Category: News

The northern British city of Manchester outstripped London last year in anti-Semitic incidents, figures released Thursday showed. The Community Security Trust (CST), which records anti-Semitic incidents, noted last year was the fourth highest figure since incidents have started being recorded 28 years ago.  Anti-Semitism has been encouraged in some UK media, Israeli Ambassador to Britain…

The Al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Jihad terrorist group in northern Sinai has claimed responsibility for attacking the Egyptian gas pipeline to Israel and Jordan overnight Saturday. It was the 12th such attack in a year’s time.  The group claimed the attack was carried out in “revenge for the death of its leader in an Egyptian prison.”…

Security personnel have made an arrest in connection with the terror stabbing of a guard at the entrance to the Jerusalem suburb of Maale Adumim in December 2011, it was released for publication Sunday. Ala’a Hanaish, 21, was taken into custody in a joint Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and police operation a week and…

Minister of Defense Ehud Barak approved Sunday the decision by the IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, to appoint Major General Amir Eshel as the new commander of the IAF. Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel will replace Maj. Gen. Ido Nechushtan. Lt. Gen. Gantz expressed his appreciation for the other candidates for…

The Iranian parliament’s official website has published an article calling on the government to attack Israel before the end of the year. According to Israeli TV Channel 2‘s veteran Middle East expert, Ehud Yaari, the article cites three reasons for the call. First – a religious fatwa allowing such a strike. Second – threats from…

Iran is upset over a television promotional spot for Israeli cable provider HOT, and is threatening to ban an electronics firm whose product is featured in the spot. The commercial shows the characters from a popular show, Asfur, portraying Mossad agents dressed up as women, at an outdoor cafe somewhere in Iran.  The characters are…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu delieverd a terse retort Sunday to the threats issued Friday by Iran’s “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and tied it to events in Syria.   “We have received a reminder about what kind of a neighborhood we live in,” Netanyahu said at the start of the Cabinet session. “We heard the…

Saboteurs blew up an Egyptian pipeline that supplies gas to Israel and Jordan, for the 12th time in the past year, security officials said told AFP. The officials told the French news agency that the latest attack occurred overnight Saturday (local time) as masked gunmen planted explosives under the pipeline in the Al-Massaeed area, close…

The renewed flare-up of tensions between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands two months before the 30th anniversary of the Falklands war in which Britain defeated Argentina has prompted Britain to demonstrate her seriousness to defend the islands. Prime Minister David Cameron accused Argentina of colonialism because it sought to recover the islands despite…

Talia Ben-Eliezer, daughter of MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor), was released over the weekend after being arrested at an airport in New York late last week for purchasing painkillers without the required documentation. 39-year-old Ben-Eliezer was passing through security at the airport when she was told by the officers that an arrest warrant was issued against…

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon slammed Russia and China’s veto of a Security Council resolution on the Syria crisis on Saturday, saying it “undermines” the United Nations. AFP quoted a statement by Ban in which he said he “deeply regrets” the failure to agree on a resolution condemning the deadly crackdown on protesters by President Bashar…

About 1,000 Palestinian Authority Arabs marched in Hevron on Saturday in protest of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s austerity plans. AFP reported that in the largest protest to date against economic measures announced last month, the demonstrators chanted, “Salam Fayyad, get out! You are an agent of the United States and Israel.” The protesters also…

Some 1,500 Israelis from around the country are set to tour Samaria on Wednesday, Tu Bishvat, as part of a special program organized by Samaria residents to introduce more Israelis to a part of the country they may have been reluctant to visit. The project, sponsored by the Samaria Regional Council, has so far brought…

In a move that was decried by the U.S., France, and Arab countries, Russia and China on Saturday vetoed a U.S.-backed proposal at the UN Security Council to condemn Syrian leader Bashar al-Assed for violence against Syrian citizens. The resolution that had demanded that Assad resign was backed by the Arab League, and the League…

Israel has placed its consulates and embassies around the world on high alert, and has warned Jewish institutions in North America, South America, and Europe, to be on guard – because Iran may be planning terror attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets. The warnings were distributed last week by Israeli security officials over the past…

Iran is conducting yet more military exercises in the Straits of Hormuz. Iranian officials said that the exercises were in response to a European boycott of Iranian oil, and that Iran would not “submit” to Western pressure against it. The new exercises, the official said, were aimed at preparing Iran for a battle against a…

After laborious negotiations behind the scenes to achieve consensus on a UN Security Council resolution on Syria failed, the West threw up its hands and essentially put the Arab peace plan to the vote. If the Western countries believed that an Arab initiative would escape a Chinese and Russian veto they were mistaken. Arab opinion…

At least four people have been killed in the latest unrest in Egypt, the BBC reported. The report said that a demonstrator and a soldier died on Friday in Cairo in clashes outside the interior ministry as police fired tear gas at stone-throwing crowds. An additional two people were killed in Suez. A building opposite…

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, threatened Israel on Friday, saying the Islamic Republic will help any nation or group that confronts the Jewish State, The Associated Press reported. In remarks to worshippers during Friday prayers in Tehran which were broadcast on state TV, Khamenei said Iran would continue its nuclear program and warned that…

Iranian officials announced they have successfully launched a new satellite into orbit, the latest in the Islamic Republic’s space program. Iran’s state news agency IRNA said the satellite was launched Friday. It is reportedly designed to collect data on weather conditions and monitor for natural disasters. IRNA also said the Navid, or Gospel in Farsi,…

Hamas blamed Fatah on Thursday for the deadlock in progress toward reconciliation, saying it has avoided holding a meeting on a framework for the leadership. Hamas’ spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency that Hamas was committed to holding the meeting of the PLO interim leadership, but that Fatah was avoiding the…

Arutz Sheva’s Russian-language bureau reported Friday that 38 people have died in the last 24 hours due to the intense cold that prevails in Ukraine. These most recent deaths bring the winter death toll in Ukraine to 101. Of those, 11 people died in the hospital, 64 in the streets and 26 in private homes.…

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday said that Iran and like-minded nations needed to “define the New World Order system.” Ahmadinejad made his remarks at the inauguration ceremony of the International Conference on ‘Hollywoodism and Cinema’ in Tehran on Thursday. “Nations loving justice and affection should define the new world system,” he said. During his…

In the event anyone had doubts about Tehran’s ill-intent towards Israel, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is doing his utmost to set the record straight. Ahmadinejad on Wednesday met with Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan Abdullah and stressed the “inspiring role that the Palestinian people’s resistance has played in provoking Muslim nations to stand against their tyrannical rulers.”…

Nearly 400 people were injured in Cairo on Thursday, in clashes between police and protesters angered by the deaths of 74 people on Wednesday after a soccer match in the city of Port Said. The BBC reported that thousands of people marched towards the interior ministry, where police fired tear gas to keep them back.…

Former CIA director R. James Woolsey spoke to Arutz Sheva on Thursday, on the sidelines of the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference. Addressing the security situation in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring, Woolsey said revolutions are usually divided into three phases: The first phase is very enthusiastic, the second phase is…

Russia has threatened to veto a UN Security Council resolution on Syria if it is put to a vote on Friday, the BBC reports. According to the report, Russian officials said they need more time to consult Moscow on the draft text of the resolution, which has already been watered down in an attempt to…

The IDF responded on Thursday night to a barrage of Qassam rockets fired at Israel by attacking terror targets in Gaza. According to a statement issued by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, IAF aircraft struck two weapons storage facilities in northern Gaza, three smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza and a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza.…

The visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel to China should be viewed as a Chinese-European summit because no leader in Europe commands the clout wielded by the German Chancellor. Merkel has two major items on the agenda: An attempt to persuade her hosts to help beef up the financial firewall to restore investor confidence in the euro…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered a forceful message Thursday regarding the urgency of stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons program, hinting that a military strike on Iran could be imminent. “He who says ‘later,’ may find that it is ‘too late,’” Barak said, incorporating the English words into his speech at the Herzliya Conference. “Today, unlike the past, there…

Egypt’s media went into a frenzy over Israel’s plans to build a major electrical plant in Ashdod, in what some pundits in Cairo claim is an attempt to undermine Egypt’s plans to export electric energy to Europe. Calling the project Israel’s “High Dam,” after Egypt’s major Nile dam and electrical power station, the reports note…

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is “a strong likelihood” that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June, according to the Washington Post‘s David Ignatius. Israel believes that after this time, Iran will have entered a “zone of immunity” that will enable it to build a nuclear bomb at its leisure, Ignatius…

President Salva Kiir of South Sudan warned Thursday that if entrenched oil negotiations with the north do not include a deal on other key issues, including the contested Abyei region, it could mean war. “It would not be fair to my people to support an agreement that invites more conflict by failing to resolve underlying…

The Hamas terror movement on Thursday dismissed rumors it plans to open its new politburo offices in Qatar. “We have no intention to open an office in Doha,” Hamas’ Gaza chief Ismail Haniyeh told reporters in Doha. “All of Doha is an office for our movement thanks to the love and cordiality that the Qatari…

Efraim Halevy, former head of the Mossad, said the Syrian situation is Iran’s Achilles heel. Halevy identified Syria as being a key to the current Middle East situation, saying: “If there is a change in Syria, this will have wide international ramifications… The future of what happens in Damascus will impact all of the Middle…

Facebook has launched its newest innovation — a filing to become an IPO – a publicly traded company on the stock market. The international social networking site, which boasts more than 845 million users around the planet, is hoping for the “FB” ticker on its shares, but is not yet listed on the exchange. The…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak made a special point Thursday of praising Germany’s stance on Iran as he headed into talks in Tel Aviv with German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle. Barak prefaced his comments with a referral to the “special relationship” between the two countries. “It is influenced by memories of the past, by looking ahead…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday said that he would be willing to resume negotiations with Israel, but conditioned it on Israel submitting “an encouraging and helpful proposal that can be built upon.” The Hebrew-language Ma’ariv newspaper reported that Abbas made the comments at a press conference with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, after…

