Category: News

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) met for several hours Sunday night in an effort to lay out the basis for a unity government, bringing the leftwing Zionist Union party into the coalition. Despite the lengthy meeting, however, no breakthrough has yet been achieved. According to a report by Channel…

The Islamic State group has continued losing control over territory across Iraq and Syria, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday, including almost half of what it had once held in Iraq. The Defense Department had previously estimated that ISIS fighters had lost control of about 40 percent of the territory they claimed in Syria and about 10 percent of the…

Knesset members from the Zionist Union on Monday evening blasted party chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog, after a Channel 2 News poll found that the party would suffer a collapse if elections were held today, and that most of the Israeli public is against a unity government. The criticism also came amid reports that talks between…

A Gazan fisherman arrested by Israeli security services has revealed how Hamas regularly uses fishermen to smuggle weapons and other military equipment into Gaza. The Shin Bet security service (Israel Security Agency), Israeli navy and Israel Police released for publication Monday afternoon the arrest of 39-year-old fisherman Salim Jamal Hasan Na’aman back in April. Na’aman, a…

This week’s heat wave has debilitated dozens of construction workers, local news revealed Monday, after temperatures reached close to 46°C (114.8°F) in some areas of Israel.  One worker was seriously injured after falling from a scaffolding in Tel Aviv, Walla! News reports, and several other workers in Kfar Yona were hospitalized for heat stroke. They join the tens…

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be plotting a course to a third term, with a sudden spate of public appearances fueling rumors that the hardliner may be pursuing a new presidential bid. Ahmadinejad, whose belligerent rhetoric and open calls for Israel’s destruction isolated Iran diplomatically, nevertheless won reelection in 2009 by wide margin, receiving…

Ethiopian IDF soldiers are far more likely to commit suicide than any of their counterparts, an in-depth study published Monday revealed. The IDF Medical Corps examined over 20 years’ worth of data for over 1.2 million IDF soldiers since 1995 to find common factors behind soldier suicide – a not-uncommon phenomenon.  While the soldiers’ youth,…

Two French groups say they have filed a suit against Twitter, YouTube and Facebook for allegedly failing to uphold requirements to delete content deemed racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic or defending terrorism.   The lawsuit was filed on Sunday by the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) and SOS-Racisme, the organizations said in a press release.…

Two major fires broke out in Jerusalem Monday – one in the wholesale market in Givat Shaul, and one in Ramot.  Traffic was stopped on Route 1 in both directions as firefighting crews battles the Givat Shaul fire, which was outside the Sakharov Gardens junction; it has since been reopened for traffic.  Fire services were…

A report published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics on Sunday in honor of “Nakba Day” – a day of mourning marking the establishment of the Jewish state – offers the Palestinian Authority’s reckoning of the Palestinian Arab population both in Israel, and worldwide. According to the report, there were 12.4 million Palestinian Arabs…

Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid promised to “work very hard” to be the “next Prime Minister” Monday, at the annual Anti-Defamation League convention in Washington, D.C. “This is the time for Israel to move forward, and we [will] offer the public a detailed plan which will propel Israel back on the right track,” Lapid promised…

Two residents of the Gush Etzion community of Efrat were arrested, following an incident last week in which the two allegedly used a toy pistol to threaten Arab drivers and forced passengers off of an Arab bus. Last Wednesday the two suspects, aged 22 and 19, allegedly brandished a toy gun while driving their motorcycles…

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Likud) is working to introduce new regulations that would require a compliance procedure to settle disputes for family feuds that come to a judicial court hearing. The goal is for parties to engage in dialogue and to try to resolve disputes without litigation and judicial intervention. The procedure will aid the…

Newcastle University became the second British institution of higher learning that cut its ties with the National Union of Students following the election of a Muslim who supports boycotting Israel and Palestinian terrorism against Israelis. The decision that disaffiliates Newcastle University from the union passed May 12 by a two-thirds majority of 1,469 voters, which…

Shortly after passengers left a Boeing 737 airplane belonging to Ukraine International Airlines, the nose lifted while still attached to the gate sleeve at Ben-Gurion Airport’s Terminal 3. No injuries were caused by the incident and the only damage inflicted was to the aircraft. An initial investigation indicated that the cause of the tilt was due…

One person has been wounded in a stabbing attack by an Arab terrorist along Jerusalem’s Hanavi’im Street, close to Highway 1. The attacker, a Palestinian Arab in his twenties from Judea and Samaria, has been arrested. The victim – a Jewish man in his late twenties – is being treated for a stab wound to his shoulder. Magen…

A court in Iowa is anticipated to issue a ruling in the coming days on an appeal filed by the attorneys of Sholom Rubashkin (56), the jailed Iowa kosher slaughterhouse executive sentenced to 27 years in prison for fraud and money laundering. A month-and-a-half ago Rubashkin’s lawyers submitted the appeal asking to reopen the case, after they…

Donald Trump has said refugees entering America will stage 9/11-style attacks, and claimed their phone bills were being paid by the ISIS terrorist group. The Republican presidential hopeful made the comments in an interview with the National Border Patrol Council’s “Green Line” radio show. During the interview, Trump was asked whether he felt it would take…

Turkish authorities on Monday detained seven suspected members of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group, including figures described as a senior leader and an “executioner,” the state-run Anatolia news agency said. The seven suspects were detained during raids on addresses in the eastern region of Elazig. Large numbers of documents were also seized, it added. Anatolia said that the suspected “executioner” –…

At least three homeless women were discovered to be living in Ben Gurion airport, according to a Channel 2 report. “I am very sick, that’s why I’m here,” said Yelena explaining how she used to live in a shelter near Tel Aviv’s Central Bus Station and has now been living on and off at the…

The IDF Civil Administration on Monday morning dismantled and seized seven portable structures and other building parts that had not yet been assembled in E1, a strategic corridor connecting Jerusalem with Ma’ale Adumim to the east. The structures were set up illegally without permits apparently in the last several days, in the latest Arab land grab attempt in…

The American-led offensive to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State (ISIS) group is making progress, the top American envoy to the coalition said Sunday. ISIS had “returned to suicide bombing” because the area under its control was shrinking and it was on the defensive, Brett McGurk said at a conference in…

(JTA) — A Jewish couple from Detroit is pressing a Michigan public radio station to broadcast a birthday greeting to Israel paid for by their sponsorship of the station. Hannan and Lisa Lis made a donation to Michigan Radio, a statewide public radio group operated by the University of Michigan, that entitled them to sponsor…

UNESCO, the UN’s cultural body, on Sunday strongly condemned the “Second International Holocaust Cartoon Contest”, which opened in Tehran over the weekend. The contest features, among others, entries deriding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his government’s Middle East policies. But the organizers of the exhibition have denied that it is meant to deny the Holocaust,…

MK Mickey Rosenthal of the Zionist Union continued his attack on party chairman Yitzhak Herzog on Sunday, calling him a “failed leader” who must resign. “Herzog is a failed leader who lied to the public,” Rosenthal charged in an interview with Kol Yisrael radio. “There was no pit or mine that he didn’t fall into…

Several MKs on Sunday night expressed support for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after he summoned Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to a meeting following the latter’s call for IDF officers to express their opinion even if it is contrary to that of the political leadership. On the flip side, some MKs, mostly from the left side…

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The elevation of a centrist vice president, Michel Temer, as Brazil’s president amid the impeachment process of Dilma Rousseff is expected to result in a less strained relationship between Brazil and Israel, as well as its Jewish community, Jewish leaders said. Temer, 75, the son of Lebanese immigrants, took the…

The Muslim world must be vigilant against “the Zionist regime’s moves”, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned on Sunday, according to the Fars news agency. Nasrallah’s spoke in a meeting with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, during which he expressed gratitude to Tehran for helping regional states in fighting against terrorist groups and establishing…

An earthquake measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale was felt early Monday morning in the Eilat area. Local residents said they felt the earthquake at around 4:30 a.m. Israel time. There were no reports of injuries or damage. The Geophysical Institute said that the earthquake was centered in the Sinai Peninsula, about 70 kilometers south…

An Israeli citizen was arrested three months ago in Kiev, Walla! News learned Sunday, and may be extradited to Israel on charges of attempted murder, use of a weapon, and obstruction of justice.  Whether or not the unnamed Israeli will be extradited depends on the outcome of a lengthy legal process. While a Kiev local court ruled…

Jews are trying to “uproot Islam,” a Syrian preacher claimed last week.  “Treachery is one of the characteristics of the Jews, just as slyness is one of the characteristics of foxes,” Sheikh Muhammad Ma’moun Rahma stated to a crowd at the Umayyad Mosque of Damascus in a Friday sermon. His comments were translated into English by the Middle East…

Foreign Ministry Director-General Dr. Dore Gold thanked Norwegian Ambassador Jon Hanssen-Bauer for his country taking Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to task over his use of foreign funds to pay jailed terrorists. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) late last month released a report revealing Abbas’s ploy to fool the West and continue receiving its annual budget…

(JTA) It’s just before Rosh Hashanah in 2013, and New York City’s mayoral campaign is heating up. Disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, who in a surprise move had thrown his hat in the ring a few months earlier, is doing one of those obligatory photo ops at a Jewish bakery in Brooklyn. All is going well. Weiner has…

Dozens of leading rabbis on Sunday evening took part in a special “Emergency Conference for the Security of the Nation of Israel in the Holy Land,” where they spoke about the scourge of the current Arab terror wave that has claimed 34 victims’ lives since last September. The conference was held at the Bostoner Rebbe’s Torah study center…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog (Zionist Union) have actively been working on an agreement to formally freeze construction in Judea and Samaria, Channel 10 confirmed Sunday – hours after reports leaked of such an agreement.  “I could have entered [the government] over 100 times over the past year, but I didn’t because I…

A full 45% of Israeli children and teenagers have participated in online bullying, the Public Security Ministry revealed Sunday – and 41% said they have experienced cyberbullying, or “shaming,” more than once.  Of those, 18% did not report the incident.  Professor Gil Saltzman, chairman of the Council for Suicide Prevention, said that the “real data” in the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening summoned Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon for an urgent meeting, after Ya’alon called on senior IDF officers to voice their opinions even if they contradict the position of the political leadership. Ya’alon’s remarks came in a reception in honor of Israel’s Independence Day. “Keep saying what is on your…

