Category: News

Sergeant Adir Ovadia was given an honorary citation this week for his fearless work in Operation Protective Edge; he told Arutz Sheva in an exclusive interview that as he worked under fire to save fellow soldiers, he also witnessed what he believes to be a miracle. Ovadia, a soldier doing his mandatory service in the heavy equipment company of the IDF combat Engineering…

Thousands of Gazans demonstrated on Thursday night at the border between Gaza and Egypt, in protest against a decision by an Egyptian court  to define the Al-Qassam Brigades – the “military wing” of Hamas – as a terror organization.  Palestine newspaper, the official mouthpiece of Hamas, says that protesters gathered near the Rafah crossing and waved Hamas flags, shouted slogans…

Labor candidate and veteran journalist Zuhair Bahlul has “no problem” with Balad MK Hanin Zoabi, the Arab MK well-known for openly supporting Hamas, Channel 2 reports Friday.  “I have no objection to Zoabi, no problem with her – I know her, of course, although we’re not in daily contact,” Bahlul, who is number 17 on the Labor list, stated to…

The family of journalist Austin Tice, missing in Syria since mid-2012, said Thursday they believe he is alive as they stepped up a campaign to win his release. They unveiled a campaign that will feature digital #FreeAustinTice banners on hundreds of websites of major media groups later this month, reports AFP. “After almost two and a half years, we…

Activist Baruch Marzel of Otzma Yehudit, who is on the fourth spot in Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu joint list, responded on Thursday night to the petition calling to bar him from the Knesset for “racism.” After an initial petition by an Arab MK with the radical leftist Meretz party to block Marzel and…

Public support for so-called ‘center’ parties has been steadily falling, the latest elections polls reveal Friday.  In one poll, Likud tops the list with 26 seats, as revealed by a survey conducted by Panels Politics for Ma’ariv; Labor is behind with 22 seats, in distant second place.  Jewish Home, again in third place, has 13 seats, followed closely…

Syrian Kurdish fighters have seized dozens of villages from Islamic State (ISIS) group jihadists around the town of Kobane on the Turkish border, expanding their control in the area, a monitor said Friday. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had captured 101 villages around Kobane since seizing it from ISIS on January 26 after four…

A British jihadist believed to have faked his own death while fighting in Syria in order to return home undetected was jailed for 12 years by a London court on Friday. Imran Khawaja, 27, an amateur bodybuilder from London who used to work in an immigrant detention center, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism, attending…

Queen Rania joined thousands of people who turned out after midday prayers in Jordan’s capital Friday to express their solidarity with the pilot murdered by the Islamic State (ISIS) group. Wearing a black suit and a red-and-white checked keffiyeh over her shoulders, she mixed with the crowd as it marched from the central Al-Husseini mosque…

A Saudi cleric with the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) jihadist group has been removed from his post after objecting to the burning alive of a captured Jordanian pilot, a monitoring group said Friday.   The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the cleric, known by the nom-de-guerre Abu Musab al-Jazrawi, raised objections during a Thursday…

Fans of the right-wing satire show Latma finally got their long-awaited  wish on Thursday night, as the show that went off the internet back in August 2013 due to a budget crisis caused by a reneged-upon contract made history by airing on TV, and in doing so breaking the leftist monopoly on Israeli satire. After Israel…

Dozens of Syrian regime strikes on an opposition-held area near Damascus have killed at least 82 people, a monitor said Friday, in the deadliest such onslaught since November. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, said the new toll in the Thursday air strikes on the Eastern Ghouta region included at least 18 children, reports AFP. The regime assault, which also…

The Hungarian Jewish community issued an official apology to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday night, after a community leader compared her visit to the Great Synagogue in Budapest to a visit from a senior leader of the genocidal Nazis.  Andràs Heisler, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary, noted in a Hungarian magazine…

Uruguay has expelled a senior Iranian diplomat over last month’s planting of a dummy bomb near Israel’s embassy in Montevideo, Haaretz reported on Friday. Citing an unidentified “senior official in Jerusalem,” it said the diplomat was expelled two weeks ago, and although Uruguayan officials briefed Israel on the move they made no public announcement, reports AFP. “Investigations carried out by Uruguay’s intelligence services…

Jordan said air strikes against the Islamic State group are only the start of its retaliation for the burning alive of one of its pilots, vowing to “eradicate” the jihadists, according to AFP.  Jordan’s military said “dozens of jet fighters” struck ISIS targets on Thursday, hitting terrorist training camps as well as weapons and ammunition depots. Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh…

The leftist “Zionist camp” joint list of Labor and Hatnua will support the barring of radical Arab nationalist MK Hanin Zoabi from the Knesset, according to a report on Thursday by Channel 2. Apparently the party of Yitzhak Herzog and Tzipi Livni will support the barring of Zoabi – but on condition that a petition be presented to…

IDF forces on Thursday night opened fire on an Arab terrorist who hurled a potentially lethal firebomb at soldiers adjacent to the town of Kokhav Ya’akov in the Binyamin region of Samaria. The terrorist was wounded, with his condition being defined as between lightly and moderately wounded. He was nevertheless able to flee the scene…

The IDF Chief of Staff during the “Disengagement” from Gush Katif and northern Samaria, Dan Halutz, and other senior reserve officers attached to the political left, are featured in a new campaign against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. While Halutz has often spoken against the nationalist camp, the campaign also features figures whose political bent was…

MK Nissim Ze’ev, founder of the haredi Shas party who was recently ousted by chairman Aryeh Deri from the party’s list, visited the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Samaria’s Yitzhar this week in a show of support for the Torah institution that has been occupied by the IDF for nearly a year. Od Yosef Chai was…

In what is becoming an all too common occurrence for many British Jews, a UK news presenter is facing criticism for comments in which he appeared to at least partially justify anti-Semitic attacks. The comment was made by senior Sky News correspondent Eamonn Holmes, during a live show discussing recent findings that anti-Semitism in the UK reached…

The New Israel Fund (NIF) appears to be exceedingly angry at Minister Naftali Bennett for cancelling – along with other politicians – a planned speech at Haaretz newspaper’s Israel Conference for Democracy, when it turned out that the NIF was co-sponsoring the event. “We are not apologizing!,” the NIF wrote to Bennett on its Facebook page,…

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Thursday by telephone with Jordanian King Abdullah II, the premier’s office said, apparently their first contact since Jordan announced its ambassador was returning to Tel Aviv, reports AFP. “Prime Minister Netanyahu extended his condolences to the King and to the Jordanian people” over the murder of a Jordanian air force pilot who was burned to death by Islamic State…

The Likud party on Thursday night firmly rejected reports in Haaretz claiming that during an official visit to Japan last May, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried to advance efforts of American businessman Sheldon Adelson, a close confidante of Netanyahu, to secure rights to a casino in the Asian nation. Adelson owns the free paper Israel Hayom, which…

The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group has learned from the mistakes of past jihadist movements and established a near-impregnable base of support within Iraq and Syria, with spectacular appeal to many of the world’s Sunni Muslims, a new book has warned. The authors of “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror,” published this month in the US, spoke to dozens of…

There will be no organized “boycott” of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech before the US Congress March 3, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday – but she suggested some lawmakers might just be too busy to attend, writes the National Journal. “I don’t think anybody should use the word ‘boycott,’” Pelosi said in her…

An Israeli driver was attacked by about 25 Arab rioters who were lying in wait to attack Jewish cars – just 300 meters from Hebrew University. Koby Goldstein was on his way to pick up his children in the Maale Zeitim neighborhood of Jerusalem the News1 site reported Thursday night, when over two dozen Arabs…

State prosecutors recommended Thursday putting former MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on trial for several charges of bribery, Channel Two reported. The Prosecution’s recommendation comes a month after police also recommended bringing the former MK to trial. Ben-Eliezer is suspected of receiving large sums of money when he was Minister of Infrastructure in 2006. The money was given…

Controversial radio host Natan Zahavi should really watch his language, the High Court said Thursday – but there was no need to make a constitutional case out of a fine he and his employer, a Tel Aviv radio station, received after he cursed MK Yisrael Eichler on a broadcast last year. Upon the recommendation of…

Amnesty International has condemned Jordan for executing Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in “revenge” for the group burning Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh alive on camera.  “The Jordanian authorities are rightly horrified by this utterly reprehensible killing but the response should never be to resort to the death penalty, which itself is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment,”…

The UN Security Council released on Wednesday night a statement condemning the death of a Spanish peacekeeper for UNIFIL who had been killed in last week’s antitank attack by Hezbollah – but did not mention, once, the deaths of two IDF soldiers. “The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the killing of a…

A respected Holocaust expert was named Wednesday to take over as judge in the politically explosive case of a 1994 Jewish center bombing that has shaken Argentina since the lead prosecutor’s mysterious death, AFP reports. The case had become a judicial hot potato amid revelations that late prosecutor Alberto Nisman had drafted an arrest warrant for President Cristina Kirchner before he was…

Fighting continued and intensified in and around Damascus Thursday, as rebels pounded several neighborhoods of the city with rockets and missiles, Arab media reported. At least three residents were killed and dozens injured. Most of the areas that were targeted were already largely abandoned by residents seeking to get away from the fighting in Syria’s…

The chances of Labor-Hatnua forming Israel’s next government in the 20th Knesset are looking less and less likely, as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party continues to gain in polls.  If elections were held today, according to the TNS survey for Walla! News, Likud would be the largest party in the Knesset with 26 seats. It appears the…

Rabbi and Professor Yoel Elitzur was arrested Thursday morning by Israeli police on the Temple Mount, fellow Temple Mount rights activists said.  Elizur, a resident of the Samaria town Ofra, is a veteran activist for Temple Mount rights and has ascended to the holy site many of times in the past.  According to activists, Islamist…

Jordan is likely to join the US-led coalition fighting ISIS, a source told Arab media Thursday. According to the source, King Abdullah, who was visiting the US when a Jordanian pilot was killed two days ago by ISIS terrorists, discussed Jordan’s joining the coalition with US President Barack H. Obama. The report said that Jordan…

A special poll emphasizing the fate of religious and haredi parties in the elections found that three haredi-oriented parties would enter the next Knesset. If elections were held now, said the poll, both Shas and United Torah Judaism would achieve six seats in the Knesset. In addition, Eli Yishai’s Yachad-Ha’am Itanu party would pass the minimum vote requirement,…

