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Israeli planes taking off from Eilat will be armed with anti-missile systems due to the threat of shoulder-carried anti-aircraft missiles that could be fired from the Sinai desert, Channel 2 reported Thursday. The security establishment is aware that terrorists in Sinai have armed themselves with man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS. The initial thought was to…

A Jewish high school student in Long Island has been arrested after threatening to blow up his Yeshiva. Nassau County Police say the 16-year-old student at the Mesivta Ateres Yaakov School in Lawrence, Long Island, was arrested after he posted threats on his Facebook page, which were later brought to the attention of the school principal.…

Israeli officials on Thursday announced that they had nabbed a gang of Arab terrorists who were planning a terror attack against Israelis or tourists who visited the Temple Mount. An indictment was handed down Thursday against five suspects, residents of an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem, on charges of terrorism and conspiracy to murder and kidnap…

World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking told a packed audience in California this week that the Big Bang did not require G-d for creation. In a talk entitled “The Origin of the Universe” delivered Tuesday night at California Institute of Technology, Hawking presented his case against the Creator. “What was G-d doing before the Divine creation?”…

Authorities have arrested a suspect after a letter addressed to President Barack Obama tested positive for ricin, stoking alarm in Washington on Wednesday after an earlier scare over poisoned mail. The FBI said there was no connection between blasts at the Boston marathon that killed three people on Monday and mailings sent to Obama, Republican…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned the West on Wednesday that it will pay a heavy price for its alleged support of Al-Qaeda in Syria. According to AFP, Assad said his regime’s defeat is not an option. He made the comments in an interview with state television Al-Ikhbariya, in which he said the West is playing…

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was “a great leader,” said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday following a ceremony in honor of the late British leader. “She was not only an economic leader but a world leader, helping, along with President Reagan, to end the Cold War bloodlessly,” Netanyahu said. Thatcher “inspired many around the world…

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmud Abbas is scheduled to visit Turkey this weekend for talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Abbas will also meet President Abdullah Gul and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during his trip on Saturday and Sunday, a Palestinian Authority official told the AFP news agency. Erdogan recently announced his intention to visit…

While the Pakistani Taliban has denied involvement in Monday’s Boston marathon bombing, it has openly applauded the heinous attack, which killed three and injured over a hundred more.  “Wherever we find Americans we will kill them, but we don’t have any connection with the Boston explosions,” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said, according to…

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to confirm next week the United States has approved $400 million in additional funding for the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system. The system, which neutralizes both short and long-range missiles in mid-air, uses special interceptor missiles that each cost $50,000. The U.S. has allocated an additional $220 million for…

A Salafi Muslim jihadist group has claimed responsibility for Wednesday morning’s rocket attack on the Israeli Red Sea resort city of Eilat. “The lions of the Mujahedeen Shura Council in the Environs of Jerusalem managed to target occupied Eilat with two Grad rockets on the morning of April 17, and withdrew safely,” a statement posted on…

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc is set to lead the negotiating team in talks with Israel next week and hopes to soon restore ties. Arinc told the Hebrew-language NRG news site on Wednesday, “Turkey anticipates full restoration of relations with Israel. I will lead the Turkish delegation for negotiations with Israel next week on…

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee adopted on Tuesday a resolution which stipulates that the U.S. will assist Israel if it is forced to take action against Iran. The resolution, Senate Resolution 65, was introduced last month by Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and was co-sponsored by 15 Senators, including Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), Marco…

The Pentagon has requested $220.3 million in 2014 to bolster Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system despite broader cuts to U.S. military spending, AFP reported on Tuesday, citing budget documents. The U.S. Missile Defense Agency also is asking for an additional $175.9 million in fiscal year 2015 for Israel’s homegrown missile defense network, according to…

The Color Red rocket alert siren blared throughout the city of Eilat shortly after 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, sending residents racing for bomb shelters. Tourists and others throughout the Red Sea resort area reported hearing multiple loud blasts a few seconds later. It is believed that terrorists fired three rockets at the city, although the geographic source…

President Shimon Peres does not plan to seek another term in office, he told Israeli media outlets Tuesday night. “I will not seek to extend my term,” Peres said in interviews on Channels 2 and 10. “The Presidency is not a sinecure, but an opportunity to serve and influence.” Peres has done that, he said…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday once again expressed his support for a two-state solution to end the Israeli-Arab conflict. Speaking during a reception for foreign diplomats in honor of Israel’s Independence Day, Netanyahu said, “We are committed to our aspiration for peace, a peace that will be based on the principle of two states…

In a special video greeting in honor of Israel’s Independence Day, President Shimon Peres said on Monday that there have been “ongoing miracles” during the State of Israel’s 65 years of existence. “Without land, water and natural resources, we built an outstanding economy and an excellent scientific and technological community,” said Peres. “Let’s celebrate together…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on Voice of Israel public radio that the IDF has the ability to act on its own against the Iranian nuclear program. In response to a question, Lt. Gen. Gantz said that there are ongoing deliberations between the political echelon and…

President Shimon Peres said on Monday that he does not regret the Oslo Accords, despite the fact that their signing brought about hundreds of Israeli victims who were killed in terror attacks. Speaking in an interview with the Walla website, on the occasion of Israel’s 65th Independence Day, Peres said that terrorist attacks against Jews…

U.S. President Barack Obama said he ordered the “full resources” of the federal government to respond to the Boston bombings on Monday, and that he also called for increased security around the United States as necessary, CNN reported. Obama, however, refrained from using the word “terror” when speaking of the explosions in Boston, which killed…

Egypt is largely responsible for helping to maintain the cease fire between Israel and Hamas terrorist-run Gaza, says an expert at Bar Ilan University’s Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has been a very active advocate of keeping the peace, says Hillel Frisch. Over the past several months, Egypt’s Army Corps of…

Thousands of people participated in an official ceremony in memory of the residents of Gush Etzion who fell before the establishment of the State. The event took place at the central cemetery in Gush Etzion, located in Kfar Etzion. Residents, Yeshiva students, IDF soldiers, and visitors from around the country joined to remember the lives…

Israelis made the annual abrupt jump from sorrow to joy Monday night, as Memorial Day concluded, and Yom Ha’atzma’ut (Independence Day) began. The main torch lighting ceremony opening Yom Ha’atzma’ut took place at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem as the sun set, with 12 Israelis from different backgrounds and professions chosen to light the torches. Knesset…

About 1.5 million Israelis – almost 1/5 of the country’s citizens – are expected to visit Israel’s cemeteries Monday, in order to pay respects and remember the nation’s war dead, the IDF Website estimates. A 2-minute siren sounded at 11:00. This marks the start of formal ceremonies in various state institutions, as well as schools and IDF…

A Muslim Swedish politician resigned from his post on Sunday after coming under intense scrutiny for holding anti-Semitic views. Omar Mustafa, head of Sweden’s Islamic Association, who was elected last week in Stockholm to the Social Democratic Party’s governing board, announced his resignation amid allegations of anti-Semitism, sexism, and homophobia. According to reports, Mustafa “liked”…

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said on Sunday that the IDF’s long arm can reach any place and any enemy. Speaking at the official ceremony marking the beginning of Memorial Day for the IDF’s Fallen Soldiers, Gantz said, “I think of all the mothers and fathers I knew. Of the sons and daughters who…

Hizbullah is continuing to assist Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad in his fight against the rebels. Over 1,000 members of the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group entered Syria in the past few days via waterways in the Mediterranean Sea, the Saudi daily Al-Watan reported on Sunday. According to the report, around 1,200 fighters arrived at Syria’s Tartus…

“Since our inception as a people, we had to fight for our freedom and our existence,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at a Sunday afternoon ceremony at Beit Yad Labanim in Jerusalem, marking the start of Memorial Day for the IDF’s Fallen Soldiers. “Today, too, there are those who threaten to annihilate us — they…

The UJA Federation of New York, considered to be the largest local philanthropy in the world, is in Israel with a 200-person delegation, to show support for the Jewish state on Memorial Day and Independence Day. Mark D. Medin, Senior Vice President for Financial Resource Development at UJA Federation of New York, told Arutz Sheva:…

Germany is in talks with Israel to buy weaponized drones for its military that are seen as more technologically advanced than US-made ones, the weekly Der Spiegel reported. The news magazine’s Monday edition said the German defense ministry had already held two meetings with Israeli military officials, in November 2012 and February 2013, on the…

The official ceremony marking Memorial Day for the IDF’s Fallen Soldiers, in which Israel remembers and honors its fallen soldiers, began Sunday evening at 8:00 p.m. at the Kotel. President Shimon Peres addressed the ceremony, According to numbers published by the Defense Ministry, since the year 1860 — when Jews founded the first neighborhood in…

President Shimon Peres paid a condolence visit Sunday to Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who is sitting shiva over his son, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef. “It is good to have a family like this, which exudes Torah,” Peres said, “because the Jewish nation lives, not by force of arms but through its spirit.” Rav Ovadia told Peres of…

Teen idol Justin Bieber faced withering criticism Sunday after he visited the Anne Frank museum in Amsterdam and wrote that he hoped the Jewish girl who died in a Nazi death camp would have been a fan. The museum said on its Facebook page that Canadian singer Bieber, 19, had visited the Anne Frank House,…

The UK Ministry of Defense has claimed that chemical weapons were used in the Syrian conflict, the British Times reported Saturday. Forensic evidence was collected after scientists analyzed soil smuggled out of the country in a secret British operation, the report said. The sample was extracted from a neighborhood on the outskirts of Damascus in…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas accepted on Saturday the resignation of his prime minister Salam Fayyad, AFP reports. Fayyad resigned after a weeks-long falling out Abbas, despite U.S. efforts for him to stay on, the report said. “Fayyad met Abbas for half an hour in the president’s headquarters in Ramallah in the West Bank and…

