Category: News

MK Stav Shaffir (Zionist Union) will promote on Sunday a bill calling for transparency within the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.  The bill states that the Ministerial Committee should “conduct its deliberations according to protocol, which will include counting the votes and submitting the information to the public.” According the Shaffir, “the Ministerial Committee’s lack of transparency enables hypocrisy…

Mohammed Salaimeh, an Arab terrorist who tried to run down and kill five female Border Patrol officers in Jerusalem on the day the city celebrates Purim, agreed to a plea deal on Thursday. Instead of life imprisonment, the usual punishment for attempted murder, Salaimeh was sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison. According to…

Middle East expert Yonatan Dahuh-Halevi revealed Thursday a new document written by Saeb Erekat, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and head of the Palestinian negotiating team, in which he calls to support terror organizations and lone-wolf terror attacks.  Erekat’s document contains a number of recommendations for Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian leadership. …

A rebel alliance, including Al-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate Al-Nusra Front, attacked government-held parts of the southern city of Daraa on Thursday, a monitoring group said. The alliance, also involving powerful Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, bombarded loyalist positions with mortar and artillery fire, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Syria’s official SANA news agency said “terrorists…

Following an overnight police and Border Police raid on several Druze villages in the Golan, three more Israeli Druze were arrested on suspicion they took part in the “lynch” attack on an IDF ambulance Monday night.  The three join the nine suspects arrested Wednesday morning on charges of involvement in the attack.  Several of those arrested are suspected of having…

A Nazi-looted painting that was hidden for decades smashed expectations at a rare sale in London on Wednesday, AFP reported, as investigators work painstakingly to identify the origins of hundreds of other works from the same haul. Max Liebermann’s “Two Riders on a Beach” was found among more than 1,200 works of art in the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with leaders of Israel’s Druze community Wednesday, in the wake of a mob attack on an IDF ambulance carrying casualties of the Syrian civil war which left one injured Syrian dead. Israeli police said Wednesday they had carried out a wave of arrests of suspects involved in two separate attacks on…

Reconstruction of homes destroyed in Gaza due to Hamas’s engagement with Israel will begin soon, Hamas official Mufid Hasayneh stated to AFP on Wednesday.  “Some 90,000 partially-damaged homes have already been repaired in coordination with the United Nations,” Hasayneh stated from Gaza City.  “In the coming days, the operation of reconstructing those totally destroyed will begin,” he said. Some…

As thousands of young Jews visit Israel this summer on Taglit and Birthright trips, one group is specifically catering for those with hearing impairments or deafness. The Institute for the Advancement of Deaf People in Israel hosted a unique day for a Taglit group from the United States, exhibiting how the organization helps the deaf and hard of hearing.…

The Israeli Druze ambush on an IDF ambulance carrying wounded Syrians on Monday night was carefully pre-planned, an IDF soldier who was at the scene stated Wednesday.  Several reports indicated that there was an incident near Mt. Hermon, on the Syrian border, the soldier added – and, in retrospect, it could have been a precursor to…

The mystery of Monday night’s chandelier accident continues on Wednesday, after police continue to conduct engineering tests on the fallen light fixture and compare it to that installed in the second part of the hall. An investigation revealed that the entire fixture weighed 350 kilograms (771 lbs) without four engines attached to the structure (presumably to lower and raise…

Turkey on Wednesday said it was holding talks with Israel over a deal to reconcile the two former allies following a break in relations spurred on by Turkey’s Islamist leadership.   “It’s quite normal for the two countries to talk for the normalization of the ties. How can reconciliation be achieved without holding any meetings?” Foreign…

Meretz Chairman MK Zehava Gal-On has turned against the Zionist Union (Labor-Hatnua) on Wednesday, after the latter did not join Meretz in voting on the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law’s renewal.  The Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law is a temporary provision that was approved by the Knesset in July 2003 and renewed every year since then.…

Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) sharply criticized Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, claiming that the latter is preventing Palestinian Arabs from enjoying the lighter security restrictions Israel gives for the Ramadan fast.  “Abu Mazen [Abbas – ed.] and the PA would prefer that the Palestinians should suffer and wait for hours at…

Most people do not realize how much their data is being used for purposes they do not understand, internationally renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier told Arutz Sheva on the sidelines of the fifth annual International Cybersecurity Conference in Tel Aviv. “Largely, I think surveillance is bad,” Schneier said, adding that surveillance is leading to a…

MK Yoav Kish (Likud) on Wednesday called for Israel to carry out targeted killings of Gaza terrorist squads in order to stop the rocket attacks on southern Israel. “I think that the fire from Gaza into Israel must stop and I am glad that the Air Force responded immediately to [last night’s] attack,” Kish told…

The farmer who was murdered on Wednesday by a group of Palestinian Arabs has been identified as 70-year-old David Bar Kapara of Rehovot. It is believed he was beaten by Arabs from among those who regularly illegally enter Israeli cities in search of employment. Bar Kapara’s son is the spokesman for the Religious Services Ministry…

US President Barack Obama spoke to French President Francois Hollande on Wednesday, assuring him the US was no longer spying on France after a Wikileaks cable revealed the National Security Agency (NSA) had been spying on three French presidents. The White House stated after the phone call that “we are not targeting and will not target” Hollande, according…

Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been formally sentenced to death Wednesday, after US District Judge George O’Toole Jr. confirmed the sentenced handed to the convicted terrorist by a jury back in May. O’Toole quoted Shakespeare in his statement to Tsarnaev, according to American media, stating: “One of Shakespeare’s characters observes, ‘The evil that men do lives after them.…

Israel is ready to ratify a treaty imposing an international ban on nuclear weapons testing, if Iran agrees to recognize the Jewish state, an Israeli official has said. Speaking at Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Merav Zafary-Odiz, Israel’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), said that Israel was willing in theory to ratify…

Rabbi Aryeh Handler, dean of the Ramle Hesder Yeshiva that recently caught on film the Arab rock and firebomb attacks it suffers on a weekly basis, told Arutz Sheva about how students at the Torah-learning institute in central Israel cope with the terrorism. The rabbi began by noting the new yeshiva, which has 30 students, cooperates with…

A Nazi-looted painting that was hidden for decades is being auctioned by Sotheby’s Wednesday in a rare sale as investigators work painstakingly to identify the origins of hundreds of other works from the same haul. Max Liebermann’s “Two Riders on a Beach” was found among more than 1,200 works of art in the Munich apartment of German recluse Cornelius Gurlitt when police raided it…

The mother-in-law of one of Australia’s most notorious Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists has pleaded for the government to help her “desperate” daughter and five grandchildren flee the Middle East, saying she made “the mistake of a lifetime.” Karen Nettleton’s emotional appeal for help came after reports that her son-in-law Khaled Sharrouf and his friend Mohamed Elomar were killed in fighting in…

The United States does not support sending the UN Human Rights Council’s report on last summer’s war in Gaza to the Security Council, State Department spokesman John Kirby said on Tuesday. Speaking with reporters, Kirby reiterated, as he had done on Monday, that Washington rejected the foundation of the report because of the Human Rights…

A French court on Tuesday threw out a case brought forward by a mother trying to sue the government for failing to stop her teenage son from leaving to join jihadists in Syria, AFP reported. The boy was 16 when he left with three others from the town of Nice in southern France in December…

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Tuesday ruled out freezing sensitive nuclear work in the country for a lengthy time period, Reuters reported. Khamenei also reiterated Iran’s demand that sanctions imposed on it be lifted as soon as a final deal with major powers is reached. “Freezing Iran’s Research and Development (RD) for a…

UN investigators on Tuesday denounced the seemingly deliberate targeting of civilians in Syria’s war, causing “unspeakable suffering” as barrel bombs relentlessly drop from the sky and besieged people starve to death, AFP reported. “Civilians are the main victims of an ever-accelerating cycle of violence,” Paulo Pinheiro, who heads a commission of inquiry on the human…

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) announced Tuesday that the radical leftist NGO B’Tselem will be barred from the national service program, after it contributed allegedly false testimony to the new UN report charging Israel with “war crimes.” Ariel, who is responsible for the National Insurance Institute that supervises the national service program, took action…

The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapped France’s former presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as current leader Francois Hollande, AFP reported on Tuesday, citing files exposed by the WikiLeaks website. The spying spanned between 2006 and 2012, the report said, quoting documents classified as “Top Secret”. The revelations prompted the French…

As tragic as the death of a woman at a Yavneh wedding hall Monday was, Israelis needed to prepared themselves for further similar tragedies, believes Itzik Tayeb, the chairman of the Israel Wedding Hall Association. Speaking to financial daily Globes, Tayeb said that as many as half of the wedding halls in Israel were unlicensed…

Two suicide bombers from the Islamic State (ISIS) group have killed 10 Syrian soldiers in the northeastern city of Hasakeh, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Wednesday. Separately, at least 13 civilians were killed in a car bomb attack against a mosque in a village near the capital Damascus, the monitor said. All three incidents occurred Tuesday night. “Ten soldiers were…

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) welcomed Bundestag President Norbert Lammert to the Knesset on Wednesday in a special session marking 50 years of Israeli-Germany diplomatic relations. “Germany is a true friend of Israel,” Edelstein said to Lammert. “Your standing at our side and at the side of the Jewish people is more important than ever, certainly…

“The UN can simply not be taken seriously.” So says Republican councilor Bruce Blakeman of Long Island, in the wake of the UN’s report condemning Israel’s activities during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Blakeman, a former presiding officer of the Nassau County Legislature and ex-head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, spoke to…

In an apparent attempt to prevent incitement and further flareups during the Muslim fast month of Ramadan which started last Thursday, Israel has issued a distancing order blocking Sheikh Raed Salah from visiting Jerusalem for six months. Salah, head of the radical Islamic Movement in Israel, is forbidden from visiting the capital from June 25 up until…

In a dramatic move the haredi Vizhnitz Hassidic stream has reversed a two-year old decision to have its young men refuse to enlist in the IDF, and in a new announcement called on its youth to join the army. Vizhnitz leaders originally decided against IDF service due to issues of modesty concerning proximity to female soldiers, along…

After the rocket attack from Gaza on Tuesday night, Israel on Wednesday decided to cancel the Friday entry permits for 500 Gazans to Jerusalem that had been given as part of unprecedented “gestures” for the Muslim fast month of Ramadan. A spokeswoman for COGAT, the defense ministry unit which coordinates with Gaza, told AFP the move to…