At least 73 people are dead after a melee erupted at the end of a soccer match in Port Said, Egypt. According to some reports, Egyptian security forces opened file on stampeding fans. The carnage took place after the final whistle was blown in the central game of Egypt’s top league, with a surprise 3-1…

Is Hamas about to end its long-time alliance with Iran? According to a report on Kol Yisrael radio on Wednesday, Arab sources are saying that a new camp within Hamas which is interested in ending the terror group’s relationship with Iran. The report said the group’s deputy politburo chief Moussa Abu Marzouk is a member…

In his address at the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference on Tuesday, Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan expressed pessimism regarding the prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The Prince, who emphasized the importance of regional cooperation in his remarks, said that today, conditions are not ripe for negotiations between Israel and…

A special UN-backed court probing the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 said on Wednesday it will try four members of the Hizbullah terror group in absentia. The Hague-based court said in a statement quoted by AFP, “The trial chamber of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon has decided to try the…

Gaza terrorists on Wednesday evening launched a slavo of six Qassam rockets at Israel’s southern communities. All of the rockets landed in open fields in the western Negev. No property damage of physical injuries were reported. Earlier on Wednesday terrorists in Gaza fired a single Qassam rocket into Israel, which also landed in an open…

A spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group condemned on Wednesday the presence of Arab delegations at the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference in Israel. “This is a new level in political normalization and this conference specifically has cultural dimensions which are embodied in the humiliating participation of some Arab and…

The daughter of Libya’s late strongman Muammar Qaddafi on Tuesday sought a hearing at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to request it intervene on behalf of her brother Saif al-Islam Aisha Qaddafi wants to the court with information about her brother’s welfare, who has been indicted by the ICC on charges of crimes against humanity…

Chief of General Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, painted a worrying picture of the military threat to Israel in a speech at the annual Herzliya Conference on Wednesday. “The threats against Israel have not disappeared,” he said. “What was relevant in the past remains relevant. Eight Syrian military divisions are stationed between the Sea of…

Thousands of infiltrators continued to sneak into the Jewish State through the south illegally last month, according to the Population, Immigration and Border Authority. According to statistics released Wednesday by the government, 2,295 infiltrators crossed the southern border with Egypt. Among them were 1,805 men, 429 women and 61 children. Even more made the same…

Nine Muslim terrorists admitted in a London court Wednesday they planned to assassinate two rabbis, the city’s mayor and attack the stock exchange and American embassy. They were arrested in December 2010 in a counterterrorist raid before they were able to carry out their plan to stage a multi-pronged attack on the Parliament and on…

The term “lone IDF soldier” usually refers to olim without families in Israel but now includes hareidi religious youth rejected by their families for abandoning their way of life that precludes army service. Army service of hareidi religious youth has been an ongoing controversy in Israel, where the IDF had created a special hareidi religious…

Iran is maintaining close contact with the Muslim Brotherhood and wants diplomatic relations in Egypt, Iran’s foreign minister says. “Tehran is in constant contact with the Muslim Brotherhood” and will send an ambassador to Cairo if Egypt agrees, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm. An Iranian-Egyptian alliance would give…

Egyptian Justice Minister Abdel Abdel-Hamid rejected a letter Tuesday from U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson asking him to” review a travel ban imposed on Americans. At least six U.S. citizens have taken refuge in the American Embassy in Cairo to ensure their safety. State Department spokesman Mark Toner confirmed at a briefing in Washington that the…

Rioting Arabs in the Jerusalem enclave of Isawiya clashed with Israeli soldiers and police officers in eastern Jerusalem. Injuries were reported on both sides. The riot stemmed from a confrontation on Tuesday afternoon in the center of Isawiya after Israeli forces arrested Ayyoub Ubeid in his home. Israeli police say Ubeid was detained for questioning…

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer painted a stark picture of the global economy saying the world faced an “approaching crisis.” “We have a partial description of the approaching crisis,” Fischer said at the Herzliya Conference on Wednesday. “These are the IMF forecasts – its recent forecasts – that they posted just one week ago.…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu bluntly told United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday there will be no new construction freeze in Judea and Samaria. Ban asked Israel earlier in the day to reinstate the freeze on all construction in Jewish communities in the region, saying at a news conference it was “not helpful” to the…

IDF forces detained five men from the village of Qalqiliya in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday morning. Troops raided a number of houses in Kafr Qaddum, before seizing Ali Juma, 20, Ahmad Juma, 20, Aqba Obeid, 33, Majd Abu Khaled, 23, and Abdul Latif Obeid, 18, area residents told the Palestinian Authority affiliated Maan News Agency.…

  Mossad director Tamir Pardo is in Washington for talks about a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear installations, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Tuesday. Pardo’s visit, which would normally be conducted in secret, was revealed by US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, 78, who made the faux pax at committee hearing. The hearing was being…

US airstrikes targeted leaders from Yemen’s active al-Qaeda branch killed four suspected terrorists on Tuesday. Among the dead was Abdel-Monem al-Fathan, suspected of involvement in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 US sailors and injured 39 others. The attack on the U.S. destroyer occurred while it was in the Yemeni port…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has won Tuesday’s race for the leadership of the Likud party with an overwhelming 80 percent of support, according to initial results. Netanyahu’s rival in the race, Moshe Feiglin, garnered 20% of votes, according to the initial count. In a victory speech he made shortly after initial results came in, Netanyahu…

President Shimon Peres on Tuesday gave the keynote address at the 12th Annual Herzliya Conference. In his speech, Peres spoke of the Iranian nuclear problem and about the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. “At this time ours and the world’s central problem is Iran,” said Peres. “Iran seeks regional hegemony and even…

Most of the polling stations in Judea and Samaria opened two hours later than the other stations in the nationwide Likud primaries Tuesday. Activists in several communities said that voters’ books are missing in their stations, making voting impossible. The Feiglin campaign headquarters blamed the Netanyahu camp for at least part of the confusion. “As…

The fate of Syrian President Bashar Assad is sealed, according to Abdullah Gül, the president of Turkey, which until recent months had forged a warm relationship with Syria and Iran. “Some think that we want war in Syria. Turkey has done everything in its power for a transformation under the leadership of the president. We…

Canadian foreign minister John Baird, visitng Israel this week, stressed his country’s strong support of Israel. “Israel has no greater friend in the world than Canada,” Baird said at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial on Monday. Baird also said: “Canada does not stand behind Israel; Canada stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel,” which he repeated…

Soldiers from the Golani Brigade arrested Mamun Ismail Salame Stut on Tuesday. Stut was one of 1,027 terrorists released in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in October. Over 100 of them were allowed to return to their homes in Judea and Samaria. His arrest makes him the first released prisoner to be re-arrested since…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made an “urgent speech” Tuesday afternoon urging Likud voters to cast their ballots due to low turnout for the party primaries. Political analysts say Netanyahu fears an embarrassing outcome against rival Moshe Feiglin, who is expected to garner 20% or more of the vote. “If people are complacent, stay at home,…

Israel’s Interior Ministry has called on the National Immigration Authority to return illegal immigrants from South Sudan to their country of origin. Many illegal immigrants from South Sudan sought refuge from Islamic genocide and a better economic forecast in Israel during the sectarian violence that marred the African nation in recent years. However, following the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is “ready to go to Ramallah” to meet with Palestinian Authority / PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and open negotiations, according to an interview published Monday night by the PA-linked Ma’an news agency. In Arabic-language comments typed live through the chat function on his official Facebook page, Netanyahu told Arab journalists, “We…

American citizens trapped in Cairo are taking shelter in the U.S. Embassy in the Egyptian capital, as the dispute between the two countries escalates. “We can confirm that a handful of U.S. citizens have opted to stay in the embassy compound in Cairo while waiting for permission to depart Egypt,” State Department spokeswoman Kate Starr…

One must give Vladimir Putin credit. He has been churning out lengthy policy manifestos at the rate of nearly one a week. The first was on democracy and reform; last week was Putin’s take on the nationality issue and this week it was time for the economy. Here Putin faced a challenge. Having been in power…

According to the Washington Post the Pentagon is rushing to deploy a large floating base to serve as a “mother ship” for commando teams to the Middle East as tensions rise with Iran, Al Qaeda in Yemen and Somali pirates. The project became public Tuesday when the Military Sealift Command posted a bid request to…

A spokesman for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says Israel will not leave the Jordan Valley, regardless of whatever final status agreement is made with the Palestinian Authority. Responding to rumors claiming that he was prepared to compromise on an Israeli presence in the region, Netanyahu told a Likud faction meeting Monday evening, “I will sign…

Saudi Arabia beheaded a Pakistani man who was arrested as he tried to smuggle drugs into the ultra-conservative kingdom. “Salman Khan Taj Mohammad, a Pakistani… was arrested as he was caught smuggling a large amount of heroin” into the country, the Saudi Interior ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SPA. The…

The Iranian Defense Ministry unveiled a domestically developed laser-guided smart bomb in Tehran on Monday. The new laser guided munitions, dubbed “Bassir,” was put on display by Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi in a ceremony at Iran’s Defense Industries Organization. Vahidi told reporters the new munitions are capable of targeting static and mobile…

Monday’s high-profile meeting between Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal and King Abdullah II of Jordan will not result in Amman’s ban on the terror group being lifted, a senior official says. The meeting “will only break the ice, following years of estrangement,” the official told Gulf News, but “Hamas will not be allowed to reopen…

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, took a few moments from his busy schedule to update Arutz Sheva on the stalled Palestinian Authority statehood bid at the United Nations. First and foremost, things are not over yet,” Prosor cautioned. “The Security Council bid is a dead end because of the American veto.” However,…

El Al Airlines was grounded at Ben Gurion International Airport Monday night, as officials tried to get its computers back on line. The grounding, though temporary, was due to a failure in the computer system of Israel’s national airline. The cause of the system failure was unknown. As a result, flights were temporarily delayed, both for…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking for a contractor to help it build a new “app” to gather up-to-the-minute information from Internet social networks. The project is not as simple as it sounds, however. The FBI first wants to analyze the information that is disseminated publicly and openly on all the various social networks –…