Israel is preparing for one of the most emotionally charged weeks of the year: the week in which the Memorial Day for the IDF’s Fallen Soldiers and Independence Day are marked, back-to-back. Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron) will be marked from Sunday evening until Monday evening. Independence Day (Yom Haatzmaut) will begin Monday evening, and end Tuesday evening.  This is…

Writing on his Facebook page, Minister of Finance Yair Lapid prepared Israelis for upcoming budget cuts. “Economies are changed in one day, or in three weeks,” he wrote. “First of all, we must return to responsible behavior so that we don’t turn into Greece or Spain. I know that it isn’t easy; I know that…

An initiative to bring Israel and six Arab countries’ ministers together under NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue group for the first time since 2008 has been nixed by Turkey and Egypt, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported Saturday. Ankara and Cairo reportedly said “it was not the right time” for such a meeting. “The general-secretary was planning to invite…

President Shimon Peres said that he believes that U.S. President Barack Obama will attack Iran’s nuclear facilities if diplomatic efforts fail. “I have no doubt that if diplomatic talks fail with Iran and Tehran doesn’t stop accelerating its nuclear development – U.S. President Barack Obama will conduct a military attack against Iran,” Peres told the…

The Palestinian Authority is fuming after Canada’s Foreign Minister, John Baird, met Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni in her eastern Jerusalem office this week. Such a move is normally avoided by visiting diplomats since world countries do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem, which it liberated during the 1967 Six Day War. “The visit…

Jordanian parliamentarians are calling for the release of a terrorist who in 1997 murdered seven Israeli students from the same school during a school trip. 110 out of 150 Jordanian MPs have already signed a petition, initiated by MP Ali Sinad, calling for the release of Ahmed Daqamseh. Daqamseh was a soldier in the Jordanian…

The ongoing civil war in Syria spilled into Israeli territory again on Friday evening. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement that , shortly after 8:00 p.m., a barrage of shots from Syria were fired near an IDF force in the Golan Heights. There were no casualties or damage, said the statement. The soldiers…

Turkish police have uncovered and foiled an alleged plot by Al-Qaeda to bomb the United States embassy in Ankara, as well as a synagogue and other targets in Istanbul, Turkish media reported on Friday. As a result of a February raid in Istanbul and the northeastern city of Corlu, police had arrested 12 people, including…

Rabbi Yaakov Chai Yosef, head of Beit Midrash Chazon Yaakov, rabbi of the Givat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem and son of Shas’s spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, passed away on Friday afternoon at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. His funeral will take place in the next several hours, before Shabbat, at the Har Hamenuchot Cemetery.…

U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that he believed there was a “window of opportunity” to kickstart the Middle East peace process, after a trip to the region by Secretary of State John Kerry, AFP reports. Speaking after a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Obama said the two “talked about Middle East peace,…

President Barack Obama authorized the release of as much as $10 million in additional aid to rebels trying to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday, as calls continued for the U.S. to arm the rebels. The president, in a directive to the secretaries of state and defense, said the U.S. would draw on the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a special video greeting on Thursday ahead of Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s 65th Independence Day which will be celebrated on Tuesday. “65 years ago we celebrated our new found freedom, the renewal of Jewish sovereignty in our ancestral homeland,” said Netanyahu. “This was a dream of ages. Jews prayed for this…

Imagine a conference where the master of ceremonies is a 29 year old young woman with Down Syndrome, known for her interviews with key persons such as President Shimon Peres, and you will understand why Arutz Sheva felt that the audience attending this week’s World Down Syndrome Day Conference could have been the model for the afternoon session’s topic – “Inclusion.” On April 9th, more than 400…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon visited the Military Intelligence (MI) Directorate Tuesday and met with the Director of the MI Directorate, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. “We are in a period of dramatic changes that present the Military Intelligence Directorate with unprecedented challenges, which create both opportunities and dangers – and it is important to identify both,”…

Increasing aggressive North Korean rhetoric has prompted the Pentagon to decide to deploy a high-profile missile-defense system on the island of Guam. The Defense Department announced Wednesday that it would soon move the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System (THAAD) to the island.  This comes in addition to deployment of two destroyers equipped with Aegis missile defense systems, the Decatur…

Israel and Turkey may have buried the hatchet, but Israeli tourists aren’t rushing back to Turkey’s famed “all inclusive” resorts. A poll conducted on behalf of Globes daily business newspaper says that 83% of Israelis would not even consider the possibility of a vacation in Turkey this summer – and among those that would consider…

Negotiators are stalled in talks over inspection of sites where chemical weapons are stored in Syria, according to a source close to the situation. Last month Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called on the international body to investigate an alleged breach by rebels of a storage site near the northern city of Aleppo on March 19.…

Hours after the Al Qaeda terror organization confirmed that the Syrian Al-Nusra Front group is a member of its international network, the head of Al-Nusra pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, reported AFP. Al-Nusra’s announcement is likely to bolster assertions by President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime that it is fighting “terrorists” who want to impose…

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird hailed his country’s “special friendship” with Israel in Jerusalem talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. The two officials “reaffirmed the close and special friendship that underpins the bilateral relationship between our two countries,” a joint statement said. “Today, the Jewish people are masters of their own fate, like…

The planned U.S. budget for the coming year, which was announced by President Barack Obama on Wednesday, maintains and even increases the American defense aid to Israel, Channel 10 News reported. According to the numbers published, the United States will provide Israel with $3.4 billion in defense aid, a record number, according to Channel 10.…

Nautical archaeologists have reported the discovery of a “monumental” conical stone pile built of large, natural, unhewn basalt cobbles and boulders, on the floor of the Sea of Galilee. The structure is definitely man-made, and measures about 70 meters in diameter at a depth of about 219 meters, reported archaeologists Yitzhak Paz, Moshe Reshef, Zvi Ben-Avraham,…

A rare find in Jerusalem: archaeologists have uncovered a ritual pool from the Second Temple era near a highway construction site. The discovery came during excavations carried out in advance of paving the Ora-Masua’ah highway in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem. According to Israel Antiquities Authority excavation director Benyamin Storchan, “Numerous ritual baths have…

Japan is preparing for a potential North Korean nuclear missile attack – or a missile test.  Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera ordered installation of a Patriot anti-missile defense missile battery on the grounds of the country’s defense ministry in central Tokyo on Tuesday. Standing orders were also issued to shoot down any missile arriving from North…

An Israeli Arab man from Taibe has been arrested for illegally entering Syria and fighting with the Global Jihad rebel group. The man, 28-year-old Hakhmat Othman Hassin Matsarwa, entered Syria with two goals: to join Global Jihad and fight the Syrian army, and to find his brother Hassin, who had left for Syria to fight…

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to postpone his much-publicized visit to Gaza, planned for this month. The Turkish leader reportedly changed his scheduled at the request of the U.S. President Barack Obama, who pressured Erdogan to stay out of the region for the time being. “I imagine the visit will take place…

Israel is set to send warships to the eastern Mediterranean for a joint military exercise with Cyprus, according to a report which appeared in the Cypriot Fileleftheros daily on Tuesday and which was cited by the Turkish Today’s Zaman. Cypriot Defense Minister Fotis Fotiou confirmed that the joint exercise, which will include the participation of…

U.S. Secretary John Kerry on Tuesday wrapped up three days of what he termed “very constructive” talks with Israeli and Palestinian Authority leaders, AFP reported. Speaking to reporters shortly before leaving for London, a cautious Kerry said it was more important to find ways of resuming the long-frozen negotiations correctly rather than “quickly.” His Jerusalem…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s famous “red line” speech in the United Nations helped to slow Iran’s nuclear program, the Washington Post said in an editorial Tuesday. The latest round of talks with Iran “was, by all accounts, a disappointment,” the editorial said. However, it said, “for now, at least, there is no crisis… there is…

Bahrain on Tuesday became the first Arab country to blacklist Hizbullah as a terrorist organization, the Al Arabiya network reports. The move came a week after the Bahraini parliament voted to label the group a terrorist organization. Its alleged backing and training of radical Shiite groups against Bahrain was the main reason given for the…

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird met on Tuesday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres in talks that Israel and Canada said were ‘positive.’ The talks, Netanyahu and Peres said, expressed the close relations between the two countries. During his meeting with Netanyahu, Baird declared his support of a Jewish state in all…

An earthquake struck Iran on Tuesday afternoon, Iranian media outlets have reported. The 6.3 quake was centered about 100 kilometers ( 63 miles) south of the Bushehr nuclear power plant. At least 32 people were killed in the quake, and at least 850 more were wounded. The town of Kaki was hardest hit. Rescue personnel…

An explosive charge blew up Tuesday morning near an IDF force operating next to the perimeter security fence at southern Gaza. No one was hurt. A bulldozer was slightly damaged. This is the first such incident since Operation Pillar of Defense in November. The IDF force was carrying out routine work for exposing explosive charges.…

Israel’s Housing Minister Uri Ariel on Tuesday announced that 50 new homes would be built in eastern Jerusalem to house Holocaust survivors. “These 50 homes, which will be added to those existing homes for the elderly in east Talpiot, will be earmarked for Holocaust survivors,” he told Voice of Israel public radio in an announcement made the…

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has chosen Prof. Alexander Levitzki of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as the winner of its 2013 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research. The AACR is currently holding its annual meeting through Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Levitzki, professor of biological chemistry at the Alexander Silberman…

Recent rocket attacks on southern Israel have prompted the defense establishment to redeploy the Iron Dome anti-missile batteries in the region, for the first time since the counter-terrorist Operation Pillar of Defense last November. Some of the batteries had been moved to other regions in Israel, including northern Israel near the Golan Heights, as part…

