Category: News

The coalition agreement between Jewish Home and Likud was approved Sunday evening in a session of the party’s Central Committee at Nehalim. In addition, the party approved the allocation of ministerial portfolios between its MKs. Party Chairman, Naftali Bennett, will be Education Minister and Minister of Diaspora. Ayelet Shaked will be Minister of Justice, and…

In order to get his government organized, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning to increase the number of ministers in his government – if the High Court lets him. The MKs who are to constitute Netanyahu’s government are on Monday set to increase the number of government ministers to 20, taking advantage of a loophole in…

The mayor of an Iraqi town where more than 42 inmates escaped in a prison break claimed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) said Sunday that serious security failures were to blame.   The interior ministry said an investigation had been opened into the prison break in Khalis, in a statement issued on Saturday that also…

Lebanon claims that an Israel Navy ship briefly entered Lebanese waters at 1:03 a.m. Sunday morning. “An Israeli enemy gunboat breached the Lebanese territorial waters off Ras el-Naqoura at 1:03 a.m. Sunday, to a distance of 160 meters, and then left at 1:05 a.m. heading back in the direction of the occupied Palestinian territories,” a…

Cuba’s communist President, Raul Castro, said Sunday he was so impressed by his audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican that he might return to the Catholic faith he was born into. The BBC reported that Castro praised the pontiff’s wisdom, adding: “I will resume praying and turn to the Church again if the Pope…

The Palestinian Football Association vowed on Sunday to push ahead with efforts to have Israel suspended from FIFA, following joint talks with the FIFA president Sepp Blatter in Zurich, reported AFP. At the same time, however, both sides agreed to continue talking with Blatter, who announced plans to visit the region for top-level talks with…

Hezbollah said on Sunday it had killed over 20 fighters from Syria’s Al-Qaeda wing, the Al-Nusra Front, and destroyed several hideouts and training camps the fighters had set up to launch attacks in Lebanon across the border with Syria, Reuters reported. Hezbollah’s television station, Al-Manar, said the Syrian army and the “resistance”, a reference to…

Hezbollah said on Sunday it had killed over 20 fighters from Syria’s Al-Qaeda wing, the Al-Nusra Front, and destroyed several hideouts and training camps the fighters had set up to launch attacks in Lebanon across the border with Syria, Reuters reported. Hezbollah’s television station, Al-Manar, said the Syrian army and the “resistance”, a reference to…

Presumed Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said on Sunday that he would have authorized the 2003 invasion of Iraq, though he acknowledged mistakes made after Saddam Hussein’s downfall, AFP reported. Bush pointed out that Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton voted in favor of authorizing the use of force in Iraq ahead of the invasion. “I would…

Khalil al-Haya, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, on Sunday denied reports of the presence of a branch of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Gaza. His denial comes despite threats by a Salafist group in Gaza that is affiliated with ISIS to kill Hamas members “one by one” in retaliation for the arrests of its…

A military committee dealing with terrorists who were freed in the Gilad Shalit deal and later re-arrested determined on Sunday that Samer Issawi, a terrorist prisoner who went on a hunger strike in order to pressure Israel to release him, will be sent to 20 years in prison. Issawi was first arrested in 2002 on…

Meretz chairwoman MK Zehava Galon on Sunday came to the defense of MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), following a string of inappropriate sexist remarks against her. In her comments, Galon spoke out against an article in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper which, in describing a weekend getaway for Shaked and her husband at a hotel in…

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will skip a May 14 summit of Persian Gulf leaders with President Barack Obama, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. At the summit Obama is expected to offer the Gulf leaders reassurances over the efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran. The decision marks a diplomatic snub from one…

The Houthi rebels in Yemen on Sunday accepted a five-day humanitarian ceasefire proposed by Saudi Arabia, but said it would respond to any violations of the pause, Reuters reported. Neighboring Saudi Arabia had said on Friday that the ceasefire could begin on Tuesday if the Iranian-backed militia agreed to the pause, which would let in…

ISIS terrorists have been giving their murder victims a Mafia-style “hug of death,” hugging individuals convicted of a range of crimes, from adultery to theft to homosexuality, before dispatching them from the world of the living. According to experts, the hugs, a tradition in Arab culture that shows brotherhood, are meant to indicate that although…

A report by the Kikar Hashabbat web site purports to show the coalition agreement between the Likud and Shas. According to the report, the government has promised to increase the number of new public housing apartments to be marketed annually to 700, while government planning councils will authorize 5,000 new homes for haredi families each…

Nava Boker, one of the Likud’s new MKs, made her political agenda clear Sunday – which includes the annexation of Gush Etzion – the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem – as a top priority. Boker visited the region Sunday, taking in the historic Herodion site, where Rome’s Herod constructed a summer palace, as well as the Oz VeGaon outpost, which…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is in the process of deciding which Likud MKs to “reward” with a ministerial position – and among those MKs is likely to be Tzipi Hotovely. An appointment for Hotovely would be a historic first for Israel – as she would be the first observant woman to be appointed to a…

At a press conference held in Tel Aviv, the Ethiopian protest leaders presented their demands from the government and state authorities. Among other things, protest leaders called to prosecute the police officers accused of the beating of Damas Pakada, an Ethiopian Jewish soldier who was brutally assaulted in Holon earlier this month.  Leaders denied reports of a mass…

A panel of three judges in the Tel Aviv District Court dismissed the assault conviction of former MK Mohammed Barakeh of the Hadash party on Sunday. Barakeh is accused of attacking a right-wing activist during a demonstration.  Much of the dismissal is due to the age of the accusation, the justices said.  MK Barakeh was convicted in March…

Hours after the outgoing government approved Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s proposal to expand the next government, the Opposition jumped into attack mode.  “Netanyahu and Bennett against the citizens of Israel – the battle begins,” Zionist Union chairman Yitzhak Herzog blasted, specifically attacking Likud’s coalition deals and the decision to increase the number of ministers. “Netanyahu…

Hamas has called on the international community to hasten to bring Israeli “war criminals” to trial in the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Saturday, following a report by far-left NGO “Breaking the Silence” accusing the IDF of “war crimes” for defending Israel during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.  The report by Breaking the Silence is…

A group of Israelis were briefly detained by Thai soldiers this week while making a business pitch at Bangkok’s police headquarters in what officers have described as a “misunderstanding”.   The embarrassing incident comes at a time of tense relations between the military and parts of the police as Thailand’s junta vows to root out…

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has rejected claims that Ankara is preparing to intervene militarily in neighboring Syria, local media reported on Saturday. “No, there is no situation right now that requires Turkey’s involvement,” Davutoglu was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet newspaper. Some opposition CHP party politicians claimed this week that the ruling Justice…

Dozens of people were killed and 40 inmates escaped in a bloody prison break north of the Iraqi capital for which the Islamic State jihadist group claimed responsibility on Saturday, according to AFP.  The interior ministry said six guards and 30 detainees were killed Friday while 40 inmates escaped from the police compound prison in Khalis, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) from…

Syrian government forces advanced Saturday towards the rebel-held town of Jisr al-Shughur, where around 250 regime force members and their families are trapped in a hospital building, a monitor said.   The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government troops were now within two kilometers (just over a mile) of where the group has been…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) congratulated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for forming a coalition government on Saturday, after a last-minute rush to sign deals with Shas and Jewish Home before last week’s deadline.  “We congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu and his new government,” Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL National Chair, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, said Saturday in…

Twenty-nine students at Yeshiva University’s Sy Syms School of Business were joined by their parents and faculty in Belfer Hall to celebrate their induction into the school’s inaugural chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma (BGS). Established over a century ago, Beta Gamma Sigma is a scholastic honor society for students who have shown exceptional academic achievement in the study…

MK Mickey Zohar (Likud) called to ban the Oslo Accords on Friday, after taking a tour of the Samaria region.  Zohar visited the Ariel area, including the Barkan industrial zone, a winery in Rehelim, the community of Einav, and the hills of Itamar. Zohar also visited Elon Moreh and Har Kabir, where he met with Benny Katzover,…

The European Union on Saturday criticized Israeli plans to build 900 homes for Jews in Jerusalem, AFP reports Saturday.  Extreme leftist group Peace Now reported the latest batch of construction approvals on Thursday, just hours after Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu formed a new rightwing-religious coalition government. “Israel’s determination to continue its settlement policy despite the urging of the international community not only threatens the…

An Egyptian court on Saturday sentenced ousted president Hosni Mubarak to three years in prison on corruption accusations, after he was cleared of murder charges in another case, AFP reports. Mubarak and his sons Alaa and Gamal, also sentenced to three years, were present in the caged dock, wearing suits and sunglasses. Their lawyers may…

MK Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid, launched a verbal tirade against the Zionist Union on Saturday. In his remarks, Lapid blasted the party for failing to criticize Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new coalition. “I do not understand their silence,” he said at a cultural event in Tel Aviv. “The education system in the…

A 24-year-old Jewish male about to be married Sunday night was arrested earlier this morning on suspicion of praying while on a visit to the Temple Mount.  The groom ascended to the Mount in honor of his wedding day – an ancient Jewish tradition dating back to the First Temple period, nearly 3,000 years ago.  He was later arrested near the Temple Mount’s…

The IDF has officially closed its field hospital in Nepal, it announced Sunday morning, and held a special closing ceremony before the delegation’s departure.  1,600 patients were treated at the hospital and 85 surgeries were performed.  Eight Nepalese infants were born: 6 normal births and two caesarean sections.  The Home Front Command helped strengthen 332…

The Prime Minister’s Cabinet unanimously approved on Sunday morning Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s proposal to extend the size of the 20th Knesset’s ministerial cabinet.  If passed, the proposal would allow Netanyahu to increase the number of ministers in his fourth government from 18 to 20 as well as to appoint a number of ministers without portfolio. …

Hundreds of Ethiopian Israelis are once again expected to rally in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, prompting a mass police effort to prepare the city for disruptions after last week’s logistical nightmare.  The protests are expected to turn violent, police sources told Walla! News, and police are preparing riot dispersal methods and to deploy hundreds of…

Egypt’s army released a semi-annual report this weekend outlining its campaign against Islamist terror groups in North Sinai, news site Al-Ahram reported Saturday.  Published on the army spokesman’s official Facebook page, the report documents the killings of 725 terrorists between October 25, 2014 and April 30, 2015.  The highest number of terrorists killed in one month was 173 in February. In…

