Category: News

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will meet with the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate on Tuesday, after he addresses the Congress, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday, according to Reuters. The meeting will involve Netanyahu, McConnell and Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid, the report said, and comes amid tensions between Democrats…

The head of the United Nations’ cultural agency, UNESCO, on Thursday demanded an emergency meeting of the world body’s Security Council following the mass destruction by jihadists of ancient artifacts in Iraq. “This attack is far more than a cultural tragedy – this is also a security issue as it fuels sectarianism, violent extremism and…

Pop star Madonna told French radio on Thursday that “intolerance” was now so high in France and Europe that “it feels like Nazi Germany,” according to the AFP news agency. Speaking to Europe 1 radio in an interview to be aired Friday morning, Madonna said “anti-Semitism is at an all-time high” in France and elsewhere…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein said Thursday he had ordered a preliminary investigation into alleged fiscal misconduct at the private and state residences of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, reports AFP. The announcement follows a scathing report by the State Comptroller, but Weinstein noted the probe will begin only after the March 17 elections, and stressed Netanyahu…

The Israel Electric Company (IEC) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) reached a temporary settlement Thursday, after the IEC introduced rolling blackouts in protest to outstanding debts.  Under the agreement, the PA will transfer some 300 million shekel (about $75,800) in tax money to the IEC in exchange for a halt on the blackouts, which the…

The 2015 Tel Aviv marathon has begun on the wrong foot Friday, after two 30 year-old runners were taken to Ichilov Hospital in critical condition – and after 75 additional people were injured.  Magen David Adom (MDA) medics rushed to resuscitate one man Friday morning, after he collapsed during the race briefly before regaining consciousness. The man…

Pro-Palestinian rallies and groups are being used to aid the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) in Europe, according to a book the group released this month – united under the front of “bringing down Zionsim.”  The book, Black Flags from Rome, encourages European Muslims to rise up and aid ISIS from within, according to a report on…

A series of posters from a rabbinic organization have attempted to encourage voters to think of the consequences of a leftist government Thursday, via new poster campaign throughout Israel.  The Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) erected hundreds of posters which read “Ceding territory is a danger to life” and “Thousands were murdered as a result of Oslo…

Meretz has bottomed out in public support polls, according to the latest pre-elections survey Friday – falling even past the fledgling Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party.  Labor and Likud are still tied at 23 seats each, according to the TNS poll for Walla!, followed by Yesh Atid and Jewish Home at 13 seats each.  The Arab parties would…

Saudi Arabian national and Al Qaeda terrorist Khalid Al Fawwaz has been found guilty of the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania late Thursday, after a New York jury deliberated for three days over the verdict.  The bombing attacks in Nairobi and Dar as Salaam killed 224 people; Al-Fawwaz was arrested in London that same…

Kurdish fighters seized the eastern and southern outskirts Friday of a key Islamic State (ISIS) stronghold in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.   Fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had entered Tal Hamis and captured parts of the town after six days of clashes with the…

Danish police said they arrested Friday a third alleged accomplice in the Copenhagen shootings, nearly two weeks after the attacks that killed two people.   The suspect is “charged with complicity in the perpetrator’s actions” and will appear before a judge on Saturday for a custody hearing, police said in a statement. Two other men…

The Egyptian body which rules on Islamic law on Friday condemned the Islamic State group’s destruction of Iraqi artifacts, saying Mohammed’s own companions had never demolished ancient heritage. The Dar al-Ifta, whose rulings are sought by Muslims from around the world, said the jihadists’ videotaped smashing of ancient statues at the Mosul museum in northern…

French President Francois Hollande on Friday condemned the “barbaric” destruction by Islamic State terrorists of priceless ancient artifacts in Iraq’s city of Mosul. “Barbarism affects people, history, memories, culture,” Hollande told reporters in Manila at the end of a two-day trip to the Philippines, according to AFP.  “What the terrorists want to do is destroy all of humanity. When you seek…

An eight-way televised debate Thursday between the heads of most of parties expected to enter the next Knesset included heated confrontations between Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) and Zehava Galon (Meretz), in which Liberman said he was happy that the Left was rapidly dwindling and turning into “a nature reserve” and that its supporters would soon…

US President Barack Obama is sending National Security Advisor Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power to address the AIPAC convention next week. The two are “widely seen as among the most anti-Israel members” of Obama’s administration, according to Breitbart.com, which says the decision to send them is “a further slap in the face” by…

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a landmark series of regulation on how Americans will access the internet Thursday, voting for “net neutrality” in a 3-2 sweep – and sparking immediate concerns that the government is directly interfering with internet use.  “Net neutrality” is the term for regulations on internet use that would prevent large providers,…

IDF, Border Police and Israel Police forces launched a large-scale operation Thursday to block and contain the wave of rock throwing terror in Judea and Samaria. The operation was launched after a special headquarters was established to deal specifically with the rock-throwing threat. The HQ has command over two Judea and Samaria Border Police companies,…

Any Arab MKs to join the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the 20th Knesset will not be privy to classified information, MK Yariv Levin (Likud) stated Thursday. “The general committee will only hold discussions which do not contain classified information, whereas sub-committees will include classified intel,” he said, during an address at the Israel Democracy Institute in…

Jordan and Israel signed a deal on Thursday to build a pipeline to link the Red Sea with the shrinking Dead Sea and combat regional water shortages, according to AFP.  The official Petra news agency said that the agreement signed in the Jordanian capital, Amman, would set in motion the implementation of the first phase of a long-awaited project. It follows a…

Differing polls place Likud and Labor in very different spots for the 20th Knesset elections Thursday, after one poll places the two at a tie and another gives Labor a clear victory.  A Channel 1 poll published Thursday night gives Labor and Likud 24 seats each, followed by 12 seats each for Jewish Home, Yesh Atid, and…

A Danish man whose Facebook comments appeared to back the gunman behind the deadly Copenhagen attacks will not face charges of condoning terrorism, a prosecutor said Thursday to AFP.  The unidentified man had posted comments including “Je suis Omar” and “We are all Omar” on his Facebook page, referring to Omar El-Hussein, who murdered two people in the twin shootings on…

An Argentine judge on Thursday dismissed the case against President Cristina Kirchner for allegedly shielding Iranian officials from prosecution over the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center, AFP reports. The long-unsolved bombing at the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association killed 85 people and wounded 300. Prosecutors had sought to relaunch the case against Kirchner that was being brought by their late colleague Alberto Nisman,…

An anti-Israel organization on Wednesday unveiled a new bus ad that uses Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming Congress speech to call on the Obama administration to cut Washington’s aid to Israel. The group, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), claimed in a statement introducing the new ad that Netanyahu has in the past boasted of being able…

The United States and Iran have a “mutual interest” in defeating the Islamic State (ISIS) group, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday, AFP reported. He stressed, however, that the long-time foes are not cooperating to do so. “They are totally opposed to ISIL and they are in fact taking on and fighting and…

Over the course of the last academic year, four doctoral students and one recent alumna of Dr. Roee Holtzer’s Neuropsychology and Cognition Lab at Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology were listed as first-authors on articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, a rare and significant achievement for students in a PhD program. Students Jennifer Yuan,…

Former Miss Turkey Merve Buyuksarac is facing up to two years in prison for social media posts that prosecutors have deemed to be critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Wednesday. The woman’s lawyer, Emre Telci, said that an Istanbul prosecutor is demanding that Buyuksarac be prosecuted on charges of…

The White House on Wednesday backed comments by National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who said in an interview that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech in Congress is “destructive” to the relationship between the two countries. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, White House spokesman Josh Earnest was asked about Rice’s comments and…

Austria’s parliament on Wednesday passed a law banning foreign sources of financing to Muslim organizations and requiring imams to be able to speak German, AFP reported. The law, first introduced in October, is an overhaul of a 1912 law governing the status of Austrian Muslims. The new law aims to promote what conservative Integration Minister…

Three New York residents have been arrested for plotting to join extremists fighting in Syria and two threatened to carry out attacks within the United States, officials said Wednesday, according to the AFP news agency. Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24, Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, and Abror Habibov, 30, have been charged with attempt and conspiracy to provide…

A young Canadian woman abruptly left her family to join the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria after purportedly being radicalized while studying religion online, AFP reported Wednesday. The 23-year-old’s sister told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) that the woman had taken an online course to study the Koran, but reportedly learned how to get…

The Comptroller’s Report on housing prices is “a very important document that we place a great deal of importance on,” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday. “We believe that the report raised many serious issues and solutions, which we shall work on implementing,” the PMO said in a statement. Netanyahu was responding to a…

The back and forth banter between Israel and the United States over Iran’s nuclear aspirations continued on Wednesday, as Secretary of State John Kerry questioned Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s judgment when it comes to Iran. The comments, according to The Huffington Post, came as Kerry was testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Committee member…

France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Thursday that he “condemned with the greatest strength” a decision by three French lawmakers to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he described as “a butcher.” “I want to condemn this initiative with the greatest strength,” Valls told TV station BFMTV. “For parliamentarians to go without warning to meet a butcher…. I think it…

A church-owned building in Jerusalem was torched overnight, the Israel Police said in a statement Thursday morning.  Arsonists set fire to an annex of a Greek Orthodox Seminary just outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, and scrawled “graffiti insulting Jesus” on the building.  Police spokeswoman Luba Samri called the incident a “nationalist” attack, with Jewish…

Islamic State terrorists have abducted 220 Assyrian Christians from villages in northeastern Syria in recent days, a monitoring group said Thursday, more than twice as many as previously reported. “No fewer than 220 Assyrian citizens (of Syria) were abducted by ISIS over the past three days from 11 villages” in Hasakeh province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “Negotiations are under…

Adolg Hitler’s anti-Semitic manifesto Mein Kampf  (My Struggle) is returning to German bookshelves in early 2016, sparking public and political outrage across the country.  For 70 years, the State of Bavaria in Germany owned the copyright of the book. While original copies were still allowed to be sold, reprinting the book has been banned in the country…

An Iranian-American engineer in a key US company and nearly smuggled sensitive fighter jet plans to Iran has pleaded guilty. He could be sentenced to 20 years in prison and a million dollars in fines. Sentencing is scheduled for May 20. According to U.S. Attorney Stephen B. Reynolds, Muzafar Khazaee’s crime deserves about five years in prison.…