U.S. President Barack Obama is not bluffing when he says he will stop Iran’s nuclear program, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday. Speaking after a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem, Kerry said that Israel has a friend in President Obama, his administration and the U.S. Congress. “We understand the nature…

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz promised at the March of the Living on Monday that the IDF would ensure that there will never be another Holocaust. “Today, at the last stage of the March of the Living at Auschwitz-Birkenau, we are illuminating the next step in our people’s great march of life,” Gantz, who…

Iraq has executed seven people convicted of terror-related offenses, an official said on Monday, despite widespread calls for the country to declare a moratorium on its use of the death penalty. All of those executed were Iraqi men, and brought to 29 the number of times Iraq has carried out the death penalty so far…

At least 25 were killed and 45 others were wounded Monday in central Damascus after a car bomb exploded between the Saba’a Bahrat Square and Shahbander Street. A number of reports said the bombing was the result of a suicide attack. According to state broadcaster al-Ikhbariya and the Associated Press, the attack occurred some 20…

Official Israel reacted with sadness Monday to news of the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “Today I mourn the passing of Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said. “She was truly a great leader, a woman of principle, of determination, of conviction, of strength; a woman of greatness. She…

Just a week after Cairo resumed tourist flights from Tehran after more than 30 years, Egypt has already suspended them until June. Tourism Minister Hesham Za’azoua gave no reason for the suspension, which was announced late Sunday by Egypt’s state news agency MENA. But a group of some 50 Iranian tourists who visited southern Egypt…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met Monday with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Jerusalem ahead of ongoing talks with Israeli officials. “I believe if we can address the security needs of Israel, and they are real, and if we can [meet the] state aspirations of Palestinian people, and they are real, I…

An NGO called “Spring for Holocaust Survivors” organized a march Sunday dedicated to Holocaust survivors, in order to let them “know we have not forgotten them.” The organizers said that this was a march “for the living.” The annual memorial march in Poland is called the March of the Living. The march included MKs past and…

Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks is set to publish more than 1.7 million U.S. diplomatic and intelligence documents from the 1970s, founder Julian Assange revealed. The website has collated a variety of records including cables, intelligence reports and congressional correspondence and is releasing them in a searchable form, according to the AFP news agency. Assange has carried…

Hamas security forces in Gaza have been rounding up young men and forcing them to get haircuts on grounds of inappropriate hairstyles. Some of the youths have even been beaten for styling their hair in a way deemed unacceptable to Gaza’s ruling Islamist movement, or wearing low-hung trousers, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR)…

Former British PM Margaret Thatcher, the first woman to head the UK government, has died at the age of 87. Thatcher led the Conservative Party served from 1979 to 1990. She was famous for declaring in December 1984, “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together,” three months before he became the leader of…

The leader of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group, Ayman al-Zawahiri, has urged rebels to fight to establish an Islamic state in Syria, AFP reported. The message came in an online audio message Sunday, in which the Al-Qaeda chief also warned France against its military intervention in Mali. “Let your fight be in the name of Allah…

Jordanian security forces arrested several youths who are suspected of attacking Israeli internet sites as part of the large scale cyber attack on Israel declared by the group called Anonymous. In response, Anonymous threatened to attack Jordanian internet sites. The group demanded the activists’ immediate release. A Facebook group called “The Third Intifada – Jordan” boasted…

The Syrian government has withdrawn large numbers of troops from the Golan Heights, in a move that has cast doubt over the future of a UN peacekeeping force on the strategically vital plateau, the British Guardian reported Sunday. Western diplomats told the newspaper that the Syrian redeployments near the Golan ceasefire line were the most…

Soldiers from the IDF’s Kfir Brigade arrested a Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist, who was carrying four firebombs and three improvised explosive devices, at the Hawara checkpoint near Shechem on Sunday night. A police sapper detonated the explosives in a controlled manner and the terrorist was detained for questioning by security forces. Earlier on Sunday, the…

Israeli government web sites came under heavy attack by anti-Israel hackers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Sunday afternoon. However, the hackers failed to bring down any Israeli sites, the Ministry said in an official announcement. A Ministry spokesperson said that users had been unable to access its site for several seconds Sunday afternoon. The…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni announced Sunday that she would sponsor a law that would provide free legal help to Holocaust survivors who are seeking to reclaim property or benefits they were supposed to have received, but didn’t. The announcement came in the wake of data that said that many Holocaust survivors were living in poverty.…

Top IDF brass, led by Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, arrived in Poland on Sunday, in preparation for a tour of the death camps, and for participation in the March of the Living on Monday, Holocaust Heroes and Martyrs Memorial Day. Gantz and top army staff, including Head of Personnel Branch Orna Barbibay, IDF Ground Troops…

President Shimon Peres said in his speech at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Jerusalem Sunday that the neo-Nazi movements raising their heads in Europe are both “ridiculous” and dangerous. He said that the Holocaust left the Jewish people “decreased in number, but not in spirit.“ This is the text of the president’s speech. Dear…

More than 100 people in Mitzpeh Yericho, south of Jerusalem, held a rally Saturday night protesting the government’s silence in wake of the desecration of a local study hall and a Torah scroll, Tatzpit reports. “Where is Peres?” marchers shouted. Community spokesman Moshe Eyal explained, “We here in Mitzpeh Yericho are very disappointed by the…

The archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn, has expressed opposition to suggestions of adding Jewish and Muslim high holidays to the list of official Austrian holidays. “Both the Jewish and the Muslim community are not big enough in Austria that their holidays should be holidays for the entire population,” he said in interview with the state-owned broadcaster ORF.…

The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, revealed Sunday that its operatives exposed a Hamas-linked terrorist cell in March. Members of the cell have been arrested. The terror cell was behind recent violence on the Temple Mount. Among the attacks it carried out was a firebomb attack on police officers in which nine were injured.…

A report released by Tel Aviv University on Sunday has noted a 30 percent rise in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide in 2012. The report, issued as the Jewish nation commemorates Holocaust Remembrance Day, states that 686 anti-Semitic attacks, ranging from physical violence to vandalism against synagogues and cemeteries, were recorded in 34 countries, compared with 526…

The central theme for Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, 2013, is Defiance and Rebellion in the Holocaust. This year, the ceremony will mark 70 years since the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The day will be marked in a ceremony Sunday evening, and as the embedded video shows, rehearsals are ongoing. “The most notable armed uprising that…

The Hamas terror organization has accused Western and Arab spy agencies on Saturday of operating in Gaza , claiming it has obtained a list of alleged collaborators. “The Gaza Strip is swarming with Western intelligence agencies, such as the American, British, French and German services,” said Mohammed Lafi, an internal security chief, quoted on the…

President Barack Obama will host leaders from key US allies Jordan, Turkey, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in the coming weeks amid turmoil in Syria, the White House said Friday. The US administration said Jordan’s King Abdullah II will meet Obama on April 26 for talks covering “Jordan’s political and economic reforms, the humanitarian…

Palestinian Authority (PA) president Mahmud Abbas may fire Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a Fatah member said, as the party criticized the premier’s government as being “improvised and confused.” Abbas “is leaning towards dismissing Fayyad from the head of the government and forming a new one,” a member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council told AFP late on…

The hackers’ group Anonymous said Saturday that its planned attack on Israel has begun and will intensify Sunday. One of its prime targets is a website for an NGO that assists children with cancer. The group announced that 19,000 Israeli Facebook accounts have already been hacked. In addition it said, personal details of students from…

Iran and world powers once again failed on Friday to reach a breakthrough in the Iranian nuclear crisis, AFP reports. The latest talks in Kazakhstan saw Tehran being criticized for failing to give a clear response to a proposal aimed at breaking the deadlock, the report said. The powers are seeking answers about a nuclear…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has demanded that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu present a map for a future Palestinian state before any peace talks can resume, an aide told AFP on Friday. Abbas “wants to know, through a map to be presented by Benjamin Netanyahu to (U.S. Secretary of State John) Kerry, what the prime…

Hamas, a former ally of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, is now training the rebel Free Syrian Army in eastern Damascus, according to a report Friday in the British Times. Diplomatic sources told the newspaper that members of Hamas’s Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were training FSA units in the rebel-held neighborhoods of Yalda, Jaramana and Babbila. The…

White House press secretary Jay Carney said on Friday that the American administration would not be surprised if North Korea followed through on its recent threats to launch a missile. “We’ve obviously seen the reports that North Korea may be making preparations to launch a missile. We’re monitoring this situation closely, and we would not…

Three members of the French feminist group FEMEN burned an Islamic flag this week outside the Grand Mosque of Paris. The flag-burning was carried out as a protest of oppression of women in the Muslim world. A Tunisian activist set fire to the flag, on which was written the declaration of Islamic faith, “There is…

North Korea has moved more intermediate range missiles to its east coast, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency has reported. According to Fox News, United States officials have confirmed the report. The missiles were pointed toward the United States just days after North Korea threatened a “merciless” nuclear military strike on the U.S. North Korea’s leaders…

The UN is hiking its estimates of people trapped in Syria after fleeing their homes, saying Wednesday some four million are now displaced inside the country and in dire need of international help. The figure, reported by AFP and due to be officially released in the coming days, is a dramatic increase on earlier estimates…

Egyptian maritime authorities have seized a ship with a crew of 14 and a cargo of 105 crates of unspecified weapons and ammunition, which belonged to an African security company, Egyptian security officials told AFP. The military’s spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mohamed Ali said on his Facebook page the ship belonged to a company that secures maritime routes…