A “suspect package” led an crucial soccer game to be canceled on Sunday in the UK, with bomb disposal experts later blowing up the suspected bomb in a controlled explosion. The incident took place at Manchester United’s Old Trafford stadium, where the team was to play its last English Premier League game of the season against Bournemouth, in…

Former US Ambassador to Israel and US Middle East envoy Martin Indyk mounted a strong defense of Israel’s efforts to make peace with the Palestinian Authority, during a recent Al Jazeera interview. Indyk – who has also been criticized by many within Israel for some of his far-left views – was grilled by Al Jazeera’s…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon issued an official apology on his Facebook page Sunday afternoon, after his adviser Moshe Ben-Zaken posted a rant against war hero and fallen IDF soldier Major General Roi Klein.  “I spoke a few moments ago with Sarah, the wife of Roi Klein, and his father Aharon, following a personal, abusive and unnecessary post published…

Yisrael Beytenu chairman MK Avigdor Liberman sharply criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Sunday, over the latter’s efforts to create a unity government with the left-wing Zionist Union.  “All of Netanyahu’s spins do not change one simple fact: that again, in stark contrast to what he had promised during elections, he is negotiating with [Zionist Union…

Visiting French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday, and indicated that despite Israel rejecting the French initiative to force peace talks on it and the Palestinian Authority (PA), that initiative will advance regardless. After meeting with Netanyahu, Ayrault rejected Netanyahu’s comments casting doubt on the impartiality of the French initiative, given France’s recent support…

Two Likud MKs top the list for the biggest apartment owners in the Knesset, according to official data revealed Friday.  MKs Miki Zohar and Haim Katz each own five homes and apartments, the report said. Katz owns two apartments in Shoham, one in Petah Tikva, and one split into two units in Bnei Brak; Zohar…

An extreme heat wave nationwide Sunday has sparked brushfires and broken records, meteorological experts reveal.  Temperatures reached 46°C (114.8°F) in Eilat Sunday afternoon, breaking the record for May; the previous record was 45.2°C (113.4°F) in May 1980.  Elsewhere, Be’er Sheva reached 43°C (109.4°F); Tiveria (Tiberias), 42°C (107.6°F); Tel Aviv, 40°C (104°F); and Jerusalem, 36°C (96.8°F). A heat wave of…

Investigation materials from the case of Ben Deri, a Border Police officer accused of manslaughter in the death of a Palestinian rioter during Nakba Day riots exactly two years ago on May 15, 2014, were revealed on Sunday and expose what the officer has undergone. The materials were published by Walla in time for Nakba Day; Nakba, meaning…

Israeli media largely ignored how on Independence Day last Thursday, thousands of Arab citizens of Israel held a protest march in the Negev for the Nakba, a term meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic that laments how nascent Israel was not destroyed in 1948. The Nakba protest on Independence Day held in the Negev was said to…

Visitors gathering to pray at one of the Sheba Medical Center’s four synagogues were aghast when they discovered the house of prayer had apparently been defiled in a shameless and grotesque manner, Yediot Ahronot reported. Worshippers found that the front of the synagogue smelled strongly of urine, and that a number of prayer books were…

MKs Eli Cohen (Kulanu) and David Amsalem (Likud) are expected to submit a bill this week that would create an “extended weekend” once a month, giving Israelis a public holiday on Sunday. According to the proposed bill, the work hours cut short due to the “day off” will consequentially be dispersed over the week, or…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has called upon the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, to formally renounce the support of American Freedom Party head William Daniel Johnson. Johnson, an attorney and white nationalist leader who has endorsed Trump’s candidacy, was initially selected as a delegate for California’s upcoming GOP primary. Writing under a series of…

Party leaders moved closer to an agreement paving the way for a unity government over the weekend, despite continued opposition from both coalition members and Zionist Union MKs. Zionist Union chief Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have reportedly sketched out a rough draft of a new coalition agreement that would expand the government…

Jerusalem firefighters extinguished a fire Saturday night after Molotov cocktails were thrown over the fence at Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus. The firebombs set thorns and brush alight on campus. Firefighters quickly stepped in to stop the fire from spreading. Earlier in the day, dozens of acres of grass and shrubs caught fire near the Ofrit…

The Citadel, a military college in South Carolina, has denied a request from a Muslim cadet admitted to the school in the fall to wear a hijab, a traditional Muslim headscarf, with the school’s standard uniform. In a statement, Citadel President Lieutenant General John Rosa said that while the public military college understood the “importance…

Penning your own obituary is hardly a novelty. Many have used their final public statement to impart words of wisdom, leave a special message for their loved ones, or even to get one last laugh. And while many colorful obituaries have graced the pages of newspapers around the world, two published earlier this year were…

In his weekly column in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, senior journalist Nahum Barnea commented on Deputy Chief of Staff General Yair Golan’s controversial comments comparing Nazi Germany to Israel. Barnea found nothing amiss with Golan’s controversial comments but chose to criticize the fact that a senior army officer was chosen to address a Holocaust Remembrance…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that he had little faith in the planned French Middle East peace summit. “This morning I met with the French Foreign Minister. I told him that the scandalous UNESCO decision, which was supported by France, that does not recognize the Jewish People’s ties – which are thousands of…

Former London Mayor and ardent “Brexit” supporter Boris Johnson ratcheted up his rhetoric against the European Union over the weekend, comparing the central European government to efforts by Napoleon Bonaparte and Adolf Hitler to create a “megastate”. A referendum on the proposed “Brexit” – short for British exit from European Union – is scheduled for…

Five young men face life behind bars after they were charged with counter-terrorism offences over a plan to sail to Indonesia to join jihadist groups in Syria, Australian police said Saturday. The men, aged in their twenties and early thirties and whose passports had been cancelled, included notorious Australian Islamic preacher Musa Cerantonio, who was…

A group of Republicans, including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, is actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who could keep Donald Trump from the White House, The Washington Post revealed on Saturday. According to the report, These GOP figures are commissioning private polling, lining up major funding sources and courting potential contenders, according…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent a strongly worded letter to French President Francois Hollande after France supported a UNESCO proposal denying the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, it was revealed on Saturday night. The Paris-based UN cultural body had adopted the resolution on “Occupied Palestine” presented by several Arab countries in mid-April, referring several times to…

Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Saturday blamed Islamist extremists for killing the Shiite terror group’s top military commander in Syria in an artillery attack. The Iran-backed movement has deployed thousands of fighters in Syria where Mustafa Badreddine had led its intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad. “An investigation has shown that the blast that targeted one of our positions near the Damascus…

There were hardly any Syrian migrants among the 800 people rescued off Sicily, contrary to earlier reports from Italy’s coastguard, the UN and the International Organization for Migration have confirmed. The coastguard had said Thursday that half of the 342 migrants they had picked up were Syrians, sparking concern that the flow of Syrians previously attempting to cross into Europe…

A contest of anti-Israeli cartoons opened Saturday in the Iranian capital, with many entries deriding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his government’s Middle East policies. The exhibition, totaling 150 entries from 50 countries, was launched on the eve of the Palestinian Authority (PA) commemoration of “nakba”, which means catastrophe in Arabic, marking the 1948 creation of Israel. The Iranian government…

Former President Bill Clinton delivered an impassioned defense of both his own foreign policy legacy and that of his wife, Hillary Clinton, who is currently the Democratic front runner for presidential elections later this year. During a Friday campaign event in Ewing Township, New Jersey, Clinton was heckled over his wife’s support for Israel – prompting the former…

A 36 year-old terrorist suspected of planning an attack on Israeli citizens was arrested Saturday, and  was also found in possession of police uniforms.  Border Police arrested the suspect at the Mishor Adumim checkpoint after receiving tips about the man, a Bethlehem resident. The resident raised suspicion after being found with the uniforms and was taken…

Israel barred the entry of a Turkish Airlines captain Friday night, after he was found to hold an Iranian passport, Channel 2 reports Saturday.  Ankara asked for special permission to allow the captain to stay for one night, but was denied by the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet), based on fears of establishing a precedent. …

The Islamic State jihadist group Saturday overran a government-controlled hospital in eastern Syria, killing 20 members of pro-regime forces and taking medical staff hostage, a monitor said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the jihadists attacked Al-Assad hospital in Deir Ezzor as they press an advance to control theoil-rich city and its vital airbase. The attack sparked…

British heavyweight boxer Tyson Fury, 27, faces backlash this weekend, after he posted a controversial anti-Semitic rant online.  “Everyone just do what you can, listen to the government follow everybody like sheep, be brainwashed by all the Zionist, Jewish people who own all the banks, all the papers all the TV stations,” he said. “Be brainwashed by…

Arab leaders in Yafo claim a gentrification of the city is a “dangerous” attempt to deliberately drive out Israeli Arabs.  Mohammed Abu Najm, former head of the Islamic Movement in Yafo, said in an interview with Hamas’s Palestine magazine last week that Israeli Jews are driving Arabs away under the guise of buying cheaper property there next…

Hamas will “never forgive” the United Kingdom for enabling Israel’s existence, a spokesperson for the terror group said Saturday.  “Britain conquered the land of Palestine and was the first to support the ‘Nakba’,” Yasser Ali, Hamas’s “Palestinian refugees” official, stated to Palestine magazine. ‘Nakba’ is the Arabic term for ‘Catastrophe,’ i.e. Israeli Independence in 1948.  “[Britain] helped establish…

Jewish American millionaire Sheldon Adelson published an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday, in which he endorsed Donald Trump for president. If Trump isn’t elected president, warned Adelson, Americans would get a third term of Barack Obama in the form of Hillary Clinton. “While the primary cycle still has some important elections ahead, it…

MK Mickey Rosenthal (Zionist Union) on Friday blasted his party chairman, MK Yitzhak Herzog, over what he called “Herzog’s desperate attempt to crawl into the government.” The comments, posted by Rosenthal on Facebook, come following the ongoing contacts between Herzog and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu about the possibility of the Zionist Union joining the coalition.…

