Category: News

Jordan has reportedly asked Turkey for help in rescuing a Jordanian pilot captured last week by Islamist terrorists during a mission in Syria, the Hurriyet daily newspaper reported Sunday night. According to the report, the Jordanian government has appealed to Turkey’s Embassy in Amman to help save Moaz Safi Yousef al-Kassasbeh, the 26-year-old pilot who…

Jerusalem councilman Moshe Lion, a close associate of Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, was detained and questioned for several hours on Sunday in connection with the corruption scandal involving members of the Yisrael Beytenu party, it has been cleared for publication. Lion, who unsuccessfully tried to run for mayor of Jerusalem, was released following the questioning…

Channel 10 went dark on Sunday night at about 10:30 p.m. Israel time, at the instruction of the channel’s employees union. Instead of regular programming, the channel displayed a picture of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, alongside the words, “In three days, Channel 10 will close. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who serves as Minister of Communications,…

Tourism Minister Uzi Landau (Yisrael Beytenu) announced his resignation from politics Sunday evening. Speaking at a Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting, Landau revealed he did not intend to run in the coming elections next March. “I spoke with the foreign minister (Avigdor Liberman) and informed him that I would not be presenting my candidacy for the…

Whatever polls appear in the coming days, there is one statistic that election-watchers need to keep in mind: 61% of Jewish Israeli Hebrew-speaking voters have not made up their mind for whom to vote in next March’s elections. That number comes from a poll taken over the weekend by TRI Strategy, a well-known polling firm…

A senior officer in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) has been killed in Iraq, according to Iranian officials. AFP cited a statement from the elite Iranian military force declaring simply that “Brigadier General Hamid Taghavi was martyred during a mission to advise the army and Iraqi volunteers… in the city of Samarra,” north of Baghdad. Taghavi is…

The government on Sunday authorized an expenditure of NIS 17 million ($4 million) for the reclamation of lands in the Arava that were damaged in the recent major oil spill. The government intends to collect most of that money from the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company, the firm that was responsible for the pipeline that exploded…

With elections on the horizon, members of the Knesset Interior and Environmental Protection Committee decided that the time was right for some new legislative regulations – specifically, on the size and strength of bonfires. According to the new regulations, bonfires cannot exceed a diameter of four meters (12 feet), and cannot be higher than three…

The comments heard there may not always be so “kosher,” but the food they eat most definitely is, Jerusalem’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar said of the Knesset Sunday. “The kitchens here are among the most kosher I have ever visited anywhere in Israel,” Rabbi Amar said after a tour of the kitchen. Rabbi Amar…

In 79 days, Israelis will go to the polls and vote for the makeup of Israel’s 20th Knesset – but before that happens, the parties need to decide on their lists of candidates.  So while election fever hasn’t quite set in just yet, primaries fever has. That is, at least for the three parties that…

The Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence, spent Christmas in Israel with his family, as part of a nine-day vacation, which includes some work meetings with government and business leaders.  While in Israel, as a visiting dignitary, Pence and his family were invited to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ annual Christmas dinner in Ramallah.  According to…

IDF soldiers and National Service volunteers should be given the right to vote in the Jewish Home party primaries on January 14, 2015, according to MK Moti Yogev. Yogev turned to the party’s CEO, Nir Orbach, and the Chairman of the Election Committee for Jewish Home, Shay Natan, as well as the head of the…

Hamas on Sunday prevented dozens of children orphaned during its 50-day war with Israel from entering Israeli territory in a pre-arranged trip, organizers and officials said – despite Israel making the effort to allow the children to visit.  The week-long visit was planned for 37 children whose parents were killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip in July and August…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu attended a meeting on security in Jerusalem on Sunday with top officials, including the Public Security Minister and Jerusalem Chief of Police. At the meeting, it was decided that 400 more police officers would be deployed in Jerusalem. According to police data, the number of security incidents in the city has…

Treasury and Histadrut labor union officials on Sunday agreed on a framework to raise the minimum wage in Israel to NIS 5,000 per month for full-time workers. The increase will be built into future Histadrut labor contracts, and later advanced for legislation in the Knesset. Officials will discuss a schedule to implement the increases with…

An explosive recording has been released showing former Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef slamming current party chairman Aryeh Deri for corruption, as tensions continue to escalate between Deri and is arch-rival Eli Yishai.  Aired on Channel Two, the never-before-seen recordings are from a meeting held in 2008 between Rabbi Yosef and several members of…

Some 10,000 full-time married yeshiva students received on Sunday their last-ever government stipend, ending a tradition that has been extant for 33 years. Since 1981, students who learn in yeshiva full-time have received around $1,000 a month, depending on family size, to help support their families. The legislation for the stipends was prepared by former…

Kids have a right to speak out, even if that speaking out is done against serving in the IDF, according to Itai Benowitz, principal of the Israel Arts and Sciences Academy (IASA) in Jerusalem, after a group of 53 graduates of his high school released a letter Sunday calling for a boycott on serving in…

Residents of the Samaria community of El-Matan, where Arab terrorists last week firebombed a car, badly injuring an 11 year old girl, are demanding that the government reopen a road that had been closed to them. The road, they say, is much more secure than the one they are currently forced to use. In a…

Yesh Atid chairman, MK Yair Lapid, on Saturday vowed that his party would never split Jerusalem, even at the expense of an agreement with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Speaking at an event in Holon, Lapid also launched a verbal tirade against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his lack of diplomatic action following Operation Protective Edge…

Egypt announced it has banned a Hollywood film based on the Biblical book of Exodus because of what censors described as “historical inaccuracies”, reports the BBC. The head of the Egyptian censorship board said these “inaccuracies” included the film’s depiction of Jews as having built the Pyramids, and that an earthquake, not a miracle by…

Dr. Anat Roth used to be an activist with the leftist Peace Now organization and an advisor to former Labor leaders Ehud Barak and Amram Mitzna, but now has had a “change of heart”. Roth announced on Saturday night that she would be running for the Knesset with the Jewish Home party. She will be…

Officials in Shas were confused and embarrassed on Saturday night, following a rant by Rabbi Shalom Cohen, the head of the party’s Council of Torah Sages, in which he insulted former Shas leader Eli Yishai, who recently left Shas to form his own party. In remarks made over the weekend, Rabbi Cohen seemed to refer…

Four days before the Palestinian and Iranian soccer teams were to meet for a friendly match, the Palestinian Football Association cancelled the match due to “technical” problems, Al-Monitor reports. The cancellation sparked outrage and rumors that it had been instigated by Arab countries in the Persian Gulf. In a letter addressed to the Iranian team,…

Amir Ohana, the head of Likud’s Gay Forum, has announced his candidacy in Likud’s upcoming primaries, saying he wants to show that members of Israel’s gay community, who traditionally gravitate to the Left, should not have to sacrifice right-wing beliefs.  In an interview with Channel 10 News, Ohana, who is running for a position on Likud’s…

Ben Ammi Ben Israel, the spiritual leader of the African Hebrew Israelites in Dimona, died Saturday, leaving his followers in shock.  “It was an honor and a blessing to have known him,” community spokesperson Yafah Baht Gavriel told Haaretz Sunday morning. “We will continue to live our lives according to his teachings.” Baht Gavriel could not…

Judge Ido Druyan of the Tel Aviv Magistrate Court, convicted Yitzhak Rochberger Sunday morning of falsifying documents, corporate fraud and breach of trust. Rochberger, the former mayor of affluent Tel Aviv suburb Ramat Hasharon, was indicted in May 2013. He was charged with falsifying corporate documents, fraud, and breach of trust in a corporation for his actions during…

Indonesia air traffic control has lost track of a flight to Singapore, Indonesia’s air transportation director general, Djoko Murjatmodjo, told AFP Sunday – with 162 people on board.  AirAsia flight QZ8501 from the Indonesian city of Surabaya to Singapore, an Airbus A320-200l, lost contact with air traffic controllers on Sunday morning, and air and sea rescue searches have begun,…

Several Jewish Home MKs have welcomed the candidacy of senior Walla! News editor and Sayeret Matkal veteran Yinon Magal for the 2015 elections Sunday, praising his values and outspoken resolve to stand up for the State of Israel.  “I have known Yinon for over 30 years, as a soldier and an officer in Sayeret Matkal, and…

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has published a report documenting photographs of Iranian Revolutionary Guard soldiers “killing time” at the Lebanon-Israel border.  Preliminary information suggests the pictures were taken in October, but were released only recently, along with verbal threats against Israel. Several photographs published contain the caption: “We have arrived to the…

Walla! News editor Yinon Magal has joined Jewish Home, he announced Sunday morning, and he is not apologizing for it.  Magal is running the Jewish Home party primaries, he stated Sunday, in hopes of serving in the 20th Knesset on party Chairman Naftali Bennett’s list. The two made the announcement in a viral video spoofing the…

President Christina Fernández met Yair Tawil and several members of his family at her office on Tuesday to hold the unusual ceremony, dating back over 100 years. According to Argentinian folklore, the seventh straight son born to a family will transform into the feared “el lobison.”  The werewolf shows its true nature on the first…

A firebomb was thrown Saturday night at an apartment balcony in southeast Jerusalem in what police are calling a terrorist attack.  Fire broke out on the balcony at the building located on Meir Nakar Street in the Armon HaNatziv (East Talpiot) neighborhood. It was extinguished quickly. No injuries were reported but the balcony itself was damaged.  Fire…

Hamas on Saturday continued to condemn the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) draft resolution to the United Nations (UN) Security Council, as the Security Council prepares to vote on the resolution, likely on Monday. Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said, according to the Ma’an news agency, that the draft resolution in favor of Palestinian statehood was “disastrous,” and…

The condition of 11-year-old Ayala Shapira, who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack last Thursday night in Ma’ale Shomron located in Samaria, has stabilized after undergoing a successful initial surgery on Friday. Dr. Itay Pesah, a senior doctor at the children’s ward of the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer where Shapira is receiving treatment,…

As election fever continues the polls keep churning out, with the latest conducted for Reshet Bet radio released Saturday showing Likud and Labor still neck and neck, and Yisrael Beytenu hampered by a recent corruption scandal surrounding senior ministers of the party. The poll, conducted by the Rafi Smith Institute, indicates that Likud and Labor would tie…