In a cynical use of the fate of IDF soldiers captured during last summer’s counter-terror Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Hamas has claimed that Golani Brigade combat soldier First Sergeant Oron Shaul is alive, even though the IDF has officially declared him dead. The site Al-Majd, which serves the Al-Qassam Brigades “armed wing” of the Hamas…

The Pentagon said Tuesday that there are some Shi’ite fighters at an Iraqi military base where Washington just sent 450 reinforcements, but they were not working with US forces, underscoring concerns over links with the Iran-backed sectarian fighters. Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said that while there is a “small group” of Shi’ite fighters at the Taqaddum base, there numbered only in the lower…

A top secret Saudi memo contends that Iran shipped nuclear equipment to Sudan, in a shocking leak that comes ahead of a June 30 deadline for Iran nuclear talks with world powers. The revelation was part of a huge trove of documents published on the Wikileaks web site. The trove of 60,000 documents was published…

As international anti-Israel groups clamor for a boycott of Israel, 45 top general managers of InterContinental Hotels and Resorts from Europe convened this week at the David InterContinental Hotel in Tel Aviv for an annual event. This is the first time Israel has been chosen for the event and comes on the heels of the…

Two British teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of stealing artifacts from the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Polish police said Tuesday. A spokesman for the site, which is now home to a museum, told AFP that guards on Monday caught the teenagers digging in the ground in an area where there were once barracks used to sort the personal items of arriving…

A new study from the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warns of dire consequences if the US does not dramatically change its nuclear weapons policy in the coming years, reports the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday. Lead author Clark Murdock, a strategic planning and defense expert, warned in the study entitled “Project Atom” that…

MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home), a strong advocate of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, will be responsible for attending to civilian affairs in that region for the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. The appointment of Yogev to the post was announced Tuesday, as membership of the Knesset’s most powerful committee was finalized. Yogev…

Too many IDF officers are communicating with their soldiers via social media – especially WhatsApp, said IDF General Yitzchak Brik, Ombudsman for Soldiers in the Defense Ministry. Brik’s job is to record and examine complaints by soldiers against commanders and higher officials, determining whether to impose disciplinary procedures on officers for mistreating soldiers or otherwise…

A group of British MPs have called for “every measure” to be taken to protect a Jewish community in London from an impending neo-Nazi demonstration planned on July 4, the first Shabbat of the month. Hampstead and Kilburn MP Tulip Siddiq led a motion in the UK Parliament backing those calling to ban the demo, reports…

El Al’s “High Heel-Gate” could become the subject of a government investigation, reports said Tuesday. A government office that deals with equal work opportunities for women is reportedly seeking to get top officials in the Economy Ministry involved in quashing demands by Israel’s national airline that female flight attendants be required to wear high heels. The…

The shekel remained stronger against the dollar, a day after it rose significantly following remarks by Bank of Israel head Karnit Flug that the danger facing the Israeli economy was more likely to be inflation, not deflation. Flug also said that the Bank would probably end its policy of buying dollars to keep its value…

The brutal Islamic State (ISIS) group has spread horror by callously beheading victims and burning them to death – on Tuesday the terror group reached a new low by unveiling gruesome new ways to murder. In a seven-minute video from ISIS’s Nineveh branch based in its stronghold of Mosul, the terrorists reinvented their horrific methods of…

John Bolton, former United States Ambassador to the UN, told Arutz Sheva that the UN report which accused Israel of committing “war crimes” during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza was “completely predictable”. “The UN Human Rights Council is no different from its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission,” he said on the sidelines of an evening…

IDF aircraft struck a rocket launcher in northern Gaza shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the IDF Spokesman said. The launcher that was attacked is the same one which was used in the rocket attack on the Hof Ashkelon region earlier on Tuesday evening. The IDF statement said that Israel considers the Hamas terrorist group responsible…

Following yet another rocket attack from Gaza on southern Israel, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman said on Tuesday night that Israel cannot put up with “trickling” of rocket fire. “Those who are willing to absorb trickling – will eventually receive torrential rain. We must not accept this situation,” warned MK Liberman, adding, “A government that…

Rabbi Yoel Schoenfeld, scion of one of the most venerated rabbis in the Modern Orthodox world, told Arutz Sheva in an interview that American Jews had failed the residents of Gush Katif by not speaking out against the plan – just as they failed European Jewry by not speaking up during World War II to…

In the last day the IDF has been investigating the Israeli Druze attack on an IDF ambulance Monday night, and dramatic new revelations indicate a possible betrayal from within the army. In the incident Druze residents of the Golan Heights murdered a Syrian national who was being brought for treatment, and likewise critically wounded another Syrian in addition to lightly…

The chilling recordings of the emergency call made after a chandelier fell lethally on Monday night at an event hall in Yavneh during a wedding have been released Tuesday. Just seconds after the massive lighting fixture fell during the wedding of Mor Levi and Karin Hayon, one of the attendants contacted the Magen David Adom (MDA) hotline…

A woman of about 50 was killed night Monday night after a large chandelier fell from the ceiling of the Adiah events hall on Shidlovsky street in Yavne during a wedding.  Paramedics and Magen David Adom (MDA) medics provided medical care to 21 wounded, all of whom were evacuated to Tel Hashomer Hospital, Kaplan hospital, and Assaf…

The White House on Monday night reaffirmed Israel’s right to self-defense, following the release of the UN report which accused the Jewish state of committing war crimes during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. At the same time, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration in Washington was also awaiting “further outcomes” of…

Syrian Kurdish fighters have chased Islamic State (ISIS) members from a key base north of the jihadists’ stronghold city of Raqa, a monitoring group said on Monday night, according to the AFP news agency. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units, with air support from the United States, took complete control of the Liwa (Brigade) 93 base,…

Egyptian security forces on Monday killed 22 suspected terrorists who were planning to target security forces in the restive North Sinai province, security sources said, according to Reuters. The sources said security forces struck a group of people meeting outside a mosque south of the town of Sheikh Zuwayed who were planning an attack on…

Residents of the Druze town of Majdal Shams were filmed on Monday night as they celebrated an attack by dozens of Israeli Druze on an IDF ambulance that was carrying wounded Syrian refugees to care in Israel. The celebration included dancing, chants of joy and flag waving, according to Channel 2 News. The background to…

Iran will need to show more flexibility to reach a nuclear deal with six world powers, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Monday, according to the International Business Times. Speaking to reporters in Luxembourg, Hammond also suggested the talks might go on beyond a 30 June deadline. “There will need to be some more…

An American airstrike in northern Iraq has killed an Islamic State (ISIS) operative who was a person of interest in the 2012 Benghazi attack, the Pentagon said Monday, according to AFP. Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren identified the operative as Tariq bin al-Tahar bin al-Falih al-‘Awni al-Harzi of Tunisia, who was killed in Mosul on…

Israel does not need to “apologize all the time”, Ambassador Alan Baker told Arutz Sheva on Monday, following the release of the UN report which accused Israel of committing war crimes in Gaza. Baker is formerly Israel’s ambassador to Canada and director of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs…

Following the severe vandalism on the ancient Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery by Arab rioters, the Religious Services Ministry intends to double the security budget for the site, Arutz Sheva has learned Tuesday.  “We are not going to give in to terrorism in the Mount of Olives area,” Religious Affairs Minister David Azoulay (Shas) stated Tuesday. “We will double…

The managers of the Yavneh wedding hall behind last night’s chandelier disaster should be held responsible, father of the groom David Levi stated Tuesday.  “This is grossly irresponsible,” Levi stated on Southern Radio on Tuesday, calling to hold the contractors who installed it responsible.  He added that he was very close to where the chandelier fell. “I heard…

Is there no end to the evils of the Great Satan? Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has claimed the United States is trying to arrest the Shia Muslim messiah, known as the “Hidden Imam,” in bizarre speech to his supporters Monday. In comments made to a group of clerics, which were posted by his supporters on the Dolatebahar.com…

The Knesset Committee is in the midst of a heated debate on Tuesday morning, on whether to revoke the diplomatic immunity of MK Basel Ghattas (Joint List) for his intent to participate in anti-Israel activity on a “freedom flotilla” heading for Gaza. The flotilla is the combined effort of several anti-Israel NGOs and Islamic Jihad has…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu strongly condemned the Israeli Druze attack of an IDF ambulance Monday night, which resulted in the death of at least one Syrian citizen being transported to hospital for treatment.  “I view this most severely,” Netanyahu said at the international cyber conference. “We will not allow anyone to take the law into their own hands.…

Former Shas leader and interior minister Eli Yishai gave a first media interview Monday, to Channel 2‘s Yair Cherki, after his party’s loss in the last elections. According to the report accompanying the interview, the Yachad party owes NIS 12 million, and Yishai gave personal security for NIS 2-3 million out of these debts. Yishai…

The recent UN report blasting Israel for alleged “war crimes” during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza has sparked the revival of the Associations Law in the Knesset, after the report was funded in part by several extreme leftist Israeli non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  MK Yinon Magal of the Jewish Home party – which sponsored the bill during…

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations issued a scathing condemnation of the UN Human Rights Council’s report on last summer’s war with Gazan terrorists, branding council members as “the soldiers of Hamas.” Ambassador Ron Prosor noted that the findings of the committee – which censured Israel while largely ignoring Palestinian abuses – supplemented moves by…

The Border Policeman who was badly injured in Sunday’s stabbing attack near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem regained consciousness on Monday and is communicating, despite the severity of his injuries.  Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino paid him a bedside visit on Monday morning and talked with his family. “They told me what happened to him after the stabbing, it enhances his heroism,” Danino…

With the Palestinian Authority heading to the International Criminal Court next week to attempt to prosecute Israel for alleged war crimes, Shurat Hadin/Israel Law Center – an Israeli civil rights group which combats and bankrupts terror groups via the legal system – is calling on the ICC to remove the chief prosecutor Mrs. Fatou Bensouda overseeing the case.  In an official letter to…

David Elhiyani, head of the Jordan Valley Regional Council, told a Knesset committee Monday that photographers from extreme left-wing organizations continually come to the Jordan Valley in their work to denigrate Israel.  The reason for the visits of these extremist organizations, Elhiyani asserts, are their efforts to promote the boycott movement against Israel.  According to Elhiyani, the…

The heat surrounding MK Michael Oren (Kulanu) grew stronger on Monday as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) attacked his most recent article on US President Barack Obama, calling it both “unjustified and insensitive.”  In an essay published in Foreign Policy Magazine on Friday, Oren argued “historians will likely look back at Obama’s policy toward Islam with a combination…