Yisrael Beytenu announced Thursday plans to appeal the Central Elections Committee’s injunction against its party distributing copies of Charlie Hebdo – to the Supreme Court.  CEC Chairman, Justice Salim Joubran ruled Wednesday that Yisrael Beytenu was prohibited from distributing special copies of the French satirical magazine, wrapped in a cover attacking MK Ahmed Tibi (Balad).  Arab parties have previously argued that the distribution…

Shas chairman Aryeh Deri is worth NIS 4.8 million ($1.15 million), according to documents he filed disclosing his personal net worth. The documents were presented on Channel Two News, which has been publicizing the asset declarations made by high-profile politicians running in the March 17 elections. While Deri has made “fighting” for poor Israelis a…

Several Democratic senators said Wednesday that they are considering boycotting Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech before Congress, CNN reported.  The Senators wish to protest House of Representatives’ Speaker, Republican John Boehner, for disregarding United States protocol and inviting Netanyahu without the White House’s knowledge or involvement.  “Colleagues of mine are very concerned about it and I’m troubled…

Police acted illegally when they arrested a nine-year-old boy this week, during the evacuation of a residence at a new community near Kiryat Arba, cvivil rights organization Honenu said. According to attorney Uriel Nizri, the arrest was just one of numerous illegal actions by police in recent days. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Nizri said that the police…

The investigator probing the mysterious death of an Argentine prosecutor who was carrying out a politically explosive investigation has summoned a powerful former spy for questioning Thursday, local media reported. Prosecutor Viviana Fein, who is leading the investigation into her late colleague Alberto Nisman’s death last month, has ordered ex-intelligence agent Antonio “Jaime” Stiuso to present himself at her office Thursday morning for questioning in…

Jordan said Thursday its warplanes had launched new strikes against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, after vowing a harsh response to the burning alive of one of its fighter pilots captured in Syria. The announcement came as King Abdullah II personally paid his condolences to the airman’s family, which has urged the government to “destroy” the jihadists, reflecting deep anger…

Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Syria appear to have started a new trend when they released video on Tuesday of themselves burning a Jordanian pilot to death; officials in Cameroon reported on Thursday that Boko Haram Islamist terrorists have shot and burned to death at least 91 civilians. The slaughter occurred during two days of fighting in a town…

Although relations between Jewish Home and the Likud are much better than they were during the 2013 elections, the two parties are still competing for votes.  On Thursday, Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely took that battle to Judea and Samaria – the heartland of support for Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home. Hotovely toured the Elon Moreh area, accompanied by the…

MK Tzipi Livni called on Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid for a pledge not to recommend Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to form the coalition for the 20th Knesset.  Instead, she said Thursday, Lapid should vow to recommend Yitzhak Herzog – fellow Chairman of her party Labor-Hatnua.  “We’re a month before elections – it’s either us or him [Netanyahu],”…

The weather forecast for next week shows signs of volatility.  This weekend will be unusually warm with relatively high temperatures for the season. But it looks like that will change on Sunday.  A substantial cold front is expected to come in, with both rain across Israel and snow in the Hermon, with the snow even making…

For the first time, Israel’s top defense official will be traveling to India. Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon will depart for New Delhi in about two week where he will meet with top defense and political officials. India, with close to a billion people, is currently Israel’s biggest defense customer, and Israel’s military delegation to India…

Al-Qaeda said Thursday that one of its top terrorists, Harith al-Nadhari, died in a United States drone strike in Yemen.  Nadhari and three other terrorists were killed in a January 31 “crusader American drone strike against their car in the Saeed area of Shabwa province in southern Yemen,” Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) said on Twitter. AQAP named the three…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the construction site of Route 531, a suburban freeway in the southern Sharon region, Thursday. At the site, he repeated warnings against the emerging nuclear agreement between Iran and Western powers.  Iran is currently in negotiations with the P5+1 powers – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany – aimed…

A senior Hamas leader called Wednesday for the formation of Palestinian terrorist groups loyal to his Gaza-based Islamist movement in Lebanon and Syria for attacks on Israel. Mahmud Zahar told reporters in the Gaza Strip that Lebanese and Syrian branches of the Al Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, should launch attacks on Israel “to help us liberate Palestine”. He also denied “any interference”…

The United Arab Emirates withdrew from air strike missions against the Islamic State group in Syria after the capture of a Jordanian pilot, who has since been murdered by the jihadists, US officials said Wednesday. The UAE pulled out of the flights soon after the pilot fell into ISIS hands in December, a US official told AFP. “I can confirm…

Haredim opposed to the IDF draft of yeshiva students on Wednesday staged a major protest along Israel’s highways. Some 200 motor vehicles left from Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem and slowly wound their way along Road 1, the main road to Tel Aviv, eventually reaching the Gannot Junction, where they turned onto Road 4 in the…

Russia is making a push at the United Nations for a new resolution to choke off funding from oil sales, the antiquities trade and ransom payments to the Islamic State group, diplomats told AFP Wednesday. The resolution could come before the Security Council this week and follows strong condemnation by the 15-member council of the gruesome murder of a Jordanian pilot by…

Jewish Home chairperson Naftali Bennett has come in for flak from leading religious Zionist rabbis over claims he made on Tuesday in the southern city of Dimona, where he claimed his party had “saved” the religious Zionist vision from “evaporating” in the Knesset. Bennett said he had saved the “Mizrahi” movement “from evaporating politically,” in a reference to the Hapoel Hamizrahi…

The Central Elections Committee has upheld a United Arab List (UAL) petition against the distribution of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Israel, Channel 2 reports Wednesday.  Arab parties have argued that the distribution of the issue, which features cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed on the cover, would spark outrage in the Arab sector; Yisrael Beytenu has been adamant…

Despite what people may think in the wake of the Eli Ohana “incident,” Jewish Home is still a religious party, consults regularly with rabbis, and follows in the path of Religious Zionist historic leaders like Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Hacohen Kook, the acknowledged father of the Religious Zionist (Mizrahi) movement, said Rabbi Tzefania Drori, the Chief…

As yet another top police official on Wednesday was accused of sexual impropriety, MK Shelly Yechimovich (Labor/Zionist Camp) called for police to stop all non-essential police activity for at least 24 hours – while officials figure out what to do about the numerous scandals that have enveloped Israel’s police force. “The leadership of the police…

Fox News broadcast still images of Jordanian pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh being burned alive by Islamic State jihadists before posting full raw footage from the horrific execution video on its website, AFP reports. Senior officials with the US network, the only major US media outlet to use video footage of Kassasbeh’s death, said the decision was taken to highlight the “barbarity” of…

Most of the public trusts Kulanu chairman Moshe Kahlon when it comes to economic issues, according to a survey published Wednesday. According to the poll, conducted by Midgam Institute and published by Channel 2, 29% of Israelis believe Kahlon is best suited to handle Israel’s housing crisis, with fewer Israelis naming Yair Lapid as their candidate and even…

As part of the campaign against IDF enlistment led by followers of extremist hareidi leader Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, residents of the Shlomo neighborhood in the northern coastal city of Hadera on Wednesday morning were shocked to find leaflets inciting against religious soldiers in their mailboxes. The picture dehumanized haredi IDF soldiers, portraying them as non-kosher pigs in uniform…

The Nationalist Crime section of the Central Unit of the Judea and Samaria District Police announced Wednesday it had conducted a raid in the community of Yitzhar and confiscated a large cache of makeshift weapons which they say were meant for attacking security forces and Arabs. Yitzhar denies this. Police said that the cache includes dozens…

The Likud Youth intend to continue to hold protests outside Yedioth Aharonoth House in Tel Aviv, as the newspaper continues to publish front page stories that besmirch the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Netanyahu, regarding bottle deposits she supposedly pocketed. David Shain, Chairman of Likud Youth, told Arutz Sheva that the demonstration held last week outside…

Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud), Donald Trump and Joan Rivers – who recently passed away and was represented by her daughter Melissa – were awarded honorary prizes on Tuesday in New York for being among the 100 people most influencing the lives of Jews worldwide in 2014. The prize was given to Edelstein by the Jewish…

Canadian William Schabas resigned from leading the UNHRC “war crimes” probe of Israel on Monday, after new revelations regarding consulting work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist organization in 2012 joined previous allegations his blatant bias against Israel.  Speaking with Yedioth Aharonot on Tuesday, after a former Goldstone Report judge was named in his stead,…

The IDF Border Patrol has occupied the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in Samaria’s Yitzhar for almost a year, seizing the site last April and extending its hold since – exasperated students and staff at the Torah academy are tired of the situation and stepping up their efforts to return. Rabbi Yosef Plai, a department head in…

Not only has Egypt been able to expel Gazans from the border with Sinai and demolish their homes and mosques to create a counter-terror buffer zone as the world silently watches, but on Tuesday morning Egyptian troops reportedly opened fire on Hamas “military posts” in Gaza near the border with impugnity. Reports of the shootings were…

A television news channel founded this week by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and which aimed at challenging Al-Jazeera lasted all of 18 hours before being pulled by Bahrain. According to the Khaleej Times newspaper, Bahraini authorities suspended the Alarab television channel 18 hours after its launch, following an interview it broadcast with an aide…

Iran has for years declared that it will never give up on its “right to enrich uranium” as part of a deal with the West, and reports Tuesday indicated it may indeed maintain that self-proclaimed right. Two diplomats who spoke with The Associated Press (AP) revealed that the United States and Iran are currently discussing…

(AFP) Dirt-covered skulls and bones scattered among ragged clothing in a ditch in north Iraq are all that remain of some two dozen people believed to have been murdered by the Islamic State terrorist group.   The blood still staining one side of the ditch and the bullet casings scattered on the ground paint a…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with leaders of Israel’s English-speaking community Wednesday, emphasizing his commitment to focusing on issues of specific interest to the Anglo community. The meeting, which was hosted at the Prime Minister’s residence, included a diverse demographic of younger and older immigrants from English-speaking countries; it is part of a wider campaign from…

The Likud responded for the first time to claims by Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon that he single-handedly reduced the cost of cellphone service, cable TV, and other basics of modern life during his term as Communications Minister. In a new video put out by the Likud’s campaign committee Wednesday, Kahlon is seen praising Prime Minister Binyamin…

An IDF officer in her twenties was injured Wednesday afternoon after a land mine detonated in the Nahal Sa’ar area in the Golan Heights.  The officer was treated on-site by a military medical team and was evacuated by helicopter to Rambam Hospital in Haifa. A preliminary investigation shows that the mine had been uncovered as…