Moscow State University has launched an ambitious project to collect and cryogenically freeze the DNA of “every creature that has ever lived,” in an effort it compares to the Biblical Noah’s Ark aiming to make a backup of life on earth – in case it ever becomes needed. The university bagged a 1 billion ruble…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with US Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on Saturday evening, and as the talks began spoke about the threats facing the Jewish state. “We are now faced with two great challenges. The first comes from the Palestinians. The chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has compared Israel to ISIS (Islamic State),” reminded Netanyahu.…

In response to a letter from the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP), which comprises over 350 prominent Israeli rabbis, Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) affirmed that peace negotiations with no backing from the other side is a dangerous thing. “There is no doubt in my mind that empty words like ‘negotiations’ or ‘peace agreement’ that…

In a letter signed by 250 academics, politicians and other public figures from the radical left, a call went out for a wide Jewish-Arab unity on the left to conquer the Knesset and change Israel. In the letter, the Jewish leftist radical leaders called on their Arab compatriots to join them, writing “the breakup on…

ISIS has lost more ground to Kurdish fighters in the embattled city of Kobane in northern Syria, according to local reports. “Kurdish forces now control more than 60 percent of the city,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “ISIS has even left areas that the Kurds did not…

The Iranian military, as part of its massive ongoing six-day military drill that began last Thursday, held tests on Saturday unveiling a new weapon in their arsenal: “suicide” drones. During the drill Iran’s air force demonstrated the domestically produced exploding drone, meant to strike targets on land, air and sea. Commander of Iran’s land forces…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday slammed European countries for criticizing deteriorating press freedom in Turkey, Reuters reported, saying they should instead try to find a solution for what the increasing Islamophobia in Europe. Turkish police earlier this month raided media outlets close to U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan accuses of forming…

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said on Friday that the United Nations (UN) Security Council would vote on the PA’s resolution calling for Israel to “end the occupation” later Friday or on Monday at the latest. According to a report on Kol Yisrael government radio, Erekat said that some revisions have been…

Sony’s controversial movie “The Interview” banked $1 million at the box office on Thursday, and it could make a couple million more over the long holiday weekend, CNN reported Friday. “The audience reaction was fantastic — the limited release, in under 10% of the amount of theaters originally planned, featured numerous sellouts and a first-day…

MK and former Deputy Minister Michael (Mickey) Ratzon will be running in the Likud primaries for the 20th Knesset Likud list, he told Arutz Sheva on Friday.  Ratzon was dismissed from the government in 2006 after he objected to the 2005 Disengagement Plan, and was booted from the government by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Ratzon ran again…

In a controversial yet subtle move, United Synagogue Youth (USY) passed a new resolution that drops the binding “expectation” that leaders will not date non-Jews, and replaces it with a “recogni[tion of] the importance of dating within the Jewish community.” USY is the youth movement of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. The new amendment was adopted this week…

Reports in a Kuwaiti paper Friday morning indicate that Qatar has temporarily cut its funding for the Gaza-based Muslim Brotherhood-offshoot Hamas terrorist organization, in an attempt to cull favor with Egypt and lead to rapprochement between the two rival nations. The report in Al Jarida cited a senior Egyptian source saying that Qatar has informed Hamas leaders…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) visited the scene of the firebombing attack in Ma’ale Shomron in Samaria on Friday morning, where he met with top-ranking IDF commanders to review the security situation in the sector.  Ya’alon praised the “rapid” deployment of “military operations and security forces on the ground following the attack.” “We will put…

Likud and Labor are still neck-in-neck for the top spot, according to a Panels Politics poll for Maariv Weekend Edition – but the chances of building a coalition are greatly impacted by whether or not the Arab parties run on a joint list.  In the event Hadash, Balad, and the United Arab List (UAL) run together, according to the…

Ha’am Itanu chairperson MK Eli Yishai held a conference for his new party on Thursday night at the Kise Rahamim Yeshiva in Bnei Brak headed by Rabbi Meir Mazuz, Yishai’s rabbinic counsel. Hundreds of students of the yeshiva took part in the conference, in which Yishai said “a message comes out from here this evening.…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday morning made a phone call to express his support for the family of 11-year-old Ayala Shapira, who was seriously wounded in a firebomb attack near Ma’ale Shomron in Samaria Thursday night that also lightly wounded her father Avner. Netanyahu called Deputy Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan to be updated about…

The Arab sniper responsible for Wednesday’s skirmish along the Gaza border circled the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion for hours, Walla! News reports Friday – and only struck after one of the soldiers took off his coat, letting down his defenses for a few critical seconds.  Southern Division soldiers serving near Gaza stated Thursday that the work on the…

Security forces believe they have apprehended the terrorists responsible for Thursday night’s firebomb attack, which left a young girl in critical condition. Speaking to 11-year-old Ayala Shapira’s mother on Friday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon revealed that it appeared the attacker had been apprehended. His identity has not yet been released. IDF forces quickly deployed in…

Chairman of Ha’am Itanu Eli Yishai believes that his party’s chances could be enhanced if he published recordings of the Shas party’s spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef z”tl.  “Maran [Rabbi Yosef – ed.] never said he supported the Oslo Agreements,” Yishai said on Radio Israel, referring to the 1993 accords that Shas under Aryeh Deri enabled…

The Iranian army on Thursday began a massive military drill sprawling from the farthest eastern expanses of the Islamic regime all the way to its southern maritime borders opposite the principality of Oman, in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Aden. A full 13,000 Iranian soldiers are taking part in the six-day drill,…

Kulanu party chairman Moshe Kahlon commented Friday on the corruption case launched against Yisrael Beytenu ministers, promising to fight corruption as a phenomenon and rid Israel of monopolies. Kahlon, who previously was a senior Likud minister, also said that he was following in the steps of Likud leader and former Prime Minister Menachem Begin.  “Corruption…

A “code red” siren sounded in the Hof Ashkelon area Friday afternoon, in Yad Mordechai and Netiv Ha’Esrai. The IDF has now stated that the alarm is a false alarm, and that there were no hits, injuries, or damage.  The alarm follows an attack last Friday, whereby a Qassam rocket was launched from Gaza into…

As the deluge of polls continue, the latest findings show Likud has a slight edge over Labor, according to a TNA poll for Walla! News Friday – but the right-wing bloc overall is weakening.  According to the poll, Likud would be a front-runner in the Knesset with 24 seats, followed by Labor with a close second at…

The Yesha Council of Judea and Samaria on Friday morning strongly condemned the High Court ruling to destroy the community of Amona in the Binyamin region of Samaria within two years. “The High Court didn’t do justice, morals or law,” said the Council. “Unfortunately again the hostility and bias of the High Court was proven, when it decided…

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Friday that his group remains committed to the agreements reached in Cairo at the end of Operation Protective Edge last summer and will continue to meet them, as long as Israel continues to do so as well. Speaking in an interview with Hamas’s television channel, Haniyeh added that over…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beytenu party, on Friday addressed the massive corruption scandal exposed this week and to which members of his party have been linked. 30 senior figures, including Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirschenbaum and former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov, both of Yisrael Beytenu, have been brought in for investigation…

As she promised to do, MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) on Thursday filed a complaint with the police against MK Danny Danon (Likud) over his animated campaign video. Zoabi claimed that the video, in which she and members of her party are portrayed as villains who are kicked out of a bar by Danon, who is…

A roadside bomb struck an Egyptian army vehicle late Thursday, killing an officer and a soldier in the insurgent flashpoint of the Sinai Peninsula, security officials said, according to the AFP news agency. The attack occurred south of the town of El-Arish, scene of frequent attacks by Islamist terrorists on security forces. One army officer…

Police in Turkey have arrested a 16-year-old student on charges of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the BBC reported on Thursday, citing local media. He was reportedly arrested on Wednesday after criticizing the ruling AK Party during a speech at a student protest in the central Anatolian city of Konya. The teenager could face up…

Nationalist MKs attacked on Thursday evening the decision of the High Court that the new community of Amona in the Shomron (Samaria) be demolished within two years. In its decision, the Court said that despite the facts that the details of ownership of land have not yet been fully established, “the homes in Amona are…

Former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Yuval Diskin on Thursday attacked the Likud, Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu parties ahead of the March elections. In a post on his Facebook page, Diskin warned that the three are “destructive” to Israel’s future. “Each of us needs to ask himself whether he wants to continue down…

An arsonist set fire to a mosque in the Swedish town of Eskilstuna on Thursday, injuring five people, police said, according to the BBC. About 15 to 20 people were attending midday prayers in the mosque, located in the ground floor of a residential building, when the fire broke out. Local media footage showed smoke…

Palestinian Arab factions on Thursday called on Egypt to resume its status as broker in the negotiations between them and Israel to maintain a Gaza ceasefire, the Egyptian Al-Ahram newspaper reported. The factions met in Gaza to discuss what was described “Israeli violations” In a press conference after the meeting, Khaled Al-Batsh, a senior leader…

Just days after fire was opened at a synagogue in Paris, a kosher restaurant in the same city was attacked in a similar manner. According to the French-language JSSNews, an air gun was fired towards the Al Haeche kosher restaurant in the 19th district of the French capital. The attack took place overnight Tuesday, and…

Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed a graduation ceremony of Israeli Air Force pilots at a special ceremony at Hatzerim Air Base in southern Israel on Thursday. Speaking to those present, the prime minister promised a tough response to any attempts to break the state of calm along any of Israel’s borders. “The State of Israel is building…

An Israeli delegation is reportedly in Egypt Thursday to search for the remains of 22 missing soldiers. According to Egyptian media reports, the delegation arrived early this morning from Amman, Jordan. The bodies are believed to include those of 16 soldiers who went missing during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, as well as others missing in…

The IDF continues to be plagued by a major vandalism and theft problem at one of its most southern bases – and no solution is in sight, the Regavim organization said Thursday. IDF officials, the group said, have refused to deal with the issue, and instead refer questions and inquiries on the matter to other…

Former Likud MK Ayoub Kara, who is running for a spot on the Likud list in next week’s primary, told Arutz Sheva in an interview Thursday that the main issue in the upcoming elections is the stark contrast between the “clear right” and the “clear left.” While social and economic issues have so far taken…