Reports have come out that an unknown assailant killed at least four people in the small Swiss town of Wuerenlingen last night (Saturday). At least four people, all adults, are reported dead. There in no information yet on their identities. Police say that they were called after local residents heard gunshots. They are still investigating the…

Jewish Home chairman and recently appointed Education Minister, Naftali Bennett, assured constituents on Sunday that the Tzohar Law would remain in place despite a new government.  Taking effect in late 2013, the Tzohar Law changed longstanding rules regarding where a couple could register for marriage licenses, which are processed through local Rabbinates. Previously, Israeli couples looking to marry were…

Palestinian Authority (PA) security officials have warned that Islamic State is acting to mobilize in Gaza to serve as an extension of its activities in the Sinai Peninsula.  Journalist Gal Berger reports that the PA knows of eight extremist Salafi groups operating in Gaza in recent years with several hundred members total.  Many of these…

The European Union on Saturday added to United States and Palestinian criticism over Israeli plans to build 900 homes in east Jerusalem. “Israel’s determination to continue its settlement policy despite the urging of the international community not only threatens the viability of the two state solution but also seriously calls into question its commitment to…

A minister earns more than an ordinary member of Knesset and is entitled to aides, secretaries, a driver, and the other pleasant benefits which cost the taxpayers tens of millions of shekels. Yet this has not prevent the incoming coalition from claiming that its efforts to expand the size of the government – allowing it…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu congratulated newly-elected British Prime Minister David Cameron on his reelection Friday. Cameron beat off his Labour rivals handily to secure a shock majority in a poll which until election day had been thought to be neck-and-neck between him and Opposition Leader Ed Miliband. “Congrats to @David_Cameron on impressive victory renewed mandate.…

Meretz Chairwoman MK Zeheva Galon expressed her angry disapproval of the coalition accord between the Likud and Jewish Home parties, according to which disputed homes and neighborhoods in Judea and Samaria will receive legal status. “This government is going to invest its vigor and resources in continuing the takeover and dispossession of Palestinian lands in…

Apparently responding to the widespread calls from his own party to resign, UK Labor party head Ed Miliband announced on Friday that he will indeed be stepping down after suffering a resounding defeat in the elections conducted the day before. Miliband, who woefully lost his challenge to dethrone incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron, led the Labor…

Europe held sombre ceremonies to mark 70 years since victory over Nazi Germany on Friday as leaders warned of modern day threats, such as the war in Ukraine and Islamic extremism. Celebrations of the WWII victory in Europe were muted a day before Moscow rolls out its full military might at a parade which is being snubbed by Western leaders due to…

Sources in the Foreign Ministry told Arutz Sheva they are furious at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s apparent decision to keep the foreign portfolio in his own hands, not appointing a minister so as to leave open the option of bringing in new coalition members later on. “It’s unthinkable that the most important ministry in the state of…

International inspectors have found traces of sarin and VX nerve agent at a military research site in Syria that had not been declared to the global chemical weapons watchdog, diplomatic sources told the Reuters news agency on Friday. Samples taken by experts from the Organization for the Prohibition and Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in December and…

The murder trial of the man accused in the disappearance of six-year-old Etan Patz ended Friday with the jury hopelessly deadlocked after 18 days of deliberations, thus leaving unresolved a case that has haunted New York City for 36 years, reports The Associated Press (AP). Jurors said for a third time that they could not…

The European Union’s (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Federica Mogherini, on Friday congratulated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on the formation of his new government. In a statement, Mogherini took a similar stance to other world leaders and called for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) with the end…

Israeli troops shot and seriously wounded a 17-year-old Palestinian Arab in northern Gaza on Friday, Palestinian Arab medics said, according to the AFP news agency. The youth, whose name was not immediately released, was hit in the head north of Beit Lahiya near the border with Israel, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in…

Three Norwegians on Friday received prison sentences ranging from seven months to almost five years after they were convicted of supporting or belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) group, AFP reported. The two men who received the longest sentences had both spent time in Syria. The 28-year-old man with Albanian origins and the 30-year-old with…

Israeli sculptor and painter Menashe Kadishman died on Friday evening at the age of 82. Kadishman, who reported feeling unwell, was rushed to the Tel Hashomer Hospital where he passed away shortly thereafter. Born in 1932 in Tel Aviv, Kadishman studied with Israeli sculptor Moshe Sternschuss at the Avni Institute of Art and Design in…

The Knesset will vote next week on enlarging the cabinet from 18 ministries to 20, the Likud party announced on Friday. The move is meant to appease senior members of the Likud party who have been demanding portfolios and who feel left out after many portfolios were handed out to parties that joined the new…

Danish police are investigating an incident in which four city buses were destroyed in a pre-dawn fire and a fifth was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti at a bus depot in Copenhagen,  The Associated Press (AP) reported Friday. Investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said police suspect arson and are investigating possible links to a decision last week…

The US government is struggling to counter the Islamic State (ISIS) group’s fast-paced online propaganda, which played a role in inspiring a failed attack in Texas this week on an exhibit of caricatures of Mohammed, the founder of Islam. One of the two gunmen had been in frequent contact via Twitter with an American terrorist from the ISIS group…

The US military has begun training a small unit of “moderate” Syrian rebels in Jordan to return home and take on the might of the Islamic State (ISIS), after months of intense vetting. The long-delayed basic military training could eventually extend to similar programs in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, a US official said, and the rebels could be backed by…

British Prime Minister David Cameron appears to be headed towards a victory in the UK general election. As polls closed on Thursday night at 10 p.m. local time, an exit poll gave Cameron’s Tories 316 seats. The Ipsos MORI/GfK NOP poll gave Labor 239 seats, the Liberal Democrats with 10, SNP with 58 and UKIP with 2. Labor…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is seeking a written guarantee from the United States with regards to Iran, its ambassador to Washington said on Thursday, according to Reuters. That request will come at President Barack Obama’s Camp David meeting with the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations, the ambassador said. “We are looking for (some form…

Turkey on Thursday recalled its envoy to Luxembourg to Ankara for consultations, after that country’s parliament recognized the mass killings of Armenians in World War I as genocide, AFP reported. The recall of the envoy is the latest such move by Ankara after it withdrew its ambassadors to the Vatican and Austria over the same…

Syrian activists and a doctor reported Thursday of new suspected chemical attacks in the northwestern province of Idlib, leaving several dozens of people suffering from asphyxiation, according to The Associated Press (AP). Mohammed Tennari, a doctor who testified before the UN Security Council last month after treating a number of victims in Idlib from an…

Zionist Union chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog continued to insist on Thursday evening that he will not be joining Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition. His comments came amid reports that Netanyahu is planning to expand his 61-member coalition by bringing in Zionist Union, or at least some of its MKs. “I am not joining this government.…

Islamic State’s (ISIS) threats to declare war on Hamas in Gaza after the latter began a crackdown on local Salafist groups appears to be edging to fruition, after an ISIS-affiliate in the Sinai Peninsula on Friday claimed launching two “bombs” – apparently mortar shells – at Hamas posts in Gaza. Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which earlier this year…

Fierce battles between Syrian regime forces and the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group in eastern Syria have left 34 fighters dead in 24 hours, a monitor said Friday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 19 pro-government forces and 15 ISIS fighters had been killed since clashes began late Wednesday in the city of Deir Ezzor and around its nearby military airport, reports AFP. The…

The Conference of European Rabbis (CER) has finalized preparations for its 29th conference to be held next Tuesday in Toulouse, France, timed to mark 70 years since the Nazi Third Reich surrendered in France. Attending the conference will be around 200 of the leading rabbis and dayanim (rabbinical judges) in Europe, led by the Head of the European…

According to coalition agreements, the new government to be sworn in next Wednesday is obligated to arrange the legal status of Jewish buildings in Judea and Samaria on land that was allegedly privately owned by Arabs. At the request of Jewish Home chairperson Naftali Bennett in coalition talks, Cabinet Secretary Avichai Mandelblit will head a…

Brigadier General Ahmed Asseri, spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, said the Houthis had “changed the equation” by targeting Saudi cities in recent days, and vowed that the coalition would go after leaders of the rebel group. “The Houthis are now targeting the borders of the kingdom and the situation…

As David Cameron’s Conservative party seals its victory in Thursday’s UK general elections, two radically anti-Israeli MPs infamous for a long past of comments edging on anti-Semitism have lost their posts. In Bradford West, MP George Galloway failed in his re-election bid, with Labor’s Naseem Shah thrashing him soundly in the polls. Shah won 19,977 votes, whereas…

Pope Francis is set to canonize two Arab nuns who lived in Israel during the Ottoman empire as Catholic saints, making them the first “Palestinian saints.” According to a report on Wednesday by the Lebanese LBCI News, the Marie Alphonsine Ghattas of Jerusalem and Mariam Bawardy of the Galilee will be canonized at the Vatican on May 17.…

Employees at the Pizza Hut in Avon Park of Highlands County, Florida, received a cryptic order asking for a classic pepperoni pizza, garlic bread, and the unexpected comment: “911 hostage help!” The order had been sent by a quick-thinking local woman, who had been taken hostage by her knife-wielding boyfriend and used the pizza order as a…

Grassroots Zionist student organization Im Tirtzu has launched a new website called NIF Watch. The website claims to hold all of the reports, position papers and updates on the activities of the New Israel Fund (NIF) and the organizations it supports, which have been published over the years. According to Im Tirtzu, it also “documents the…

Over half-a-million Jews visited the grave of the Talmudic-era sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in Meron on Wednesday night for Lag B’Omer, but it appears the event was partially marred by non-Jewish ushers harassing Jewish women praying at the site. The Lehava anti-assimilation organization set up a donations stand selling goods at the ascent to the…

Melton Centre in Hebrew University in Jerusalem Announces Distance Learning M.A. In Jewish Education The Melton Centre of Jewish Education from the prestigious Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel’s top ranking college, has announced a new distance learning Masters degree track. Taught entirely in English, the program offers students from around the world the chance to…

US President Barack Obama congratulated Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday after he forged a new coalition government. “President Obama looks forward to working with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” the White House said, in a businesslike statement that followed fierce pre-election exchanges between the two men. Obama was relatively quick to make the phone call, compared…

The Jewish Home party officially denied Thursday reports that Rabbi MK Eli Ben Dahan will be the party’s choice for Deputy Defense Minister and that MK Nissan Slomiansky will be its choice for heading the Knesset’s Committee for Law, Constitution and Justice. “The internal division of duties within the Jewish Home has not yet been…