The Islamic State (ISIS) on Monday hanged two youths after accusing them of eating during daylight hours in the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights said. “Residents of the village of Mayadeen in Deir Ezzor province reported that IS hanged from a crossbar two boys aged under 18 near the…

A crowd of dozens of Israeli Druze attacked an IDF ambulance on Monday night, as it passed through Majdal Shams toward Kiryat Shmona carrying wounded Syrian refugees to care in Israel.  The Druze threw rocks at the ambulance, resulting in the death of one of the wounded Syrians. The condition of another wounded Syrian who was in…

The White House slammed Interior Minister Silvan Shalom’s wife, media personality Judy Nir Mozes Shalom, on Monday after she tweeted an offensive joke about US President Barack Obama.  Mozes claimed the tweet, which was almost immediately deleted, was simply her repeating a joke she had heard.  “Do you know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak,” she wrote…

President Reuven Rivlin issued a response to the damning UN report on Israel’s conduct during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza on Monday night, noting that Israel faces unique moral dilemmas that the global community cannot comprehend.  “Just one year has passed since the Israel Defense Forces were required to stand, as a protective edge, for…

Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich’s new bill to foster greater transparency in the public sphere would require judges and senior civil servants to file a financial statement. The bill, an effort to fight widespread corruption in Israel, is widely supported in the Knesset, with MKs from Zionist Union, Yisrael Beytenu, United Torah Judaism and Jewish Home…

About 500 Ethiopian-Israeli protestors demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Monday, despite a series of agreements reached with the Israel Police before the protest designed to stop the string of demonstrations.  The participants demonstrated in front of the government complex in the city and out into Rabin Square. At least 17 people have now been arrested, according to Walla! News,…

The Joint Arab List rallied Monday around MK Basel Ghattas, who announced Sunday he would be on board the Freedom Flotilla III, which will attempt to breach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza in the last week of June.  “Israel’s blockade of Gaza is a great crime, as was the war and the killing of civilians,” party…

Strange as it may sound at first, an Arab MK’s plan to board a flotilla headed for Gaza could keep Shas MK Yaakov Mergi from attending his son’s wedding. The reason is this: Mergi planned on being absent from the Knesset during votes that are scheduled to be held Monday evening, because of his son’s wedding. Since…

Indian intelligence agencies on Monday warned police in New Delhi and other states of the country to be on the alert for terrorist attacks against Israeli tourists in India, a common destination for young Israelis after their mandatory IDF service. The advisory warned that terrorist groups may be targeting Israeli tourists or the Israeli Embassy…

After destroying the Tomb of Jonah (Yonah), one of the Jewish prophets from Biblical times, shortly after conquering Mosul in Iraq where the tomb is located last July, the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization is now planning to construct a park over the important site. Al Arabiya reported on Saturday that local sources in Mosul had…

Doctors at Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem, who are treatiing the 20-year-old Border Policeman who on Sunday was critically wounded in a terrorist stabbing at Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City, report that the officer has undergone a miraculous improvement and his condition continues to stabilize. Dr. Ofer Merin, head of the trauma division at Shaare Tzedek, told radio 103FM on Monday about…

Residents of Horfesh, in the Galilee, attacked a military ambulance that passed near their town Sunday night. The vehicle was carrying two people who were wounded in the Syrian civil war to a hospital. The Druze suspected that the casualties were jihadists, who were fighting their Druze brethren in Syria. They tried to block the…

Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King, who is chairman of the Jerusalem municipality’s emergency and security committee, reported on Sunday night that his home in Ma’ale Hazeitim on the Mount of Olives in eastern Jerusalem was attacked by Arab terrorists with firebombs and rocks – marking the 52nd attack in less than two years. King wrote on Facebook…

Europol, the European police agency, is launching a new police team to combat Islamic State (ISIS) online, in an attempt to block the remarkably successful recruitment through social media that has seen citizens of the West flock to jihad in Syria and Iraq. Europol is to work with social media companies to track the accounts…

Two convicted murderers have eluded hundreds of police officers in upstate New York for over two weeks, but a recent sighting has shifted the search yet again after the two reportedly were seen along a railroad line on Saturday. Richard Matt and David Sweat broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Franklin County on June 6,…

The Katif Center for memorializing Gush Katif has announced the winners of a poster design contest it held, to mark a decade since the Expulsion from the Gush Katif bloc in Gaza. Matanya Daifani, from the Ashkelon Regional College, won first place – and NIS 8,000 – with a work that depicts a maze that…

Arabs on Sunday evening threw rocks and firebombs at a bus that was traveling the communities of Adam and the Arab village of Hizma on Highway 437 in the Binyamin region. The driver of the bus was lightly injured in the attack and several passengers were treated for shock. Magen David Adom paramedics who were…

Some of the “gestures,” or concessions, that Israel gave Palestinian Arabs for the month of Ramadan have been cancelled following the stabbing of a Border Policeman in Jerusalem Sunday, and the murder of a Jewish man in Samaria Friday. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon instructed the defense establishment to cancel entry…

Reaction from both sides of the political aisle poured in Sunday to the “threat” by United Arab List MK Bassal Gattas that he would join the flotilla that was planning to reach Israel at the end of June. Both rightwing and leftwing MKs and parties condemned Ghattas, saying that he would only exacerbate tensions in…

Activists and attorneys for the Honenu legal rights organization were up in arms over the indictment of an Arab terrorist who was indicted Sunday – but not on charges of attempted murder. The terrorist was arrested after he stabbed in the back a Jewish youth near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem on the night of…

Members of the Ethiopian-Jewish community plan to hold what they say will be their largest protest to date Monday afternoon, near the Azrieli Towers in Tel Aviv. The protesters will demand that the Attorney General reverse last week’s decision not to file charges against the policeman who beat up an Ethiopian soldier, Damas Pakada, in…

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was in Israel Sunday to meet with officials and discuss, among other things what, if any, progress Western countries are making with Iran on that country’s nuclear program. Paris has been much more cognizant of the dangers of an Iranian nuclear program than almost any of the other six Western…

Iran’s parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly approved the outline of a bill that, if passed, would impose strict conditions on any nuclear deal with world powers, Reuters reported. The draft bill must still pass through parliament and then the Guardian Council, an unelected body close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, before becoming law, the report…

Adnan’s three-month journey from the bombed-out wreckage of Aleppo to Paris took him on a treacherous voyage by sea, foot, trucks and trains in search of safety and freedom. “I was wanted. I had taken part in demonstrations for democracy and had been imprisoned four times,” said Adnan, using a false name for fear of repercussions, in a recent interview with…

Israel’s foreign ministry has taken down a video that angered foreign journalists by ridiculing their coverage of Hamas-ruled Gaza, AFP reported Sunday. “The goal of the video was to illustrate the crimes of Hamas,” ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon explained, adding, “When that was misinterpreted, we decided to remove it.” The 49-second cartoon clip, entitled “Open…

Former South African president F.W. de Klerk on Sunday said that sanctions against Israel would be “counterproductive,” The Associated Press (AP) reported. The report quoted de Klerk as having told Israeli radio that comparisons between apartheid South Africa and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians are “odious.” He added that he prefers “dialogue and negotiation as…

Egyptian authorities on Sunday decided to open the Rafah crossing in both directions on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, to allow the passage of humanitarian aid, the Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported. The crossing was closed last Sunday by Egypt after it had been opened for one week on the occasion of Ramadan. Official sources told the…

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius asked Jordan on Sunday to comply with international procedures as it seeks the extradition of the suspected mastermind of a deadly attack on a Paris Jewish restaurant in 1982, AFP reported. “I have asked our Jordanian friends… to respect international procedure,” Fabius said in Amman during a joint news conference…

Islamic State (ISIS) group jihadists have mined the spectacular ancient ruins in Syria’s Palmyra, an antiquities official and monitor said Sunday, prompting fears for the UNESCO World Heritage site. The reports came one month after the extremist group overran the central Syrian city, reported the AFP news agency. Syria’s antiquities chief Maamoun Abdulkarim and the…

Pope Francis on Sunday denounced what he called the “great powers” of the world for failing to act when there was intelligence indicating that Jews and others were being transported to death camps in Europe during World War II, according to The Associated Press (AP). The pope’s harsh assessments came in remarks during a visit…

Israel carried out an air strike in eastern Lebanon on Sunday targeting a drone belonging to the Jewish state that crashed in the area, a security source told AFP. “An Israeli air strike was launched this morning to destroy one of their drones that crashed in the mountains outside Saghbine yesterday,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another security…

A group of students from Saudi Arabia and a number of other Gulf states visited the Israeli Embassy in Washington as part of an international education program, classified documents published by WikiLeaks on Friday reveal.  According to the documents, just some of the 60,000 secret Saudi diplomatic communications leaked, the embassy staff gave the students diplomatic briefings.…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday by vowing to find the terrorist murderers responsible for the shooting attack Friday which killed 25 year-old Danny Gonen.  “I wish to send condolences to the family of Danny Gonen of blessed memory, who was murdered by a despicable murderer,” Netanyahu said. “I wish to send…

The Israeli Defense Forces will practice “no restraint” in attacking civilian areas in Lebanon should another war break out with Lebanese terror group Hezbollah, a senior military official told German newspaper Die Zeit. According to Israeli Air Force (IAF) chief Major-General Amir Eshel, Israel will not hesitate to attack military command centers located inside civilian areas…

“The rapid response, despite severe injury, resulted in the immediate termination of the terror attack and prevented further harm to innocent people,” Jerusalem District Commander Moshe Edri said at the scene. “The [policeman] acted professionally to neutralize the terrorist, and is worthy of every praise and blessing – and I wish a quick and complete…

Academy Award-winning actress Helen Mirren was presented with a Recognition Award by the World Jewish Congress on Friday, for her role in the acclaimed film “Woman in Gold.” The WJC Recognition Award, which honors outstanding individuals working on behalf of the Jewish people, was presented to Mirren by WJC President Ronald S. Lauder at a ceremony…

A border policeman has been left seriously wounded after being stabbed by an Arab terrorist in Jerusalem, close to the Old City’s Damascus Gate. Security forces and paramedics are already at the scene. The victim, aged 20, is in critical condition and fighting for his life, with stab wounds to his neck. Paramedics performed emergency first aid at the scene,…

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) lost an important lawsuit on Friday, after the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a pro-Israel non-profit organization was wrongly discriminated against.  Z Street has accused the IRS of violating the First Amendment by putting pro-Israel organizations that apply for tax-exempt status to a more stringent review than other organizations. The…

