rebels from their hiding places, according to Arab affairs expert Dalit Halevi. A recent video distributed by the rebels shows the brutal methods used by the Assad regime in its war against the rebels. The video shows a woman and her…

The Israel Defense Exhibition (ISDEF) 2013 was held this week in Tel Aviv, featuring the latest and most relevant achievements of the global HLS and defense industry. Arutz Sheva’s Yoni Kempinski was there. According to Harte Feldman, Director of International Relations at ISDEF, this year’s exhibition is the largest one yet. The exhibition focuses on…

The United Nations has evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is directly orchestrating atrocities against his opponents, Navi Pillay, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told The Daily Telegraph on Friday. The evidence paves the way for a war crime trial if he is ever handed over to face international justice, she said. Assad was…

Poverty has risen dramatically in the New York Jewish community since 2002, according to UJA-Federation of New York’s “Jewish Community Study of New York: 2011 Special Report on Poverty,” released on Thursday. The report found that more than 560,000 people in approximately 200,000 Jewish households are poor or near-poor, and 45 percent of the children…

Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Friday that his country’s peacekeepers replace departing Austrian troops which monitor the Israeli-Syrian ceasefire line in the Golan Heights. “Considering the difficult situation that is developing today in the Golan Heights, we could replace the departing Austrian contingent in this region separating Israeli forces from the Syrian army,” Russian…

The civil war in Syria is becoming a religious war which splits the Muslim world between Sunnis and Shiites, notes Arab affairs expert Dalit Halevi. The rebels belong to Sunni Islam while the regime is Alawite, a branch of Shiism supported by Iran and assisted by fighters from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, units from the…

May 2013 saw a decline in the number of terror attacks carried out against Israelis by Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists, according to the monthly report by the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) which was released Thursday. The report noted that in May there were 124 terror attacks, as opposed to 139 in April. The main…

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to his country overnight Thursday from a North African tour, facing thousands of supporters who welcomed him back at the airport, a show of strength after a week of violent anti-government demonstrations across the country. Addressing the crowds at the airport in a speech also broadcast live on…

The U.S. Administration under President Barack Obama is on defense after media revelations of large-scale surveillance programs that tapped into ordinary U.S. citizens’ use of telephones and the internet. The director of national intelligence confirmed Thursday night that the federal government has been secretly collecting information on foreigners overseas for nearly six years from the…

Indian police arrested three men Thursday over the gang-rape of an American tourist who was attacked after she hitched a ride in a truck, an officer told the AFP news agency. The 30-year-old American accepted a ride on Monday night in the tourist destination of Manali, a located in the foothills of the Himalayas, after…

The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet Leyisrael) said on Thursday that it will not take part in an upcoming gala event attended by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and will not pay him $500,000 to give a speech at this gala. Earlier this week it was reported that the JNF would pay Clinton this huge…

Bulgaria denied Thursday backtracking over whether Hizbullah was behind a bomb attack last July on its soil that killed five Israelis, saying earlier comments were misinterpreted, AFP reported. “Bulgaria has not revised its stance on the terrorist act,” Foreign Minister Kristian Vigenin was cited in a statement as telling Ireland’s ambassador to Sofia, John Rowan,…

A 39-year-old Chabad rabbi was attacked by a group of young men in the German city of Offenbach, near Frankfurt, according to media reports. Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gurewitz was reportedly attacked in the KOMM German shopping center by a group of six to eight young men who pushed him as they yelled “shitty Jew”. A local police spokesman said a criminal…

Iran and Hizbullah are doing everything they can to keep Bashar Assad in power in Syria, said a special report by the The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC), an independent organization that keeps track of terror groups and activities in the Middle East and around the world. “For Iran and Hizbullah, the…

Austria is pulling its United Nations peacekeeping force from the Golan Heights, the government said in a statement released Thursday. Austria accounts for about 380 of the 1,000-strong UN force monitoring the Israel-Syria ceasefire line in the Golan Heights. “Freedom of movement in the area de facto no longer exists. The uncontrolled and immediate danger…