The trial opened on Thursday of 32 people accused of running or taking part in one of Belgium’s largest networks to send jihadists to Syria, AFP reported. Belgian media said, however, that about half the defendants are still in Syria or dead. Belgian police smashed the network after opening probes in 2012 and 2013 that…

At an official state ceremony marking 70 years since the end of World War Two, President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday evening memorialized the Jewish soldiers who fought against the genocidal Nazi scourge. “We mark here this evening seventy years since the victory of the free world, over the Nazi beast, and pay tribute to the Jewish…

Some 100 Pakistanis gathered for a memorial service this week to honor the two Islamic terrorists who attacked a “Draw Mohammed” event in Texas. The two were killed by an alert traffic policemen armed only with a pistol, whose police car they first shot at. Within 15 seconds, they were both dead – still wearing their body armor, and…

The US Senate voted 98-1 Thursday to approve legislation allowing Congress to review a nuclear deal with Iran. The Senate bill would require a competed deal to be submitted to Congress, which could then vote to approve or disapprove the nuclear deal within 30 days. Sanctions on Iran could not be lifted during this period.…

The Knesset is to vote next Monday on a bill to re-expand the maximum number of ministers, which was limited following a demand by Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid in the last government. The bill follows an instruction given by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and coalition agreements, but senior members of Netanyahu’s own Likud party are apparently using…

 Al Jazeera America has shaken up its top ranks with a new chief executive, AFP reported, after a week of turmoil at the US channel operated by the Qatar-owned news organization. Named CEO on Wednesday was Al Anstey, who has been managing director at Al-Jazeera English and prior to that headed foreign news for the British network ITN and US-based CBS. The…

Just hours after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced he had formed a government Wednesday night, top Likud officials were talking about the possibility of expanding the government – by bringing in Zionist Union, or at least some of its MKs. According to the sources, Netanyahu is miffed that he was “forced” to make Ayelet Shaked Justice…

Creating a humanitarian safe zone in Syria would entail a “major combat mission” requiring American troops to fight Islamist jihadists and the Damascus regime, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told lawmakers on Wednesday, according to AFP. Turkey has long called for a safe area to be set up along the Syrian-Turkish border to protect civilians but…

Production has begun on The Foundation for Global Sports Development’s (GSD) first documentary film, documenting the 1972 terrorist attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, The Associated Press (AP) reported Wednesday. The documentary, tentatively titled “Munich 1972 Beyond”, is scheduled for release later this fall, the report said. Unlike existing accounts of the attack,…

Former Shas MK Nissim Ze’ev predicted on Wednesday that a government with 61 MKs will be short-lived. Speaking with Arutz Sheva, Ze’ev said that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new coalition “is a narrow government, which is real trouble, it’s 61 MKs which is unstable. Even if there is an attempt to bring back Liberman, you…

Dr. Sam Minskoff and David Lev discuss the controversial subject of where Jewish organizations and individuals fit in with regards to seeing those close to them wanting to make Aliyah. This is not such an easy topic as we do see an important role for communities in terms of helping individual Jews realize their own Jewish…

FIFA said on Wednesday it will host the leaders of the Israeli and Palestinian Authority’s soccer federations within days, seeking an agreement before the governing body’s congress this month, according to The Associated Press (AP). The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has asked FIFA to suspend Israel, citing its “discrimination” against Palestinian Arab players. FIFA President…

Top government officials in Iran said Wednesday that a nuclear agreement will allow the Islamic Republic to become the number one energy player in the Middle East and herald major opportunities for foreign companies, AFP reports. The remarks, at an industry event, underlined the broader political and economic implications should sanctions on Iran be lifted…

Yemen’s ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday asked the international community to quickly intervene with ground forces to save the country from Houthi rebels who have been targeted by Saudi-led airstrikes for weeks, reports The Associated Press (AP). In a letter sent to the president of the UN Security Council and obtained by AP,…

Knesset Members from the Zionist Union party on Wednesday night used harsh words to describe Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new 61-member coalition. In statements released shortly after Netanyahu announced a deal with Jewish Home, the Zionist Union members vowed to work to make sure the new coalition is short-lived. The party’s leader Yitzhak Herzog said,…

Reports surfaced Thursday that Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett insisted during coalition negotiations with Likud that Shuli Muallem return to the Knesset.  Last week, the Jewish Home party asked to add a clause to its coalition agreement with Likud that would allow Ayelet Shaked to resign from the Knesset after she is appointed a government minister. The clause would be modeled after…

Iran and India agreed to work together on Wednesday to construct a new seaport. The two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to build the Chabahar port, which will provide India with an access route to Afghanistan that bypasses Pakistan. The deal was signed by Indian Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari with Iranian officials, as…

Recently appointed as Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked had a strange defender on Thursday morning – Meretz MK Michal Rozin.  In a wave of responses to Shaked’s appointment, former infrastructure minister Yosef Paritzky (Shinui) took the the conversation on a sexist bent, writing on Facebook: “Wow…for the first time in Israel, the Justice Minister can star as…

After all-night talks on the remaining details, Likud and Jewish Home signed a final coalition deal on Thursday morning.  Late Wednesday night, hours before the deadline to form a government, the two parties announced a deal struck “in principle,” allowing Jewish Home to enter the coalition and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to serve a fourth term as premier.  Netanyahu…

Tens of thousands of Jewish worshippers are converging on the town of Meron in northern Israel to celebrate Lag B’Omer at the Tomb of the ancient Jewish scholar and mystic Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. The yearly mountaintop gathering at the tomb of the Jewish leader, seen by many as the father of the kabbalistic movement,…

The Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum led by Father Gabriel Nadaf,  the Im Tirtzu movement, and Rescuers Without Borders traveled across Israel and visited several college campuses this week to assist Christian refugees fleeing Islamic State (ISIS).  “It is a dark time in the Middle East, and my heart goes out to the countless victims of our time,” Nadaf stated. “Extreme…

With summer coming, the northern Israeli city of Tiberias could be a dangerous place, says a well-known rabbinical figure in the city. Rabbi Dov Kook, according to video obtained by the Kikar Shabbat web site, recently made a speech in which he told followers to “run away” from the city, lest they be caught up…

The oldest complete example of the Ten Commandments has gone on rare display in Jerusalem, part of the Israel Museum’s collection of the Dead Sea scrolls, an official said Wednesday. Written in Hebrew more than 2,000 years ago, it is one of 870 scrolls discovered between 1947 and 1956 in the Qumran caves above the Dead Sea. “It’s not…

Extreme leftist George Galloway’s hometown of Bradford has become openly anti-Semitic, Politico reporter Ben Judah revealed on Wednesday – after he was threatened, attacked, and booted from an event for Galloway he was covering for the news agency.  Judah coordinated his visit with Bradford officials, he noted in his article on the incident, but was soon booted from…

Ayelet Shaked, says Judea and Samaria settlement pioneer Daniella Weiss, is the right person in the right place at the right time to serve as Justice Minister. “There are many issues – land ownership rights, construction permits, residents, the status of communities, and more – that she will have to deal with. And I am…

Ruth David, the former Chief Prosecutor for the Tel Aviv District, was arrested Tuesday and spent the night in custody. She is suspected of obstruction of justice and corruption-related offenses in the investigation that centers on Ronel Fisher, a prominent attorney and journalist. According to Army Radio, “at least two judges” are also involved in…

A proposal by the Attorney General could cause grievous damage to kosher consumers, Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi David Lau said Wednesday. “The decision to allow ‘alternative’ kashrut certificates is an erroneous one that will only worsen fraud in the kosher food industry,” he said. “Kashrut must remain under the supervision of the Rabbinate in order to…

Germanwings pilot Andreas Lubitz not only researched suicide methods before fatally crashing a passenger jet into the Swiss Alps in March – he also practiced dives before the crash, it was revealed Wednesday.  French air accident bureau BEA released an official report on the crash on Wednesday, revealing that Lubitz repeatedly set the Airbus into a…

Worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron on Wednesday chased away an unwanted guest – Jibril Rajoub, a top Palestinian Authority terrorist. Rajoub was seen trying to enter the area of the Cave which is reserved for Jewish worship. It is not known why Rajoub was attempting to enter that area of the…

MK Yitzhak Herzog, head of Zionist Union, angrily denied a report Wednesday that he had turned down an offer by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to be Israel’s Foreign Minister. Herzog denied the report by Channel Two‘s Amnon Abramovich that he and Netanyahu had been conducting serious negotiations to bring Labor into Netanyahu’s coalition. According to…

Just two hours before a midnight deadline, Likud and Jewish Home have struck a coalition deal – paving the way for a right-wing government.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett will release a message to the press later Wednesday night over the deal, according to Channel 1. It is unclear whether this will…

The IDF has finally pledged to investigate repeated warnings that Hamas is rebuilding terror tunnels into Israel via the Gaza Belt, Channel 10 reports Wednesday – after months of media exposés and complaints from locals.  Kibbutz Nirim invited a private security company to investigate the situation after the IDF repeatedly brushed off complaints, causing a media storm. Now,…

Hamas is developing an air attack capability – by recruiting Palestinian students in Malaysia to carry out attacks on Israel using paragliding equipment, a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. The report reveals two incidents in which Hamas was found to be conducting training of Palestinian students for such attacks in…

The head of Denmark’s intelligence agency stepped down on Wednesday, AFP reported, as an investigation criticized parts of the police response to February’s deadly twin terror attacks in Copenhagen. “After careful consideration, I have agreed with the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Justice and the National Commissioner of Police that I will now undertake new tasks to develop Danish…

Yossi Langosky, the IDF officer who established the technology department of the army’s Intelligence Unit, said Wednesday that all of Israel’s land borders – north, south, and east – were vulnerable to “tunnel attacks” by terrorists, similar to the ones conducted by Hamas before and during Operation Protective Edge last summer, according to NRG. The IDF can…

The United States wants the UN Security Council to set up an investigation on the use of chemical weapons in Syria following reports of chlorine gas attacks, diplomats said Wednesday. The investigation would be carried out by a team of experts appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and tasked with establishing who is to blame for the attacks. “There is…

A Hungarian prosecutor on Tuesday ordered a man to read up on the Holocaust after he shared a picture on social media depicting Auschwitz as an imaginary fun camp, reports the AFP news agency. The 33-year-old, from Gyongyos east of Budapest, must visit a Holocaust museum and read a well-known history book on the period,…