As opposed to leaks in the home that are a nuisance and expense to owners and a financial boon to plumbers, political leaks are designed to serve a purpose. This description easily fits a leaked EU document about German ministerial plans to provide the Greek government in Athens with an EU budget babysitter. The “nanny” from Brussels…

Syrian President Bashar Assad unleashed his tanks on his citizens Sunday and Monday, as the carnage worsened following the Arab League’s suspension of its mission that was supposed to help bring a truce to the civil war. The Syrian army has retaken suburbs of Damascus that temporarily had fallen into the hands of the revolution…

Americans are watching closely as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu heads off a challenge for Likud party leadership from perennial nationalist candidate Moshe Feiglin. Most major networks and news wires in the U.S. have carried the news of this week’s Likud party primary, set for Tuesday, January 31.   As lukewarm a fan of Israel’s prime…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to deliver an “alternative to the Tal Law within six months” on Monday. Netanyahu met Monday with IDF reserve soldiers at the so-called ‘suckers tent’ protest camp in Tel Aviv who oppose extending the law. The reservists maintain hareidi men who do not serve in the IDF are not pulling…

A special non-Sabbath voting session for observant Jews and Seventh Day Adventists in the GOP primaries will be held Saturday evening at an educational center built by Sheldon Adelson, who backs Newt Gingrich, and challengers are upset. The voting is scheduled for the Sabbath, but Adelson, a casino magnate who made billions in Las Vegas…

The General Security Service and Israel Police foiled a shooting attack planned by an Israeli Arab in collaboration with an Islamic Jihad terror cell in Tulkarem last month. The would-be terrorist Mohammed Abu Ali, 20, of Qalansawe was granted citizenship by virtue of family reunification. Previously he had been a PA Arab living in Tulkarem.…

A Canadian jury on Sunday found a Montreal Muslim father, wife and son guilty of the first degree murder of the parents’ three teenage daughters and a co-wife in the Muslim practice known as “honor killing.” After 15 hours of deliberations, the jury found Mohammad Shafia, 58; his wife Tooba, 42; and their son Hamed,…

Minister of Energy and Water, Dr. Uzi Landau, instructed the Israel Electric Company (IEC) Sunday to press ahead with the laying of an underwater cable to Cyprus. The IEC is to prepare a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that it will sign along with DEH Quantum Energy, a firm controlled by the Electric Company of Greece,…

US representatives have met with representatives of the Taliban in Qatar. The two sides are reportedly trying to work out a confidence building measure by staging a prisoner exchange. The Americans will release some Taliban bigwigs being held in Guatanamo, while the Taliban will release an abducted aid worker, a captured American soldier and a member…

The Pentagon is reportedly working on the development of the “mother of all bombs” — a bunker buster than can destroy an Iranian underground nuclear power plant. According to a report published by the UK-based Daily Mail newspaper, America’s top military authority has secretly asked Congress for funds to create its largest bomb ever. A…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu expressed pessimism Sunday about the prospects for peace with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu said that Palestine Liberation Organization negotiator Saeb Erekat refused to discuss even basic core issues at the fifth and final “exploratory” meeting with his Israeli counterpart, attorney Yitzchak Molcho, last week in Amman. Moreover, PLO officials had already…

Twice this week, Palestinian Authority official television broadcast warm greetings from the mother of Hakem Awad, who butchered five members of one family, to her son. The mother, as well as an aunt of Awad, spoke by telephone on “For You,” a show that specializes in messages to terror prisoners, Palestinian Media Watch reported. Hakem…

Leaders of the Conference of Presidents met with convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, JTA reported on Friday. The delegation met with Pollard at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, where Pollard has served 27 years of a life sentence for espionage. “We returned with a renewed commitment to work for Mr. Pollard’s release…

The US ambassador to Israel on Friday said the United States would not remain idle and be complicit in a second Holocaust. “We must not allow another genocide to take place against the Jewish people or any other. And we should take seriously those who make such threats,” Ambassador Dan Shapiro said at the main…

Egyptian security officials reported a Bedouin man shot and killed a French tourist Saturday in the Sinai, in an apparent act of retribution after clashes with police. According to the online Egyptian Independent, Alexander Crister, 42, suffered multiple gunshot wounds after a man, distraught over the death of his relative in an anti-drugs raid, opened…

In Libya its a case of “meet the new boss; same as the old boss.” The UN’s top human rights official said Friday that Libya’s transitional government must take control of its prisons and prevent further atrocities against detainees. “There’s torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights…

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is including two senior weapons experts on its next mission to Tehran. The nuclear watchdog issued a clear statement on the team’s focus, which would be obtaining information from Iranian officials about the country’s nuclear program. For more than three years, Iran flatly refused to discuss charges it is covertly seeking atomic…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a conference for Likud activists in Petah Tikva on Saturday night, ahead of the party’s primaries this coming Tuesday. The conference was attended by nearly a thousand members of the Likud. As the conference was going on, residents of the Binyamin community of Migron and other nationalists demonstrated outside in…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to inform Likud ministers on Sunday that any Likud minister who votes for the Outpost Law will be fired from government. The bill, authored by Minister Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home), would forbid eviction and demolition orders for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria that have stood for four years…

At least 384 children have been killed during Syria’s ten-month uprising and virtually the same number have been jailed, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. “As of Jan. 7, 384 children have been killed, most are boys. Some 380 children have been detained, some less than 14 years old,” Rima Salah, acting…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday that the world must stop Iran quickly before it reaches the point where even a military attack would not stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Barak said, “The situation is urgent, because the Iranians deliberately drifting to what we…

Kazimierz Smolen, a 91-year-old Auschwitz survivor who after World War II became director of the memorial site, died Friday, The Associated Press reported. Smolen died on an historic day: the 67th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. AP reported that he died in a hospital in Oswiecim, the southern Polish town where Nazi Germany operated…

Senior Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said on Friday that Iran is already a nuclear state and that Americans have not realized that. “The United States says it will not allow Iran to be nuclear, but it is so blind that it hasn’t noticed that Iran has already become a nuclear state,” Khatami was…

Four Jewish pilgrims from the United States were arrested before dawn on Friday in Shechem as they sought to pray at Joseph’s Tomb. The four, associated with the Bratslav Hassidic group were confronted at gunpoint by Palestinian Authority police and taken into custody before reaching the grave site. They were handed over to Israeli police…

Israel provided a rare moment of unity at the CNN-sponsored Republican debate in Jacksonville, Florida on Thursday. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich both sought to woo critical Jewish voters in the sunshine state. During the debate Jacksonville resident Abraham Hassan asked the candidates, “How would a Republican administration help…

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he is keeping a watchful eye on the tension between Israel and Iran, over the country’s alleged clandestine nuclear program. Speaking to ABC News, Obama would not say whether the United States believes the Israelis are preparing a military strike to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.…

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said on Thursday that the League’s peace plan, which aims to end Syria’s political crisis, will be submitted to the United Nations Security Council early next week, the Al Jazeera network reported. According to the report Elaraby told reporters in Cairo on Thursday that the meeting with UN officials will be…

Former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi warned, Thursday, that Israel could not afford to cut its defense budget and should prepare itself for war. “In comparison to 10 years ago, the possibility of a conflict is not something that we just need to talk about,” Ashkenazi said during a lecture at the Institute for…

When military leaders in Egypt announced they had lifted Cairo’s emergency law, earlier this week, they neglected to mention they left themselves a loophole. Rights activists say Cairo’s interim junta left itself a loophole for police to continue to use exceptional powers to arrest and detain civilians without cause, which they describe as “thuggery”. The…

The United States arrested and charged an Iranian semiconductor scientist with violating U.S. export laws by buying high-tech U.S. lab equipment, The Associated Press reported on Thursday. The report cited prison records showing the U.S. is holding 54-year-old Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, a microchip expert and assistant professor at Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology, in…

More than three months after he was released from Hamas captivity and returned to his home in Mitzpe Hila, Gilad Shalit attended a Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball game at the Nokia Hall on Thursday evening. Shalit, who is a fan of the team, was invited to be the guest of honor at one their games…

The Egyptian military foiled a planned attack on a natural gas plant in the Sinai Peninsula on Thursday, the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported. According to the report masked men in two four-wheel cars approached the plant, which is located 10km south of the city of El-Arish, and attempted to plant explosives, but found the…

American policy towards Egypt appears to be on a contradictory course. On the one hand, Under Secretary of State, Robert Hormats, part of a delegation conferring last week with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, told his interlocutors that Washington would provide “more immediate benefits” to the Egyptians. The State Department was seeking to provide positive feedback to…

Hamas’ Gaza chief Ismail Haniyeh’s recent official tour opened the door to financial cooperation between the terror group and Turkey, a high-ranking Hamas official told the Al-Sharq newspaper on Thursday. The official told the newspaper that Turkey has agreed to carry out a project to support Hamas and rebuild Gaza. According to the official, Hamas…

Israel presented this week, for the first time, its principles regarding the borders of a future Palestinian state. The borders were presented during Wednesday’s meeting in Jordan between attorney Yitzchak Molcho and the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat. One of the principles presented by Molcho is that, in a final settlement, most of the…

The current U.S.-led push to force Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions through steadily increasing economic and diplomatic pressure is beginning to show results and it would be “premature” to resort to military force, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, said on Thursday. In an interview with the American weekly…

The head of the National Union, MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh), launched a counterattack against politicians who he says want to push religious men out of the IDF, and replace them with women. MK Katz presented the Knesset with recent research conducted by the IDF with the U.S. military that shows women in combat units have…

More than two thirds of young men from Samaria who join the IDF serve in combat units. IDF statistics show that 67.1% of the young men who enlist serve in combat, as opposed to the national average of 39.5%. 81.2% of Samaria’s draft-age men join the IDF after completing high school, after Hesder yeshiva studies…