At least 14 people, including 10 border guards, were shot to death Wednesday by gunmen who established a mock Iraqi military checkpoint in Ramadi, CNN reported.  The victims were driving in two vehicles near al-Nukhaib highway southeast of Ramadi, located in Iraq’s Anbar province, in the afternoon when they were stopped at the mock security checkpoint manned by the…

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) on Wednesday expressed opposition to President Barack Obama’s nomination of Samantha Power for the post of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. “We understand that Samantha Power played an important role in diminishing the negative impact of the UN Durban II conference which condemned alleged Israeli human rights actions,”…

The Arab League condemned on Wednesday Hizbullah’s involvement in the Syrian civil war, the Lebanon-based Naharnet reports. Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi announced after a meeting of the League’s foreign ministers in Cairo that the resolution issued after the talks condemns “any intervention in Syria, especially by Hizbullah.” “There were several points of views regarding…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to “give peace a chance.” Speaking at a Knesset session called by the opposition and which dealt with the peace process, Netanyahu said that Abbas should give up his preconditions and come to the negotiating table. “We are in favor of starting…

In an ongoing effort to recruit and attract jihadists, Al Qaeda’s “Inspire” magazine continues to promote anti-Semitic narratives, depicting Jews as being at war with Islam and calling for the destruction of Israel,” according to an analysis by the Anti-Defamation League. Since the magazine’s inception in 2010, “Inspire” has repeatedly identified Jews as the enemies…

NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly spoke to Arutz Sheva about Sunday’s gathering of thousands of Jew in New York City to celebrate the Israel Day Parade. The parade is “a manifestation of the support that this community has for the state of Israel,” he said.  “Our job is to see that it that that is…

Bulgaria’s foreign minister said Wednesday that evidence that Hizbullah was behind a bomb attack last July on its soil that killed five Israelis was “circumstantial” and “not categorical” at this stage. The minister, Kristian Vigenin, said that as a result, Sofia would not back the European Union labeling the Lebanese organization’s military wing a “terrorist”…

The Hamas government in Gaza has slammed Fatah for creating a new Palestinian Authority government. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has tasked Rami Hamdallah with serving as Prime Minister and putting together a new cabinet. Hamdallah is expected to announce his cabinet on Thursday. Abbas’ move “proves that the Fatah leadership is willing to maintain and…

Two Zionist, one a Pakistani Muslim and the other an Egyptian Christian Reverend, explained to Arutz Sheva why “anti-Zionist” has become the new code word for anti-Semitism in the Muslim world. History shows that Muslim anti-Semitism predated the state of Israel, Zionist Muslim Kasim Hafeez said. However, he explained, it is now called anti-Zionism because…

There is a problem within Islam that goes beyond the existence of religious extremists, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has posited in what seems like a change in perception, writing in the Daily Mail. “There is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology that is a strain within Islam. We have to…

The government has announced a plan to solve the shortage of teachers in Jewish schools by hiring 500 teachers from the Arab sector. While posts in Jewish state schools are currently open to all teachers, Arabs included, in practice Arab teachers have not been integrated into non-Arab school systems. Former Education Minister Rabbi Yitzchak Levy…

The mixed Arab-Jewish neighborhood of Agash in Ramle has become the scene of an ugly campaign of harassment. Jews living in the neighborhood have reported several incidents of vandalism as well as verbal harassment from a group of Arab men. The vandals have slashed the tires of Jewish-owned cars and broken the windows with rocks.…

United States officials confirmed on Tuesday that Patriot missiles and F-16 fighter jets that are being deployed to Jordan for the Eager Lion military exercises this month may be kept in the country longer. There was no official statement suggesting the Patriots or the fighter jets would be withdrawn when the exercises are over and…

A Bedouin man who was critically injured during the tragic bank shooting spree in the southern city of Be’eer Sheva last  month was not shot by police officers, according to an Internal Affairs investigation published Tuesday. Omar Walid, 22, was shot in the chest during the incident. He later claimed that police officers had shot him and…