Israel’s Civil Administration announced its intentions to renovate the Tomb of Samuel, the traditional burial site of biblical Hebrew prophet Samuel (Shmuel), which is located in the Palestinian village Nabi Samwil in Judea.  Samuel’s Tomb, situated atop a steep hill 1.3 kilometers north of Jerusalem neighborhood Ramot, has some severe safety problems. These include very steep…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu used a special Christmas address to highlight the plight of Christians in the wider Middle East, while contrasting Israel as a safe-haven for the region’s Christian minorities. “Christian communities across the Middle East are experiencing a particularly difficult time,” Netanyahu said. “They’re experiencing violence, execution and fear. This has become the…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett has surpassed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in both the amount of donations and the number of individual donors in the campaign for elections for the 20th Knesset.  The data was revealed Wednesday night on Channel 10’s economic program Laila Calcali (Economic Night). Netanyahu, the previous leader in campaign donations, has collected NIS…

Bruchin community founder and CEO of the Eshkolit Forum Zahi Dickstein will be running for the Likud leadership in Judea-Samaria, he announced Thursday, ahead of the party primaries.  Dickstein, 36, is married with six children. He was a former adviser to former Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar and held executive positions in the Yesha Council, as…

Quadra is an exclusive residential complex under construction in one of the most sought-after neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Location is king in real estate, and the location of this complex is excellent. It is situated in the Makor Hayim neighborhood adjacent to the chic areas of Baka and the German Colony, just a short walk from…

Eleven year-old Ayala Shapira, who was injured in the firebomb attack near Ma’ale Shomron Thursday night, is being treated for numerous injuries and burns she sustained in the attack. Shapira is in serious condition. Doctors said they are “fighting” to save her life. Ayala was driving in a car with her father, Avner, on the…

In a letter sent by Netanyahu to Weinstein, the prime minister wrote that the agreement to raise the minimum wage was reached before the decision to have early elections, and therefore can be carried out at this time. However, Weinstein stated that the state did not agree to set the minimum wage to be kept…

Ministers, MKs, and community leaders expressed outrage at Thursday’s attack on a Ma’ale Shomron resident and his eleven year old daughter. Deputy director of the Samaria Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, said that all the resources of the Council are being thrown into the search for the culprits and into developing methods to prevent a repeat.…

The High Court on Thursday ordered the state to dismantle the new community of Amona within two years. If the decision stands, it would be the final one in a long-running legal struggle of Amona residents to ward off the tractors of the Civil Administration, which have long been poised to demolish the community’s homes.…

“It’s quite possible that in the next Knesset, the political party with the greatest number of women MK’s will be Jewish Home,” says Sarah Eliash, a known and respected figure in the world of Israeli religious education and the growth of Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria, and a candidate in the coming primaries for…

An Israeli driver, Avner Shapiro and his 11 year old daughter Ayala were attacked by Arab terrorists who threw a firebomb at his vehicle Thursday night. The two suffered burns, but managed to escape from their burning vehicle. They were treated on the scene by Magen David Adom rescue workers and taken to the burn…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon was summoned to a hearing by the Likud’s Comptroller, Shai Galilee, to discuss accusations that Ya’alon has been using a Defense Ministry employee for his personal political campaign. According to Galilee, the employee uses a Ministry phone to call party members and inform them on when political events held by Ya’alon…

There could soon be three parties aiming to gain the votes of members of the hareidi Sephardic community. Former Shas MK Rabbi Chaim Amsalem this week called a meeting of activists of his Am Shalem (“the Complete Nation”) movement, in what many saw as an opening bid to declaring the party’s intention to run in…

Two days after automatic gunfire was sprayed at the David Ben Ichay synagogue on Paris’s 3 Danjon Street, Rabbi Noam Lutzki has spoken about the terrible attack – and called his escape a “real Hannukah miracle.” “It was at 9:30 pm or so,” the Rabbi stated, to hareidi newspaper Hamevaser. “I was sitting in my office adjacent to…

Jewish Home, the only party other than the Likud to remain in Binyamin Netanyahu’s government, will take over several of the ministerial portfolios left behind by the firings and resignations of ministers from Yesh Atid and Hatnua. Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett and at least one other current minister from the party – most likely…

Jeff Seidel is still reeling from a harrowing rock attack on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, he stated in a special interview to Arutz Sheva Wednesday night, after Arab terrorists hurled cinder blocks at his car.  Seidel, who is the CEO and Founder of the Jeff Seidel Student Center, and two friends were attending a funeral on…

Conventional wisdom had it that Israelis had largely stopped buying apartments as they waited for former Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s zero-VAT sales plan to kick in, but Central Bureau of Statistics numbers released Wednesday show that the public had already several months ago given up on the possibility of getting an apartment at an 18%…

A special committee reviewing the long list of heroic acts by IDF soldiers during Operation Protective Edge has decided to award the Medal of Courage – the second most prestigious award – to Givati Brigade Deputy Commander “Eitan,” who entered a Hamas terror tunnel in August in pursuit of the abductors of Lt. Hadar Goldin,…

Daniel Nachman Biton has been named as the 7 year old boy who died in a fire overnight Tuesday/Wednesday in Beit Shemesh, it was cleared for publication Wednesday. Initial reports stated that the boy was 10 years old.  The boy’s father, aged 45, was seriously injured in the fire and taken to the Hadassah Ein…

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, stated that the IDF would continue to quash escalation along the Gaza border Wednesday, after a skirmish left a soldier critically injured. “Instability is a regular feature in the life of the IDF and every border of the State of Israel,” Gantz stated Wednesday afternoon, at the…

More details have emerged over the capture of a Jordanian pilot flying over Syria who was shot down by Islamic State forces and taken captive, Jordanian sources revealed Wednesday night.  Earlier Wednesday, initial reports surfaced stating that the coalition plane had been shot down, near the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, the Islamic State group’s…

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United States Michael Oren will be joining Moshe Kahlon, the Kulanu party head announced Wednesday. Kahlon courted Oren, he said, because of his “responsible political positions, which are an important strategic objective for Israel.” Oren’s diplomatic finesse would be necessary to restore Israel’s standing in the international arena, Kahlon said at…

Israel will not accept a deterioration of the situation along the Gaza border, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz stated Wednesday afternoon.  “Hamas must figure out that if it will continue to undermine the security situation on the Gaza border it risks an Israeli response, which could snowball to a general and comprehensive military operation that will…

The Ministry of the Interior in Gaza is deploying security forces on the border with Israel and intensifying its presence in the area in order to prevent Palestinian Arabs from crossing into Israel from Gaza without documents, the Ma’an news agency reported on Wednesday. The announcement came hours after a gunfight erupted on the border…

Hamas announced on Tuesday that it opposes the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) draft resolution presented to the UN Security Council which demands that Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria by 2017, reports the Xinhua news agency. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in an emailed statement that the draft resolution presented by the PA to the…

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday that he is confident that a lasting agreement can be struck with world powers over his country’s disputed nuclear program, AFP reported. Tehran and the so-called P5+1 group of nations have been locked in talks since February on a permanent nuclear deal aimed at ending a…

Belgium’s Minister for Animal Welfare, Ben Weyts, has advised a European Jewish group of his intention to “enforce in all aspects” a Belgian law facilitating the practice of ritual slaughter of animals, The European Jewish Press (EJP) reported Wednesday. Weyts made the clarifications to the European Jewish Association (EJA), a Brussels-based umbrella group which represents…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Wednesday that Israel is not interested in an escalation in Gaza but will respond to any acts of aggression from terrorists in the region. He spoke following a security assessment that was held in the wake of a shooting incident near the border with Gaza, which left an IDF…

The Otzma Yehudit (lit. Jewish Strength) party, headed by former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, held its inaugural conference in Ramat Gan on Wednesday evening, and declared, “We are the real right.” “We want Michael Ben-Ari to go to the Knesset to represent what we think,” party member Baruch Marzel told Arutz Sheva. “We think that…

Two Arabs from the Tul Karem area were caught red-handed Sunday digging in a protected archaeological site. The two were found at the bottom of a 4.5 meter hole in the Emek Hefer area, where an archaeological dig of an 1,800 year old Roman-Byzantine era village. The two had in their possession sophisticated digging equipment,…

The United States on Wednesday said that a Jordanian F-16 warplane was not shot down by the Islamic State (ISIS) as the group has claimed. A military statement quoted by The Associated Press (AP) said the plane crashed in northern Syria and confirmed that a pilot was taken captive by Islamic State forces. But evidence…

The IDF soldier critically wounded in an exchange of gunfire between the IDF and Palestinian Arab terrorists along the Gaza border Wednesday has made a slight improvement, officials at the Soroka Hospital in Be’er Sheva stated Thursday morning. The soldier’s condition has stabilized, they said, and he is now conscious. The soldier is being treated…

MK Moshe Mizrahi said Thursday morning that the massive corruption scandal exposed Wednesday indicates a serious affair that meets the criminal definition of organized crime.  Thirty senior officials were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of illegally allocating budgets to NPOs and different sources, transferring funds to regional council organizations, and laundering money through “straw company” fronts. Likewise the suspects…

A total of ten Palestinian Arab terrorists were arrested overnight Wednesday/Thursday, after a special operation by the Samaria Brigade and the Duvdevan Unit of the IDF in Shechem (Nablus) exposed a weapons cache. Security forces seized 2 pistols and several cartridges, an Uzi submachine gun, improvised weapons, ammunition, at least one Kalashnikov rifle and one…

Israel has silently returned the bodies of the terrorists responsible for the Har Nof massacre last month, Radio Israel reports Thursday morning. Ghassan and Uday Abu al Jamal, who carried out the massacre on a synagogue during morning prayers, killing four rabbis and one Druze policemen, were silently buried overnight Wednesday/Thursday in an Arab neighborhood cemetery in Jerusalem.  Until…

A Jewish cemetery in Greece was vandalized on Tuesday with swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti signed by racist group “Larissa Skins.”  The capital and largest city of the Thessaly region of Greece, Larissa has a Jewish community dating back 2,000 years to the Roman period. Larissa is also home to the third largest Jewish community in Greece, which…

Two bodies were found overnight Wednesday/Thursday, in a burned-out car on farmland near the Nesher power station, on Route 6 near Ramle.  Police found the car after several callers complained of heavy smoke emanating from under a bridge. Police and firefighting teams arrived at the scene and identified the car – a BMW, according to Walla!…

The family of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh, captured by Islamic State terrorists in Syria on Wednesday, have called on the organization to release him.  Al-Kasasbeh’s plane crashed Wednesday morning over Raqqa province in eastern Syria.  Although ISIS has suggested it downed the plane using an anti-aircraft missile, the United States military rejects their claim.  “Evidence clearly indicates”…

