Category: News

Yeshiva University on Monday announced the launch of four skills-based technology career certificate programs beginning May 11, 2015. The programs will provide remote, collaboration-driven courses, focused on software technology and data analytics—crucial areas of growing need in the marketplace. The certificates will be offered through YU Global, Yeshiva University’s online learning initiative, and can be…

​Austria on Monday joined in on the calls to local Jews to remain in the country, despite recent terrorist attacks in Europe. Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said that “a Europe without Jews would not be Europe”, according to the AFP news agency. Kurz’s remarks join those of other leaders in Europe who on Monday rejected…

France on Monday signed an agreement with Egypt for the first foreign sale of its Rafale fighter jet, in a deal that will boost Cairo’s military as it tackles jihadists, AFP reported. Paris hopes the 5.2 billion euro ($5.9 billion) deal for 24 Rafale fighters to be delivered later this year will prompt others to…

Amid reports that the Obama administration is refusing to share information regarding Iran with Israel as “punishment” for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech before Congress, The Washington Post’s David Ignatius on Monday provided new details into the tensions between Jerusalem and Washington. According to Ignatius’s column, the mistrust between the Obama administration and Netanyahu…

A 93-year-old man has been charged in a German court with 170,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations he served as an SS guard at the Auschwitz death camp in occupied Poland, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday. The defendant, whose name was not disclosed in line with privacy laws, allegedly served in…

Danish police have arrested two men named as accomplices in Saturday’s attacks on a café and on a Copenhagen synagogue on Monday morning.  Little is known about the men, excepting that they are “young” and will not be identified due to their age.  “The two men are charged with helping through advice and deeds the…

The Egyptian army announced in a statement on Monday morning it had conducted air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS) targets in Libya, including training camps and arms depots. “We believe that avenging the blood of Egyptian, and extracting retribution from the killers and criminals is a duty we have to carry out,” the army statement…

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told the annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies Monday that the agreement being forged by the US and other powers with Iran will free Iran from its current diplomatic isolation and economic sanctions. An animated Ya’alon said that on the other hand, if there is no deal, there…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed “shock and outrage” Monday over Saturday’s Cophenhagen attacks which left two dead and five injured. The League said the shootings against a synagogue and a controversial cartoonist in Denmark “should serve as another wake-up call to all of Europe” to the continued clear and present danger posed by individuals motivated by radical…

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Monday urged France’s Jews to stay in the country after a fresh call by the Israeli premier for European Jews to emigrate to Israel. “My message to French Jews is the following: France is wounded with you and France does not want you to leave,” Valls said, according to AFP.  His comments came after two people…

Human rights groups have launched a new campaign to free Syrian activists held by the government or rebels as they mark the third anniversary of the arrest of prominent lawyer Mazen Darwish, AFP reports Sunday.  The “Hearts in our Hands” campaign is intended to draw attention to the plight of thousands of Syrians, particularly journalists, medics and lawyers, who have disappeared…

Israel’s Channel 2 television news has quietly backtracked on its report from Sunday, according to which the United States has announced that it will no longer update Israel on the progress of its talks with Iran – because Israel uses this information to meddle in US politics. The White House has bluntly denied the report.…

With the State Comptroller and Ombudsman’s report on the expenses of the Prime Minister’s Residence due to be published Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah hosted interior designer and media celebrity Moshe Glamin on a tour of their official home on Balfour Street in Jerusalem. The tour revealed a somewhat dilapidated house, with…

Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon once again attacked the upper echelons of the government Sunday night, blaming various ministers and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for Israel’s housing and cost of living crises.  “I intend to fight,” Kahlon stated, at a packed Kulanu pre-elections event in Ashdod attended by other party candidates. “I am standing at the…

The IDF will experience a changing of the guard on Monday, as Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz steps down as IDF Chief of Staff, and will be replaced by Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot.  Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon will promote Eizenkot to Lt. Gen. as well during the ceremony, according to Channel 2, marking his term…

Colel Chabad hosted its fourth annual Bat Mitzvah celebration for orphans last week at the Gutnick Hall in Jerusalem. 36 girls and their families participated in the event.  The organization, founded in 1788 by the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, is the oldest continuously-running social welfare organization in Israel.  Since its founding, Colel Chabad has increased…

A spokesman for the Danish Jewish community on Monday turned down an offer by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to emigrate to Israel following a deadly weekend attack on a synagogue in Copenhagen. “We’re very grateful for Netanyahu’s concern but having said that, we are Danish – we’re Danish Jews but we’re Danish – and it…

Five adolescents aged 15 to 17 have been taken into custody in eastern France for questioning over a massive vandalism attack against Jewish graves, a local prosecutor said on Monday. All five are from the region of Sarre-Union in Alsace, where around 300 tombs were defaced over the weekend. The youngest came forward after being shocked…

Germany said Monday it wants Jews to stay and promised to ensure their security following a deadly attack on a Danish synagogue and calls from Israel for European Jews to emigrate.   Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany was “glad and also grateful” to have a Jewish community, when asked about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s…

Despite having formed a unity agreement last April torpedoing peace talks, Hamas and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction seem to be slowly sliding into open warfare in Gaza, as an attempted assassination on a Fatah official on Monday caps off incessant back and forth car bombings. Mamoon Sweidan, the Fatah official who serves…

Loading… Thousands were in Jerusalem Monday for the funeral of Jewish Home party MK and Minister for Senior Citizens Uri Orbach, who passed away Monday aged 54 after battling a long illness. Orbach, a former journalist, was known as a popular figure across Israel’s often fractious political spectrum, famous for his quick wit and sense of humor. Prime…

Nine people, including three children, were killed Monday in rebel fire on a government-held neighborhood in Syria’s northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s state news agency SANA said. It said they were killed in Hay al-Seryan, in government-controlled west Aleppo, but gave no further details. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, also reported nine deaths, but said that 4…

Labor Chairman Yitzhak Herzog was confident about his party’s chances Monday, telling an interviewer that he was convinced his “Zionist Camp” would be the largest party in the 20th Knesset.  Speaking with Nissim Mishal on Nonstop Radio, Herzog claimed that Labor would break ahead in the March 17 elections and pass Likud.  “The chances of me creating…

The Chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Salim Joubran, ruled Monday to prevent the live broadcast of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before the United States Congress next month.  The Central Elections Committee’s ruling is specifically addressed to the Israel Broadcasting Authority, the Israeli News Company (Channel Two), and Channel Ten, who are all set to broadcast…

Syrian refugees make up the majority of children living and working on the streets of Lebanon, with many of them illiterate and surviving by begging, a study released Monday said. The research was commissioned by Save the Children, UNICEF, the International Labor Organization and the Lebanese labor ministry, reports AFP. It surveyed 18 areas in Lebanon and identified more than 1,500…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted in an interview published Sunday that he was unconcerned by Turkey’s “isolation” on the world stage, despite deteriorating relations with several former allies, according to AFP. “I do not mind isolation in the world,” Erdogan was quoted as telling the Hurriyet newspaper after a tour of Colombia, Cuba and…

President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday appeared to suggest he was against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress. Though he did not specifically mention the speech, Rivlin, who spoke at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, called on the Israeli leadership to present its position on important issues to the public…

Former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi was on Sunday placed on trial on charges of endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar, but he once again declared that he does not recognize the court’s authority. Morsi, who was toppled by the army in 2013 after mass protests against his rule, insisted…

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the Quartet’s Middle East envoy, on Sunday called on Hamas to clarify whether it is part of a “broader Islamist movement with regional designs” or if it would accept a long-term peace alongside Israel. Blair’s comments were made during a visit to Gaza, in which he warned of “another…

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi warned on Sunday night that his country would respond to the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya by the Islamic State (ISIS). Earlier, ISIS released a video purportedly showing the beheading of the Coptic Christians it had captured in the Libyan capital Tripoli. The footage released online shows handcuffed…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night sent his condolences to the people of Denmark over the terrorist attacks over the weekend in which two people were killed, including a Jewish security guard outside a synagogue in Copenhagen. “I would like to note the activities of the authorities in Denmark [against terrorism] and offer my…

The latest round of winter rain dumped copious amounts of precipitation on most of northern Israel. The biggest recipient of rain was Nahariya, which received 213 millimeters of rain. The latest round of rain brought the total amount of precipitation in Nahariya to 605 millimeters, which gives the town and the area around it 100%…

The Islamic State (ISIS) group released a video on Sunday purportedly showing the beheading of Egyptian Coptic Christians the group captured in Libya, reports AFP. The footage released online shows handcuffed hostages wearing orange jumpsuits being beheaded by their black-suited captors on a seashore in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. In the latest issue of…

A large percentage of Israel citizens believe Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should not have interfered in the selection committee of the Israel Prize, a survey published Sunday finds.  The survey, conducted under the supervision of Professor Kamil Fuchs, found that 40 percent of respondents believe Netanyahu should not have gotten involved in choosing the panel of…

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder urged the Danish government to protect the Jewish community in Denmark on Sunday, one day after a double attack on a café and on a Copenhagen synagogue which killed two people and injured five others.  “The World Jewish Congress deplores these despicable attacks, and stands in solidarity with…

Copenhagen police have shot dead a man they say opened fire on them, Sky News reports Sunday morning, and have stated that he is the lone shooter responsible for a double attack on a ‘Blasphemy Conference’ and a synagogue.  “It is estimated that the person shot dead is responsible for two of the attacks,” said a police spokesman, Walla!…

As the campaign progresses toward a decision, the scope of the conspiracy to overthrow the Israeli Right is becoming clear.  Powerful and potent individuals, groups and organizations have combined together to brainwash the public and contaminate the proper democratic process.  I do not recall an election, at a time when national security is of utmost importance, filled…

Six months after the end of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, Israel has warned the international community that Hamas is actively preparing for another war.  Israeli Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor wrote to the UN Security Council this week over the “alarming development in our region,” according to Walla! News, noting that “Hamas is preparing…

Moshe Kahlon may not have revealed who he will recommend for prime minister in a Saturday night interview, but his criticism of incumbent Binyamin Netanyahu was clear.  Kahlon, the Chairman of Kulanu, told Nadav Peri of Central Headquarters on Channel Ten, that he intends to recommend the person who he believes will be able to extricate Israel…