Female soldiers serving at a base near Hadera reported Tuesday night that two Arab men attempted to kidnap them. The Arab men reportedly attempted to drag three soldiers into a car by force. Police are searching the area. They suspect that terrorists may be behind the attempted kidnapping. In recent months terrorist groups have made…

The United States will send a Patriot missile battery and F-16 fighters to Jordan for a military drill and may keep the weapons there to counter the threat posed by Syria’s civil war, officials said Monday, according to the AFP news agency. The Patriot missile launchers and F-16 warplanes “were approved for deployment to Jordan…

A 30-year-old woman died Tuesday morning in a car crash on Highway 465, near the city of Modiin. The victim has been identified as Odelia Finkler. Two cars hit each other in a head-on collision. The driver of the other car suffered light injuries. The crash occurred as Finkler made her way to work in…

A group of 101 yeshiva students and their eight accompanying chaperones were kicked off a flight from New York to Atlanta early Monday morning, CNN reported. Southwest Airlines said the group of “non-compliant passengers” would not stay seated, while others were using their mobile devices. When the students failed to comply with requests from the…

The self-titled Women of the Wall group is preparing for a second round of conflict at the Kotel (Western Wall). The group plans to hold prayers at the holy site as it did last month, and is taking steps to deal with a potential repeat of last month’s protests. In recent days the group began organizing…

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will visit Poland on June 13 for the opening of a new exhibition at the museum of the former Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, organizers said Monday. In the works for four years, the exhibition will present “the murder at Auschwitz in the larger context of the Nazis’ systematic attempt…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday issued a stark warning to Israel to resume long-stalled peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, saying that if efforts fail now they may never get another chance. “We are running out of time. We’re running out of possibilities… If we do not succeed now, we may not…

Al-Qaeda has set up a complaints department after taking control of parts of the civilian administration in northern Syria, The Telegraph reported on Monday. The group’s Arabian Peninsula offshoot posted a public notice in the the north-eastern Syrian city of Raqqa this week stating that it was open to receiving public complaints. “Anyone who might…

The Obama administration on Monday announced new sanctions on Iran, targeting the country’s currency and automobile industry, USA Today reports. An executive order by President Barack Obama authorizes sanctions on foreign financial institutions that make transactions in Iran’s currency, the rial, or keep accounts denominated in the rial outside the country. The new rules, which…

Veteran US lawmaker Frank Lautenberg, the oldest member of the US Senate, passed away on Monday at the age of 89 due to complications from viral pneumonia, according to his office. Lautenberg, who was the Senate’s last remaining World War II veteran, had said in February he would not seek a sixth term next year,…

Baghdad has warned Israel that it would respond to any attempts by the Jewish state to use Iraqi airspace for a strike against Iran’s nuclear program, a top Iraqi minister told the AFP news agency. The remarks from Hussein al-Shahristani, deputy prime minister responsible for energy affairs, mark the first time a senior Iraqi official…

Arab Gulf States will consider taking measures against Hizbullah if the Shiite terror group continues its involvement in Syria’s civil war or interferes in Gulf Arab affairs, the head of their six-member bloc said on Sunday, according to Al Arabiya. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had “decided to look into taking measures against Hizbullah’s interests…

A ten-year-old Palestinian Authority boy “received new life thanks to an Israeli kidney transplant,” according to a statement released by the spokesman of the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva. The medical team operated on a boy who suffered from kidney dysfunction, was undergoing dialysis and had been waiting for a kidney transplant. The…

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is gaining strength at university campuses and is placing Jewish students at the battlefront, according to Dr. Charles Asher Small. Dr. Small, who heads the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy, spoke to Arutz Sheva at the 4th conference of the Global Forum for Combating…

Germany has given its support to a plan by the European Union to label products manufactured in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria, Army Radio reported Sunday. The report cited an official government document in which the German government has stated its stance on the issue for the first time. The document was issued in…