The Israeli government has effectively voted to give the New Israel Fund and its co-founder and ex-president, Naomi Chazan, influence over policies – including foreign policy, defense and internal security – and over a virtually unlimited range of appointments to key positions in the public and private sectors. The vote was held in December, but managed to…

MK Issawi Freij (Meretz) and a group of Israeli citizens who say that they support the rights of Israel’s Arab minority have filed a petition against Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman and Otzma Yehudit’s Baruch Marzel on Wednesday, asking for both to be banned from the 2015 elections.  In the letter, penned to Central Election Commission…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday praised Jordan’s King Abdullah for executing two terrorists after the Islamist ISIS terror group executed a Jordanian pilot that it was holding captive. Abdullah, said Liberman, “deserves praise for his quick and decisive action against terror, executing already this morning an ISIS terrorist and an al-Qaeda operative. I understand…

MK Aryeh Deri, leader of Shas, announced Wednesday that he is pulling out of the Haaretz Conference on Democracy scheduled for mid-February, after finding out that the New Israel Fund is among its sponsors. “Regrettably,” he said, “I see that in the last few days, the conference has turned into a divisive discourse that fosters…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Wednesday said it was “deeply troubled” by the anti-Semitic statements made by the pro-Russian separatist leaders of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics” on Monday. In a press conference held by Alexander Zakharchenko of Donetsk and Igor Plotnitsky of Lugansk, Zakharchenko called the Ukrainian government in Kiev “pathetic representatives of the great Jewish people.”…

Sir Martin Gilbert, official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading authority on modern history, the Holocaust, Jewish and Israeli history, has passed away Wednesday in London after a long period of ill-health. Gilbert authored more than eighty books. Born in 1936 in London, Gilbert graduated studied imperial British history as a Research Scholar at…

Winners have been announced in the Jewish Book Council’s 2014 National Jewish Book Awards – one of the prime winners of accolades in the contest was the Koren Ani Tefilla Siddur, a Hebrew and English weekday prayer book. The siddur features a translation by the former chief rabbi of the UK and Yeshiva University (YU) Professor of Jewish…

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on Tuesday voiced concern over reports of mass book-burning in Iraq, saying it would be one of the most “devastating” such actions in history if confirmed. Referring to reports that thousands of books on philosophy, law, science and poetry have been torched in recent weeks, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said it was part…

Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman had drafted arrest warrants for Argentina’s president and foreign minister before he died under suspicious circumstances, it was revealed Tuesday. In a 26-page document – found in the trash at his apartment and revealed by Argentina’s Clarin newspaper – Nisman had written a request for President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her…

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is evidently upset that Otzma Yehudit candidate Baruch Marzel, number four on the joint Yachad – Ha’am Itanu list, refused to shake the hand of Central Elections Committee chair Arab Supreme Court judge Salim Joubran in presenting the party list last Thursday. Marzel at the time explained “I refused to shake Joubran’s hand…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the PA newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida publication of a cartoon of the founder of Islam Mohammed last Sunday. The investigation, illustrating the stark absence of free speech within PA-controlled areas, comes less than a month after Abbas took part in an anti-terror and freedom of speech…

More details have emerged from the French city of Nice, where a knife-wielding man attacked three soldiers patrolling outside a Jewish community center on the French Riviera Tuesday, with sources saying he was expelled from Turkey only last week. The attack took place in broad daylight in Nice as the troops were guarding the building in central Paris,…

Just hours after a video surfaced showing the ISIS terrorist group executing a captive Jordanian pilot by burning him alive, Jordan is preparing to execute five terrorist prisoners in revenge, according to a report. Speaking to Sky News Arabic under condition of anonymity, a Jordanian security official claimed Sajida al-Rishawi – a failed female suicide-bomber whose release ISIS…

William Schabas stepped down from leading the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) “war crimes” probe against Israel on Monday over concerns his documented bias could “harm the findings” of the report, but just one day later a replacement has been found – a judge from the infamous Goldstone Report. UNHRC spokesman Rolando Gomez said earlier on Tuesday…

The Hamas terrorist organization said Tuesday that it had arrested an “Israeli collaborator” resident of Gaza, who it claimed was considered one of the best intelligence gatherers within the terror stronghold by the Israel Security Agency (ISA). The captured Gazan reportedly admitted under Hamas interrogation to providing Israel with information, and detailed what that information was and how…

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday condemned the apparent burning alive of a Jordanian pilot by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists, calling it an “appalling act.” Ban labeled ISIS “a terrorist organization with no regard for human life” and urged world governments to redouble their efforts to “combat the scourge of terrorism and extremism,” his spokesman…

Argentine lawmakers on Tuesday began debating President Cristina Kirchner’s order to disband the intelligence service, mired in scandal after the suspicious death of a prosecutor who was probing the 1994 bombing of a Jewish center, AFP reported. Kirchner has ordered the overhaul of the Intelligence Secretariat, known as the SI, and the creation of a…

The United States “remains concerned” about the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) “one-sided” commission of inquiry into Israel’s actions in Gaza, even after the resignation of its head, William Schabas, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday. In her daily press briefing, Psaki was asked about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s comments following Schabas’s resignation,…

Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick, who survived an assassination attempt by a Palestinian Arab terrorist last October, on Tuesday called on the public to pray for people who were injured in a deadly crash in the Negev. Tuesday’s crash occurred when a bus and a truck pulling a tractor collided, killing eight people on the…

Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday described the Islamic State (ISIS) as a “cowardly” organization, and added that its killing of pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh will only strengthen Jordanians. “We have received with all sorrow, grief and anger, the news of the martyrdom of the brave pilot Maaz al-Kassasbeh, may Allah bless his soul, at the hand…

Difficulty concentrating? There’s an app for that now, thanks to an Israeli start-up. Jerusalem-based Umoove released an app last week, named “uHealth,” which helps smartphone users improve their attention spans and concentration through eye-tracking. The direct relationship between eye movements and brain activity as well as various vision based therapies have been backed by many scientific studies conducted over…

Two judges in Argentina on Monday declined to handle the allegations brought by late prosecutor Alberto Nisman against President Cristina Fernandez, charging her with seeking to derail his investigation of the deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center, Reuters reported. Nisman’s death came hours before he had been due to testify against senior government officials on…

Hundreds of Hamas supporters marched in Gaza on Monday to protest a ruling by an Egyptian court to declare the group’s “military wing” as a terrorist group, AFP reported. Waving the green flag of the movement, which is the de facto power in the coastal enclave, the demonstrators chanted “Hamas is not terrorist” and “Hamas…

Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird on Monday said he is in talks with his Egyptian counterpart and is hopeful Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy will be released from prison soon, the QMI news agency reported. A security official said Fahmy will be freed from Cairo’s Tora prison in days. Fahmy is one of three Al-Jazeera…

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are hard at work trying to gain control of the bottleneck of the Red Sea, thus allowing them to control Israel’s southernmost naval bay, near the port of Eilat, as well as all maritime trade in Europe, which passes through the Suez Canal and the sea Red as it…

Canadian law professor William Schabas, who was appointed to head the UN committee tasked with probing Israel’s alleged “war crimes” during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, announced on Monday evening he was stepping down. According to the Reuters news agency, Schabas cited Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for…

German prosecutors announced on Monday they had opened an investigation into a 93-year-old woman who is suspected of forcing prisoners on an evacuation march in 1945 during which about 1,400 women died, the Guardian reported. Hamburg prosecutors’ spokesman Carsten Rinio confirmed that his office had begun investigating Hilde Michnia last week, after a social worker…

Iran has upped its rhetoric against Israeli and the IDF, Yediot Aharonot reports Tuesday – this time, specifically targeting three top-ranking IDF generals. The Iranian website Masruk posted photos and identifying details – some of them inaccurate – of three IDF officers they blame for the IAF’s airstrike last month on Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah positions in Syria: Home Front…

With winter at its illness-inducing peak, the Emergency Room at the Sheba Medical Center passed 300% occupancy Monday, with 125 patients competing for 39 beds, writes Yisrael Hayom. Patients who were brought to the ER by Magen David Adom ambulances waited in line outside the ER, and this, apparently, was an improvement over the situation…

Kulanu candidate Major General (ret.) Yoav Galant stated Tuesday that he believes in evicting residents of Judea and Samaria from their homes, claiming that constructing Jewish communities in Arab areas contravenes Zionist ideals. “We have to recognize what Zionism knew from the first day of its inception – and that is that the Zionist movement…

Following the resignation of William Schabas from the chairmanship of the committee established by the UN Human Rights Council into the summer’s Gaza war, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says the committee’s report should go unpublished. “After the resignation of the committee head, who was biased against Israel, the report – which was written at the…

Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future (CJF) and Institute for University-School Partnership (YU School Partnership) will host their annual Jewish Job Fair on Thursday, February 26, 2015 in Furst Hall on YU’s Wilf Campus, 500 West 185th Street in New York City. The event is free and open to the public from 7-9 p.m., with priority admission…

A senior Iranian official threatened Israel with retaliation over an airstrike in the Syrian Golan Heights in which an Iranian officer, General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, was killed along with members of the Hezbollah terrorist group. Alaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of the Iranian parliament’s Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television that Iran…

A poignant tweet by murdered journalist Kenji Goto on the virtue of being calm was spreading rapidly on social media Tuesday, days after he was apparently beheaded by Islamist terrorists, AFP reports. “Close your eyes and remain patient. It’s over once you get angry or yell. It is almost like praying. Hating is not the role of humans; judgement…

Three French soldiers who were conducting a patrol outside a Jewish center in the southern city of Nice as part of the country’s recently upgraded counter-terrorism campaign were attacked by a man wielding a knife on Tuesday. AFP reports that two of the soldiers were wounded and their lives are not in danger, while French police union official Sarah…

Israel called Tuesday for the shelving of a UN “war crimes” inquiry into its war last summer against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, after the probe’s head William Schabas quit over accusations of blatant bias and conflict of interest. The UN said Schabas resigned Monday after it came out that he had worked as a consultant for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorist…

Eight women in their fifties were killed and 28 others were wounded on Tuesday afternoon in a massive traffic accident that involved a truck, a bus and a private vehicle adjacent to Lehavim Junction in the Negev in Israel’s south. The bus that was in the crash was filled with female Bedouin Arab passengers from the Negev…