Israel has called off its serious travel warning regarding after Thai authorities detained Lebanese suspect, uncovered arms cache. Two weeks after Thai authorities detained a Lebanese man with suspected links to Hizbullah, Israel has called off its serious travel warning regarding the Southeast Asian country. The arrest was made after the United States warned of…

President Shimon Peres Thursday called upon the Iranian people to topple the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Speaking at the World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, Peres blamed the Iranian president for harming the chances for peace in the Middle East. He urged the international community to encourage the Iranian people to bring down Ahmadinejad. “The…

British Prime Minister David Cameron delivered a speech before the Council of Europe, the 47 nation grouping that is responsible for the European Court of Human Rights. Britain has been discomfited by the court’s activism and decisions. A recent parliamentary study foud that Britain lost 75% of the cases in which it was sued. While some of the…

An Israeli hacker team called “IDF Team” succeeded Thursday in temporarily disabling the website of the Iranian English language television station, and of the Teheran Health Ministry. The sites were hacked at about 4:30 p.m. Israel time and were operational again about one hour later. The attack was in retaliation for Muslim hackers’ attacks yesterday…

Officials in Gaza City and Ramallah confirmed reports that the Palestinian Authority would likely cancel elections scheduled for May which began to circulate earlier this week Fatah leader Thiab al-Loh told the Ma’an News Agency on Thursday that elections need to be prepared for in advance and at the moment “we are at the beginning….now…

PLO officials went on the offensive and sought to blame Israel for the failure of exploratory contacts with Israeli negotiators as they met with EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton on Wednesday. The meeting comes as Ashton visits the region for three days in a bid to keep the meetings from stalling. Israeli officials have…

Hamas Gaza-chief Ismail Haniyeh indicated Wednesday he has added Iran to the itinerary of his international tour. Hainyeh recently returned from the first leg of his tour to drum of support and funds for Hamas in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, and Turkey where Islamists have made major political gains in recent polls, especially after the Arab…

The US Federal Reserve says it will extend its freeze on interest rates until the end of 2014 in its longest longest-running response to the ongoing global financial crisis. Reserve officials say the US economy “moderately” expanded in recent weeks, but that unemployment remained at a high level, the housing sector remained in a deep…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman voiced pleasure Wednesday with the European Union’s newest sanctions against Iran and said that this is the first time that determined and meaningful steps have been taken against Iran. These steps, he said, will be felt in Iran. Lieberman was speaking to Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs…

The threat posed by a missile attack on Israel is not as terrible as people think, according to Haim Rosenberg, the former head of long-term planning at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. In a paper published by the BESA Center at Bar Ilan University, Rosenberg explains that at this time, missile attacks by Muslim countries…

The final “exploratory” meeting between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization ended Wednesday in Amman with no progress, official said. PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli attorney Yitzchak Mocho made little headway in their fifth meeting, the last before the January 26 deadline set by the Quartet of peacekeeping nations to break the impasse and…

Palestinian Authority hackers briefly managed to pull down a few sites in Israel Wednesday night in the ongoing cyberwar launched by Iran and anti-Israel Arabs. Among the sites that fell prey to attacks were the home pages of El Al Airlines, the Dan Bus Company, the Israel Festival, Israel’s CinemaTek and Ha’aretz newspaper. The home…

MK Michael Ben Ari is still being refused a visa to enter the United States – but the lawmaker says Hamas terrorists are allowed to visit. In an interview with Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew news service, Ben Ari said Wednesday that he is “still waiting” for a visa to visit the U.S.”  Ben Ari noted that…

Ambassador Yoram Ettinger, formerly a Minister for Congressional Affairs at Israel’s Embassy in Washington, said on Wednesday that he believes that the pro-Israel Republican candidate, Newt Gingrich, who won Saturday’s primary in South Carolina, has a good chance to beat Mitt Romney and run against President Barack Obama in November’s presidential election. “The public is…

Jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti on Wednesday said the Israeli-Arab conflict will only come to an end when Israel withdraws to the pre-1967 lines. Arch-terrorist Barghouti’s remarks were made after he testified in court in Jerusalem in a case filed by Israeli Kleinman family against the Palestinian Authority. Asked by reporters whether he intends to run…

Google has come under fire over plans to track user’s across all of its websites and use the information to alter the person’s search results. The Internet giant indicated it would combine data across its Web sites, and track all of its users search activities, to stitch together a fuller portrait of users, and consumers…

MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) told U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Wednesday that the plan for two countries west of the Jordan River has reached a dead end. Eldad advised him to talk to his higher-ups in Washington about the need to develop an alternative plan, with an emphasis on opportunities that will…

US Special Forces rescued an American and a Dane in Somalia on Wednesday after a shootout with the pirates who had taken them hostage. The raid in the Horn of Africa nation freed aid workers, American Jessica Buchanan and Dane Poul Hagen Thisted. The pair were kidnapped from the town of Galkayo in the semi-autonomous…

The websites of the Tel Hashomer and Assuta medical centers came under cyber-attack on Wednesday. Both websites, which represent two of the largest medical centers in central Israel, were down for maintenance throughout the morning. A spokesman for Tel Hashomer confirmed the site came under cyber attack saying no harm came the site or its…

President Shimon Peres met on Tuesday with European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. During the meeting, Peres said he welcomed the oil embargo imposed by the EU on Iran and said Israel appreciated the latest sanctions. “I want to express our appreciation for the last resolutions taken by the…

Minister of Public Diplomacy Yuli Edelstein told the World Jewish Congress on Tuesday that it was a misnomer to say Iran has a “nuclear program.” Rather, Edelstein said, Tehran has “a program to destroy Israel.” Speaking at the WJC in Brussels to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Edelstein said, “Tehran doesn’t have a nuclear program…

Iran continues to claim it is reaping the rewards of European sanctions even amid a deep currency crisis that rocks Tehran. In fact, the oil ministry in Tehran claims the embargo would leave Iran unscathed while inflicting “heavy economic loss” on the “people of Europe, who have been affected by crisis”. The result would be…

NATO is not considering any involvement in Syria or Iran, the alliance’s top commander in Europe said on Tuesday. “In terms of Syria, I can tell you from a NATO perspective, we are not conducting any planning, we are not doing any detailed analysis, we are simply monitoring the situation,” Admiral James Stavridis, NATO’s Supreme…

U.S. President Barack Obama made the annual State of the Union speech on Tuesday, and spoke on issues such as the American military, the economy and the hottest issue currently being debated: Iran’s nuclear program. He began by listing the U.S. military achievements during the last year, noting that “for the first time in nine…

The terrorists who were arrested in Azerbaijan were planning an attack against the Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Michael Lotem, Russian media reported on Tuesday. The report said that Azerbaijan officials thwarted a terror plot by Iran’s special intelligence units in the capital, Baku. Earlier on Tuesday, Azerbaijan officials said they uncovered an Iranian-linked Muslim gang…

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, warned on Tuesday against the world’s silence in the face of the Iranian nuclear threat. “It’s never been clearer that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons,” Prosor was quoted by Channel 10 News as having said during a debate in the UN Security Council. “Iran’s efforts to develop…

Lebanese judicial officials said on Tuesday that a former army general has been sentenced to two years in prison for giving information to Israel, The Associated Press reported. Tuesday’s sentence of former Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam, who has been in prison since mid-2009, means he will spend six more months in jail. In September, Karam…

Qaddafi loyalists from the infamous Brigade 93 seized the Libyan city of Bani Walid on Tuesday after clashes with fighters from the new regime erupted the previous evening. The Brigade is named for its key brutal role in smashing a 1993 revolt against the rule of late dictator Muammar Qaddafi – and liquidating the leaders…

European Union foreign-policy chief Catherine Ashton is coming to the Middle East in an effort to pressure Israelis and Palestinians to formally renew peace talks before the January 26 deadline set by international mediators. Ashton is scheduled to arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on Tuesday and hold meetings over three days…

Egypt’s military ruler said that the country’s decades-old state of emergency will be lifted on Wednesday. “I have taken a decision to end the state of emergency, in all parts of the country, except in fighting acts of thuggery, starting on the morning of January 25, 2012,” Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said Tuesday in a…

Turkey warned French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday against signing a law that makes it a crime to deny that the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks nearly a century ago constituted genocide. France’s parliament approved the bill late Monday over Turkish objections. Officials in President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government insisted the vote didn’t directly target…

The Iranian “rial” currency sank again Monday after the European Union slapped sanctions on oil imports, leaving the rial 80 percent below its level last month. Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said that the Islamic Republic’s central bank would peg the dollar at 14,200 rials even though it takes nearly twice as many rials to…

Border Police at the entrance to the Patriarch’s Cave Tuesday morning foiled a terrorist attack by an Arab who tried to stab them to death. No one was injured. The terrorist, described as being in his 30s, aroused the suspicion of Border Police, who asked him to stop for a security check. He then pulled…

Security and military officials revealed Monday Tuesday that they have arrested two teenage Palestinian Authority terrorists who carried out a number of shooting, firebomb and rock-throwing attacks on Jewish civilians and soldiers. The youth, ages 16 and 17, were indicted in a military court in Samaria (Shomron). They admitted to shooting at a driver last…

Israeli security forces detained PA lawmaker Abul Jabbar Fuqaha from his Ramallah home on Tuesday morning. Fuqaha is the fourth Hamas-affiliated MP seized by Israeli forces on suspicion of terror involvement in five days. Fuqaha, 43, was released from Israeli jail in February 2011 after being detained for two years under Israel’s administrative detention laws…

US diplomats on Monday repeated their position that a solution to the Arab-Israeli crisis would only come through direct talks saying the Security Council makeup remained unfavorable to the Palestinian Authorities unilateral statehood bid at the world body. Addressing the American Jewish Congress in New York, US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said…

Azerbaijan officials said they uncovered an Iranian-linked Muslim gang that plotted to assassinate Chabad rabbis and others in Baku. The rabbis teach at the Chabad Jewish school in Baku. Azerbaijan’s National Security Ministry named one of the gang members as Balagardash Dadashov, an Azerbaijan citizen who lives in the Iranian city of Ardabil, according to…