MK Hanin Zoabi’s Balad party announced on Wednesday that it plans to file a complaint with the police against MK Danny Danon (Likud), over a new animated campaign video released by Danon. The video is filmed as a Western, in which Zoabi is portrayed as the villain and Danon as the hero who will prevent…

MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) on Tuesday said a “wake-up call” was required in France amid a growing trend of anti-Semitism in the country. Shaked’s comments were made during a gathering in support of Avraham Azoulay, who is running in the Jewish Home’s primaries. Azoulay is formerly a resident of the French city of Toulouse…

Sony Pictures on Tuesday backtracked on its cancellation of the movie “The Interview”, saying it would make the controversial Seth Rogen comedy available at a limited number of theaters starting Thursday, according to CNN. The movie studio’s CEO, Michael Lynton, said Tuesday that “we’re excited our movie will be in a number of theaters on…

Labor leader MK Yitzhak Herzog and Hatnua chairwoman MK Tzipi Livni dismissed on Tuesday evening the remarks made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu about Jerusalem, accusing him of making a cynical use of the capital. “Bibi, like Bibi, exploits Jerusalem for his cynical needs,” the two said in a joint statement, adding that “the public…

The Cabinet on Tuesday evening, in a telephone vote, decided to appoint MK Tzahi Hanegbi (Likud) as Deputy Health Minister (in addition to his role as Deputy Foreign Minister). As well, MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) was appointed as Deputy Science, Technology and Space Minister (in addition to her role as Deputy Transportation and Road Safety…

A 10-year-old boy died in a fire that broke out in a private home in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday night. The boy’s father, aged 45, was seriously injured in the fire and taken to the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. Four other people suffered moderate and minor injuries, including the mother of the family,…

Danny Cohen, the BBC’s director of television, said this week that he was deeply troubled by the anti-Semitism in Europe in general, and in Britain in particular. Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem, where he was interviewed by Channel 2 News anchor Yonit Levi, Cohen said, “I’ve never felt so uncomfortable being a Jew in…

After Gaza terrorists breached the truce last Friday with a rocket attack, they broke it again on Wednesday morning with a round of sniper fire targeting IDF forces in the vicinity of Kibbutz Nirim and Nir Oz.  The IDF soldiers were guarding work on the security barrier with Gaza in the southern part of the Hamas…

Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party has come in for sharp criticism, after Liberman on Tuesday called for the expulsion of Jewish communities to placate the European Union (EU) as part of a regional peace treaty, and Yisrael Beytenu ministers were investigated for corruption. Former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, chairperson of the Otzma Yehudit party, was…

The Islamic State terrorist group (ISIS) claims it shot down a Jordanian air force jet over its de-facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria. ISIS released pictures of what it said was the pilot of the downed plain, after his capture by its fighters. Jordan is one of a number of Arab and western states…

Despite the truce that ended Operation Protective Edge in August, Hamas terrorists in Gaza continue to ramp up preparations for the next war via ongoing rocket tests. Two rockets were fired from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea on Wednesday morning as part of the rocket tests, reports the IDF Spokesperson unit.  Hamas has been running…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has hired American strategist John McLaughlin of the Republican party to manage his campaign ahead of the March 17 Knesset elections. McLaughlin has over 30 years of international experience as a strategist and pollster, and ran Netanyahu’s campaign ahead of his 2009 election victory. He has worked with six Republican Senators…

A Pakistani government prosecutor said Wednesday he would file a petition next week challenging an order granting bail to the alleged mastermind of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. A judge in an Islamabad anti-terror court last week granted bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, accused over the siege in India’s commercial capital that left 166 people dead and was credited to…

Thirty senior figures, including Deputy Interior Minister Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beytenu) and former Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov (Yisrael Beytenu), have been brought in for investigation for involvement in corruption. A gag order was released on the case Wednesday morning, revealing that the suspects apparently illegally allocated budgets to NPOs and different sources, transferred funds to…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party may have run on a joint ticket with Likud in the last elections, but in a closed meeting on Tuesday he sharply attacked Prime Minister and Likud head Binyamin Netanyahu’s political management. According to Liberman, Israel needs a peace agreement including the evacuation of Jewish communities because Netanyahu’s…

Heads of the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria together with IDF representatives lit the eighth and final candle of Hanukkah Tuesday night at the grave of Yehoshua Ben Nun (Joshua) – the disciple of Moshe (Moses) from the Torah – located in the village Kifl Hares just north of Ariel in Samaria. Efraim Brigade…

Binyamin Netanyahu can once again be the Likud’s candidate for Prime Minister, the party’s election committee chairman ruled Wednesday. The ruling came in response to a statement by the party’s comptroller, Shai Galilee, who said that Netanyahu had disqualified himself because of violations of the Likud constitution – specifically, using party resources for his personal…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reacted Wednesday afternoon to a sniper attack by Hamas terrorists along the border with Gaza, which left one IDF soldier critically wounded. “Our policy is clear: a determined and firm response against any attempt to break the quiet in the south,” he said in a statement. “We will respond forcefully every…

Speaking at an event Wednesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman slammed Likud members who have called him “soft” on the peace process. “I heard that Likud officials have been criticizing me for ‘leaning to the left,’” Liberman said at a conference sponsored by business daily Calcalist. “I want to tell them something: It was the Likud…

My most distinct memory of Robert Wolfe was that day in October of 1999 when he stood in the dreary, grey rain outside a heretofore unknown archive in Sindelfingen, Germany, a suburb of Stuttgart. He was attempting to gain entry when the archive unexpectedly shuttered its doors and refused him. With the chilled drizzle running…

Former Justice Minister and Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni sharply criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at a Calcalist conference Wednesday, after Netanyahu blasted Livni and Labor leader Yitzhak Herzog Tuesday night for their plans to divide Jerusalem.  “Because Netanyahu has no solutions he scares the nation, and in his distress he draws out of Jerusalem,” Livni fired. “He…

Learn and Return (formerly Learn and Live), an organization that works to prevent Jewish girls from getting trapped in abusive relationships with Arabs, has issued call to the public to pray for the safe return of a 22-year-old girl whose whereabouts are unknown. The phenomenon of Arab men entrapping Jewish girls in abusive relationships has escalated in recent…

Likud MK and central committee chairman Danny Danon says he is confident he will succeed in having extremist MK Hanin Zoabi banned from running for election next March. On Tuesday Danon announced he was collecting signatures from members of Israel’s Central Elections Committee to bar the radical Arab MK from standing, in light of her…

Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday “played dumb” about the corruption investigation being advanced by police against two ministers of his party, part of a massive effort that has seen 30 senior figures brought in. Speaking at a Calcalist forum, Liberman said “I’m not familiar with the case beyond what I heard in…

The Zionist student group Im Tirtzu has complained to Technion University after a swastika was found on a sign at the Haifa-based university this Sunday, demanding that the university’s president condemn the incident and take steps against those behind it. In the letter to university president Prof. Peretz Lavie, the group wrote “there aren’t enough…

Alan Gross, the American freed last week after five years in a Cuban jail, has reached a $3.2 million settlement with the US government, media reports said Wednesday. The US government office he was doing work for in Cuba, the Agency for International Development, released a statement Tuesday confirming that a settlement had been reached,…

Energix Renewable Energies, the Alony Hetz Property and Investments Ltd. group controlled by Nathan Hetz and the Wertheim family, announced Tuesday that Israel’s biggest solar energy project, at Neot Hovav in the Negev, has received a permanent license for producing electricity, the Globes business newspaper reported. According to the company’s estimates, power production will yield…

The clinical PsyD program at Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology had one of the highest match rates of similar programs in the United States over a four-year period, according to a recent report on doctoral program match rates by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. The report is one of the…

The daily deluge of polls for the March 17 Knesset elections continue on Tuesday, with a Channel 10 poll showing the joint Labor-Hatnua list and Likud still neck and neck, with Labor just slightly ahead. The poll gives Labor 22 mandates and Likud 21. Jewish Home would get 17, and Yesh Atid gets ten mandates according to…

A grassroots Old City initiative has turned the Old City of Jerusalem – where the miracle of the Hanukkah lights took place over 2,150 years ago – into the city of Menorahs this week. Families throughout the Jewish Quarter built their “dream” Menorahs – Hanukkah candelabra – and have placed them outside their homes, on…

President Reuven Rivlin and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz lit candles for the eighth and final night of Hanukkah on Tuesday with dozens of IDF soldiers. The soldiers present included members of the paratroopers, and armored corps engineers of the 7th Brigade of the Judea Regional Brigade in Southern Har Hevron. Speaking about…

Charlie Biton, a former leader of the Israeli Black Panthers group founded in the 1970s that fought for racial equality and social justice, told Arutz Sheva that despite a recent ongoing media spat, politicians on the left and right never really cared about the problem of poverty. “They’re all guilty and it doesn’t matter to any of…

Rahamim Malul, mayor of the city Rehovot to the south of Tel Aviv, was investigated under warning on Tuesday at the offices of the police investigative and intelligence department Lahav 433. The questioning of Malul is part of an investigative case headed by the department on suspicions that an attorney who in the past served…

Last week, British Prime Minister David Cameron held a special event in honor of Hanukkah together with leaders and members of the UK’s Jewish community. Speaking at the event, Cameron hailed the Jewish community as “the model of how to integrate successfully into a country,” and vowed to fight to preserve Jewish religion and culture…

Hananel Malka of Israel won the Fifth International Bible Quiz for adults, held in Jerusalem on Tuesday night. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu kicked off the quiz by speaking about the importance of studying the Bible, and the connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel. “I study Bible every week with my son,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened the Bible Quiz for adults in Jerusalem on Tuesday night, in which he spoke about the Palestinian Authority (PA) demand for control of eastern Jerusalem in a future peace deal. “I heard that they are ready to give the Palestinians a capital in Jerusalem, I heard some guy, some lady…

On Monday, the seventh day of Hanukkah, a truly unique and historic event took place for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. In the Old City of Jerusalem, hundreds gathered to witness the lighting of a hanukkiah, or menorah, using pure olive oil made to the precise specifications as the oil used to light…

Former Shas chairperson Eli Yishai, who recently launched his new Ha’am Itanu party, was supposed to hold his first show of force on Wednesday by opening a branch of his party in Be’er Sheva – that opening ceremony was cancelled at the last minute, leaving many asking why. An organizer of the event and a…