Antiquities Authority workers have discovered a well-preserved Byzantine era wine-making facility in southern Israel. The discovery, made during a construction project for a wedding hall, is one of the best preserved examples of an ancient wine-making facility from that era found so far in Israel. In addition to the wine-making facility, an almost perfectly preserved…

Egyptian maritime authorities seized an Iranian ship carrying a “huge quantity of weapons heading for Egypt,” according to a report by news website NOW, quoted in Lebanese website Ya Libnan. The ship, which was seized about ten miles away from the Ras Mohammad national park in the Sinai peninsula reportedly was carrying more than 50,000…

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is blaming the State of Israel for acts of terror and rioting by Arabs following the death of a terrorist prisoner this week. Abbas condemned Israel in a statement issued from his office in the PA capital of Ramallah in which he referred to the death of Maissah Abu Hamdiyeh and…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to return to Israel on Sunday immediately following a quick visit in Istanbul. The American official is expected to meet with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to discuss “regional concerns,” according to Voice of America.  The issues to be discussed in Turkey include the status of the…

For as long as the Dead Sea has been around, people have been visiting it to take advantage of the legendary healing properties of its water, minerals, and mud. While the salt in the ocean is almost entirely sodium chloride (table salt), the Dead Sea contains a complex mixture of chloride and bromide salts of…

Internationally renowned physicist Stephen Hawking is scheduled to visit Israel this summer for a second time. His first trip to the Jewish State came at the invitation of the British Embassy, and included a tour of the region during which he spoke with local academics and scientists. Although completely disabled by ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease),…

Hundreds of Palestinian Authority Arabs rioted in Hevron and elsewhere around the country as the shrouded body of a dead Hamas terrorist was carried through the city in an afternoon funeral. Since the death of 64-year-old Maissara Abu Hamdiyeh earlier this week, Arab leaders have ordered their followers into official mourning for the prison inmate. The…

Egypt has demanded explanations from Hamas as to how it is allowing terror groups to fire rockets into southern Israel, months after the truce that ended Operation Pillar of Defense last November. In recent days, Gaza Arab terrorists have begun firing rockets at Israeli towns, with the latest attack coming Wednesday night. Shortly before 2:00…

IDF soldiers opened fire on Wednesday night at two terrorists who approached an IDF position near the community of Einav in northern Samaria. As the two terrorists approached the soldiers, they hurled a firebomb at them. The soldiers returned fire, killing one terrorist and wounding the other. PA officials told AFP that the killed terrorist…

The North Korean army said Thursday it had final approval to launch “merciless” military strikes on the United States, involving the possible use of “cutting-edge” nuclear weapons. In a statement published by the official KCNA news agency, the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) said it was formally informing Washington that reckless US…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will visit the Middle East, his third trip in a month, in yet another attempt to push Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume peace negotiations, AFP reported on Wednesday. In a surprise move, the State Department announced that Kerry will return to Jerusalem and the PA early next…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of not having said “a single word of truth” about Syria’s conflict, in an interview with Turkish media posted on the web. “Erdogan has not said a single word of truth since the beginning of the crisis in Syria,” Assad told journalists working for…

Gaza-based terrorists fired a rocket at southern Israel on Wednesday night. Shortly before 2:00 a.m., the “Red Alert” siren was sounded at the Eshkol Regional Council. A rocket from Gaza exploded in an open space in the region shortly afterwards, causing no physical injuries or damages. On Wednesday morning, Gaza terrorists attacked for a second…

The Israeli military has added another Iron Dome battery to its arsenal of anti-missile defense systems. A fifth unit, one deployed for emergency use in central Israel during the IDF’s counter terror Operation Pillar of Defense in November, has just become fully operational. The unit has been assigned to the Israel Air Force for combat…

Sixty-five percent of Israelis believe the Jewish people do not face a second Holocaust, according to a new poll conducted by Dahaf on behalf of the Knesset Channel. The poll shows Israelis’ optimism on the rise. A similar survey last year found that just 60% believed there would not be a second mass slaughter of…

The United Nations’ nuclear agency reluctantly has reported that Iran appears to be working on an atomic weapon of mass destruction. Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is being quoted in international media as saying his agency has indications of Iran secretly continuing to work on nuclear weapons both “in the…

The IDF is planning to give its top combat soldiers new earplugs that allow for selective hearing. The specialized earplugs can block outside noise while allowing soldiers to continue to hear human voices. They will be given to soldiers in the elite Duvdevan and Yamas units in Judea and Samaria (Shomron). The devices reduce background…

An Arab nonprofit organization has removed an article from its website that accused Jews of using “the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover” following a wave of criticism. The MIFTAH organization, founded by Palestinian Authority lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, reportedly apologized for publishing the article, after initially refusing to do so, reported Adam Kredo of The…

Swastikas and the word “skinhead” were painted on the baseball field of an elementary school in Orange County, California, officials said Monday. According to The Lost Angeles Times, Principal Deborah Granger of Kaiser Elementary School in Costa Mesa said that faculty members first noticed the slurs when they arrived on school grounds. Swastikas were painted…

A mortar shell fired from Syria fell on the Golan Heights Tuesday evening. The shell fell in the area of Tel Fares, in the center of the Heights. No one was injured and no damage was reported. IDF troops were on alert for additional firings. Officials said they did not believe that the shell was…

Arabs rioted throughout Judea and Samaria Tuesday, accusing Israel of causing the death of an Arab terrorist who had been imprisoned in Israel and who died of cancer in an Israeli hospital. On Tuesday night, Arabs in Jerusalem attacked police and security forces who were trying to restore order near the Damascus Gate. Police attempted…

Israel launched its first airstrike on the Gaza Strip on Tuesday since the Egyptian-mediated truce ended November’s eight-day bout of fighting. “Occupation planes bombarded an open area in northern Gaza, there were no wounded,” the Hamas Interior Ministry said in a statement. An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed there had been a strike in Gaza, but…

A Slovak court said Tuesday it will seek the extradition of Laszlo Csatary, a 98-year-old alleged Nazi-era war criminal, from Hungary for re-trial in Slovakia on charges of crimes against humanity, the AFP news agency reports. A communist-era Czechoslovakian court sentenced the ethnic Hungarian to death in absentia in 1948 for having organized the World…

Palestinian Authority resident terrorist Wael Salaman Mohammed el-Arjeh, of Hevron, has been convicted of two counts of murder in the deaths of Asher and Yonatan Palmer. He will be sentenced in the upcoming days. Arjeh is facing life in prison. Arjeh took part in an attack in which large stones were hurled at the Palmers’…

Nehorai Danino, 13, who was wounded in an ATV accident Wednesday, died Tuesday of his injuries at Sheba Medical Center. Danino was in an ATV that overturned, during the shooting of a video for his Bar Mitzva, near Yavneh. Police are investigating the tragic accident and have not determined who is to blame for Danino’s…

Terrorists in Gaza fired a mortar shell at the western Negev on Tuesday evening. The attack did not cause injury or damage. There was apparently a second shell fired that hit an area within Gaza. It is not yet clear if the accidental strike caused injury. Security officials believe Tuesday’s attack may be connected to…

Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin confirmed Tuesday morning that the apology to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident is connected to the concern that Iran might obtain a nuclear weapon. MK Elkin told Voice of Israel public radio that restoration of the ties with Ankara is one of the subjects at the top of the…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) says that she intends to streamline the justice system. “When I entered the role of justice minister,” she wrote on her Facebook page, “I said that when the wheels of justice turn too slowly – there is no justice!” “Shortening the processes that remain in the courts for many years…

Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas blamed the government of Israel on Tuesday for the death of a terrorist prisoner who suffered from terminal cancer. “The Palestinian presidency holds the government of Netanyahu responsible for the martyrdom of prisoner Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh today in the prisons of the Israeli occupation,” Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said…

The United States has placed a destroyer off the South Korean coast to defend against a possible missile strike, the latest in a series of publicized American deployments to counter North Korean threats. The USS Fitzgerald was moved to the southwestern coast after taking part in annual military exercises, instead of returning to its home…

Veteran Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal was re-elected as head of the Islamic terrorist movement after a meeting in Cairo late on Monday. There had been speculation that Meshaal, 56, who is based in exile, would be forced aside by the movement’s leaders in the Gaza Strip, which it has controlled since 2007. Meshaal himself had…

A law banning “normalizing ties with the Zionist occupation” as well as co-education schooling in the Gaza Strip has entered into force, the education minister for Hamas, said on Monday. The law, which was issued on February 10, was approved by the Islamist movement’s legislative council and went into effect on Sunday, Osama Mazini told…

March 2013 was the bloodiest month yet in the course of the two year-long civil war ravaging Syria, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The watchdog organization reported Monday more than 6,000 people were killed last month alone – at least a third of them civilians — as the Syrian government desperately…

Nearly 12 years after the event, New York City will begin a new search for the remains of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center by global jihad Al Qaeda operatives. According to a report broadcast on ABC, piles of debris from the Twin Towers will be scanned…

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was hospitalized Monday after suddenly falling ill. Fayyad was at his office in the PA capital of Ramallah, in Samaria (Shomron), when he was struck down with severe stomach pains. He was rushed to the city’s Palestine Medical Complex where he was admitted in stable condition. Doctors told the…

Thousands of people on Monday attended the funeral of Hani Trudi, a police officer assigned to the Kiryat Shmona station in northern Israel. He was killed Sunday night after he fell down when a roof in the city collapsed, as he was chasing thieves. Trudi and a fellow officer were alerted to a possible theft…

Israelis were wrapping up the Passover holiday on Monday evening, preparing to put away their Passover dishes and return to their normal, bread-based diet. For many Israelis, the end of Passover is marked by Mimouna, traditionally celebrated by Moroccan Jews but now adopted by Israelis of all backgrounds. Mimouna is a spring festival and is…