Guerillas loyal to Libya’s late leader Moammar Qaddafi attacked the former loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid on Monday – killing at least four revolutionary fighters. The murderous fighting in the town roughly 90 miles from Tripoli comes as the new government struggles to stamp out lingering resistance by pro-Qaddafi forces. After the fall of Tripoli…

The European Union has appointed a new Middle East envoy; Andreas Reinicke, Germany’s ambassador to Syria. Reinicke, who will represent EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in the region, replaces Marc Otte, who is ending his tenure in the post. The EU said in a statement that Reinicke will “contribute to achieving the EU’S policy objectives…

Moscow has reached its limit and says it can “do no more” to help Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad remain in power. Senior Russian lawmaker Mikhail Margelov said Moscow’s veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Assad’s savage crackdown on dissidents, together with China, with the “last instrument” possible to keep Assad in office.…

Former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross has returned to The Jewish People Policy Institute, (JPPI) a Jewish think tank. The move comes two months after stepping down from his position in the Obama administration. Ross, who has a doctorate in Soviet studies from the University of California at Los Angeles, was chairman of the think…

The negotiations regarding a compromise that would prevent the demolition of the community of Migron are advancing and a deal is close, sources involved in the negotiations told Arutz Sheva on Monday. Under the agreement being formulated, the sources said, the residents will be allowed to move to permanent homes on state land without the…

Iran on Monday once again threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, in response to the European Union’s decision to impose harsher sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the British Telegraph reported. “If any disruption happens regarding the sale of Iranian oil, the Strait of Hormuz will definitely be closed,” Mohammad Kossari, the deputy head of…

The Israeli Air Force struck several targets in Gaza on Monday night, the IDF Spokesperson reported. The targets included a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza, two terror tunnels in northern Gaza and a third terrorist tunnel in southern Gaza. According to the statement, the aircraft scored direct hits and all safely returned to their…

The European debt crisis is still with us. Greece has still not finalized a  deal  with private creditors and a deal must be made quickly if Greece is not to default – a sword of Damocles hanging over both parties. The uncertainty over the Greek situation sent stocks tumbling on Wall Street. Over in Japan, businessmen…

European Union ambassadors have agreed to slap an embargo on Iran’s oil exports. The decision will go into effect after receiving formal approval from the EU’s foreign ministers. The move is a last ditch attempt to punish Iran for its ongoing attempt to arm itself with nuclear weapons, and to dissuade it from going all…

The Lebanese-Swedish man arrested in Thailand after police found material for explosives in his store says they were put there by the Mossad, according to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. Atris Hussein, age 47, who carries a Swedish passport and lives in Hizbullah-controlled southern Lebanon, claimed total innocence. After American and Israeli terror alerts for Thailand,…

The Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin) has warned Verizon and a realtor to stop supplying phone service and office space to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) or face criminal charges. The civil rights group lawyer, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, warned the companies in separate letters that they are violating an American law forbidding private groups or individuals…

President Shimon Peres said Monday that the Jerusalem Mufti’s recent “Kill the Jews” statements “endanger the lives” of Jews and that action must be taken to prevent similar remarks, which he said can lead to a deterioration of relations between Jews and Arabs. He met with Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman, who promised an investigation of…

Over 6,000 soldiers took 243 special bus lines to their bases Sunday morning, as Israel Railways and the IDF cooperated on a new arrangement intended to alleviate passenger overload on trains in the busiest hours of the week. The IDF and Israel Railways said that the arrangement’s first day of operation was a success. Deputy…

Security official and police on caught two Hamas legislators Monday who hid in a Red Cross building in Jerusalem for 18 months. The two men, Khaled Abu Arfa and Mohammed Totah, are legislators wanted for “Hamas activities,” said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.  They used the Red Cross facility as a hideout after warrants were issued…

The 22-member Arab League has officially voted to extend the mandate of the observer mission to Syria by one month. The mission would grow in size and will be trained by the United Nations, officials told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak with media. The observers’ prior mandate…

Renowned Arab affairs expert Dr. Guy Bechor told Arutz Sheva Sunday that there is no reason for undue alarm at the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s elections. The peace treaty with Israel is on no real danger, he said. The Islamists “have no solution” for Egypt’s woes, he explained. “They lack the abilities…

Florida is considered a battleground state between the Republican and Democratic presidential nominee, as it was in 2000 and 2004. Therefore. as the Republicans prepared to move their primary roadshow to the Sunshine State in advance of the January 31 primary, president Barack Obama was looking for a way to upstage them. A mainstay of the Florida…

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) will resign from Congress this week, she announced in a video message posted Sunday.  Giffords, the victim of a gunshot wound to the head in an attack a year ago in her Arizona district, explained: “I have more work to do on my recovery so to do what is best…

The principal Palestinian Authority’s religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, denied on Sunday that he advocated for genocide of Jews in a speech two weeks ago. At an event marking the 47th anniversary of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement, Hussein said that the killing of Jews by Muslims is a religious Islamic goal. The…

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday said sanctions have no effect on Iran and added that anybody who wants to threaten Iranians’ rights will be confronted proportionally, the Iranian-based IRNA news agency reported. According to the report, Ahmadinejad made the comments in an interview with a Mexican TV network after being asked about U.S. officials’…

The Arab League agreed on Sunday on a path forward in Syria that instructs President Bashar al-Assad to delegate powers to his vice president following the formation of a national unity government. According to a report on CNN, the Arab League called on the Syrian government to start a dialogue with the opposition within two…

“I will finish Israel electronically,” warns “OxOmar, the Saudi hacker,” who adds, “I am one of the stronger haters of Israel. The end of Israel is very close.” He was quoted by Arabic language newspapers Sunday. He says he lives in Riyadh, a claim that is denied by the Saudi-based Arab News, which suggests he…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday suggested a “compromise” for the community of Migron in Samaria, under the death knell by the High Court, but some nationalists and the left-wing Peace Now rejected it. The Council of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha) said all sides should engage in direct talks before taking any…

As preliminary talks continue in Amman between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), negotiators for the Jewish State and the Palestinian Authority reportedly became a bit wrapped up in details over the weekend. Specifically, PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat demanded that Israeli negotiator Yitzchak Molcho find a way to release Hamas lawmaker Aziz Dweik, parliamentary…

Hamas and Fatah continue to accuse each other of a lack of commitment to the reconciliation deal signed in Cairo last May.  Bethlehem-based Maan News quoted Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf as saying Saturday that “evidence on the ground shows that Hamas hasn’t fulfilled anything of the Cairo agreement.” Assaf said Hamas continues to detain Fatah…

Iranian media reported on Saturday that a 43-year-old Iranian military officer was killed and another soldier was wounded in a shooting incident that occurred early on Saturday morning in the western Iran city of Khorramabad. According to the report, which was brought by Israel’s Channel 2 News on Saturday night, the incident occurred when two…

CNN is projecting that Newt Gingrich will win Saturday’s South Carolina GOP presidential primary. The network’s projection is based in part on exit polls and early returns after polling places closed. According to exit polls, Gingrich received 38 percent of the votes, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney received 29 percent and former U.S. Senator Rick…

Recent demolitions of outposts are part of psychological warfare to prepare the public for mass expulsions, warns a Yesha leader. Sarah Eliyash, deputy chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria (Yesha), said she is calling for an urgent conference of Yesha leaders to break off relations with the government as a…

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday commented on Iran’s nuclear program as well as its latest provocations regarding the Strait of Hormuz. “We’re making it clear to Iran that its pursuit of nuclear weapons and its needless provocations, such as its threat regarding the Straits of Hormuz, place it on a dangerous path,”…

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will discuss Sunday a bill that would define “exclusion of women” as a criminal act. The bill was proposed by MK Yitzchak Herzog (Labor). Herzog explained that “the phenomenon of women’s exclusion” has grown lately and needs to be stopped. He cited the objections to making religious soldiers watch women…

  An Arab resident of Shuafat, in northern Jerusalem, stabbed a Border Policeman in the neck Saturday, in the course of a riot. The policeman was evacuated to Hadassah Har Hatzofim hospital and his condition was defined as light. An initial investigation found that the riot began when an Israeli team tried to evacuate two…

President Barack Obama had sought to delay judgment on the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline project for carrying tar sands oil from Alberta in Canada down to the Gulf Coast refineries. Obama realized that this was a wedge issue for the Republicans. The environmentalists, a key component of the Obama coalition, strongly opposed the pipeline…

  Islamist parties won a large majority of the votes in Egypt’s election to parliament, held Saturday. The Head of the Election Committee said that the Freedom and Justice party, which represents the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, received 47% of the total vote, and Al Nour, a hard-line Salafist party, has another 25%. The Muslim…

French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned on Friday that any foreign military intervention against Iran’s nuclear program would trigger “war and chaos” across the Middle East and beyond, and said that harsher sanctions must be placed on the Islamic Republic. “Time is limited. France will do everything to avoid military intervention, but there is only one…

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists are continuing the rock attacks at Israeli vehicles and it looks like they’ve come up with a new tactic: temporarily blinding the driver and then throwing the rock. An Israeli woman who was driving toward her home on Thursday was attacked in this manner and miraculously escaped unharmed. “Last night I…

MK Hanin Zoabi, who rubbed elbows with well-known Hamas figures and was photographed during the act, is not alone, it was revealed on Friday. Photos found by Israeli security forces after the arrest of senior Hamas official Dr. Aziz Duwaik on Thursday found that Arab MKs Ibrahim Sarsour and Masud Ghnaim came to Duwaik’s home…

As part of his round of meetings in Israel, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey met with President Shimon Peres on Friday morning. The two discussed the recent political and security developments in the Middle East and in the world. The meeting was also by attended by IDF Chief of Staff,…