Amit Barak, one of the founders of the Im Tirzu organization and an activist advocating IDF service for Christian Arabs, is demanding that Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein open an investigation against Ayman Odeh, head of the United Arab List, for violating laws against inciting Israeli citizens not to serve in the IDF. While Muslim Arabs…

Iranian forces conducting military exercises in the Strait of Hormuz, blew up a mock US aircraft carrier. State television showed Iranian speedboats surround the ship and hit it with what the television said were “high precision missiles,” as part of the “Great Prophet” military exercises. Speaking on television, top Iranian naval official Admiral Ali Fadavi said…

An Arab satellite television network report claimed Thursday that a US-led coalition airstrike against Islamic State targets in areas they control has killed a “large number” of the organization’s top commanders. It is not yet clear if ISIS’ top leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed. The report on Al Arabiya television quoted sources in the US-led coalition as saying…

The Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) and IDF have uncovered two terrorist cells, whose members carried out, recently, a number of shootings at Israeli vehicles and at an IDF post, it was cleared for publication Thursday afternoon.  The ISA also found a cache of five rifles, a pistol and ammunition during the investigation.  One of…

It’s been four months since veteran Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick was gunned down in an attempted assassination in Jerusalem. Four bullets fired by an Islamic Jihad assassin pierced his body, and for days he hovered between life and death. Since then, he has astonished doctors with his rapid recovery, although he still has a long and arduous rehabilitation…

The worst forecasts of the expected jump in gasoline prices materialized Thursday, as the Economics Ministry announced that the new price of gas beginning Sunday would be NIS 6.46 per liter – 38 agurot (11¢) more than it costs today. At current exchange rates, that comes out to about $6.21 a gallon. Israeli gas prices…

The IDF on Thursday suspended air exercises, after several “close calls” in recent weeks demanded a review of procedures and safety practices, Israel Air Force officials said. The exercises would be resumed in the coming days after a thorough review of the practices to ensure that pilots and crew were not injured in the course…

Kurdish forces have prevented displaced Arabs from returning to disputed areas of Iraq that Kurdish leaders want to incorporate in their autonomous region over Baghdad’s objections, a report said Thursday. Human Rights Watch warned the Kurdistan regional government against meting out “collective punishment of entire Arab communities” for the Islamic State terrorist group’s attacks, AFP reported.  “Cordoning off Arab residents and refusing…

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon will be the Guest of Honor – via pre-recorded video – at a giant Chabad youth event this Sunday. That same day, modern Jerusalem’s busiest synagogue, and one of its very oldest, will celebrate its 120th birthday. Ban, whose second term as UN Chief ends in Dec. ’16, will address what has become…

Students in Israeli Religious Zionist high schools are demanding that the four religious parties running in this election – Jewish Home, Yachad-Ha’am Itanu, Shas, and United Torah Jewry – put up a united front, and work together to ensure that the next government take seriously their positions on matters of state and religion. Thousands of…

Police can no longer require suspects to strip for a search unless they have a very good reason to believe that a suspect is hiding weapons or drugs on his person, the High Court decided Wednesday. According to the court, suspects who refuse to strip so that they can be searched will not be required to…

President of Israel Reuven Rivlin hosted a delegation from Apple Wednesday, led by CEO Tim Cook, currently on a visit to Israel. “It is a great privilege to host you and your team here in Israel,” Rivlin stated. “Your contribution to humanity is unprecedented.  Even for me as one who prefers to write with a pen and…

The State Comptroller’s Office Wednesday published a damning report on the conduct of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, just one week after State Comptroller Yosef Shapira officially rebuked him over excessive spending on running his private and public residences in a separate report ahead of the March 17 elections. Wednesday’s 294-page report said housing prices had increased 55 percent and rent costs by 30 percent…

Jews who attempt to ascend to the Temple Mount have a great many obstacles placed in their way – and the latest consists of mobs of Muslim women who form human chains, effectively preventing anyone – especially Jews – from passing them. Matan Nahum, a resident of Beit Horon, told Arutz Sheva that he and…

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that he “respects” US President Barack Obama but stressed he has no choice but to travel to America to lobby against a nuclear deal with Iran. “I respect the White House and the US president but on a serious subject, it’s my duty to do everything for Israel’s security,” Netanyahu said during a campaign…

An Australian who travelled to Syria to join Kurds battling jihadists has been killed, a monitor said Wednesday, adding he was the first Westerner to die fighting alongside the Kurds. “An Australian man was killed in an assault on Tuesday by the Islamic State against a position of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) near Tal Hamis in Hasakeh province,” said Syrian…

54% of Jewish American college students experienced anti-Semitism on campus during the 2013-2014 academic year, according to a landmark study released Tuesday – and one conservative think-tank is determined to raise awareness over the issue.  The David Horowitz Freedom Center has launched the “Jew Hatred on Campus” campaign to educate the public about the proclivity of…

Egypt’s former mufti expressed doubt recently that the Islamic State (ISIS) indeed burned alive a Jordanian pilot it kidnapped in Syria. In an address posted on the internet on February 5 and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), the former mufti, Ali Gomaa, opined that the images showing the burning of the…

Yesh Atid leader MK Yair Lapid continued on Tuesday to blame Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the housing crisis in Israel, ahead of a new report by the State Comptroller on the issue. The new report, which will be released on Wednesday, is expected to blame three previous governments for the housing crisis – from…

For the second time in as many years, Yeshiva University men’s basketball player Benjy Ritholtz has earned one of the highest academic honors a college student-athlete can earn, as the senior has been named a College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA)/Capital One Academic All-American for the 2014-15 men’s basketball season. Ritholtz, who earned a…

The European Union’s foreign policy chief on Tuesday said that an Iran nuclear deal was “at hand”, AFP reported. “We cannot miss this opportunity,” Federica Mogherini said at Chatham House, a think tank in London, urging different sides to show political will ahead of a new round of talks scheduled in Geneva next week. “A good…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Tuesday night that he will not form a unity government with the “Zionist Camp”, headed by Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog and Hatnua chairwoman Tzipi Livni. “There will be no unity government between me and Tzipi and Buji,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook. “It will not happen, because there is a…

The shooting attack in the Czech town of Uhersky Brod on Tuesday in which eight people were killed was not a terrorist attack, Czech Interior Minister Milan Chovanec said Tuesday night, according to the Bulgarian Sofia news agency. The perpetrator, a local man aged 60, shot himself dead after killing seven men and one woman…

A group of Iranian dissidents said on Tuesday that Iran has an “underground top-secret site” that is enriching uranium intended for nuclear weapons and which has been hidden from the West for years, Fox News reports. According to the Iranian opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), the complex, called Lavizan-3, is…

A Palestinian Arab mosque was set alight in a village near Bethlehem Tuesday, with anti-Arab slogans in Hebrew sprayed on a nearby wall, Palestinian witnesses said. The fire was discovered in the mosque in al-Jabaa village in Judea, south of Jerusalem, at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT). Villagers managed to put it out but there was some…

The Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet), arrested a 17-year-old Jewish youth in a nighttime raid on Od Yosef Chai yeshiva in Yitzhar, Samaria. The youth was taken to the Nationalistic Crimes Section in the Central Unit of the Judea and Samaria District Police. He was interrogated regarding alleged involvement in puncturing the tire…

A video released by ISIS in Libya and published by the Arabic-language Asharq al-Awsat shows the two perpetrators of a deadly attack on the Corinthia Hotel in January threatening that ISIS’s newly-established presence in the country would be used as a springboard to invade Europe. The footage itself is believed to have been taken in western Libya,…

The American public has grown more supportive of the US fight against the Islamic State group, with nearly two-thirds now backing the air campaign against the jihadists, according to a survey released Tuesday. About twice as many approve (63 percent) as disapprove (30 percent) of the military campaign against the IS group in Iraq and…

The United States has condemned the abduction by the Islamic State terrorist group of dozens of Assyrian Christians in Syria and demanded their immediate release. It was the first mass kidnapping of Christians in the war-torn country, although tens of thousands have already been driven from their homes by the jihadist Islamic State in its…

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Tuesday that Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech in Congress is “destructive” to the relationship between the two countries. Rice made the comments in an interview with Charlie Rose on PBS.  “The relationship between Israel as a country and the United States as a country has always been bipartisan…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has reportedly declined an invitation to meet with U.S. Senate Democrats during his trip to Washington next week, Reuters reported late Tuesday. The invitation was extended on Monday by Senators Richard Durbin and Dianne Feinstein, who explained they invited Netanyahu to a closed-door meeting with Democrats “to maintain Israel’s dialog with…

Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Yisrael Beytenu party could distribute copies of Charlie Hebdo as part of its campaign ahead of a March 17 general election.   Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s party had already displayed copies of the French satirical magazine that featured an image of the founder of Islam Mohammed at a publicity…

After having flown missions over Afghanistan and Libya, French Rafale fighter pilot “Sharpy” now faces fresh challenges on his new assignment against the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group in Iraq.   “We are well-trained, we know all the procedures but you still need to get used to the territory,” he said after landing his fighter on…

The Israel Electric Corporation on Wednesday limited the electricity flow to Shechem and Jenin, after doing so earlier in the week to several other Palestinian Authority-controlled areas. The IEC did not say how long the power cut would last, but on Tuesday, the company restored the full flow of electricity after about an hour. At…

The subject of biased and even false reporting of the Arab-Israeli conflict by foreign and international media outlets is never far from the headlines.  Just this week, an absurd allegation by AFP – that Israel had flooded Gaza by opening a damn in southern Israel – went viral among world media outlets, despite the fact that there…

Nearly 1,000 Assyrian Christian families have fled their homes in northeastern Syria after jihadists kidnapped dozens of members of their community, an activist said on Wednesday.   Osama Edward, director of the Sweden-based Assyrian Human Rights Network, said they had fled in fear after jihadists from the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) took the Assyrian…

In an interview with Yisraeli magazine, Minister Naftali Bennett, Chairman of the Jewish Home, said that the party is regaining steam after a drop in popularity last month. “Large forces in the Left are working against us,” he explained. “After all, we are the ‘nudniks’ [naggers] of the government. When they want to free terrorists –…

Famed Israeli singer-composer Rami Kleinstein, 52, who has always been secular, has begun to conduct kiddush ceremonies to welcome the Sabbath and to lay tefillin every morning. Kleinstein is growing a beard and he has announced that he will no longer perform on Friday evenings (Sabbath eves) or on holidays. He has asked to move…