New York police have arrested four more boys in connection with allegedly setting fire to a Jewish school bus in Brooklyn, The Associated Press reported Friday. The New York Police Department said two of the boys are 14 years old, one is 12 and the fourth is 11. They were arrested Thursday and charged as…

The White House said on Friday that no aircraft from the U.S.-led coalition were in the area of Damascus where Hezbollah’s top military commander, Mustafa Badr al-Din, was reportedly killed in a blast. “There were no U.S. or coalition aircraft in the area where he was reported to be killed,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog, head of the Zionist Union, spoke by phone on Friday about the possibility of the Zionist Union joining the coalition, Channel 10 News’ Ben Caspit revealed. Caspit also revealed that the conversation between the two was mediated by Finance Minister and Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon,…

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Friday sent a message of condolences to Hezbollah following the death of its military commander, Mustafa Badr al-Din. In the message, quoted by the IRNA news agency, Zarif wrote that the “martyrdom of this great commander Mustafa will further strengthen the resistance forces against the Zionists and terrorism.”…

Members of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group have recently entered Gaza through tunnels from Egypt to undergo military training in the Hamas-ruled enclave, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, said Friday. Speaking to the Saudi news site Elaph and quoted by Haaretz, Mordechai said the ISIS members entered…

At least 820 Islamists have left Germany to join jihadists in Syria and Iraq, the German domestic security agency said Friday, voicing concerns about the rapid radicalization of minors after two recent attacks. Around 40 of those who have travelled to the conflict-torn countries are aged under 18, and half of these are girls, according…

A top Israeli official on Friday reiterated the country’s opposition to a French attempt to resurrect the peace process with the Palestinian Authority (PA), ahead of a visit by France’s foreign minister on Sunday. Paris will hold an international ministerial meeting on May 30 to try to revive peace talks that have been frozen since a US-brokered initiative was torpedoed by…

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) opposes the entry of the Zionist Union into a unity government, stating Friday that the union is incompatible.  “‘It’s us or them’ is not just an election slogan – this statement reflects differences in perspective,” Hotovely stated. “The public elected us and we should take this as a mandate to…

Rabbi Shimon Ben-Tzion of Kiryat Arba in Judea was distanced from the Temple Mount on Thursday, Israeli Independence Day, after a member of the Jordanian Waqf falsely claimed that he prayed at the site. Despite Israel having liberated the Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – in the 1967 Six Day War, the Jordanian Waqf…

Belgium will extend its F-16 air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists in Iraq into Syria, the government said Friday, as it grapples with the aftermath of deadly ISIS-claimed bomb attacks in Brussels in March. “In accordance with UN Resolution 2249, the engagement will be limited to those areas of Syria under the control of ISIS and other terrorist groups,” a spokesman…

A 36-year-old man was moderately wounded on Friday morning by a poisonous snake that bit him at one of the towns in the Mateh Yehuda regional council area to the west of Jerusalem. Magen David Adom (MDA) and United Hatzalah medics provided the man with medical treatment and evacuated him to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital…

Nearly 1,000 homes in Bath, England were evacuated late Thursday night, after an unexploded World War Two bomb was found under a local high school.  Bomb disposal teams were dispatched to the Royal High School late Thursday to assess the situation, the Daily Mail reports. The find: a 500-pound bomb just feet below a now-defunct playground.  A 300-foot…

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who recently ended his presidential campaign, wrote a strong op-ed in the New York Times on Friday in which he demanded an increase in defense aid to Israel in light of Iran’s ballistic missile tests and open threats. Cruz began by noting that Iran on Monday announced it conducted another ballistic missile test…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took his dog Kaiya for a walk in Jerusalem Friday, where he met with members of the general public. Thankfully, the sometimes over-“friendly” first dog behaved for the cameras.

The Zionist Union has demanded Opposition Leader Yitzhak Herzog stop negotiations with the ruling Likud party Friday, despite Herzog stating that rumors of a breakthrough in talks for a unity government were premature.  MK Stav Shaffir called the talks a “betrayal” to Zionist Union voters.  “For an entire year, we promised it would be ‘us…

“Hashem spoke to Moshe, saying: Speak to the entire assembly of the Children of Israel and say to them: You shall be Holy, for Holy am I, Hashem, your G-d.” The Ramban says that the main message of “You shall be Holy” is to be “removed from the forbidden sexual relationships and from any sin…

Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) on Friday strongly rejected the talk of Zionist Union joining the coalition in a unity government, warning that such a move would pull the government to the left and endanger Likud’s future. “In recent days there has been an animated conversation in the Labor party (of Zionist Union)…

Egypt reopened the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Sinai on Wednesday and Thursday for the first time in three months, and in the process allowed in cement – despite the recent exposure of Hamas terror tunnels breaching into Israel last week. Just last Thursday Israel unearthed a terror tunnel leading under the security border to facilitate…

Peace accords are “useless garbage,” Canadian imam Sharif Mady insisted earlier this month – even with rival Muslim nations.  “The Prophet Muhammad said that there would be a peace agreement between the Muslims and the Byzantines, which would be respected, and that the [Muslims] would fight another enemy,” he began, in a sermon given in Alberta.…

Every week hundreds of Jews go to pray at the grave of Reuven the son of the Jewish patriarch Ya’akov (Jacob) at Palmachim Beach, but there is a serious debate as to whether the site is actually where the Biblical figure is buried. Rabbi Benzion Mutzafi, a leading haredi Sephardic rabbi, spoke about the matter this…

Tragedy hit the Slonim hasidic stream on Friday, as an eight-year-old girl from the hasidic group died of an unclear ailment. The girl, Esther Lider, passed away on Friday at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. According to Behadrei Haredim half a year ago she came down with a disease that the doctors could not identify. Two…

Firefighting crews that worked on Thursday evening to put out a fire in an apartment located in Jerusalem’s Meah She’arim neighborhood were surprised to find anti-Israeli stickers with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag stuck to their fire engine. Making the incident all the more troubling is that it took place on Israeli Independence Day. One…

Zionist Union MK Amir Peretz strongly opposed the idea of a unity government Friday, saying that it would not serve the needs of the public.  “I told [Opposition leader Yitzhak] Herzog once again that I oppose joining the Netanyahu government,” Peretz said to Army Radio, noting that in such a case, he would refuse to serve…

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef advised to say the Hallel thanksgiving prayer without a blessing on Independence Day, Arutz Sheva has learned, after being asked by members of the general public.  Rabbi Yosef gave the ruling based on the views of his father, previous Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef.  Rav Ovadiah Yosef based his own ruling on the…

(JTA) — More than 100 former judges, attorneys general and prominent politicians have signed a letter supporting Sholom Rubashkin, the Iowa kosher slaughterhouse executive sentenced to 27 years in prison for fraud and money laundering. The letter supports the claim by Rubashkin’s attorneys that prosecutors used improper tactics in securing the lengthy sentence for Rubashkin,…

The U.S. Navy officer who oversaw the 10 sailors captured and briefly detained by Iran earlier this year has been relieved of his duties, the Navy announced Thursday, according to CNN. Cmdr. Eric Rasch was fired from his job as the commanding officer of Coastal Riverine Squadron 3 due to “loss of confidence” in his…

The UN spokesman confirmed on Thursday that Venezuela’s UN ambassador, Rafael Ramirez, had apologized to Israel’s envoy Danny Danon over remarks suggesting that Israel was seeking a “final solution” for the Palestinians. Ramirez, a former foreign minister, told senior UN official Edmond Mulet during a meeting on Wednesday that he regretted the “language” that he…

Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday released a statement meant to signal their unity following a meeting on Capitol Hill. The statement, quoted by The Hill, said the two had a “great conversation” and that they were honest over their “few differences” during two hours of meetings…

Arab media reported overnight Thursday that Mustafa Badr al-Din, Hezbollah’s military commander, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah facility near the Damascus airport. The IDF has not responded to the reports, but Hezbollah confirmed al-Din’s death early Friday morning. Badr al-Din is considered the successor of senior Hezbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh, who…

Once again, the British Labour party has been forced to suspend a member due to anti-Semitic comments, The Jewish Chronicle reported Thursday. The member in question is Musabbir Ali, who posted a link online claiming that “Jews control Britain and are committing genocide on us”. Ali, a member of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party in…

The Likud party intends to reach out to Yisrael Beytenu to try to convince it to join the coalition, a source in the party said on Thursday night. The move comes due to the fact that talks with the Zionist Union on forming a unity government have stalled due to significant gaps between the sides,…

A French teacher who pretended to have been the victim of anti-Semitic violence by supporters of the Islamic State (ISIS) group days after November’s attacks in Paris received a six-month suspended sentence on Thursday. The 57-year-old Jewish teacher maintained his version of events throughout the trial in the southern city of Marseille, but the court found he had invented the story. The…

Dozens of activists of the Return to the Mount group – which advocates for Jewish rights to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism – marched on Thursday for Independence Day from Zion Square in Jerusalem towards the Mount. The marchers called to stop the Arab riots on the Mount, and carried signs including messages…

A nationalist Hindu group in India this week prayed for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s victory, and went so far as to call him “the lone savior of mankind” given his commitment to destroy Islamic terror. Around a dozen members of Hindu Sena tossed offerings into a sacred fire and chanted Sanskrit hymns in prayers…

Former Labor party chairperson MK Shelly Yechimovich (Zionist Union) on Thursday voiced sharp criticism of the prospect of her leftist party joining Likud’s coalition in a unity government, and claimed she alone was responsible for blocking the merger. “This is a proposal that should have been rejected with contempt a long time ago. Unfortunately that didn’t happen,”…

Jews weren’t the only ones celebrating 68 years since the miraculous rebirth of the Jewish state in Israel on Memorial Day Thursday, as thousands of non-Jewish supporters worldwide showed their love by waving the Israeli flag. The heartwarming display of support came from thousands of members of Lev Haolam, an organization that sends monthly packages…

Devra Ariel did not grow up in a particularly religious home, but today she lives a G-dly life. She has succeeded in seeing the Divine Providence in everything life throws her. Miracles happen to her (and actually to everyone, if you know where to look) on a daily basis. Her world view and belief system…