MK David Tzur has become the second Knesset member to resign from Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party on Tuesday, in an announcement indicating that he was retiring from politics.  Tzur stated to Livni upon his resignation that he supported Livni’s pact with Yitzhak Herzog’s Labor Party, and that he hopes other center parties would join a…

Iraq has embarked on a unique project to combat terrorism, the Daily Mail reported Monday – by broadcasting the aftermath of terror attacks on a reality show.  The show, entitled “In the Grip of the Law,” forces Islamic State and other Islamist terrorists to return to the scenes of their crimes, where they experience the wrath of…

The Students for Israel organization has called for greater unity in the nationalist bloc Tuesday, penning a letter to former Shas MK and ‘Ha’am Itanu’ leader Eli Yishai and former Jewish Home MK Yoni Chetboun to join forces with former MK Michael Ben-Ari’s Otzma Yehudit party for the upcoming elections.  “We are writing demanding that…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and French MP Meir Habib met in Jerusalem Monday, where Habib introduced the Prime Minister to a viral campaign making waves throughout the French Jewish community – a “magic pill” to fight anti-Semitism dubbed “Antisemitox.”  “Antisemitox,” a project from the Organization of Jewish Europeans (OJE), is real – but not medicative. Boxes…

Israel’s Bank Leumi Group has admitted to helping American taxpayers hide assets and agreed to pay a $270 million fine to settle a criminal probe, the Department of Justice announced Monday, according to the AFP news agency. From at least 2000 until early 2011, Bank Leumi sent private bankers from Israel and elsewhere to meet…

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell told the Reuters news agency on Monday he opposed President Barack Obama’s plans to normalize relations with Cuba. Speaking by telephone from his home state of Kentucky, McConnell said he agreed with the Senate’s most outspoken critics of Obama’s new Cuba policy, Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida and Democratic…

The Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera news network on Monday shut down its Egypt channel, quieting a major source of tension between the two countries at a time when regional efforts are underway to reconcile between the two countries over the Gulf nation’s support for Islamists, reports The Associated Press (AP). Qatar has been the main supporter of…

North Korea’s internet is back online, cyber-experts at the New Hampshire-based Dyn stated to Reuters overnight Monday/Tuesday. Jim Cowie, Dyn’s chief scientist, added, however, that it is unclear whether North Korea’s internet will stay online as before.  “We’re yet to see how stable the new connection is,” Cowie stated. “The question for the next few hours is whether…

The Arch of Titus, built by Domitian in 81 C.E., is a triumphal Roman commemoration of the bloody victory of his father Vespasian and brother Titus over Judea and their burning of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. For the Jews, the arch is not so much a commemoration as it is an…

The brother of a man who attacked police in France has been arrested in Burundi, a local intelligence spokesman said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press (AP). Burundi intelligence spokesman Telesphore Bigirimana said that Brice Nzohabonayo was arrested Saturday after his brother, Bertrand Nzohabonayo, attacked French police in a suburb of Tours, leaving two officers…

Following a string of high-profile Islamic terror attacks that have rocked France, yet another attack occurred on Monday night as automatic gunfire was sprayed at the David Ben Ichay synagogue on Paris’s 3 Danjon Street. According to the French Jewish JSS News, the attack occurred around 9:30 p.m. when the rabbi and his assistant were present.…

The Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, is commonly perceived to be the most extreme Islamist terror group in the world due to its high-profile campaign of gratuitous slaughter throughout Syria and Iraq. The group officially broke off from Al Qaeda last year, one of several reasons for the split being the belief among Al…

Levi Rosenblatt (22), who was stabbed in the head two weeks ago in a shocking nighttime attack on the Crown Heights’ 770 Chabad Lubavitch center in Brooklyn, New York, lit candles for the seventh night of Hanukkah on Monday at the Crown Heights police station. In the lighting ceremony, dozens of NYPD police officers and senior…

MK Danny Danon (Likud) has begun collecting signatures from members of the central elections committee calling to ban radical Arab MK Hanin Zoabi from running in elections this coming March. Danon’s campaign to ban the Balad party MK from campaigning for the 20th Knesset is based on article 7A of The Knesset Basic Law, which…

The Hiddush organization for religious freedom and equality has turned to the Chairman of the Central Election Commission, Justice Salim Jubran, to warn the hareidi parties not to involve religious rituals and symbols in their election campaigns – including selling amulets, doling out curses to detractors, and promising blessings for voters. Organization Chairman Uri Regev…

Israel’s Antitrust Authority said Tuesday that US giant Noble Energy and its Israeli partner Delek would not be able to continue holding offshore gas field Leviathan over monopoly concerns, AFP reports. The decision, pending a confirmation hearing, effectively dismantles the monopoly held by Noble and Delek over Leviathan and Israel’s smaller offshore gas findings. “The entry of Delek and Noble into…

Deputy Transport Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), warned Tuesday that voting for smaller “satellite parties” in the right-wing bloc – in her words – could lead to an easy win for the Left in the upcoming elections. “We’ve seen in the last government what happened when a right-wing party is strong but Likud is weak; the…

Former Hatnua MK Elazar Stern is considering joining Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party, sources close to Stern told Arutz Sheva Tuesday, after leaving Hatnua over its shift leftward Saturday night.  Stern’s confidantes stated that “there is much in common between Stern and Avigdor Liberman’s party, especially when it comes to religion and state.” Stern’s office…

In an effort to raise awareness of the threat of cyberattacks among Jewish community organizations and synagogues, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conducted an online seminar which provided information on the current threat landscape and tips on how to protect computer servers against malicious attacks. In the seminar, organized by the National Association for Temple Administration…

President Reuven Rivlin lit Hannukah candles at the President’s Residence Monday, together with survivors of the Holocaust. The event was entitled ‘Heroism and Rebirth’, and was attended by around 150 guests, including representatives and heads of the various Holocaust survivor organizations, Yad Vashem, and the children of survivors. “Your story is the story of an entire…

Interior Minister Gilad Erdan has frozen a young Israeli Arab’s passport, Channel 2 reports Monday, and is considering revoking his citizenship, after the citizen was found to have joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Marwan Khaldi, from Nazareth, left Israel two months ago and has since severed all contact with his family, according to…

At least ten people were injured, five seriously, after a van rammed into shoppers at a Christmas market in the western city of Nantes Monday evening around 7:00 p.m. local time.  The driver charged at a chalet in a stall serving hot wine, in front of which several people were gathered, a witness told AFP. One…

226 new immigrants from Ukraine, many of them refugees who fled the battle zone in the east of the country, landed Monday afternoon in Israel where they were greeted with a joyous ceremony.  This flight is the first of many bringing thousands of Jews from countries in distress to Israel in the coming years. The…

Legal rights group Shurat Hadin (Israel Law Center) is helping represent 11 families who charge the PA and PLO of inciting, supporting, planning and executing seven terror attacks which killed American citizens between 2000 and 2004. The trial, Sokolow vs. PLO, was recently cleared to be held on January 12, 2015 after the rejection of a…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sarah lit the seventh candle of Hanukkah Monday night with new immigrants from all over the world who had made aliyah to Israel in the past year.  “This year we have witnessed the largest aliyah in 10 years and counting,” Netanyahu said. “I welcome you all to the…

The Israeli journalists who were arrested Monday afternoon near the IDF checkpoint at Tulkarem, after they entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled Area A of Judea-Samaria without permission or IDF coordination, have been revealed as none other than Haaretz‘s Gideon Levy and Alex Levac.  Haaretz itself has blamed the IDF for the incident.  “Their job is to help the…

The family of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Ben Hamad Al-Thani, a well-known supporter of Hamas, may have become an unintentional donor to an organization benefitting disabled IDF veterans, Walla! News reports Monday, after buying an apartment in Paris belonging to the IDF Disabled Veterans’ Organization. The Qataris’s financial proposal was tens of percent the…

Likud chairman candidate, MK Danny Danon lit Hanukkah candles Monday night at the tomb of Shimon the Righteous in Jerusalem.  At the ceremony, Danon stated, “We must allow Jews the right to live anywhere in Jerusalem. We will continue the tradition of the Maccabees – living without fear of our enemies at home and abroad.” …

Prosecutors in France announced Monday that Sunday evening’s rampage incident was not a terrorist attack.  The incident occurred when a driver, yelling “Allahu Akbar,” plowed into dozens of pedestrians in the eastern French city of Dijon, some 300 miles from Paris.  13 people were injured, two of them seriously, a source close to the investigation said…

Some two hundred Palestinian Arabs descended on a Jewish-owned farm near the Samarian town of Elon Moreh and uprooted dozens of young olive trees last Friday. Local Jewish residents and members of the Samaria Residents Committee say they had been warning for several weeks of Arab provocations and riots in the area, and had turned…

A moving Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony was held on Sunday at the rest station set up for IDF soldiers by residents in Hevron, the city of the Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs, and adjacent Kiryat Arba located in Judea. The ceremony was attended by Hevron-Kiryat Arba Regional Council Chairman Malachi Levinger, residents of the city and, of…

A Pakistani government prosecutor said Monday he had been forced to delay his appeal against a court order which grants bail to the alleged mastermind of the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai. A judge in an Islamabad anti-terror court last week granted bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, accused over the siege on India’s commercial capital that left 166 people dead and…

Police and volunteers are conducting a massive search for two young girls who have been missing since Sunday night, Amalia Melamed and Miki Zaks. Melamed is the daughter of journalist Ariana Melamed who wrote on her Facebook page “my daughter Amalia Melamed went missing since 10:30 p.m. and the police are searching for her and…

A Jordanian Muslim preacher has called for Jews to be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, and even for a special “house of prayer” to be set up for them there. Despite its status as the holiest site in Judaism, Jews are banned from praying on the Temple Mount (as are other non-Muslims) due…

It was a visit to Jerusalem that inspired French Jew Alexandre Sartene to start the world’s third kosher vineyard outside Israel which, despite a rocky start, now exports as far as Brazil. “I find the idea of kosher wine divine,” says a proud Sartene, with a touch of the same humor that has seen him nickname his domain in…

An Arab terrorist on Monday arrived at the Nitzanei Oz crossing on the 1949 Armistice line from Tulkarm in Samaria in an attempted terror attack that was thwarted by security forces. The terrorist was armed with a knife and tried to stab one of the IDF soldiers who was stationed at the site. Soldiers at…