Two Norwegians accused of fighting with Islamic State (ISIS) extremists appeared before an Oslo court Tuesday charged with aiding a “terrorist organization”, in Norway’s first ever trial of suspected jihadists. Djibril Bashir and Valon Avdylim — of Somali and Albanian origin, respectively — are accused of having fought with ISIS in Syria, according to the…

Jewish Home Chairman and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett is joining Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington next week, he announced Tuesday night, in order to support Israel’s position on the Iranian nuclear issue. Bennett intends to help spearhead a campaign to introduce Israel’s stance against a nuclear deal with Iran in the mainstream media, and…

A powerful ex-spy who exposed explosive evidence linking Argentine President Cristina Kirchner to a cover-up of Iranian involvement in a deadly bombing has been accused by the government Tuesday of running a smuggling ring and committing tax fraud, AFP reports.  The former intelligence agent, Antonio Stiuso, has been in the spotlight since the mysterious death last month of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, whose investigation into a…

Three teenage girls from London feared to have run off to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group are believed to have crossed from Turkey into Syria, British police said Tuesday.   Close friends Kadiza Sultana, 16, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase, boarded a flight from London Gatwick to Istanbul last Tuesday. Their…

Labor is on top again in yet another elections poll published Tuesday – and Yachad Ha’am Itanu may be on the upswing too.  Labor would garner 24 seats in the 20th Knesset, according to the Midgam poll for Channel 2; Likud is in second place with 22.  Jewish Home, Yesh Atid, and the Arab parties tie…

The Turkish Army preparing to attack the Suez Canal, 1914 (Library of Congress) In January 1915, the German-led Turkish army attacked British forces along the Suez Canal.  The British blunted the assault and took the hard-fought war into the Sinai Peninsula.  By March and April 1917, the British army attempted to push through Gaza and…

Another anti-Semitic cab driver has been unearthed in the Big Apple, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday, after one cabbie told a 51 year-old Jewish woman that “all Jews must die.”  On Sunday morning, Jewish news columnist Baila Sebrow hailed a cab from Manhattan’s Carlton Hotel – but when she entered the cab, she was instantly asked…

Anti-Semitism is on the rise not only in Europe, but in the US as well, a recent study has shown.  More than 50% of American college students have been victims of anti-Semitism, according to the 2014 National Demographic Survey of American Jewish College Students, which was published by Trinity College on Tuesday.  1,157 Jewish college students…

Almost 15,000 Egyptians have flocked home from war-torn Libya via the border crossing at Sallum, AFP reported on Monday, citing state media. Egyptian and Libyan warplanes hit Islamic State (ISIS) targets inside Libya last week, after the jihadists released a gruesome video showing the beheadings of a group of Coptic Christians it kidnapped. Cairo has…

The United States on Monday expressed its dissatisfaction after the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) briefly cut off power to Palestinian Authority areas, in protest over the PA’s refusal to pay the nearly half a billion dollars it owes. “We’re concerned about the impact on the ground of any cuts to basic services, including electricity,” State…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) announced late Monday it plans to appeal a ruling by a New York court which found it and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) liable for their role in encouraging and inciting terror attacks during the Second Intifada, and ordered them to compensate the victims of six of those attacks. PA Prime…

A Danish Muslim group Monday said it was planning a peace vigil in the heart of Copenhagen this week to protest against hate crimes after this month’s twin attacks in the city. “We do not accept attacks on people whether your name is Finn, Dan or Aisha,” said a statement from Tanwir Ahmad of The…

French President Francois Hollande vowed Monday to introduce tougher penalties for “racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic” remarks in the wake of last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Speaking at an annual dinner hosted by the country’s Jewish community and quoted by the AFP news agency, Hollande called for “faster, more effective sanctions” against hate speech and…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday evening responded to the ruling by a New York court which found the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) liable for their role in encouraging and inciting terror attacks during the Second Intifada. In his statement, Netanyahu called on the international community to follow the court’s…

Jihadists from the Islamic State group (ISIS) have kidnapped at least 90 Assyrian Christians in northeast Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Britain-based monitor said the abductions took place on Tuesday after ISIS seized two Assyrian villages from Kurdish forces in the province of Hassakeh, reports AFP. The abduction raises particular concerns…

Canada’s parliament passed a proposed anti-terrorism bill in its second reading on Monday with a 176-87 vote in favor. Liberals and Conservatives voted to extend power for Canada’s national security agencies, while the NDP opposed. The proposed omnibus bill would grant the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) expanded powers to identify and foil suspected terrorist…

Responding to mass lay-offs delivered suddenly to the homes of hundreds of workers at Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL), around 2,000 workers and residents from the Negev protested on Tuesday morning in Be’er Sheva, blocking central roads. Loading… The protest comes as part of a series of protests against the poor employment situation in the south, and in particular…

As the “unity partners” of Hamas and Fatah appear to be sliding into war in Gaza, Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday tried to downplay the stabbing, a day earlier, of a Fatah official. The official accuses Hamas of trying to assassinate him. “Some people are trying to create chaos but we will not allow…

French President Francois Hollande vowed to combat anti-Semitism at an annual dinner held by the French Jewish community on Monday, but a key Muslim leader boycotted the event after it was noted that Muslims are taking part in anti-Semitic violence. Dalil Boubakeur, rector of the Great Mosque of Paris, chose to skip the dinner after Jewish community leader Roger Cukierman said young Muslims are…

A Orthodox Jewish member of the New York City City Council was asked by US officials to remove his kippah during a visit at the U.S. Consulate in Ramallah, reported JP Updates. Brooklyn Councilmember David Greenfield was part of a NYC Council delegation, headed by Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, on a 8-day visit to Israel funded…

An Arab rioter attacking IDF forces was reportedly shot dead on Tuesday morning at the Dheisheh “refugee camp” located outside of Bethlehem, in Judea. The 19-year-old rioter, named as Jihad al-Jafari, was killed overnight during clashes targeting the IDF, according to Palestinian Arab medics who spoke to AFP. An IDF spokesperson noted that the troops were…

Eight people have been killed in a shooting at a restaurant in the Czech Republic Tuesday afternoon. The attack took place in the town of Uhersky Brod, some 180 miles south of the capital Prague, at the Droujba (“Friendship”) restaurant. The motive and circumstances of the shooting are not yet clear, but the town’s mayor Patrik Kuncar has identified the…

The body of missing Israeli hiker Shai Noam has been found Tuesday, police announced, after a days-long search and during an unusually strong winter snowstorm.  The body was found during a search conducted today by the police helicopter unit and the Ein Gedi rescue unit of the Southern District, the Megillot rescue unit and Arad…

US and British heirs of Nazi-era Jewish art dealers have sued Germany for the return of a medieval art treasure worth $250-300 million, their lawyers said Tuesday. At stake in the case filed Monday before a US district court in Washington is the Guelph Treasure or “Welfenschatz” of more than 40 gold, silver and gem-studded church relics, reports AFP. The suit, the latest…

Iraqi officials have expressed irritation and analysts skepticism at the US prediction that an offensive to retake Iraq’s key city of Mosul from jihadists could be launched in April-May. Mosul is a major hub for the Islamic State (ISIS) group and holds special significance as the place where jihadist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed his “caliphate” straddling Iraq and…

Turkey has accused Britain of a “reprehensible” delay in informing the Turkish authorities over the departure to its territory of three teenage British girls feared to be on their way to join the jihad in Syria. The three girls, aged between 15 and 17, boarded a flight from London to Istanbul last week and police suspect they planned to…

Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri announced Monday that he would support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after March 17 election – on one major condition.  Deri stated that he would join a coalition led by Netanyahu, but only if the government agrees to accept Shas’s conditions, which revolve mostly around the issue of fighting poverty.  “Two years ago I…

Al Jazeera began publishing Monday night several documents allegedly leaked from the Israeli Mossad – via the Spy Cables database shared with the British Guardian.  One of the documents alleged that, just a few weeks after the famous speech Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave in 2012 assessing Iran as being about one year away from building a nuclear…

Two simultaneous suicide attacks killed four people and wounded 13 on Monday in southern Damascus near a Shiite shrine, Syria’s state news agency SANA reported. The agency, quoting police, said the twin attack took place at a security checkpoint near the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab, a granddaughter of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. “A civilian car had stopped at the checkpoint… and…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman hailed as a “moral victory” Monday a US jury’s order that Palestinian authorities pay $218 million in damages to American victims of terrorist attacks in Israel.  The jury in New York ruled that Palestinian authorities pay the damages to American victims of seven separate attacks in the Jewish State between 2002 and 2004. It found the Palestinian Authority and…

Joseph Lieberman, a former leading Democratic Party U.S. Senator, bucks the incumbent Democratic president and says Prime Minister Netanyahu should be heard in Congress.  In an op-ed in the Washington Post on Monday, Lieberman – who was nearly elected Vice President of the U.S. in 2000 – addresses members of Congress and outlines several reasons for them not to…

Turkey’s decision to evacuate an historic tomb and the soldiers guarding it from Syrian territory was not a retreat, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday, rejecting opposition claims Ankara had surrendered the area to terrorists. Erdogan indicated the operation overnight Saturday was motivated by concerns the tomb and its Turkish guards could have come under attack by Islamic State terrorists who control the…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) were found liable Monday, in a groundbreaking case against the territory for its role in encouraging and inciting terror attacks during the Second Intifada.  Legal rights group Shurat Hadin (Israel Law Center) helped represent the 11 families who charge the PA and PLO of inciting, supporting, planning…

Despite Sunday’s stabbing attack at Tzahal Square in Jerusalem, terror attacks are on the decline, Walla! News revealed Monday.  Terror attacks in the capital have been less and less frequent since November, according to the daily, and have dipped to a new low since Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.  In January 2015, there were 18 security incidents…

MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) wrote on his Facebook page Monday that he does not intend to vote for Likud under Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the coming elections. Feiglin, who has been pushed out of a realistic spot in Likud’s list and intends to form his own party – blames foul play by Netanyahu for this.…

US-led air strikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria have killed more than 1,600 people, mainly jihadists, since they began five months ago, a monitor said on Monday. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said almost all of those killed were jihadists from ISIS and Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Nusra Front, though it also documented the deaths of 62…

In response to reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is planning a unity government with Labor and the haredi parties, a source in the haredi United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party says such a development would only harm them. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, the UTJ source says there is a “lack of clarity” regarding the haredi position on backing the…