MK Yoni Chetboun, of Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu that recently formed a joint list with Otzma Yehudit, visited the Elisha pre-military academy located adjacent to Halamish in Samaria on Tuesday morning. “We have to stop stuttering and start speaking firmly – Judea and Samaria are just like Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, there is no difference. This is…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) on Tuesday said William Schabas’s resignation from the UN Human Rights Council’s Gaza war probe will not affect the findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry, which is investigating “war crimes” charges against Israel. Those findings are “as prejudiced as the body that established it, whose sole purpose is bashing and…

The United Nations food agency expressed alarm over images circulating on social media showing its food aid being distributed from boxes bearing the logo of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization. The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said it was “extremely concerned” over the images, and that it was trying to verify the authenticity of the photographs and determine where…

Four masked men broke into the home of the bereaved Nini family overnight, after their son Dor Chaim was killed during a Hezbollah antitank missile attack along the Lebanese border last week.  “Mind you, they also broke into his room,” Dor’s father Nehemiah stated to Army radio Tuesday afternoon. “But they can no longer take…

French police on Tuesday arrested eight people suspected of involvement in a network that allegedly sent people to Syria to wage jihad, the interior minister said. Bernard Cazeneuve told AFP reporters the suspects were arrested around Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon. Last week, crack security forces arrested five people in the small town of Lunel in southern France, from where…

United States President Barack Obama has requested $8.8 billion to fund the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) group in his 2016 budget unveiled Monday, reports AFP. A total of $5.3 billion would go to the Pentagon to finance Operation Inherent Resolve, which was launched in August with a series of airstrikes against ISIS terrorists…

An Israeli tourist was killed Monday in an avalanche that occurred at a ski resort near Interlaken in western Switzerland, the Foreign Ministry said Monday night.  The news of the tourist’s death was subsequently delivered to his family.   The Israeli consulate in Switzerland is preparing for the transport of the body back to Israel.  In another…

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira announced Monday night that the expenditure report of the Prime Minister’s Residence will be published in two weeks.  He stressed that any improprieties or criminal misconduct would be included and mentioned.  The report, which will be published on February 17 – exactly one month before elections for the 20th Knesset –…

Controversial British MP David Ward may lose his position as the Liberal Democrat’s whip thanks to his recurring anti-Israel tweets, the party’s most senior Jewish minister said, as reported in the Jewish Chronicle. During Israel’s conflict with Gaza last summer, Ward, the MP from Bradford East, tweeted: “The big question is – if I lived in #Gaza would…

53 officers and soldiers were presented with military awards in recognition of their brave actions during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge during a special ceremony Monday night. Handing out the awards during the ceremony, which took place at the Israel Air Force Base at Hatzerim, were Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and outgoing IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz.  Generals…

Controversial British MP David Ward may lose his position as the Liberal Democrat’s whip thanks to his recurring anti-Israel tweets, the party’s most senior Jewish minister said, as reported in the Jewish Chronicle. During Israel’s conflict with Gaza last summer, Ward, the MP from Bradford East, tweeted: “The big question is – if I lived in #Gaza would…

Likud is gaining in the polls and if elections were held today, Likud would receive the most seats of any party with 25, according to a survey published Monday evening in Haaretz.  Trailing slightly behind in the survey is Labor-Hatnua with 23 mandates, making them the second largest party in the 20th Knesset. The third largest party…

Likud is gaining in the polls and if elections were held today, Likud would receive the most seats of any party with 25, according to a survey published Monday evening in Haaretz.  Trailing slightly behind in the survey is Labor-Hatnua with 23 mandates, making them the second largest party in the 20th Knesset. The third largest party…

Belgian police arrested a man who had a chainsaw and gun in his car near the European Parliament Monday, prompting the evacuation from several buildings, prosecutors said. The 32-year-old Slovakian, dressed in military fatigues, said he wanted to meet European Parliament President Martin Schulz, Belgian media reported. Police later lifted the bomb alert after finding there were no explosives in the…

President Reuven Rivlin and the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, were on hand Monday as the Jewish community of Hevron inaugurated a new visitor center as part of its Jewish Heritage Museum.  The visitor center will feature a film documenting the history of Jews in Hevron from Biblical times to the present day, as well…

President Reuven Rivlin and the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, were on hand Monday as the Jewish community of Hevron inaugurated a new visitor center as part of its Jewish Heritage Museum.  The visitor center will feature a film documenting the history of Jews in Hevron from Biblical times to the present day, as well…

The far-left Meretz party faced a setback recently when a local billboard company in Ramat Gan refused to display its banner, Channel Two News reported Monday.  As part of the second wave of its campaign to distinguish itself as “the real Left,” Meretz wanted to place its latest banner design outside the Ayalon Mall in the industrial area of Tel Aviv suburb Ramat…

Soldiers from the Netzah Yehuda battalion – formerly known as Nahal Haredi – took part in a special winter exercise this week in the Jordan valley. The entire battalion took part in the exercise, which lasted for 72 hours in total. Netzah Yehuda was founded in 1999 to cater for haredi Israelis to allow them to…

Japan’s failure to rescue two hostages beheaded by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists has raised doubts about the ability of the country that renounced war after World War II to handle an international crisis, as the country reels from news of journalist Kenji Goto’s murder. Analysts say the murders mark a “wake-up call” for Japan – a country whose constitution forbids…

A violent clash occurred on Monday morning at the flagship Lithuanian-haredi Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, the largely haredi suburb of Tel Aviv, after the yeshiva’s dean Rabbi Shmuel Markovich was assaulted by a member of an opposing faction who was later arrested. The attack was reported by yeshiva students who witnessed it on Sunday night, and on Monday…

The fallout from the controversial Enlistment Law mandating haredi IDF recruitment continues, as dozens of haredim on Monday morning blocked the Shilat Junction outside of Modi’in in protest of the arrest of four haredi yeshiva students who refused orders to enlist. The haredi activists who reportedly hail from the “Jerusalem faction” headed by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach…

Sephardic haredi party Shas has promised not to use its educational institutions and school network to advance its elections campaign, in a letter written by the party’s legal adviser, Attorney Nadav Asael, to Uri Regev, director of the Hiddush liberal Movement for Religious Freedom and Equality. Regev had previously written to Asael ahead of a petition to…

Australia’s foreign minister said Monday there is a danger of Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists expanding operations to Afghanistan, even though there is little evidence of a presence there now. Julie Bishop, hosting Britain’s Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and Defense Secretary Michael Fallon for annual security talks, said she was made aware of “some evidence of a connection” between ISIS and elements…

Radical leftist organization B’Tselem published a report last week detailing the findings of its investigation of alleged “war crimes” committed by the IDF during Operation Protective Edge, and grassroots Zionist group Im Tirtzu was quick to react with a report about the source of funding for B’tselem’s report.  The B’Tselem report was funded with money that came from Ramallah, from…

Israel will not hit back at Hezbollah following the attack by Iran’s Lebanese proxy militia on an IDF force that killed two soldiers last week – this is the consensus emerging from media reports by Israeli military affairs experts. The reports indicated that the IDF’s high command was in an extremely combative mood following the…

With the entry of Hevron loyalist and activist Baruch Marzel into the Knesset election race, a story of his “correct” relations with his Arab neighbors in Hevron has been making the rounds.  Marzel’s daughter Racheli, 16 years old at the time of the story, had lost her cell phone. As is customary, she dialed the number to see…

After two Japanese hostages were beheaded by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Syria, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hinted at taking part in the US-led fight against ISIS, but Professor Ehud Harari, an expert on Japanese foreign policy, says he may be unable to carry out his promise. After the second hostage – journalist Kenji Goto – was…

Hackers targeted Syrian opposition members with online “honey traps,” posing as female supporters to steal battle plans and the identity of defectors, a security firm said in a report Monday. The report, by US cybersecurity firm FireEye, tracked hacking operations in late 2013 and early 2014 that targeted Syrian opposition fighters, media activists and humanitarian aid workers. FireEye said it…

The far-left Meretz party faced a setback recently when a local billboard company in Ramat Gan refused to display its banner, Channel Two News reported Monday.  As part of the second wave of its campaign to distinguish itself as “the real Left,” Meretz wanted to place its latest banner design outside the Ayalon Mall in the industrial area of Tel Aviv suburb Ramat…

Swedish prosecutors indicted Monday a former Syrian rebel accused of severely beating a pro-regime fighter in 2012 after a video of the attack was posted on Facebook. The 28-year-old is accused of violating international law – including the Geneva Conventions which govern the treatment of prisoners of war – and of aggravated assault, in what is believed to be the first…

Kurdish forces have found the remains of about 25 members of the Yazidi minority killed by the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group in a mass grave in northwest Iraq, officials said Monday. “Peshmerga forces discovered a mass grave yesterday (Sunday) containing the remains of about 25 people – men, children and women – from the…

Indian authorities have released nine people deported from Turkey after allegedly trying to enter an area of Syria controlled by the Islamic State terrorist group, police said Monday. Police in the southern city of Bangalore said the nine Indians were released late Sunday, after they admitted during questioning that they had planned to cross over to territory controlled by ISIS but…

Yesh Atid has managed to twist the Ponevezh Yeshiva violence to its political advantage, with the pro-enlistment comments of Former Education Minister Shai Piron on his Twitter account.  Piron wrote that he would like to enlist the students, who took part in the brawl Monday morning at the renowned Bnei Brak yeshiva, into the Yasam.   Yasam is an Israel Police…

53 officers, soldiers, other military representatives, and family members of soldiers who fell in battle will be attending a special ceremony this evening (Monday) in recognition of their brave actions during last summer’s war against Gazan terrorists. The awards will be handed out by Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon and outgoing IDF Chief of Staff…

The Victory in 2015 (V15) organization filed a complaint with police Monday afternoon against the Likud party and the head of Likud’s publicity campaign.  In a press conference Sunday, Likud party members accused the campaign, headed by several former Obama campaign managers, of using a large sum of foreign money to boost Labor and Meretz in upcoming elections. Haaretz reported…

Syrian government air strikes on an opposition-held town killed at least 15 civilians in the southern province of Daraa on Monday, a monitoring group said.   “The death toll from four regime air strikes on Jassem in Daraa province has risen to 15 civilians, while more than 25 others were wounded,” the Syrian Observatory for…

A senior European commissioner warned Monday about rising levels of  extremism and intolerance across the 28-nation bloc, targeting Jews, Muslims, homosexuals and even women. “There is rising anti-Semitism, there is rising Islamophobia, there is rising homophobia,” Frans Timmermans, deputy to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, told parliamentarians from EU states meeting in Latvia’s capital Riga. “There are people who are actually challenging…