A month after he was stabbed in a planned Arab ambush on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives, a young Jewish student has finally been recognized by the police as being wounded in “hostile activities,” meaning that the ambush is recognized as a terror attack. Police announced the recognition on Sunday to the youth’s lawyer, Attorney Hur…

After more than a month with no Jewish visitors allowed, over 1,500 Jews on Sunday night went to Kever Yosef (Joseph’s Tomb) in Shechem (Nablus) located in Samaria to pray at the grave of the Jewish patriarch from the Torah – only to find it vandalized. The Jewish visitors discovered that the electric system of…

Bentzi Gopshtain, director of the Lehava anti-assimilation organization that has become the subject of a police crackdown, remains in a five-day house arrest after being released from full arrest last Thursday on suspicions of “racism” and “incitement,” which the courts threw out. “I sat for several days in a very strenuous investigation,” Gopshtain told Channel 2 on…

Eight Palestinian residents of eastern Jerusalem were charged Monday with inciting terror attacks and promoting violence against Jewish citizens and security forces.  Arrested last Monday, the eight were detained the week before for “inciting hatred, violence and terrorism,” mostly with messages and videos on the social media site Facebook. The operation was the Israeli police’s “biggest aimed at repressing this…

Two well-known Israeli journalists were arrested Monday afternoon near the IDF checkpoint at Tulkarem, after they entered the Palestinian Authority-controlled Area A of Judea-Samaria without permission or IDF coordination. The journalists openly rebelled against the IDF upon entering at a checkpoint, police stated, and “provoked [against IDF officers], spat, and cursed [at them].” A patrol…

The graphic sign features a cartoon depicting a hareidi soldier with his face distorted into a pig’s and sitting on the back of an elephant as the troops of Antiochus (Alexander the Great – villain of Hannukah story – ed.) march chasing hareidi children. At the top of the sign, is a group of haredi…

The blame for Israeli citizens’ economic situations lies squarely with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, according to Yesh Atid.  The Alternative Poverty Report published Monday by the humanitarian Latet Organization painted a much grimmer picture than the report Bituach Leumi (National Insurance) put out last week.  According to Latet, one in three children in Israel live below…

Regardless of their religious background, the holidays can be a particularly difficult period for many families – both emotionally and practically. This is particularly true for those who have lost a parent or spouse, as those left behind often struggle to cope with the emotional strain of celebrating without their loved ones. Recognizing this fact,…

Hamas has arrested a Palestinian Arab double agent working for Israeli intelligence, the Hamas-run Al-Majd security website stated Monday.  According to the report, which is based on a security source, the Palestinian agent in her forties was instructed by the Israeli intelligence agency to gather information on the whereabouts of senior officers in the military wings…

An Israeli humanitarian agency is working to help some of the hundreds of thousands of families left homeless after Typhoon Hagupit (locally called Ruby) swept across the Philippines last week. IsraAID, in partnership with the AJC, dispatched an emergency response team to provide medical and psychological aid to those worst affected, and to distribute relief goods in…

The military prosecutors decided to close the investigation case against Givati Brigade Commander Col. Ofer Winter, according to reports in Haaretz on Monday. Winter was investigated under warning last Thursday by the military police on suspicion that he knew about several incidents in his brigade and didn’t inform his supervisors about them. The incidents include complaints of sexual abuse…

Eleventh- and twelfth-grade students of the Bnei Akiva Or Etzion Yeshiva made a special visit to cheer up the elderly and instill the holiday spirit of Hanukkah, at the senior residence home adjacent to the moshav Kfar Achim east of Ashdod. “The meeting was moving and joyful, both for the elderly and for the stuents,”…

In two separate incidents Sunday, Israelis who indulged in one of Hanukkah’s tastiest treats – the sufganiya, or jelly donut – got more than they bargained for. A nine year old girl and a 60 year old woman were both in the hospital Sunday night after they ate donuts that proved to be a bit…

Tunisia’s Beji Caid Essebsi on Sunday claimed victory in the country’s first free presidential election, with exit polls suggesting he won 55.5% of the vote, according to the BBC. Supporters of the 88-year-old celebrated in the capital Tunis. Campaigners for his rival, caretaker President Moncef Marzouki, say the results are too close to call. Critics…

North Korea on Sunday threatened the White House and other targets in the United States, CNN reports. The country accused the U.S. government of being behind the making of the movie “The Interview”, a comedy in which a pair of hapless television journalists is recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to assassinate North Korean…

The gunman who fatally ambushed two police officers in their car in Brooklyn on Saturday invited passersby to watch his attack, The Associated Press (AP) reported Sunday. Moments before opening fire, the suspect, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, approached people on the street and asked them to follow him on Instagram, then told them, “Watch what I’m going…

India is considering changing its traditional pro-Palestinian Arab stance and abstain in United Nations votes related to the Palestinian Authority, The Hindu news website reported on Sunday. The move could amount to a tectonic shift in the country’s foreign policy. Two sources within the government confirmed to The Hindu that the change, which will be…

Labor chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog and former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni vowed on Sunday that they will not divide Jerusalem, rejecting criticism of them from the nationalist parties. The two attended a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the Western Wall, which was also attended by Rabbi David Lau, the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi, and Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz,…

Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) sharply criticized former minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday evening. Speaking at a gathering of Likud activists, Edelstein said that the upcoming elections were imposed on the Likud due to the coalition’s inability to function, which he blamed on the other parties in the coalition which refused to cooperate with…

President Barack Obama said on Sunday the United States is considering putting North Korea back on its list of terrorism sponsors, after the hacking of Sony Pictures, reports the BBC. Speaking on CNN, Obama said a decision on the issue would be taken after a review, though he stressed that the attack was considered “an…

Arab media reported on Sunday night that Syria had downed an Israeli drone in the Golan Heights. According to the report, which appeared on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television and on official Syrian TV, an “unmanned aircraft of the Zionist regime was downed over the skies of Quneitra, close to the border.” In response, the IDF said,…

A driver shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he ploughed into groups of people in the eastern French city of Dijon on Sunday evening, AFP reports. 11 people were injured, two of them seriously, in the attack, a source close to the investigation said. “The man, born in 1974, is apparently imbalanced and had been in a…

A four-year-old boy was lightly wounded Sunday morning after rocks were thrown at a car he was traveling in near the Gush Etzion Junction. The rocks shattered the car’s window and the boy was hurt by the glass fragments.  Magen David Adom paramedics arrived on the scene to give the child medical care, before evacuating him…

Oil prices have nosedived from $115 a barrel last August to under $60 a barrel by the middle of this month, with many analysts, in the wake of Arutz Sheva columnist and Middle East expert Dr. Mordecai Kedar, appraising that Saudi Arabia has intentionally caused the price drop as a weapon against Iran, over fears of…

Some polls have shown former Shas chairperson Eli Yishai’s new Ha’am Itanu party not passing the Knesset threshold in coming elections, and talk of a joint list with Uri Ariel’s Tekuma was ruled out Saturday night as the party voted to stay with Jewish Home – however, Yishai is not concerned. “The Tekuma decision helped…

Muslim extremists have been upping their violent campaign against Jewish visits to the Temple Mount in recent months, claiming that the presence of religious Jews is tantamount to an “invasion” which “defiles” the Al Aqsa mosque complex there. But while the site of Jews quietly touring the Temple Mount is considered a “provocation” (Jews are…

Chabad in Sydney has set up a menorah as a tribute to the victims of last week’s terror attack.  The attack began when an Islamist gunman took dozens of people hostage at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe in central Sydney. Several captives managed to escape before police stormed the cafe 16 hours later. In the shootout…

Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett on Sunday morning led party members in praising the decision by the Tekuma/National Union faction to formally unite with his party, ending weeks of speculation over a possible split. “We are greater together than apart and we have great tasks ahead of us,” Bennett said.”The Land of Israel, its…

A poll published Saturday night on Channel 10‘s “Hamateh Hamerkazi” program found that respondents place responsibility for Israel’s weakening financial situation on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu more than on former Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid). The poll, conducted by members of the program, found that 46% held Netanyahu responsible for the financial situation, followed by…

Yehuda Glick has announced he will run for a spot on the Likud Knesset list for upcoming elections, the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported.  The Temple Mount rights activist was shot multiple times by a terrorist during an assassination attempt in late October. The shooting occurred outside the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, where Glick had been speaking…

After the arrest of ten activists from the Lehava anti-assimilation organization last Tuesday – after which a court dismissed the arrests leading to the release of all ten last week – police this week continued their campaign against the group, arresting eight more members. The arrests this time focused on different members than those targeted…

For the third consecutive year, volunteers from Shishi Shabbat Yisraeli visited and lit Hanukkah candles with 150 Russian-speaking Holocaust survivors and World War II veterans in the Jerusalem area.  Shishi Shabbat Yisraeli – a national and educational non-profit for young Israeli Russian speakers – calls its annual campaign Operation Light Up! Last Thursday, the third…

The offices of suspended Knesset member Hanan Zoabi were vandalized over the weekend, officials of the Balad party said. The offices, located in the city of Nazareth, were ransacked, with computers and other paraphernalia stolen. According to party officials, the lock and the front handle of the office were broken off. Zoabi has filed a…

Security was stepped up at police and fire stations across France on Sunday after a knife-wielding French convert to Islam was shot dead after attacking three police officers.   Bertrand Nzohabonayo was killed Saturday after entering a police station in the central town of Joue-les-Tours armed with a knife, seriously wounding two officers – slashing…

Two Israeli men convicted of “Price Tag” vandalism have been sentenced to two and a half years in prison each. A Magistrates Court sentenced Yehuda Landsberg and Yehuda Savir to 30 months, after they were found guilty of conspiracy to commit a crime motivated by racism or hostility towards the public, arson, and destruction of land motivated…

The government’s “price target” plan to lower the cost of apartments for first-time homebuyers kicks in on Monday. The cabinet easily passed the plan, which was proposed by Housing Minister Uri Ariel. The plan was approved after it was considered on its own, independent of the Zero-VAT plan proposed by ex-Finance Minister Yair Lapid, which…

​ In a recent children’s television show sponsored by terrorist organization Hamas, a young boy was asked to a send a message to the enemy. He responded by reciting a poem titled “I Do Not Fear The Gun.” The poem begins: “I do not fear the gun! / I do not fear the gun! /You…