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been drawing fire from various politicians worldwide over his blunt calls to confront Islamist terrorism, and this week the Mayor of Paris joined the list of officials who have insulted the real estate mogul. “Mr. Trump is stupid,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a meeting with the…

Elkana Friedman won the annual International Youth Bible Contest held on Thursday in honor of Independence Day, and after being crowned winner he took the time to tell Arutz Sheva about his experience. The 14-year-old student at the Bnei Tzvi Yeshiva in Beit El, in Samaria’s Binyamin district, is the son of Rabbi Aharon Friedman who teaches at the Kerem…

The condition of the IDF officer, who was seriously wounded in a bomb explosion on Tuesday evening at the entrance to the village of Hizme, north of Jerusalem, is improving. The officer is being treated in the ICU at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, and, as of Thursday evening, is listed in moderate…

(JTA) Jerome Holder was a teenager with no acting experience when he successfully auditioned for the movie “Dough,” a British comedy about Jewish-Muslim relations. Undaunted by Holder’s inexperience and impressed by his potential, director-producer John Goldschmidt gave him a lead role in the film, which was released in the United States in April. Holder portrays Ayyash, a…

(AFP) Black American leader Jesse Jackson voiced “disgust” Wednesday at the ideas of French far-right veteran Jean-Marie Le Pen, after the surprise revelation that they had dined together in Paris. The pair traded tense Twitter posts after the far-right anti-Semite posted a picture of them at a restaurant in the French capital at the weekend. “I did…

In honor of Israeli Independence Day on Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent his congratulations to the modern Jewish state on 68 years since its establishment. Canada is “proud” to call Israel “a close partner and a firm ally,” wrote Trudeau, adding that the two states “share common democratic values.” Trudeau expressed his hopes…

(AFP) Terrrorists inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group’s ideology are seeking to benefit from the desperation of young Palestinians to strengthen their foothold in the Gaza Strip. But the Salafists in the enclave tread a fine line to avoid conflict with Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group which has ruled the strip for a…

An Uzbek man has been charged in New York with trying to provide aid to the ISIS terrorist group, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Azizjon Rakhmatov was charged with “conspiring and attempting to provide material support” to ISIS and conspiring to use a firearm, in a case in which four alleged accomplices have also been charged.…

Israelis nationwide celebrated 68 years to the modern Jewish state on Independence Day Thursday with a traditional barbecue, but far less friendly and celebratory smoke filled the air at the entrance to Jerusalem as a massive fire broke out. The blaze caught adjacent to a forest right by an organic farm located at the northwestern…

More than 20% of Syria’s Palestinian Arabs have fled the country and its five-year war, the head of the UN agency established for “Palestinian refugees” said on Thursday. “Before the war, there were 560,000 Palestine refugees. We estimate that currently about 110,000 to 120,000 have left the country,” UNRWA chief Pierre Krahenbuhl said on a visit to Damascus. “There are about 45,000…

(Kveller via JTA) — Traditionally, we say the Mi Sheberach prayer for those who are ill and those recovering from illness or accident. For example, I added the name of my friend’s daughter to the list to be recited at my synagogue following a terrible accident in which she was burned. As the Mi Sheberach…

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump partially walked back one of his more controversial statements on Wednesday, saying that his December call for a ban on Muslim entry to the US was “just a suggestion.” Back in December the real estate mogul raised a wave of backlash when, in response to Muslim terrorism, he called “for…

A Dutch soccer club whose fans were filmed recently singing about burning Jews said it would attempt to track down the culprits and punish them. In the video, which was posted online Tuesday, several dozen fans of the PSV Eindhoven soccer team are filmed at a McDonald’s eatery singing a song that last year brought…

Jews from Brussels demonstrated in Antwerp against the city and its Jewish community for refusing to use memorial cobblestones to commemorate Holocaust victims. In a move that highlighted the spreading of Belgium’s binational divide to its Jewish communities, a dozen protesters from the Brussels-based Association for the Memory of the Shoah, or AMS, picketed on…

Loading… Hundreds of Jews made their way overnight to the ruins of Sa-Nur, one of the four Jewish towns in Samaria destroyed as part of the 2005 Disengagement. But the group, which included dozens of families of former residents of Sa-Nur and the neighboring community of Homesh, was intercepted by Israeli police and IDF forces,…

A 20-year old Israeli man was wounded in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Zeev on Thursday morning. Police are currently investigating the incident, and have yet to determine whether the attack was an act of terrorism or a crime unrelated to nationalistic motives. The victim was lightly injured and fully conscious. He was transferred…

President Reuven Rivlin hosted the opening of Thursday’s Independence Day festivities at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu joined Rivlin, along with Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot, and other top security establishment brass. The ceremony began with a honorary flyover by combat helicopters, followed by a presidential…

Israel’s Mission to the United Nations held a unique Independence Day celebration Wednesday night, drawing a record number of guests. Taking advantage of the UN’s proximity to New York’s famous Theater District on Broadway, the Israeli delegation invited UN representatives from around the globe for a special Independence Day ceremony, featuring a performance of Fiddler…

Loading… The annual International Bible Contest was held on Thursday at the Jerusalem Theater. A total of 16 participants from 8 countries took part. This year’s theme is “Israeli Unity”.

A special Independence Day poll conducted by Professor Camille Fuchs, who heads Tel Aviv University’s Statistics Department, reveals that despite frustrations with the government, Israelis – Jewish and Arab alike – take pride in their state and its institutions. While majorities of both populations took pride in the state and institutions like the IDF and…

A new poll of Israelis Jews reveals that rather than becoming more secular, like most countries in Western Europe, Israel in 2016 is more traditional than ever before. The poll, conducted by Dr. Ariel Ayalon on behalf of Channel 2, included 500 respondents aged 18 to 64. According to the survey, secular Israelis are growing…

Actress Charlotte Gainsbourg is to star in a provocative new comedy which parodies deep-rooted anti-Semitism in France, its director said Thursday. “The Jews” — titled “They are everywhere” in French — is being shot by Gainsbourg’s partner, the actor and director Yann Attal, who starred in Steven Spielberg’s film “Munich” about the massacre of Israeli…

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) addressed the International Bible Contest on Thursday, including a veiled reference to controversial comments by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan. Last week, during a ceremony marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, Golan seemingly compared modern-day Israel to pre-Holocaust Europe, saying the trends in Israel frightened him. “If there is…

The Israeli Air Force’s stunt team gives a 360 degree view straight from the cockpit. Watch the Independence Day flyover as you’ve never seen it before!

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday he cannot “pretend” the Republican party is unified and acknowledged it will “take some work” to bring everyone together after the bruising primary, Fox News reported. The comments come ahead of Ryan’s high-stakes sit-down with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. At the same time, Ryan – who so…

Anti-Semitic French comedian Dieudonné cancelled a planned performance in Montreal, Canada, after he was reportedly barred from entering the country, CBC News reports. Dieudonné was scheduled to perform 10 shows in Montreal starting Wednesday night but was reportedly barred from entering Canada at Montreal’s Trudeau airport Tuesday, according to the network. Passengers on Dieudonné’s flight…

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s support has surged and he is now running nearly even with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton among likely U.S. voters, a new Reuters poll released Wednesday found. The new poll marks a dramatic turnaround for Trump since he became the Republican party’s presumptive presidential nominee last week. The results could signal…

The New Jersey State Senate this week unanimously passed legislation that would prohibit state pension and annuity funds from being invested in companies that boycott Israel or Israeli businesses, the New Jersey Jewish News reported Wednesday, noting that the legislation was passed on Monday. The major sponsors of the bill are Sen. James Beach (D-Dist.…

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The Israeli app Moovit will guide tourists and local residents to the fastest and safest routes to and between competition venues at the Rio Olympic and Paralympics Games this summer. Moovit will provide real-time information in 35 languages on the fastest public transportation routes – buses, trains, subway, light rail…

Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing into Gaza for the first time in three months on Wednesday, Reuters reports.  The crossing will be open for two days, according to the news agency. Egyptian authorities have kept the crossing virtually sealed since a terrorist attack in the Sinai Peninsula in October 2014, though they have temporarily reopened…

(JTA) — Reebok announced — and then quickly rescinded — plans to sell a special-edition sneaker commemorating Israel’s 68th birthday. On Tuesday, one day after Reebok Israel said it would market a blue-and-white sneaker engraved with “Israel 68” as a collector’s item for sale in Israel and internationally, the sportswear firm said the announcement had…

(JTA) — Police in Manchester, England, are investigating a suspected arson at a kosher restaurant. Security camera footage shows the Ta’am Restaurant in Bury, 11 miles north of Manchester, being doused with a liquid by two unidentified men before bursting into flames last Friday night, the Manchester Evening News reported Wednesday. No one was hurt…

A senior Iranian commander declared on Wednesday that Iran considers no country in the world as a threat but the United States, reports the Fars news agency. “We don’t see any enemy but the Americans, and its instance is the (hostile) official remarks of the U.S. officials and the trend of their actions,” the commander,…

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump’s campaign withdrew its support for a white supremacist as one of its California delegates. William Johnson, the leader of the American Freedom Party, signed a pledge May 9 to support the presidential candidate as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in July. In the story first reported by Mother…

Dozens of yeshivot and seminaries bring their students to Har Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem for Memorial Day, as an educational tool about the losses Israeli families face year in and year out.  Arutz Sheva spoke with Rabbi Boaz Mori, head of the Ramat Beit Shemesh-based Lev HaTorah yeshiva, to discuss the pilgrimage.  The trip is…

A group of demonstrators aligned with the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta movement protested on Wednesday in Jerusalem against Israeli Memorial Day (Yom HaZikaron), which commemorates fallen soldiers and those killed by terrorists since the founding of Israel. During the memorial siren on Wednesday morning, the demonstrators marched through the Kikar Shabbat intersection in the predominantly haredi…

Two London yeshiva students were seriously injured in Hungary Wednesday in a car accident.  The two were en route to the grave of Rabbi Yeshaya Steiner of Kerestir, the founder of the Kerestirer Hasidic dynasty. Wednesday marked 91 years since his passing.  The two were rescued at the scene and evacuated to local hospitals.  Thousands of worshippers from…

Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) revealed in an interview with the haredi Mishpacha magazine that he is actively working to have the Jewish Home party removed from the ruling coalition – and replaced with the leftwing Zionist Union. “I’m working to have the Jewish Home party taken out of the coalition, and…

US Representatives Peter J. Roskam (R-IL) and Juan Vargas (D-CA), along with Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Trade Representative  Michael Froman this week, calling on them to oppose a UN Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.  “We write…

Thousands of Gur Hasidim gathered on Tuesday at convention in Jerusalem to discuss a series of new regulations regarding cellular phone applications and internet use. At the “Emergency Meeting Against the Dangers of Technology”, Hasidim were reminded of the strict prohibition against using internet-capable cellular devices, even if content screening programs are in place. According…

Hamas leader Mohammed Abu Askar called to prosecute Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas and PA “Prime Minister” Rami Hamdallah Monday, for “crimes against Gaza.”  In a speech at an event for the Hamas women’s movement in front of the Erez crossing, Abu Askar accused the PA of tightening the important and export restrictions against…

Thousands of people have flooded the Western Wall (Kotel) Wednesday night, to usher in Israel’s 68th Independence Day.  Arutz Sheva is at the scene to record the celebration.  Loading… To all of our readers: Chag Atzmaut Sameach.  Loading…

A Russian soldier has died in Syria after coming under fire from rebels in Homs province, a representative of Russia’s Hmeimim air base told Russian news agencies on Wednesday. The soldier, named as Anton Yerygin, “sustained serious injuries after coming under fire by rebels while escorting vehicles of the Russian coordination center mediating between the…

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, on Wednesday released a new video clip in honor of the Jewish state’s 68th birthday, featuring dozens of UN ambassadors from around the world congratulating Israel on its Independence Day with the traditional greeting of “Yom Haatzmaut Sameach.” “It is gratifying to see Israel’s friends standing by…

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis flocked to military cemeteries nationwide to mourn friends and loved ones Wednesday, as part of Israel’s Memorial Day.  Most Israelis know at least one contemporary who fell in battle or in terror attacks – and the traditional cemetery visits are punctuated by high emotions.  To help heal and bring solace…

Some of the students at Hebrew University High School in Jerusalem, known as Leyada, refused to take part in a Memorial Day event at the school on Tuesday night, over the invitation of an Arab family whose daughter was killed during clashes with Border Police officers. The event was initiated by the Bereaved Families Forum,…

David Boim was just 17 when he was gunned down in cold blood by Palestinian terrorists near the Jewish town of Bet El, next to Ramallah. Today, 20 years later, I spoke to his mother Joyce, who since then has been a tireless advocate for Israeli terror victims’ rights, to find out how she found…

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Wednesday described a UNESCO resolution which described the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – Judaism’s holiest site – as a Muslim site as “clumsy” and “unfortunate” and said it should have been avoided. The Paris-based UN cultural body adopted the resolution on “Occupied Palestine” presented by several Arab countries in mid-April, referring several times to…

Three Israeli Arabs from the Galilee region were indicted on Wednesday over a plot to carry out a series of terror attacks in the northern city of Akko and Old City of Jerusalem. Wednesday’s indictment of the terror cell not only revealed the group’s existence, but shed light on the terrorists’ gruesome plans, which were…

On Wednesday, a state ceremony was held in honor of Moshe Nahari, the Yemenite Jew killed in the town of Raida in 2008. The event was held as part of Wednesday’s Memorial Day ceremonies for victims of anti-Semitism around the world. Jewish Agency chief Natan Sharansky, who attended the ceremony, said that the event reflected…

The Lavi civil rights organization penned a strong letter to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat Wednesday, demanding that he find and prosecute Arab workers who refused to help elderly terror victims who lay bleeding in the street in the capital on Tuesday.  “Today, a number of elderly women from a nursing home strolled along the Armon Hanetziv…

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) threatened to “drown” any US warships approaching Iran, a top general said Tuesday, according to state-controlled media. “We have informed Americans that their presence in the Persian Gulf is an absolute evil,” Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi stated to state media. “Americans are aware that Iran would destroy their warships if they take…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu embraced the brother of a terror victim Wednesday, after the latter heckled him during his Memorial Day speech on Har Herzl. Rahamim Cohen was wounded in a terror attack in 2000, when he was run over and stabbed 11 times by an Arab taxi driver. His brother is security guard Tzvika Cohen, who remains in…

Kulanu MK and former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren has deep roots in the United States. Originally Michael Scott Bornstein, Oren was born in New York and raised in New Jersey. His father was a veteran of both World War II and the Korean War. Oren’s wife of 34 years, Sally, was…

Jason Dov Greenblatt, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of The Trump Organization, is to hold a question and answer session at the J-Biz Expo and Business Conference in New Jersey on June 1. Greenblatt, an Orthodox Jew and father of six who lives in Teaneck, New Jersey, has been a top legal adviser…

Marina Fuchs, 86, a friend of the two elderly women in their 80s who were stabbed by Arab terrorists in a knife attack in southeastern Jerusalem on Tuesday, spoke to Channel 10 about the harrowing experience. Police continue to search for the two masked terrorists, who stabbed the two women as they walked on Armon Hanatziv’s Haas Promenade…

In a personal column published in Israel Hayom in time for Israeli Memorial Day, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro wrote about the special day of remembrance Wednesday which leads into Israeli Independence Day. His column reads as follows: If anything has left an imprint on me from my years as a student here and the five…

Shalom Sarel, the father of Maj. Benaya Sarel of Kiryat Arba in Judea who died at the young age of 26 while heroically fighting to defend Israel in 2014 Operation Protective Edge, spoke to Arutz Sheva about his son in time for Memorial Day on Wednesday. Sarel was killed while fighting terrorists in Gaza on August 1, 2014,…

Israel’s Memorial Day commemorations continue Wednesday, which the official state ceremony at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Tel Aviv. Following the second minute’s silence of Yom Hazikaron, which sounded at 11 a.m., the ceremony began with an address by Prime Minister Binyamin Netayahu – who addressed the audience as both prime minister and himself a…

Koby Mandell was horrifically murdered by Arab terrorists back in 2001 at the tender age of 13 together with his friend 14-year-old friend Yosef Ishran near their home in Tekoa, Judea. His parents, Rabbi Seth Mandell and his wife Sherri, recently spoke about how the horrible tragedy affected their lives, and their work in the Koby Mandell Foundation to…

In honor of Memorial Day on Wednesday and Independence Day on Thursday, the a cappella group Kippalive has released an uplifting song on the miraculous return of the Jewish people to their ancestral homeland of Israel. The song, which features lyrics written by Kippalive to the tune of “500 Miles” by Hedy West, is entitled “We…

Intensive negotiations between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog are continuing apace, following reports yesterday that a unity government deal was “closer than ever.” Now, the price of including Herzog’s 24-seat Zionist Union party into the Likud-led coalition is becoming clearer. Sources close to the prime minister say Herzog has been offered no…

Israel Prize winner Professor David Shulman has declared he will donate all of his prize money to the anarchist Ta’ayush organization, whose leader was recently revealed to have handed over Arabs for torture at the hands of Palestinian Authority security forces. In a video promoting his activity with Taayush, initially reported by the left-wing Haaretz…

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have won their party’s primaries in West Virginia, American media reports. Exit polls cited by CNN found that Sanders holds an early lead over Hillary Clinton in the West Virginia primary, offering the Vermont Senator a chance to leap back into the political spotlight and confound hardening conventional wisdom that…

(JTA) — The South Florida man accused of plotting to bomb a Miami-area synagogue was denied bail on Tuesday. At a bail hearing in U.S. District Court in Miami, the judge ruled that James Gonzalo Medina, 40, is a flight risk and a danger to the community. If convicted, he faces life in prison. His…

(JTA) — Legislation making it easier for Holocaust survivors to press restitution claims passed in Romania’s Parliament on Tuesday. The law prioritizes the processing of claims belonging to Holocaust survivors, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, or WJRO, wrote in a statement applauding the legislation . Claimants who filed before 2003 have been waiting more than…

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are neck and neck in the key states of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida, a new Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found. In Florida and in Pennsylvania, Clinton is at 43 percent while Trump is 42 percent. Among Ohio voters, Trump gets 41 percent and Clinton gets 39 percent, the poll…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday evening issued a clarification of comments made by the Prime Minister earlier in the day about the 2011 attack on the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Speaking at a Foreign Ministry ceremony on the eve of Yom Hazikaron, Netanyahu had claimed that Israel had threatened to send troops to…

NEW YORK (JTA) — New York police are searching for four boys who allegedly helped an 11-year-old boy set a school bus on fire outside a Brooklyn Jewish girls’ school. Police released surveillance images of the boys on Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported. On Monday, the 11-year-old was charged with criminal mischief as…

The United States Justice Department will not seek the death penalty against Ahmed Abu Khattala, the Libyan man charged in the 2012 Benghazi attacks that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, federal officials announced Tuesday, according to AP. The department revealed its decision, which pushes the case forward toward trial, in a brief…

Donald Trump, the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, on Tuesday said he has not ruled out New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as his running mate, The Associated Press reports. Trump added that he has narrowed his list of potential running mates to “five or six people,” all with deep political resumes. “I have a list of…

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority this month in a bid to relaunch the peace process, his office said Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency. Valls’ visit, from May 21-24, comes as France seeks to engineer a peace deal based on a two-state solution. As part of the…

(JTA) The United States announced $50 million in new humanitarian assistance for Gaza. The aid announced Monday by the U.S. consul in Jerusalem, Donald Blome, will include the “distribution of food items (such as eggs and cheese) and non-food items (such as school uniforms, bedding, and cleaning supplies),” a consulate statement said, as well as investment in…

 Sweden’s deputy prime minister, who called the 9/11 attacks “accidents” and described the migrant crisis in Europe as “the new Auschwitz,” is leaving the government. Asa Romson confirmed on Monday afternoon that she would step down after her Green Party made moves to replace her, the English-language news website for Swedish news, The Local.se, reported.…