Iran has built an active front from Israel’s northern Mediterranean border adjacent to Rosh Hanikra, all the way to the Golan Heights. The goal: to undermine and wage war against the “Zionist entity” with conventional, powerful military means from within Lebanon and Syria. So says Yigal Carmon, Counter-terrorism Adviser to prime ministers Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin, and…

Slightly before 10 a.m. on Monday morning terrorists likely belonging to Hamas fired three rockets from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea. The rocket firing comes as part of an ongoing process by Hamas to continue domestic development of its rocket arsenal, as Israel has worked hard to prevent new weapons from entering Gaza. In January…

A serious security mishap occurred on Saturday morning, as two people succeeded in breaching the Israeli border from Jordan despite IDF preparations, in an incident raising fears about the possibility of foreign terrorists freely infiltrating into the Jewish state. IDF trackers were dispatched as soon as the breach was identified, reports Walla!, and at the scene they…

Hundreds of workers from the Tarkovot Brom Factories belonging to the ICL Industrial Products group, Dead Sea factories, Arad municipal workers, committee members and workers of various other factories in addition to residents of the region are launching a massive protest on Monday in the southern city of Arad. The workers are demonstrating and blocking…

Baruch Marzel, Otzma Yehudit candidate at number four on the Yachad – Ha’am Itanu list, arrived at Tzahal Square in central Jerusalem on Sunday just minutes after Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and his bodyguards subdued an Arab terrorist who had stabbed a haredi Jew, lightly to moderately wounding him. The officers prevented Marzel from getting…

France deployed an aircraft carrier in the Gulf on Monday as part of the US-led military campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group in Iraq, a defense ministry official said. “The integration of the Charles de Gaulle in the operation…(in Iraq) begins this morning,” a member of Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s stafftold AFP as his entourage made its…

The Jerusalem Magistrates Court has banned an 18 year-old Jewish man from the Binyamin (Samaria) region on Monday for the next 15 days, after he rebelled against Civil Administration workers demolishing homes in the Shiloh bloc last week.  The Israel Police demanded during the hearing a far heavier sentence – a 60-day ban, five days…

Despite abundant criticism for its chairman, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Yair Lapid refuses to rule out the possibility of cooperating with the Likud party in the formation of the next government.  On the Monday morning Channel Ten News program “Orly and Guy,” the Yesh Atid Chairman said that he was not making commitments prior to elections, and…

Speaking Monday at a conference in Jerusalem, Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett launched a fierce rebuttal of Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s blame-game over Israel’s housing crisis, which looks set to continue in light of an upcoming report on the issue by the State Comptroller.  “The State Comptroller’s report on housing failures in the past few years will…

The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) has returned power to Palestinian Authority areas it briefly cut off from the grid Monday afternoon, in protest over the PA’s refusal to pay the nearly half a billion dollars it owes. Earlier Monday, chairman Maj. Gen. (res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal announced at the 12th Jerusalem Conference on Monday that in the coming…

British soccer club Tottenham Hotspurs have described as “vile and unacceptable” a video appearing to portray West Ham United fans chanting an anti-Semitic song.   The footage was filmed by a passenger on the London Underground before West Ham’s 2-2 draw with Spurs, who have historic links with the Jewish community, on Sunday.   Police said…

Yisrael Beytenu chair and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman arrived on Monday morning to the Givat Kobi overlook located in the northwest of the city of Sderot, near the Gaza border in Israel’s south. At the overlook which provides a view of Gaza City, Liberman spoke about the Hamas terrorist threat and the “fourth round” which he…

The head of Reuters‘ Afghanistan and Pakistan bureau died suddenly at the news agency’s Islamabad offices on Monday, Pakistani police say. According to the Express Tribune, 34-year-old Russian national Maria Golovnina had returned home from her office after feeling “heavy headed” and unwell, but returned to work in the afternoon. Soon after, however, she collapsed, and was…

Avraham Goldschmidt, who suffered moderate wounds Sunday when he was stabbed by a terrorist at Tzahal Square in Jerusalem, told Arutz Sheva Monday that he feels good and is about to be released from hospital. “Thank God, there were no internal injuries and miraculously, there was only a deep cut,” he said. Speaking from his…

Six French citizens have had their passports confiscated after allegedly planning to travel to wage jihad in Syria, a security source said on Monday – the first time the measure has been used. The right to remove passports was introduced as part of a raft of new counter-terrorism laws in November aimed at curbing the number of French citizens leaving to join jihadist…

One of the principal organizers of a “Peace Ring” event in Oslo is a “9/11 Denier” – someone who denies that the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 was committed not by Arab terrorists, but by Jews. Ali Chishti, one of eight organizers of the joint Jewish-Muslim event, which was supposed…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu intends to form a coalition with the leftist Labor-Livni list and hareidi parties, a senior political source estimated Sunday night in an exclusive conversation with Arutz Sheva. The source, who speaks often with Netanyahu, said that Netanyahu wil offer Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni senior portfolios in hos government, and flexibility as…

New Pentagon chief Ashton Carter will hold talks Monday in Kuwait with top US commanders and diplomats to discuss the war effort against the Islamic State jihadist group (ISIS), officials said. Carter flew to Kuwait City from Afghanistan on Sunday to chair the extraordinary meeting that will see more than two dozen senior military officers…

Iran’s FARS news agency reports that an ancient hand-written Torah that had been stolen from a synagogue in southern Iran was found and returned by Iran’s paramilitary Basij police force to the Jewish community. The report has not as yet been confirmed by other sources. A number of ancient Torah manuscripts were reported lost about…

A report on housing that is set to be released in the coming days by Comptroller Yosef Shapira is “unnecessary” and “cynical,” according to Likud MKs – and shows how the Comptroller as been co-opted into “overthrowing the Likud government,” senior Likud MKs said. The report will describe what the Comptroller believes are the reasons…

The number eight candidate on the Jewish Home Knesset list, Betzalel Smotrich, said Sunday that he is “a proud homophobe.” He was reacting to a heckler who called him a “benighted homophobe.” Smotrich was speaking in a discussion panel at Givatayim High School, when one of the students called out: “My brother is not a…

After four straight months of falling gasoline prices, the party appears to be over for Israeli drivers – and the shock to the system is likely to be drastic, just weeks before Israelis head for the polls. Beginning March 1, gas prices are likely to rise 33 to 35 agorot per liter, to a price of…

A senior official in Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement wondered in a recent television interview why the Islamic State (ISIS) is not attacking Israel. The answer, according to Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu Al-Einein, is simple: the conduct of ISIS is “an extension of the Zionist enterprise”. Al-Einein’s comments were made…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and MK Tzipi Livni, one of the leaders of the joint Labor-Hatnua list known as “the Zionist Camp”, traded barbs on Sunday evening following a stabbing terrorist attack in Jerusalem. Shortly after the attack, the Likud published a statement saying, “The Jerusalem attack took place a few weeks after Tzipi Livni,…

Saudi Arabia’s morality police has detained a group of young men for dancing at a birthday party and referred them to prosecutors, The Associated Press (AP) reported Sunday, citing a state-linked media report. The news website Ayn al-Youm reported Saturday that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice raided a…

Jeh Johnson, the United States’ homeland security chief, on Sunday warned shoppers in one of America’s biggest malls to be on their guard, after the Al-Shabaab terrorist group posted a video calling for attacks on western malls, AFP reports. The warning comes as the United States and other nations are increasingly jittery about the threat…

A day after warning that President Barack Obama would not extend nuclear talks with Iran again, Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva on Sunday for fresh talks with his Iranian counterpart on Tehran’s nuclear program. Kerry finally sat down with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday evening after being delayed for…

The father of American hostage Kayla Mueller, who died while held by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, on Sunday accused the Obama administration of putting its policy of not paying ransoms “in front of American lives”, reported AFP. ISIS fighters claimed Mueller, who was seized in the Syrian city of Aleppo in August 2013,…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Sunday evening that Israel will continue to firmly fight terrorism, responding to a terrorist attack in the city earlier in the day. “The fight against terrorism requires determination, strength and steadfastness in the face of attempts to attack us everywhere and force us to give up our assets,” he…

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to stop security coordination with Israel if the country continues to withhold the PA’s tax revenue, a senior PA official said Sunday, according to The Associated Press (AP). Nabil Shaath said Abbas warned European leaders on a trip to Europe last week that Palestinian officials would discuss the…

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino said Sunday morning that there may be grounds for a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara.  Speaking at a ceremony for new police appointments held at the Ministry of Interior, Danino referred to former Netanyahu employee Manny Naftali, who is suing the couple for abuse, and who was just granted…

Route 465 was blocked by police for some time Sunday morning following the discovery of two pipe bombs in Samaria.  The road was closed near the entrance to the Elisha pre-military academy located next to the Tzofit neighborhood in the West Binyamin community of Neve Tzuf.  At first it was reported that the road had…

The Chairman of the Religious Zionists of America (RZA), Martin Oliner, called on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to ignore calls from the Israeli Left as well the Obama administration to give up his upcoming speech before the United States Congress.  Speaking to Arutz Sheva Sunday, Oliner declared: “I believe the Prime Minister is required to visit Washington and…

Almost 600 Turkish soldiers crossed the border deep inside Syria overnight in a successful operation to repatriate troops guarding a Turkish enclave surrounded by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday. The Turkish troops, reportedly numbering around 40, were guarding the mausoleum complex of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman empire’s founder,…

The 19th Knesset and the pact between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid did not work, Res. Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, #2 on the Kulanu party list, charged Sunday.  Galant, speaking on the “Orly and Guy” radio program, stated that he would “not dare to ask the public to trust Lapid as…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may have been more affected by the State Comptroller’s scandalous report on his expenses than previously thought.  A recent set of surveys by the Hamidgam Project published Saturday night on Channel Ten show that while Likud maintains a slim lead in the polls, the Prime Minister’s approval ratings have dropped significantly.  Likud received 24 seats…

Almost one month after Hezbollah antitank missiles killed two IDF soldiers, an initial investigation has revealed that the event could have been preventable.  On January 28, Major Yochai Kalengal and Sgt. Dor Chaim Nini were killed after Hezbollah terrorists shot between 4-6 antitank missiles into Israel, near Har Dov in the Golan Heights. The attack also injured six…