After long being sidelined for Roman excavations, an archaeological dig in western Germany has unearthed myriad traces of daily life in one of Europe’s oldest and largest Jewish communities. From ceramic dishes and tools to toys, animal bones and jewelry, some 250,000 artifacts have so far shed light on various periods in 2,000 years of…

Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas signed an agreement on Sunday confirming their “common goal to defending” Jerusalem and their opposition to efforts to “Judaize” the eternal capital of Israel. Palestinian Authority Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud al-Habash said the agreement confirmed Jordan’s role as protector of the city’s holy sites and…

The iconic Eiffel Tower of Paris was evacuated Saturday evening in response to what appeared to be a bomb scare at around 7:00 p.m. local time. The 1,063-foot tower, a top worldwide tourist site, attracts millions of visitors to Paris each year. An estimated 1,400 to 1,500 tourists were visiting the famed site when French…

An ancient synagogue near Damascus has reportedly gone up in flames after being robbed and vandalized. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces are each blaming the other over the destruction, according to a report in a Hebrew-language daily newspaper. But this is not the first report of the destruction of the sacred Eliahou Hanabi (Eliyahu…

A young woman sustained a head wound in Samaria on Saturday night when Palestinian Authority Arab attackers hurled rocks at the vehicle she was riding in. The woman, age 25, was treated at the scene by medics before being rushed to a hospital, where she was admitted in fair to good condition. A baby that…

Once again, extremist Muslims tried but failed to prevent Jews from accessing the holiest site in the Jewish faith, with the threat of attacks. Dozens of Arab teens hurled rocks Sunday morning at groups of Jews who were touring the Temple Mount. The site was open on the eve of the final day of the…

Israeli military medics transferred a wounded Syrian to a hospital in Israel after he crossed the armistice line on the Golan Heights and was found to be in serious condition, an army spokeswoman said on Saturday. “In light of his medical state, and based on humanitarian considerations, chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz approved…

Russian President Vladimir Putin surprised his defense minister in the wee hours of Thursday morning last week with an order for surprise military drills to test battle readiness in the Black Sea. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was awakened at 4:00 a.m. local time with sealed orders to activate 7,000 troops, 36 ships, up to 20 fighter…

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a blast that killed 10 people and injured 31 others near the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar on Friday. A suicide bomber rode a motorbike up to a security checkpoint, a third of a mile from the consulate, and detonated 22 pounds of explosives attached to his body, police spokesman…

Minister of Economy and Trade, Naftali Bennett , Chairman of the Bayit Yehudi party, wrote a Facebook post Friday in which he spoke of his feelings during the visit to Israel by U.S. President Barack Obama. The feelings were not good ones. “Last week I took part in the events in honor of President Obama and I…

The winter that ended this week saw Israel’s most bountiful rainy season in a decade. However, farmers have an unpleasant surprise: despite the heavy rain, it was a drought year for crops. Arutz Sheva spoke to Moshe Kahane, a farmer from southern Israel who is well-known in agricultural circles. “It started very well, in November,…

Four years after drilling began in the Tamar offshore field, some 80 km off the Haifa shore, natural gas began flowing Saturday evening from the offshore platforms to Ashdod. The gas field’s developers, and politicians, hailed this as “a historical day.” The gas is now flowing through pipes to a production rig off the Ashdod…

Serbia strongly condemned Saturday the appearance on streets of Belgrade of apparent anti-Semitic posters, marking the 14th anniversary of the NATO bombing campaign to stop Serbian forces in Kosovo. “Those who dishonor Serbia with these anti-Semitic posters will be apprehended and brought to justice,” Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic told journalists. The posters appear…

Two IDF soldiers were slightly hurt on Saturday when Arabs rioted near Kalkliya, about 10 kilometers northeast of Tel Aviv. Hundreds of Arabs rioted near the Kalkilya checkpoint. Security forces responded with means for riot dispersal, including warning shots fired in the air. In another attack, a four-year-old Jewish boy suffered slight wounds when Arab…

Minister of Agriculture Yair Shamir, Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon and several MKs took part in an annual rally at the site of Homesh in Samaria, a community that was razed in 2005 during the ill-fated appeasement move named the “Disengagement.” They were all unanimous in calling for the revival of Homesh. MK Nisan Slomiansky,…

New recruits to the IDF will get new “smart card” IDs that can be swiped to pay for rides on buses and trains, Yisrael Hayom reports. Soldiers currently ride trains and buses for free when boarding in uniform with their military ID. The IDF hopes that the change to swiping cards will save a significant…

American broadcasting icon Barbara Walters, 83, is reportedly set to announce her retirement in the coming weeks. The New York Times, quoting “an executive familiar with the newswoman’s plans,” said a formal announcement of Walter’s retirement for next year would likely be made on “The View,” a daytime talk show on ABC that she co-hosts. It…

Rescue workers assisted 200 people overnight. Seventy were rescued in Nachal Sion in northern Israel in a major operation. The Nachal Sion hikers had lost their way after dark. Several of them were suffering from exhaustion and hypothermia. Three were evacuated by helicopter to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat. Another five were treated at the scene.…

Police are on high alert in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (Shomron) as Arabs prepare to mark Land Day. This year, it overlaps with Passover, leading to extra cause for concern. Land Day marks the anniversary of widespread Arab riots in 1976 over Israeli plans to expropriate unused land in the Galilee, some of which was…

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that the United States is “prepared to deal with any eventuality” from North Korea, as he warned of the increased threat posed by Pyongyang. “We will unequivocally defend — we are unequivocally committed — to that alliance with South Korea as well as our other allies in that region…

The Egyptian military has arrested three scuba divers accused of cutting an undersea Internet cable off the coast of the northern city of Alexandria. The three individuals had been spotted on board a small boat and attempted to flee ashore, but the navy eventually caught up and arrested them, the Egyptian military announced on its…

The Palestinian Authority is one of Israel’s larger trading partners, with some $20 billion in goods and services passing between the PA and Israel annually. In order to increase the confidence of businesses on both sides, the PA and Israel on Wednesday signed an agreement establishing an official arbitration center for business disputes. The center…

Bulgaria has more evidence that Hizbullah was behind the terror attack at Burgas last year, and it will soon present that evidence to the world, Bulgarian Prime Minister Marin Raikov said Wednesday. A report by Reuters quoted Raikov as saying that Bulgaria “will continue the investigation. We will continue to work on this very seriously,…

The IDF has built a military field hospital in the Golan Heights, according to international media reports. At least 11 Syrian fighters have been treated in Israel over the past month for wounds sustained in battle from the savage civil war taking place between opposition forces and troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. Of those,…

Syria’s Al Nusra Front rebel faction, allied with Al Qaeda, has more than doubled and is continuing to grow with the influx of Syrian jihadists returning from abroad. The group was the lead faction among those who recently invaded the buffer zone along the Syrian-Jordanian-Israeli border in the Golan Heights. Listed in the United States as…

A report in Arab media Thursday morning said that Syrian rebels had shot down a plane over Damascus Airport, causing the plane to crash and start a large fire. The plane, according to the report, was en route from Iran and was loaded with weapons for the Syrian Army. According to the report on Al-Arabiya…

A Russian senator submitted his resignation on Tuesday after a leading opposition anti-corruption crusader accused him of having property abroad and holding Israeli citizenship under a Hebrew name, the AFP news agency reported. Vitaly Malkin, a member of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, disputed the charge, saying he had renounced his passport in 2007…

As Jews around the world celebrate the holiday of Passover and commemorate the nation’s journey from bondage to redemption, the Jewish community of Minneapolis was forced to contend with a distressing situation. Upon gathering for the traditional Passover Seder, congregants at the Temple Israel in Minneapolis found that a vandal sprayed the word “soap” on…

Turkey and Israel are close to signing an agreement in which Israel would pay compensation to the family members of terror activists killed on board the Mavi Marmara in 2010, according to Channel 10. Provocative rhetoric by Turkey’s prime minister Recep Erdogan – and Israeli replies — notwithstanding, the countries are close to signing an…

The internet around the world has been slowed down in what security experts are describing as the biggest cyber-attack of its kind in history, the BBC reported Wednesday. The attack began as a spat between a spam-fighting group and a hosting firm, and has sparked retaliation attacks affecting the wider internet. It is impacting popular…

The Israeli army arrested six Hamas leaders in Hebron on Wednesday morning, an IDF spokesman confirmed. An IDF spokesman told the AFP news agency that, “six people were arrested and taken for security questioning,” but gave no further details. The detainees were identified as Muhammad Natsha, Abdul-Khaliq Hasan Natsha, Muhammad Tahsin Shawar, Amjad Hamouri and…

The IDF has brought more wounded Syrians into Israel, after several appeared at the northern border early Wednesday morning. IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz authorized Israeli troops to administer first aid to the injured Syrians, but at least two clearly required more care than medics could provide in the field. Those two were…

A serving French soldier has been detained in connection with last year’s massacres in Toulouse by Algerian-born Islamist terrorist Mohamed Merah. The soldier was arrested at his barracks in the southern town of Castres on Wednesday morning according to police sources quoted by AFP. The arrest followed the detention for questioning late Tuesday of two other…

French police on Tuesday arrested two men on suspicion of complicity with Islamist terrorist Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people, including a rabbi and three Jewish school children, in the city of Toulouse a year ago. An anti-terror unit arrested the pair in Toulouse, police officials said, without providing details on their identity, the AFP…

President Barack Obama marked the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover on Monday, in a small and intimate gathering that took place a few days after returning from his highly anticipated and politicized visit to Israel. The White House ceremony reportedly “follows tradition” except for a few additions, such as a reading of Abraham Lincoln’s…