The United States authorized commercial ferry services to Cuba for the first time in more than a half-century on Tuesday, another major step in improving relations between the two countries, reports AFP. In what was hailed by ferry operators as “a historical event,” the Treasury lifted a decades-old ban and at least four Florida companies…

The UN’s peace envoy for Syria on Tuesday launched wide-ranging consultations in Geneva with regional and domestic players, including Iran, in a bid to revive stalled talks to end the conflict. Staffan de Mistura said talks with the Syrian government and some 40 groups, including “political, military actors, women, civil society, victims, the diaspora”, would…

French judges re-examining the evidence surrounding the 2004 death of former Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat have concluded their investigations, the prosecutor’s office in the Paris suburb of Nanterre said Tuesday. “The judges have closed their dossier and it was sent to the prosecutor on April 30,” he said, according to the AFP news agency.…

Negotiations aiming at reaching a final agreement on Iran’s nuclear program will resume on May 12 in Vienna, the European Union and Tehran said Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency. EU negotiator Helga Schmid and her Iranian counterparts Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht Ravanchi “will resume their work on 12 May in Vienna,” the…

Palestinian Arab officials visited Syria for the second time in less than a month on Tuesday to discuss efforts to protect the Yarmouk neighborhood of Damascus and its residents from the conflict. A delegation led by Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official Zakaria al-Agha met with Syria’s deputy foreign minister Faisal Muqdad and social affairs minister…

Senator Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on Tuesday that he sees an “overwhelming” vote to pass the Iran nuclear review bill as soon as Thursday, Reuters reports. Corker, a Republican, told reporters at the Capitol that leaders were still working out a way to allow the Senate to consider amendments…

He may be out of the Knesset but he’s far from being out of influence. Rabbi Elan Adler sat with Dov Lipman to assess what he’s doing now and what he thinks about the important issues of the day.  What are his new ways of contributing his considerable talents to the nation? How can we…

Despite a claim of responsibility by the Islamic State (ISIS) for Sunday’s shooting attack in a Dallas suburb, the White House said Tuesday it was “too soon” to tell if the jihadist group was indeed responsible, reports AFP. Two gunmen shot a security guard in a Dallas suburb before being killed by a police officer…

Islamic and Western countries have begun their annual two-week military exercise in Jordan, named Eager Lion. About 10,000 military personnel are taking part in the exercise – up from 8,000 last year. Some 5,000 are from the United States – the same number as last year – from both conventional and special forces. Among the…

Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor on Tuesday addressed the UN General Assembly for the 70th anniversary of the end of World War Two, and warned that the forces of evil represented by the Nazis now threaten the world in the form of Islamist terror regimes. “Seventy-five years ago, at the dawn of the…

Police detectives and Israel Security Agency (ISA) agents on Wednesday morning issued administrative distancing orders to three Jewish youths, leading one rights group to warn Israel’s legal system is being warped. One of the youths, a resident of Kiryat Arba adjacent to Hevron in Judea, was handed a two-month long nighttime house arrest, confining him to…

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has said Iran will not take part in negotiations with world powers if threatened with military action over its nuclear program. In comments reported by Iran’s English-language state media, Press TV, Khamenei said: “Holding nuclear talks (with major powers) under shadow of threat is unacceptable for Iran … Our nation will…

After negotiations that extended into the wee hours of the night, Likud has agreed to appoint Jewish Home’s Ayelet Shaked as the new Justice Minister. Shalom Shlomo, a confidant of Bennett, met Tuesday evening with Attorney David Shimron, who represents Likud in coalition talks. The sides still have to work out disagreements about the areas of authority of…

The US will stop managing Afghan airspace by June 30 as an air-traffic control contract with the local government expires, potentially signalling the end of international flights to and over the country, reports the Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday. The change is estimated to essentially make Afghanistan a no-fly zone, given the rampant terrorist activity in the country by…

The Sudanese army claimed it shot down an Israeli drone, after Arab media reported on Wednesday that Israeli war planes struck sites around the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, destroying weapons sites apparently destined for Hamas terrorists in Gaza. The London-based Arabic-language Al-Araby Al-Jadeed and other Arab news sources reported the strikes, saying they hit a factory producing long-range Scud missiles,…

Jewish residents of Jerusalem scored a significant victory Wednesday, reclaiming a building formerly owned by Jews before being ethnically-cleansed by Arab armies in 1948. The Jewish residents entered the structure before dawn Wednesday, with the assistance of Ateret Kohanim, an NGO dedicated to the creation of a Jewish majority in the Old City and eastern Jerusalem.…

The IDF’s military police school is moving to the IDF’s long-delayed new training base compound in the Negev this week, and will be the first group to take residency at the compound which contains eight bases. Already last week the force began settling into the training base, and this week the staff and students are expected…

After refusing to condemn the Iranian act of opening fire on and seizing a Marshall Islands ship in international waters last Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Jeff Rathke revealed on Monday that the US is trying to free the ship “diplomatically.” “We have made a variety (of efforts) to help secure the release of the ship,” said Rathke in a press…

Former Governor of Arkansas and 2008 Republican presidential candidate hopeful Mike Huckabee has announced his intention to run as the GOP’s presidential candidate in 2016 elections. Huckabee made the announcement in his hometown of Hope, Arkansas, telling a euphoric crowd how he began his journey to greatness from humble beginnings by becoming “the first male in my…

A Jewish man was lightly wounded on Tuesday afternoon as Arab terrorists hurled rocks at the new home in Jerusalem of former chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba and Hevron, Rabbi Dov Lior. The attack occurred in Jerusalem’s Beit Orot neighborhood, located east of the Old City and to the north of the Mount of Olives. The…

Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday accepted an appeal by veteran Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick over his indefinite ban on visiting the Temple Mount. However, Glick’s latest hard-fought legal victory came with several conditions. For one, the court accepted a petition by police to ban him from bringing a camera or smartphone onto the holy site.…

In a worrying step showing North Korea’s rapidly expanding nuclear strike capabilities, the Communist regime recently held a test of a new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM), the first time it has launched a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead from underwater. According to US defense officials cited by the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday, the test…

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has reaffirmed his group’s full support for the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad, telling a senior Lebanese politician that “the fall of Assad” would mean the end of Hezbollah as well. Nasrallah made the comments during a meeting with the Leader of Lebanon’s Free Patriotic Movement Michel Aoun last Thursday, according to…

The Supreme Court on Monday denied the petition of Arab squatters who were seeking to block a demolition order against their illegal buildings in Arab Susya, located in the Har Hevron region of southern Judea, and significantly situated on the site of the ancient Jewish village Susya. The Arab residents had requested not to demolish 80 illegal…

China has employed an unusual method in trying to crack down on Muslim violence and attacks by Uyghurs in the western Xinjiang region – in a new notice, it has ordered Muslim merchants to sell alcohol prominently to “weaken” Islam, which forbids the consumption of alcohol. In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region separatist Sunni Muslim Uyghur factions…

One of the main hospitals in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo has been forced to close indefinitely after being targeted by rockets and barrel bombs, a humanitarian group says. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Monday the private Al-Sakhour hospital, serving around 400,000 people as one of the only hospitals in east Aleppo, halted all activities after being bombed twice on consecutive days last…

The left was unhappy on Tuesday with the possibility that Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked would be appointed Justice Minister, hours after Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett delivered an ultimatum to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, demanding that Shaked be named justice minister or Jewish Home would go to the opposition. Yariv Oppenheimer, head of the…

Tova Klapper (TK): What is the best way to build an emotional connection with someone you are dating? Dr. Barris (SB): Marriage has been studied all over the world and there is a lot of empirical evidence on relationships. Researchers have looked at couples who are really getting it right over the long haul and…

The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah vowed Tuesday his terrorist group would oust Sunni rebels from a region on the border with Syria, but declined to say when the assault might happen.   In a televised address, the Shia Islamist group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said rebel forces in the mountainous border area posed an unacceptable threat to Lebanon’s…

CHAZAQ has proudly built a reputation of inspiring and entertaining children, teenagers and adults for nearly a decade via their wide array of programs and services. Though, just when you thought they have done enough, over the past several months they have taken matters to the next level.   During the month of February, CHAZAQ partnered…

A 17th century CE painting stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish German art curator in Paris who was later murdered at Auschwitz was returned to the late owner’s daughter at a ceremony in New York on Tuesday. The painting “Portrait of a Man” by Italian Giovanni Battista Moroni was among items looted from August Liebmann Mayer’s collection by the Nazis…

The Haifa city council decided on Tuesday to establish a committee to consider anew the municipal funding for the Arab Al Midan Theater in the city, after it put on a play portraying the life of one of the Arab terrorists who mutilated and murdered IDF soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. Every year the Al Midan Theater receives more than…

An alarming trend has arisen in recent years: children today are being diagnosed with medical conditions previously associated with middle-aged adults. Much of this can be attributed to poor diet that leads to obesity and diabetes and not enough physical activity. I explained to Zissy the differences between “good carbs” and “bad carbs” and suggested…

The United States ratcheted up pressure on the leaders of the Islamic State jihadist group on Tuesday, adding four names to those targeted by multi-million-dollar bounties. Islamic State, also known as ISIS or IS, has seized a wide stretch of eastern Syria and northern Iraq and declared it a “caliphate,” within which it has enslaved female…

Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel revealed on Tuesday that he was at former chief rabbi of Hevron and Kiryat Arba Rabbi Dov Lior’s Jerusalem home during the Arab rock attack earlier in the day, and announced he is organizing security patrols in the area. Marzel was among the students and associates of the rabbi who were…

France and Saudi Arabia believe that any future deal between Iran and six major powers must ensure not to destabilize the region further and threaten Iran’s neighbors, the two countries said Monday, according to Reuters. Saudi Arabia invited French President Francois Hollande, whose country is deemed to have a tough stance in Iran nuclear negotiations,…

A move to consider suspending Israel from world soccer will be put to FIFA’s 209 member federations just before they elect their president this month, The Associated Press reported Monday. FIFA published an agenda for its election congress on May 29, including a late proposal by Palestinian Arab officials to suspend Israel. The move is…

Syrian government forces are committing “crimes against humanity” by indiscriminately bombing Aleppo, Amnesty International said on Monday, according to the AFP news agency. The group also criticized rebels for abuses including “war crimes” in a new report. The rights watchdog said “relentless” government aerial bombardment of Syria’s former economic powerhouse had forced many residents to…