The Internet has begun to resemble the America of the Old West as lawless gangs of hackers target major institutions and government sites around the world. The hacker-gang Anonymous, which touts itself as a “hacktivist” group, reacted quickly to the US led shutdown of Megauploads and started hitting targets in revenge within minutes. “We Anonymous…

Lebanese Forces party leader Samir GeaGea on Friday said Hizbullah must understand “the game is over.” “In my opinion, events in the region, starting with Syria and ending in Iran, are capable of creating an appropriate atmosphere for the brothers in Hezbollah to be convinced that the game is over and they have to surrender…

Israel’s top public relations official, on Thursday, told Israelis not to worry about the Arab-Israeli Hacker War that has erupted in recent weeks, saying Israel is “an Internet Superpower.” “First of all there are two different things,” Minister of Public Diplomacy Yuli Edelstein explained. “When it’s hackers versus hackers it’s not nice, but at the…

Rabbi Nehemiah Wilhelm of Chabad-Lubavitch of Bangkok spoke to Arutz Sheva in the wake of the recent security tensions in Thailand. Last Friday, authorities in Thailand detained a Lebanese man with suspected links to the Hizbullah terror group. A second suspect fled the country. The Counter-Terrorism Bureau subsequently issued a travel warning to Thailand, saying…

Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Yaakov Amitai has quietly left Cairo, and flown back to Tel Aviv to spend Shabbat at home with the family. But he may not return until after January 25 –the first anniversary of the Tahrir Square Revolution. In Egypt, the day is being celebrated as a National Holiday. Amitai had already decided…

IDF soldiers on Thursday arrested a senior official from Hamas on suspicion of terrorist activity, Channel 10 News reported. The IDF Spokesperson confirmed the arrest. The official who was arrested is Dr. Aziz Duwaik, who has served as the Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) since January 2006. He was reportedly arrested at a…

A poll conducted among U.S. citizens has found that 35 percent of them believe that the U.S. should attack Iran if sanctions do not stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. The poll, which was conducted by Rasmussen Reports, included 1,000 U.S. likely voters. Among other questions, they were asked how likely it is that stiff…

Four leading anti-government activists were killed Thursday by Assad loyalist forces in an ambush in the northwestern Idlib province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The ambush took place in the Zawiya hills, close to the border with Turkey. No names were available at the time of the report. According to the report from…

Just two days before the South Carolina primaries Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is set to end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. An aide confirmed Perry will not participate in the Republican debate Thursday evening, and will make a formal announcement to supporters and contributors in South Carolina at a press conference set…

The IDF and Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, reported Thursday they arrested the regional commander for Islamic Jihad in Jenin in December. According to a joint statement the detainee maintained contact with the terror organization’s headquarters in Syria. From there, the Jenin commander received large sums of money to finance terror operations, as well as…

Iranian Ambassador to South Korea Ahmad Masoumifar on Wednesday said there is a high demand for Iran’s crude oil supplies and Tehran has no problem maintaining exports. Masoumifar also shrugged off Iran’s shrinking pools of customers, saying “we (Iran) are producing about 80 million barrels [of oil] and there is demand for about 90 million.”…

Lebanese Army leader Samir Geagea warned the Hizbullah terrorist organization this week that it is better to make a “historic” deal to disarm before Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is toppled from power, than to wait till he falls. Syria’s growing civil war is making it inevitable that the president will be deposed at some point,…

Yukiya Amano says Iran has failed to clarify its atomic development activities to the satisfaction of the United Nations nuclear watchdog body  — and now it’s his job to warn the world about its possible military intentions. Amano, chief of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, said Thursday in an interview with the German-language…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is about to become the first Israeli prime minister to make a state visit to Cyprus. Netanyahu is scheduled to visit the island nation in February, according to a source in Jerusalem. Last week Cypriot Defense Minister Demetrius Eliades visited the Jewish State, and last November President Shimon Peres became the…

Several days after a hack attack by Saudi and other Arab hackers against the web sites of El Al and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Israel’s “IDF-Team” hacker group struck back against web sites of large banks in the United Arab Emirates, and in Gaza. On Tuesday, the same group hit the sites of the…

While Israel’s tourism stats are holding steady, despite the upheaval in the region, Egyptian tourism revenues dropped nearly 30 percent last year following its revolutionary ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak. According to Egyptian Tourism Minister Mounir Abdel-Nour, the number of tourists who entered the country in 2011 was 9.8 million — 33 percent less…

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz held a round of working meetings on Tuesday as part of a conference in Brussels attended by chiefs of staffs of NATO countries. Israel, while not a NATO member, nonetheless maintains a presence at the alliance headquarters in Brussels and conducts joint defense drills with several NATO members. Gantz…

The roar of jet fighter engines up close shakes the body to the bone and jars the senses. But the deafening noise is as regular as breathing for IAF ground crews who service the planes at Israel’s air bases. Last week, one experienced ground technician, used to hearing the same voice from an F-16 fighter’s…

IDF soldiers saved a 73-year-old Palestinian Authority Arab man with a severe heart condition on Tuesday, Channel 2 News reported. The man reportedly came to the Central Command’s Aryeh base, where the soldiers discovered that due to his heart problem he had developed a very severe lung edema. As soon as he arrived, the base…

A British forensic archaeologist has unearthed fresh evidence to prove the existence of mass graves at the Nazi death camp Treblinka, The Daily Mail reported on Wednesday. Some 800,000 Jews were killed at the site, in north east Poland, during the Second World War, but a lack of physical evidence in the area has been…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday told Army Radio that Israel was “very far off” from making a decision on a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. The remarks appeared to be part of an effort to allay American concerns that Israel is preparing for an attack despite Washington’s objections. Barak’s comment came a day…

Former US ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday blasted President Barack Obama’s sanctions-driven approach to curtailing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in an op-ed he wrote for USA Today. “A nuclear armed Iran will be his most lasting legacy,” Bolton – a long-established proponent of a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear program – wrote of Obama.…

Search teams have “indefinitely” ended operations aboard the Italian Costa Concordia luxury cruise ship when the vessel began shifting as it lay on its side. The ship has been stuck in the seabed off the Tuscany coast since last Friday night (Jan. 13), when it ran aground on a sandbar near the island of Giglio,…

Israeli aircraft and tanks struck a terrorist cell attempting to bury bombs at the Gaza security fence near a kibbutz Wednesday morning, killing at least two terrorists. Hamas confiremd the kill. Aircraft fired four missiles on the cell, while tanks fired artillery shells. One of the cell’s bombs exploded, and no Israeli soldiers were injured.…

Got up early to check out WordPress and found a screen filled with black boxes instead? Wanted to finish that assignment and couldn’t use Wikipedia today? There’s a reason for that, and more. More than a dozen other websites so far have joined the 24-hour Internet blackout led by the English-language Wikipedia free online encyclopedia…

Russia reached out to protect Iran from the West on Wednesday, warning that sanctions would “stifle” the Iranian economy. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters at a news conference that Western nations should instead return to focusing their efforts on reviving talks with Iran. Lavrov warned that any efforts to impose additional sanctions against the Islamic…

President Barack Obama warmly praised Jordan’s King Abdullah II at the White House Tuesday, thanking him for hosting talks with the Palestinian Authority and Israel. “We have very few countries around the world that are better friends and better partners than the Jordanians,” said the president. “And so I want to publicly express my appreciation…

Lebanese president Michel Sleiman vowed Tuesday to resume all-party talks on Hizbullah’s arms stockpiles. Earlier this week Hizbullah rejected a UN demand that it disarm. “I underscore my intention to continue efforts to provide the necessary conditions for the resumption of dialogue between the various parties in order to protect the Lebanese and to make…

Turkish intelligence agencies are claiming that Israeli Heron unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) spied for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman reported. According to the report, the Turkish intelligence agencies prepared a report after two Israeli Herons were detected in Turkey’s Hatay and Adana provinces roughly two months ago. The report says…

Iran’s Defense Minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, announced on Monday that the Islamic Republic intends to launch another satellite into space next month, in addition to several other military projects it intends to launch during the month of February, the Israel Defense website reported. According to the report, Vahidi said Iran intends to make operational a…

Hamas leaders attached to the terror organization’s long-standing Damascus bureau are fleeing Syria with their families as President Bashar al-Assad’s regime grows increasingly unstable. The family of Musa Abu Marzouq, deputy chairman of Hamas’ so-called politburo, left Syria on Monday to stay in Egypt The London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that Abu Marzouq departed Syria two…

British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday said he was confident the European Union would impose far-reaching sanctions on Iran’s oil industry at an EU meeting next week. Hague also said he hoped the 27-member European bloc could agree on further sanctions against Syria within the next 10 days due to its refusal to halt…

Police in Gaza, ruled by Hamas’ Sunni Muslims, broke the bones of several Shi’ite Muslims last week, a further sign of a break between Iran and Hamas. Iran drastically reduced funding to Hamas this past summer after the Gaza regime did not back Iran’s support for beleaguered Syrian President Bashar Assad, a key ally of…

Hackers claiming to be from Kurdistan or Iraq invaded the websites of the community of Shiloh in Samaria and of Israel’s ally Azerbaijan, one day after the “Saudi hacker” shut down the websites of El Al and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s information site. Shiloh is a large Jewish town in central Samaria, north of…

The Knesset’s Ethics Committee ruled Tuesday morning that MK Ahmed Tibi (Raam-Taal) would be distanced from the Knesset plenum and committees for seven days. The ban is Tibi’s punishment for crude remarks he made regarding MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beitenu) following the incident in which she intentionally spilled water on MK Raleb Majadle (Labor).  MK…

Republican party presidential hopeful Rick Perry says Turkey “is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists.” He spoke at a debate in South Carolina, where he is running for the nomination in the state’s primary elections. The Texas governor responded to the debate moderator’s comment that the AKP party, led by Turkish…

Sinai Bedouin report they have smuggled “thousands” of shoulder-launched missiles into Hamas-controlled Gaza. The missiles were probably taken from Libya last summer during the revolt against Muammar Qaddafi. “We have smuggled thousands of shoulder-launched (surface-to-air) SAM missiles to Gaza through the tunnels for a transporting fee only,” a Bedouin tribal leader told CNN. Numbering about 500,000 in…