The ruling regime in Syria had harsh words Monday for a decision by the Arab League to hand over Syria’s seat in the League to representatives of rebel groups in the country. In an editorial, the state newspaper Tishrin said that the move was “an attempt by Qatar and the rest of the traitorous Arab…

Amir Hassan, the Israeli Arab who was kidnapped last week in Sinai along with his Norwegian companion, was released by his Bedouin captors early Monday. The two captives were released to Egyptian police in Sinai. A report on Israel Radio said that they were making their way back to Israel Monday night. The report said…

United States President Barack Obama has named Julia Pierson as the next head of the Secret Service. Pierson will be the first woman appointed to the post. Pierson is a veteran Secret Service agent. “Over her 30 years of experience with the Secret Service, Julia has consistently exemplified the spirit and dedication the men and…

Sixty eight years after the conclusion of World War II, never before revealed color photos of the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp have been discovered. The photos were published on the Vintage Everyday site. The photos show the camp as it was when it was liberated by Allied forces at the end of the…

A roadside bomb exploded Tuesday in northern Iraq, killing the head of a local town council and a member of a provincial council, police said. Qader Ali, head of the Tuz Khurmatu town council, and Rasheed Khorshid, a member of Salaheddin provincial council, were killed, police in Kirkuk and Baghdad said. The town’s mayor, Qassim…

Another huge snow storm, stretching from St. Louis to Washington, grounded hundreds of flights on Monday and left freezing residents wondering when winter would finally give way to spring. The National Weather Service forecast that five to eight inches (13 to 20 cm) of snow could fall on the nation’s capital, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New…

The United Nations is moving about half of its 100 international staff still in Syria out of the country due to the growing danger, diplomats said Monday. The Damascus office of UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi will be closed as part of the new measures, diplomats told the AFP news agency ahead of an official…

Pope Francis on Monday extended his wishes to Rome’s chief rabbi and Jews worldwide in a gesture aimed at strengthening relations between the two religions, as the Jewish world marks the beginning of the holiday of Passover. In his message to Rabbi Riccardo di Segni, the pope said he hoped “that the Almighty, who freed…

Passover (Pesach) will take place this year between sunset on Monday, March 25, and sunset on Monday, April 1. The first and seventh days are marked as Sabbath-like holy days (Yom Tov) in which work is forbidden. Jews outside of Israel, and those visiting Israel only for the holiday, observe an additional day in both the beginning…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has decided to allow the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority, which is ruled by Fatah. The Prime Minister’s Office said that the decision was reached with the consent of the ministers who sit on the diplomatic-security cabinet. Treasury Minister Yair Lapid will instruct his ministry to transfer the funds…

Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may be released from prison in three weeks’ time, the country’s Justice Minister Ahmed Mekki said on Sunday. Mubarak’s conviction over his responsibility for the murder of demonstrators in Tahrir Square in 2011 was overturned two months ago, and a date for a new trial has been set. However, if…

Israeli hotels will be hosting 100 of the IDF’s Lone Soldiers – soldiers who immigrated to Israel without their families and who have no relatives in Israel – for the Pesach Seder and several subsequent days. The soldiers were located by the IDF’s Personnel Branch in the course of the last few weeks, with the…

The IDF is prepared for the Pesach holiday, after weeks of staff work and logistical planning. The IDF’s Food Center will supply bases, camps and outposts with a special menu for the Seder and subsequent week-long holiday.   In preparation for the holiday, the military acquired 75 tons of matzot, 6.5 tons of Nile perch,…

The United States has quietly unblocked almost $500 million in aid to the Palestinian Authority which had been frozen by Congress for months. An announcement of the renewed aid to the PA was made by a top U.S. official on Friday, shortly after President Barack Obama concluded his visit to Israel and the PA. “To…

Gaza’s Hamas terrorist rulers have sentenced a man to death for collaborating with Israel. A statement on Sunday by Gaza’s Interior Ministry, translated by Arab affairs expert Dalit Halevi, had said that a military court had sentenced the man to death by strangulation. He was, according to the statement, convicted of providing information to “hostile…

Producers have agreed to rearrange the filming of  “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn, after the Orthodox Jewish community complained that it would disturb the overall Passover atmosphere in the area, the New York Post reported. Jewish community leaders argued that the production would significantly disrupt the holiday, as it will block streets, take over parking spots, and…

U.S. President Barack Obama returned to the United States late Saturday from his four-day whirlwind tour of the Middle East, with the accomplishment of having repaired Israeli-Turkish diplomatic and military ties in his pocket. No small feat, such a coup placed a positive final note on a regional tour rife with topics that were anything but positive,…

Before Turkey normalizes ties with Israel, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Sunday, it expects Israel to “fulfill its promises. It is impossible to normalize ties without Israeli actions, Erdogan wrote in his Twitter feed. “Turkey has done its part to defend the Palestinian people,” he added. In a phone call Friday, minutes after…

Syrian gunmen opened fire on an IDF position in the Golan on Sunday morning in the second attack of its kind in 24 hours. IDF soldiers responded with heavy fire, scoring a direct hit on the position from which the fire originated. No soldiers were hurt. On Saturday night gunfire from the Syrian side of the border…

Israel warned Sunday that the days of restraint in the face of cross-border fire from Syria are finished. Israel will respond to any shooting or other attacks that cross the northern border with Syria, Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon warned. “Any violation of Israeli sovereignty and fire from the Syrian side will be answered immediately…

IDF troops arrested on Friday night two Palestinian Authority Arabs as they were approaching the town of Beit El in the Binyamin region. An IDF spokesman told Arutz Sheva on Saturday evening that “last night two Palestinians were caught under suspicious circumstances at the entrance to Beit El.” A search of the two suspects found…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained Saturday evening in his Facebook page why he chose to apologize to Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Mavi Marmara incident, in a Friday telephone conversation. “After three years of a disconnect in Israeli-Turkish relations,” he wrote, “I decided that this is the time to rebuild them.” “The…

Someone on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border fired a burst of automatic fire at IDF soldiers Saturday. The bullets struck patrol vehicles near Tel Fares in the central part of the Golan Heights, but caused no casualties. It is still not clear if the gunfire was deliberately aimed at the soldiers, or…

Former deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon attacked his former boss, MK Avigdor Lieberman, for Lieberman’s criticism of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apology. Ayalon told Voice of Israel public radio Saturday that two years ago, Israel offered an identical formula for solving the crisis over the Mavi Marmara incident, but Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan had refused…

Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman blasted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday, over Netanyahu’s apology to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Earlier, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with his Turkish counterpart and apologized for the deaths of nine Turks in a 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. In response, Lieberman said in a…

Gaza’s Hamas rulers have arrested two Salafist terrorists, sources said Friday, after a Salafist group claimed a rocket attack on Israel. According to the sources, cited by AFP, “the Hamas internal security forces arrested two of our Salafist brothers” in the center of Gaza. A coalition of Salafist groups in Gaza, which oppose the Hamas…

The Hizbullah terrorist group on Friday slammed U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that nations list it as a terrorist organization, AFP reported. The group said Obama spoke like “an employee of the Zionist entity.” “He speaks like an employee of the Zionist entity (Israel) and not the highest-ranking official in the administration of the independent…

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed satisfaction on Friday with Israel’s apology for the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident. Davutoglu, who just recently hinted there was a “secret deal” between Israel and Syria, said that all of Turkey’s fundamental demands had been met with the apology. Earlier, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with his Turkish counterpart,…

United States President Barack Obama visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Friday morning. “Here on your ancient land, let it be said: The state of Israel doesn’t exist because of the Holocaust, but due to the state of Israel, the Holocaust will never happen again,” Obama declared. The victims of the Holocaust…

Shimon Lankri, the mayor of Akko, has been shot and wounded in an apparent assassination attempt. Lankri was attacked Thursday night at the Kfar Yasif junction. The attack occurred as he was returning home from an event. A bullet hit Lankri but did not rupture major blood vessels, leaving him conscious long enough to call…

An Israeli man was kidnapped Friday in the Sinai Peninsula along with a Belgian woman, AFP reports. The two were intercepted by armed Bedouin men as they traveled between two beach resort towns. The men stopped the tourists’ car at gunpoint and forced them into a truck, according to Egyptian police. Israel’s Counter Terrorism Bureau…

A suicide bomb attack on a central Damascus mosque on Thursday killed 42 people, including Syria’s most prominent pro-regime Sunni cleric, and wounded dozens of others, the health ministry said, according to AFP. The bomber blew himself up inside the Iman Mosque as the cleric, Mohamed al-Bouti, addressed religious students, in an attack that echoed…

Israeli, Greek and US warships concluded a joint two-week Mediterranean naval exercise codenamed “Noble Dina” on Thursday, the Israeli military said. “The exercise, which took place in the Mediterranean Sea, was conducted in order to assess the level of operational coordination between the three navies,” it said, according to the AFP news agency. It said…

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday enters the third and final day of his trip to Israel. Shortly before 9:00 a.m., Obama is scheduled to visit the gravesites of Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, and former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. He will place a wreath at both tombs. At 9:35, the President…

U.S. President Barack Obama addressed a young audience in Jerusalem Thursday afternoon with a message that some will see as inspiring, and others as incitement. He began by reassuring Israelis that they have the full support of the United States of America. “Those who reject Israel’s right to exist,” he said, “may as well reject the earth under…

While the United States believes that the Palestinian Authority is ready for statehood, and that PA leaders would be successful stewards of an independent state, no progress will be made in negotiations to reach that goal unless “the two sides are willing to think outside the box and get out of some of the old…

This morning (Wednesday), President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu toured the Israel Museum. The Israel Museum in Jerusalem is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the world’s leading art and archaeology museums. Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopedic collections, including works dating from prehistory to the present…