A new report by Prague’s Jewish community finds a significant increase of cases of harassment and threats against Jews last year, The Associated Press (AP) reports. The annual report on anti-Semitism released Monday says such attacks, including anti-Semitic letters and emails, verbal attacks and harassment in front of Jewish objects, jumped to 37 in 2014…

On this week’’s episode of Goldstein On Gelt, Doug meets Robert Berger, attorney, personal finance expert, and creator of the Doughroller website. Discover the meaning of financial freedom and if you will ever achieve the standard of living that you want. In the second half of the show, Jan Lukacs, CEO of project management company…

Members of the Jewish Home party gathered on Monday night for an emergency faction meeting in the Knesset, following the announcement of the coalition agreement between Likud and Shas. Officials in the party said that Jewish Home is outraged over the fact that Shas was given the Religious Affairs Ministry as well as control of…

A monitor and Syria’s opposition on Monday called for an investigation into a U.S.-led coalition strike last week that allegedly killed 64 civilians, nearly half of them children, in northern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor that tracks deaths in the war, said the strikes in the village in Aleppo province…

This week’s show features Sienna Dube and Willow Goldman – 9-year-old Orthodox girls who are raising money for the victims of the Nepal earthquake, and the CEO of top ad agency 360i, Sarah Hofstetter, 2013 Orthodox Jewish All Star. Click here for archived shows of “Jew In The City Speaks”

Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said Tuesday that he is mystified by Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman’s decision to keep his party out of the Likud-led coalition. “It is difficult for me to analyze this step,” Edelstein told Army Radio. “I am searching for an answer to the question of why it is happening, and cannot find…

Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed official responsibility for Sunday’s shooting attack in a Dallas suburb on Sunday, calling the two gunmen “soldiers of the caliphate,” according to BBC.  On Sunday night, two armed terrorists opened fire on a security officer outside of a contest for cartoons depictions of the founder of Islam, Mohammed, in a suburb of Dallas, Texas. The…

An Israeli Arab who transferred thousands of shekels to Hamas was arrested last month, the Israel Police and Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) announced Tuesday.  Kafr Kana dentist Mubarak Malik Jamil Khatib transferred large sums of money from Hamas in Gaza to Hamas in the Palestinian Authority (PA), according to intelligence sources. He…

Coalition talks between Jewish Home and Likud have ground to a halt on Tuesday, hours before a Wednesday deadline for a government to be formed under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  Jewish Home, whose signature will make or break the coalition, reportedly reassessed their demands late Tuesday night after Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman announced that his…

Israel Beytenu Chairman, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, announced Monday that he will not enter the new coalition and that he is resigning as foreign minister – throwing coalition talks into uncertainty hours before the final deadline for announcing a governing coalition. But is he just posturing? Without Liberman and his six-seat faction, the coalition will…

The Foreign Ministry has issued a low-level travel advisory for Nepal on Tuesday, about 10 days after the devastating earthquake that has killed over 7,000 people.  “The reconstruction process in Nepal will take some time, and meanwhile, there exists particularly challenging conditions – shortage of medicine and medical services, erratic food supply in some affected…

Grassroots Zionist students’ group Im Tirtzu has responded to a report blaming the IDF of misdeeds in Gaza by pointing to the fact that it was paid for by a Palestinian-Arab fund. The report by Breaking the Silence is based on alleged testimony from 60 officers and soldiers who served in Operation Protective Edge. The…

With angry demonstrations from the Ethiopian Jewish community set to continue Monday, even the United States was weighing in on the protests that have erupted in Israel recently. US Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday he was confident Israel would investigate allegations of violence and police brutality against the Ethiopian community.   “I’m confident that Israeli leadership will…

Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman’s public announcement to quit his role and move into the opposition has sparked a variety of reactions on Monday night, ahead of the prospect of a 61-MK government.  “He is the last person who can preach opportunism,” a senior Likud official told Walla! News on Monday. “This is a cynical politician,…

Hours after Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman refused to join Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition, the floodgates over the prestigious foreign affairs portfolio opened.  Liberman, who currently serves as the Foreign Minister, added that he would be resigning, despite reports that joining the coalition would be conditional on him retaining the post – and despite reports that Netanyahu had acquiesced to this…

Fresh-faced MK Sharon Gal (Yisrael Beytenu) took no time in acclimating to the Knesset habit of attacking fellow parliamentarians.  Speaking before the plenum for the first time, in a minute-long speech on Monday, Gal blasted a number of MKs from the Joint Arab List.  Rejecting remarks made earlier Monday by MK Ahmed Tibi, Gal accused the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called for a united front against racism after talks on Monday with leaders of the Ethiopian Jewish community. “We must stand together as one against the phenomenon of racism, to denounce it and eliminate it,” he said in a statement after a three-hour meeting focused on grievances within the community over police brutality and discrimination. For the past…

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) addressed on Monday ongoing protests by Israel’s Ethiopian community, as he formally opened the Knesset’s summer session.   Specifically referencing the demonstration Sunday night in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Edelstein called the events “a sad chapter in the history of Israeli society.”  Protests against racial discrimination, specifically, the beating of Damas Pakada, an Ethiopian…

President Reuven Rivlin met Monday with the Forum for Haredi Mayors and Municipal Council Heads at the President’s residence. This is the first time this forum – which has been in operation for around eleven years – has met with the President formally, in order to discuss issues of importance for the Haredi sector. At the beginning…

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid continued his assault on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition deal with United Torah Judaism Monday at his party’s first faction meeting of the 20th Knesset.  “To be the Prime Minister of all [citizens of Israel], Netanyahu must also act like that That’s not what he does,” Lapid charged. “Instead, he gives into…

Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky responded on Monday to the ongoing controversy regarding the assault of an Ethiopian soldier by an Israel Police officer, calling for protests to calm as tensions escalate.  “We were all deeply shocked by the terrible video clip in which an Israeli soldier of Ethiopian origin was seen being beaten by…

A 40-year-old man, riding a scooter, suffered light injuries on Monday evening when Arabs threw rocks at his car on Menachem Begin Boulevard in Jerusalem, between the Atarot Junction and Ben Zion interchange. Magen David Adom paramedics who were called to the scene evacuated the victim to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. The attack came…

A month after a terror cell planning anti-Semitic attacks was busted in Catalonia, new details published Sunday in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) show just how gruesome those attacks could have been. The 11 suspects, believed to have links to terror organization Islamic State, were arrested at the time on charges of planning possible kidnappings, an execution and attacks on…

A Danish group on Monday vowed to expand an advertising campaign urging people to boycott products from “Israeli settlements” – i.e. Jews living in Judea and Samaria – after the ads were dropped from Copenhagen buses for being offensive.  “It’s a clear attempt to deny us our freedom of speech,” Fathi El-Abed, chairman of the Danish Palestinian Friendship Association, claimed…

The IDF’s medical program is weighed down by excessive bureaucracy, Channel 2 reports Monday, leaving some soldiers waiting for months to receive medical treatment.  “For months I have been trying to make an appointment with an orthopedist, and only today I got an appointment,” one soldier told the site. He said that after the doctor arrived, he was…

With Avigdor Liberman’s announcement that Yisrael Beytenu will not join the government, Likud ministers are jumping for the foreign affairs portfolio, but one MK is more interested in the Absorption Ministry.  “The Prime Minister will make history if he gives me the absorption portfolio,” Dr. Avraham Nagosa, an Ethiopian activist turned Likud MK, told Channel Two on Monday, against…

Two UN peacekeepers were wounded on Monday when mortar shells fired from Syria hit their base in the Israeli-held sector of the Golan Heights, an army spokesman said.   “Mortar shells hit the Golan in Ein Zivan and in the Zivanit UNDOF base. Two UN peacekeeping soldiers were evacuated to Israel for medical care,” Lieutenant…

One IDF soldier was seriously injured Monday morning, when an Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) he was traveling in overturned near Matsok Orvim in the Golan Heights. Three other soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident; all four were transferred to Ziv hospital in Tzfat for treatment. It is the latest in a series of military-related accidents in recent days.  On…

A lecturer at the University of Sydney in Australia has argued for Muslim extremists to be allowed “to express their anti-Semitism” on campus, out of respect for their “right to free speech.” The shocking comments were made during a “heated” email exchange, seen by the news.com.au news site. The emails centered around the controversy over three university…

A Palestinian Arab terrorist was apprehended as he attempted to stab Jews at the Givat Hamivtar light rail station in north-eastern Jerusalem on Monday, near the French Hill neighborhood. Light rail security personnel were on scene and spotted the terrorist as he attempted to attack, at which point they opened fire and captured him, according to…

The head of the police operations branch, Maj. Gen. Aharon Aksul, told Walla! on Monday that police showed great restraint facing the protest by Ethiopian Jews in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square on Sunday night which turned violent. The protest ended with 43 arrests, as 55 officers and 12 protesters were wounded, with some protesters telling the media that external groups had…

President Reuven Rivlin has called on demonstrators and police to “show restraint” after last night’s clashes in Tel Aviv during protests over discrimination against Ethiopian-Israelis. At a meeting at his office Monday morning with mayors and heads of the haredi municipalities and regional councils, Rivlin began by first addressing the violence.  “I cannot but begin with…

UK taxpayers are footing the bill as the Arts Council of England pays 15,000 pounds ($22,700) for a UK tour of the play “The Siege,” which glorifies Hamas terrorists based solely on accounts of the terrorists themselves, reports the British Daily Mail. The play focuses on the Hamas terrorists who were besieged by the IDF in the Church…

A Twitter account which appears to have belonged to one of the two gunmen shot dead outside a Mohammed Cartoon contest in Texas Sunday night, posted a message swearing allegiance to ISIS around the time of the attack. The account, @atawaakul, has now been removed by Twitter. Its profile picture was a photo of Anwar al-Awlaki,…

A gag order was lifted on Monday morning revealing that smuggling attempts on illegal goods such as parts needed in constructing rockets that originated from Egypt have been blocked at the Nitzana border crossing in the past two months. The latest smuggling incident that was caught occurred two weeks ago, when inspectors located and seized…

A barrel bomb killed at least seven civilians, including a teacher and four children, when it hit a school in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, a monitor said, according to the AFP news agency. “The primary school students were playing in the courtyard when the barrel bomb hit,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, who…

The riots in Tel Aviv Sunday by Ethiopian protesters have prompted politicians to comment on the situation. Speaking with Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that there was definitely good reason to examine the issues raised by protesters, “but there is no place for violence and violations of the law.” Netanyahu…