Likud intensified its campaign strategy against left-wing opponents Saturday night with a clip depicting the Left allowing Islamic State terrorists to enter Israel.  The video shows actors dressed as ISIS fighters holding ISIS flags and driving in a pick-up truck en route to Jerusalem. ISIS terrorists stop a car on the way and ask for directions in…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu should not hesitate to visit the Cave of the Patriarchs (Machpelah Cave), despite warnings by Arab terror groups that he “not dare” do so, said members of the Hevron Jewish Community. “Hevron is the basis of historic Jewish rights in the Land of Israel,” said a spokesperson for the Community. “The…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted to the attacks with a call for European Jews to emigrate to Israel. He said: “This wave of attacks will continue. Of course, Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters: Israel is your home. “We are preparing and calling for the…

Some 50 people, many of them children, were hidden inside the synagogue in Copenhagen that was shot at Saturday afternoon. They were guests at a Bat-Mitzvah that was taking place in the synagogue at the time, and when they heard shots they ran for cover in the basement of the building. Speaking to the NRG…

The grassroots Samaria Regional Council has produced a highly controversial animated video (embedded above) that shows leftist groups that “tattle” on Israel and the IDF in a way similar to how Nazis depicted Jews in their anti-Semitic propaganda. The video’s message is that while leftists may think that Europe has changed since the Holocaust, the Europeans see them in the…

Jerusalem District Police arrested on Sunday Hillel Glick, 19, the son of Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick. He was arrested on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  Glick’s family say the teenager was arrested in the aftermath of police being alerted to a soccer game played by Arab children on the Mount.  According to police, the young…

The majority of the Israeli public wants to see a televised debate over elections issues between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other party leaders, according to the latest elections poll.  69.7% of respondents to the TRI Strategic Studies poll for Channel 10 affirmed that they would like to see a pre-elections debate, vs. just 17% who are uninterested…

Former Arkansas Governor and probable Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee pulled no punches at a Jerusalem press conference Sunday morning, throwing his weight firmly behind the decision to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to address Congress and fiercely criticizing the Obama administration’s handling of Iran’s nuclear program. Huckabee, who is a regular visitor to and vocal supporter of Israel,…

Extremists from the haredi Eida Haredis organization are once again giving out financial grants to people who refrain from voting in the 2015 elections.  Posters appeared on notice boards in several communities declaring the doling out of non-voting grants, under the title, “All Votes Count – for Grant Money.”  “Due to the upcoming elections, it will be…

Retired Major General Amos Yadlin, Labor-Hatnua’s choice for Defense Minister in the 20th Knesset, systematically attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s security platform on Sunday.  In a studio interview with Yedioth Ahronoth, Yadlin responded to Netanyahu’s latest campaign clip, which portrays the Left allowing Islamic State terrorists to enter Israel.  ““Netanyahu has stopped frightening us. The myth that…

The IDF insisted in November 2014 that the driver of a Palestinian Arab commercial vehicle who attempted to run over the soldiers as they were on duty near a guard stand outside of Kafr Al-Arub was “not a terrorist.”  But on Sunday, a senior command official involved in the case broke a months-long silence over the…

The condition of the Minister for Senior Citizens, Uri Orbach (Jewish Home), who has been seriously ill for several weeks, took a turn for the worse Sunday evening. Doctors at Shaare Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem are fighting for the minister’s life. The Orbach family asked the public to continue to pray for the health of…

France’s interior minister said Sunday several hundred tombs have been defaced at a Jewish cemetery in east of the country, in what he called “a despicable act”.   “The country will not tolerate this new injury which goes against the values that all French people share,” said Bernard Cazeneuve without giving further details of the…

A new poll shows that recent trends indicating a strengthening of the Likud and a weakening of Jewish Home are continuing. The Geocartographia poll conducted by Professor Avi Degani on behalf of i24 News showed the Likud strengthening further to 27 seats, while Jewish Home had fallen to 11. Barely a month ago, Jewish Home…

The US administration under President Barack Obama has stopped updating Israel on the progress of talks with Iran over that country’s nuclear program, in retaliation for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s intention to speak in Congress March 3 at the invitation of Republican Speaker John Boehner. According to Israel’s Channel 2, Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman,…

Danish authorities have named the terrorist who murdered two people Saturday: Omar Abdel Hamid Hussein, 22, who was born in Denmark. Saturday’s terror attacks in Copenhagen bore several similarities to last month’s assaults in Paris, experts said, but warned more needed to be known about the Danish attacker before drawing direct parallels. In the words of French…

With the takeover of Yemen by Shia Houthi rebels, who are closely allied with Iran, life for the few Jews who remain in Yemen is becoming intolerable, witnesses who escaped to Israel said. Last week, six Yemenite Jews, all members of the same family, arrived in Israel and told members of the community in the…

A group of Palestinian Arab rappers threatened legal action Sunday against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party for using their song in an ISIS-themed campaign ad for Israel’s March election. The contentious new ad, which Likud released on Saturday, implied that a vote for the Left would benefit the jihadist Islamic State terror group, also know as…

The Commander of an Iranian Air Defense Base, Brigadier General Farzad Esmayeeli, says Iran’s new radar system, named ‘Sepehr’ (‘Sky’), enables the country to monitor every enemy takeoff and launch, at a range of up to 2,500 km. Israel is less than 2,000 km away from Iran. Over 40% of Sepehr’s deployment has been completed without…

House Speaker John Boehner on Sunday accused the White House of “animosity” towards Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, whose planned speech before the US Congress has stirred up a political furor in both countries. Boehner defended his decision to invite Netanyahu to give an address on Iran’s nuclear program before Congress next month, flouting diplomatic…

Japan, reeling from the murder of two nationals by Islamic State terrorists, will offer an extra $15 million in aid to fight terrorism in Middle East and Africa, a report said Sunday. Japan hopes to demonstrate its resolve not to cave in to terrorism with the fresh assistance, which will be announced at a global counter-terrorism conference starting on Wednesday in Washington,…

Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog said on Saturday night that if the “Zionist Camp”, the joint Labor-Hatnua list which heads, wins just one more seat than the Likud, he will head the next government. Herzog’s comments in an interview on Channel 2 News come several days after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cited “authoritative sources” as saying…

One person was killed and two police officers were wounded in an attack near a synagogue in central Copenhagen on Saturday night, according to Reuters. According to The Guardian, the victim who died was a 55-year-old who was shot in the head and later died of his injuries. Local police have said that the two…

Members of Argentina’s government rallied behind President Cristina Kirchner on Saturday, tossing aside allegations she protected Iranian suspects in an investigation into the 1994 bombing at the Jewish center in Buenos Aires. “It’s utter nonsense,” interior and transportation minister Florencio Randazzo said of the allegations, according to the AFP news agency. An indictment filed Friday…

Three Jewish House Democrats have sent a letter to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) calling on him to end the “political firestorm” they claim he created when he invited Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of Congress, reports The Washington Post. The three, Reps. Steve Israel (N.Y.), Ted Deutch (Fla.) and Nita…

Police in Madison, Wisconsin, are investigating 30 cases of property damaged by graffiti on the Far West Side overnight Friday. The graffiti included some swastikas and anti-Semitic expressions, along with derogatory words directed toward women and minorities, according to the Wisconsin State Journal. Madison Police Officer David Dexheimer told the local WISC TV that garage…

Americans believe the Islamic State group poses the most serious threat to the United States in the next decade, according to a poll released Friday. Eighty-four percent of those quizzed by Gallup said ISIS jihadists, who have grabbed large areas of Iraq and Syria in a brutal onslaught, and terrorism in general presented a “critical threat,” according to AFP.  Respondents put…

Nearly 100 fighters on both sides have been killed in a week of fighting in southern Syria between regime forces and rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday. The army, backed by fighters from Lebanon’s powerful Shiite group Hezbollah, began an offensive at the beginning of the week in Daraa, the province bordering…

Shots have been fired at a Copenhagen cafe’, Danish media reports Saturday night, during an event for free speech featuring a speaker who has faced multiple threats for drawing cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed.   One person, a 40 year-old civilian, was killed during the attack, which took place just before 4:00 p.m. local time Saturday. …

Al Qaeda in Yemen is expanding its operations in the country and threatens to control another division of the Yemenite army, security officials said this week.  According to the officials, Al Qaeda operatives captured a garrison for the Yemeni army’s 19th brigade in Shabwa Thursday, killing five soldiers. The same day, it overran the base for the 23rd Mechanized…

Fourteen year-old Palestinian Arab terrorist Malak al-Khatib was released from prison Friday, AFP reported, after leftists protested in Israel and abroad against ‘Israeli brutality’ for apprehending the teen after she attempted to attack Israelis.   Khatib was allegedly met in Tulkarem by her parents, extended family, and the mayor upon her release, before returning home to the Arab…

Outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz deflected criticism addressed at the IDF and the government for its handling of the terror tunnel threat during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza Saturday, noting that the political leadership did know about the threat before the war started.  However, “I do not want to address what the Cabinet ministers said,”…

A joint Likud-Labor government is not on the table, Deputy Environmental Protection Minister Ofir Akunis stated Saturday. “Labor will not be invited to the government,” Akunis explained, during an address at a cultural event in Nes Ziona. “Buji [nickname for Yitzhak Herzog – ed.] and [Tzipi] Livni have a worthless and brutal smear campaign against the…

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel has lent his support to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s March 3 speech to Congress, which has become an issue of contention between Democrats and Republicans as well as between Israel and the United States. According to the Reuters news agency, Wiesel is urging President Barack Obama…

United States President Barack Obama on Friday condemned what he called the “brutal and outrageous murders” of three young Muslims in North Carolina this week, saying the FBI had opened an inquiry into the murders. “No one in the United States of America should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look…

John Cantlie, the British journalist being held hostage by the Islamic State (ISIS), has told his family to “let me go” and “get on with your lives,” Russia Today reported on Friday. Cantlie published a piece in the latest issue of ISIS’s English-language propaganda magazine Dabiq. “Despite being a prisoner, I’ve been shown respect and…

Six men of Chechen origin are facing terrorism charges in France over a suspected recruiting ring sending jihadist fighters to Syria, the Paris prosecutor’s office said Friday, according to The Associated Press (AP). The men, aged 32 to 38, were handed preliminary charges for alleged preparation of terrorist acts and for terror financing, according to…