The storm over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to the United States Congress has yet to cease, with reports flying Friday that the White House was considering snubbing the annual AIPAC conference in response.  But there are other influential US voices speaking out in favor of the Israeli Prime Minister and his position on the Iranian nuclear…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett issued a strong warning to voters Saturday night during an interview on Channel Two’s “Meet the Press.”  Commenting on the possibility that Jewish Home may not be part of the 20th Knesset’s coalition, Bennett noted that, “We will be in the opposition if we do not have at least 15 or 16…

Consumers in Israel pay more for milk and milk products than do consumers in the EU and North America – as much as 40% more, depending on the country. But that extra money is not going to the farmers, a study by the Agriculture Ministry shows – because the cost of producing a liter of…

A haredi Jewish man was stabbed at Jerusalem’s Tzahal Square Sunday, and his condition is moderate. He was receiving treatment from an MDA team before evacuation to hospital. The man was reportedly stabbed in the stomach. The stabber, an 18-year-old Arab, was caught by a security guard from nearby Municipal Hall, who held on to him until…

The Head of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, mocked the national anthem Sunday and called it “that stupid song.” Speaking to supporters in Netivot, he recounted an occasion in which Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ztz”l was present at a ceremony for “crowning” a new rabbi. Cohen himself was a young man at the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid each blamed the other Sunday for the high cost of housing in Israel. The sniping came as the State Comptroller was expected to decide this week on when to release a report that will assign responsibility to both men – as well as to ex-prime…

A top Palestinian Authority official on Sunday accused Israel of trying to topple the PA by continuing its freeze on millions of dollars in tax monies. Speaking to Voice of Palestine radio, chief PA negotiator Saeb Erakat demanded world action to pressure Israel into releasing the monies which were frozen as a punitive measure following PA unilateral…

A poll published Sunday by Nana 10 and TRI Strategic Studies indicated that if elections were held today, the Labor-Livni list would receive 25 MKs, and Likud 23. In third place with 14 is the Jewish Home under Naftali Bennett, which may be recovering partly from the slump it has suffered since Bennett’s failed attempt…

Britain debated Sunday how to stop teenage girls joining the Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) in Syria after three high-achieving youngsters became the latest to run away from home. Close schoolfriends Kadiza Sultana, 17, and 15-year-olds Shamima Begum and Amira Abase left their east London homes on Tuesday and flew to Istanbul, raising concerns they…

Although he resigned politics, and the Likud – because of disputes with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, some say – Gideon Sa’ar fully supports his former boss for the office of Prime Minister, he wrote in a Facebook post Sunday. “Six years ago, when the Likud returned to power, the dangerous cycle of surrendering land came…

Purim time in Israel means candy, cookies – and costumes, with that latter item a NIS 250 million ($65 million) business for toy stores and professional costumers. Costumes can range from simple masks that cost just a few shekels to elaborate get-ups that cost thousands – and purchases of those costumes are not particularly rare,…

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday echoed comments made by his spokeswoman last week and expressed concern about the viability of the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it does not soon receive tax revenue which has been withheld by Israel, Reuters reported. The funds have been held back from the PA since last month…

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Saturday slammed what he described as a campaign of “incitement and deception” by a number of Egyptian journalists against the Palestinian people in Gaza. According to the Ma’an news agency, Abu Zuhri denied reports that Palestinian Arabs have been traveling via tunnels into Egypt recently, denouncing what he called…

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said on Saturday that his party will not be part of a government that will make changes to the draft law that was passed in the last Knesset. Lapid’s comments come amid recent reports that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had told haredi reporters that he would invite the haredi parties…

United States Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that there are still “significant gaps” in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, but President Barack Obama is not prepared to extend the talks further, AFP reported. Kerry’s comments came in a stopover in London before he heads to Geneva Sunday for two more days of talks…

US State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf has been placed on the defensive for saying that the “root cause of [ISIS and other] terrorism… is poverty and lack of opportunity.” She has not backed down, however. She first made the statement in an interview on MSNBC, later strengthened it in an appearance on CNN, and…

Arab governments have been privately expressing their concern to Washington about the emerging terms of a potential nuclear deal with Iran, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing Arab and U.S. officials involved in the deliberations. According to the report, the direction of American diplomacy with Tehran has added fuel to fears in some Arab…

There were reports on Friday that the White House was considering snubbing the annual AIPAC conference which starts on March 1, but officials in Israel dismissed those reports Saturday night. The Associated Press (AP) had reported that the White House is mulling ways to undercut Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress, and that…

The families of two British schoolgirls among a trio feared to be travelling to join the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria issued emotional appeals for them to come home Saturday. Close friends Kadiza Sultana, 17, Shamima Begum, 15, and a third 15-year-old who is not being named at her family’s request left their east London homes Tuesday and flew to Istanbul. Turkey…

Despite the UN envoy’s efforts to reach a political solution, the struggle for control by the Iranian backed Houthi Shi’ite militia is only escalating in Yemen after they captured the capital city of Sana’a and toppled the government. The UN is seeking a solution by which the temporary Houthi parliament will be recognized in exchange for a return…

Norwegian Muslims organized a peace vigil in Oslo Saturday in a show of solidarity with Jews a week after fatal shootings in Denmark targeted a synagogue and free speech seminar. As the small mainly elderly Jewish congregation filed out of the synagogue after Shabbat prayers, a group of young Muslims, many of them teenage girls wearing headscarves, formed a symbolic ring…

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) has sharply criticized radical leftist rock musician Aviv Gefen, after Gefen in a Tel Aviv concert last Thursday night called to called to send Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “to hell.” “Aviv Gefen, in an atmosphere of criticism and incitement against Netanyahu, calls in the middle of a performance ‘to send Bibi…

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner criticized lawmakers Saturday for participating in a massive march over the controversial death of a prosecutor, accusing them of joining the opposition to protest her administration. Tens of thousands of people gathered last week to mark one month since the suspicious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found dead before he planned to accuse the Argentine president…

Tzipi Livni, head of Hatnua and possible prime minister of Israel if her “Zionist camp” union with Labor wins in elections, after which there would be a rotation between her and Labor head Yitzhak Herzog, made a campaign promise on Saturday of same-sex marriage. Livni was at a “Dreck” party at the Oman 17 club in Tel…

Amid an ongoing confrontation over the Iran nuclear deal being formed by US President Barack Obama’s administration, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has come out with a new ad saying he is not afraid of disagreement – and pointing out that the US also opposed the establishment of Israel. “1948, (David) Ben-Gurion stands before a fateful decision: the establishment of…

Rebels took Syria’s civil war to the ruling Assad clan’s hometown for the first time Saturday, killing four people in a car bomb attack on a hospital, state television and a monitor said. The attack came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops had executed 48 people earlier this week in a…

Hundreds of people were expected at a peace vigil in Oslo Saturday, hosted by young Norwegian Muslims expressing solidarity with Jews a week after fatal shootings in Denmark targeted a synagogue and free speech seminar. The initiative by Norway’s Muslim youth to link arms with Norwegian Jews in a circle around Oslo’s synagogue was an effort to denounce recent violence…

A senior figure in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Mujtabi Du Al-Nour, threatened on Saturday that Iran will destroy Tel Aviv in ten minutes if Israel “makes a mistake” and strikes the Islamic regime’s nuclear facilities. Al-Nour, who is a representative of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a talk with journalists responded to Foreign Minister…

Five Arab terrorists were apprehended on Friday, roughly an hour before Shabbat began, adjacent to the community of Amona in Samaria which the High Court last December ruled to have destroyed within two years. Security forces identified the five armed suspects in the El-Mashash wadi (valley) adjacent to Amona. The security coordinator of nearby community Ofra,…

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve met Friday with Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter to discuss ways to thwart terrorists from using the platforms as stages for propaganda. “We had frank, rich, deep discussion,” Cazeneuve said during a press conference at the French consulate in San Francisco. He said his mission was to foster closer relationships…

The Muslim mayor of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, said this week that Europe has no place for extremists who are not willing to live within the bounds of its norms. Speaking to CNN’s Michael Holmes on Wednesday, the mayor, Moroccan-born Ahmed Aboutaleb suggested that those Muslims who don’t embrace values should leave Europe. “You are not…

MK Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, on Thursday published an editorial in the Guardian in which he responded to a letter by 700 British artists who pledged to boycott Israel in protest over the allegedly high death toll of “Palestinian civilians” in the Gaza war during summer 2014. In his editorial, Lapid…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Friday hinted that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is talking too much about Iran’s nuclear program instead of taking action. Speaking to Channel 2 News, Liberman suggested that Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress, in which he will warn against a bad nuclear deal with Iran, does not have significant importance and…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Friday that Iran is hiding its intentions to produce nuclear weapons from the world. Netanyahu’s comments came in response to a new report by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) which says it has made little progress in its attempts to probe allegations that Iran worked on nuclear…

Hundreds of people on Friday attended the Islamic burial of the gunman who killed two people in twin shootings in Copenhagen last weekend, AFP reported. Omar El-Hussein, 22, was placed in an unmarked grave in the Muslim cemetery in Broendby, on the outskirts of Copenhagen, watched by around 500 people, mostly young men wearing thick…

UN investigators said Friday they were prepared to publish secret lists of alleged war criminals in Syria to help stem an “exponential rise” in rights violations in the war-ravaged country, AFP reported. A commission of inquiry said publishing the list it has been drawing up throughout Syria’s nearly four-year civil war would put “alleged perpetrators…

The United States on Thursday expressed doubts after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu claimed that Israel knows the details of the planned nuclear deal with Iran and warned that it is a bad one. Asked about Netanyahu’s claims later Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki questioned whether Netanyahu indeed knows “more than the negotiators”. “Then the fact is…

The Italian parliament was set on Thursday to vote on a non-binding bill calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state, but postponed the vote reportedly under pressure from Israel, reports i24news. The motion is understood to be similar to the one put forth in other European countries in recent months. The Italian version of…

Diplomats said on Thursday that the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is set to report little progress in its attempts to probe allegations that Iran worked on nuclear arms. Two diplomats quoted by The Associated Press (AP) said the agency’s restricted report will likely be released to the UN Security Council and the IAEA’s…

The ex-wife of dead Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman on Thursday rejected claims he’d killed himself and called for independent oversight of the probe, a day after huge crowds called for justice in the case. Nisman was found dead last month, just days after accusing Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner of interfering in the investigation of a…