Two terrorists tried to stab an IDF soldier Sunday night near the Yakir Junction in central Samaria. The terrorists drew knives and prepared to stab the soldiers, but were halted and detained. The terrorists were taken in for questioning. No one was injured. They will be brought to court Monday for an extension of their…

US Secretary of State John Kerry wanted to visit Israel after the recent national election, but Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked him to postpone the visit until after Netanyahu forms a new coalition, reported Channel 2 Sunday evening. The TV channel’s political correspondent Udi Segal speculated that Kerry might have wanted to get Netanyahu to commit…

It’s hard to know which party’s behavior was more remarkable – the “polite” bank robber who explained to bank tellers that, although he was robbing their bank, he had no gun, no knife, and planned no attack, or the tellers who willingly handed over thousands of shekels. That question is likely to be answered in…

Twenty three policemen and seven protesters were hurt when police dispersed a protest by Ethiopian Jews at Rabin Square Sunday evening.  Over 2,000 Ethiopian Jews, mostly young, were chanting slogans against police in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv after 8:00 p.m. Sunday, after they blocked major thoroughfares in central Israel. Police attempted to disperse them with stun grenades, water…

An Egyptian prosecutor said Sunday he referred 40 people to trial on charges of belonging to the Islamic State (ISIS) and planning to carry out terrorist attacks in Egypt, reports The Associated Press (AP). The announcement marks the first time people in Egypt’s Nile Delta have been accused of belonging to the group, which holds…

A group of Palestinian Arab journalists and photographers living in Jerusalem attached to the organization Tickmedia have launched a new website that serves as an archive for the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which warps history from an Islamic perspective to deny Jewish history. The mosque is built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, the holiest site in…

The United States military on Sunday night denied a report that airstrikes led by Washington had killed at least 52 civilians in northern Syria earlier this week, saying those killed were actually fighters. Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor director Rami Abdel Rahman had told AFP that seven children were among the dead from U.S.-led…

Two armed men on Sunday night opened fire on a security officer outside of a contest for cartoons depictions of the Prophet Mohammed in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, reports The Associated Press (AP). The city of Garland said in a statement posted on its Facebook page that the two men drove up to the…

The Islamic Jihad terrorist group is accusing the Palestinian Authority (PA) of arresting and harassing its members in the PA-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria. In a statement quoted by the Ma’an news agency, the group said that PA security forces had arrested Islamic Jihad members in Jenin, Tulkarem, Ramallah, and Hevron governorates. The statement…

Baltimore on Sunday lifted an overnight curfew imposed after riots sparked by the death of a black man in custody, reports the BBC. National Guard troops are now pulling out of the city. The curfew was put in place on Tuesday, after protests over Freddie Gray’s death turned violent. Six police officers are facing criminal…

ISIS on Sunday claimed responsibility for a late-night car bomb attack in Baghdad that killed at least 19 people, saying it was targeting a Shiite militia, according to The Associated Press. The two car bombs went off about 10 minutes apart late Saturday in the Karrada district, known for its restaurants, cafes and ice cream…

MK Dr. Avraham Nagosa (Likud) has demanded that the government establish a commission of inquiry to examine the treatment of Ethiopians in Israel, following mass protests by the Ethiopian community in Tel Aviv.  “Anger is a justified and legitimate protest, I would like to do anything without violence and legally with restraint on both sides,” he…

Five years after plans to begin construction for 1,500 homes in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of Jerusalem were first introduced, they are finally being implemented.  According to a Channel Ten report on Sunday, the plans have finally moved to the next political level for approval.  The project will come under discussion on Wednesday and the District Committee for Planning and…

The director of a Sephardic haredi girls’ seminary in Jerusalem has been arrested on Sunday, following a string of accusations from concerned parents that he was running a “cult” and using mind control techniques to exert his influence over the girls’ private decisions.  Earlier Sunday, the Israel Police raided the Be’er Miriam seminary in Sanhedria following a…

Three days after arriving in Israel, British pop sensation Robbie Williams performed exuberantly before tens of thousands of Israeli fans Saturday night at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv.  But that doesn’t mean everyone was happy about the pop star’s “Let Me Entertain You” tour coming to Israel.  Fellow British musician, Roger Waters, who has a habit of writing letters…

Days after hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants protested in Jerusalem against police violence and racism, the demonstrations will move to Tel Aviv on Sunday,  “We have a common goal – to go out and protest against racism,” Inbar Bolgola, one of the organizers of the march told Channel Two.  “We are tired of being the quiet, cute Ethiopians. Enough…

One adult and one minor from the Samaria community Bat Ayin were cleared for release on Friday, after Supreme Court Justice Daphne Barak-Erez accepted an appeal over their arrests.  The three defendants include two 16-17 year-old boys from the community and a 19 year-old named as David Or Shahar.  One of the youths is charged with…

Dozens of Iraqis crowding a Baghdad street fought to glimpse the red-haired man in a glass coffin, hoping to witness the end of a long-feared member of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The furore over the dead man – who might be Saddam’s deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Duri, though his identity has still not been determined – is yet…

A plainclothes New York Police Department police officer was shot in the face on Saturday and is in critical condition.  Officer Brian Moore, 25, and his partner were conducting a patrol run through Queens Village when they spotted a suspect near the corner of 212th St. and 104th Rd, investigators said, with a suspicious object in…

(AFP) Lebanon’s land exports to Gulf markets have been choked off, leaving millions of dollars in goods stranded after the closure of a vital crossing on the Syrian-Jordanian border last month.   The Nasib border point was the last remaining gateway for Lebanese truck drivers transporting agricultural and industrial products to Iraq and Gulf countries.…

Over 1,000 Ethiopian Jews, mostly young, blocked the Begin Highway and the entrance to the Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv near the Azrieli Towers Sunday afternoon. They later blocked the Ayalon Highway itself. Police began clearing them from the road at about 7:00 p.m., after allowing them to block the major thoroughfares for almost two hours during…

The Satmar Hassidic sect is infamous for its anti-Zionist creed, but according to a weekend exposé by Zvika Klein of Makor Rishon NRG, a small group of the hassidim in New York City is secretly planning to make aliyah and establish a Zionist agricultural community. The organization is named “Zoreah – Hassidim for Settling the…

Tunisia said Sunday security measures have already been taken to protect Jewish pilgrims at a religious festival next week on the island of Djerba, after Israel warned of “concrete threats”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that Israel had learned of “concrete threats” of terror attacks against Jewish or Israeli targets in the North…

Members of the Border Police’s Southern District Central Unit arrested a senior member of a group of arms dealers Saturday night, in the village of Samua, in southern Mount Hevron. With assistance from the IDF, the policemen conducted a search of the man’s home in the wee hours of the night, and found four weapons…

Who will be in charge of the Ministry of Religious Affairs has become the last major sticking point for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, as he races to beat his final deadline for forming a government later this week. While it appears that Shas head Aryeh Deri will be running that ministry, Jewish Home wants a…

One of the traditional indicators of the health of the Israeli economy is the level of auto imports – and for the first four months of 2015, a new import record was set. During the first four months of the year, 97,657 – the most ever for a four month period – were imported into…

A senior Iranian cleric claims that US Secretary of State John Kerry told Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif that he “wished the US had a leader like Iran’s supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in comments made during the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. The cleric, Ayatollah Alam al-Hoda who is a senior member of the powerful…

Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau on Saturday evening issued a terror alert, warning Jews not to visit Tunisia due to information of terror plots that may be conducted this coming week. The alert particularly warned about the possibility of an attack on the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba’Omer, which will occur this Thursday. A Level 2 alert in Tunisia…

Nationalist organizations are sounding the alarm with a booklet containing aerial photographs of around 20 Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, which presents 2,026 homes in danger of demolition. The booklet shows the 2,026 homes which are on land allegedly privately owned by Arabs, with the buildings to be destroyed if the political echelon does not act to…

Britain’s “royal couple” – the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge – have presented their new baby daughter to the world after she was born Saturday morning. Princess Kate and Prince William displayed the newest addition to the family – who is fourth in line to the throne – on the steps outside St Mary’s Hospital in…

Hamas’s “military wing,” the Al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Saturday morning that a terrorist in the organization was killed in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya. The announcement revealed that the terrorist died when the tunnel he was working to dig collapsed. Hamas has been actively rebuilding its terror tunnel infrastructure meant to facilitate attacks from within Israeli territory,…

In the latest violent anti-Semitic incident in France, two Jewish residents of Paris last Friday were assaulted on a street in the city in the early afternoon by a gang of no less than 40 people, according to JSS News. The two Jews, both aged in their 20s, were assaulted on Boulevard Voltaire located in Paris’s…

Continuing our discussion with Dr. Shalom Salomon Wald, who recently completed his monumental work ‘Rise and Decline of Civilizations: Lessons for the Jewish People,’ we now delve into the internal composition of a successful – and an unsuccessful – civilization. More critical to our readership, the focus is the internal workings of Jewish civilization as we…

A group of Irish tourists have raised a storm after they decided to throw a bachelor party for one of the group’s members at a pub adjacent to the Jewish quarter in the Czech Republic capital of Prague, while wearing masks of the genocidal Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The group, which consisted of roughly 25 tourists of…

US Secretary of State John Kerry has given his first interview to Israeli media since spearheading the controversial framework deal with Iran over its nuclear program. Speaking to Channel 10, Kerry sought to bypass Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s stern opposition to the deal by appealing directly to the Israeli people. Kerry sought repeatedly to reassure Israelis…

A senior official in Hamas on Saturday called on Palestinian Arabs to “resolve the suffering of Gazans” by forming a national unity government comprising all Palestinian factions, the Ma’an news agency reported. Ismail al-Ashraq, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, said that Hamas no longer wanted the technocratic government composed of politically-independent members following…

Moshe Kahlon, who is to be appointed Finance Minister, declared on Saturday night that he intends to work towards making public transportation available on Shabbat. “I support public transportation on Shabbat, this is a social issue,” he said, speaking to Channel 2 News’ “Meet the Press” program. “You cannot say to someone who has no…

Several hundred Yazidi captives have been killed in Iraq by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists west of Mosul, Yazidi and Iraqi officials said Saturday, according to the BBC. A statement from the Yazidi Progress Party said 300 captives were killed on Friday in the Tal Afar district near the city. Iraqi Vice President Osama al-Nujaifi described…