The Iranian morality police are extending the long reach of the law to dolls, and has activated an official ban on the sale of Barbies. Meet Dara and Sara — complete with a little head scarf for the eight year old Muslim girl doll. The ban on the pert little American teenage doll produced by…

PA Arab terrorists attacked motorists on the roads of Samaria Monday night, hurling rocks and firebombs at drivers of vehicles with Israeli license plates. A vehicle traveling on Highway 60 near Ofra was attacked by Arabs hurling firebombs (Molotov cocktails) at around 10:00 p.m. local time. Although no one was physically injured, the experience was…

Former Arab League Secretary-General and Egyptian presidential hopeful Amr Moussa has rejected the possibility that Egypt will cancel the peace treaty it signed with Israel in 1979. In an extensive interview with the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Moussa said, “As for Egyptian-Israeli relations, the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty is in place, and I do not think there…

A website affiliated with the Hamas terror group has attacked its rival Fatah organization, after Fatah representatives took part in a meeting with Israeli political officials and academics. The joint meeting was held in Madrid under the auspices of the Foreign Ministries of Spain and France, as well as Internet giant Google, and was attended…

The Hamas government has banned residents of Gaza from participating in the national reality singing show “New Star”, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency is reporting. The first episode of the show, which follows the same format as popular U.S. shows “American Idol” and “The X-Factor,” was recorded in Gaza City in December, and around 120…

Iran says it has arrested suspects in the assassination of nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, killed last week in Tehran car bombing. Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) published a terse three-line report Monday that quoted parliament speaker Ali Larijani, the country’s former nuclear development chief, as saying the scientist’s assassins had been “identified.” “Iranian…

The Palestinian Authority on Monday rejected a request by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to extend the deadline for peace negotiations to start set by the Mideast Quartet. “Time extension is useless. Israel doesn’t appear to be serious, so time extension will not add any value to the status quo,” Fatah Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisan…

Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration seeking to score political points with “over-the-top rhetoric” after four Marines were caught on video purportedly urinating on the corpses of slain Taliban fighters. Perry’s comments put him at odds with Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said PA officials “have no interest in restarting peace negotiations.” “For the last three years, the Palestinians have refused to enter negotiations, thinking they could impose preconditions upon us,” Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers in a closed parliamentary meeting. “The Palestinian have no interest in entering peace talks. I’m ready…

Palestinian Authority officials complained Monday that Israel has stripped President Mahmoud Abbas of his VIP status and given him a temporary travel permit good for only 60 days. The officials said Abbas spoke about the matter at an internal meeting of his Fatah Party last week. Abbas reportedly said the new permit is a reflection…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called upon the international community Monday to go from words to deeds regarding the Iranian nuclear threat. In an interview on Voice of Israel government-run radio, Lieberman said that Iran does not only threaten Israel. “Iran is acting to take over Iraq and wants to take over and influence Saudi Arabia,…

The Mossad worked for months to stage the assassination of its latest Iranian nuclear scientist target last Wednesday, The London Times reported Sunday. Quoting unnamed Israeli sources, the newspaper said that well-trained team of agents working in Iran set up the bomb attack on Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan, a scientist at the Natanz nuclear facility. He…

Alert IDF soldiers staved off a terror attack that was intended to take place inside the military court at Salem, in Samaria, on Monday. The soldiers neutralized and arrested two armed terrorists who tried to enter the court in an attack planned to coincide with the sentencing of Amjad Awad,  who butchered five members of…

A senior Iranian Member of Parliament has accused Israel of abducting five Iranian engineers in Syria last month and asked Damascus to free them, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported Monday. The charges were made as the Arab League is split over whether to authorize military intervention in Syria. Iran, one of Syrian President Bashar…

Dr. Marc Faber, an investor analyst and entrepreneur known as “Dr. Doom” for obvious reasons, predicted this week that World War III will occur in the next five years. His stated concern is China, he told Barron’s financial magazine in its annual roundtable discussion at the beginning of the year. “On another optimistic note,” Dr.…

The principal Palestinian Authority’s religious leader, the Mufti Muhammad Hussein, speaking last week, presented the killing of Jews by Muslims as a religious Islamic goal. Hussein made the comments at an event celebrating the 47th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah movement, which is headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. He cited the Hadith (Islamic…

A U.S. drone strike in Pakistan may have killed the leader of the Taliban, The Associated Press reported on Sunday. The claim that the Pakistani Taliban chief was killed was made by Pakistani intelligence officials who said they intercepted a number of Taliban radio conversations. In about a half a dozen intercepts, the officials told…

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon demanded on Sunday that Syrian President Bashar Assad stop killing his own people, The Associated Press reported. Delivering the keynote address at a conference in Beirut on democracy in the Arab world, Ban said the revolutions of the Arab Spring show people will no longer accept tyranny. “Today, I say again…

Residents of the outpost of Mitzpe Avichai near Kiryat Arba, who were evicted from their homes in the middle of the night last week, are reporting that the Arab and Sudanese workers who came to clear the rubble that was left of their homes stole jewelry and other valuables. Rabbi Shimon Ben-Zion, a former member of…

The Hamas terror group on Sunday called for an escalation of Internet hacking against Israel and saluted Arab programmers who have managed to infiltrate Israeli computer systems in recent weeks, Bloomberg reported. “Penetrating Israeli websites means opening a new field of resistance and the beginning of an electronic war against Israeli occupation,” Hamas spokesman Sami…

  More than three months after a mosque was set on fire in the northern Bedouin-Arab village of Tuba Zangariyya, a resident of the village has been victimized for voicing doubt that the attack was carried out by Jews. The incident occurred Saturday night, hours after Bassem Swaid, a disabled IDF veteran who lives in…

  Iran’s official news agency, IRNA, confirmed Sunday that Iran has received a letter from the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. According to AFP,  the Iranian agency quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying, “The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, sent a letter to Mohammad Khazaie, Iran’s U.N. representative, which was conveyed…

Enraged Iranian officials are vowing retaliation against Israel, the US and the UK over the latest assassination of a nuclear scientist, 32-year-old Mustafa Ahmadi Roshan, in Tehran. A former Iranian ambassador who served in Mexico and Italy recommended that an American being held in Tehran be executed in retaliation for the assassination. “The terrorist attack on…

The third round of Israeli-Palestinian Authority talks resumed in Amman Saturday night, hosted and shepherded to a great extent by Jordanian King Abdullah II, amid speculation as to whether the process will continue. The deadline for the two sides to present their proposals for a settlement on core issues, as set in September by the…

A weekend of winter white allowed Mt. Hermon to open Sunday for skiing with a meter of snow cover on lower slopes and 1.5 meters higher up. Heavy storms struck the entire country, actually, with blizzards in the northern Golan Heights that closed all major arteries throughout the region for the duration of the Sabbath.…

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel Sunday to end its “occupation” of Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. Wrapping up the final day of his three-day visit to Lebanon, Ban slammed Israel in remarks made during a keynote speech in Beirut at a conference entitled “Reform and Transitions to Democracy.” The conference was organized by the United…

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terrorists have seized the town of Radda, about 105 miles south of the Yemeni capital of Sana’a. Sources in Sana’a said the terrorists entered the small town, located in al-Baiydah province, on Saturday night. The move further expands the territory of the terrorist organization, which to a large…

Israel announced Sunday it is postponing the largest-ever anti-missile military exercise with the United States for “technical” reasons days after President Barack Obama called Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reiterate his “unshakeable” commitment to Israel’s security. The White House did not elaborate, but the president reportedly told the Prime Minister to back off any plans…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed the Ministerial Committee for Legislation not to vote Sunday on a bill that would prevent the demolition of outposts. The bill is known as the Outpost Authorization Bill or the Migron Bill – because its early passage would prevent the demolition of that outpost, scheduled to take place by March.…

Syria threatened Arab League observers with death and used women to try to seduce them, an Algerian delegate told the London Telegraph. Anwar Malek, a former Algerian army officer, told the newspaper that he fled the country after being constantly intimidated, following his witnessing the slaughter of women and children by security forces loyal to…

At least seven Israelis are among those rescued from a luxury cruise ship that ran aground on an sandbar and is now sinking near the island of Giglio, off the western coast of Italy. The Foreign Ministry confirmed late Saturday night that at least three couples and a young girl were aboard the vessel, but were…

TIME Magazine cited “sources” Saturday who said Israel’s Mossad agency was responsible for paying and training assassins to kill Iranian scientists in the past two years. The U.S.-based magazine also quoted unnamed Western intelligence sources as saying Israel was also responsible for the explosion at an Iranian military base outside Tehran last year. Last week…

Vandals broke this week into a synagogue in Hemed, a religious moshav located in central Israel. Worshippers who came to the synagogue for morning prayers were shocked to find out that the ark had been opened and that the Torah scrolls were taken out of it, thrown on the floor and then covered with mud.…

Qatar favors sending Arab forces into Syria to stop the deadly crackdown on anti-regime protests, AFP reported on Saturday. According to the report, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, said in an interview with CBS to air Sunday that he favors dispatching Arab troops to Syria to “stop the killing” that the…

Search teams are racing against time to rescue people from the icy waters off Italy’s western coast after the Costa Concordia cruise ship sank Friday night with more than 4,000 people aboard. What should have been a wonderful cruise around the Mediterranean began in the port of Civitavecchia, about 50 miles from Rome, but quickly…

Lebanon-based Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has rejected a call by visiting United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his terrorist organization to disarm, saying “The resistance is here to stay.” Ban told a news conference Friday after meeting with Lebanese leaders, “I am deeply concerned about the military capacity of Hizbullah and… the lack of progress…

Mohamed ElBaradei has dropped out of the running as a candidate in the Egyptian presidential race. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency announced his decision Saturday. “My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is…