A new flotilla is on its way to Gaza – and MK Basel Ghattas (United List) said Sunday that he planned on joining it. In a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Ghattas said he would travel to Athens to join Freedom Flotilla III, due to attempt to breach the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza in…

Judy Nir Moses Shalom – whose husband, Silvan Shalom, is Interior Minister – tweeted an offensive joke about US President Barack Obama Sunday, and then apologized for it. “Do you know what Obama Coffee is? Black and weak,” she had tweeted. Shortly afterward, she deleted the tweet and wrote: “I apologize, it was a stupid…

Three years after it withdrew its ambassador from Israel, when Operation Pillar of Defense was launched in Gaza, Egypt is about to send a new ambassador to its Tel Aviv embassy. Hazem Hayrath, 57, who was a senior assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister until recently, was tapped as the new ambassador to Israel and will…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke Sunday with Border Police Commander, Major General Amos Yaakov, and asked to convey wishes of speedy recovery to the Border Policeman who was seriously wounded in the stabbing terror attack Sunday in Jerusalem. “Tell the warrior in the name of all the citizens of Israel that he is a big…

Rabbi Itzik Gonen, a rabbi-instructor in the pre-military academy in Lod and a cousin of Danny Gonen hy”d, who was gunned down by an Arab terrorist Friday in Samaria, told Arutz Sheva about Danny Sunday. It turns out that Danny was an activist and idealist who helped shore up the religious youth movement, Ezra, in…

Despite the two terror attacks that took place in Israel within the past 48 hours, Israel has not rescinded any of the “gestures” it granted Palestinian Authority residents for the Ramadan period – and concerned citizens belonging to the “Return to the Mount” group seek to change that. In a letter to Defense Minister Moshe…

“Our Truth” is grass-roots movement of IDF soldiers who want the world to know what it is really like to defend Israel – as opposed to the “out of context stories told by groups like Breaking the Silence, which do not present a full picture to European listeners,” according to Avihai Shorshan, one of the…

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Saturday urged the resumption of Middle East peace talks, AFP reported. The French minister also warned that continued Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria poses a threat to a final deal between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). “What’s important is that negotiations restart,” Fabius told reporters during a…

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) on Saturday night attended the funeral of Danny Gonen, the 26-year-old who was murdered in Friday’s shooting attack in the Binyamin region, and promised to perpetuate his memory in the spot where he was murdered. Ariel said that he would act to rename the spring next to which Gonen…

France’s foreign minister will head to the Middle East this weekend with an initiative aimed at bringing Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) back to peace talks under an international framework, Reuters reported Friday. With the region’s crises worsening and Washington reassessing its options on U.S.-Israel relations, France sees a narrow window to resume negotiations,…

The Canadian government introduced a new bill Friday banning the Muslim niqab veil from being worn during the naturalization ceremony to receive citizenship, CIJnews reported.  The bill, which has been submitted to parliament, would require all participants to ensure their faces were exposed for a few seconds during the ceremony.  The Ministry for Multicultural Affairs explained that the new law…

Terror attacks worldwide soared by 35% in 2014 – with 81% more fatalities, according to a US State Department report released Friday.  Overall, in 2014, there were 13,463 terror attacks resulting in 32,700 deaths.  More than 9,400 people were kidnapped or held hostage by terrorists – three times more than in 2013.  Washington attributed the surge “largely…

Former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz (Kadima) has arrived safely in London, Maariv reports Saturday night, despite fears of his possible arrest for “war crimes” in Gaza.  Earlier, Channel 2 reported that Palestinian Authority (PA) lobbying had encouraged British officials to have Israeli officials arrested for alleged “war crimes” in Gaza.  The Foreign Ministry and the Israeli embassy in London have been working…

The UN’s refugee agency marked World Refugee Day Saturday in Damascus, calling on the global community not to ignore the plight of millions of people around the world displaced by war and persecution, according to AFP.  The main aim of the campaign is to “get to know the refugees and bring them closer to the public,” said Ajmal Khaibari, the deputy head…

Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s junior staff will be striking from Sunday until further notice, they announced Saturday night, due to a series of scheduled layoffs in the ever-shrinking Humanities department.  The strike will be held across all HUJI campuses and will include the final week of the Spring 2015 semester. Some 80 junior staff members…

United States Congressman Louie Gohmert revealed Thursday that the Obama administration had “outed” an active Israeli spy mission in Iran. Israel, he said, had infiltrated Israeli spies into mainland Iran via cargo boats. He dropped the bombshell in a speech at EMET’s 9th annual “Rays of Light in the Darkness” gala dinner. Rep. Gohmert, who…

Israel’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, David Roet, lambasted a UN report on children in warfare Thursday, noting that in the context of numerous Islamic wars where thousands of children were murdered this year alone, “it is simply absurd that this report disproportionately focuses on Israel.” The diplomat spoke at a UN Security Council…

A large brushfire continues to burn in the Har HaOsher area, south of Ramat Korazim, north of the Kinnereth (Sea of Galilee) on Saturday night. Five firefighting crews from Tiveria and Karmiel have flooded the area, and four planes are at the scene monitoring the situation. The fire has still not been contained.  This particular area…

China has announced that fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan will not be permitted in the largely-Muslim province of Xinjiang. This is not the first time such a ban has been imposed, but this year tensions are extra high because of recent attacks in the area carried out by Muslim extremists. With China’s…

Loading… One person has been killed and another wounded, in a shooting attack close to the town of Dolev in the Binyamin region, north of Jerusalem. Paramedics and a large team of IDF security forces – including at least one military helicopter – arrived at the scene after responding to reports that terrorists had opened fire on an Israeli vehicle at 4:15…

Dylann Roof – the 21-year-old white supremacist arrested over a massacre at a Black church in Charleston, South Carolina – has confessed to police to the murder of the nine people gunned down in cold bloody Wednesday night. According to CNN, Roof told police that he had opened fire with his .45-caliber pistol in order to start a…

Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon’s apology for Kulanu MK and former Ambassador to the US Michael Oren’s remarks about US President Barack Obama weaken Israel, Attorney Yoram Sheftel said Friday.  “This is an excellent article by Michael Oren, which shows by contrast the obsequious, cowardly and disgraceful attitude of the party of Finance Minister Kahlon,” Sheftel fired. “Oren…

In a story that is both incredible and tragic, one stowaway survived the 8,000-mile flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to London on Thursday by apparently clinging on in the wheel recess of a British Airways Boeing 747 – a fellow stowaway who was with him fell to his death in London. The two are thought to…

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday he is ready to “push” his Syrian counterpart Bashar Al-Assad towards introducing reforms in the war-torn country, but vowed he would continue to support his ally. “We are ready to work with Assad so that he engages in a process of political change,” Putin said at the Saint Petersburg…

The UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, on Friday condemned the shooting attack near the community of Dolev in the Binyamin region, in which 25-year-old Danny Gonen was murdered. “On this second day of Ramadan and  at the start of the Shabbat, I call on all sides to exercise the…

A Lebanese-Canadian will stand trial in Cyprus on terror charges, after 8.2 tons of fertilizer that can be used for bomb making was allegedly found in his home, police said Friday, according to AFP. Authorities believe the man, whose name is being withheld in accordance with the law, has links with the so-called “military wing”…

Yemen’s exiled government and Shiite rebels who control the capital failed to agree on even a temporary ceasefire Friday as they wrapped up UN-brokered talks, reports The Associated Press (AP). The collapse of the talks came as Saudi-led airstrikes continued to pound the Iran-backed rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies. UN envoy Ismail Ould…

The Hamas terrorist group on Friday welcomed the shooting attack near the town of Dolev in the Binyamin region, in which 25-year-old Danny Gonen was murdered and another man was wounded. “We welcome the unique and heroic operation that took place near Ramallah,” said Hamas spokesman Husam Badran. “We, and with us all our people,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday evening responded to the shooting attack near the town of Dolev in the Binyamin region, vowing that Israel will find the terrorist responsible. “The signs on the ground indicate that the shooting incident today near the community of Dolev was a terrorist attack. We are working to identify whoever…

The man who was killed in Friday’s shooting attack near the town of Dolev in the Binyamin region has been named as 25-year-old Danny Gonen from the city of Lod. Gonen’s friend was wounded in the attack and is hospitalized at the Tel Hashomer Hospital in light to moderate condition. Gonen’s uncle, speaking to the…

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has announced a string of additional measures his government will take to confront the “developing jihadist terror threat,” according to the Canadian Israeli Hebrew-language news site CIJ News. The measures include increasing the funding of the Canadian intelligence organization CSIS, in order to improve Canada’s ability to thwart both home-grown terror attacks, as…

Danish opposition leader Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s right-wing bloc emerged victorious in the country’s general election but his Venstre party suffered a crushing blow, losing a quarter of its seats in parliament. “The coming days will determine whether it will be possible to build a majority for a (government) platform that will lead Denmark down the right path,” Rasmussen told cheering supporters after…

The events of this week and the sedras we read last week and will read this Shabbat, combine in our minds and hearts in different ways. One thing that should always have been clear but we sometimes tend to forget, is that being Jewish and being part of the Jewish People are not exactly synonymous. What I…

The PLO’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on Thursday issued a 56-page report in which he suggested that the PLO retract its recognition of Israel if the status quo continues. In a report entitled ‘Determining Palestinian-Israeli relations: Changing, not merely improving, the situation’, quoted by the Ma’an news agency, Erekat recommends that the PLO leadership consider…

The United States is struggling to implement its training program for moderate Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) group, the Pentagon admitted Thursday, according to AFP. Only “100 to 200” fighters have actively begun training at American sites in Jordan and Turkey, according to Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren, of the 5,000 forces the…

The UN has closed the last remaining shelter for Palestinian Arabs displaced in last summer’s war in Gaza, a spokesman said on Thursday, according to AFP. The July-August conflict between Israel and the Islamist terrorist movement Hamas, which rules Gaza, left 100,000 Gazans homeless and forced many to seek refuge in schools belonging to the…

The picture above is from the Harvard Zionist Archive. (if you scroll down you will see it again, reinserted so that the caption can be visible). An apparently doctored version of the same event taken from the Ottoman Archives is below. The location was a mystery at first but then identified by some of the people quoted here. In fact, you can…

A fourth American citizen has been arrested in the greater New York area in less than a week on allegations of supporting the Islamic State (ISIS) extremist group, officials said Thursday, according to the AFP news agency. Samuel Rahamin Topaz, 21, from Fort Lee, New Jersey, was charged with conspiracy to provide material support to…