A rocket fired at Israel from Gaza caused heavy damage to a house in Sderot Thursday morning, Israel Radio reported. Police rushed to the scene to inspect the damage and to determine if there were any injuries. Two Red Alert warning signals were heard in southern Israel Thursday morning, as U.S. President Barack H. Obama…

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel plans to visit the Jewish state in April to boost cooperation between the two countries, Israel’s defense ministry said on Wednesday. “Minister (Moshe) Yaalon congratulated Defense Secretary Hagel on his appointment and on his intention to visit Israel next month,” in a telephone conversation, the ministry said in a statement,…

As U.S. President Barack H. Obama arrived in Ramallah for talks with Palestinian Authority officials, a large anti-Obama demonstration was taking place a few blocks away from the Muqata, the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in Ramallah.  Israel Television reporter Yoram Cohen said that the demonstrators shouts could be heard at the site where PA chief Mahmoud Abbas…

Iran will “annihilate” the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa if it comes under attack by the Jewish state, “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Thursday. “Every now and then the leaders of the Zionist regime threaten Iran with a military attack,” Khamenei said in a live televised speech from the northeastern city of…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, hosted U.S. President Barack Obama for dinner at the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening. Before the dinner, the cameras accompanied the Netanyahus and Obama as the President signed the guestbook at the Prime Minister’s residence. The Prime Minister is heard joking with Obama about…

U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a good-spirited news conference after their working meeting Wednesday, which began at about 5:30 p.m. Israel time and lasted close to three hours. Netanyahu said that Israel “will never hand over the right to defend ourselves, even to our best friend – and we have no…

US Secretary of State John Kerry is set to return to Jerusalem on Saturday to meet Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after the visit of President Barack Obama, a US official confirmed. “Secretary Kerry will likely meet PM Netanyahu on Saturday to review the results of the president’s visit following his stops in Ramallah and…

The banter between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama, after Obama stepped off of Air Force One Wednesday, was about red lines. Specifically, when Obama was unsure of where to walk, Netanyahu told him to follow the red lines that were painted on the tarmac In an off-the-cuff response, Obama joked about Netanyahu’s tendency to paint…

PM Binyamin Netanyahu offered firm thanks Wednesday in welcoming remarks to U.S. President Barack Obama when he arrived on Air Force One for his first visit to Israel since entering the White House more than five years ago. Netanyahu responded to Obama’s strong declaration of “unshakeable” support with an equally firm vote of thanks and…

President Shimon Peres welcomed United States President Barack Obama to Israel on Wednesday. “Your generosity enabled freedom to prevail all over the world,” he told him. Peres began, “President Barack Obama, dear friend, welcome to Israel. We welcome you as a great president of the United States of America. As a remarkable world leader. As…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been invited to Moscow by President Vladimir Putin to discuss the current crises involving Syria and Iran. The letter, which arrived Wednesday morning, also congratulated the three-time Israeli prime minister on successfully forming a new government coalition for the third time. The invitation requested that Netanyahu come to Moscow “for…

Four wounded Syrians received emergency medical care from IDF medics at Israel’s northern border on Wednesday, with two subsequently hospitalized in the Jewish State. The four had approached the border fence on their own volition, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office said. Medical intervention was provided for humanitarian reasons and with the approval of IDF Chief of…

Jordan’s King Abdullah has said his relationship with Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has improved, but expressed pessimism over the two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict. In one of a series of interviews with The Atlantic published Monday, Abdullah said his ties with Netanyahu are “very strong … and discussions have really improved,” but refused…

Americans are pessimistic that Israel will ever be able to live in peace with its neighbors, a new poll released Tuesday reveals. The CNN/ORC International poll comes as U.S. President Barack Obama makes his first visit to Israel since winning the White House more than four years ago. The survey indicates that two-thirds of Americans…

President Barack Obama has arrived in Israel for his first visit as the leader of the United States. Obama was greeted on the tarmac at Ben Gurion International Airport (BGI) by some 1,000 people representing every branch of Israel’s military and security forces, diplomats, notables and journalists from around the world. Among the crowd was…

An Israeli source confirmed Tuesday that chemical weapons were used in attacks on the cities of Aleppo and Damascus in which 25 people were killed and dozens more injured. Both Syrian rebels and the Assad regime had claimed that chemical weapons were used, but there had been no conclusive proof. Each side is accusing the…

Former captives Gilad Shalit and Shai Gross have made a last-ditch attempt to appeal to United States President Barack Obama to release U.S. prisoner Jonathan Pollard. The two sent Obama an emotional letter in which they drew on their own experiences. Shalit was kidnapped by Gaza terrorists while patrolling outside Gaza as a young soldier,…

A few hours before President Barack Obama lands in Israel for his first visit to the country as president, thousands of people demonstrated in front of the Jerusalem residence of President Shimon Peres on Tuesday evening, calling on the U.S. president to release Jonathan Pollard. The chair of the Bayit Yehudi Knesset faction, MK Ayelet…

Syrian aircraft bombed two locations inside Lebanon on Monday, the deputy mayor of the eastern town of Arsal told the Lebanese-based Daily Star. Washington described the act as a “significant escalation” of violations of Lebanese territories by Damascus. Ahmad al-Fliti, the deputy mayor of Arsal, told The Daily Star that Syrian warplanes dropped two bombs…

The World Jewish Congress will hold its 2013 annual assembly in Budapest to show solidarity with Hungarian Jews who are facing “exceptionally strong” anti-Semitism, organizers said Tuesday. “This will be the first time in a very long time that the WJC will hold its congress outside Jerusalem,” said Peter Feldmajer, president of the Federation of…

Hizbullah recently buried in Lebanon 38 of its terrorists who were killed on Syrian territory, the Lebanese Al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday, quoting the rebel Free Syrian army. “Most of them were killed in the Reef of Homs while four fighters were killed in Damascus,” the media head of the Free Syrian Army Fahed al-Masri,…

Jews in Williamsburg, Brooklyn are blasting the producers of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” movie for plans to film in the area during the Passover holiday. If the filming proceeds as scheduled, the production will be significantly disrupt the holiday, as it will block streets, take over parking spots, and create an overall atmosphere that is…

After nearly six weeks of negotiations and many dramatic moments, Israel has a new government. The Knesset approved the establishment of a government by Binyamin Netanyahu, along with his choice of ministers and the coalition agreement, with 68 MKs in favor and 48 against. Four MKs were either absent or abstained. The 68 MKs are…

Pakistani security officials have arrested a former senior leader of a banned terrorist outfit who was allegedly involved in the 2002 murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl in Karachi. Qari Abdul Hayee, popularly known as Asadullah and from Karachi’s eastern Gulshan-e-Iqbal neighborhood, was detained in a raid on his hideout on Sunday, said a spokesman…

At the opening of the Knesset session which will ratify the new government, Binyamin Netanyahu said that his objective as Prime Minister is to “ensure the future of the Jewish people” by ensuring the future of the State of Israel. “There is no Jewish future without an Israel,” Netanyahu said. Netanyahu, who is forming his…

Venerated former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger says he is not optimistic about the chances for any real progress in final status talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Nor does he believe it is likely the Syrian conflict will be resolved any time in the near future. In the first case, it is…

The Saudi Arabia government may be forced to drop its ancient death sentence of beheading by the sharp blade of a sword, due to a lack of skilled swordsmen, Egyptian media report. There have also been incidents in which the swordsmen were late, a Saudi newspaper complained. At least 69 people were beheaded in 2012,…

Terrorist gunmen fired Monday morning at a Jewish man, aged around 70, at the hitchhiking station outside Kedumim, in Samaria. The man is in light to moderate condition. The bullets fired by the terrorists struck the man’s leg. He received treatment from MDA emergency services. Boaz, an eyewitness, told Arutz Sheva, “”I stood at Kedumim Junction…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will hold three working meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama during Obama’s three-day visit to Israel this week – two more than originally planned. According to Voice of Israel public radio, the original plans called for only one meeting on Wednesday. However, meetings with Netanyahu have been added to Obama’s schedule…

French President Francois Hollande on Sunday paid tribute to the seven people who last year fell victim to terrorist Mohamed Merah, saying he remains committed to the fight against terrorism. “The fight against terrorism is global… and allows for no easing off, no weakness and no negligence,” Hollande told a crowd of around 1,500 people…

During the working meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama this coming Wednesday, the Prime Minister will give the American President a symbolic gift: a nanochip with gold coating, in which the independence scrolls of both Israel and the U.S. are embedded side by side. The nanochip will be placed on a…

The members of the Bayit Yehudi Knesset faction met Sunday, for their first full meeting as members of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government. During the meeting party chairman Naftali Bennett finalized the appointments party members will receive in the government. Bennett emphasized during the meeting that now that the long coalition negotiations are over, his…

The Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office on Sunday filed an indictment against Rafat Ga’afara, an Arab from the Jabel Mukhaber neighborhood of Jerusalem. The indictment charges Ga’afara of planning a terror attack against Jews, and taking dangerous actions that endangered Jerusalem residents. According to the indictment, Ga’afara met with another terror suspect, Muhammad Badar. The two…

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai is upset with the Foreign Ministry’s decision to feature Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli as the presenter of an international pro-Israel informational campaign – because Refaeli did not serve in the IDF. In a letter to the Foreign Ministry Director, Brig. Gen. Mordechai asked that the campaign be canceled. “The…

Likud MK Moshe ‘Bogie’ Ya’alon, 62, has been appointed to be the country’s new defense minister as PM Binyamin Netanyahu assigned portfolios Sunday morning.  “In a period so critical to the security of the state of Israel, with all the region around us in turmoil, it is important that this position be filled by a man so…