Argentine President Cristina Kirchner was formally accused Friday of shielding Iranian officials from prosecution over a 1994 bombing at a Buenos Aires Jewish center, prosecutors said, according to AFP. The prosecution move advances the case against Kirchner that was being pursued by late prosecutor Alberto Nisman before he died mysteriously on the eve of congressional…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday backtracked on his earlier decision to disqualify two leftist judges from the Israel Prize’s Literature Committee. Netanyahu’s decision came after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein advised the Prime Minister against his interfering in the procedures related to the Israel Prize during an election period. The two professors who were dismissed…

Secular Turks opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday boycotted schools and took to the streets to demand a secular education and denounce a claimed creeping Islamization of the schools system. The protests were led by Turkey’s largest religious minority the Alevis, who adhere to an offshoot of Shiite Islam, as well as leading…

An Egyptian court on Thursday ordered the release of two jailed Al-Jazeera journalists pending retrial, after they spent more than 400 days in prison in a case that sparked worldwide outrage, AFP reported. Mohamed Fahmy, who is Canadian and whose family hoped he would be deported, must pay 250,000 Egyptian pounds ($33,000) bail. His colleague,…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday criticized U.S. President Barack Obama over his silence following the killings of three young Muslims in North Carolina this week, Reuters reported. Speaking alongside Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto during a state visit to Mexico, Erdogan said the silence of Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of…

The Hamas terror group reacted on Thursday to the decision by the Central Elections Committee in Israel to ban extremist Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from running in the upcoming elections. “This is a racist decision which refutes Israel’s claims that it is a democracy,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri declared on his Facebook page. At…

MK Ya’akov Litzman (United Torah Judaism), explained on Thursday that he refused an invitation to participate in a televised debate ahead of March elections in order to prevent Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid from continuing his “incitement” against haredim. Earlier this week, Channel 2 News invited all the leaders of the various parties to a televised debate,…

Former Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum, who was forced to resign from the Knesset due to suspicions of her involvement in the corruption scandal involving senior members of the Yisrael Beytenu party, on Thursday revealed a secret plot that was hatched to unseat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The details, revealed in a report on Channel…

The ex-wife of Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who died mysteriously after accusing President Cristina Kirchner of a cover-up in a 1994 Jewish center bombing, on Thursday criticized the probe into his death. Speaking at a congressional session called by opposition lawmakers, Sandra Arroyo Salgado condemned the prosecutor and judge investigating Nisman’s death for going public…

Ashton Carter, President Barack Obama’s nominee for defense secretary, was confirmed on Thursday by the Senate, AFP reports. The Senate — by a vote of 93 to five — overwhelmingly approved Carter, an accomplished defense technocrat with degrees in Medieval history and theoretical physics. Obama welcomed the Senate’s swift confirmation of Carter’s nomination. “With his…

A covert cell operating under the Iranian government is fueling the bloodshed throughout the Middle East and North Africa, Fox News revealed Thursday. Unit 190, a secret arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force made up of about two-dozen employees, has for years smuggled arms to these conflict zones, the network said. After an…

“Price tag” vandalism attacks by “right-wing extremists” against Palestinian Arabs have decreased 45% since 2013, Channel 2 reports Friday.  While in 2013 were 92 reported incidents of vandalism and sabotage against the Palestinian Arabs, in 2014 there were 51 such cases, according to the news channel. In addition, crimes labeled as “Jewish nationalist crimes” – including cases of “mutual violence”…

Hakol Shafit, the Channel 1 TV show of right-wing satire Latma, was greeted with mixed reviews last Thursday when it debuted and broke the leftist monopoly on television satire – while it still is getting some skeptical criticism over some weaker skits, the show’s second airing seems to have recaptured the magic that originally gained Latma…

An explosion went off Friday at a police checkpoint in the southern Turkish town of Suruc close to the Syrian border causing injuries, reports said. The cause of the blast was not clear but Turkish media said emergency service vehicles rushed to the scene, reports AFP. NTV television said at least one policeman was wounded in the blast. Suruc lies just over…

Yet another controversy is underway at the Sapir College in Sderot this week after it’s anti-Jewish art display – this time, over the use of a common letterhead in the religious community.  Observant Jews in Israel and abroad often mark the phrase בס״ד in the corner of all documents, meaning bisiyata dishmaya, translated loosely as “with…

Senior sources in Jewish Home criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyau on Friday morning for trying “to eliminate the party,” which they claim he is doing to establish a coalition with his Labor rivals after elections. In response to the statements made by the sources to Yedioth Aharonot, Netanyahu wrote on Twitter that the leftist media “wants to…

Terrorists in Iraq have seized a major synagogue and holy site in Amara, the Elder of Ziyon blog reported Wednesday – and have already destroyed much of it.  According to the Iraqi media site quoted by the blog, the synagogue will become the new southern headquarters of the terrorists, whose name and affiliation are unspecified. All roads…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) met on Thursday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Ukrainian parliament chairman Volodymyr Groysman. Speaking with Yatsenyuk, Liberman discussed economic and technological cooperation and the two examined the idea of a free trade zone between the countries. The two made plans to hold the next joint economic commission meeting…

Fugitive hassidic sect leader Rabbi Eliezer Berland will be extradited from Holland, a Dutch court ruled Thursday night; Berland’s attorneys are expected to file an appeal.  Berland was hospitalized last month for heart-related illness, further delaying an extradition process which has dragged out for months.  Meanwhile, the Jewish community in the Netherlands are not happy, to say…

It’s poll time again as Israel continues to ramp up ahead of the March 17 elections, and in the latest findings Likud squeaks past the “Zionist camp” of Labor and Hatnua, while Jewish Home falls into fifth place for the first time in this election’s polling. According to the Maariv poll published on Friday morning, Likud gets…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz at his Tel Aviv office Thursday, ahead of latter’s stepping down and the IDF Chief-of-Staff changeover ceremony, to be held on Monday in Jerusalem.  “I would like to thank you for your long years of service on behalf of the security of the state,…

Police officers will now be required to sign an affidavit affirming that they have not been involved in criminal activity or sex offenses, Channel 2 reports Friday, after Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein halted a newer policy of polygraph tests.  While the polygraph tests have ceased, the addition of an affidavit to the acceptance process for future officers…

Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, who is the Labor-Hatnua list’s candidate for Defense Minister if that list heads the next government, accused the government of being too “weak” against Hamas, Channel 10 reports Friday.  “This government is weak against Hamas – instead of beating them vigorously, [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu chose to conduct negotiations with them,” Yadlin stated,…

The flurry of Friday polls continues, as a third survey conducted this time for Reshet Bet gives Likud a hands-breadth advantage over the “Zionist camp” of Labor and Hatnua, beating them out 25 to 24 seats. The poll, conducted by the Smith Institute, strengthens recent results showing a tie at third place, with Jewish Home and the…

Any peaceful solution to the fighting in Syria must involve iron-handed President Bashar al-Assad, the United Nations envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura said Friday. “President Assad is part of the solution,” de Mistura told a joint press conference with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz in Vienna, according to AFP. “I will continue to have very important discussions with…

The projected right-wing bloc is stable at 42 seats, according to an elections poll published Friday – whereas the left continues to reach new lows.  Likud is in first place once again with 25 seats with Labor close behind at 23, according to the poll, conducted by TNS for Walla! News.  Back in third place is Jewish…

Police and a prayer hall were among potential targets for attack uncovered by police investigating two terrorists seized in Sydney with an Islamic State (ISIS) flag and knives this week, Australian police said Friday. Officers said Wednesday they had thwarted an imminent terror attack which was “consistent with the messaging coming out of IS(IS)” when they arrested Omar Al-Kutobi and Mohammed Kiad…

Likud MK Miri Regev responded on Friday morning to the “secret deal” exposed the previous evening by Yisrael Beytenu MK Faina Kirshenbaum, through which a “centrist” bloc had previously been agreed upon to oust Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in elections. According to the deal, Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu, Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid and Moshe Kahlon’s new…

A top United Nations (UN) official warned on Thursday that another war will break out in Gaza, calling on Israel to lift its “blockade” and for Hamas – the terrorist organization with the genocide of Jews written in its charter – to stop fighting. The UN also called for an additional $705 million in humanitarian aid to Gaza and Palestinian…

The Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), an affiliate of Yeshiva University (YU), is holding its Annual Gala Evening of Tribute on March 8 at The Grand Hyatt in New York City to honor Jewish leaders and educators. The dinner is to be held in honor of Herb Smilowitz z”l, who sat on the RIETS board…

Yemen is sliding into chaos, UN special envoy to Yemen Jamal Benomar, told Al Arabiya News Channel late Wednesday, saying “we believe the situation is very dangerous. Yemen is on the brink of civil war.” “The United Nations’ position vis-à-vis the Yemeni crisis is clear: conflicts should be resolved by peaceful means,” Benomar added. “The United Nations…

New research by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reveals that the list of journalists Hamas claimed were killed by the IDF during Operation Protective Edge last summer is simply manipulative, misrepresenting facts to attack Israel on the global stage. The findings are important because the Palestinian Authority (PA) is seeking to try Israel…

Israel will not pay compensation to the family of anti-Israel ISM activist Rachel Corrie, who was crushed by an IDF bulldozer in 2003 in Gaza, the Supreme Court decided Thursday. Corrie had been standing in front of a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer and acting as a human shield to try and interfere with the razing of…

France’s major TV and radio networks were formally criticized by the French broadcast regulator Thursday for serious “breaches” in the way they covered last month’s Islamist terror attacks on Charlie Hebdo, a policewoman and a kosher supermarket which left a total of 17 murdered. The warnings were issued for: showing two of the Islamist gunmen walking up to cold-bloodedly shoot dead…

The left-wing politicians and media in Israel have been pummeling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife for years with allegations of unjustified spending on everything from a bed on a plane to pistachio ice cream. The last few weeks have been particularly grueling, with the media focusing on allegations that Sarah Netanyahu pocketed money she…

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s troops shelled rebel-held villages in southern Syria on Thursday, as a snowstorm slowed an advance led by Lebanon’s pro-Assad Hezbollah terrorists near the Israeli Golan Heights, a monitor said. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian army shelled Jizeh and the west of Atman village in the southern province of Daraa, reports AFP. Battles raged…

A new research study, the first of its kind, which was presented to the British Parliament shows an “unprecedented” shift with Muslim children in the UK nearly doubling in a mere decade. Of all schoolchildren in England and Wales one in 12 are now Muslim, after the number of Muslims in the UK jumped by over 1.1 million…