A blast ripped through a bus carrying Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least nine people, a monitor said, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch. AFP cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying at least 20 people were wounded in the explosion near Souq al-Hamadiyeh district, and that six…

The Efrat organization’s activities are enabled through donation received from within Israel and abroad; from people with generous hearts and wise minds, who understand that saving lives is a principle of supreme value. 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 Eran…

Former US Secretary of State James Baker said Sunday that House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address Congress, which was extended without consulting the White House, is a breach of diplomatic protocol. “I can’t remember an instance in which it’s been done,” said Baker, who was secretary of state under President…

IDF forces successfully foiled two stabbing attacks on Sunday, both in the area of the Machepelah Cave (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hevron. Both potential stabbers – Arabs from the area – are in custody Sunday night. In one incident, an Arab from Hevron who arrived at a checkpoint near the Machpelah Cave aroused the…

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira on Sunday put his foot down on ongoing leaks of confidential state documents to the media – using as an example Channel Ten reporter Raviv Drucker, who earlier Sunday published details of a draft report Shapira is preparing on trips Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his family took over several years while…

BLITZER: Would you be willing to give up the Golan Heights to reach a peace treaty with Syria? LIVNI: Syria now, this is now not even the beginning of direct peace talks between Israel and Syria. But, this is indirect talks in order to find out whether this is possible. And it’s important for the…

Eli Yishai says he never had any doubts that his Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party could and would pass the threshold into the Knesset on its own, and insists his decision to run together with the Otzma Yehudit party was made purely to prevent the Right losing “50-60,000 votes.” Yishai made the claim during a visit to Arutz Sheva‘s offices in…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remains popular, according to a new poll released Sunday by the TRI polling firm. In addition, voters said they did not believe that last week’s elimination of a top Hezbollah terrorists and an Iranian general was a campaign gambit by the Prime Minister to focus attention on security issues, versus the economic…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett’s unsuccessful recruitment of soccer legend Eli Ohana to the party’s Knesset list cost the religious Zionist party 0.9 Knesset seats in the weekly average of polls. The Jewish Home went from an average of 15.6 to 14.7  – not fun for the charismatic leader who had seemed, to his supporters,…

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is signaling a return to politics. Iran’s hardline former president, who prided himself on his denial of the Holocaust, on Sunday launched his official website, in a possible return to the political scene, according to AFP. The site, Ahmadinejad.ir, showing the former president with a big smile, was launched at the same time…

A senior Hamas official on Sunday slammed a decision by an Egyptian court to brand Hamas’s “military wing” a terrorist organization. Meanwhile, the group’s spokesman toned down Hamas’s initial response to the move, in which it said that Hamas no longer viewed Egypt as a mediator between the group and Israel. Mousa Abu Marzouk said…

Billionaire Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on Sunday launched a pan-Arab satellite news channel aimed at challenging established networks in the region, and specifically the controversial Al-Jazeera, according to the AFP news agency. From a studio lit in green and white, the Bahrain-based Alarab News Channel took to the air, leading with a story about…

Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin, who is the Labor-Hatnua list’s candidate for Defense Minister if that list heads the next government, on Sunday accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of causing a serious deterioration in Israel’s relationship with the United States. Speaking at campaign rally of “the Zionist Camp”, as the Labor-Hatnua list calls itself,…

The UN Security Council condemned on Sunday the “heinous and cowardly” murder of a Japanese journalist, after Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists claimed his beheading. “This crime is, yet again, a tragic reminder of the increasing dangers journalists and others face every day in Syria,” the 15-member body said in a statement quoted by the AFP…

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday he had no idea why Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s invitation to address Congress “has become such a fuss”. Speaking to Channel 1 News, Giuliani, who is currently visiting Israel, noted that Netanyahu has addressed Congress before and added that it makes sense for him to…

A reporter for Al-Jazeera English was released Sunday from an Egyptian prison and deported, after more than a year behind bars, The Associated Press (AP) reported. His two Egyptian colleagues remain jailed in a case widely condemned as a sham by human-rights groups, the report noted. Australian Peter Greste was whisked away on a flight…

The Central Elections Committee on Sunday issued an order preventing the use of images, photos, and statements that could be taken to imply the endorsement of the IDF of any particular political party or candidate. The decision was handed down in the wake of a request by the IDF official in charge of election matters…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on Sunday evening with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and noted that to this point, there has been no condemnation of Iran for last week’s attacks near the Israel-Lebanon border. The international community “has yet to point an accusatory finger at Iran which was behind the attack on the northern border,…

Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid on Sunday announced his assets – and they are substantial. In line with disclosure requirements ahead of the March 17 elections, Lapid disclosed, Channel Two reported, that he is worth approximately NIS 10 million. Lapid, the former finance minister, owns an apartment in the tony Ramat Aviv neighborhood of Tel…

Jordan vowed Sunday to do all it could to save an airman held by the Islamic State group after the jihadists killed a Japanese journalist they had been holding, AFP reports Sunday.  The kingdom “will do everything it can to save the life and secure the release of its pilot,” Maaz al-Kassasbeh, who was captured by the jihadists after his plane crashed in…

Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, spoke Sunday morning at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya about Israel’s current security situation.  Among other things, he addressed the terror attack on Har Dov last Wednesday, global threats to Israel, and the need to promote political negotiations to achieve peace in the region.  “We are…

A former employee of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s wife Sarah, who sued the Netanyahu family in 2014, is now coming to its defense in the wake of her latest media scandal: “bottlegate.” Victor Saraga, who served as Sarah Netanyahu’s driver for five years, signed a statement Saturday entitled “The Truth Behind the Slanders against the Netanyahu Family,” Channel…

Three children from the same family were arrested Sunday morning after they resisted police during demolitions of their home community of Givat Gal near Hevron, the Honenu civil rights group reports.  The IDF’s Civil Administration forces, along with police, destroyed a path surrounding the community, and clashes with locals erupted at the site.  Three brothers, aged 9, 12,…

The Australian and British foreign ministers Sunday slammed the killing of a Japanese journalist by Islamic State (ISIS) as they vowed to tackle the jihadi terrorist threat at defense talks in Sydney. British Foreign Minister Philip Hammond is in Australia for the annual meeting with his counterpart Julie Bishop, with efforts to counter terrorism and foreign fighters high on the agenda. “I…

Instead of joining the ridicule of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s wife Sarah over “Bottlegate,” MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) has a new target – the Labor-Hatnua leaders for feeding off the rumors to further their campaign.  The Haaretz newspaper reported last week that during her husband’s second term as prime minister from 2009 to 2013, Sarah Netanyahu collected…

An indictment has been filed against a Nazareth resident who was arrested on suspicion of joining Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), it has been cleared for publication Sunday.  The defendant has been named as 20 year-old Mahran Yousef Hahkhmi Khalidi, who was arrested three weeks ago in a joint operation between the Israel Security…

One thousand Israelis flocked to Kiryat Shmona on Saturday night, to comfort the family and participate in the funeral of a 7 year-old boy run over Friday as he walked home from school.  Eyal Krause, a second-grader, had been walking home from school on Yekutial Adam street when the driver of a private vehicle struck him,…

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Jewish Home Chairman and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett says that after ten years of rising food prices, the government in which he was Economics Minister lowered food prices by an average of 5% over the past year. He presented the official numbers from the Central Bureau of Statistics on his Facebook page. “Food prices increased…

Iran plans to get its revenge for the caricatures of Mohammed that appeared in French magazine Charlie Hebdo – by sponsoring a contest that will seek cartoons on the theme of Holocaust denial. The three top winners will get prizes of $12,000, $8000 and $5000 respectively. The contest is open to anyone, and entries will…

Three grave robbers were caught red-handed Friday night as they tried to raid antiquities in the area of Tel Ashkelon, a major archaeological dig south of the Ashkelon National Park in southern Israel. The three were caught in the act of digging up graves at the site – searching for gold, sarcophagi, or other valuable…

One of the lessons the IDF has learned from Operation Protective Edge and the preceding military operations is that the weight that IDF ground soldiers carry on their backs is too heavy, reports Channel 2 News‘s website, Mako. The Technological Division of the IDF’s Ground Arm, together with the security industries, are working on several solutions…

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Sunday that Israel could “not afford” to let the northern front get too active. “We cannot allow the front to heat up too much with terror attacks launched against us,” Gantz said. The instability in Lebanon, he said, was a good example of how the old order in…

At least seven people were killed when a blast ripped through a bus carrying Shiite pilgrims in a central district of the Syrian capital on Sunday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not immediately clear what had caused the blast near the Souq al-Hamadiyeh neighbourhood of Damascus. The…

Dramatic new video footage shows the Free Syrian Army (FSA) battling Assad’s forces in the critically strategic city of Idlib in North-western Syria. Idlib is the connector route between Aleppo and the Assad-dominated port of Latakia on the Mediterranean coastal area. The originally rebel-published video highlights the rebels blowing up a massive Assad regime building…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent a condolence letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Sunday, after ISIS murdered hostage Kenji Goto Saturday to worldwide outrage. Fellow hostage Haruna Yukawa was murdered by the group last week.  “Please accept my heartfelt condolences following the tragic deaths of Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto,” Netanyahu wrote. “These despicable,…

Britons dislike Israel more than they do any other non-European country in the world, with the exception of North Korea, a new study found.  The Chatham House-YouGov survey, which documents British attitudes toward the United Kingdom’s international relations polices, was published last week.  In a section titled “General public attitudes towards other countries” respondents were asked to…

Turkey’s president has big aspirations. He doesn’t want to be a sultan, but he does want to be like Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The comments by Recep Tayyip Erdogan were made on the state-run TRT channel on Thursday, and were quoted by AFP. Erdogan explained that his desire for an expanded presidential role would not…

Former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said on Friday that his biggest mistake as a politician was joining Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition. Speaking to Channel 2 News several days after stepping down as the head of Kadima and announcing he will not run for the 20th Knesset, Mofaz said that there was a great distrust…

The Jewish community in Cornwall, Britain, expressed anger over the weekend after a local village agreed to reinstate a sign saying “Hitlers Walk”, the BBC reported. The sign for a park overlooking the village Mevagissey was taken down by the now-defunct Restormel Council in 2005 after complaints that it was inappropriate. Now, however, Mevagissey Parish…

World leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande condemned on Saturday night the beheading of a Japanese hostage by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. “The United States condemns the heinous murder of Japanese citizen and journalist Kenji Goto by the terrorist group ISIL,” Obama said…