Lawyers for Egypt’s deposed Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, on Thursday appealed his sentencing to 20 years in prison for the arrest and torture of protesters during his mandate, AFP reported. Morsi, who was ousted by then army chief and now President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in July 2013, was convicted in April over the protest outside…

Professor Oren Froy, senior lecturer at the Institute of Biochemistry of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, believes that Israel will move to ban trans fats, just as the Food and Drug Administration in the United States did this week. “In a few years we’ll probably have the same thing here – no trans fats in…

MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid), former head of the Eshkol Regional Council, penned a strongly-worded letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday, after the altter accused the IDF of making Gazan children “suffer” last summer during Operation Protective Edge. Yellin noted that he has lived in the Gaza Belt area for 39 years, and that…

The Hezbollah affiliated Al-Manar TV station reported on Friday that forces of the Iran-backed terror proxy in Lebanon killed two Islamic State (ISIS) commanders and seven ISIS terrorists in two separate attacks near a northeastern border town. Both incidents took place in the chaotic Qalamoun mountainous region near Syria, where ISIS as well as Syrian rebel groups such…

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev (Likud) dismissed the leftist artistic elite on Friday as leftists protest in Tel Aviv, calling some of them “petty bores” and “hypocrites.” Less than two weeks after she threatened to cut funding for a theater led by an actor who said he would boycott hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens, cultural figures held a protest on Friday to…

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir escaped South Africa late Monday, just before he was due to be tried for war crimes in Darfur.  Bashir arrived in Johannesburg on Sunday for an African Union (AU) conference, and reportedly was given a warm reception despite a warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his arrest.  After some…

Common sense would seem to dictate that if one had consumed several alcoholic drinks they would avoid putting themselves and others at risk by getting behind the wheel, and even in the event that they did break the law they would at least try to avoid incident and detection. But common sense evidently was not the major…

Twenty leftist protestors have gathered outside the Israeli Theater Awards ceremony at the Einav center in Tel Aviv on Friday, to protest alleged censorship from current Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud).  The activists carried blank signs and bandages on their mouths to say they are “being silenced,” so to speak.  During the ceremony, 17 prizes…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a videotaped greeting to Israel’s Muslim citizens on Thursday, in time for the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Speaking in front of a background of the flag of Israel, and a bookshelf with a family picture and classical Jewish religious texts such as the Talmud and Shulchan Aruch, Netanyahu wished…

Former Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev, who was ousted by party head Aryeh Deri in January, spoke out on Friday in support of former Shas head Eli Yishai, who is dealing with large debts after his Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party that ran on a joint list with Otzma Yehudit just missed out in the last…

The Libyan government announced Sunday that a US airstrike in the North African state had taken out the senior Algerian terrorist leader Mokhtar Belmokhtar, but on Thursday Belmokhtar’s al-Mourabitoun terrorist organization denied the report. According to Al Arabiya on Friday, al-Mourabitoun, or The Sentinels, released a statement in Arabic via the Mauritanian news agency Alakhbar, denying that Belmokhtar…

Jewish Home MK Yinon Magal spoke to Arutz Sheva on Thursday, condemning the arson attack against a church in Tiberias.  “I see this as a grave matter,” he said. “This is not just a very serious act but also a stupid one that harms our image worldwide.” “We are not ISIS,” he added, referring to the brutal Islamic State terrorist…

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon attacked Israel on Thursday, saying it needed to do more to protect the lives of Palestinian Arab children during counter-terror operations in Gaza – even as international law experts say Israel is warning Gazans too much and harming the ability of Western democracies to combat terror. “Last year was one of the worst…

In response to the shooting at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina – which left nine people dead and was conducted by Dylann Roof of Lexington, who was arrested Thursday – Jewish groups throughout the US issued statements of shock and condemnation. Jewish communities around the nation expressed condolences to the families of the…

Police on Thursday arrested 21-year-old Dylann Roof of Lexington, South Carolina, after he conducted a horrific shooting attack on Wednesday that murdered nine people at an historic African-American church in Charleston. Roof was arrested three hours away from the church near Shelby, North Carolina. Law enforcement officials say witnesses revealed Roof took part in the weekly Bible study class at…

The Obama Administration has been pressuring Jerusalem to criticize an article by former Ambassador to the US, MK Michael Oren (Kulanu), in which he accused US President Barack Obama of purposely causing a deterioration in US-Israel relations. Arutz Sheva has learned that the US pressure – which began after the article appeared in the Wall…

Extraditing to France the suspected mastermind terrorist of a deadly attack on a Paris Jewish restaurant in 1982 may prove difficult, a Jordanian source close to the case said on Thursday. “Jordan does not usually extradite its citizens to other countries, even in the case of an extradition agreement,” the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. “In such a case,…

Top Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen last Friday, but according to US officials the CIA bagged the Al Qaeda leader by pure luck. According to the officials, the strike went ahead without knowing who the exact targets were, using a “signature strike”…

A Knesset Channel poll published Thursday indicates that almost one half of the Israeli public agrees with MK Michael Oren (Kulanu), the former Israeli ambassador in the US, who said this week that US President Barack Obama has “deliberately” caused a deterioration in US-Israel ties. The poll found that despite the large degree of support…

Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) is to file legislation this week to fine the US State Department for refusing to release a key report on Iran’s rampant human rights violations, which sources say is being withheld so as not to anger Iran during the nuclear talks that are approaching a June 30 deadline. The administration…

70 countries across the planet united on Thursday to express outrage over the Syrian regime’s systematic use of barrel bombs and to demand an end to the deadly, indiscriminate attacks, according to AFP. May 2015 was “reportedly the deadliest month of the Syrian crisis so far,” said a letter addressed to the president of the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday night blasted the UN’s hypocrisy, after the head of the global body, Ban Ki-moon, accused the IDF of making Gazan children “suffer” last summer in its counter-terror operation. “This is a dark day for the United Nations,” Netanyahu said. “Instead of mentioning the fact that Hamas turned Gaza’s children…

Amid speculation by experts that a nuclear deal with Shi’ite Iran might force its Sunni rival Saudi Arabia to buy a nuclear weapon, likely from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia on Thursday signed a nuclear agreement with Russia. Al Arabiya reported that six agreements were signed Thursday between the Saudis and the Russians, including one on the “peaceful use…

The Shavei Israel organization brought a group of 78 Bnei Menashe immigrants on Aliyah thursday from the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, which borders Burma and Bangladesh. Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) greeted the immigrants upon arrival. These new olim (immigrants) will be settled in Katzrin on the Golan Heights, which was the tribal patrimony of…

Responding to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon’s accusations on Thursday that the IDF made Gazan children “suffer” last summer in its counter-terror operation, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) struck back criticizing the remarks. “The biased and one-sided approach of the UN regarding IDF activities in (Operation) Protective Edge is outrageous,” Hotovely said Thursday night. “At…

The new Minister of Internal Security, Gilad Erdan (Likud), conducted his first tour on the job Thursday, in eastern Jerusalem. The minister met residents of Jewish neighborhoods Ma’ale Hazeitim and Shiloah (Silwan in Arabic), who have been under near daily attacks from their Arab neighbors with firebombs, rocks and fireworks for years. He also met some…

As Israel makes “historic” concessions to Muslim populations in Judea, Samaria and Gaza in allowing direct access to the Temple Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – for the Muslim fast month of Ramadan that begins Thursday, the Jerusalem municipality is making its own special preparations to enhance the aesthetic experience of Arab visitors.…

The UN’s refugee chief on Thursday urged the world including Western states to open up their borders and follow Turkey’s example in hosting Syrian refugees, AFP reported.  Turkey, which has taken in some 1.8 million Syrian refugees since the conflict started in 2011, has repeatedly said that it has been left toshoulder a disproportionate burden as Western states stand by. UN High…

Former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin, a staunch critic of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhu and other like-minded politicians, may be considering his own career in politics.  “My coolness to politics expired with the previous elections,” Diskin told Walla! News in an interview published on Thursday. “I had many offers but I refused them consistently.” Instead, Diskin backed Zionist Union chairman Yitzhak Herzog,…

Although not a member of the government, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman on Thursday proposed a law that is likely to be supported by the right-wing coalition. The law would strip political parties of government funding if they supported boycotts of any Israeli products, including those from Judea and Samaria. The bill would also halt funding…

Joining the chorus of artists blasting Culture Minister Miri Regev for “pressuring” the Jerusalem Film Festival to cancel the screening of a movie about Yigal Amir was documentary filmmaker Dror Moreh.  Moreh, the director of the controversial film “The Gatekeepers,” which featured interviews with six former heads of the Shin Bet, is known for being outspoken in his leftist views.  Speaking to Channel 10’s…

Police arrested this afternoon 16 individuals in connection with the arson at a Galilee church Thursday morning. Police released no details about the arrests, other than to say that they were residents of communities in the Samaria region. According to police sources, the youths were on a hike in the region, and were arrested several kilometers away from…

Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) expressed outrage Thursday morning at reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon were planning to cut funds promised to parties in coalition agreements.  An estimated 8.2 billion shekels were promised to various parties who joined Netanyahu’s fourth government in April and May.  According to reports,…

Jordan is gearing up for a possible invasion by Islamic terror groups, local media reported Thursday.  According to reports, King Abdullah II, on a tour this week of border areas near Iraq and Syria, offered to arm Bedouin tribes living in those areas – on both sides of the border – to fight against Islamic State and…

An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for an Australian-trained doctor who appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video which urges other medical professionals to join the jihadists, police said. Tareq Kamleh was shown in the slick video, AFP reported, uploaded to YouTube in April, identifying himself as Abu Yusuf and explaining that he travelled to the city of Raqa in Syria to use…

The United Nation’s report on children and armed conflict is “inaccurate” and biased against Israel, said Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to the UN. The UN Security Council is set to discuss the report Thursday, a prime feature of which, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was “the unprecedented and unacceptable scale of the impact on children in…

Alexander Hamilton is being taken off the $10 bill and will be replaced, for the first time, by a woman, the United States Treasury announced on Wednesday.  Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said a woman will feature on a redesigned $10 bill to be issued in 2020 – to mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is also acting Communications Minister, has ordered the Communication Ministry’s Director General Shlomo Filber to shut down a new television station funded by the Palestinian Authority and operating in Nazareth. “Palestine 48” is directed specifically at Israeli Arabs, broadcasting propaganda to enhance their “Palestinian identity.” Netanyahu ordered Filber to examine the…