Islamic State (ISIS) made an as yet unverified announcement on Thursday claiming to have captured an Israeli Arab from Jerusalem who was recruited by the Mossad. While numerous Arab citizens of Israel have illegally entered Syria through Turkey to join ISIS and other rebel factions, this would be the first time that Mossad sent a…

The virulently and violently anti-Semitic postings of a Turkish man living in Austria constitute a legitimate expression of displeasure with the State of Israel, an Austrian prosecutor said Tuesday.  The Turk, identified as only Ibrahim, posted a picture of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler along with the fictitious quote: “I could have annihilated all the Jews in the world,…

The White House has finally clarified that it does indeed view the attack on a kosher supermarket in France last month as an anti-Semitic attack, despite a clumsy statement by President Barack Obama which appeared to suggest otherwise. The controversy began on Monday when, in an interview with Vox, Obama attempted to explain his administration’s policy on terrorism by stating: “It is…

Religious and haredi Jersualemites expressed concern Thursday over an event sponsored by the Jerusalem municipality for Friday. The Front Stage Event, usually held during the summer months, is making a mid-winter appearance at Cinema City in Jerusalem on Friday. The event is set to begin at 10 AM, but it’s unlikely to end by 4:50…

Labor-Hatnua representatives to the Central Elections Committee have voted in favor of the disqualification of 20th Knesset candidates Hanin Zoabi and Baruch Marzel.  Zoabi is currently an MK for Balad and plans to run on the Joint Arab List. Marzel, an Otzma Yehudit member, is running with Yachad-Ha’am Itanu as part of a technical bloc…

A Japanese journalist accused the government of muzzling the press Thursday after officials confiscated his passport to stop him from traveling to war-torn Syria. Freelance photographer Yuichi Sugimoto, 58, said he will file an appeal over the move, and was prepared to take legal action to get his travel documents back. “Losing my passport means losing my job as a freelance…

Some 40 Arab political activists have received training in the United Stated from leftist  and Jewish groups on how to become more “politically active and aggressive,” Channel One reported. The activists, which include mayors, deputy mayors, and other officials in towns and villages across Israel, received training in how to “fight for their rights,” said members…

Yehuda Yifrach, a journalist and resident of Tekoa in the Gush Etzion region, described in a Facebook post Thursday how he was nearly stoned to death by an Arab gang as he was driving Thursday. “How is one supposed to deal with having been a victim of a murder attempt?” he asked on the social media…

MK Yariv Levin on Wednesday accused the left of being “irresponsible and hysterical” for opposing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress in the US. “The speech is to take place before the elections, but also before the close of talks in the next round of talks with Iran.” If Netanyahu waits until after…

Thursday’s weather report looks nasty with rain, wind, and cold expected in both the north and central regions of Israel. The south, for its part, will be very hazy and air pollution levels remain high there.  Snow is falling on Mount Hermon and in other areas of the north, and there is concern of severe flooding…

Those who would prefer not to vote than to vote Binyamin Netanyahu to another term as Prime Minister are making a grave error, said Samaria Residents Council head Benny Katzover. “Unfortunately it is true that there is really no alternative to Netanyahu, so I can understand why some voters are boycotting the election. But those who…

Several months ago Johnny Daniels, founder of Mimaamakim (From the Depths), announced the launch of “Project Matzeva” meant to locate and renovate scattered matzevot (gravestones) from around Poland and return them to the Jewish cemeteries. In the years following World War II, many Polish residents used Jewish gravestones as building and paving material. To rectify the situation Polish…

Americans think that it was a breach of protocol for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to invite Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to speak to Congress the way he did, but they still want members of Congress to attend Netanyahu’s speech, a HuffPost/YouGov poll finds. The poll found a 23-point margin in favor of those who…

An influential Iranian general who has reportedly been near the front line against the Islamic State (ISIS) group was quoted Thursday saying the Sunni jihadists are “nearing the end of their lives”. General Qassem Suleimani, the once rarely seen commander of the powerful Qods Force, has become the public face of Iran’s support for the…

The Central Elections Committee, headed by Arab judge Salim Joubran, voted on Thursday to disqualify Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel from running in elections under the joint Yachad – Ha’am Itanu list. The decision squeaked by with a 17 to 16 majority. Now the High Court will investigate the decision and make a final ruling;…

Intelligence Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz warned Thursday that Israel could act unilaterally against Iran over its nuclear drive, saying Tehran has failed to make concessions in talks with world powers.   “I won’t be too specific but all options are still on the table,” Steinitz told reporters. “We never limited Israel’s right of self-defence because…

Jerusalem, the “city united together” according to King David’s Psalms, is truly replete with daily and hourly acts and displays of kindness, brotherhood, and unity. Certainly very high up on this list was the Friendship Circle of Central Jerusalem’s annual “Day of Enrichment and Empowerment” for its 89 dedicated volunteers this past Sunday.  An impressively fast-growing Jewish…

Hayat Boumeddiene, widow and co-conspirator of Amedy Coulibaly, the terrorist who shot and killed four people at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris, has surfaced in territory held by the Islamic State, the Iraq and Syria based group said. An interview in the latest issue of Dar al Islam, the Islamic State’s French-language magazine,…

The Anti-Defamation League issued harsh criticism Thursday for the far-left lobby J Street and its campaign to mobilize American Jews against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.  The campaign, entitled, “I am a Jew, and Bibi does NOT [sic] speak for me,” calls on American Jews to sign a petition against Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to Washington to be sent…

Will Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu form a right-wing government if he is reelected? Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett is not so sure. Speaking to a high school group Thursday, Bennett said that it was possible – perhaps very possible – that Netanyahu’s first choice would be for a national unity government. “Before the elections everyone…

The District Attorney of Jerusalem filed an indictment with the Jerusalem District Court against three men accused to causing the death of Orit London.  London was kill when the apartment building in which she lived in Pisgat Ze’ev was set on fire by the three suspects.  The defendants are all charged with manslaughter and arson. One is charged with…

As polls continue to show Meretz weakening, the leftist party is desperately searching for ways to survive and pass the minimum number of votes needed for Knesset representation – and the party has decided to attack its fellow travelers on the left. In a new video released Wednesday, Meretz takes on Tzipi Livni, who is…

Likud is making a comeback over Labor, according to the latest elections poll. Likud would garner 27 seats in the 20th Knesset, according to the Channel 1 survey published Wednesday night, followed by Labor at distant second with 23 seats. The Arab parties have overtaken Jewish Home for third place, with 12 seats and 11 seats, respectively. …

The Orli kosher restaurant in Edgware, London was vandalized at approximately 5:30 pm local time Wednesday night, the Community Security Trust (CST) tweeted Wednesday – after a youth gang apparently either threw rocks or fired shots at the establishment.  No one was injured, the CST affirmed – although it remains unclear what happened during the…

Security forces prevented weapon-making materials from being smuggled into the Gaza by sea for the sake of Hamas’s “military wing,” the Al-Qassam Brigades, the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) revealed Wednesday.  Naval forces detained a vessel on its way from Sinai into Gaza, as well as three Gazans onboard, in mid-January, the ISA said. The craft…

Officials of the Yahad-Ha’am Itanu party, headed by former Shas MK Eli Yishai, filed a complaint with police Wednesday over vandalism and damage to the party’s headquarters in Holon. Police have opened an investigation. So far, there is no evidence as to the specific identities of the perpetrators, but the vandalism – which included graffiti that…

Yisrael Beytenu will continue to run under the slogan “Ariel for Israel, Umm al-Fahm for Palestine,” the Central Elections Committee (CEC) declared Wednesday.  CEC Chairman Justice Salim Jubran shot down a petition from Meretz MK Issawi Freij against the center-right party for the slogan, claiming that it discriminated against Israeli Arabs by proposing to give…

In the latest of a string of attacks, a vehicle in which a Hassidic rebbe was riding in on Wednesday on its way to the Mount of Olives was hit by heavy rocks, as rioting Arabs attacked the vehicle. The Rebbe of Koznitz was on his way to say memorial prayers on the Mount when…

A fierce sandstorm lashed Egypt, Israel and Lebanon on Wednesday, forcing the closure of the Suez Canal and grounding domestic flights in Israel, officials said. The skyline of Cairo was barely visible as dust blown in from the surrounding desert hung in the air and shrouded the Egyptian capital for a second day. A few incoming flights were diverted to…

A leading Israeli NGO has slammed the European Union over its alleged role in financing illegal Arab settlements in Judea and Samaria, saying its direct attempts to “subvert” Israeli internal affairs amounted to a form of “colonialism.” The remarks, made by the grassroots Im Tirzu organization, came in response to an article in the UK’s Daily Mail, which cited…

The government in Germany has come under criticism for creating a new commission on anti-Semitism – but failing to include in it a single Jewish person, reports The Associated Press (AP). Julius Schoeps from the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies called it “a unique scandal” that the Interior Ministry didn’t include any Jewish scientists…

Greece is planning joint military exercises with Israel, Cyprus and Egypt, Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos said Wednesday, according to AFP. The decision comes amid continuing tensions between Cyprus and Turkey over oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. Kammenos, visiting close ally Cyprus, said the two countries, along with Israel and “possibly” Egypt would begin…

MK Ofer Shelah of Yesh Atid, considered a close associated of party chairman Yair Lapid, on Wednesday echoed recent comments made by other Yesh Atid members that the party was leaning leftward. In an interview with Haaretz, Shelah was asked who Yesh Atid would recommend as Prime Minister after the elections. “We keep saying that…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday he would be willing to consider a televised debate with heads of other parties running for the Knesset. The announcement came a day after Channel 2 News invited all the leaders of the various parties to a televised debate, adding it plans to hold the debate even if…

A young French Muslim artist was attacked in Paris, Le Monde reported last week – simply because he preached coexistence.  Four men attacked the street artist Combo as he pasted some of his art on a Paris street earlier this month. Combo is well-known for his street art around Paris, and he recently painted a mural with…

The new United Arab List on Wednesday introduced its campaign for the Knesset elections – and it’s aimed not only at Arab voters. The theme of the campaign is “The United List is Israel’s Answer to Racism,” and posters and ads that will appear throughout the country will feature the phrase, in Arabic and in…