After the Mifal Hapayis’ (Israel’s official state lottery) Landau Prize to radical leftist poet Yitzhak Laor was cancelled last week, it was decided again to award Laor the prize, causing Gilit Chomsky – one of the Landau Prize’s three committee members – to resign in protest on Sunday. Chomsky had voted against giving Laor the prize in…

United States President Barack Obama has signed into law the 2014 United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act.  The bill, meant to strengthen the US-Israel alliance, passed unanimously in the House of Representatives earlier this month, after passing unanimously in the Senate in September.  The law declares Israel’s status as a “major strategic partner” of the United States as…

Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) on Sunday hit out at Hatnua chairperson Tzipi Livni, over reports she asked US Secretary of State John Kerry to shoot down a unilateral Palestinian Authority (PA) UN bid so as to help the Left in elections. Speaking at the Shamoon College of Engineering (SCE), Ya’alon called Livni’s move…

Michael Bloomberg’s charity announced last Monday that it will provide urban innovation grants to Israel’s two biggest cities – Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.  Tel Aviv, located along the Mediterranean in central west Israel, has a population of 414,600 residents. Jerusalem, nestled in the Judean hill in the eastern part of the country, has a population of 801,000. …

In France last weekend, a good dose of Jewish humor was recruited in the battle against anti-Semitism.  The Organization of Jewish Europeans (OJE) launched a bold campaign to fight against anti-Semitism, a rising problem in France. The organization is set to distribute 10,000 boxes of “anti-Semitism first aid treatment” under the brand name “Antisémitox.”  Each…

At a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told IDF soldiers that Israel faced a multi-front struggle – both on the battlefield and off. “In this struggle that we are in, Israel is being attacked on two fronts simultaneously. It is being attacked by the terrorism of Hamas and the other terrorist…

President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday joined residents of Nitzan in southern Israel who were among those thrown out of their homes in the 2005 disengagement for a Chanukah candle lighting ceremony. “Despite the long time that has passed since that event, my heart still aches when I remember Gush Katif – its productive workers, its…

Over 1,000 people gathered Sunday in Tel Aviv to set a new world’s record for “dreidel-spinning” – the largest number of Chanukah tops spun in tandem ever recorded by the Guinness organization. The previous record saw 377 people succeed in spinning their dreidels for at least ten seconds all at the same time. Sunday’s new…

In an explosive TV interview aired last week, Iraq’s Grand Mufti Rafi Al-Rifa’i, the highest Sunni authority in the country, accused the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Iraqi government, and Iraqi Shiite militias of mass genocidal killings and rape of Sunni men and women from Iraqi towns and villages “liberated” from ISIS (Islamic State).…

The IDF’s military court handed an indictment Sunday to Maher Al-Hashalmoun, the Palestinian terrorist who murdered 26-year-old Dalia Lemkos as she waited at a bus stop in Gush Etzion. Al-Hashalmoun was indicted for causing death with intent and various additional charges for the attack outside the town of Alon Shvut, south of Jerusalem. According to…

The Islamic State (IS), which has firmly established itself as the ruling entity in a large portion of Syria and Iraq, has recently begun instituting Shari’a Islamic law as the law of the land – in its full and literal sense. According to classic Islamic law, a thief must have his right hand cut off…

Anne and Horatio Spafford, founders of the American Colony (seen here and on the main page), arrived in Jerusalem in 1881 after losing their four daughters in a shipwreck.  Millennialists and Utopian Christians, they established a commune-like way of life with followers from the United States and Sweden who worked on a farm, dairy, carpentry shop, and bakery.  The American Colony was…

Expect changes – lots of them – in the opinion polls during the run-up to next March 17th’s elections, said Professor Avi Degani of the Geocartographia Polling Institute. In fact, said Degani, one of Israel’s most experienced pollsters, the results of polls are likely to change on a daily basis. Like on Sunday, when Arutz…

Al-Qaeda on Sunday slammed the Taliban for being “too violent,” as the heads of the international terrorist group lectured the Afghani Islamists over their killing of nearly 150 schoolchildren last week. A spokesperson for the he al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) group said that the “massacre of innocent children” in an Afghan school…

The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group has executed 100 of its own foreign fighters who tried to flee their headquarters in the Syrian city of Raqqa, AFP reported Saturday, citing the Financial Times (FT) newspaper. An activist opposed to both ISIS and the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who is well-known to the British…

Egypt said Saturday it aims to end differences with Qatar, as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met with an envoy from the Gulf emirate, reports AFP. Ties between Cairo and Doha deteriorated after Sisi, who was then the army chief, ousted Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement is backed by Qatar. Since Morsi’s ouster in July…

The members of the Tekuma Central Committee have officially decided that the party will not split off from the Jewish Home. The Central Committee voted on the issue late Saturday night, in a meeting that was called after the Tekuma council on Thursday discussed whether or not to run jointly with Jewish Home, but could…

The Otzma Yehudit (lit. Jewish Strength) party will hold its first election rally in Ramat Gan on Wednesday, during which it will elect its leader. The most prominent candidate for chairman will be former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, who is widely supported among all party members. In addition, the party in the coming weeks will…

Senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk said on Saturday night that the terrorist group was committed to the ceasefire reached with Israel at the end of Operation Protective Edge, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire. “We in Hamas are committed to the ceasefire, as long as Israel is,” Abu Marzouk wrote on Facebook, according to…

Two uniformed NYPD officers were shot dead Saturday afternoon as they sat in their marked police car on a Brooklyn street corner, The New York Post reports. Investigators believe the incident was a crazed gunman’s execution-style mission to avenge Eric Garner and Michael Brown. “It’s an execution,” one law enforcement source said of the 3:00…

Israeli aircraft hit Gaza for the first time since an August truce ended 50 days of war after Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket at a southern Israeli town, witnesses and the army said early Saturday. A spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said there were no casualties in the air strike, which came just hours…

Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid has reached out to Israel’s youngest voting population Saturday night, holding a question-and-answer session with 200 members of Yesh Atid at Tel Aviv’s Tailor Made club in a pre-election appearance.  Lapid was joined by MKs Yaakov Perry, Mickey Levi, Ronen Hoffman, Aliza Lavie, Pnina Tamano-Shata, and Boaz Toporovsky. “Israel owes you…

Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni insisted that she turned to US Secretary of State John Kerry and urged him not to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) draft resolution to go to vote before elections “with Israel’s interests in mind” during a Channel 10 interview Saturday night.  “I turned to Kerry to safeguard the interests of the…

A 20 year-old man has been shot dead by the French police on Saturday, Le Figaro reports, after he stabbed three policemen in Joue-les-Tours, near the city of Tours, while shouting ‘Allahu Akhbar!’ (Arabic: “G-d is great”).  He stabbed three police officers before being “killed (by) police officers present using their issued firearms,” according to a French Interior…

Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri launched a verbal tirade against Yachad Chairman and former Shas MK Eli Yishai Saturday night, during an interview in the Channel 2 studio.  “It was not a good week for us, because we made very great efforts, personally and all members of the Knesset and rabbis, in order to avoid this from happening,”…

After decades of civil service, military service, and then as a civilian in the fields of social work in Israel, two years ago I responded to your inquiry continuing my activity through political action and your request to join Hatnua.  We agreed then, mainly concentrating on issues of religion and state, and you guaranteed me…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon addressed the IAF’s strikes on Gaza on Saturday night, noting that it was response to a rocket fired at Israeli civilians on Friday that struck the Eshkol region.  Ya’alon, speaking at a candle lighting event for IDF soldiers at the Western Wall (Kotel), said the target…

Jewish Home Chairman and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett sharply criticized former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Saturday night, after diplomats from the EU and US told Foreign Policy magazine that she appealed to John Kerry to stall a Palestinian Authority (PA) UN draft resolution solely to prevent Bennett and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu from winning more votes…

The Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic has firmly opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin visiting Prague to attend ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, AFP reports Saturday. Invited to attend events by Czech President Milos Zeman, the Russian leader has thus far neither accepted nor rejected taking part in the commemorations organized by the European…

Egypt said on Saturday it supports a draft resolution submitted by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the UN Security Council setting out terms for a final peace deal with Israel, according to AFP. On Wednesday, the PA presented the resolution setting a 12-month deadline for wrapping up negotiations on a final settlement and the end of 2017 for completion of an Israeli…

Jordan’s main opposition Islamist party threatened Saturday to take legal action against anyone in the kingdom whosigns a controversial gas deal with Israel, according to AFP. Amman’s plans to buy gas from the Jewish state have aroused fierce opposition at a time of mounting criticism of Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians. The Islamic Action Front, political wing of the Jordanian…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is upset with Canada for boycotting this week’s conference in Geneva which dealt with “respect for international humanitarian law in the PA assigned territories”. On Friday, the top PA diplomat in Canada said Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government should not have boycotted the conference which, as expected, harshly criticized Israel over…

Ali Baraka, Hamas’s representative in Lebanon, said Friday that a recent visit by a Hamas delegation to Iran had “opened a new chapter” in relations between Tehran and the terror group. “[Tehran] has pledged to continue supporting the [Palestinian] resistance,” Baraka told the Turkish Anadolu Agency. “Hamas welcomes the support of any Arab or Muslim…

Despite a report indicating corruption, FIFA’s president ruled out on Friday the possibility that the soccer body would go back on Qatar’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup. “It would really need an earthquake, extremely important new elements to go back on this World Cup in Qatar,” FIFA president Sepp Blatter said, according to the…

Iran has continued to meet commitments under an interim nuclear agreement with six world powers, a new report by the UN’s atomic agency finds. The monthly update by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), seen by Reuters on Friday, said Iran was not enriching uranium above a fissile concentration of 5 percent, far below the…

Hezbollah has put one of its operatives on trial for treason, after he tipped off Israel about five operations to avenge the killing of Hezbollah’s top military commander Imad Mughniyeh, a security source told the Lebanese newspaper Daily Star. Hezbollah has arrested the informant – Mohammad Shawraba, head of the party’s so-called External Operations Unit,…

The FBI announced on Friday that North Korea is officially responsible for the cyberattack on Sony Pictures, according to CNN. An FBI investigation linked the malware, infrastructure and techniques a group of hackers called “Guardians of Peace” used in the Sony attack to previous North Korean cyberattacks. The North Korean-backed hackers broke into Sony’s servers,…

France and Britain said on Thursday that Iran has not demonstrated sufficient flexibility in nuclear talks with six world powers. According to Reuters, the remarks were made at the United Nations. They came just after the completion of another inconclusive round of negotiations in Geneva this week between Iranian officials and the United States, Britain,…