Despite a combination of rising anti-Semitism and economic hardships, Jewish immigration from France in 2015 has so far not lived up to its high expectations.  According to figures from the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, Haaretz reported, 1,1710 French Jews immigrated to Israel in the first five months of the year, a 19% drop from the same period last year. …

Iran and six powers are still apart on all main elements of a nuclear deal and will likely have to extend their negotiations beyond the June 30 deadline, two diplomats told The Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday. Negotiators have been meeting five days a week in Vienna over the past few weeks. The two diplomats…

Hamas has denied that it has been holding secret talks with Israel and that it had reached a long-term ceasefire agreement with the Jewish state, the Ma’an news agency reported on Wednesday, quoting a senior member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) group. According to the official, Saleh Zeidan, Hamas’s denial…

Iranian lawmakers have unveiled proposed legislation that a top official said would “protect the nation’s nuclear interests” but which could become an obstacle in negotiations for a deal, AFP reported Wednesday. The bill, sponsored by the chairman of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, was signed by 225 of the country’s 290 MPs and…

Switzerland’s Attorney General said on Wednesday that authorities have searched multiple premises in relation to an investigation into allegations that hackers had targeted venues which hosted negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reports. “We have an open investigation into political espionage in Switzerland,” Attorney General Michael Lauber was quoted as having told a news conference.…

The Canadian government’s public website for applying for social services and downloading official forms was briefly shut down Wednesday in a cyberattack claimed by the Anonymous group, AFP reported. Several other government websites including those of Parliament, Industry Canada and Public Works also appeared to be down, according to the news agency. “Confirmed today that…

A Uruguayan army bomb squad dismantled an “incomplete” explosive device Wednesday in front of an office tower housing the Israeli embassy, officials told AFP. The embassy is located in a waterfront commercial district of Montevideo. The device was contained in a sardine can and had a battery power source and cable but no explosive material,…

Israel is an army that whose basis is morality – no matter what outside organizations or countries say, said Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan, Deputy Defense Minister. Speaking at a graduation ceremony for students of pre-military academies Wednesday, Ben-Dahan said that he “felt a great privilege to be standing here with the future officers of the IDF.…

The Bet-El Educational Center were shocked to learn of the untimely passing of our dear friend Alex Friedman,  zz”l. Alex Friedman was among our first and our staunchest supporters. A Holocaust survivor, he is survived by his dear wife Evelyn, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We share the grief of the family and send Evelyn and her children our…

Syria has seen a surge in passport requests as citizens seek to flee the war-torn country, with close to a million applications lodged since January 1, media said on Wednesday. The civil war has killed more than 230,000 people and displaced millions since it began in 2011. “The number of passport applications this year, from inside and outside Syria, has reached…

Alarms were heard on the Golan Wednesday afternoon, as missiles and gunshots flew – on the other side of the border. Several minutes after the alarms sounded, they ended – and life continued as usual on the Heights. That’s fine, said a top IDF official. “The only story on the Golan is the fighting on…

The world’s chemical weapons watchdog on Wednesday said all effluents from Syria’s neutralized chemical weapons arsenal have been destroyed, according to AFP.  “The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons welcomes the disposal of effluents resulting from neutralization operations aboard the US vessel Cape Ray,” the Hague-based watchdog said in a statement. A total of 1,300 metric tonnes of chemical…

In Israel, the security fence has done an effective job of keeping Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists outside of Israeli communities – and other countries are learning from Israel’s success. The latest is Hungary which, although it does not have the problem of Serbian terrorists sneaking over the border to carry out terror attacks in Hungarian…

Matan Katzman, a retired Givati ​​officer retired and active in the My Truth pro-IDF organization, spoke Wednesday before the EU’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, which is expected to arrive in Israel as part of its ongoing fact-finding mission on Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. My Truth was established about six weeks ago by five reservists, in response…

Israel’s first museum of Arab contemporary art opened on Wednesday with a mission to promote peace – and will be open to Arabs and Jews alike. Founders of the Arab Museum of Contemporary Art, a joint project in cooperation with the mayor of northern Arab-Israeli town of Sakhnin, said it aims to promote “peace and dialogue,” according to AFP.  An old…

The suspected mastermind of an attack on a Paris Jewish restaurant in 1982 that left six people dead and 22 injured has been arrested in Jordan, a source close to the case said Wednesday. Zuhair Mohamad Hassan Khalid al-Abassi, alias “Amjad Atta”, was one of three men for whom France issued an international arrest warrant earlier this year, according to AFP. …

The Israel Prisons Service (IPS) are presently preparing for the possibility that towards the end of Ramadan, in July, terrorist prisoners will go on hunger strike to protest their prison conditions. However, the benefits they are striking for goes beyond the pale of basic living conditions, according to a report released Wednesday. Among the demands…

The United Nations peace envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, ended a three-day trip to Damascus Wednesday, condemning the deaths of civilians in both government and rebel fire, according to AFP. De Mistura met government officials, including President Bashar Al-Assad, during the visit, briefing them on consultations he is holding in Geneva with various parties…

Israel, Egypt and the United States are seeking to replace Mahmoud Abbas as chairman of the Palestinian Authority (PA), the Quds Press news agency reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed “senior Palestinian officials”. According to the report, a meeting was held in Cairo two weeks ago with representatives from the Israeli Mossad, Egyptian intelligence officers and…

A 21-year-old self-declared US supporter of the Islamic State terror group was arrested in New York after trying to stab an FBI agent on Wednesday, officials said, according to AFP.  Fareed Mumuni, 21, is the third suspect detained in connection with an alleged plot to bomb the city on behalf of ISIS, which has declared a “caliphate” based in Iraq and…

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) has penned an official apology letter to the White House Wednesday, after fellow party member, former ambassador MK Michael Oren accused US President Barack Obama of “deliberately” tanking US-Israel relations.  In the letter, Kahlon stated that Oren’s views are his alone, according to Channel 2, and that the accusations levied in the Wall…

Some things could only happen in the Jewish homeland, in 2015. This is definitely one of them: a man in haredi garb riding a rollercoaster with his son fights off fear by reciting Psalms at breakneck speed and videotaping the entire festive event – and all that with a big grin on his face. The…

This week’s show, untangle the web of online sales and social media with Nathalie Nahai, web psychologist and best-selling author of “Webs of Influence: The psychology of Online Persuasion.” What are the true intentions of online sellers and how can you best assess the value of your product? In the second interview, go back to…

Israeli media has been avidly following the fortunes of rookie NBA coach David Blatt, who left an indelible mark on Israeli basketball with his Euroleague championships at Maccabi Tel Aviv, but on Tuesday night he was unable to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to their first NBA Championship in his first year in the league. Instead…

Yemen’s warring parties have agreed at UN-sponsored peace talks on the need for a ceasefire but the details remain under discussion, a delegate to the discussions said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. The UN special envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, began shuttle diplomacy in Geneva trying to bridge differences between various political factions.…

Samantha Power, the United States’ ambassador to the UN, on Tuesday said that the Obama administration continues to fight efforts to delegitimize Israel at the UN, reports The Associated Press (AP). Power made the comments in a speech before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in response to comments from committee chairman Rep. Ed Royce. Royce…

At least 16 people, among them 13 children, were killed in Syrian government airstrikes on a town in the southern Daraa province on Tuesday, a monitor said, according to AFP. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strikes hit a center for study of the Koran in the town of Eastern Ghariyah. The Britain-based…

A new round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers will begin this week after a meeting starting on Wednesday in Vienna between Iranian negotiators and a senior EU official, the European Commission said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “EU Political Director Helga Schmid and her Iranian counterparts Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araghchi…

The White House on Tuesday confirmed that the leader of Al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch, Nasser al-Wuhayshi, has been killed in an airstrike, Reuters reported, calling the death a “major blow” to the organization. Al-Wuhayshi was the head of the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) terrorist group. Two Yemeni officials had said on Monday that he…

An Austrian court on Tuesday convicted nine people of Chechen origin arrested last year on their way to join Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists together with their Turkish driver. The nine, aged 18 to 28, were found guilty of belonging to a “terrorist” organization and given jail terms of between 19 months and three years, except…

One man in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi met a particularly horrific death, it was revealed on Wednesday, after a lion that escaped from the city’s zoo amid massive flooding mauled him to death. The flooding began Sunday, causing the Vere River on whose banks the zoo is situated to overflow. No less than 16 people have…

Emergency sirens went off in several communities in the northern Golan Heights Wednesday morning. The IDF Spokesman said that security forces have been combing the area but so far, have not found traces of explosions. It is likely that what set off the sirens were mortar shells that struck near the border, but inside Syrian…

Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the UN body tasked with aiding “Palestinian refugees,” admitted on Wednesday that Hamas terrorists hid weapons at UNRWA facilities during their terror war against Israel last summer. “We were the ones who found the weapons caches in our facilities during inspections,” Krahenbuhl told Yedioth Aharonoth in an interview. “The reason that the whole world knew about it is…

Syrian President Bashar Assad has employed many diverse and crude weapons against his own civilians in a long internecine attempt to put down a revolution seeking to oust his iron-fisted rule, and another new tool of destruction can be added to that list: the elephant rocket. Assad’s regime on Tuesday unleashed elephant rockets on the rebel-held Damascus…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas led a meeting of the Revolutionary Council of his Fatah faction on Tuesday, in which he laid out his foreign policy on key issues. Abbas revealed that there are no contacts with Israel as part of “peace talks” at the current juncture in time, and warned of the “destructive”…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett demanded Wednesday that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu convene the Diplomacy and Security Cabinet, often referred to in short as the Security Cabinet, a select inner circle of ministers entrusted with key decisions on security and international relations. Bennett said that the fact that the Security Cabinet has not met is a “very grave” matter and added…

A 20-year-old New York City college student has been arrested for plotting a pressure cooker bombing attack in the city to support Islamic State (ISIS), as revealed in Brooklyn court documents published on Tuesday. The student, Munther Omar Saleh, was arrested along with another man on Saturday morning when they got out of their car…

As the US appears to be shifting its policy and considering massive arms deployments to defend NATO allies in Eastern Europe from Russian aggression, Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to use force in response. “We will be forced to aim our armed forces…at those territories from where the threat comes,” warned Putin on Tuesday at…

The Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that it is making unprecedented “gestures” and is letting in hundreds of Arab residents of Gaza, Judea and Samaria to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount – the holiest site in Judaism – for the Muslim month of Ramadan. The announcement on eased traveling regulations comes a day before Ramadan…