An Egyptian court on Saturday banned the so-called “military wing” of Hamas and listed it as a terrorist organization, Reuters reported. Hamas is an offshoot of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which authorities in Cairo have also declared a terrorist group and have cracked down on since the army ousted one of its leaders, Mohammed Morsi, from…

A visibly upset Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to “never forgive terrorists” after the Islamic State (ISIS) released a video purportedly showing the beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. “I am extremely angry about these heinous and despicable terrorist acts. We will never forgive terrorists,” Abe told reporters in Tokyo on Sunday morning…

Kurdish fighters’ success in recapturing the key Syrian town of Kobane from Islamic State (aka ISIS) jihadists was a “big deal,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday. Kerry, speaking during a trilateral meeting with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts in Boston, noted that ISIS has been “forced to acknowledge its own defeat.” Kurdish…

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections. Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according…

The Islamic State (ISIS) terror group released a video Saturday purportedly showing the beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. In it, Goto is seen kneeling, dressed in an orange outfit, as a masked man standing beside him with a knife blames the Japanese government for his “slaughter.” As in most previous ISIS execution videos, it ends…

A terrorist was killed Saturday evening by a force of IDF paratroopers, after he and a second terrorist were identified throwing firebombs at vehicles on the Gilad road in Samaria, next to Yitzhar. The second terrorist escaped and was caught a short while later. He was slightly wounded. The Head of the Samaria Regional Council,…

Yoav Galant, former Head of IDF Southern Command, had harsh criticism for the government’s policy regarding the Hamas terror tunnels, in a Saturday interview. He said that the tunnels were no secret and that when he was general – from 2005 to 2010 – the IDF destroyed 92 tunnels, including during the 2008-9 Operation Cast…

After having used the Internet profusely for propaganda and recruitment, jihadist organisations have realized that investigators are gleaning crucial information online and are increasingly concealing their web presence, experts say. Apart from recent orders given to fighters to limit their exposure, erase the footprint of their online activity and avoid revealing too many place names…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is getting excellent reviews from commenters following the release of his latest campaign video. The video features a young couple that is about to leave for a night out when the baby-sitter knocks at the door. “You asked for a babysitter? You got a Bibi-sitter,” says Netanyahu. “Look, it’s either me…

Israel’s ambassador to Washington denied responsibility Friday for a protocol incident over an invitation for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to address the US Congress, saying that Republican leaders made the decision.   The White House had expressed frustration last week when House Speaker John Boehner, a main political adversary of President Barack Obama, announced Netanyahu had…

Japan’s deputy foreign minister has said negotiations with the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group threatening to execute a Jordanian pilot and a Japanese journalist have become “deadlocked”, local media reported Saturday. Yasuhide Nakayama, who is leading Tokyo’s emergency response team in Amman, told reporters in the Jordanian capital late Friday that there had been no progress…

The CIA and Israel’s spy agency Mossad were behind an elaborate plot to kill Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in a 2008 car bomb attack in Syria, the Washington Post reported Friday. Citing former intelligence officials, the newspaper reported that US and Israeli spy agencies worked together to target Mughniyeh on February 12, 2008 as he…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday rejected another Israeli media report targeting his wife, Sarah, this one saying that she had pocketed at least $1,000 worth of public money by returning empty bottles to supermarkets, AFP reports. The reports were cause for ridicule in local media and, in a long Facebook post, Netanyahu hit out…

Mitt Romney, who ran for President of the United States in 2012 but lost to President Obama, on Friday officially decided he will not run for president again. Romney, 67, said he had decided it was “best to give other leaders in the party the opportunity to become our next nominee”, the BBC reported. His…

Israel’s publishing of tenders to build 450 new homes in Judea and Samaria has left the United States deeply concerned, the White House said Friday. The White House condemned the construction plans as “illegitimate and counterproductive” to achieving peace, according to the AFP news agency. “We have deep concerns about these highly contentious settlement construction…

Three Palestinian Arabs on Friday evening tried to infiltrate into Israel from Gaza. IDF soldiers who arrived at the scene captured the three. Upon searching the three suspects, the soldiers discovered that they were armed with knives. The three were taken for further questioning. Friday evening’s incident is the second time in 24 hours that Gazans…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s arch rival, the exiled Mohammed Dahlan, has been granted Serbian citizenship, AFP reported on Friday, citing the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN). “Dahlan, his wife and four children, a nephew and five key political supporters were all granted citizenship between February 2013 and June 2014,” BIRN said. The news portal…

Spain and Israel have agreed to carry out a joint investigation into the death of a Spanish UN peacekeeper who was killed in Lebanon during Israeli shelling near the border, Madrid said on Friday, according to AFP. The soldier was killed on Wednesday when the Israeli military shelled border areas in retaliation for a Hezbollah…

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday that his group is not seeking confrontation with Israel, but warned the Jewish state that the conflict could go beyond Lebanon’s borders in any new war, AFP reported. In an address via video link to thousands of supporters who gathered in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah’s…

Likud continues to top Labor Friday, according to the latest in a flurry of polls released by the major Israeli news agencies this week – as the public strays toward supporting the largest parties in the 20th Knesset.  Likud edged out Labor, according to the TNS poll for Walla! News, at 27 and 26 seats, respectively.  Far…

Rabbi Tzvi Tau, head of Yeshivat Har Hamor and the rabbi of MK Yoni Chetboun, felt the need to clarify on Friday that he distances himself from Chetboun’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party headed by Eli Yishai, after it included Baruch Marzel of Otzma Yehudit in its list. Rabbi Tau’s decision evidently comes due to his…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that she will visit the Great Synagogue in Budapest, and discuss with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban about the rising anti-Semitism in Europe, during her visit to Hungary on Monday. Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, announced that during Merkel’s visit to Budapest she is to discuss with Orban general issues regarding the European Union (EU), but also invest…

A number of tiny fringe parties have attempted to enter the 2015 elections race once again this year, despite the struggle for mainstream parties to pass the newly-raised Knesset threshold.  A full 3.25% of the population’s vote is required to elect a party into the 20th Knesset, a change which has prompted the formation of several…

Parties submitted their Knesset lists on Thursday, and a new poll released on Friday by Maariv shows Likud squeaking past the joint list of Labor and Hatnua, while the united Arab parties come in at a strong fourth place and Jewish Home drops. The poll gives Likud 25 mandates as opposed to 24 for Labor and Hatnua…

Two IDF soldiers were killed on Wednesday by a Hezbollah anti-tank missile attack on Har Dov in the Golan Heights, but new revelations indicate the IDF knew such an attack was imminent, and made preparations that apparently went wrong. A day after the attack in which Major Yochai Kalengel hy”d (25) and Staff Sergeant Dor Chaim Nini…

The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist glares at Baghdad residents with bulging eyes and bared teeth, but neither kidnapping nor death are imminent, because this jihadist is made from a shoe. A black, treaded sole with the toe broken off serves as his face and nose, while old shoelaces evoke both black headscarf and long hair. For teeth, zippers dangle…

The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) sponsored a sports tournament this month, according to Palestinian Media Watch – and named it after terrorists.  “The Martyr Raed Al-Karmi and Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Tournament” was held on or around January 18, according to translations of the official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida. Both Al-Karmi and Mughrabi were arch-terrorists…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Thursday refused to confirm or deny that Israel was behind a recent airstrike in the Syrian Golan Heights which killed a senior Hezbollah commander and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general, but said that the elimination of these terrorists was necessary. Ya’alon spoke to Channel 10 News a day after two IDF…

Islamist terrorist Amedy Coulibaly murdered four Jews at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris earlier this month while taking hostages and later being shot by police – just two days after the heinous attack, Muslim youths were outside the store gloating. A group of French Muslims posted photos of themselves in front of the…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will visit Stockholm next month after Sweden became the first major state of the European Union to recognize the PA as “Palestine,” the Swedish government announced Friday. “The visit of president Abbas, by invitation from the prime minister, is confirmed for February 10,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Ulla Jacobson told AFP. “He will also meet the foreign…

Renowned Israeli conductor Israel Yinon collapsed and died as he was conducting a concert in the Swiss city of Lucerne late Thursday, a spokesman said. According to local media, the 59-year-old was in the middle of leading ‘An Alpine Symphony’ by German composer Richard Strauss when he slumped, falling headlong to the ground.  Volunteers immediately rushed to do CPR; the…

A Greek politician who claimed that Jews “don’t pay taxes” has been elected as Defense Minister, Greek media reported Thursday night, amid already-high concerns over rising anti-Semitism in the country that is only expected to worsen following recent elections. Panos Kammenos of the Syriza party made the comments during an interview with Greek Ant-1 TV, according…

With their town liberated but largely destroyed by battles that drove Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists out, thousands of Syrian residents of Kobane are settling into Turkey’s newest refugee camp for an indefinite stay. Opened on Sunday just several kilometers from the Syrian border, the new compound near the town of Suruc is the largest refugee camp yet in Turkey, and has begun…

The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat that is identified with the ruling monarchy is presenting the newly appointed King Salman, who was enthroned after King Abdullah died last week, as being a successor in Abdullah’s line of “gradual reform.” The paper claimed Abdullah’s reforms aimed to implement Islamic Sharia law while supposedly advancing the position of women – despite…

The Islamic State (ISIS) group has shot down a Syrian regime warplane that was bombing opposition-held areas, killing the pilot, a monitoring group said on Friday. Jihadists published photographs of the plane and the pilot’s body on social media sites following the crash on Thursday night in Damascus province that was claimed by ISIS. The jihadist group and rebel factions seeking President…

Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party, with Baruch Marzel from Otzma Yehudit on the fourth spot, presented its Knesset list on Thursday night to the Central Elections Committee, ahead of a run in the elections for the 20th Knesset on March 17. In presenting the list, Marzel refused to shake the hand of the committee’s…

Two terrorists from the Hamas stronghold of Gaza breached into Israeli sovereign territory on Thursday night, where they were arrested. The two were nabbed in the Eshkol Regional Council just outside of Gaza, adjacent to the kibbutzim of Sufa and Holit, after having broken through the security barrier. After being located the two claimed to…

Three Israeli startups raised a total of $75 million according to their announcements on Wednesday, reports Haaretz. ClickTale, whose software enables website owners to track user behavior on their sites, said investors led by the U.S. private equity firm KKR had pledged $35 million in investments. TheMarker said that Addallom, a U.S.-Israeli cyber-security startup, is close to…