A senior official in the Tunisian interior ministry denied on Saturday night that there were any potential terror threats against Jews or Israelis in the country, hours after Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a terror alert, warning Jews not to visit Tunisia due to information of terror plots that may be conducted this coming week. The…

Syria’s army launched an offensive Friday against rebel groups in a bid to strengthen its control in the northwest Latakia province, a bastion of the regime, a monitor said. After a series of losses in neighboring Idlib province, the army is fortifying its positions to preempt potential rebel attacks on Latakia, home to the small…

This week on Walter’s World, An exclusive on Obama’s half brother Malik and his affiliation with Islamism. And: An update on the prospects of Netanyahu’s chances of forming a government before the deadline.  Also, Former Mossad Head comments on Iran’s stance to the the demands to stop working on nuclear weapons development. Plus, A report of how Yad L’achim rescues…

In a three-part interview with Dr. Shalom Salomon Wald, Arutz Sheva will explore his research of Jewish civilization. His recently published book, ‘Rise and Decline of Civilizations: Lessons for the Jewish People’ covers dozens of major topics in Jewish history and current affairs. Our interview attempts to focus on only a fraction of them. In…

US Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday the United States is willing to go to war to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, as he defended the deal being hammered out with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. “As we pursue this deal, we’re also deepening our cooperation with Israel and our other regional…

The minimum wage in Israel has been raised by NIS 350 to NIS 4,650 (just over $1,200), as of Friday morning, and will be felt in the paychecks of about 600,000 Israelis in the salaries for the work done in the month of April. The raise is the first step in a three-stage agreement signed before…

While the Apple Watch debuted in the US last month, its Israel debut will be postponed until at least 2016, a senior cellular industry source told Globes on Thursday.  Even then, the source said, the watch will first only be distributed through cellular phone operators (e.g. Orange, Pelephone, and Cellcom), and only afterwards in electronic and computer…

MK Zuhair Bahloul (Labor) said Thursday that the Labor party is “not a Zionist party,” and that the name given to it in the elections – ‘The Zionist Union’ – was “a temporary one.” Speaking on Channel 20, Bahloul said that the name “Zionist Union” is “spiteful” toward the Arab sector, and that “the Arab…

The leader of the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, remains incapacitated due to suspected spinal damage and is being treated by two doctors who travel to his hideout from the group’s stronghold of Mosul in Iraq, the Guardian reported on Friday. More than two months after being injured in an airstrike in…

The UN confirmed on Friday that Iran will take part in consultations on Syria that begin Monday in Geneva, according to The Associated Press (AP). The UN special envoy on Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has said these are not a new round of negotiations but a series of individual meetings with “as many parties as…

The Indiana General Assembly has become the second-ever state legislature to pass a bill that formally opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, JNS.org reports. Tennessee lawmakers approved a similar measure on April 21, the report noted. Adopted in a voice vote, the Indiana Senate approved Resolution 74, which “expresses opposition to…

The United States ambassador to Turkey on Friday hit back at sexist remarks by the mayor of the Turkish capital to the State Department spokeswoman, by posting a picture of himself with blond hair, AFP reported. The move came a day after Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek, a close ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,…

Patrick Assaraf, father of 22-year-old Or Assaraf who is still missing after last week’s devastating earthquake in Nepal, said Friday that he remains cautiously optimistic that his son will be located. Assaraf, who left for Nepal earlier this week with some of Or’s friends to help search for his son, spoke to Channel 2 News…

President Barack Obama on Friday said that it is “absolutely vital” that the truth about what happened to Freddie Gray in Baltimore comes out, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Obama commented shortly after Baltimore’s top prosecutor announced criminal charges against the six police officers who were suspected after the 25-year-old Baltimore man suffered a fatal…

Iran has been shipping weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels since at least 2009, according to a confidential UN report seen by AFP, which reported about it on Friday. The report indicates that Tehran’s support for the rebels dates back to the early years of the Shiite militia’s insurgency. The report, by a panel of experts,…

A new Israeli app, developed in the Arava region in the south, will help farmers around the world. The app is being showcased at the Agritech 2015 conference in Tel Aviv. Pickapp was developed by Yuval Reich of Moshav Paran, located in the desert between the Dead and Red Seas. A connoisseur of productivity, Reich…

A Pakistani court on Thursday sentenced ten men to life in prison for their involvement in a 2012 assassination attempt on teenage education activist and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, The Wall Street Journal reported. “They have received life sentences for the Malala case, but there is further legal action ongoing against them too so their…

Israeli authorities on Thursday opened the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza, allowing 700 truckloads of goods to enter the region, the Ma’an news agency reported. The head of the Commission for the Coordination of Goods into Gaza, Raed Fattouh, told the news agency that among the good entering Gaza were construction materials for internationally-funded projects,…

The Jewish Home party is asking to add a clause to the coalition agreement with the Likud that would allow Ayelet Shaked to resign from the Knesset after she is appointed a government minister. Such a move would allow Shuli Muallem, who is next on the Jewish Home’s list, to enter the Knesset and continue…

American naval forces have started “accompanying” American-flagged commercial ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, defense officials said Thursday, according to the AFP news agency. The move comes after Iran seized a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel this week. It means American warships will be in the area and in contact with commercial vessels but not carrying…

Senator Bernie Sanders on Thursday officially launched his populist, liberal campaign for the White House, savaging an American economic system that creates “immoral” and unsustainable disparities between rich and poor, according to AFP. “We’re in this race to win,” the 73-year-old Sanders, an independent lawmaker who is little known outside political circles and his home…

The head of the opposition Syrian National Coalition on Thursday called on the United States to help set up safe havens inside Syria in areas under rebel control, AFP reported. Meeting with Secretary of State John Kerry at the State Department, coalition president Khaled Khoja thanked the United States for giving more than $3 billion…

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor has said she is weighing opening war crimes investigations into Palestinians as well as Israelis after the Palestinian Authority (PA) joined the tribunal’s jurisdiction last month, according to AFP. Fatou Bensouda rejected Israeli fears of bias by the court, promising to consider the evidence “independently and impartially without fear or favor,” in an interview…

Dozens of young people, activists and party members from Yesh Atid demonstrated Friday in Tel Aviv, demanding that “Bibi [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – ed.] cannot sell out our country.”  The demonstration specifically protested the coalition agreement between Likud and United Torah Judaism, which includes clauses to cancel criminal sanctions against haredi students and work toward…

Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) gave one final interview before leaving office on Friday, wherein he reflected on his political career and why he decided to leave political life.  Aharonovich began by addressing his relationship with Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino, which was often stormy.  “The reasons are not simple, but complex,” he told Walla!…

Civil Administration bulldozers demolished the memorial tent of grieving parents on Thursday afternoon, claiming that the tent was built “illegally” in the Samaria community of Tapuah.  The tent, dubbed “Avraham’s Tent,” was set up by bereaved father Avraham Herzlich – the father of Talia Kahane, who was murdered along with her husband 13 years ago…

Jerusalem will operate its first buses on Shabbat on Friday night, with a private “Shabbos” line beginning to run at 8:00 pm.  The line is a private initiative from Jerusalemites angered over Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud)’s refusal to allow public transportation on Shabbat.  110,000 shekels ($28,526) for the project has already been raised on…

Following a reshuffle in Saudi Arabia’s power elite, US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Wednesday: “We will continue to maintain our close, productive relationship as we work together to address a number of serious challenges.” “Our strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia is longstanding under multiple administrations, many different kings, and this will certainly…

Chairman of the Arab Joint List MK Ayman Odeh visited Palestinian Arab arch-terrorist Marwan Barghouti on Thursday, ostensibly to discuss politics.  Barghouti is currently serving five life sentences in Israeli prison for his role in planning suicide terror attacks, and is widely believed to have masterminded the second intifada which claimed thousands of Israeli lives from 2000 to…

The first helicopter has been sent to search for missing Israeli Or Assaraf on Friday, six days after the devastating earthquake in Nepal that has now killed at least 6,100 people.  Patrick Assaraf, the father of the missing 22 year-old, left for Nepal on Monday night with some friends of his son to help search for the only…

Prominent religious Zionist Rabbi Moshe Levinger, one of the founders of the Gush Emunim movement advancing the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, continues to be in serious condition after being hospitalized in the Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem. The rabbi, who is over 79-years-old, is one of the founders of the modern-day Jewish community in Hevron,…

Since the framework agreement with Iran was signed by Tehran, Washington and other world powers, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has focused on the 1994 agreement with North Korea which was also intended to curtail that country’s development of nuclear weapons. On October 12 of that year, an “Agreement Framework” was signed with the North Koreans that traded two…

President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday morning welcomed three newly appointed ambassadors from China, New Zealand and Burkina Faso in an official ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. As the incoming Chinese Ambassador Zhan Yongxin presented his diplomatic credentials to Rivlin, he said, “I bring with me the greetings of the Chinese President, and wish to express…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been cracking down on Hamas supporters within its borders, Palestinian Media Watch reported on Thursday, and state media has been mum over the wave of arrests.  The crackdown began after Fatah’s defeat in student elections at Birzeit University earlier this month.  “Sources within the Hamas movement said that the Palestinian [Authority] security forces launched…

President Reuven Rivlin on Thursday morning welcomed three newly appointed ambassadors from China, New Zealand and Burkina Faso in an official ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. As the incoming Chinese Ambassador Zhan Yongxin presented his diplomatic credentials to Rivlin, he said, “I bring with me the greetings of the Chinese President, and wish to express…

Syria and Iran have agreed to “intensify efforts to fight terrorism,” Syria’s defense minister said in Tehran, in an ironic reference to the Syrian opposition forces given that Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism. Defense Minister General Fahd al-Freij, quoted by state news agency SANA, said key allies Damascus and Tehran were on the same page…

Around 200 Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia protested on Thursday afternoon in front of the national police headquarters in Jerusalem, following several recent incidents of police violence against Ethiopians including the shocking assault of an Ethiopian Jewish soldier on Sunday. The protesters blocked Chaim Bar-Lev Street as well as the path of the Jerusalem light rail. Large police forces…

Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen… These may not be countries you would expect to feature in a pro-Israel campaign. Even in Egypt and Jordan, which have treaties with Israel, you’re not likely to find much pro-Israel sentiment among the general public – at least not in public However, a recent poll of the Arab world, released last month, revealed something surprising: unlike their elders,…