Standard Poor’s ratings agency stripped France and Austria of their top AAA ratings, and downgraded seven other euro zone nations on Friday. Italy, Portugal, Cyprus and Spain were dropped two notches each; Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia each had their ratings cut by one notch as well. Germany, the largest economy in the European Union bloc,…

One person died and several others were wounded Saturday night in a blast at the home of the secretary-general of the Gaza-based Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) terrorist organization, an ally of the Hamas terrorist rulers of Gaza and one of the three groups that participated in the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in June…

The U.S. says Israel’s international Mossad agents posed as CIA operatives to recruit Jundallah members in Pakistan to assassinate key Iranians, according to the Jan 13 issue of Foreign Policy magazine. Jundallah, described by the magazine as a “Pakistani-based Sunni extremist organization,” was in November 2010 designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization,…

The head of the Arab League warned Friday that Syria may be sliding toward civil war, as the violence continued to rage around the country. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told The Associated Press that Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime was either not complying or only partially complying with an Arab League plan that Syria…

Thousands of Iranian mourners chanted anti-American and anti-Israel slogans on Friday, during the funeral of Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, the Iranian scientist who was assassinated earlier this week. The Associated Press reported that the mourners were chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” during the funeral. State TV showed thousands of people carrying Roshan’s coffin…

Authorities in Thailand said on Friday they had detained a Lebanese man with suspected links to the Hizbullah terror group, AFP reported. The arrest was made after the United States warned of a terrorist threat against tourists in Thailand, the report said. “Foreign terrorists may be currently looking to conduct attacks against tourist areas in…

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro visited this week the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem, one of the largest yeshivas in the world with over 6,000 students. During the tour of the yeshiva, which is situated in the Mea Shearim neighborhood, the Ambassador was accompanied by Rabbi Aharon Chodosh, Rabbi Nachman Levovitz, Rabbi Binyamin Carlebach and…

President Shimon Peres said on Friday that Israel was not responsible for the assassination of a nuclear scientist in Tehran earlier this week. In an interview with CNN’s Spanish-language channel, Peres said, “To my knowledge, Israel is not behind the assassination. I am well aware that it is ‘fashionable’ to blame Israel and the U.S.…

The Israeli Defense Ministry is to establish a special cyber warfare administration, the Israel Defense website is reporting. The new administration will coordinate the efforts of security agencies and the Israeli defense industry in developing advanced systems to deal with cyber warfare, the report said. The decision to establish the new administration was made even…

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced capitalism on Thursday during a speech at Cuba’s University of Havana. “Thankfully we are already witnessing that the capitalist system is in decay,” Ahmadinejad said. “On various stages it has come to a dead end – politically, economically and culturally. You see that when it lacks logic, they turn to weapons…

A raging blizzard has hit the northern Golan Heights near Ein Zivan and northward toward Mt. Hermon. All roads in the affected area have been blocked by the storm. Department of Public Works snow plows are working to clear the roads. Police are asking travelers not to traverse the area due to dangerous road conditions.…

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that U.S. officials had “some ideas” as to who was behind the assassination of a nuclear scientist in Tehran this week, AFP reported. During a meeting with soldiers at a Texas military base, Panetta insisted the United States was “not involved in any way, in any way with…

According to PLO executive committee member Tayseer Khaled, recent talks in Jordan revealed Israel wants to retain 6-9 per cent of Judea and Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem. “Many factions and political parties within the Palestinian political spectrum strictly oppose this offer,” Khaled told Gulf News, adding that officials in Ramallah had taken the “controversial step”…

PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat vowed to terminate exploratory talks between Jerusalem and Ramallah after January 26 if Israel does not freeze construction in the disputed territories. “The Amman talks are intended to obtain a colony freeze and the use of the 1967 lines as a reference for any future talks, and will be given…

MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) expressed his concern on Thursday over a possible large-scale emigration of Israeli Arabs to areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. The reason for Zahalka’s concern is the implementation of the amendment to the citizenship law, which prevents the unification of Palestinian Authority Arabs with their Israeli Arab spouses. On Wednesday, the…

After years of refusal, Iran said on Thursday that it is ready to discuss allegations that it was involved in secret nuclear weapons work. The Associated Press cited two diplomats who said that Iranian officials had suggested they were ready to talk about the issue during recent meetings with officials of the Vienna-based International Atomic…

Unknown people tried to abduct soldiers four times in less than two weeks since the year 2012 began, the IDF said Thursday. In the course of the  year 2011, the IDF verified 11 complaints about attempts to abduct soldiers. Other complaints were found to be false. The verified attempts took place at the Jalameh junction…

Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman toured the Gaza Belt Thursday along with ministers and Knesset Members from Yisrael Beitenu. They visited Ein HaBsor, Shlomit, Avshalom, and Naveh, where families evicted from Gush Katif reside. They also visited Kissufim Base and received a security briefing. “When one sees the community of Naveh, which…

There were no microphones being shoved in 29-year-old Rabbi Avi Richler’s face and no cameras snapping as he was being wheeled into the operating room. Neither did the husband and father of three, who is also the co-director of Chabad of Gloucester County, New Jersey, ask whether the Jewish recipient of the kidney he was about to…

Iran is preparing its own answers to the string of assassinations of Iranian scientists, a web site identified with President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said Thursday – and those responsible had better start staying awake nights, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying. Naming Israel specifically, the Rajah News website said that Israel wasn’t the only…

The Arab League is rethinking its observer mission in Syria, and may decide to pull its monitors from the country altogether. An attack on observers Monday in the city of Latakiya made it increasingly unlikely the League would send any more monitors to the country, sources said “until the situation is suitable” for them to…

While the Republican field is wide open with the GOP trying to figure out which of their number has the best chance to beat an incumbent candidate, Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is raising tens of millions of dollars to re-elect the president. U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign appears to be well-organized, raking in more…

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta on Thursday condemned a video that purportedly shows US Marines urinating on the corpses of slain Taliban fighters. “I have seen the footage, and I find the behavior depicted in it utterly deplorable,” Panetta said in a statement, saying he had ordered the Marine Corps and the commander of…

The Saudi hacker, who last week published the credit card details of thousands of Israelis, struck again on Wednesday and published a list of an additional 200 Israeli credit card numbers. Channel 10 News reported that the hacker, who calls himself OxOmar, said the latest list comes in response to the publishing earlier this week…

For the first time in a decade, Israeli soldiers in uniforms ascended to the Temple Mount this week and toured the Al Aqsa Mosque. The tour for the uniformed soldiers was permitted after a long time period in which the police objected to such visits, Temple Mount Heritage Foundation Chairman Yehuda Glick told Arutz Sheva.…

A former employee with the Lebanese state-run telecoms operator Ogero was charged Wednesday with spying for Israel. According to a report on the Hizbullah terror organization’s Al-Manar television the man, Elias Younes, has been spying for Israel for over 35 years, starting in 1977. The report said Younes “supplied the enemy with details regarding marine…

Several Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices were thrown at a northern New Jersey synagogue early Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. A fire was ignited in the second-floor bedroom of the rabbi’s residence, the report said. Police are treating the attack both a bias crime and attempted murder. AP noted that Wednesday’s attack on Congregation…

Former Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan on Wednesday was summoned to appear before the Palestinian Authority anti-corruption commission. Fatah official and Palestinian Legislative Council member Najat Abu Bakr, said told Gulf News on Tuesday, “it is time for the Palestinian judicial system to say its word in the controversial issue of Dahlan.” “Should Fatah or Hamas…

Fatah and Hamas officials plan to meet in Gaza City late on Wednesday in hopes of diffusing recent tensions between the rival factions. “We will work with both movements to end the negative impact between Fatah and Hamas on the Beit Hanoun crossing. We are going to the meeting today hoping to end it with…

IDF spokesman Brigadier General Yoav Mordechai wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday that he was glad Iranian nuclear scientist Mustafa Ahmadi Roshn was assassinated. “I do not know who brought the Iranian scientist to account,” Mordechai wrote. “But I certainly won’t shed a tear for him.” Professor Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, was officially an oil…

Fatah has charged Hamas is avoiding reconciliation because it is banking on being made stronger by a Muslim Brotherhood victory in Egypt’s elections Fatah official Tawfiq al-Tirawi s told Voice of Palestine radio on Wednesday that if the Brotherhood was elected in Egypt, “Hamas would consider the win its own victory.” Hamas, he said, believes…

Chief of Defense Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kohavi, told new intelligence officers Wednesday that Iran and Hizbullah are actively involved in Syrian strongman Bashar Assad’s attempt to maintain power. He did not elaborate. He spoke at the 145th Intelligence Officers Course graduation ceremony. Maj. Gen. Kohavi said, “The radical axis operates to preserve its strength.…

Islamist opposition leaders in Jordan urged the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday to terminate its “absurd” negotiations with Israel. “We demand the Palestinian Authority leave the dark tunnel of absurd negotiations with Israel that only serves Zionist and American interests,” the Islamic Action Front said in a statement on its website. “Going back to negotiations in…

An Iranian scientist involved in the petroleum industry was killed in a car bombing Wednesday in a blast that rocked Tabi Square in northern Tehran, near a university. Two other people were wounded in the blast. Eyewitnesses reported seeing motorcyclist attach several magnetic bombs to the target’s vehicle, and then fled the scene, according to…

The US explained in a briefing Tuesday why funding for the Palestinian Authority version of Sesame Street is being cut. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland was peppered with questions by reporters who also wanted to know why Israel’s version of the program is still going to receive support. The PA version of the children’s program,…

The U.S. Coast Guard rescued six Iranian mariners at the northern end of the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, the Pentagon said, according to CNN. The incident took place around 50 miles southeast of the Iraqi port of Um Qasr. The Coast Guard cutter Monomoy reported the rescue took place after the Iranians’ small merchant vessel,…

Brisbane Attorney-General Paul Lucas says he won’t block a neo-Nazi music festival, set to be held in April. He has also dismissed calls by parliamentarians for legislative action to ensure the Hammered Music Festival cannot take place. Independent Burnett MP Rob Messenger is planning to propose a private member’s bill that would force the state…