Marina Solodkin, a Russian-Israeli politician and former MK for Yisrael Baaliyah, Likud and Kadima, was found dead of heart failure in her hotel room in Latvia Saturday evening. Born in Moscow in the Soviet Union, Solodkin received a PhD in economic and social history at Moscow State University. She made aliyah to Israel in the…

President Barack Obama welcomed the formation of a new government in Israel on Saturday, after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with President Shimon Peres and told him that he has succeeded in putting together a governing coalition. “The president congratulates the Israeli people, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and the new members of the prime minister’s governing…

A top Iranian military commander on Saturday told U.S. President Barack Obama that Tehran also had all of its “options on the table,” echoing a warning to the Islamic Republic by the American leader, AFP reports. “Mr. Obama, do not make a mistake: we too have all our options on the table. Before you get…

Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki, on Saturday commemorated the 70th anniversary of the first deportation of its Jews to the Auschwitz concentration camp, AFP reported. Around one thousand people walked in a silent march to the old railway station where the first train left Greece’s northern city for the notorious death camp on March 15,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met Saturday evening with President Shimon Peres and told him that he has succeeded in putting together a governing coalition. “As you know, I have succeeded in assembling a government,” Netanyahu told Peres at the outset of their meeting. “You assigned the task to me, and I carried it out. We…

The United States said it would bolster defenses against a possible North Korean missile strike a week after Pyongyang threatened a “pre-emptive” nuclear attack against the U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday 14 more interceptors would be stationed in Alaska, increasing by almost half the 30 already deployed along the California and Alaska coastlines,…

Egyptian authorities deported seven Palestinians to the Gaza Strip after they were detained for security reasons upon their arrival to Cairo airport, the state news agency said Saturday. It was the latest development suggesting growing tensions between Egypt and Gaza’s Hamas rulers. The group was arrested in the same week that a state-owned Egyptian magazine…

Hundreds of Egyptians demonstrated in Cairo on Friday to press for the army to assume power in a country plagued by unrest and instability two years after a revolution which toppled president Hosni Mubarak. According to a report in AFP, the protest was held in eastern Cairo in response to a call by retired army…

A New York judge on Friday sentenced a young Algerian to 10 years in prison for conspiring to attack synagogues in the city, the Manhattan district attorney said, according to AFP. Ahmed Ferhani, 28, is the first person convicted of terrorism under New York anti-terrorism laws that went into effect shortly after the September 11,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu conveyed the following message to the citizens of Israel, shortly before the Sabbath: Dear citizens of Israel, Congratulations, we have a new government. I thank you for awarding me the privilege of serving you as Prime Minister for the 3rd time. I view this as both a great privilege and a…

Maariv reported Friday about a dramatic arrest operation in central Tel Aviv that netted a terror activist. Special Yamam police and Shin Bet forces cooperated in the operation. Intelligence regarding the presence in Tel Aviv of a terror activist reached the Shin Bet in the late evening hours Thursday. Large police forces sealed off central…

The IDF worked quickly in the wake of Thursday night’s rock attack near Ariel. By Friday morning soldiers had arrested 10 suspects, all Palestinian Authority resident Arab men. The attack left a two-year-old girl in critical condition. The girl’s mother and two of her sisters suffered moderate to serious injuries. The suspects all live in…

A farmer from southern Israel has invented a product that could be a boon to lemon farmers worldwide. The invention prevents the spread of Mal secco, a fungal disease affecting citrus trees that has been known to kill entire lemon groves. It was created by Rafi Koren, a lemon farmer from Moshav Avigdor near Kiryat…

Iran is “over a year or so” from getting a nuclear bomb, U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 News on Thursday, a week before his visit to Israel. Obama laid out a clear timeline for Iran to acquire a military nuclear capacity, while insisting that the U.S. would not…

IDF soldiers shot a Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist on Thursday evening, after he threw a firebomb at them near Nitzanei Oz in the Sharon region. The terrorist sustained moderate to severe wounds and was taken by a Red Crescent ambulance to a hospital in the PA city of Tulkarm. After the terrorist was shot, the…

An Iranian fighter jet tried to intercept a U.S. Predator drone over the Gulf but backed off after encountering two American military aircraft, the Pentagon said Thursday, according to AFP. No shots were fired in the confrontation Wednesday, officials said, but the United States renewed a vow that it would protect its forces in the…

During a meeting with the leaders of the Catholic Church in Poland at his Jerusalem residence Thursday, President Shimon Peres congratulated the new pope on being chosen for the office. “The newly elected Pope represents devotion, the love of G-d, the love of peace, a modesty, and a new continent which is now awakening,” Peres…

U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Israel’s Channel 2 Thursday that he has no plan for pardoning Jonathan Pollard soon. “This is an individual who committed a very serious crime,” he told Channel 2‘s Yonit Levy. “He has been serving his time. There is a justice system that allows for periodic…

With less than a week left until U.S. President Barack Obama arrives in Israel for a visit, the Israel Police are preparing a huge force to keep him safe. About 15,000 police, comprising over half of Israel’s total police force, will work 12-hour shifts starting Wednesday, when Obama lands at Ben Gurion Airport. Obama will…

Speaking at the 2013 Herzliya Conference Wednesday, Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata told a packed auditorium that even if Iran acted rationally with nuclear weapons, Tehran would still pose an unacceptable global threat. “Under its own nuclear umbrella, Teheran would be free to raise and lower the volume of regional tension as best…

With all the kinks finally worked out, the new government is set to be sworn in on Monday. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will preside over a government of 22 ministers, including him. There will be eight deputy ministers as well. It will be the smallest government in decades, a major achievement for Yair Lapid’s Yesh…

A new study has found an increased risk of heart problems in women who are treated for breast cancer with radiation therapy. The study, led by Dr. Sarah Darby of the University of Oxford, involved 2,168 breast cancer patients from Sweden and Denmark diagnosed between 1958 and 2001 and treated with radiation.  Included were 963…

With fame and fortune in sight, hundreds of Jewish men and boys have chosen to participate in the hottest singing competition reality series to showcase their vocal talents for a shot at stardom. The first reality show episode features the live auditions before a panel of music superstars and highlights the unique back-stories of various contestants vying for the…

The United Nations has halted peacekeeping patrols in the Golan Heights amid fears that fallout from the Syrian war could cause more countries to withdraw from its force, diplomats said Wednesday, according to an AFP report. The abduction last week of 21 Philippine members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which has monitored…

Arab interior ministers gathered for a security meeting in Riyadh on Wednesday and accused Iran of supplying “logistic help to terrorist operations” in Bahrain and Yemen, AFP reported. In a statement, the ministers “strongly denounced logistic aid supplied by Iran to terrorist operations in Bahrain and Yemen,” and congratulated security services in both countries for…

A new Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) was dedicated at the Western Wall in Jerusalem this past Tuesday, which was Rosh Chodesh Nissan. Arutz Sheva attended the dedication ceremony of the unique scroll, which was written by over 200 thousand people from all continents over a seven-year period. The project began in 2006, during the Second…

The Roman College of Cardinals on Monday evening elected Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, as its new Pope. Bergoglio, who has taken the name Francis I for his office, is the first Pope to be chosen from outside of Europe. South America has the world’s largest population of Catholics, and Spanish is the…

The IDF has received orders to dismantle the new communities of Ramat Migron and Oz Tzion by the beginning of next week – in preparation for the visit of U.S. President Barack H. Obama. The orders were displayed in an IDF document obtained by Arutz Sheva. Soldiers were ordered to remove the new communities, termed…

Hundreds of people took part in a special hike Tuesday in honor of Amir Mansouri, a young soldier from Kiryat Arba who died stopping a suicide bomber. Mansouri died in a 2002 attack as he and his commander charged a suicide bomber who had reached the Kissufim checkpoint between Gaza and southern Israel. More than…

Members of Israel’s defense and political leadership gathered on Wednesday evening at the Bar-Ilan University, where a farewell tribute was held in honor of the outgoing defense minister, Ehud Barak. Barak held the position of Defense Minister held for six years, during the governments of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the outgoing government led…

Norway’s Foreign Minister admits that his country’s parliament was given incorrect information about the Norwegian financial support to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. According to VG Nett, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told parliamentarians that his predecessor, Jonas Gahr Støre, misled them in 2011 and 2012, when he assured them that Norway has control of…

An event in New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel Tuesday night raised $27 million (roughly 100 million shekels) for the IDF. The event was attended by 1,400 guests from the United States, Panama and Israel. Among them were influential American businessmen and top IDF staff. More than 30 soldiers and commanders from various IDF units…

The city of Jerusalem is planning a memorial for victims of terrorism, to be built on Ammunition Hill (Givat Hatahmoshet). A planning team led by architect Dov Galya and sculptor Avner Bar Hama presented city officials with details of the plan, including a computer image showing how the memorial is to look when complete. The…

Egyptian security services have banned a film about the Jews of Egypt on the eve of its scheduled release, the film’s director told AFP on Tuesday. “The film was banned by National Security,” Amr Ramses told the news agency by telephone from New York. The film, which documents the lives of members of the Egyptian…

A Palestinian Authority Arab terrorist was shot and killed by IDF soldiers, during a clash that broke out on Tuesday evening between soldiers and Arabs in Al-Fawwar, near Hevron. Two other Arabs were wounded in the incident. The Palestinian Red Cross evacuated them to hospital and their condition is not clear. An initial investigation of…

Hackers have reportedly leaked personal financial data belonging to first lady Michelle Obama, the head of the FBI and several other celebrities. United States authorities are investigating reports that hackers using a Russian web address published what they said were the credit reports of Michelle Obama, Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller, US Attorney…