Egyptian authorities seized one ton of explosives destined for smugglers in the Sinai on Saturday, local police told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency. The explosives were earmarked for the destruction of rocky mountains to make way for smuggling tunnels into Gaza, police said. The explosives were found hidden in cartons in the boot of a…

He is reportedly in stable condition but is suffering from bruising sustained when he fell. In his Shabbat Torah lesson Saturday, Rabbi Ovadia instructed believers to recite slichot prayers on the Eve of Rosh Hodesh Tammuz, to supplicate G-d to undo the government decision regarding enlistment of hareidi men. “Our enemies and haters attack us,”…

US Secretary of State John Kerry is to visit Amman “within days,” Jordan’s top diplomat said on Sunday after talks with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmud Abbas that were focused on American peace efforts. Speaking at a joint press conference in Ramallah, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh said his talks with Abbas had focused on Kerry’s…

Thousands took part in the ‘hilula’ memorial for former Chief Sephardic Rabbi, the Rishon Letzion, Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu ztz”l. The ceremony took place at Jerusalem’s Har Hamenuchot. The rabbi died three yeas ago. He was one of the few modern rabbis held in great esteem by both Sephardic and Ashkenazi religious Jews.

Iraqi officials have claimed that they have uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to carry out poison gas attacks in the Middle East, Europe and North America. The attacks could have possibly been carried out by remote-controlled toy planes, which were seized at two workshops in Baghdad, the BBC reported. Mohamed al Askari, a spokesman for Iraq’s…

Two Israeli youths were badly beaten Saturday night in the Kiryat Shalom neighborhood of Tel Aviv by four foreign workers. The youths had been trying to protect a Jewish girl from being attacked by two of the foreign workers. The Israeli youths were badly beaten by the workers, who used rocks, bricks, and bicycle chains, and…

A hareidi-religous family from the center of the country arrived Sunday morning at the headquarters of the Israel Lottery in Tel Aviv – to collect the NIS 2 million ($600,000) prize they won in Saturday night’s lottery drawing. Few details were released about the family, as is customary among winners of lotteries and drawings in…

French police have charged a 30-year-old man with supplying weapons used by Islamist terrorist Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people, including a rabbi and three Jewish children, in and around the southern city of Toulouse last year Fetha Malki, a Toulouse resident with a history of petty crimes, was charged on Saturday with complicity in…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has received a multimillion-dollar grant to significantly expand ADL’s polling on global anti-Semitism. Totaling $7.5 million over three years, the grant will be used to establish the ADL Global Anti-Semitism Index, a significant annual barometer of anti-Semitic attitudes around the world.  During the project’s first year, ADL will measure anti-Semitic attitudes…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made a short statement to the Cabinet and to the general public at Sunday’s government session, regarding the chaotic situation in the Middle East. “The Middle East is going through an especially sensitive period of shocks and upheavals in many sectors,” Netanyahu said. “While we have no interest in being party…

City workers on Sunday morning were shocked to discover anti-Semitic and anti-Israel graffiti daubed on a synagogue in the center of Jerusalem – the Shmuel Meir synagogue, located in Safra Square, adjacent to the Jerusalem Municipality building. The Square is actually home to numerous local and national government buildings, is centrally located, and is a…

Police in the Turkish city of Istanbul have pulled out of Taksim square, where the largest anti-government protests in years are taking place. Thousands of people are gathered in the square after days of violence sparked by plans to redevelop a nearby park. Police have fired tear gas and water cannon several times to break…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni is considering the release of terrorist murderers and has received, for this purpose, the files of 120 Arab terror prisoners currently held in Israel. There is international pressure on Israel to carry out “gestures” toward the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a prelude to “peace talks” with it. The Almagor terror victims’…

The British Daily Telegraph reports that Hamas, which rules Gaza, is paying a heavy price in lost aid over its assistance to the rebels fighting Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Iran has made a meaningful cut in its aid to Hamas, which had previously reached amounts as large as 15 million Australian dollars per month. Iran…

The Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet Leyisrael) will pay former U.S. President Bill Clinton $500,000 in return for his coming to Israel to give a speech at a gala evening in Rehovot, and at a JNF event. He will also take part in the President’s Conference, where Peres will be honored by celebrities including barbra…

A two-year-old child shot and killed himself with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun in Texas Wednesday. Child Protective Services has taken custody of the other children who were living in the home in Cherokee County where the accident happened. According to KLTV.com, two-year-old Trenton Mathis was pronounced dead on Wednesday afternoon at a hospital in…

“The clock is ticking,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Iran on Friday, adding that Israel will do what is necessary to defend itself against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Speaking to reporters at a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Kerry said that he is not optimistic that Iran’s upcoming…

The relations between Israel and Jordan are directly related to the relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, according to Jordan’s Prime Minister Abdullah Nsur. Nsur spoke to the Ma’ariv daily newspaper during the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Jordan this week. In the interview, which was published Friday, he said, “Any improvement…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid said on Friday that his Yesh Atid party was committed to the “two-state solution” to end the Israeli-Arab conflict. Lapid made the comments during a meeting in Paris with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. During the meeting, Lapid also thanked the French minister for his country’s support in the efforts to…

Russia’s deal to sell advanced S-300 missile systems to Syria endangers Israel’s security, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday. Speaking at a news conference with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Kerry said that the delivery of the S-300 to Syria is “not helpful” for efforts to convene a peace conference, reported AFP.…

A resolution calling for the boycott of Israeli firms will not be put to a vote at the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund’s (TIAA-CREF) upcoming shareholders meeting. The move comes after the pension fund giant received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to “take no action” on a…

“She wants to eat me alive,” 70-year-old Yona told Arutz Sheva, referring to her next door neighbor – an Arab woman from the Shuafat neighborhood of Jerusalem. “She wants to devour me. Just look at her face.” Yona’s story begins more than 40 years ago, when she and her newlywed husband made a bold move,…

Holocaust denial is another form of anti-Semitism which is prevalent today and must be fought, Dr. Mario Silva told Arutz Sheva. Dr. Silva, chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, took part in the 4th conference of the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism which was held in Jerusalem this week. “It’s sad to say it,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu hinted in a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that if Russia sends S-300 missiles to Syria, Israel will destroy them before they become operational. So reports Maariv based on reports from diplomatic sources who were updated regarding the meeting between the two leaders. Netanyahu’s language reportedly was echoed by National…

Sources in Moscow have confirmed that Syrian President Bashar Assad was bluffing when he claimed that S-300 anti-aircraft missiles had already been delivered. The S-300s that Russia has promised Syria will be delivered only in 2014, they said. The Russian daily Kommersant quoted a senior diplomatic source as saying that the delivery would take place…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently ordered the defense system to ensure that personal protection kits, which include gas masks, are distributed to all Israelis, Channel 10 News reported on Thursday. Netanyahu’s order comes in the wake of reports that chemical weapons have been used in the Syrian civil war and the recent escalation along Israel’s…

Iran boosted in 2012 its support for global terrorism to levels not seen for two decades, according to the U.S. State Department’s annual report on international trends in extremist violence, CBS News reported Thursday. The State Department’s “Country Reports on Terrorism” for 2012 left unchanged the U.S. list of “state sponsors of terrorism.” Cuba, Iran,…

Nigerian security forces have uncovered and arrested a Hizbullah terror cell in recent days. The cell had maintained a large weapons store in a bunker. The cell has been operating for several years and had planned to strike American and Israeli targets. Nigeria is one of the countries that Shiite terrorist groups and global jihad…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday there was “popular pressure” to open a military front against Israel on the Golan Heights, and warned his country would bomb Israel if it attacks Syria again. “There is clear popular pressure to open a new front of resistance in the Golan,” Assad said in an interview with…