President Barack Obama on Wednesday said he would not flinch from sending special forces to kill top Islamic State (ISIS) extremists, as he called on Congress to authorize operations that stop short of a full-scale invasion, AFP reports. Tantamount to a declaration of war, Obama asked Congress for authority to take the fight to the…

Terrorist attacks in Jerusalem have faded into the background in recent weeks after an intense spate of high-profile attacks late last year, but in Ma’ale Hazeitim on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives in the east of the city, the daily terror continues unabated. On Wednesday morning a gang of Arab terrorists descended upon the Jewish neighborhood’s…

Eli Yishai, chairperson of Yachad – Ha’am Itanu, marked Gush Katif Day marking ten years since the expulsion of all Jews from Gaza on Wednesday by pledging not to stay in any coalition that even discusses the possibility of expelling Jews from their homes. “The expulsion from Gush Katif is a bleeding wound in the heart…

After an extended legal battle, Civil Administration inspectors on Wednesday morning arrived at the road leading to Givon Hahadasha in Samaria just northwest of Jerusalem, where they demolished an illegal Arab commercial center that was built in breach of the law. The center was put up in a region where building is forbidden and endangers motorists…

A member of Likud’s campaign staff warns that it is far from certain that Binyamin Netanyahu will form the next government, because Labor under Yitzhak Herzog may enlist the support of the united Arab party to form an anti-Netanyahu bloc and then give external support to a left wing minority coalition. The staffer, Erez Tadmor,…

Israel has been inundated by polls since the Knesset disbanded last December, but not to fear – a new “super poll” on Wednesday giving an average of the 38 polls conducted since then clarifies what the varying and dizzying numbers actually portend.  The average, conducted by Walla!, starts with a Knesset Channel poll from December 21 and goes through…

The storm that started settling in on Tuesday has clamped down on Wednesday, with the heavy misty haze and strong winds causing severe limitations of visibility at the Eilat Airport in Israel’s southern port city, leading to the closure of the airport. Video from the airport’s control tower reveals just how poor the visibility is. Given the weather…

The Iran-proxy Lebanese-based terrorist organization Hezbollah planned to assassinate former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert six years ago, according to an Arabic report on Wednesday. The report, revealed by the London-based Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, indicate Hezbollah planned the assassination as a response to the assassination of Hezbollah field commander Imad Mughniyeh in a 2008 car bombing in Beirut. Mughniyeh’s son Jihad…

Jordan Valley Regional Council chairperson David Elhayani told Arutz Sheva that an urgent solution needs to be found for the crocodile farm next to the town of Petzael in the region, before the region finds itself under a crocodile invasion. “The farm was established in the 90s and served as a tourist highlight, thousands of people arrived to see…

The Central Elections Committee is set to meet on Thursday to debate requests to bar the Knesset campaign of pro-Hamas Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, as well as Otzma Yehudit’s Baruch Marzel and Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beytenu. While similar requests against Marzel have been rejected in the past, and Liberman is likewise expected to have the…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has decided that Israeli media may air Binyamin Netnayahu’s upcoming speech before the US Congress, despite election laws that forbid the broadcasting of election “propaganda” by candidates and parties. Channel 2 reported that Weinstein sees the speech as having “clear news value” and that he has determined that it may be…

Senators and Vice Presidents may be boycotting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress next month – but the members of the Defenders of Liberty Motorcycle Club will be out in full force to support Israel’s leader as he warns the US against compromising on an Iranian nuclear deal. The group has hundreds of members…

Canadian terror suspect Awso Peshdary was arrested last week, and is expected to stand trial for a series of security offenses – including luring Ottawa’s youth to join the ranks of Islamic State (ISIS) and financing flights to Iraq for that purpose.  Peshdary may be connected to John McGuire, a student from the University of Ottawa…

Labor party candidate Professor Yossi Yonah is a member of far-left extremist group B’Tselem, it was revealed earlier this week – and Likud MK Danny Danon believes that Yonah’s membership is an indication that Labor is moving leftward.  “Labor is becoming a branch of Meretz,” Danon stated, in an interview with Arutz Sheva Wednesday. “Who would hide under…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein ruled on Wednesday that there is no “critical mass of evidence” that would allow the barring of Baruch Marzel of Otzma Yehudit, number four on the Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party joint list. Radical leftist organizations and political parties submitted a petition to have Marzel banned for vague allegations of “racism,”…

Shas chairperson Aryeh Deri on Wednesday for Gush Katif Day made his first ever visit to the Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem, commemorating the expulsion of all Jews from Gaza ten years ago. Three Shas MKs – Avraham Michael, Ya’akov Margi and Meshulam Nahari – accompanied Deri. At the end of the visit, he told Arutz Sheva “this is…

A decade after former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri was assassinated, with Hezbollah terrorists charged over the murder, hopes that the fallout from his death would free Lebanon from Syria’s influence have been dashed by the war raging across the border. “Ten years, 100 years, 1,000 years, we will stay faithful to you” declare the billboards going up around Beirut as…

Three Muslim students were shot dead on Tuesday night by a 46-year-old man in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At 5:11 p.m. police were called to the Finley Forest Condominiums on Summerwalk Circle, an area housing students and academics, where they arrested Craig Stephen Hicks of Chapel Hill and found the three victims already dead, reports WNCN.…

A Belgian court jailed the leader of an Islamist group that sent jihadist fighters to Syria to a 12-year jail term on Wednesday, and imprisoned several other members in one of the largest cases of its kind in Europe. Fouad Belkacem, 32, the chief of the Sharia4Belgium group, was convicted by a court in the northern port city of Antwerp…

It’s the controversy that just won’t go away – and it’s hard to understand why. Since US President Barack Obama’s controversial comments during a recent interview, in which he downplayed the anti-Semitic nature of the deadly shooting attack at a kosher supermarket in Paris last month, government spokespeople have been falling over themselves to explain what exactly…

Jewish Home MK Rabbi Eli Ben Dahan, Deputy Minister for Religious Services, told Arutz Sheva Wednesday that religious Zionists are too smart to buy Yesh Atid’s current advertising campaign, which tries to convince them that the secularist party is their true home. It is important, said Ben Dahan, to note that the woman Yesh Atid places…

The police Internal Investigations Department has announced it will stand on criminal trial an officer suspected of hitting a child from Yitzhar in Samaria, with an indictment for assault to be submitted in the coming days. The suspected assault occurred around a year-and-a-half ago. The child, identified in a TV report as Y. and who was 11-years-old…

Turkey has banned social media sites to cover up scandals surrounding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and arms deals reports, but it has now gotten a symbolic slap on the wrist by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for violating a singer’s freedom of speech. The Turkish Hurriyet Daily News reported on Tuesday that Turkey was fined 4,250 euros…

White House spokesman John Earnest struggled Tuesday to explain US President Barack Obama’s comments during a recent interview, in which the president said the threat of terrorism was being overstated by the media, and described the Islamist terror attack on a kosher supermarket as “a bunch of folks” being “randomly” shot. Questioned by journalists at…

The White House on Tuesday pushed back against claims that US hostage Kayla Jean Mueller was killed by a coalition airstrike the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria. Revealing details of a February 6 strike on an arms facility carried out by the Jordanian air force, the White House said her cause of death was…

The British government has branded Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “deluded”, following an interview in which the dictator claimed the death toll in Syria had been “exaggerated” and dismissed widespread evidence that his forces were using indiscriminate weapons against civilian population centers. In the interview, conducted in Damascus with the BBC, Assed also claimed his regime was being informed…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas torpedoed the last “peace talks” with Israel by forming a unity partnership with Hamas, and is currently pursuing a unilateral International Criminal Court (ICC) lawsuit against Israel in breach of the 1993 Oslo Accords that formed his PA. But according to Abbas he will work to revive the talks with Israel,…

A British Christian minister with a long record of online anti-Semitism has been handed an ultimatum to stop speaking or writing about the Middle East conflict or lose his job. In a highly unusual move, the Church of England has also banned Reverend Dr Stephen Sizer from using social media for six months, after he posted…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Tuesday, noting that despite the controversy surrounding his speech before the US Congress next month two weeks before elections, he does not intend to back down from accepting the invitation. Netanyahu began by sending “condolences to (US) President (Barack) Obama, the American people and the family of…

Kayla Jean Mueller, who died as a hostage of Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists, took strength during captivity in her faith in God and the love of her family, she wrote in a letter relatives released on Tuesday. “I have been shown in darkness, light + have learned that even in prison, one can be free,” said a handwritten letter…

The Zionist Organization of America has harsh words for some American Jewish organizations, comparing their recent positions with U.S. “establishment” Jewry’s attitude towards those who tried to warn about the Nazi threat in the late 1930’s and early 40’s.   Anti-Defamation League leader Abe Foxman and Union for Reform Judaism president Rick Jacobs have condemned…

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday called on world powers to “seize the opportunity” of a landmark nuclear deal with his country, AFP reported, and insisted Tehran had taken the “necessary steps” for an accord. Rouhani’s remarks appeared to be a response to U.S. President Barack Obama, who had said on Monday, “The issues now…

Australian police have foiled what they said was an “imminent” terror attack in Sydney by arresting two men and seizing a machete, a hunting knife, a video, and an Islamic State (ISIS) flag. New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn said it would be alleged that the attack being planned was “consistent with the…

Channel 2 News is attempting to organize a televised debate among the leaders of the various parties running for the Knesset in the March 17 elections. On Tuesday, the network invited via text message all the leaders of the parties to the debate. The invitation reads, “Just before the citizens of Israel go to the polls…

The United States denied on Tuesday that it was coordinating air strikes with the Syrian regime against Islamic terrorists, renewing its insistence that President Bashar Al-Assad must step down, AFP reported. The comments were made in response to remarks made by Assad in an interview with the BBC, in which he claimed Damascus was being…

After having earlier announced that it will support the barring of radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from the Knesset, the joint Labor-Hatnua list, known as the “Zionist Camp”, has changed its mind. Army Radio reported on Monday that the “Zionist Camp” decided to backtrack on its support for the move after several members of the…

After taking Kobane, Syrian Kurdish forces are moving forward and have set their sights on taking back Tal Abyad from jihadists, AFP reported on Monday, citing a local monitor. Tal Abyad, located about 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of Kobane, is an Arab and Kurd town in the Syrian province of Raqa used by jihadists…