Donald Trump said he had no message for supporters who deluged a reporter with anti-Semitic comments after she wrote a critical profile of his wife. “You’ll have to talk to them about it,” the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said May 4 on CNN when told of the abusive phone calls, emails and social media posts…

A convoy of Hezbollah terrorists and weapons was hit in an apparent Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, according to Arab media reports. The convoy was reportedly traveling through the village of Anjar, close to Lebanon’s border with Syria, when it was hit. Anjar is located in the Bekaa Valley region, a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon. Israel’s Channel Two…

Sergeant Matan Rodger was seriously injured during last week’s ramming attack near Dolev, just north of Jerusalem – but he wants to go back to duty right away.  “I’m dying to get back to my unit,” he quipped to Channel 2, just 24 hours after opening his eyes and regaining consciousness for the first time. Rodger…

Some 200 demonstrators outside the Polish consulate in New York protested what they termed “attempts to deny Polish war crimes during the Holocaust.” The May 5 rally was organized by Rabbi Zev Friedman, the dean of a suburban New York high school, in response to the interrogation last month of a Polish Jewish scholar, Jan…

(JTA) Less than two years after he moved his family from Paris to London, David Herz is already feeling at home in the United Kingdom. The co-founder of a communications agency, Herz is among thousands of French Jews who moved across the channel in recent years. He says he immigrated mostly for financial reasons and is…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon weighed in on Memorial Day, negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA), and the possibility of a unity government on Tuesday, in a special interview with Army Radio.  “The bravery of bereaved families is invisible but very significant,” Ya’alon stated. “They overcome the pain, overcome the hole in their lives. This is true heroism.” …

An IDF officer was injured Tuesday evening in a bomb blast near Hizme Checkpoint, north of Jerusalem. The victim was treated at the scene by United Hatzalah paramedics before being taken to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital for further treatment.  He is listed in serious condition with injuries to his facial area. Security forces located…

When Israel entered its 1948 War of Independence, the coastal city of Rishon Lezion was a hardscrabble farming settlement with fewer than 20,000 inhabitants. As waves of immigrants inundated Israel in its founding years, many were settled in temporary camps on Rishon Lezion’s sandy outskirts. The arrivals braved rainy winters in tents and subsisted on…

Israel’s calendar has now reached the month of Iyar, a “quiet” month sandwiched between Passover and Shavuot. But in our time, this month – the anniversary of the building of King Solomon’s Temple – has become host to a new reality: the establishment of the State of Israel. This week’s rousing edition of Temple Talk…

Sunni Jihadists are withholding the bodies of 12 Iranian Revolutionary Guards killed last week in Syria, an Iranian military official said Tuesday, quoted by ISNA news agency. According to Iranian media, 13 Revolutionary Guards “military advisers” died last week in fighting in Khan Tuman, southwest of the battleground city of Aleppo, and 21 others were…

Police have released from custody two Arab youths detained this morning in connection to a terrorist stabbing attack, after ascertaining that the pair were not in fact involved in the attack. A citywide manhunt is still on in Jerusalem for the terrorists who carried out the attack earlier Tuesday morning, which left two elderly Jewish…

US Secretary of State John Kerry waffled over whether the US would attend a conference May 30 in Paris to force talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) Monday, shortly before a meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. “Well, it depends on timing and when we do it,” he began. “We’re going to talk…

Significant progress has been made in unity government talks between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel’s left-wing opposition Zionist Union, according to reports. Channel 10 news cited “sources in the Likud and Zionist Union” as saying the chances of a deal between the two were “greater than ever,” without elaborating further. The…

Unity is the true theme of Memorial Day, Professor Simcha Goldin, the father of abducted IDF soldier Hadar Goldin, stated Tuesday.   “If on Memorial Day we remain divided, then we have no right to move on Independence Day,” Goldin stated to Army Radio. “Memorial Day is not meant only for bereaved families, but for the entire nation that to do…

We are already into the third week of the Omer Count, which means that the holiday of Shavuot is fast approaching. People know about Pesach and perhaps even about Succot, but not as many people know about the holiday of Shavuot, even though it THE holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah to the…

As Israel prepares to celebrate its 68th Independence Day on Wednesday night, Nefesh B’Nefesh has launched an emotionally-charged video exhibiting the Jewish state’s incredible diversity –  of “the human mosaic of Israel.” Entitled “With These Hands” – taken from a line from the famous Naomi Shemer song “Od Lo Ahavti Dai” – “emphasizes the building of the State,…

The Kfar Etzion Regional Council held the opening ceremony for the Renewed National Heritage site Tuesday, in the presence of MKs and dignitaries. Arutz Sheva was at the scene.  Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud), Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home), MK Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home), and MK Oren Hazan (Likud)…

Dozens of Arab students protested at Ben Gurion University of the Negev on Tuesday, waving Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) flags and stating they were “against the occupation.”  Jewish students arrived waving Israeli flags for a counter-protest, Walla! News reports, and stood for a minute of silence in memory of the fallen soldiers. Memorial Day begins Tuesday night. …

Police in Manchester, England has issued an apology, after a suicide bombing “simulation” which involved an actor shouting the Islamic phrase “Allahu Akbar” (God is greater) before detonating mock explosives. The simulated terror attack was held at one of the UK’s largest shopping centers, the Old Trafford Centre, and was part of a counter-terrorism training…

The 13-year old terrorist accused of two counts of attempted murder for his involvement in a pair of brutal stabbing attacks last October was convicted Tuesday morning by a Jerusalem court. The Jerusalem district court found the terrorist guilty of two counts of attempted murder as well as possession of a deadly weapon. In handing…

A man shouting “Allahu Akbar” ran through a railway station outside of Munich, stabbing travelers waiting to board a train on Tuesday. At least one person was killed and three wounded in the apparent terror attack. The incident occurred at around 4:50 a.m. local time in the town of Grafing, not far from Munich. Police…

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkott has approved requests to grant commendations to Staff Sergeant Yanai Weissman (hy”d), Sergeant Lichai Malka and Sergeant Matan Shamir. Weissman, who served in the Nahal Brigade, will be recognized for his actions during a stabbing attack in Sha’ar Binyamin. Though he was on furlough at the time, he fought…

A terrorist stabbed two women in their 80s in Jerusalem’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood on Tuesday morning. MDA is treated the victims and evacuated them to Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital. They are both in moderate condition with wounds to their backs and limbs. The incident occurred while five older women were walking by the Haas Promenade. Two assailants with their faces…

A number of former Facebook employees have revealed that the popular social media site adjusts the news stories it presents in order to encourage a liberal bias. The whistleblowers, who asked to remain anonymous, told Gizmodo that the site’s “news curators” were told to modify the “trending news” section by hiding stories that supported conservative attitudes and…

Looking to distinguish itself from the rest of Iraq and deepen ties with the Kurdish diaspora, the autonomous region of Kurdistan is courting religious minorities, including Jews. Some 300,000 Jews are descended from refugees who fled the region after the establishment of Israel in 1948. Today, most of them live in Israel, though a small…

As the UK’s Labour Party struggles with its ongoing anti-Semitism scandal, one exposed politician has offered advice for his colleagues: Don’t bother with soul-searching, just hide your hateful remarks from the public. Shortly after Muhammed Butt, the leader of a borough council in London, apologized for a Facebook post comparing Israel to ISIS, he sent a…

Only hours before the start of Memorial Day, the mother of fallen soldier Ben Vanunu gave birth to a healthy baby girl. Weighing 2.73 kilograms, she was born at 7:33 a.m. in Kaplan Hospital. “The is a very moving day for us, both the family and our friends who have helped out,” said Sarit Vanunu, the exultant…

Gabriel Naddaf, an Israeli Greek Orthodox priest, has responded to recent accusations against him, which arose after he was chosen to light a torch for Independence Day. “As the torch-lighting ceremony approaches, my enemies are crossing the lines of decency, and increasing their libels and horror stories about me,” he said. “This is a soldier who…

Like many Israelis, Rachel Zeini found recent statements by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, which seemingly compared Israel to Nazi Germany, deeply upsetting. Unlike most Israelis however, Zeini experienced the Holocaust firsthand, when she was a victim of the sadistic experiments of Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz death camp. While politicians from across…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made clear on Monday evening that he had put the incident surrounding Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan’s remarks on Yom Hashoah behind him. “The story behind the speech, I see it as a one-time incident and from here, all of us will continue to work together,” Netanyahu said at a…

(JTA) — An 11-year-old boy was charged Monday with setting fire to a school bus outside a Jewish school in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. The bus went up in flames on Sunday evening in front of the Beth Rivkah School for Girls in the haredi Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. There were no injuries. The…

Official Palestinian Authority (PA) media incites to terrorism against Israelis on a regular basis, but that didn’t stop the PA-based Wafa news agency from publishing a report about alleged “Israeli incitement” against Palestinians in the Israeli media. The report, which covers the period from April 15 to 28, noted expressions of “incitement” in the NRG…

Former Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio on Monday rejected the possibility that he would serve as Donald Trump’s running mate. “While Republican voters have chosen Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP nominee, my previously stated reservations about his campaign and concerns with many of his policies remain unchanged,” the Florida senator who dropped out of…

NEW YORK (JTA) — Ernest (Ernie) Michel, who after surviving Auschwitz and a forced death march went on to become a prominent American Jewish communal leader, has died at 92. Michel died at his home in Manhattan on Saturday. He worked as a Jewish communal professional for more than 60 years, joining the staff of…

The decision by London new Muslim Mayor Sadiq Khan, to attend a Holocaust commemoration event as his first public engagement was met with anger by some Twitter users, who responded with virulently anti-Israel comments and even Holocaust denial, Haaretz reported Monday.  After the event, Khan tweeted, “So important to reflect, remember and educate about the…

A top Islamic State (ISIS) leader in Iraq’s Anbar province has been killed by a coalition airstrike, the Pentagon said Monday, according to a report in CBS News. Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the man, Abu Wahib, was killed along with three others when their vehicle was struck on May 6 in Rutba. Cook…

(JTA) — Sadiq Khan, who was sworn in as London’s first Muslim mayor last week, reiterated plans to lead a trade delegation to Israel. In an interview with London’s The Jewish News published Monday, Khan, the first Muslim mayor of any Western capital city and London’s first Labour Party mayor in eight years, also said…

House Speaker Paul Ryan said on Monday that if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump wants him to step down as a co-chairman of the GOP convention, he will respect his wishes. “He’s the nominee. I’ll do whatever he wants with respect to the convention,” Ryan told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in an interview, adding he…

Ahead of Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) which starts on Wednesday night, Shai Barak and DJ Raphi have released a stunning mashup of some of Israel’s greatest hits from throughout the ages to welcome the holiday in style.