A memorial will be erected in the Bulgarian seaside town of Burgas, where a bus bombing at Sarafovo airport killed five Israeli tourists last year. The July 18, 2012 attack, which is widely blamed on the Hizbullah terror organization, resulted in the murder of five Israelis, including a pregnant woman, a Bulgarian bus driver, and…

Syria said Thursday that its soldiers had killed three armed individuals – at least one from Britain, and one from the United States. According to the report, the three were killed on Wednesday in an ambush set by Syrian troops, as a battle raged near the city of Idlib, 59 kilometers west of Aleppo. The…

In the case of a national emergency that would require the mass evacuation of residents of the center of the country, many of the evacuees could find shelter in Samaria (Shomron), said Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon. The evacuation plan is part of an overall Homeland Security effort, part of which included the drills that…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that despite the portrayal by the media of a deal for advanced missiles to be purchased from Russia as a future event, the fact is that Syria has already begun acquiring the S-300 missile system from Moscow. Assad made the comments in an interview that will be broadcast Thursday night…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met Wednesday evening with US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and made the following remarks at the start of the meeting: “Senator, I would like to welcome you as a great friend of Israel. You did it again. Your bill supporting Israel against the Iranian nuclear threat was…

The Auschwitz-Birkenau museum said on Wednesday it had acquired a newly discovered journal written and illustrated by Polish prisoners of the Nazi German death camp in southern Poland. The three inmates’ hand-made memoirs, which include poems and pen-and-ink and watercolour drawings of gas chambers and a hanging, were donated by the widow of a US…

The Pakistan Taliban’s second-in-command was killed in a drone strike Wednesday in the country’s tribal region, a local tribal official and an intelligence official told CNN. Wali-Ur Rehman Mehsud is second in command to Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the terrorist organization. While the Pakistan Taliban’s spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the report to…

Jews who came to pray at the Haohel synagogue in Bat Yam on Wednesday morning were shocked and appalled to find that it had been defaced for the fourth time in a month. This time, vandals spray-painted two large crosses on the building, one on either side of the main entrance. The gabbai, who is…

What do Jewish law and philosophy say about the concepts of making and managing money? Jerry Z. Muller, a professor of history at the Catholic University of America has written the book on the subject. “Capitalism and the Jews” is his latest book. Muller spoke to the Goldstein in Gelt program about the Jewish people…

It was the United States vs. Russia over Syria on Tuesday, as the United States condemned Russia for its decision to go ahead with selling S-300 advanced missile systems to Syria. At the same time, the U.S. welcomed the European Union’s decision to lift an arms embargo on Syria, enabling the possibility of arming Syrian…

The German government has agreed to expand its funding of home care for Holocaust survivors and relax eligibility criteria for restitution programs, it was announced on Tuesday. The agreement, which was reached after negotiations in Israel with the Claims Conference, will result in approximately $800 million in new funding for home care, including medicine and…

Speaking via video message to the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism at the opening ceremony in Jerusalem on Monday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that hatred against the Jewish people worldwide indicates that anti-Semitism is once again “fashionable.” “There were two myths about antisemitism. The first was that after the Holocaust antisemitism would disappear. And the…

A walkway in Warsaw has been named in honor of a Polish woman who is credited with saving 2,5000 Jewish children during the Holocaust, after students in Kansas succeeded in brining the story of the righteous gentile to the attention of Polish officials. The work of Irena Sendler, a social worker who smuggled Jewish children…

The Chabad Center of Oklahoma has received $15,000 in disaster-relief funds from the Orthodox Union after it was hit hard by the devastating tornado that recently shoot the area. The organization began distributing the funds, which were received on Friday afternoon before Shabbat,  over the Memorial Day weekend and throughout the week. “On behalf of…

An Israeli delegation from the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus (KCAC) and the World Jewish Congress (WJC), in cooperation with the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, met in Moscow this week at a large Christian celebration in honor of the state of Israel. The event, hosted by Senior Pastor Mats OlaIshoel of the Word of Life Church,…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz explained to the Knesset Tuesday why, in his view, the IDF cannot offer protection to the Jews of Judea and Samaria by firing at Arabs who terrorize them on the roads and in their homes on a daily basis. Speaking in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee,…