The Likud on Thursday announced that it was withdrawing a petition to the Jerusalem District Court against the V15 organization, after failing to find a “smoking gun” linking V15 to the Zionist Camp or another leftist party. Justice Zvi Segal accepted the request and cancelled the petition. On Wednesday, Segal had recommended that the Likud…

With snow falling heavily in many parts of Israel late Thursday night, Prof. Chaim Kutiel says that Israel’s current winter is chiefly characterized by its unusually strong extremes. “We’re in a type of meteorological roller-coaster,” says Kutiel, an expert in climate and weather change from the Geography and Environmental Studies Faculty of Haifa University. The…

Lawyers for the Palestinian Authority (PA) claimed Thursday that the PA should not be held responsible for “crazy and terrible” attacks committed in Israel, as it fights a lawsuit seeking billions of dollars for victims, reported AFP. American victims and their relatives have filed suit in federal court in New York against the PA and…

The police announced on Thursday that Menny Naftali, the former housekeeper in the Prime Minister’s Residence who is suing Binyamin and Sara Netanyahu for alleged abuse, will receive immunity from prosecution over testimony on alleged financial misconduct at the home. Naftali, who met with investigators from the Lahav 433 unit of the police, has claimed he has…

One day soon, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said Wednesday, the tables will be turned – and it will be Iran that will impose sanctions on those who today are sanctioning her. “The hapless Europe needs gas and based on existing explorations, we possess the biggest share of the world’s gas reserves,” Khamenei said.…

Secretary of State John Kerry has already indicated he will not be meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu when he visits Washington to speak before Congress, but where will he be during the speech? State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Wednesday told reporters that Kerry would not be taking part in the joint session of…

 Israelis from the north to the Negev woke up to a blanket of white Friday morning, after snow fell in every place more than 300 meters above sea level.  Jerusalem, the Gush Etzion region of Judea, Tzfat (Safed), and the Golan saw the most snow, but the storm hit other areas less prone to inclement…

In the aftermath of a shocking incident caught on film in which racist UK soccer fans pushed a black man off a Paris subway train refusing to let him ride, the victim has come forward and made a police complaint against the racists, several of whom have been identified already. Chelsea fans on Tuesday prevented…

Rock singer Aviv Geffen has been noted for his radical leftist views for a long time, but in a Tel Aviv concert on Thursday night he took things a bit farther with crass language and imagery, inciting against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. On the large screen behind Geffen appeared an image of Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett…

Due to the massive snowstorm, there are concerns in the Jerusalem rabbinate that the city’s eruv – which demarcates limits within which certain actions such as carrying objects become permissible on Shabbat in accordance with Jewish law – may be harmed by the elements. The rabbinate on Friday called on residents to follow developments and to be alert as to whether the eruv has become disqualified,…

Labor has gained a slight victory over Likud in pre-elections polling, according to the latest survey.  Labor is in the top spot in the Ma’ariv poll, with 24 seats over Likud’s 22.  Jewish Home is back in third place with 13 seats, followed by the Arab parties and Yesh Atid at 12 each.  Far behind are Kulanu,…

After Hamas “took over” the University of California, Davis late last month, another student senate has voted to discriminate against Israel financially, as the student senate of Northwestern University in Chicago on Thursday voted to divest. The university’s senate passed a resolution sponsored by Northwestern Divest (NUDivest) calling to divest from six corporations they claim…

The United States voiced fears Thursday that the Palestinian Authority (PA) may be about to collapse due to a lack of funding, as years of massive debt have piled up, Israel withholds taxes in response to unilateral PA breaches, and donor aid stalls. Washington has been in urgent talks with regional leaders as well as other stakeholders in the frozen Middle…

As a massive snowstorm set in upon Israel nationwide Thursday night, Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics got an urgent call and helped a woman deliver a baby on the streets of Jerusalem. At 11:51 p.m. on Thursday night the call came in, notifying that a woman was about to give birth on Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Druk…

The radical leftist Meretz party, which in roughly thirty years has injected its concept of a two-state solution into mainstream Israeli political discourse from the extreme left fringe it started as, is apparently afraid that it may disappear in the coming elections. According to Walla!, members of the party – which voted to let pro-Hamas Arab…

Likud and the “Zionist camp” of Labor and Hatnua continue to run neck-and-neck in polls closing in on the March 17 elections, with a new poll Thursday by Teleseker for Channel 1 showing the two have achieved complete parity at 24 seats apiece. Jewish Home and the united Arab list continue to compete for the third spot, with…

The Internet has become a crucial battleground in the fight against jihadist propaganda and Western nations need to step up their game, according to participants in a Washington meeting on countering radical groups. Experts say governments must engage in corporate-style marketing if they are to combat the Islamic State (ISIS), which is using slick videos to lure foreign nationals to…

Nearly two dozen US House Democrats on Thursday urged the postponement of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress, claiming the controversially-timed address could “undermine” nuclear negotiations with Iran, reports AFP. Republican House Speaker John Boehner invited Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress on March 3 two weeks before his country’s elections, and the speech, in which the prime minister…

The United States and Turkey on Thursday signed a deal to train and equip Syrian rebel forces, officials said. “Turkey and the United States signed a document a short time ago on the train-and-equip (program),” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, reports AFP. A US embassy spokesman confirmed that the deal was inked in Ankara by Turkish Foreign Ministry Undersecretary…

While the Comptroller’s report on household spending released this week is seen by most Israelis as “politics as usual” – and thus not affecting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud at the polls – a new report being prepared by Comptroller Yosef Shapira could be a much bigger problem for the Prime Minister. In…

Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, director of the Shurat Hadin legal center, is currently gathering information about American citizens who were personally affected by the closure of Ben-Gurion International Airport for a day during Operation Protective Edge. The reason? So that the center can use the information to sue Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal for war crimes, and…

Norwegian Muslims plan to encircle Oslo’s synagogue on Saturday in a “ring of peace” in solidarity with Jews after last weekend’s Islamist terror shootings in neighboring Denmark, which targeted a Copenhagen synagogue on Shabbat during a Bar Mitzvah leaving one Jew dead. “It’s to show that Norwegian youth reject what happened in Denmark and to show that Muslims do not…

Will Israelis get to hear Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu make his address before the US Congress on the question of the Iran nuclear deal in real time? The Central Elections Committee has said that they will not – the fact that the speech falls just a week and a half before the elections, the Committee…

The IDF’s top legal officer said Thursday he is unconcerned by Palestinian Authority (PA) plans to sue Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “war crimes” in Hamas’s latest terror war against the Jewish state last summer. Major General Danny Efroni said the military is running 15 criminal investigations stemming from the 50-day war, expressing confidence they would head off a parallel…

The recently reinstated Yachad-Ha’am Itanu candidate Baruch Marzel attacked Naftali Bennett Thursday morning for comments the Jewish Home Chairman made against Eli Yishai.  Writing Wednesday night on Facebook, Bennett stressed that all other party chairmen, including Yishai, “support or [have] supported in the past the transfer of parts of the Land of Israel to the Arabs.” …

The security detail protecting Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett will be strengthened following threats against his life and repeated provocations by leftists at events in which he participates. Bennett will be accompanied by bodyguards and the peripheral security surrounding him will also be beefed up. Bennett sharply rebuked the Left after activists once against crashed a…

Likud’s chances do not seem to have been negatively affected by the publication of the State Comptroller’s report on the expenses of the Prime Minister’s Residence, a new Channel Ten survey found.  Labor-Hatnua and Likud remain neck in neck in the poll supervised by Professor Camil Fuchs that was published Wednesday night.  Running as the “Zionist Camp”, Labor received 23 seats. Likud…

Rain is falling steadily across Israel on Thursday, but the central part of the brewing storm has yet to hit.  Snowfall has already begun on mountains with high elevations in the Galilee and the Golan in northern Israel, while additional snow is expected to reach hills in the center and Jerusalem by the afternoon.  It is also…

The Obama administration said Wednesday it is, indeed, withholding from Israel some sensitive details of its nuclear negotiations with Iran because Israeli officials have leaked information to try to torpedo the talks – and may do so again. The White House and State Department both said they were not giving Israel full details from the…

Leftist-LGBT activists burst into a Jewish Home elections conference Wednesday night at the International Convention Center in Haifa and a scuffle subsequently broke out.  During Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett’s speech, one of the left-wingers raised the LGBT flag and a fight developed. One of the activists filmed the incident and uploaded it to her Facebook page. …

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fought back against media criticism Wednesday over the State Comptroller’s expense report regarding his official residence, and accused the media of mobilizing to topple the right-wing government.  “The media carnival surrounding the State Comptroller’s report is a smokescreen designed to enable Tzipi Livni to stealthily infiltrate the Prime Minister’s Office,” Netanyahu charged at a conference of…

Days after Quartet envoy Tony Blair demanded that Hamas clarify whether it’s an Islamist group or if it is interested in peace, a senior Hamas official on Wednesday accused Blair of imposing “a new set of preconditions before Gaza could be rebuilt.” Blair, who visited Gaza on Sunday, called on Hamas to clarify whether it…

Otzma Yehudit, represented by Baruch Marzel at number four on Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu list, has not only won its case to allow Marzel to run in elections, in the process it also has won an impressive supporter: Israeli Zionist rap superstar Yoav Eliasi, better know by his stage name Hatzel. Hatzel, who launched to…

Military chiefs gathered in the Saudi capital on Thursday sought to bolster the Iraqi army against the jihadist Islamic State group (ISIS) a Western diplomatic source said. United States General Lloyd Austin, who heads the US-led war against ISIS, is among the senior officers attending the two-day talks that opened Wednesday in Riyadh behind closed doors.…

Just how has Islamic State (ISIS), a brutal and repressive jihadist group that has conducted mass rape among other numerous atrocities in its conquest of Iraq and Syria, recruited young women, particularly from the west? According to CNN anchorwoman Carol Costello, the jihadists have secret weapons: Nutella chocolate spread, kittens, and emoji computer ideograms. In a broadcast on Wednesday,…

In what appears to be a gathering battle, Egyptian officials said Thursday that Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Libya have kidnapped ten Egyptian nationals. The kidnappings took place in Tripoli, where fighting between ISIS, the Libyan government, and other rebel groups is taking place. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said that it had received word of the kidnappings…