Nearly 150 Syrian soldiers have been besieged inside a hospital in Jisr al-Shughur since opposition forces including an Al-Qaeda affiliate seized the town last week, a monitor said Thursday, as President Bashar al-Assad’s regime continues to show signs of collapse. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that separately another 200 people – regime forces and their families, captured from Jisr…

Residents of the Binyamin community of Ofra have written a letter to the chairman of Jewish Home, Naftali Bennett, on Thursday, regarding the destruction of nine houses in the community in accordance with a High Court decision. In the letter, the residents beg Bennett to have Jewish Home pressure Likud further about building – or lack thereof – in Judea…

It may sound like the plot of a Hollywood action script, but it’s really happening: the US Air Force is anxiously monitoring the descent of a Russian satellite carrying 3,000 pounds of toxic fuel that has malfunctioned and threatens to careen into the Earth within two weeks. The “Progress-M 27M” satellite, which was meant to…

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch on Thursday evening spoke with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and briefed him on the goings on in Jerusalem, where some 200 Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia protested  in front of the national police headquarters, following several recent incidents of police violence against Ethiopians including the shocking assault of an Ethiopian Jewish soldier. Netanyahu…

While IDF soldiers, particularly those serving on the front lines, are expected to be combat-ready at all times, a more touching moment was caught on film as Border Patrol officers rescued a wounded rabbit. The combat soldiers were patrolling in the Jenin region of Samaria on Thursday when they spotted the rabbit lying wounded adjacent to…

After signing coalition agreements with United Torah Judaism and Kulanu, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is turning his attention to finishing off deals with Shas and Jewish Home. Although negotiations with both parties have advanced significantly in recent days, Likud sources say, both parties are still fighting for control of the Religious Affairs Ministry. Netanyahu had already…

A new museum will open in Munich Thursday on the former site of the Nazi party headquarters. For many, it is a long overdue reckoning with the German city’s status as the “home of the movement.” The inauguration also coincides with the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Munich by US troops at the end of World War II, and of Adolf Hitler’s suicide the…

Argentine politicians passed a law on Wednesday aimed at providing financial compensation to the victims of the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center, AFP reported.  The bombing at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) killed 85 people and wounded 300, in the deadliest terror attack to hit the South American country. Remo Carlotto, who heads the country’s Human Rights Commission,…

Rabbi Dov Lipman shocked Israeli Anglos by entering in the unexpectedly powerful 17th slot for Yesh Atid in 2013, becoming the first American-born member the Knesset in 30 years. #17 was not as lucky this time around, though that does not mean he has had trouble finding things to do – and he is still going…

Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on Wednesday confirmed earlier reports he will run for president as a Democrat, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Speaking to the news agency, Sanders promised to fight what he deems “obscene levels” of income disparity and a campaign finance system that is a “real disgrace”. Sanders added that he plans…

Special Table for Two coming up! This week Naomi Nachman hosts Captain Michael Bram, a chaplain in the US Air Force who is based in Anchorage, Alaska, the amazing organizer from Kosher Troops who packages up donates food and sends them to Jewish American troops based overseas, and Orly Gottesman who started Blends by Orly, a…

MKs from the left on Wednesday had harsh criticism of the coalition agreements signed between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Kulanu and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) parties. Responding to the agreement with UTJ, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid blasted Netanyahu for agreeing to cancel the controversial enlistment law compelling haredim to enlist into the IDF or…

Netafim, an Israeli company considered a global leader in irrigation, announced this week the launch of its next-generation low-flow drippers. Bolstering the company’s position as the drip industry’s pioneer and innovative frontrunner, the new line represents the cutting edge in drip irrigation technology. Featuring a new design to boost yields under harsh water conditions, the…

The head of the IDF’s humanitarian mission in Nepal on Wednesday met with Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and assured him that Israel is doing everything in its power to save as many lives as possible from the devastating earthquake. “We are in a close relationship with the military hospital in Kathmandu and with other…

The United States Senate on Wednesday rejected an effort to tie sanctions relief for Iran under an international nuclear agreement to a requirement that President Barack Obama certify that Tehran is not supporting acts of terrorism against Americans, Reuters reported. A handful of Republicans joined Senate Democrats to reject by a 54-45 vote a proposed…

Rescuers in Nepal have rescued two children trapped under rubble for five days, as the country continues to struggle to deal with the desperate aftermath of Saturday’s devastating earthquake. More than 5,500 people are known to have died in the 7.8 magnitude quake and its aftershocks, with the death toll expected to keep rising as…

Israel has returned 15 fishing boats seized in recent years off the Gaza coast, the Israel Defense Forces said late Wednesday.  “The naval branch (navy) returned to Gaza 15 fishing boats which deviated from the Strip’s permitted fishing zone and were seized over the years,” the IDF statement read.  The small vessels were dragged back to…

Tens of thousands of Nepalese have been searching for a way to escape the devastation in their country, after a major earthquake wrought unprecedented damage on the country.  But a group of 24 students from Nepal, safely ensconced in Israel, will be going home, equipped with life-saving skills they picked up in Israel. The students…

Likud faction chairman and number nine on the part’s Knesset list, MK Danny Danon,  is certain he will be a minister in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s next government.  Speaking to Arutz Sheva on Thursday, Danon noted that as negotiations wrap up, it’s time for coalition partners to get serious, finalize deal and “start working.” “There is tension among the partners,”…

Having wrapped up coalition deals with United Torah Judaism and Kulanu, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has turned his full attention to signing with remaining coalition partners – Jewish Home, Shas, and Yisrael Beytenu – before his final deadline to present a government next week. In his offer to Yisrael Beytenu, Netanyahu has reportedly offered to keep party…

The mayor of Turkey’s capital city Ankara has stirred up controversy after trolling a senior US government spokesperson, calling her “a stupid blond”. Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek posted the sexist message on his Twitter account on Tuesday, in a bizarre attack on US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. The tweet includes a picture of American riot police…

Second shooting in a day: A man in his 40s was killed and two others moderately injured after being shot in Haifa on Hameginim Street on Thursday morning.  Magen David Adom teams treated the two wounded men, one in his 40s and the other in his 30s, who were both shot in the extremities. They were then…

Shira Klein, who was seriously injured in the car terror attack in Jerusalem two weeks ago on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, was released from Hadassah Medical Center on Thursday morning.  Klein, 24, who was treated in the Orthopedics ward at Hadassah, will be rehabilitated at Tel Hashomer Hospital.  She was deliberately run over by 37-year-old Khaled Kutina,…

Iran remains “committed to freedom of movement on the high seas,” Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Wednesday. Zarif was speaking as Iran continued to hold a cargo ship Tuesday. According to Zarif, freedom of movement on the seas was a “necessity for Iran and everyone,” and Iran was second to none in its…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett will be given the Diaspora Affairs Ministry, Arutz Sheva has learned Wednesday, following an agreement with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  However, there is one catch, according to Walla! News: the Ministry will not include responsibility over Jerusalem, a demand which Jewish Home has been making in coalition talks for weeks. Instead, responsibility for…

A badly-overstretched Hezbollah may be resorting to using child soldiers to compensate for growing losses in the many theaters of battle it is currently engaged. On Tuesday, the Iranian-backed Shia terrorist group’s official news channel Al Manar announced the death of a young fighter, named as Mashhur Fahd Shamseddine, who it said was killed while “on jihadist…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Hwang Woo-yea on Wednesday afternoon.  He began the meeting by noting the commonalities between the two countries. “We have an excellent relationship between the Republic of Korea and Israel,” Netanyahu said. “We’re two amazing success stories, two democracies facing adversity, hostility from…

In the wake of demands by the Tekuma component of Jewish Home, Arutz Sheva has learned that the head of the Amana construction firm, Ze’ev Haver (“Zombish”), one of the most influential members of the settlement movement in Judea and Samaria, has come to a “quiet understanding” with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. The two have…

As coalition negotiations enter their last-minute-crisis phase, the Tekuma component of Jewish Home held a meeting to remind its representatives – MKs Uri Ariel and Betzalel Smotrich – to insist that Tekuma’s demands are written into a coalition agreement between Jewish Home and Likud. Tekumah has one “red line”: a clear directive to significantly increase building…

The Jewish Home party on Wednesday evening urged its members to exercise patience as coalition negotiations with the Likud party continue. In a letter to members of the Jewish Home’s Central Committee, the party’s representatives to the negotiations wrote: Good evening friends, Another night of tough negotiations ended without agreements but with progress. Minister Bennett…

20 year-old Shira Klein, who was injured in the car attack two weeks ago near the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem, will be released from Hadassah Medical Center for rehabilitation, hospital staff announced Wednesday.  Klein, who was treated in the Orthopedics ward, will be rehabilitated at Tel Hashomer Hospital.  “The Shira that came to Hadassah…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with the Chief Minister of the State of Maharashtra in India, Davendra Fadnavis, on Wednesday. Maharashtra is the second-largest state in India.    “It’s a pleasure to see you here in Israel,” Netanyahu said. “Since my meeting with Prime Minister Modi in New York, we’ve had tremendous tightening and development of our relations.” “Your…

United Torah Judaism on Wednesday became the first party to join Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s new coalition, as Netanyahu signed a coalition agreement with UTJ heads Yaakov Litzman and Moshe Gafni. Shortly afterward, Moshe Kahlon signed a coalition agreement with Netanyahu as well. Under the coalition agreement with UTJ, cuts that were made to the…

President Reuven Rivlin hosted at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem the children of the Chani and Rabbi Hezki Lifshitz, the Chabad emissaries based in Nepal, Wednesday afternoon.  With their parents still in Nepal assisting with the recovery efforts, the children – Shmuel, Rivki, Yitzhak, aged between four and six – arrived at the President’s Residence with…

Israelis in the area of earthquake-ravaged Nepal have been flocking to the Chabad House in Kathmandu, the one place they feel safe in the wake of the destruction around them. The center has done its best to provide people with their basic needs – but is quickly running out of money, Chabad officials told NRG Wednesday.…

The Chabad envoy in Kathmandu, Rabbi Hezki Lifshitz, is still rescuing stranded hikers in Nepal, he told Arutz Sheva on Wednesday.  “By the grace of God we were able to rescue 25 people,” he said. “They are exhausted from days on end being trapped in the wilderness.”  He said that all of them were brought to the…

Despite being the leading state sponsor of terrorism, Iran should play a “major role” in the Middle East according to EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday. Mogherini spoke to reporters ahead of a meeting in New York with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif focused on finalizing the nuclear deal reached this month and regional crises. A…