Donald Trump has announced he will be running in the race to become the Republican party’s presidential candidate in 2016. The billionaire real estate mogul officially threw his hat into the ring at New York City’s Trump Towers, after months of toying with the idea. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for president of the United…

Dr. Yehuda Elimelech, Dean of the Computer Science school at the College of Management Academic Studies in Rishon Letzion, has high hopes for the Jewish State’s future as the Middle East’s “Silicon Wadi.” Speaking to Arutz Sheva as his students presented their final projects, Dr. Elimelech explained how in order to maintain its edge as a global leader in…

The IDF on Tuesday afternoon declared a region in the north-east of the Golan Heights near the border with Syria as a “closed military territory,” in a move that could potentially signify intelligence of a direct threat from over the border. The order blocks access for citizens who do not live in the region, so…

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder met with the famous Hollywood actor Michael Douglas in Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, as the latter is in Israel to receive the $1 million Genesis Prize on Thursday. The two met at the King David Hotel in the capital and discussed the recent skyrocketing in global incidents of…

Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King contacted the rest of the members of the Jerusalem city council on Tuesday morning, calling for the capital’s municipality not to fund any institution, organization or individual person who acts directly or indirectly against the state of Israel or any of its official branches. Specifically, King called to cut off the municipal funding…

One of the organizers of a neo-Nazi demonstration targeting the heart of London’s Jewish community has said protesters plan to desecrate Israeli flags and Jewish holy books in solidarity with the Palestinians and against the State of Israel. Joshua Bonehill – a fascist activist with numerous convictions for petty crime and racism – initiated the anti-Semitic campaign…

A new resolution has been submitted to the US House of Representatives revealing the rampant anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement rampant in the Palestinian Authority (PA), and calling for American action to counter the phenomenon. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a leading anti-incitement watchdog, hailed the resolution on Tuesday, noting that 14 of the 16 examples of incitement presented in…

Jailed murderer Ya’akov (Jack) Teitel’s health condition has rapidly worsened as he conducts a hunger strike – a ploy often used successfully by jailed Arab terrorists – and has led to a call Tuesday for a private doctor to be allowed in to see him. Teitel was sentenced to two life terms and 30 years in prison for two murders…

An Egyptian court upheld the death sentence handed down to former President Mohammed Morsi on Tuesday. The sentence was originally given last month, but a final ruling on it had been postponed until June 16 pending consultations with Egypt’s Grand Mufti, the country’s highest religious authority. Five other leading Islamists from the Muslim Brotherhood – including…

An Israeli source confirmed on Tuesday night there had been indirect contacts between Israel and Hamas, hours after sources in the terrorist group said Israel and Hamas have been holding indirect contacts about ideas for cementing a long-term truce in Gaza. “There are contacts with Egypt and other elements over an easing of the blockade…

The Foreign Ministry released a comic clip pointing out the often skewed coverage by foreign journalists regarding Hamas-ruled Gaza, and in particularly calling out the coverage on last summer’s counter-terror operation in Gaza. The 49-second cartoon clip, entitled “Open your eyes about Gaza,” was posted on YouTube on Sunday, and quickly drew condemnation from the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in Israel.…

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and UN peace envoy Staffan de Mistura agreed Tuesday to continue talks to find a political solution to the ongoing conflict, AFP reported, citing Syria’s state news agency. At the end of their meeting, Assad and de Mistura “agreed… to find a successful political solution in Syria and to return security…

IDF soldier David Adamov of the Nahal Brigade, who gained fame as “David the Nahlawi” last year when he was arrested and then released after cocking his gun when attacked by Arab terrorists in Hevron, became an officer on Tuesday. Hevron activist Baruch Marzel posted the announcement on Facebook. “Remember? David the Nahlawi from Nahal battalion 932…

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat was present at the opening of a new chapter of the religious-Zionist Ezra youth movement in the capital’s Har Homa (Homat Shmuel) neighborhood, in memory of murdered Israeli teenager Eyal Yifrah. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Barkat noted that expanding Israel’s growing network of Zionist youth movements was a fitting way to honor the memories…

Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas has threatened too dissolve the Fatah-Hamas unity government within 24 hours, as an ongoing dispute between his Fatah party and Gaza’s Islamist rulers boils over. “The government will resign in the next 24 hours because this one is weak and there is no chance that Hamas will allow it to…

The Jerusalem Film Festival has cancelled a screening of a documentary profiling Yigal Amir, the extremist who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995. The film, “Beyond the Fear,” charts Amir’s life behind bars, including his relationship with his family members. It had been the focus of fierce controversy, after thousands of complaints were reportedly emailed to the Culture Ministry. Critics…

Just six month since Portugal’s parliament voted to recognize the Palestinian Authority as an independent “State of Palestine,” the Portuguese government is set to launch a new drive aimed at promoting “Palestine” as an independent tourism destination – despite it not being a legal state or having any defined borders. Portuguese Tourism Minister Adolfo Mesquita Nunes…

In further confirmation of the fears of Obamacare critics, a new audit report has revealed that the federal government cannot verify $2.8 billion in subsidies distributed through Obamacare placing taxpayer funding “at risk.” The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) released the audit report on Tuesday, reports the Washington Free Beacon. It…

Charges were filed in the Judea-Samaria Military Court against Anas Ka’arna on Tuesday, a Palestinian Authority (PA) resident who joined the Al-Qaeda associated Al Nusra Front last year.  According to the indictment, Ka’arna joined Nusra in October 2014 in Syria, traveling there to train in order to carry out deadlier attacks against Jews in Judea…

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) said Tuesday that the state of Israel will have to find doctors who will be willing to enforce the force-feeding law that the government approved this week. The law would make it possible to force feed prisoners on hunger strike when their lives are in danger, if a judge has authorized…

An Arab terrorist attempted to cross the border fence on Tuesday, according to 0404, from Gaza near Kibbutz Zikim. IDF forces were forced to shoot at the infiltrator after he ignored calls to halt.  The terrorist is injured and was transferred to hospital for treatment. He is currently in moderate condition at Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon. …

Turkey’s government accused Kurdish forces battling Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists in northern Syria of carrying of “ethnic cleansing” of non-Kurdish populations, media said Tuesday. Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc at briefing late Monday expressed alarm Kurds were trying to bring together three so-called cantons of northern Syria into a single autonomous Kurdish region, according to AFP. Turkey has not shared the satisfaction in…

Orange boss Stephane Richard has taken legal action after receiving death threats against himself and family members amid a row over withdrawing his brand from Israel, legal sources said Tuesday. Richard filed a complaint at a Paris court last week before heading to Israel in a bid to calm the controversy, a source close to the affairdisclosed. “Stephane Richard…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has reopened an investigation against MK Oren Hazan (Likud) for assaulting a public servant in 2010. The incident has been investigated in the past, but continuing the inquiry required the approval of the Attorney-General after Hazan was elected.  According to the complaint, Hazan arrived upset at the Ariel municipality building after his family’s…

Im Tirtzu’s latest report reveals how three Israeli organizations, which have consultant status at the Economic-Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), have been acting against the State of Israel and promoting the delegitimization of Israel in the international community. The groups have also been calling for an inquiry into IDF actions in Gaza. Because…

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has voted former Danish parliament speaker Mogens Lykketoft to head its 70th anniversary session, the Associated Press reports Tuesday.  Lykketoft will be president of the UNGA for one year. During that time, he has urged leaders to “focus on the road ahead for peace, security and human rights.” Lykketoft has snubbed Israel in…

Yesh Atid party chairman Yair Lapid slammed reports Tuesday morning that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had been invited to the White House in July, just after the planned signing of a permanent nuclear agreement between Iran and the West.  ”This publication has not been confirmed but it’s alarming because it means that the prime minister will be invited…

Hamas is seriously considering a Qatar-backed proposal to hold a ceasefire with Israel for five years, Palestinian Arab news sources report Tuesday.  Reportedly, the organization’s senior official Moussa Abu Marzuk, who left abruptly from Gaza last week less than two weeks after his arrival, visited Qatar on Saturday and held meetings on the subject in which…

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was reproached by the American Association of University Professors this weekend months after rescinding its job offer to a professor who posted virulently anti-Israel tweets during Operation Protective Edge.  Weeks before he was due to join the faculty of UIUC’s American Indian Studies program, Professor Steven Salaita wrote a series of…

Russian forces are heavily shelling eastern Ukraine (Donbass region), the Ukrainian military announced Monday, as the front lines continue to heat up despite the Minsk II ceasefire agreement signed four months ago.  Over the past 24 hours, two Ukrainian soldiers have been killed and at least twenty wounded in the onslaught, it said. Several news sites…

A fired-up MK Rabbi Shai Piron (Yesh Atid) took to Facebook on Monday to mediate between left and right-wingers in the wake of actor Oded Kotler, referring to Likud voters as a “marching herd of beasts chewing straw and stubble.” “Have you lost your minds? I hear Kotler and Garbuz, Miri [Regev], all the firebrands from the Left…

US President Barack Obama’s antipathy against Israel persists despite critical help from Jerusalem during the Syrian chemical weapons scandal in 2013, Bloomberg revealed Monday.  Obama faced an awkward moment of truth in 2013, after the Syrian regime, led by President Bashar al-Assad, was publicly accused of using chemical weapons on the Syrian people – a move which…

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman announced Monday his party’s virulent opposition to the force-feeding bill which was authorized for legislation by the government on Sunday.  Initiated by Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, the bill would allow prison officials to force-feed security prisoners who go on hunger strikes in order to prevent the terrorists becoming martyrs and triggering…

US President Barack Obama’s radical worldview makes it impossible for him to empathize with Israel’s position, Israel’s former Ambassador to Washington said Monday.   Former US envoy Michael Oren, who currently serves as a Member of Knesset for the Kulanu party, was speaking at the Yesha Conference in Jerusalem’s Lianardo Hotel, where community leaders and prominent activists from…

The Jerusalem District Court sentenced three Israeli Arabs to prison terms on Monday, for planning a terror attack against Jews for the Nof Yerushalayim event hall in the capital.  In its verdict, the judges stated that “the accused intended to assist terrorist organizations, whether via consultation with them or whether on their own, to attack Jews and…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu praised on Monday the Likud Central Committee’s decision approve his proposal for a change in the Likud primaries.  Netanyahu’s proposal stipulates that party members will choose candidates for the Likud’s national list, while the Likud Central Committee will select district representatives. Speaking Monday at Likud’s faction meeting, Netanyahu lauded the decision, noting “the…