Despite continuing protests by groups of haredi community members against IDF service, more members of the community are joining the army than ever before, Yonatan Bransky said.  Branksy is the Chairman of the Netzah Yehuda organization, which consists of veterans of the IDF and rabbis in the haredi community. The protests, which have been going on…

An indictment against terrorist Hamza Matrouk was filed Thursday with the Tel Aviv District Court  Matrouk, 23, a resident of Tulkarm, is accused of stabbing dozens of people during an attack on Tel Aviv’s #40 bus line.  At the indictment hearing, he proclaimed he had committed the attack “because of Al-Aqsa.” According to the indictment,…

The Anti-Defamation League released Thursday a new report that explores the impact Islamic State and other Islamist terrorist groups have on domestic security in the United States.  Examining ISIS’s sophisticated online recruitment techniques, the ADL’s report “Homegrown Islamic Extremism in 2014: The Rise of ISIS Sustained Online Recruitment,” demonstrates how American citizens and residents can become easily radicalized. …

Voters who are searching for a Religious Zionist political alternative need not fear – Jewish Home fulfills that role, according to Rabbi Zalman Melamed, the head of the Beit El Yeshiva. Despite rumors to the contrary, he told students at the Yeshiva Thursday, Jewish Home cleared its political stance on matters affecting state and personal status…

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a possible Republican in the 2016 presidential election, said on Wednesday that he is “eager” to hear Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next month, Reuters reported. Bush also said he was surprised by the White House’s reaction to the planned speech, which is organized by congressional Republicans. “I…

The period between October and December 2014 was the most active on the Israel real estate scene on an annualized basis since 2002, the Central Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday. During the fourth quarter, 8,100 new homes were sold in Israel, while Israelis also bought some 20,000 second-hand homes. One of the reasons for the…

Iranians will vote for a new parliament on February 26, 2016, the country’s elections watchdog said on Wednesday, according to AFP. The date was announced by a Guardians Council spokesman who was quoted by the ISNA news agency. After the previous parliamentary elections in March 2012, reformists virtually disappeared from the assembly — which now…

In an “answer video” to a campaign video posted last week by Yesh Atid, Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu presents his opinion on Yair Lapid’s activities as Finance Minister. Matching minute for minute the three hour forty one minute Yesh Atid video, which purports to list the accomplishments of the party in the current Knesset, the Kahlon…

Both Iran and Iraq, seeking to increase their share of the Asian oil market, are offering unprecedented discounts in that region. Both nations have cut their crude oil prices to Asia for next month to lower than they have been in 12-15 years. Iraq’s Basrah Light crude will sell at the lowest price since at…

Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner suggested Wednesday that the United States and Israel were meddling in her country’s business, reports The Associated Press (AP). The comments came ahead of a protest organized by investigating attorneys demanding answers in the mysterious death of prosecutor Alberto Nisman. Kirchner, who made the comments while visiting a nuclear power…

The failure by world donors to deliver billions of dollars of aid to rebuild Gaza is jeopardizing efforts to avoid a new flareup in the Palestinian territory, a senior United Nations official warned Wednesday. UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the Security Council that donors who had promised $5.4 billion to the Palestinians at the Cairo conference four months ago…

The White House on Wednesday denied keeping Israel in the dark over ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran, but suggested its ally had cherry-picked information to bolster opposition to the deal, AFP reports Wednesday.  Amid strains in the US-Israeli relationship over negotiations to reach a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, White House spokesman Josh Earnest rejected suggestions Israel was being frozen out. “There were some…

A security detail has been assigned to Tzipi Livni, Channel 2 reports Wednesday, after she received multiple threats against her life. The Knesset security department made the decision after assessing the level of the threats, as well as after noting that – due to her rotation agreement with Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog – she qualifies as a…

French prosecutors called Wednesday for five teenagers suspected of vandalizing hundreds of Jewish graves to be charged, arguing there was a clear “anti-Semitic motive” behind their alleged act. Some 250 tombs were vandalized last week at a Jewish cemetery in the northeastern town of Sarre-Union. Five adolescents aged 15 to 17 were detained for questioning over the incident, in which tombstones…

The fight against Islamic State (ISIS) has helped strengthen the relationship between Israel and Jordan, a senior security source stated Wednesday night. “The relationship between Israel and Jordan is very good,” the source stated to Walla! News on condition of anonymity, adding that the fight against ISIS has given the two countries a shared goal and common…

An Egyptian court has sentenced a student to one year in jail for insulting Islam and promoting atheism on a Facebook page, his lawyer and judicial sources said Wednesday. It is the second such ruling in Egypt since January when another 21-year-old was jailed for three years for declaring on Facebook that he is an atheist, according to AFP. Judicial sources…

United States donors are giving the Israel Museum a collection of more than 350 artifacts “considered among the most significant private holdings of antiquities in the world,” the museum said Wednesday. It said in a statement that “select objects” from the collection of New York art patrons Robert and Renee Belfer would go on show at the museum in Jerusalem from…

Argentina’s President Cristina Kirchner Wednesday faces her first mass protest – a silent march to be led by prosecutors and opposition leaders – over the mysterious death of a prosecutor who accused her of a cover-up in a 1994 bombing, AFP reports.  As many as 300,000 people were expected to turn out for the march, marking one month since the unexplained death of…

Major General Eyal Zamir, currently Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Military Secretary, will be appointed Head of IDF Southern Command. He will replace Major General Sami Turjeman, who has held the position in the last two years.  Zamir’s appointment is one of several that have been announced by the new IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen.…

Indian ​Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Wednesday to end India’s status as the world’s number one defense importer, saying he wanted 70% of hardware to be manufactured domestically by the turn of the decade, as defense ties between the country and Israel continue to blossom. Speaking at the start of a major aviation industry conference, Modi told hundreds of foreign and local…

International MBA for the Start-up Age For the third year in a row, Israel’s prestigious Technion University is opening its doors to the world with its international Start-uP MBA program. Taught entirely in English, the program offers elite students from around the world the opportunity to learn from the Start-up Nation in one of the…

Anti-assimilation NPO Yad L’Achim says it has received hundreds of complaints regarding missionaries taking advantage of the election campaign in Israel to try and convert Jews out of their religion. Cult members from abroad – including those belonging to J’s Witnesses and Messianic Jews – have arrived in Israel to distribute missionary material in the…

Adva Biton, the mother of four-year-old terror victim Adelle who passed away Tuesday after a two-year fight with serious neurological damage caused by an Arab rock attack, has turned to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a heart-wrenching plea to have her daughter buried in her hometown. The funeral is to take place on Wednesday at…

Loading… Even despite the lack of Arab claims to the land on which Migron stands in Samaria’s Binyamin region, security forces evacuated the remaining buildings in the town early Wednesday morning, thereby completing the final destruction of the community. In evacuating the last of the buildings, the forces followed a High Court ruling from January 6…

Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists have spared no brutal methods in their conquest of Iraq and Syria, executing by burning, stoning and beheading, but a cruel new tactic the group is using to expand its reach involves cutting off civilians from the basic necessities of water and electricity. In fighting the “atheists,” a term it applies…

Israel has been in election fever with near daily polls and constant jockeying for position between the political parties, but one expert says the younger generation is completely disconnected from the approaching March 17 vote because of how superficial the Knesset has become. Arutz Sheva spoke with Yigal Galai, director of a public relations office who established…

MKs on the right slammed the High Court for allowing United Arab List MK Hanin Zoabi to run for the Knesset in the upcoming elections, overturning a decision by the Central Elections Committee to ban her and Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel, who was also reinstated as a candidate. MK Yariv Levin (Likud) said that the…

Israel is readying for another snowstorm in the 2014-15 winter season Wednesday, after snowfall last month in Jerusalem, Judea-Samaria, and the North and more than one false alarm for more.  Northern communities have been scrambling before snow predicted for the Golan Heights over the weekend, and communities have been gathering food and medical supplies, reinforcing…

This too, shall pass, was the message mayors of cities, towns, and villages throughout Israel had for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, a day after the State Comptroller knocked him and his wife Sara for “excessive spending” of state funds on cleaning services and entertainment. In a letter of support to Netanyahu, designed to counter the nearly-unrelenting…

The Supreme Court has accepted both the appeals by MK Hanin Zoabi and Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel, it announced Wednesday – against the decision of the Central Election Committee (CEC) who decided to disqualify them from participating in the next Knesset. Earlier this month, the Central Elections Committee voted to disqualify Zoabi, with 27 votes for and…

Italian officials have expressed serious concerns that they could face an invasion by Islamic State forces, which have been on a rampage in Libya. In recent days, Libyan ISIS terrorists executed 21 Coptic Christians on a Mediterranean beach – with the location chosen deliberately to imply that the group would be seeking to bring its…

Bosnian police on Wednesday arrested six people on suspicion of planning to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS) group or organizing the trips, prosecutors said. Bosnia’s prosecutor said in a statement the six were members of “radical religious movements” and that some were on their way to Syria where they “intended to join the forces of Islamic State…

Kurdish peshmerga forces have repulsed a major attack by the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group southwest of Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital Arbil, officials said Wednesday. “The attack which was launched at 8 p.m. (5 p.m. GMT on Tuesday) was foiled. It lasted four hours and we killed 34 IS(IS) members,” Sirwan Barzani, the local peshmerga commander, told AFP. He said around 300 jihadists had attacked the villages…

Denmark prepared Wednesday to bury a Jewish man murdered in a weekend terrorist shooting spree as questions mounted about whether more could have been done to prevent the attacks. Dan Uzan, a 37-year-old volunteer security guard, was killed outside Copenhagen’s main synagogue in the second of two shootings that sent jitters across Europe, reports AFP. Security services in Denmark have come under…

Most religious-Zionists, including haredi-religious-Zionists (hardalim), do not want to see women as rabbis or halachic decisors (poskim). A survey held in advance of Besheva Magazine’s 12th annual Jerusalem Conference by Maagar Mochot found that 54% of the religious-Zionists think it would be wrong to let women serve as rabbis and as poskim. Eighteen percent think…

French investigators believe they have established that the jihadists who struck Paris last month were in direct contact before the attacks, a security source said on Tuesday. Phone records appear to show that Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly met the night before they started three days of terrorist violence in and around Paris on January 7. They are thought to…

While the public has been focused on the State Comptroller’s report which was highly critical of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s expenditures from the public coffers, the Comptroller has also sharply criticized the management of the Presidential Residence under former President Shimon Peres. The Comptroller’s office found numerous defects in the management of the Presidential Residence during Peres’s period in fields…