Several days ago a hareidi-religious family from Beit Shemesh was arrested in Jordan after crossing the border without authorization. At the time, officials believed the crossing was accidental. However, sources in Beit Shemesh told a different – and far more disturbing – story. In fact, they said, the family crossed the border intentionally, in an attempt…

Reporters working with the French paper Le Monde may have solid proof that chemical weapons were used in Syria. The reporters spent several weeks with rebels on the front lines of Syria’s bloody civil war, and returned with samples of weapons used by President Bashar Assad’s army. The samples are undergoing testing, and final results…

What the American people have learned from recent terror acts like the Boston Marathon bombing “is that we must be very vigilant in the face of terror,” New York City Councilman Jim Gennaro of Queens told Arutz Sheva in a strongly worded Memorial Day message. “Terror is everywhere and we have to be vigilant,” he said. “Sadly…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday that neither hareidi Jews nor Arabs can be forced into enlistment to the military. The issue is a burning one, as the secularist Yesh Atid is pushing for acceptance of a bill that would make young hareidi men criminally liable if they refuse to enlist. Yesh Atid is threatening…

Israel “will know what to do” if Russia delivers highly advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Syria, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday. AFP said this was “an apparent allusion to another air strike” on Syria. “The deliveries have not taken place – I can attest to this – and I hope they do not. But if,…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met in Amman, Jordan, on Monday. Israeli media outlets reported that the meeting was also attended by Attorney Yitzchak Molcho, who is Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s personal envoy for talks with the Palestinian Authority. A diplomatic official confirmed that the meeting had taken place…

A $4 billion U.S. plan to boost the Palestinian Authority’s economy was met with a cool response on Monday, as PA leaders insisted on a political dimension to the stimulus while Israel was mum as details remained unclear, AFP reports. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry unveiled the plan at the closing session of the…

Arabs on Monday attempted to break into the town of Kochav Yaakov in the Binyamin region, and set fire to olive orchards outside the town owned by Jews. They also blocked the highway outside the town, preventing residents from getting in or leaving. The town’s security force rushed to the scene to face down the…

Although no one has said that a war is imminent, or even on the horizon, the tension in Syria and the reports of missiles launched at northern Israel in recent days has caused a significant increase in requests for gas mask kits, reported the Israel Post Office, which distributes the kits. Until approximately two weeks…

EU foreign ministers are mulling a proposal by the French and British governments to ease the arms embargo on all parties in the Syrian civil war, to allow weapons transfers to rebel “Free Syrian Army” brigades. The EU embargo was first imposed in May 2011, applying equally to government and rebel forces, and is set…

Hours after he publicly called for a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, President Shimon Peres held a one-on-one meeting with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday night. The meeting was held in Jordan, where both are attending the World Economic Forum. Ma’ariv reported that Peres told Abbas that only at…

On the eve of her wedding Monday, MK Tzipi Hotovely ascended the Temple Mount Sunday morning, reviving an old but long-standing custom that brides visit the Mount before their weddings. Hotovely was accompanied by members of her family, and was guided by Nadav Shragai, veteran journalist and Jerusalem historical researcher. Hotovely arranged her visit with…

President Shimon Peres again departed Sunday from protocol by voicing an opinion on the politically charged issue of diplomatic contacts with Israel’s Arab neighbors. Peres called the “Arab Peace Initiative” a “meaningful change and a strategic opportunity.” He spoke at the World Economic Forum, which is being held in Aqaba, Jordan. The office of president…

Arab “rock terrorism,” which has been plaguing residents of Judea and Samaria, has reached homes in Jerusalem. Avi Eisner, who lives in the posh neighborhood of Abu Tor, in southern Jerusalem, told Arutz Sheva that he awoke Sunday morning to find that a rock had been thrown through his window during the night and had…