MK Eli Yishai, chairman of the Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party, said on Monday that he would ask to serve as Interior Minister in a future coalition, a move that will likely place him at odds yet again with longtime rival Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, who is eyeing the same post. Yishai made his announcement at a meeting…

The assistant who supplied late Argentine prosecutor Alberto Nisman with the gun used in his mysterious death was fired on Monday, officials said, according to AFP. The justice ministry announced the dismissal of Diego Lagomarsino, a computer expert at the Argentine public prosecutor’s office and the last person known to have seen Nisman alive. Lagomarsino…

Syria will not allow foreign ground troops on its territory to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) group, Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on Monday. Speaking at a news conference in Damascus, Muallem also said Jordan had not responded to a Syrian request to coordinate efforts against ISIS after the group killed a captured Jordanian pilot.…

A group of Democrats in the House of Representatives are circulating a petition asking Republican Speaker John Boehner to postpone the March 3 speech by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to a joint meeting of Congress, Bloomberg reported on Monday. “As members of Congress who support Israel, we share concern that it appears that you are…

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said he could accept a compromise in nuclear talks with Iran, as long as the deal is not “contrary to our nation’s interests”. The comments were made Sunday to Iranian air force personnel and were reported by Reuters. As Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met counterparts in…

Police in Paris on Monday arrested a 38-year-old man who tried to set fire to an Israeli flag that was placed at the entrance to the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket, where Islamist terrorist Amedy Coulibali murdered four Jews last month. According to local police, the man was stopped and detained before he could carry out…

The United States has delivered more than $25 million worth of military aid to the Lebanese Army, Reuters reported Sunday night, to help it “defeat the terrorist and extremist threat from Syria.”  “We are fighting the same enemy, so our support for you has been swift and continuous,”  US ambassador to Beirut, David Hale, stated at an event. …

Prominent Jewish rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center on Monday condemned an Estonian modern art exhibition for making light of the Holocaust – claims the curator denied. The “My Poland: On Recalling and Forgetting” exhibition in eastern Estonia features eight works of contemporary art – ranging from photography to video to installation – that address the aftermath of World War II in Poland, 70 years…

Yesh Atid Chairman and former Finance Minister Yair Lapid presented his plan for the nationalization of the Jewish National Fund – Keren Kayemet LeYisrael (JNF-KKL) Tuesday, while standing in front of the JNF offices in Tel Aviv.  Lapid assured that Yesh Atid would introduce a bill during the 20th Knesset to “nationalize the JNF, put a…

Economics Minister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett reprimanded EU ambassadors to Israel Monday, during a series of closed meetings at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel.  “To isolate Israel and tie its hands economically, hoping we commit suicide, is immoral,” Bennett is heard saying on audio recordings published on Army Radio. “Instead of understanding that we are the…

Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama have assured the Israeli and American public that Netanyahu’s planned address to Congress will not harm the “unbreakable” US-Israel relationship – but a far-left NGO’s new campaign Tuesday seeks to reignite sentiment against Netanyahu.  The campaign, entitled, “I am a Jew, and Bibi does NOT…

Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky welcomed recent efforts by a group of British MPs to bolster the fight against anti-Semitism in the UK, he stated Tuesday, one day after the report proposed a multi-step front to combat hate.  “I welcome the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism’s publication of its new report on anti-Jewish hatred, as well…

Damascus receives “information” about air strikes by the US-led coalition against the Islamic State group in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview published on Tuesday. “Sometimes, they convey a message, a general message,” he said in an interview with the BBC in Damascus. “There is no dialogue. There’s, let’s say, information, but not dialogue.” Damascus has grudgingly accepted…

President Reuven Rivlin hosted the IDF Chief of Staff and the Forum of the General Staff on the occasion of the conclusion of the term in office of Lieutenant General Benjamin (Benny) Gantz Monday, before Gantz is due to step down from his post on Monday, February 16. Before the meeting began the President and Chief…

Oscar winner Helen Mirren presented her new movie about Nazi-looted art in Berlin on Monday, saying Germany and Austria should not rest until all the works are returned, according to AFP. The 69-year-old British actress stars in US-British co-production “Woman in Gold,” premiering at the 65th Berlin film festival. Mirren plays Maria Altmann, who fought the Austrian government…

The United States added German former rapper Denis Cuspert to its list of “terrorists” over his role as a fighter with the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, the State Department said Monday. The 39-year-old, who used to rap in Berlin under the name “Deso Dogg” and now goes by the name Abu Talha al-Almani, is one of…

The “Zionist camp” unity party of Labor and Hatnua retraced its steps regarding support for the barring of openly pro-Hamas Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, after the Arab parties threatened they would not join a coalition formed by Labor. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) had harsh words for the Labor party on Tuesday, writing on Facebook…

Ahead of internationally famous rock star Alan Parsons’ performance in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, anti-Israel musician Roger Waters formerly of Pink Floyd published his call on Parsons to cancel the show as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Waters noted that Parsons responded to his letter and asked for the response not…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) resumed air strikes on Tuesday against the Islamic State (ISIS) group which it had suspended after the jihadists captured a Jordanian pilot in December and burned him alive, the military said. “Aircraft of the F-16 squadron based in Jordan launched raids this morning against positions of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization, hitting their targets and returning safely…

The race between a right-wing and left-wing government for the 20th Knesset has become neck-and-neck, according to the latest elections poll.  Likud and Labor face off with 23 seats each, according to the Panels Politics poll for the Knesset Channel.  Three parties tie for second (or third) place, with Jewish Home, the Arab parties, and even…

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger may be criminally prosecuted over corruption charges, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein stated Tuesday, pending an upcoming hearing on the case.  Metzger has been charged with many offenses, including bribery, fraud and breach of trust, fraud under aggravating circumstances, theft via agent, conspiracy to commit a crime, money laundering and…

EU member states have been readying themselves to enforce sanctions on Israel for Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria, diplomats revealed Tuesday – and will strike hours after the March 17 elections. Israeli officials in recent weeks met with Europe’s most important foreign ministries at the EU headquarters in Brussels, an Israeli official told Walla! News on condition of…

A small Japanese publisher on Tuesday issued 3,000 copies of a book of cartoons by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, including controversial drawings of Mohammed, according to AFP.  “Are You Charlie? Isuramu heito ka fushi ka (Is it satire or hate against Islam)” is an attempt to spark debate in Japan on the nature of free speech, said Akira Kitagawa, the head…

Former Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich derided Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett Tuesday, calling him “populist” and accusing him of fishing for votes in response to Bennett’s statements about crime in the Arab sector.  “It’s an unsuccessful statement,” Aharonovich stated, while meeting with the Hura Regional Council head, according to NRG. “There’s a lot of populism.”…

Controversial Labor-Hatnua candidate Yossi Yonah responded forcefully Monday evening to attacks against him and his candidacy by the Jewish Home party.  Yonah, a long-term professor of political philosophy and philosophy of education at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, is #23 on Labor’s list. He has also been linked to the radical leftist New Israel Fund (NIF) and…

Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, announced on Monday that he will not be attending Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress next month. “The president of the United States heads up our foreign policy. The idea that the president wasn’t even consulted — that is wrong and not a good thing for…

Former Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid) said Monday that he has not ruled out sitting in a coalition with the far left.  “When a coalition forms, there is nothing that would prevent Yesh Atid from sitting with Meretz in that same government,” said Peri, who is running as #5 on Yesh Atid’s list…

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday that he is determined to address Congress next month over Iran’s nuclear program, brushing off US fears his intervention could derail talks with Tehran. “I am determined to address Congress, that is why I decided to go to Washington and present Israel’s position,” Netanyahu told participants at an election event by his Likud party. The…

President Barack Obama on Monday insisted the United States retained an “unbreakable bond” with Israel despite his refusal to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a controversial trip to Washington next month. Obama, who is at loggerheads with Netanyahu over negotiations concerning Iran’s disputed nuclear program, said diplomatic protocol forbade him from meeting the Israeli leader, who is fighting for re-election on March…

Bahrain’s royal ruler told his Jordanian counterpart that he is ready to assist the kingdom in its fight against terror organization Islamic State, the royal palace in Amman said Monday. King Hamad of Bahrain, quoted in a palace statement, told King Abdullah II that he was “proud to provide all the help Jordan needs to combat terrorism and protect Islam from Daesh…

President Reuven Rivlin met in Israel Monday with members of the Cohen, Braham, and Saada families, whose relatives were brutally murdered in the terror attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris last month.  Rivlin addressed the families as well as listened to stories of their experiences and struggles since the attack.  “Together with all the…

Kurdish forces backed up by US-led airstrikes have recaptured territory from Islamic State terrorists near the strategic city of Mosul in northern Iraq, the American military said Monday.  The advance is the latest push by Kurdish forces around Mosul, considered a crucial battleground for an eventual major counteroffensive against the ISIS by Iraqi government troops and the…

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced Monday a set of changes to different Canadian ministries at a swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa, Ontario.  One of those changes is the appointment of Conservative party politician Jason Kenney as the Minister of National Defense.  Kenney, who has also served as the Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and…

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is helping Ukrainian Jewry, its founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein announced Monday. Eckstein said the organization will deliver a total of $650,000 in emergency aid to Jews living in combat zones in eastern Ukraine, especially in the cities of Donetsk, Mariupol and Luhansk. The IFCJ is allocating the money to allow Jews…

US President Barack Obama’s administration has responded harshly to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s accepting an invitation to address the Congress two weeks before elections, saying he did so without first notifying the White House – but was it lying? The fallout of the speech has led Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry to…

“It’s time to put things on the table: the central element that stands behind the wave of mudslinging against me and my wife is Noni Mozes, the publisher of Yedioth Aharonoth and Ynet,” said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on his Twitter account Monday morning, using the nickname by which Arnon Mozes is known. Mozes, he…

The two Jewish women who were involved in relations with Arab men and clashed with each other, leading to the lethal arson attack in Jerusalem’s Pisgat Ze’ev late last month that claimed the life of a Jewish woman who happened to be living in the same building, have divulged more details in the shocking case.…

In the last several days the IDF has completed the destruction of a terror tunnel from Gaza that was meant to enable terrorists to attack Israeli civilians; the major part of the tunnel had been destroyed during Operation Protective Edge and the remaining passageways have just now been smashed. The routes of the tunnel that had not…