MK Zevulun Kalfa resigned in protest on Tuesday after secular former soccer player Eli Ohana was given the eighth spot in the Jewish Home list, sparking anger throughout the party – Ohana has since bowed out, but now Jewish Home head Naftali Bennett, who appointed Ohana, won’t take Kalfa back. In the 18th spot on the…

The special prosecutor whose mysterious death set off a political firestorm in Argentina was laid to rest Thursday, as an investigation tries to unravel his apparently staged suicide, reports AFP. Alberto Nisman, 51, was buried in a Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Buenos Aires near several of the victims who died in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish charity…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu selected social researcher Dr. Anat Berko for the reserved 23rd spot in Likud’s Knesset list Thursday. Berko, a Lieutenant Colonel in the IDF reserves, has made a name for herself in research on the subject of female Palestinian Arab suicide bombers. Her 2012 book, “The Smarter Bomb”, is based on interviews she conducted…

After circuitous negotiations about a technical bloc unity list between Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit, and after Yishai’s MK Yoni Chetboun threatened on Thursday to leave the party, it appears a joint list has been assembled at the last minute. Chetboun threatened to quit over the inclusion of Otzma…

The state-run Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) is to reduce energy supplies to Arab residents of Judea and Samaria due to Palestinian Authority (PA) electric debts worth over $450 million that have been accumulating for many long years, an official said Thursday. “Due to a mounting debt worth nearly 1.8 billion shekels ($459 million), we have decided that as of today, electrical…

The war between Israel and Gaza drove the Palestinian economy of Gaza and Judea and Samaria into its first contraction since 2006, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Thursday, according to the AFP news agency. While the Palestinian Authority-run areas of Judea and Samaria managed a 4.5 percent expansion last year, Gaza’s economic activity declined…

A judge in Florida’s Broward County on Thursday declared that Guma Aguiar, the Jewish philanthropist who disappeared off Fort Lauderdale in June, 2012, is dead, according to NBC Miami. Aguiar, 35, was last seen on a surveillance video taking a fishing boat out into choppy waters. His 31-foot long boat surfaced early the next morning off Las…

Former Minister Benny Begin is returning to the Likud, after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decided on Thursday to place Begin in the #11 spot on the Likud Knesset list, which is reserved for a candidate of his choice. Begin was placed in an unrealistic spot in the Likud primaries before the elections of 2012, when…

At least 26 people were killed on Thursday in a series of terrorist attacks targeting army and police positions in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, the website of the Al-Ahram newspaper reported. The attacks included car bombs and mortar rounds, and civilians were among those killed, according to the report. 36 people were injured in the attacks in…

A gunman was arrested on Thursday in one of the studios of Dutch news broadcaster NOS after disrupting the main evening news and reportedly demanding airtime. According to the BBC, staff were evacuated from the building, located in the Media Park in the central city of Hilversum. The man, smartly dressed and carrying a long…

Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett expressed regret Thursday at the decision of former soccer start Eli Ohana to drop out of the party’s Knesset list, and to eschew politics altogether. Despite the sharp criticism leveled at Bennett for the move – recruiting a secular figure who made his career and fortune by working on Shabbat,…

MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beytenu) filled a petition Thursday morning moving to forbid radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) from running in elections for the 20th Knesset.  Members of the Likud, Jewish Home, and Shas parties also joined the petition.  Zoabi has openly supported Hamas – the Islamist terrorist movement sworn to Israel’s destruction – on numerous occasions,…

A day after two IDF soldiers were killed in a Hezbollah attack on an army patrol along the Lebanese border, life was seemingly back to normal in northern Israel. Although there is a marked rise in the number of soldiers and army vehicles in the area, schools and businesses are open as usual, and the…

In the final hours of his curtailed trip to the United States, President Reuven Rivlin toured around New York City, visiting the 9-11 memorial site and meeting with former US President Bill Clinton and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.  At Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Towers, Rivlin laid a wreath on the newly…

Former soccer player Eli Ohana, chosen earlier in the week by Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett to complete the party’s Knesset list, told Bennett Wednesday night that he would not run after all. In a statement Thursday, Ohana said that he had discussed the matter with Bennett late Wednesday, “and I asked him to take me…

The United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting late Wednesday night to discuss a flareup in violence between Israel and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border.  Along with IDF soldiers Major Yochai Kalengel and Sgt. Dor Nini, who were killed when Hezbollah fired antitank missiles at two IDF vehicles, a Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper was killed in Israel’s retaliatory…

Canada strongly condemned Hezbollah’s deadly attack on an IDF convoy Wednesday, and reiterated its belief in Israel’s right to defend itself from “brutal terrorist organizations.” Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, fresh from his recent trip to Israel, issued the statement Wednesday night.  “Canada condemns the assault by Hezbollah on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that tragically killed…

Israelis concerned that Hezbollah is digging underground tunnels into Israel in order to carry out Hamas-style attacks on Israeli civilians can relax – at least for now, said Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. “We have been examining every single complaint by residents of the north who say they hear construction and drilling sounds underground, and so…

Islamic State terrorists say they will execute a Jordanian pilot “immediately” if Amman does not hand over a female suicidebomber by sunset Thursday, as Japan waits in anguish for news of a journalist the extremists are also holding. In a new audio recording, a voice identifying itself as Japanese freelancer Kenji Goto says his captors will kill Maaz al-Kassasbeh…

The Israeli Defense Forces will resume Thursday their search for Hezbollah terror tunnels leading into moshav Zar’it, on the Lebanese border.  Detection services were shut down for security reasons Wednesday following Hezbollah’s attack on an IDF convoy in the Har Dov area, in which two Israeli soldiers were killed. Seven additional soldiers were injured and are recuperating…

The BBC angered many with a controversial show on Sunday, ahead of Tuesday’s International Holocaust Memorial Day, which asked “is it time to lay the Holocaust to rest?” The shocking question spurred one student to take action, demanding that the British media giant denounce the show. Joshua Eibelman, a junior at Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, told…

Jordan said Thursday that it would not release an Iraqi female jihadist until it receives proof that a Jordanian pilot held by Islamic State (ISIS) is still alive. ISIS has threatened to execute the airman unless Jordan frees Sajida al-Rishawi by sunset Thursday in exchange for Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. “Jordan is willing to exchange Sajida al-Rishawi for the Jordanian pilot. At this point we want…

Fears have been raised over the growing number of Israeli Arabs traveling to Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. But ISIS isn’t the only jihadi group there recruiting Israeli citizens; one Israeli Arab recently decided to join the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s official branch in Syria – and is suspected of returning to Israel with the intention…

Failed suicide bomber Sajida al-Rishawi, thrust into the spotlight by the demand by Islamic State (ISIS) that she be released in a prisoner exchange, is an important symbol for the jihadists, experts told AFP. Closely linked to ISIS’s predecessor organization in Iraq, Rishawi is on death row in Jordan for her role in 2005 suicide bombings in Amman that…

An interview with Jewish Home Candidate Yinon Magal on journalist Reno Tzror’s popular Army Radio morning show “Ma Bo’er” quickly turned sour Thursday.  The interview, intended to discuss former soccer player Eli Ohana’s almost immediate resignation from Jewish Home Thursday morning, soon devolved into a series of shouts and accusations of incitement and libel.  Magal – who is secular and was…

Riccardo Pacifici, the leader of Rome’s Jewish community and the grandson of victims who were murdered in Auschwitz, found himself locked in the Nazi death camp on Tuesday night, and when he tried to escape he was arrested by Polish police and interrogated. Pacifici was at the death camp with a TV crew, including host…

With the deadline for submission of their final lists just hours away on Thursday afternoon, political parties are going through last-minute gyrations to fill out their lists – or to ensure that the representatives already on their lists don’t back out at the last minute. That is a scenario that Eli Yishai’s Yahad Party was…

Iran was behind the attack on an IDF patrol on the Lebanese border Wednesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu argued Thursday. Speaking at a memorial service for late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu said that “Iran is the party that is arming, funding, and organizing the terror groups that operate on our border, in the north and the…

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered an investigation into allegations that Shiite militiamen massacred Sunni residents in the eastern province of Diyala, his spokesman said on Thursday. “The prime minister has ordered an investigation into the matter,” Rafid Jaboori told AFP, without elaborating. Witnesses and Sunni leaders have accused Shiite fighters of executing more than 70 residents on Monday after military…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the IDF’s clashes with Hezbollah on Wednesday night.  Ya’alon began by giving condolences to the Kalangal and Nini families, who each lost sons in the attack. He then addressed the security situation.  “Iran and Hezbollah are trying, and will continue to try, to harm Israel in any way, from the…

Despite a message from Hezbollah Wednesday night that it was not seeking to increase tensions with Israel, security officials in Israel said that Israel would respond to the Hezbollah attack on an IDF patrol earlier “at a time and place that suits the IDF,” the spokesperson said. Israel would not let the attack that killed…

The UN Security Council has called an emergency meeting from 2100 GMT on Wednesday to discuss the flare-up of violence on the Israeli-Lebanon border, diplomats told AFP. France requested the urgent talks in the 15-member council after two Israeli soldiers and a Spanish UN peacekeeper died in the exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah terrorists. The violence raised fears…

Labor-Hatnua is still in the lead with 25 seats, according to the latest elections poll. The Camile-Fuchs organization poll for Channel 10 places Likud in second place with 23 seats – as has been consistent in polls throughout the week.  However, there is a slight gain for Jewish Home, up to 16 seats instead of 15.  The…

The United States stood by Israel Wednesday as it exchanged fire with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon in their most serious clashes in five years. “We support Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense and continue to urge all parties to respect the blue line between Israel and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. She added that Washington condemned Hezbollah’s shelling…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that the parties responsible for the attack on Har Dov earlier in the day that claimed the lives of two IDF soldiers would “pay the full price for their actions.” Netanyahu made the comments Wednesday evening before a meeting of top army and government officials discussing the attack by…

The struggle to attain security along Israel’s northern borders is only beginning, IDF spokesman Major General Moti Almoz stated Wednesday night.  Almoz said that tensions in the north did not begin last week – after several incidents were reported along the border after an IAF airstrike in Syria – and “it will not end tomorrow.”  “This is…

The fight against Islamic State jihadists is taking place online as well on the battlefield, with 18,000 Twitter accounts linked to the group suspended in recent months, according to a US expert. ISIS supporters “are under significant pressure, with the most active and viral users taking the brunt of the suspensions” J. M. Berger, a fellow at the Brookings Institution…