The District Governor of Ile De France has contacted the State Attorney’s Office on Monday, after the French newspaper Liberation reported that two prominent historical sites turned away a group of students from the Tel Aviv University (TAU) Art History program last month. According to the report, both the Louvre art museum and the Sainte-Chapelle church rejected…

While initially condemning the remarks made by actor Oded Kotler against Culture Minister Miri Regev, opposition chairman Yitzhak Herzog asserted Monday that Regev’s language was just as damaging.  Kotler, one of Israel’s best known actors, mocked Regev at an artists’ rally held on Sunday night to protest the new government’s policy that no funding would…

A Libyan military spokesman on Monday said that it is too early to determine whether Algerian terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who was targeted by an American airstrike in Libya, had indeed been killed. According to The Associated Press (AP), the spokesman confirmed that three foreigners were among a number of terrorists killed in the airstrikes in…

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot concluded on Monday that, in light of the challenges the IDF faces in the cyber sphere, a cyber command should be established in order for it to oversee all operational activity in the cyber dimension. According to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, the new command will be established over a…

The Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) filed a formal complaint with the Toronto Police earlier this month, after an anti-Semitic advertisement was featured in the May issue of the Your Ward News bulletin. The bulletin is distributed by mail to residents in the East York and Beach areas.  The front page displays several images mocking religious…

After much speculation, former Florida governor Jeb Bush has officially announced Monday his candidacy for the 2016 US presidential race, Reuters reported.  Speaking at Miami-Dade College, Bush, 62, vowed to take on Washington and and “get events in our world moving our way again.” The school was chosen specifically for its multicultural population as Bush attempts to prove his commitment…

Allegations against freshman MK Oren Hazan (Likud) keep rolling in, with a number of his former female employees claiming Monday that he exploited his position as their boss and sexually harassed them.  According to the Channel 10 report, the alleged sexual harassment occurred between 2011-2012 while Hazan was serving as the owner and manager of the bar…

Israeli legal rights group Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center has threatened to sue Coca-Cola on Monday, after Palestinian Arab franchise leader Zahi Khouri openly called for a boycott against Israel.  Attorneys Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Robert Tolchin sent a strongly worded warning letter to Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola, over Khouri’s actions.  “This letter is a warning to the Coca-Cola Company that…

Israeli citizens are extremely concerned at the possibility of cyber attacks against the Jewish state, with half of the country’s Jewish population prepared to allow the state to monitor their online activity for national security purposes, a new study found.  According to the study conducted by three University of Haifa researchers, Haaretz reported Monday, 53% of respondents…

Five years after the Mavi Marmara scandal, a new flotilla leaving for Gaza could cause another international crisis, Channel 2 reports Monday.  The flotilla is expected to join with several Swedish ships this week – and when it approaches Gaza, Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batash has threatened to end the ceasefire with Israel if the Jewish state attempts to…

In his address Monday to the Yesha Conference, former Israeli Ambassador to the US MK Michael Oren (Kulanu) covered a wide range of topics, spanning the roots of US President Barack Obama’s hostility towards Israel to the anti-Israel “BDS” boycott campaign. Following his speech, Arutz Sheva asked Oren about his assertion that the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement posed…

Madrid’s new mayor Manuela Carmena resolved her first major political crisis on Monday, AP reported, accepting the much-demanded resignation of her newly-appointed culture affairs commissioner.  Opposition parties slammed Ahora Madid party member Guillermo Zapata, calling for his resignation after a four-year-old tweet in which he mocked the extermination of Jews during the Holocaust surfaced.  According to Spanish media,…

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN), who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Monday expressed concerns over reports that negotiators with Iran are prepared to make far-reaching concessions. According to the Reuters news agency, Corker wrote a letter to President Barack Obama in which he said he was “alarmed” by the reports. “It is…

Schneor Shiff, COL An historic day took place at the Knesset on Monday, as the Israeli parliament saluted the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Chabad movement. The special day was attended by the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, ministers, deputy ministers, Knesset members from all factions, and Chabad shlichim (emissaries). The main session…

Cyprus believes it thwarted a Hezbollah plot to attack Israelis or Jews, its foreign minister said Monday, according to the Reuters news agency. The comments come after a 26-year-old Lebanese-Canadian man was arrested last month on charges related to the discovery of a massive amount of ammonium nitrate in the basement of a home in…

A day after causing an uproar in Israel by implying that Likud voters were a “marching herd of beasts”, actor Oded Kotler on Monday sought to clarify his remarks. Speaking to Army Radio, Kotler apologized for the way he worded his comments, but insisted that the premise behind them was correct. The actor’s remarks had…

Three British sisters are feared to have travelled with their nine children to join up with jihadists in Syria, a lawyer for the children’s parents said Monday, according to AFP. The family, from Bradford in northern England, went missing after travelling to Medina in Saudi Arabia for an Islamic pilgrimage, the report said. Sisters Sugra…

Top Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Nasir al-Wuhayshi was killed in a suspected American drone strike in Yemen’s Hadramout region, two Yemeni national security officials said Monday, according to CNN. The airstrike took place on Friday, the news network said. Tweets from known AQAP operatives also speak of al-Wuhayshi having been “martyred”, and…

More than 3,000 children, youth, soldiers and adults from Samaria and across Israel on Monday took part in the annual Shomron March, in memory of former Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi, who was murdered by terrorists. This year’s march was held in and around Sabastia, marking 40 years since the beginning of the settlement enterprise in…

At least 20 people were killed and 100 wounded on Monday in Syrian rebel rocket fire on government-held parts of the city of Aleppo, Syrian state media said, according to AFP. “The number of martyrs in the massacre carried out by terrorists in Aleppo has risen to 20 dead and more than 100 hurt,” state…

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) visited the family of slain IDF soldier Moshe Tamam hy”d Monday morning. Bennett explained that he wanted to visit Tamam’s next of kin in order to personally assure them that the play glorifying their son’s terrorist murderer has been removed from the list of state-funded cultural events intended for youths. Bennett was referring…

Israeli universities held their first ever academic rowing race over the weekend on the Yarkon River, taking on British academia’s most celebrated institution of maritime competition; just this year the competition between Cambridge on Oxford was held for the 161st time. Marking Israel’s first foray into the watery world of rowing, Tel Aviv University won the historic event…

Saudi Arabia on Monday beheaded a Syrian drug trafficker and a national convicted of murder, taking to 100 the number of executions in the kingdom this year. The number of executions has surged in 2015 compared with the 87 recorded by AFP for all of last year. But it is still far below the record 192 which rights group Amnesty International said…

The parents of Britain’s youngest suspected suicide bomber, described on Monday as a “typical teenager,” have accused Islamic State (ISIS) leaders of being “too cowardly to do their own dirty work.” Talha Asmal is believed to have traveled to Syria in April with friend Hassan Munshi, also 17, and ISIS announced on Saturday that he was the driver of one of four explosive-ladened vehicles used in…

Former Likud MK Moshe Feiglin penned a letter to his supporters at week’s end in which he made clear that he no longer sees Judea and Samaria as his primary voter base. Instead, he pointed to Tel Aviv, and identified his foremost achievements as MK as being in the libertarian field.  Feiglin proudly identified his…

US President Barack Obama’s hands-off foreign policy has led Russian President Vladimir Putin to show aggression in Ukraine, including the invasion of Crimea, but now in a dramatic sign of deterrence the US is poised to up the ante and station heavy weaponry in Eastern Europe. The Pentagon is preparing to store tanks, infantry combat vehicles…

In Arutz Sheva’s latest installment on tourism to Judea and Samaria, author Karni Eldad provides an insight into the oasis on a hilltop that is Givot Olam, via an excerpt from her book Yesha is Fun. Givaot Olam (Avri’s farm) agricultural farm, Itamar “And of Joseph he said: Blessed of the Lord be his land; For the precious…

Movie fans have looked in awe at silver screen technological wonders, such as Iron Man’s A.I. companion Jarvis who often kicks in to save the superhero in a pinch – now a leading Israeli defense company has taken the technology from the realm fantasy and applied it to the real world in a system that can save…

After South Africa initially ignored the International Criminal Court (ICC) call to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes, the African nation’s high court is to hear Bashir’s case on Monday and potentially hand him over. Bashir arrived in Johannesburg on Sunday for an African Union (AU) conference, and reportedly was given…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may have swept March’s general elections, but he faces a different test Sunday as the Likud Central Committee’s 3,700 members prepare to vote on reinstating their power to choose the party’s Knesset slate.  Currently, and since 2006, in the wake of the Kadima split, the 100,000 Likud party members selects the list’s candidates, as…

The Croatian football (soccer) association has cried ‘sabotage’ on Saturday, after a swastika was found mowed into the pitch used for its national team’s Euro 2016 qualifying match against Italy at the Polijud Stadium in Split.  The match, held on Friday night, was already conducted without live spectators as a punishment for previous racist incidents…

Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency was forced to withdraw tens of spies overnight Saturday/Sunday, after Russian and Chinese agents cracked one million top-secret files released by National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden.  Sources from Downing Street, the Home Office, and security services confirmed to several British news outlets that the documents contained sensitive identifying details…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday he was troubled by the advance of Kurdish forces in the Tal Abyad region of northern Syria, saying they could in the future threaten Turkey, AFP reported.  Turkey has in the last days firmly shut its borders to thousands of Syrians trying to flee fighting between Kurdish forces and Islamic State jihadists who currently control…

Kurdish forces closed in on a strategic jihadist-held border town in northern Syria on Sunday, AFP reported, prompting an exodus of fearful civilians from surrounding villages. Backed by allied rebels and air strikes by a US-led coalition, Kurdish militia pressed their offensive on Tal Abyad, used by Islamic State as a gateway from neighboring Turkey. Late Saturday, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG)…

A Mexican cheer-dance team faced heavy condemnation on Friday when a video of a recent Nazi-themed performance surfaced on social media sites.  According to the Associated Press, the two dozens girls and one boy performed a routine in which they displayed red flags with swastikas and wore camouflage military outfits with red armbands.  One girl even apparently…

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has called on South Africa to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday, as the latter is on a state visit to attend an African Union (AU) conference, according to BBC.  Instead, however, South African officials warmly welcomed Bashir upon his arrival, local media reported – furthering a reported rift between the…

For the second time in two months, vandals have attacked Northwestern University in Evanston with anti-Semitic and racist graffiti, the Chicago Tribune reported Friday.  According to the report, construction workers discovered the graffiti last Monday morning at the construction site for the university’s new Kellogg School of Management.  “It is believed the incident happened sometime Saturday or Sunday,”…