The son of Al Qaeda’s late founder Osama bin Laden has urged jihadists in Syria to unite, claiming that the fight in the war-torn country paves the way to “liberating Palestine.” “The Islamic umma (nation) should focus on jihad in Al-Sham (Syria)…and unite the ranks of mujahedeen (jihadists) there,” said 23-year-old Hamza in an audio message posted online. “There is no…

Israeli authorities have approved the extradition to the United States of two nationals indicted over a cyber attack against JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest computer frauds in history. Gery Shalon, 32, and 41-year-old Ziv Orenstein were arrested in Israel last July and will be extradited following a US request, the Justice Ministry said in a statement on Monday. They risk…

Some 180 passengers on an EasyJet flight bound for France from Spain were forcibly removed from the plane by Spanish police last week, in an incident that has led some to accuse the British budget airline of discrimination. Last Sunday, EasyJet flight EZY3920 from Barcelona to Paris was diverted to the gate just minutes ahead…

Nearly two thirds of Israelis fear being harmed in a terror attack as the terror wave which began last September continues. According to the Tel Aviv University/IDI Peace Index survey published on Monday, 64.3% of Israeli Jews feared they or someone close to them would be wounded or killed in the current wave of terror…

Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, chairperson of the Otzma Yehudit party, spoke to Arutz Sheva on Monday about an article published last Thursday by Rabbi Shmuel Tal, dean of Yeshivat Torat Hachaim which was located in Gush Katif until the 2005 Disengagement plan. In the article which has raised an intense debate over the proper relation between religious Zionism…

The Swedish government on Monday announced a grant of $8 million to UNRWA, the UN body established only to deal with the roughly 800,000 Arabs who left Israel during the 1948 War of Independence and their now roughly 5 million descendants. Back in 2015 Sweden donated $45 million for UNRWA, which claims that it still…

Israel’s haredi school system is growing by leaps and bounds, as evidenced by a new report released by the Ministry of Education. While only about 10% of Israeli Jewish adults identify with the haredi religious stream, the haredi school system now accounts for a full 25% of all Jewish students in Israel. Even more impressive…

In time for Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) starting Wednesday night, ILTV presents an incredible street art journey through the history of modern Zionism performed by Solomon Souza, founder of the Shuk Gallery.

The United States on Monday announced a $50 million aid program for Gaza, reports The Associated Press (AP). American officials quoted by the news agency said that the money will be used over five years to provide basic humanitarian assistance and create jobs in the coastal enclave. The money will be distributed by the U.S…

Just days before Israeli Independence Day, a new poll conducted by Tel Aviv University in conjunction with the Israeli Democracy Institute’s Guttman Center has revealed that Israelis are more pessimistic than ever about the prospects for a true peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Among Israeli Jews, only 5.7% strongly believe that negotiations could lead…

The body of a Palestinian terrorist has been buried in Jerusalem after Israel returned his remains, the first such burial following the regulations since the country’s top court called to return the bodies of terrorists. The funeral took place in the early hours of Monday near the Old City of Jerusalem under conditions imposed by Israeli authorities, a lawyer for the family, Mohammed…

Israeli government offices will now adhere to the state’s “Shabbat law” prohibiting most work during the Jewish holy day of rest. On Monday, Nitzan Hen, Director of the Government Press Office, announced a new directive prohibiting all government agencies from releasing public statements during the Sabbath. The change comes following complaints against some government offices…

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein is getting remarried on June 20, and he has invited all 120 MKs except for four – three blatantly pro-terror Arab MKs from the Balad faction of the Joint List party, and freshman MK Oren Hazan from his own Likud party. The shocking snub was revealed on Monday night by Channel 10, as…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah met on Monday with the orphaned children of fallen IDF soldiers and those who died in the 2010 Carmel fire tragedy, in an event arranged by the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization (IDFWO). Among the young orphans present were Raaya Greenfeld, Lavi Zussman, Noam Yisrael and Neriya Moreno,…

The motto of the Israel Security Agency (Shabak) consists of  three short words which translate as “The unseen shield,” three words that to a great extent sum up the mission and operations of the organization to which we all owe so much. Almost every one of us knows someone serving in the Shabak, but it…

Monday marks a full year since noted religious Zionist leader Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein passed away in April 2015 at the age of 81, and in his honor a special booklet has been published by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI). Rabbi Lichtenstein was the dean of Har Etzion Yeshiva in Judea’s Gush Etzion, a doctor of English literature and a…

The Jerusalem district prosecutor has submitted an indictment to the district court against Hussam Ashav, a 19-year-old Arab terrorist from Kalandia in northern Jerusalem which lies partially within the city limits. Ashav was indicted for buying and selling weapons and ammunition of different varieties, as well as mediating weapons deals and additional crimes. In at least…

Austria’s head of government, Chancellor Werner Faymann, resigned suddenly on Monday, deepening the country’s political chaos following last month’s defeat of both major parties in a presidential vote. Two weeks ago the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) stunned observers when it won the first round of voting in Austria’s presidential election. Carrying 35.1% of…

Elbit Systems of America’s subsidiary, M7 Aerospace LLC (“M7”), was awarded a $7.5 million firm, fixed price contract by the US Navy to perform modifications on United States Naval Test Pilot School’s (“USNTPS”) C-26 aircraft, Elbit announced Sunday. Upgrades will be completed by September 2016 in San Antonio, Texas. Elbit Systems of America, the Type Certificate holder for the…

31 civilian Israelis have been killed in terror attacks since last Israeli Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut), Bituach Leumi announced Monday – including 29 since September. 379 people have been injured.  Terror attacks have left 3,011 orphans, 107 children orphaned from both parents, 975 widows and widowers, and 972 sets of bereaved parents. 2,576 total have…

S.P., a resident of the Jewish Quarter who regularly prays at the Kotel (Western Wall), spoke Monday morning to Arutz Sheva about what happened when she visited the Kotel for Rosh Chodesh (new month) morning prayers. According to her, apart from the usual provocations, the Women of the Wall took to a new type of…

The Iranian army says it conducted a successful test of a long-range ballistic missile with a 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) range, according to Iran’s official Tasnim News Agency. Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi touted the “high-precision” missile as capable of carrying out pinpoint strikes within a radius of eight meters from the target. “Two weeks ago, we test-fired…

The Haifa District Attorney submitted a formal indictment against 26 year-old Moldovan immigrant Fyodor Beizhneri on Monday, on charges of murder, rape, and arson.  Beizhneri is accused of raping and murdering a 60 year-old woman on June 14, 2013, then setting her apartment alight. The victim lived in the defendant’s neighborhood at the time, just 200…

An old residential building in the northern part of the Muslem Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City is now under Jewish ownership, following its purchase facilitated by the Ateret Cohanim association. The purchase is billed as a traditional “true Zionist response” to the terrorist murders of Rabbi Nechemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennet in the vicinity of…

Minister of Culture and Sport MK Miri Regev (Likud) is formulating a new initiative requiring all institutions and facilities that were built using state funding to fly the flag of Israel.  According to the initiative, Israeli flags are to be flown in soccer stadiums, gymnasiums, theaters and cultural institutions. The proposal will apply to buildings…

A statue of Hitler on his knees was auctioned on Sunday for $17.2 million, a record for a work by the Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan. The controversial statue is made with human hair, wax and polyester resin, and depicts Hitler as a small child in a gray woolen suit, kneeling in prayer. Completed in 2001, the simply…

Gazan children practice acts of terror against Israelis and Jews in an annual play, the Middle Eastern Research Media Institute (MEMRI) revealed Monday – as part of a “Childhood Festival.”  Footage of the festival in Khan Younis surfaced last week.  In the play, a girl dressed as a veiled Palestinian woman pushes an Israeli “policeman” in defiance while…

The Supreme Court of the Likud Party has ruled that the party bodies must hold discussions on the “failures” – in the words of the petitioners – of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon in his expulsion of Jewish residents from Beit Rachel V’Leah in Hevron. The court ordered the Likud’s Central Committee, Diplomatic Desk, Management, Secretariat,…

London’s newly elected Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, on Sunday paid respect to the millions of Jews slain in the Holocaust as his first public engagement in office, The Associated Press reported. Khan received a hero’s welcome from London’s Jewish community at the end of the Yom Hashoah ceremony, which brought together thousands from London’s Jewish…

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority UN envoy’s likening of Israeli soldiers confronting stone throwers to Nazis putting down the Warsaw uprising was “deeply concerning,” the State Department spokesman said. Mark Toner responded May 5 to a JTA query about an April 27 news conference by Riyadh Mansour. “Obviously we would condemn any anti-Semitic remarks…

North Korea’s first ruling party congress for nearly 40 years formally adopted leader Kim Jong-Un’s policy of developing the country’s nuclear arsenal in tandem with the economy, AFP reports. The thousands of delegates to what is technically North Korea’s top decision-making body adopted a decision to simultaneously push forward economic construction and “boost self-defensive nuclear…

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A Mexican congressman reportedly was captured on tape calling the head of the country’s Jewish umbrella organization “a f—ing Jew.” The slur by Jorge Romero against Salomon Achar, the president of the Jewish Community Central Committee and a human rights activist, was recorded by the Grupo Imagen Multimedia radio news…

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump does not think it’s necessary for the Republican party to be unified behind his presumptive nomination, he told ABC News on Sunday. “We wanna bring the party together. Does the party have to be together? Does it have to be unified? I’m very different than everybody else — perhaps that’s…