Dozens of residents of the northern border town of Rajar (Ghajar) are stranded, unable to get back to their homes due to the Hezbollah attack on IDF forces earlier Wednesday. Two Israeli soldiers were killed when Hezbollah terrorists fired on IDF vehicles in the Har Dov area. The town of Rajar, which straddles the border…

The Israel Electric Company said Wednesday that it would shut off power to some communities in the Palestinian Authority this week, unless the PA paid off its enormous debt. According to IEC officials, the PA owes it over NIS 1.8 billion ($450 million). The IEC has long tried to collect its money, with the PA adamantly refusing…

U.S. President Barack Obama told CNN he will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in March because his trip to Washington comes too close to Israel’s upcoming elections. “I’m declining to meet with him simply because our general policy is, we don’t meet with any world leader two weeks before their election,” Obama…

The Islamic State group (ISIS) has used Japanese hostage Kenji Goto to relay a new threat to kill a Jordanian pilot, unless Amman hands over an imprisoned female jihadist by sunset Thursday, monitoring group SITE Intelligence said. The new threat came after Jordan offered Wednesday to exchange Sajida al-Rishawi, a would-be suicide bomber, for the…

Spain on Wednesday said Israeli fire had killed a Spanish UN peacekeeper serving in south Lebanon and called on the United Nations to fully investigate the violence. The Security Council condemned the death of the Spanish corporal who died from wounds sustained during an exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah fighters on the…

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan on Wednesday evening once again verbally attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, accusing him of sabotaging Israel’s relationship with the United States. Speaking at an event in memory of former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Dagan warned against Netanyahu and Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett’s policies, saying they were dangerous to Israel.…

UN relief efforts in war-torn Syria are struggling to reach 40 percent of civilians in need and face a major funding shortfall, a senior UN aid official said Wednesday, according to the AFP news agency. As the war heads toward a fifth year, some 4.8 million Syrians or around 40 percent of the total 12.2…

An antitank missile has been fired at an IDF vehicle from the Har Dov area (Shebaa Farms) in an apparent Hezbollah ambush Wednesday morning, and there are reportedly seven casualties, who are receiving treatment. ZAKA emergency services initially said that three people were hurt.  The IDF spokesman said that an antitank missile was fired at an IDF vehicle that was…

Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party held an emergency meeting on Tuesday night to discuss Bennett’s decision to reserve a seat for former soccer player Eli Ohana. While Bennett said at the start of the meeting that the decision was final, that didn’t stop a furious outburst from his close colleagues, possibly signifying serious impact on…

The Labor party has asked Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to launch an investigation against the Jewish Home party for alleged incitement, following a video clip that the party produced targeting Labor candidate Yossi Yona. The clip was produced in a way that imitates Hamas propaganda clips, complete with a green background, a Hamas TV logo and…

Three days before the March 17 elections the Nachala Movement, which supports the Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, is going to have a large rally in Tel Aviv’s iconic Rabin Square, narrowly beating out leftist organizations for the venue. Daniella Weiss, a member of the movement’s management, told Arutz Sheva that all of the Knesset parties will be invited…

Associates of MK Yoni Chetboun, of Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu, have claimed that in the last few days Chetboun and his family have received threats from Otzma Yehudit activists.  According to their report to the Knesset, Otzma Yehudit supporters told Chetboun that if there is no agreement on a joint list between Ha’am Itanu and Otzma…

British media has long been accused of a strong anti-Israel bias, and even generating anti-Semitism. Those claims have surfaced once again when during an interview with UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis for International Holocaust Memorial Day on Tuesday, a TV anchor with Sky News went as far as to suggest that Israel “fuels anti-Semitism.” The anchor, Adam Boulton, began by asking whether the…

The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg has penned an article that tears into Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for his upcoming speech before Congress, which he says is a “desperate-seeming end-run around” US President Barack Obama. The idea for delivering the speech without consulting the White House was “concocted” by Israel’s US Ambassador Ron Dermer, he claims, despite the speech invitation…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) commented on the IDF nighttime strikes on Syrian artillery, which was a response to the two rockets fired by Hezbollah terrorists from territory controlled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad which struck the Golan Heights on Tuesday afternoon. “The air force strike tonight on territory controlled by Assad in Syria against targets of…

Jerusalem-based research group NGO Monitor revealed on Tuesday the fundamental flaws in radical leftist group B’Tselem’s report on Operation Protective Edge, and with the release of the report on Wednesday it turned out that the group indeed claimed that Israel deliberately struck Gaza homes – all while minimizing the context of Hamas’s terrorist infrastructure. The report presents…

Antitank missiles were fired at two IDF vehicles from the Har Dov area (Shebaa Farms) in a Hezbollah ambush Wednesday morning. Six casualties in light to moderate condition have been taken to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat. Additional casualties were evacuated to Rambam Hospital, but so far, no information has been released about their condition. Two soldiers were…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has called for a fierce and swift IDF response to clashes in the north on Wednesday, after Hezbollah fired two antitank missiles at IDF forces from the Har Dov area Wednesday morning, wounding six people.  Liberman, speaking with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in a meeting on Chinese-Israeli foreign relations, adamantly…

On Wednesday, Hezbollah terrorist fired mortar shells at IDF vehicles in the area of Har Dov in the northern Golan – a serious enough incident, but an open one that the IDF can fight. It’s the kind of attack that takes place once in awhile, but residents of northern Israel have learned to take them…

The Arab world has also been rocked by the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris, according to the Middle East Research Media Institute (MEMRI) – as the attacks opened up an unprecedented debate on free speech. US-based Egyptian author Magdi Khalil and Tunisian scholar Shakir Al-Sharafi clashed in a heated TV debate on the subject, aired on Al-Jazeera‘s TV show the…

While Hezbollah continues to provoke, threaten, and attack Israel, many ordinary Lebanese say they have had enough of the terror group using the country’s territory to attack Israel – because it is they, not Hezbollah, who sustain the damage of an Israeli response. While reports in the Lebanese media said that “gunshots of joy” were heard in…

The Haredi Workers’ Group convened for the first time Tuesday night, in a historic meeting where representatives were chosen to officially represent haredi workers’ needs to different political parties before the March 2015 elections.  During the meeting it was made clear by the participants that this is not a political conference but will translate into a…

From every quarter, the global attacks against Israel are escalating. No sooner did the summer’s rocket barrages from the Islamist terror organizations in Gaza come to an end than an unprecedented wave of murderous terrorist violence in Israeli cities commenced. At the same time the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has moved into high…

A last gasp meeting between Yachad – Ha’am Itanu’s rabbinical counsel apparently bore fruit, as Eli Yishai’s party and Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit party reportedly are to sign on an agreement by 6 p.m. on Wednesday – or else decide to run separately once and for all. Ben-Ari wrote on Facebook “with G-d’s help…

Given the escalating security situation in the North, United Hatzalah HQ has raised emergency readiness levels for rescue units in the Carmel, Asher, Galilee and Golan regions within the range of missiles that enable up to 60 seconds’ advance warning before they strike. Volunteers in the rest of the country have been instructed to maintain increased…

Likud’s primaries took place in early January, but just now the fight for the 20th seat – one of the last realistic spots on the party’s Knesset list – has come to an end Wednesday, with Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely squeaking past former minister Avi Dichter by a mere 101 votes. As a result, Hotovely will receive…

There have been two high-profile stabbings in Tel Aviv in recent months committed by Arab residents of Judea and Samaria who illegally crossed the 1949 Armistice line – and yet a Jewish resident of a haredi suburb of the city on Tuesday was arrested bringing Arab illegals into the Tel Aviv area in his car trunk.…

Large numbers of foreign fighters are among the ISIS jihadists killed in the battle for the Syrian town of Kobane, a senior US official said Tuesday, saying the concerted campaign was halting the Islamists’ march. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) announced the “liberation” of Kobane on Monday, depriving the Islamic State group of a…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem on Tuesday, marking International Holocaust Memorial Day and the liberation of Auschwitz. “My responsibility as Prime Minister of Israel is to ensure that the State of Israel will never again be threatened with destruction,” began Netanyahu. “My responsibility is to see to…

As talks to form a joint list reach the zero hour ahead of a Thursday deadline to submit Knesset lists, MK Eli Yishai’s Yachad – Ha’am Itanu party has made an odd offer, retracting its original position regarding spots on a joint list with former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit. According to reports, contacts between the two…

Jewish Home party chairman Naftali Bennett has reacted to a storm of criticism over his decision to place ex-soccer star Eli Ohana in the party’s number 10 slot for election in the 20th Knesset, saying the past day has been the toughest of his political career so far. “I don’t remember a day like this,” Bennett…

New York was all set for one of the worst winter snowstorms in its history, with an emergency declared on Monday, but the brutal blizzard failed to pan out and on Tuesday travel bans were lifted in New York and New Jersey. Several north-eastern states declared an emergency situation after up to three feet of…

Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Arutz Sheva on Tuesday in time for International Holocaust Memorial Day that the battle over the Holocaust lives on – and is being waged on the field of public memory. According to Zuroff, aside from the widespread scourge of Holocaust denial, a new phenomenon has reared…

The BBC has been accused of “race-baiting” for inviting radical anti-Israel MP George Galloway to appear at a high-profile show hosted in Finchley and Golders Green, which is home to one of the largest Jewish communities in the UK. “Question Time” sees commentators and political figures take part in a panel discussion on hot political topics,…

Iran has threatened in a message to the United States that it will attack Israel, after an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general was killed in a reportedly Israeli airstrike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights last Sunday. The general, Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, died alongside six terrorists – including a senior terrorist leader Jihad Mughniyeh – of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization, as…

Hatnua chairwoman Tzipi Livni on Tuesday blamed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for the announcement by ten Senate Democrats that they would postpone a vote on a new Iran sanctions bill until March. Livni, who gave a speech at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, attacked Netanyahu and said that it was his decision to accept an…

A top appointee in President Barack Obama’s 2012 election campaign is now working to defeat Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in the upcoming March election in Israel, according to the Daily Caller website. According to the report, Jeremy Bird, who was the national field director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, is now working for an Israel-based group,…

A fatal car crash which occurred Tuesday on Highway 55 near the Shomron community of Ginot Shomron, forced the closure of the road for several hours. Instead, drivers were instructed to take a detour and drive through the Arab village Azzun – where they were greeted by rock throwers. Despite the military presence along the…