Russia has cancelled the deal to sell S-300 missiles to Syria, a senior Russian official tells the British Sunday Times. The official explained the cancellation was a result of Russia’s concern that the missiles could fall into the wrong hands and be used to attack civilian aircraft at the Ben Gurion airport. “We are very…

The Turkish Parliament’s General Assembly adopted on Friday an alcohol bill proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), tightening restrictions on the sale and advertising of alcoholic beverages, the daily Hurriyet reported. The approval came despite strong objections against the bill by the opposition on the grounds of personal freedom and respect for…

Israel on Saturday accused Syrian forces of trying to provoke conflict following a border clash. Tensions around Golan Heights ceasefire zone between the two rivals have escalated since Syrian forces fired across the UN-patrolled ceasefire line and hit an Israeli military vehicle on Tuesday. “This week’s events are part of a disturbing pattern of events…

75 terrorists (often called fighters in Western media outlets) from the Lebanon-based Hizbullah have been killed in Syria since they first became involved in the country’s war months ago, a source close to the Shiite group said on Thursday. “There have been 57 killed and 18 others who have died of their wounds since the…

British police made two further arrests on Thursday and raided houses across London, following the brutal murder of 25-year-old Lee Rigby, a serving soldier who survived a tour of duty in Afghanistan, AFP reported. Police searched five properties in London and one in a village in eastern England, and announced the arrests of a man…

United States Secretary of State John Kerry has reportedly proposed that Israel freeze construction east of the 1949 armistice line if it wants to hold talks with the Palestinian Authority. Kerry met Thursday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. It was not clear if Netanyahu responded favorably to Kerry’s suggestion of a new construction freeze. Israel…

Technion scientists developed and constructed a molecular transducer, which is an advanced computing machine. This molecular computer was built entirely of biomolecules, such as DNA and enzymes that can manipulate genetic codes. This unprecedented device can compute iteratively, namely, it uses the output as a new input for subsequent computations. Furthermore, it produces outputs in…

U.S. President Barack Obama laid out new guidelines for drone strikes on Thursday and launched a new bid to close Guantanamo Bay, warning that a “perpetual” U.S. war on terror would be self defeating, AFP reports. Obama told Americans their country was at a crossroads and must move on from the counter-terrorism policies deployed after…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was honored on Wednesday by the Conference of European Rabbis (CER) for her support to the German Jewish community and her outspoken denunciation of anti-Semitism throughout Europe, the European Jewish Press (EJP) reported. The honoring took place at a special ceremony at the Great Synagogue of Brussels. The German leader, who…

The National Council of Young Israel teamed with Agri Star Meat Poultry LLC and the Masbia organization to facilitate the delivery of 20,000 pounds of food to tornado victims in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In the aftermath of the tornado that tore apart families, leveled neighborhoods and devastated entire communities, there is a dire need for…

At a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday morning, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israel was very interested in reopening negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. A spokesperson in the Prime Minister’s office said that the discussions were “positive,” and that Israel had urged Kerry to do what he could to convince…

Eight members of a hareidi family from Beit Shemesh were arrested late Wednesday – in Jordan – after they crossed the border from Israel. A report on Channel Two Thursday morning said that the crossing took place in the area of Nachal Hayoun, in the Arava desert. Israeli officials are negotiating an arrangement to return…

An Israeli firefighter was injured in an Arab riot in Jerusalem Thursday morning, as he sought to put out a fire. The fire had broken next to the Arab village of Issawiya, which is within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. A fire station is located close by, and a fire truck was dispatched to douse…

Jewish French singer and composer Georges Moustaki, who sang in several languages and whose romantic ballads won him global fame, died on Thursday at the age of 79, his entourage said, according to the AFP news agency. Born on May 3, 1934 to an immigrant European Jewish couple who had settled in Egypt, Moustaki —…

Muslim leaders from across the globe knelt in prayer for the Holocaust dead at the Auschwitz’s notorious Wall of Death on Wednesday, in an emotional visit to the Nazi German death camp in southern Poland, AFP reported. Imams from Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States offered traditional…