Tokyo defended Monday its confiscation of the passport of a Japanese journalist planning to travel to Syria, as the country reels from the beheading of two citizens by Islamist State (ISIS) terrorists. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government took travel documents away from freelance photographer Yuichi Sugimoto, 58, for his own safety, after learning of his plan to cover…

A leftist journalist claimed on Monday that officials in Washington are trying to convince Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to shelve his Congress address scheduled for two weeks ahead of elections, and are offering an alternative instead. Journalist Razi Barkai sai on Army Radio that the offer being made to Netanyahu is to call off the speech, and in…

The Israel Police are currently in a state of emergency as six generals out of the 16 who compose the senior command staff have either resigned or been fired in the last few months – with the three latest cases surfacing in rapid succession within the last month. Four of the officers involved were accused of…

Jordan announced it has carried out dozens of air strikes on the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, as a top US envoy said Iraqi troops would begin a major ground offensive against the jihadists in the weeks ahead. Jordanian air force chief Major General Mansour al-Jobour said Sunday the kingdom had launched 56 air raids since Thursday as part of…

The “Arab spring” continues in Yemen, where the Shi’ite Houthi militia loyal to Iran has completely taken control of the government in the capital city of Sana’a, after forcing the disbanding of the previous government and parliament by besieging the seat of government. The Houthi “transition government” has been established for a two year period, and has…

The Zionist Camp, the name by which the joint Labor-Hatnua list for the Knesset is known, fired back at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night, after he declared he will not form a government that includes leftist parties. In a statement, the Zionist Camp said that Netanyahu’s remarks prove that voting for him means…

Supreme Court Judge Noam Solberg issued a conditional warrant Monday forcing all relevant parties to explain why the temporary ban against Yisrael Beytenu distributing copies of the Charlie Hebdo magazine had yet to be lifted.  Named in the warrant are Judge Salim Joubran, the Chairman of the Central Elections Committee for the 20th Knesset, MK Ahmed Tibi (Balad), and…

The Jewish population in Europe has declined at an alarming rate, according to a Pew Research Center report released Monday. 1.4 million Jews were estimated to still be living in Europe as of 2010 – just 10% of the world’s 14 million Jews.  But that number has decreased significantly since 1939, Pew noted, adding that research…

Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the government to demolish nine homes in Judea-Samaria which were allegedly built on private Palestinian land, AFP reports Monday. According to the ruling handed down late on Sunday, the authorities have until 2017 to carry out the demolitions in Ofra, north of Jerusalem. “Given the difficulty in implementing the demolitions, where families live in most…

A record number of French Jews flocked to “Israel opportunities” fairs throughout France this week, as Israeli officials anticipate an unprecedented wave of French aliyah to only increase in 2015. Some 8,000 people, mostly between the ages of 16 and 35, have visited the “Orient-a-Sion” fairs taking place in Paris, Lyon and Marseilles – well over 1%…

A Qatar-based senior Hamas leader on Monday praised the Gulf state’s “courageous” Foreign Minister, Khalid al-Attiyah, after an apparent spat with Israel’s Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz at a German security conference, AFP reports. In a statement, Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau in Doha, backed Qatar’s foreign minister for his “strong, courageous statements and response to the lies of the…

Last summer, amid the tension and turmoil of Israel’s 50-day war with Gazan terrorists, Jews throughout the world sprung to action in solidarity with their Israeli brothers and sisters.  Prayers, donations, solidarity missions and countless groups of volunteers were all offered to help the embattled residents of southern Israel during Operation Protective Edge, as well…

Hooded men opened fire on police in Marseilles, France on Monday afternoon, reportedly with Kalashnikov AK-47 rifles.  The La Castellane neighborhood, a housing project known for its high levels of drug use and violent crime, is currently on lockdown, according to ABC News, as police asses the situation. Some 7,000 people reside in the area. Conflicting reports…

A petition was filed to the High Court on Monday, to issue an order demanding that the interior minister, prime minister and the government explain why they don’t exercise their authority to remove Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beytenu) from her post due to her involvement in a massive corruption scandal. Kirshenbaum harmed the rule of law, according…

The Im Tirtzu group called on President Reuven Rivlin Monday to cancel his participation in Haaretz’s Israel Democracy Conference sponsored by the New Israel Fund (NIF).  In 2010, Im Tirtrzu was the first to publish a document showing financial links between the NIF and several organizations who contributed over 90% of the Israeli testimonials in the UN’s…

Members of grassroots Zionist movement Im Tirtzu visited Ghazi Hasisi from Daliat al-Karmel who had been attacked after speaking Arabic at a club in Kibbutz Yagur.  Hasisi, a Golani fighter, stepped out of the Ultra Sound club on Yagur last Friday and was attacked by a group of young people who hurled rocks at him because…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Sunday that he will not form a government with the left. In a post on his Facebook page, Netanyahu said that the Jewish Home will be a part of his next coalition and called on the public to ensure that the Likud gets enough seats in order to prevent…

In a series of articles about the Efrat organization, Arutz Sheva presents a number of personal stories and anecdotes relating the group’s life-saving activities. This week’s article centers on Ronit, a teacher who found a colorful flyer on top of a stack of tests in her cubby in the teacher’s lounge at her place of work. “The flyer reached me at…

According to data released Sunday by the Al-Marsad humanitarian organization in Syria, some 210,000 people have been killed in Syria since civil war broke out there in 2011. At least 2 million people have been injured, and 1.5 million have been left disabled in some way because of the war. 10,664 children and 6,783 women…

Channel 2 evening news anchor Yonit Levy’s body language appeared to disclose her contempt for Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett in an abrasive interview Sunday night. Levi appeared to be leaning as far away from Bennett as possible, even as she grilled him over statements about rampant crime and anti-Jewish violence in the Arab sector that…

At a Likud event for immigrants from France Sunday night, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that the Labor Party/Zionist Camp would make negotiating away Jerusalem one of their first priorities, if elected. “I heard Yitzchak ‘Buji’ Herzog say that if he was elected his first meeting will be with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas,” Netanyahu…

Some 200 people crowded into the events tent at the Oz VeGaon Forest Preserve on Friday to hear Avital Sharansky retell her story. Though she spoke of events that occurred 30 years ago, no eye was left dry. She spoke at the site established by Women in Green six months ago when it was learned…

Jim Winters, a Florida neon designer and amateur photographer whose father Charles has been called “the Godfather of the Israel Air Force” for his crucial and heroic contribution to the IAF at its inception, says he is being harassed by producer Nancy Spielberg and by a Florida rabbi. Spielberg – sister to famed director-producer Steven…

Israel will be unsuccessful in keeping Hezbollah off the Golan Heights, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Sunday. In what amounted to a direct admission that Hezbollah terrorists were aiding Syrian army troops against rebels, Muallem said that “the efforts of Israel to create a buffer zone on the Golan will not succeed, thanks to…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett stood behind his statements on surging lawlessness in the Arab sector Sunday evening. On Channel 2‘s evening newscast, Bennett refused to retract his earlier statements before high school students, according to which – “Anyone who tried to hike in the Negev in recent years knows that he cannot leave a…

Two Tel Aviv thieves thought they hit the jackpot when they broke into an apartment and absconded with wads of cash – and they would have hit the jackpot, if this was still 1979. Unfortunately for them, the wad of cash they stole had no shekels – but consisted of liras, the Israeli pound currency…

At least 1,000 British Muslims protested in central London on Sunday against the “insulting depictions”, as they put it, of the Prophet Mohammed by French newspaper Charlie Hebdo. According to the Reuters news agency, the protesters gathered near Prime Minister David Cameron’s office in London’s Whitehall government district carrying placards with slogans such as “Stand…

The Middle East Quartet powers on Sunday called for a “speedy resumption” of Israeli-Palestinian Authority (PA) peace talks, urging both sides to avoid any action that could undermine efforts to settle the conflict, AFP reported. The Quartet is made up of the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia, and has been…

MK Shai Piron (Yesh Atid) said on Sunday that his party would prefer that Yitzhak Herzog head the next government over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The statement comes several days after Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid ignored a plea from MK Tzipi Livni to publicly pledge that he will not recommend Netanyahu to form the…

French police on Sunday detained six people suspected of recruiting potential jihadists, just days after another operation saw five charged on similar grounds, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said, according to AFP. France is slowly recovering from the January 7-9 Islamist attacks in Paris that left 17 people dead but remains jittery after incidents such as…

In honor of the holiday of Tu B’Shvat, which was celebrated last week, a group of Jews currently on a Taglit-Birthright trip to Israel added a special ecologically-oriented tour of Israel. The group comprised of participants from Argentina who are majoring in ecology and environmental studies or who take an active part in green activities.…

A new poll released Sunday evening shows that the Jewish Home is beginning to recover from the saga surrounding soccer star Eli Ohana, who joined the party and stepped down only a few days later following backlash. The poll, conducted by the Midgam project for Channel 10 News, found that the Likud and the “Zionist…

A ground offensive by Iraqi troops against the Islamic State (ISIS) is coming, according to the American coordinator for the international coalition against the group, AFP reports. Top U.S. envoy John Allen said Sunday that Iraqi forces will begin a ground offensive “in the weeks ahead” to take back swathes of the country seized by…

At least 22 people were killed on Sunday evening when fans of the Egyptian Zamalek soccer group clashed with Egyptian police before a Premier League game, the Al-Ahram website reported. Egypt’s prosecution said the bodies of the victims were transferred to a Cairo morgue. State news agency MENA said at least 25 were injured. “They…

Israeli voters want politicians free of corruption, but scandals surrounding Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara Netanyahu are not such a hot topic after all, a new survey finds.  The survey, conducted under the supervision of Professor Kamil Fuchs, shows that a large majority – 82 percent – are unlikely to change their vote despite reports…

Japan has seized the passport of a journalist planning to travel to Syria following the brutal killing of two Japanese hostages by the Islamic State group there, local media said Sunday. It was the first time Tokyo had taken such a measure on the grounds it was needed to protect the passport-holder’s life, the Asahi Shimbun and other news reports…

Congressional legislators were astonished last year to learn that the Palestinian Authority was issuing monthly payouts totaling $3-7 million as salaries and other financial rewards to specific terrorists and their families. The money was channeled, in part, through the Ministry of Prisoners pursuant to the Law of the Prisoner. The law set forth a graduated…