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira issued a harsh report against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, accusing him of excessive spending of state funds. The report finds that the Prime Minister’s Residence has been conducting improper expenditures, possibly breaking the law in the process. The details were sent to Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to check for…

One intrepid student is continuing his quest to demand the BBC redress its offensive TV show broadcast last month two days before International Holocaust Memorial Day, in which it asked “is it time to lay the Holocaust to rest?” Joshua Eibelman, a junior at Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, launched a petition demanding the BBC renounced the controversial…

President Francois Hollande vowed the state would protect French Jews with all its force as he led a ceremony Tuesday at a Jewish cemetery where hundreds of graves were vandalized. “I know some are asking if they can live in peace in their country, and ask who will protect them against those who wish them…

In response to the IDF Civil Administration’s demolition on Tuesday morning of the Geulat Tzion community near Shiloh in Samaria, as well as several other homes in the area, Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party pledged that once accepted into a coalition it will demand a paradigm shift in the way the government views Judea…

A Swedish cartoonist believed to have been the target of one of the deadly weekend Copenhagen shootings said on Tuesday that Danish police had underestimated the terrorist threat since January’s Paris attacks. “The attacker had good weapons, he had better weapons than the police… There was an escalation since the Charlie Hebdo attacks (in Paris)…

President Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday that following the March 17 elections, he will give the first chance to assemble a coalition to the MK with the best chances of doing so successfully. In this, he is essentially confirming Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett’s claim, that the size of the nationalist bloc matters more than the…

Four-year-old Adelle Biton, who passed away following a rapid deterioration in her condition due to a bout with pneumonia, will be buried in her hometown of Yakir in Samaria, the family announced on Tuesday night. The Biton family said that the funeral will take place on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., despite the difficulties imposed by…

Col. (res.) Erez Wiener, who served as aide to former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi in the army, has joined Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu to act as the party’s election day headquarters director. “Erez is a very talented man who proved his skills during the dozens of years he served in the IDF,”…

The Shi’ite Houthi militia which is loyal to Iran and receives support from the Islamic regime has moved its conquest of Yemen into a new stage, opening its battle for the southern port city of Aden which controls access to the Red Sea and ultimately to Eilat and Israel. Earlier this month the Houthis established…

The United States and Turkey have agreed “in principle” on a deal to train and equip Syrian rebel forces, the State Department said Tuesday. “As we have announced before, Turkey has agreed to be one of the regional hosts for the train-and-equip program for moderate Syrian opposition forces,” department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. “We…

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weighed in on Hollywood according to reports Tuesday, in which he claimed the Oscar-nominated movie “American Sniper” about an elite US Navy Seal is an example of anti-Islam propaganda. Veteran actor-director Clint Eastwood’s film, which was released on December 25 and has garnered six Oscar nominations, tells the story of Chris Kyle’s four tours…

Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett has proven adept at using viral videos to reach out to the Israeli electorate ahead of elections next month, communicating his party’s key messages and platform for the 20th Knesset. But in a new video released Tuesday, Bennett aims at a different audience entirely: the international community. Entitled “Israel – Fighting…

Swedish police detained four people Tuesday on suspicion of having used six companies to help fund the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, the Dagens Nyheter daily reported. Police said a “large raid” took place in Stockholm as part of a probe into money laundering and undeclared work but declined to comment further. Sources close to the…

A Jewish radio station in Denmark has been forced to temporarily shut down its programming following the weekend’s attacks in Copenhagen, reports The Copenhagen Post. It marked the first time in the station’s history that Radio Shalom did not broadcast its usual blend of programs about Jewish culture, music and history, the report noted. The…

The Philatelic Service of the Israel Postal Service issued several fascinating educational stamps this month, spanning a variety of periods and disciplines. Among them is a stamp jointly issued with the Philippines that commemorates that country’s willingness to provide refuge to Holocaust-endangered European Jews.  The Philippine Commonwealth, in fact, accepted nearly 1,300 Jews – and…

A large majority of Americans believe that Republican congressional leaders should not have invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress without consulting the White House, a new CNN/ORC survey release on Tuesday found. The poll found that 63% of Americans believe it was a bad move for congressional leadership to extend the invitation…

Argentina has asked the United States to include the probe into the deadly 1994 bombing at the AMIA Jewish community center in the nuclear talks with Iran, its foreign minister said on Tuesday, according to Reuters. Argentine courts have accused a group of Iranians of planning the attack which killed 85 people and is at…

Copenhagen police late Tuesday confirmed the identity of the suspected gunman behind the weekend’s double shooting as 22-year-old Omar El-Hussein, AFP reported. Police also said that in his first attack, on Saturday, El-Hussein had unsuccessfully tried to use several entrances to a cultural central that was hosting a debate on Islam and free speech attended…

Rabbi Meir Mazuz, the spiritual mentor of MK Eli Yishai, who heads the Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party, has called on longtime Shas voters to consider voting for Ha’am Itanu. Yishai and MK Aryeh Deri were longtime rivals in the struggle over the leadership of Shas, which Yishai left last year to found his new party. “At…

The sun revolves around the Earth, a Saudi cleric insisted to a student panel Sunday – prompting a social media storm.  Sheikh Bandar al-Khaibari told a student that the Earth is “stationary and does not move,” according to Al-Arabiya, justifying the statement with religious texts and statements. But then he tried to debunk the common knowledge about…

Terror victim Adele Biton was admitted earlier this week with pneumonia to Schneider Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikva, and is fighting for her life. Schneider staff said Tuesday that a medical team has been fighting to keep Adele alive in intensive care. Adele’s family has asked the public to pray for Adele Chaya bat Adva. …

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has insisted repeatedly, in recent days, that Likud sees the Jewish Home as a major partner in its next government, and that the party will be in his coalition, no matter what. And yet, the more Netanyahu repeats the statement – the more Jewish Home Chairman Natali Bennett appears hurt by…

The Israel Police and Civil Administration destroyed four homes in the community of Geulat Tzion near Shiloh Tuesday morning, along with other homes in the Shiloh area. Other hit sites included Havat Yishuv Ha’daat, where they destroyed two buildings; police and security forces then moved on to Adei Ad, only to be met with dozens…

The vast majority of traditional, national-religious, and haredi Israelis prefer to vote for religious or haredi parties, the latest pre-elections poll reveals Tuesday.  72% of respondents choose religious parties over secular parties, according to the ‘Me’agar Mohot’ Research Institute poll for the haredi Kol B’Rama radio station.  In total, 30% are voting for Jewish Home (down from…

Senior Citizens Minister Uri Orbach, who passed away Monday at the age of 54, was known for his ability to be liked by all and connect between people, regardless of their political position. This was perhaps best exemplified by the fact that MK Ilan Gilon of the leftist Meretz party was at Orbach’s bedside during…

Japan on Tuesday announced $15.5 million to fight terrorism in the Middle East and Africa, as Tokyo tries to demonstrate its resolve despite the murder of two citizens by ISIS, according to AFP. The amount doubles the $7.5 million in assistance that Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida pledged during a visit to Brussels in January. Kishida said…

Some 30,000 people gathered in Copenhagen Monday to commemorate the victims of twin shootings that shocked the nation, with the Danish premier telling the crowd that an attack on the country’s Jews was an attack on all of Denmark. “Tonight I want to tell all Danish Jews: you are not alone. An attack on the Jews of Denmark is an…

The head of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, received a death threat Monday – two days after a brutal anti-Semitic attack in Denmark.  “Menachem Margolin will be a dead man if he does not stop. We will stick a bullet in his head,” a man named Richard Wright wrote on the Jewish leader’s Facebook page, Channel…

Jerusalem Councilman Arieh King on Monday announced that Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat has passed a plan to turn the strategic area of Nahal Og connecting Jerusalem with E-1 to the east into a landfill, reneging on a 2009 campaign pledge he had made. King explained on Facebook that Barkat had pledged before elections to support the “Eastern…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) will take off Monday night for New Delhi as part of an official visit to India. His visit will mark the first time an Israeli defense minister has traveled to the Asian nation.  During his visit, Ya’alon will attend the inauguration of a defense industries of Israel pavilion during an arms fair held in the city of…

The Simon Wiesenthal Center called for a Europe-wide conference against anti-Semitism Monday, fearing that recent attacks against Jews in both Copenhagen and Paris could be the catalyst of a “pan-European epidemic.”  The prominent Nazi-hunting and Jewish rights group said that Saturday’s shootings in Copenhagen “set a mimetic pattern following last month’s atrocities in Paris,” outlining the perpetrators’ triple…

Lebanon’s Shi’ite Iran-proxy terror group Hezbollah is not only fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but is also involved in fighting in Iraq, its chief Hassan Nasrallah revealed for the first time Monday. Nasrallah said in a speech beamed to supporters in southern Beirut “we may not have spoken about Iraq before, but we have a limited presence because of the…

With four weeks until elections for the 20th Knesset, Likud and Labor-Hatnua appear to be neck and neck.  According to survey conducted by the Midgam Institute for Channel Two, Labor, running under the moniker the “Zionist Camp” just barely inches by Likud with 25 seats.  Likud is one behind with 24 mandates. It has been noted that…

After a slew of damaging videos showing former Shas spiritual guide Rabbi Ovadia Yosef condemning party chairperson Aryeh Deri, which forced Deri to step down temporarily, tension has boiled over again as Rabbi Yosef’s children have refused a request to hand over tapes of their father for an election video. Walla! reports that senior members in…

A Swedish cartoonist believed to have been targeted in one of the Copenhagen shootings over the weekend has been sent into hiding, police said Monday. Lars Vilks – who has faced several death threats since his cartoon portraying Islam founder Mohammed as a dog was published in a Swedish newspaper in 2007 – already lives under constant police protection. But police spokeswoman Ewa-Gun…

Iran’s ultra-conservative weekly “9-Day” was banned on Monday for criticizing the government over its negotiations with world powers on the country’s nuclear program, AFP reported. The state body charged with monitoring the media ruled that the paper had published articles “insulting towards the Imam (Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini and against the regime’s nuclear…

A woman in Boise, Idaho, is facing felony charges after police say she attacked a Jewish woman and stomped on her neck as part of a bizarre bid to convert her to Christianity. According to local television channel KTVB, the woman, identified as 58-year-old Margurite Dawn Haragan, has been charged with two counts of malicious…