Britain’s treasury chief, George Osborne, on Sunday said he expects the United States’ next president to be a woman, while describing Republican candidate Donald Trump as “odd”. Speaking to British broadcaster ITV and quoted by The Associated Press, Osborne said, “We look forward to working with whoever the next president is, whoever she may be.”…

Ben Rhodes, one of President Barack Obama’s top advisers, has admitted that the dealings behind the agreement struck between Iran and world powers last summer were not exactly as presented to the public, Haaretz reported Sunday. While the American public was led to believe that negotiations between the West and the Islamic Republic took off…

(JTA) — Jewish groups in Canada’s Alberta province have joined the efforts to support victims of the wildfires that have been raging in the area for a week and forced the evacuation of an entire city. The Calgary Jewish Federation announced it will donate $25,000 from its emergency relief fund to assist the citizens of…

(JTA) If there’s one story that sums up the changes afoot on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a once heavily Jewish neighborhood, it’s the saga surrounding the Anshei Meseritz synagogue. The Orthodox shul at 415 E. Sixth St. is a relic of a time when “tenement” synagogues — so named for the narrow lots they…

Hanan Ben-Ari, a religious star whose debut album recently released to great critical acclaim, explained the connection between his stirring song “Melody of the Souls” and the upcoming Israeli Memorial Day commemorating the fallen IDF heroes. Loading… Ben-Ari, a talented singer, composer and writer and also the nephew of former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, explained the remarkable…

An indictment was submitted on Sunday against Mordechai Vanunu, the spy who leaked secrets on Israel’s nuclear weapons program in Dimona back in the 1980s to British media, charging him with severe breaches of the terms of his release in 2004. The indictment charges Vanunu, a former technician in the Dimona nuclear plant, with repeatedly breaching the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with the participants of the Bible Quiz on Sunday, held traditionally on Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Ha’atzmaut).  Also present were Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home), Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, and the World Bible Quiz leader Itzik Ben-Avi. Sixty-five teenagers from 33 countries around the world and Israel participated this year in the Quiz,…

Dozens of Israeli Arabs marched from Haifa in the direction of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Sunday, as an alleged expression of public support for Jordan’s iron-fist rule of Judaism’s holiest site.  The six-day march, stretching some 200 kilometers, will end on Thursday – Israel’s Independence Day. Among the initiators: Sheikh Raed Salah, whose northern Islamic…

Irony doesn’t get much more in your face than fans of a wheelchair basketball match beating each other up with lethal weapons until seven of them are hospitalized – and that’s exactly what happened in a game on Saturday between rival Turkish teams held in Germany. The bloody b-ball beatdown broke out between around 60…

(JTA) This year I will mark two of Israel’s most important national holidays – Yom Haatzmaut (Independence Day) and Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) – far away from home. These are special days in Israel and for the Jewish people throughout the world, when people of all political and religious persuasions set their differences aside and…

Hamas, which advocates jihad to destroy the State of Israel and calls to boycott the Jewish state, demanded a greater supply of electricity from Israel to Gaza on Sunday.  Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri charged the “Israeli occupation” with responsibility for a house fire “which burned to death this week three toddler members of the al-Hindi family in…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday accused the international coalition battling the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria of leaving his country to fight the jihadists alone on its own soil. “They have left us alone in our struggle against this organization which is shedding our blood both through suicide bombings and by attacks…

Dennis Ross, who served as President Barack Obama’s Middle East adviser from 2009 to 2011, published an op-ed on the Politico website on Sunday, in which he said that Israel and Arab countries are turning to Russia because of the United States’ weakness. Noting that the United States has significantly more military capability in the…

In response to the revelations of the leaked state comptroller’s report on 2014 Operation Protective Edge, former IDF Southern Commander Maj. Gen. (res.) Yom-Tov Samia criticized the state for having no strategy vis-a-vis Hamas in Gaza. The as-yet-unpublished report strongly condemns Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud), and then-IDF Chief of Staff…

Martin Luther King III, the son of American civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. and President of the Drum Major Institute, held a special ceremony Sunday to honor Ethiopian-Israeli community activists.  King held the event along with Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky. Honorees included singer Idan Raichel, former MK Pnina Tamano-Shata, and journalist Anat Saragusti. …

The IDF’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Gen. Yair Golan, unleashed a “terror attack” on the Jewish people when he controversially began comparing modern-day Israel to Nazi Germany, a prominent journalist claimed Sunday.  Ben-Dror Yemini, a Yedioth Aharonoth columnist, stated that the bad press Golan brought upon the State of Israel was as bad as an actual attack…

Health Minister Ya’akov Litzmann (United Torah Judaism) declared war on licorice candy Sunday, noting that [the Israeli version of] the candy often is filled with white gelatin and coated in sugar – and urging Israelis to steer clear.  “It’s just like a car tire, it’s hard as a stick,” Litzmann was quoted as saying Sunday morning in Israel…

Sarit Okun, doctorate student at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev’s communications department, has exposed the mysterious world of haredi internet culture. Many haredi Jews have long approached the internet with suspicion, out of concerns of indecency and influence from the Western secular culture, but haredi pioneers have been making inroads into the digital world and…

A number of Jerusalem community rabbis have signed a protest letter against the creation of a cultural center for haredim in the capital. The planned center would involve channeling public funds for the purpose of developing haredi cinema. According to the rabbis, the move would cause a spiritual blowback. “We have heard with shock about the…

Rabbi Yonatan Abraham, the head of London’s rabbinic court and Vice President of the European Jewish Congress, responded on Saturday night to news that Labour UK candidate Sadiq Khan had been certified winner of London’s mayoral election. Khan, the first Muslim Mayor of London, won the election after eight years of Conservative control, despite ongoing…

Activists from the haredi “Jerusalem Faction” clashed last week with police during a protest against the arrest of a “yeshiva student” earlier that week. Just a day later however, it became clear that the suspected was not in fact a yeshiva student at all. He was arrested after taking part in a brawl between several…

Crippling protests by “Palestinian refugees” in Lebanon last week over a change in UNRWA perks and benefits appears to be spreading, as this week “refugees” in Judea and Samaria are launching a campaign of their own. Offices of UNRWA, a UN body established only to deal with the roughly 800,000 Arabs who left Israel during the 1948…

Har Herzl military cemetery held the Flags for the Fallen ceremony Sunday, in a tradition preceding Memorial Day wherein the IDF places Israeli flags on the graves of fallen soldiers.  The ceremony was attended by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkott, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich, and Israel Prisons Service Commissioner Lt. Gen. Ofra Klinger. …

The Federal Court of Canada validated the decision of the Immigration Division (ID) of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada which denied a Palestinian man refugee status in Canada because of his affiliation with the Fatah terrorist organization. Akram Muslih Anteer, a permanent resident of Sweden, joined Fatah when he was 10-years-old and recently…

As embattled Labour UK leader Jeremy Corbyn faces an ongoing scandal over his handling of anti-Semitism within his party, the victory of Labour candidate Sadiq Khan in London’s mayoral election last week has done little to ameliorate his situation. Seen as the silver lining in an otherwise poor showing in Thursday’s elections, observers had predicted…

Shai Shirazi, one of Israel’s most well-known criminals and son of mob boss Rico Shirazi, was assassinated on Saturday night in northern Tel Aviv. Shirazi was seriously wounded from gunfire and was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead. Another man in his 50s, presumably Shiraz’s personal security guard, was shot in…

The Israeli NGO Shurat HaDin, the Israel Law Center, on Sunday addressed Prime Minister and Minister of Communications Binyamin Netanyahu, demanding an immediate stop to the allocation of radio and television frequencies for Palestinians, due to incitement to murder Israelis and Jews. According to a letter sent by Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of Shurat HaDin,…

A secret comptroller report chiding Israel’s leadership during the 2014 Gaza conflict was leaked on Thursday, setting off a political firestorm between those looking to make political hay out against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and critics of the “irresponsible” leak. The controversy continued over the weekend, with politicians crossing partisan lines to support or reject…

The Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah has been accused by Syrian opposition fighters of using chemical weapons supplied by the Assad regime, the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported. According to Abou Mohammed Al-Assi of the Free Syrian Army’s military council, there is evidence of Hezbollah’s use of chemical weapons. “It was proved that chemical (arms) were used…

The storm over IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan’s comments on Holocaust Remembrance Day continued on Sunday, when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used his opening statement during the weekly cabinet meeting to condemn Golan’s apparent comparison of Israel to pre-war Europe. Last Wednesday night, speaking at a Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony, Golan appeared to…

Israeli Minister of Science Ofer Akunis demanded a clearer apology from IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan regarding comments he made on Holocaust Remembrance Day that implicitly compared Israel to Nazi Germany. “Golan is a valued military official, but his comments are pathetic and cause great damage to Israel’s image around the world,” Akunis said.…

Raed Salah, the head of the Islamist movement in northern Israel, has arrived at an Israeli prison this morning to start his sentence after encouraging violent attacks and inciting racism in a 2007 sermon.  Hundreds of Islamists convened in Um al Fahm this morning to show Sallah support. At ten o’clock, Sallah was in Be’er Sheva, about…

Natan Meir, husband of Dafna Meir who was stabbed to death in her home in Otniel, sent a letter to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, condemning his attitude and alienating him and his daughter, Ranana, during their visit to the UN. The two were brought to the UN in New York by the…

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was awarded 49 more delegates in Washington state on Saturday, according to district-level breakdown of the state’s primary results. The Vermont senator won the March 26 primary in a landslide, taking 25 of the 34 delegates awarded on election day, noted The Hill. The rest of the state’s 101 delegates…

London’s new Muslim mayor, Sadiq Khan, accused Prime Minister David Cameron late Saturday of using “Donald Trump playbook” tactics to try to divide communities in a bid to prevent his election. Speaking after he was sworn in with a promise to be “mayor for all Londoners”, the Labour lawmaker condemned Cameron’s Conservatives for trying to…

Environment Minister Avi Gabay (Kulanu) on Saturday appeared to back last week’s controversial statement by IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan, who asserted during a Yom Hashoah ceremony that he recognizes in Israel processes similar to those that occurred in Nazi Germany, before clarifying his comments. Speaking at an event in Petah Tikva, Gabay said, “Major…