Bat Ayin Underground member Ofer Gamliel was released from prison on Sunday, after the parole board decided to shorten his detention period by 1.5 years.  In 2003, Gamliel and two others from the Bat Ayin Underground laid an apparent explosive device next to a Muslim girls’ school.  Gamliel claimed that he never intended to detonate the…

Labor party activists handed out free fruit in apparent violation of Israeli elections law on Friday – just days after a court injunction prevented the Jewish Home party from doing the same – according to witnesses and the Labor party’s own Facebook page. Blue-clad Labor party activists handed out oranges to customers at the main entrance…

Opposition leader and Labor Chairman Yitzhak Herzog said Sunday that his meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden in Munich was not related to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu or upcoming elections.  Biden and Herzog met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this weekend, precisely a day after an official in Washington said that…

United States President Barack Obama suffered a huge backlash Friday after comparing the terror organization Islamic State to the Christian Crusaders of the Middle Ages.  In his speech before the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, Obama condemned ISIS and their tactics, as well as terrorists who “profess to stand up for Islam, but in fact, betray it.”…

American Jewish pressure on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to cancel his upcoming speech before a joint session of US Congress has begun to build.  A number of Jewish leaders have recently spoken out against the March 3 speech, arguing that the controversy it has sparked on Capitol Hill and in the media detracts from the real…

On Sunday, February 15, Yeshiva University’s Student Medical Ethics Society, Center for the Jewish Future, Abraham Arbesfeld Kollel Yom Rishon and Millie Arbesfeld Midreshet Yom Rishon will partner to present a two-part program, “Taking Control: Ethical and Halachic Implications of BRCA Screening and Elective Egg Freezing.” The event will take place at the Schottenstein Center…

Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef is due to return to Israel Monday after spending the past week in Mexico. The visit was very successful, a spokesperson for the Chief Rabbi said – partly thanks to the efforts of Mexican security officials to protect him while in the country. According to reports on the Kikar Hashabbat…

Thousands of parents nationwide are up in arms over a law that makes it mandatory to send all children from age 32 months to pre-nursery schools that are either state operated or state-approved, starting this year. The law has existed on paper since 1984, but only enforced for ages 5 and up. Following the recommendations filed…

Kulanu party chairman Moshe Kahlon addressed hundreds of students at Tel Aviv University Sunday, where he pushed his economic platform for the 2015 elections.  “[Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu and [Yair] Lapid are familiar with all the problems of the merkaz [central Israel – ed.],” Kahlon said, referring to the housing and cost of living crises. “The problem…

Interest rates are low, which means that people are borrowing more, and according to statistics compiled by the Pa’amonim non-profit organization, one third of Israelis took loans of some sort last year – three quarters of them from the bank they do business with. The figures came from a poll of a cross-section of 500…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett attacked former Science Minister Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid) Sunday over his comments about Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked.  In an interview Sunday morning, Peri addressed the claim that Jewish Home was demanding the internal security portfolio for Shaked.  “The lady is inexperienced. These are things that require more judgment,” Peri…

An international coalition battling against Islamic terrorists in Iraq and Syria is beginning to win back territory and deprive the jihadists of key funds, US top diplomat John Kerry said Sunday as he denounced the group’s “new level of depravity,” according to AFP.  Washington has rallied more than 60 countries in the fight against the Islamic State group, and while Kerry…

Syrian Kurdish forces have recaptured more than a third of the villages around Kobane from the Islamic State terror group since routing the jihadists from the town a fortnight ago, a monitor said Sunday. “The (Kurdish) People’s Protection Units (YPG) have recaptured 128 villages out of some 350 in the past two weeks,” said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami…

Labor Chairman Yitzhak Herzog continues to feel the heat from his Munich meetings Sunday, as more politicians personally attack him.  Herzog attended the international Munich Security Conference this past weekend, where he had an impromptu meeting with United States Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday.  In a radio interview…

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Sunday appeared to rule out any new extension to tough negotiations with world powers over his country’s suspect nuclear program, as he met top US diplomat John Kerry for new talks, AFP reports. “I do not think another extension is in the interest of anyone, as I do not believe this extension was either necessary or…

Britain’s Prince Charles said the numbers of vulnerable young Muslims being radicalized by “crazy stuff” on the Internet was “frightening”, in an interview to be broadcast Sunday and of which excerpts were released Saturday night. The heir to the throne also voiced concern about Christians fleeing the Middle East in droves, saying the situation might…

Egyptian military airstrikes have killed at least 27 fighters in the northern Sinai region in one of the biggest security operations in the region in months, Al-Jazeera reported on Saturday. The operation began on Friday, when Apache helicopters targeted fighters belonging to the Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis group, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State…

A knife-wielding man accused of attacking three soldiers outside a Jewish community center in the south of France was on Saturday charged with attempted murder in connection with a terrorist operation, a judicial source told AFP. Moussa Coulibaly, 30, who was arrested immediately after Tuesday’s broad daylight attack in the French Riviera city of Nice,…

A shooting about 20 miles west of Atlanta has left five people dead, authorities said Saturday, according to USA Today. Seven victims, including children, were found both inside and outside of a house when police were called to the scene around 3:00 p.m. ET, the police said. Investigators are not releasing the relationship of the…

Despite essentially boycotting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress by planning to be abroad when it takes place, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday met with another Israeli official. Biden and Opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog, head of the Labor party, met on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The meeting, which was…

He may currently be chairperson of the party and buoyed by its backing is emphatically insisting that he will be the next prime minister, but just under a year and a half ago, Yitzhak Herzog’s Labor party wanted to “erase” him according to Labor MK Shelly Yechimovich. In November 2013 Herzog deposed Yechimovich for Labor leadership in…

Despite the 2012 Levy Report proving the legality of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria under international law, the European Union (EU) has bitterly opposed that presence and even threatened sanctions – however, a new report reveals that it is in fact the EU that is guilty of “illegal settlement” in the region. Judea and Samaria…

Islamic State (ISIS) has steadily been gaining hold in Gaza since taking part in last summer’s terror war on Israel, but an attack Friday indicates the terror group may have turned its sights on Hamas to vie for leadership of the coastal enclave. The car of a Hamas official was detonated on Friday night, according to Al-Akhbar and…

Coalition warplanes pounded a stronghold of the Islamic State (ISIS) group in Syria Saturday amid uncertainty over the fate of a US hostage the jihadists claim was killed in an earlier raid. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), meanwhile, said it would station a squadron of F-16 warplanes in Jordan to support it in strikes against ISIS which burned alive a captured Jordanian airman. The parents…

Jumping on US Vice President Joe Biden’s announcement the day before that he would be travelling when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addresses Congress two weeks before March 17 elections, leading leftist politicians launched a fusillade of criticism against Netanyahu on Saturday. Leading the charge was Yitzhak Herzog of Labor, whose party has combined with Tzipi Livni’s…

Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists have subjected Yazidi religious minorities in Iraq to mass rape and torture aside from killing hundreds of them at a time; the jihadist group’s newest trend against the group appears to be mass graves after executing groups of Yazidis. After a similar find last Monday, the remains of 23 men from Iraq’s Yazidi minority were…

Turkey’s powerful intelligence chief, one of the most steadfast allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the man who exposed a Mossad network causing major fallout with Israel, has resigned to stand for election as a lawmaker in upcoming elections. The resignation of Hakan Fidan, who has headed the National Intelligence Agency (MIT) since 2010, could herald a…

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Saturday ordered a squadron of F-16 warplanes to be stationed in Jordan to support it in strikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) group, apparently taking back its decision last Wednesday to withdraw from the US-led anti-ISIS coalition. The federation’s official WAM news agency said Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, deputy head of…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday ordered the formation of a committee to oversee cases to lodge with the International Criminal Court, in an extension of his unilateral move that breaches the 1993 Oslo Accords which created the PA. The PA formally joined the ICC last month, aiming to use the international court to engage Israel in…

Greece’s new Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, has assured the Israeli ambassador to Athens that Greek-Israeli relations will not change following his election, Kol Yisrael radio reported on Friday. According to the report, Tsipras met this week with the Ambassador, Irit Ben-Abba, and made clear to her that his government is determined to combat anti-Semitism in…

John Kerry has been named by American academics as the least effective secretary of state in the past 50 years, a new survey finds. The survey, conducted by Foreign Policy Magazine, polled professors at the top 25 foreign policy schools across the country. Henry Kissinger, who served in the role under Presidents Richard Nixon and…

Despite claiming to be “buddies” with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the Vice President of the United States will not be attending Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress. “The Vice President’s office expects that the Vice President will be traveling abroad during the joint session of Congress,” an official said Friday, according to the AFP news agency.…

Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebel movement on Friday announced it is taking over the government and dissolving parliament. In a televised statement, the group said a five-member council would act as the president for an interim period, according to the BBC. The group took control of the capital Sanaa in September, forcing the resignation of President…

The Islamic State (ISIS) group claimed on Friday that a female American hostage had been killed in an air strike in Syria by the U.S.-led coalition, AFP reported. In a statement on jihadist websites, ISIS said the woman, whom it named as Kayla Jean Mueller, was buried under rubble after a raid by a Jordanian…

Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Friday said he had cancelled a plan to attend the Munich security conference in protest at the inclusion of Israeli representatives in a session on the Middle East. “I was going to participate in the conference but we decided not to after they included the Israeli representatives in the…

The joint Labor-Hatnua list has been running neck and neck with Likud in polls, but that may all be for naught as Labor’s support of a petition to bar pro-Hamas MK Hanin Zoabi may see the united Arab list turn against it. The Arab parties have been tying with Jewish Home for third or coming…

The United Arab Emirates, which suspended air strikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group, wants the US-led coalition to arm Sunni tribes in Iraq to fight the jihadists, government media reported Friday. The daily Al-Ittihad said the Emirates’ decision to stop raids in Syria last year was “due to the need to assure adequate protection for all pilotsparticipating…

The daughter of a New Jersey State Police sergeant who posted photos of herself on Twitter dressed up like genocidal Nazi leader Adolf Hitler at a popular Orthodox Jewish hangout with the caption “perfect bombing time” will not be prosecuted, state officials said Thursday.  The Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office told USA Today that the posts, from the teen…

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) is commonly touted in international circles as a “moderate” alternative to its unity partner Hamas, a PA cleric’s sermon broadcast on official PA TV last Friday put any doubts about the organization’s virulent Islamic anti-Semitism to rest. Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) exposed and translated the sermon made on the Muslim day…