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Thursday and expressed concern over mass trials and the continued detention of journalists and peaceful activists, AFP reports. During a telephone call, the White House said, Obama encouraged Sisi to “invest in the political, economic, and social aspirations of the Egyptian people.”…

Hamas is claiming that its security forces in Gaza arrested an “Israeli agent” who was tasked with gathering information on the weapons presented by the Al-Qassam Brigades during a parade held this week to mark the anniversary of the establishment of Hamas. The Hamas-affiliated Al-Majd website reported on Thursday that the alleged “agent” admitted that…

The deputy speaker of the Swedish parliament caused an outrage by suggesting that Jews living in Sweden should ditch their identity if they wish to be considered Swedes. The claim by Bjorn Soder, of the Sweden Democrats party, was made in an interview with a Swedish newspaper, according to the International Business Times. In the…

Shai Malka, the director-general of the Manhigut Yehudit faction (lit. Jewish Leadership) in the Likud, which is headed by MK Moshe Feiglin, announced on Thursday that he will run in the Likud party’s primaries and compete for a spot on the party’s list for the 20th Knesset. Malka has been Feiglin’s parliamentary advisor over the…

The Central Committee of the Tekuma party will gather on Saturday night and decide whether or not Tekuma will run jointly with the Jewish Home in the next elections. The decision to let the members Central Committee determine what Tekuma will do was made during a meeting between the party’s MKs and the Tekuma rabbis.…

President Barack Obama on Thursday signed into law a measure that bars suspected Nazi war criminals from receiving Social Security, The Associated Press (AP) reports. The bill was unanimously approved two weeks ago by the House of Representatives and closes legal loopholes that have allowed some World War II-era Nazis to collect government benefits even…

After being arrested Tuesday morning with nine other members of his anti-assimilation Lehava organization on vague accusations of “incitement,” Lehava director Bentzi Gopshtain was finally released on Friday to five more days of house arrest. Gopshtain was joined by two other Lehava members being released Friday to house arrest – the other seven were freed…

The landmark $1 billion New York court case against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) on terrorism charges will be held as planned, after the rare appeal the two organizations filed this month in an attempt to stall the trial was overruled. The appeal, a writ of mandamus, was thrown out by presiding judge…

Israeli Air Force pilot Lt. Col. Ron Arad was abducted by terrorists in Lebanon back in 1986; now, 28 years later, his wife Tami opened up and recounted the many hardships suffered on the long road without her husband. Speaking to Yedioth Aharonoth, Tami noted that she was once informed that Ron died. “It was after seven years. Information…

A majority of the National Union/Tekuma party’s rabbis are against a split in the national-religious camp, Arutz Sheva has learned Friday. Three of the four Rabbis – Rabbi Isser Klonsky, Rabbi Chaim Steiner, and Rabbi Gidon Perl – opposed the split during the Thursday night meeting over the game-changing potential to break off from Jewish Home.  On…

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are claiming their most decisive victory yet against the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in northern Iraq, by breaking the jihadists’ siege of the strategic Mount Sinjar. Mount Sinjar has been the scene of one of the most high-profile humanitarian emergencies in the fight against ISIS, with thousands of Yazidi Kurds…

A full 1,100 high school seniors from twenty-five Jewish schools across France celebrated the third night of Hanukkah in Jerusalem Thursday, as part of the Jewish Agency’s ongoing efforts to reach out to the French Jewish community.  The teens were joined by Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky, who lit…

Four men in their thirties were found unconscious overnight Thursday/Friday, and are in critical condition after an apparent poisoning or drug overdose. The four collapsed next to a warehouse in the back of Ashdod’s “Trio” restaurant, next to the Keshtot Beach. They were found with no signs of external injuries.  United Hatzalah and Magen David…

There is clear evidence that Hamas has begun rebuilding its terror tunnels into Israel using international aid, Gal Berger from Reshet Bet reports Friday.  According to Berger, Hamas is not building new tunnels, but rebuilding the tunnel system destroyed during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza over the summer.  Palestinian Arab sources told the station that cement and…

Former Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud) responded to the Gaza rocket attack Friday morning, linking it to the European Union’s (EU) removal of Hamas from its terrorist organization list on Wednesday. “This morning the Europeans received more proof that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” released Danon in a statement after the rocket attack which…

At least one million people have been wounded and 200,000 killed in Syria since its years-long Civil War began in March 2011, Syria’s World Health Organization (WHO) representative stated to Reuters Friday.  “In Syria, they have a million people injured as a direct result of the war. You can see it in the country when you travel…

Thousands of protesters supporting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s rival Mohammed Dahlan demonstrated in front of Gaza City’s parliament building on Thursday, carrying posters accusing Abbas of corruption – that included images of Abbas being hung. The protest calling Abbas a “traitor” came after reportedly 100 PA security force members supportive of Dahlan, formerly…

Liverpool Football Club player Mario Balotelli faces a one-match suspension, a 25,000 pound ($39,176) fine, and an educational course, the Football Association ruled Thursday night, after posting racist and anti-Semitic comments on Instagram. “Following an independent regulatory commission hearing today Mario Balotelli has been fined £25,000, suspended for one-match with immediate effect, subject to any appeal,…

Will Israel’s political structure change drastically after the March 2015 elections? Dr. Eyal Levin, an expert in political psychology at the University of Ariel, stated to Arutz Sheva Friday that the answer is clear: Not at all. According to Levin, the series of political upheavals characterizing this round of elections – including the Hatnua-Labor pact, Moshe Kahlon’s new…

The 6th Annual Latke Festival in New York City was held this week in honor of Hanukkah, and to mark the Jewish holiday celebrating how the Maccabees defended Judaism from Greek occupiers – participants decided to submit non-kosher ham latke potato pancakes. A total of 24 restaurants and vendors took part in the potato pancake…

A rocket was fired from Gaza early Friday afternoon, breaking the truce reached at the end of the last Hamas terror war. “Color red” rocket warning sirens were sounded in communities in the Eshkol Regional Council area just outside of Gaza, and shortly thereafter it was reported that a rocket struck just outside a community…

Sarah, a 26-year-old medical engineer, is one of the ten members of the Lehava anti-assimilation organization that were thrown in jail as part of a police crackdown against the group this week on charges of “incitement” – she and six others were freed on Thursday. Speaking to Channel 10, she recounted her arrest saying “they turned…

After Likud MK Moshe Feiglin left the race for leadership of the party, only Likud Central Committee chairperson MK Danny Danon is left facing off against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for control of Likud. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Danon said that despite the frequent controversy between himself and Netanyahu the current race is not a personal…

The United States finally stated on Thursday that it will not support the Palestinian Authority (PA) resolution submitted to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, which demands that Israel withdraw from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem by 2017. Washington has seen the text of the draft resolution and “it is not something that we would…

Levi Rosenblatt, the 22-year-old who was stabbed in a shocking attack on the Crown Heights’ 770 Chabad Lubavitch center in Brooklyn, New York, was released from Bellevue Hospital Center on Wednesday, a mere eight days after the attack. In the attack Calvin Peters (49), who police report had a long arrest record and mental illness, entered…

The UN General Assembly on Thursday voted in favor of referring Kim Jong-Un’s North Korean regime to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where it will be tried for crimes against humanity. Responding to the vote, which passed by 116 to 20 with over 50 abstentions, North Korea called it “a product of political plot and…

After the Knesset approved a very watered down version of the Infiltrator Law last month, the High Court once again stepped in to block the law on Thursday for the third time running. The High Court issued a temporary order preventing the implementation of the recently amended law; the state will be required to respond…

Despite the fact that world nations pledged $5.4 billion to rebuild the Hamas stronghold of Gaza, the UN on Thursday claimed it’s running out of money to house families in the area, and doubled the estimate of homes damaged in Hamas’s latest terror war on Israel. “Unless the situation changes urgently, we will run out of…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas issued condemnations of two terrorist attacks within the span of a month – an investigation of the texts reveals there is a world of difference between apparently sincere condemnations he makes, and insincere ones when Jews at prayer are the victims. In the first of the two cases, both…

The Tekuma/National Union party council on Thursday evening discussed whether or not to run jointly with Jewish Home as it did in the last elections for the upcoming March 17 elections. At the end of the meeting a vote on the issue was held. Minister Uri Ariel, who heads the party, MK Zevulun Kalfa and…

In lighting the third candle for Hanukkah at his Jerusalem office on Thursday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) unilateral move the day before to submit a UN Security Council resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem by 2017. Referring to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas by…

On his personal Facebook page, MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz) attacked the possibility that MK Orit Struck will not be allowed on the party list of National Union, if it will join with Eli Yishai’s new Yachad party.  National Union/Tekuma Chairman Uri Ariel has been in talks with Yishai for days about the possibility of joining…

The Judicial Zionism organization called on Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein to prosecute the organizers of a fashion show held in a Tel Aviv synagogue while congregants sang “Shalom Aleichem.”  According to the organization, which espouses reinforcing the values of Zionism and Judaism through the legal world, the rarely used law, which prohibits any actions that…

Former MK Michael Ben-Ari on Thursday slammed police for their “invasion” of the offices of the new Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Strength) party in Jerusalem. “On false pretenses, and to make up for the severe criticism being levied at them, they decided that the best move was to come into our offices and interfere with the…

Vilely anti-Semitic French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala has announced he wants to meet with representatives of France’s Jewish community, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.  In an open letter sent by Dieudonne’s lawyers last week, a request was made to Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Gilles Clavreul, the French government’s interministerial delegate in the fight against anti-Semitism, to…

Tens of thousands of Israelis in the center of the country were without bus transportation Thursday, as over 1,800 drivers for the Kavim bus company went on strike. The strike – a “warning action,” union representatives said – would last throughout the end of the service day Thursday, with service resuming only at 4:30 AM…

For two years, MK Nissan Slomiansky (Jewish Home) worked “under the thumb” of ex-Finance Minister Yair Lapid and a mighty heavy thumb it was, Slomiansky told Arutz Sheva in an interview. “The Finance Minister is the most powerful figure in the country’s political system, and in the case of Lapid, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu preferred…

Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu Chairman Avigdor Liberman announced Wednesday evening that he is boycotting any meeting with the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Margot Wallstrom.  Liberman’s actions can be viewed as one of Israel’s first political reactions to the policy wave against Israel seen in the European Union, parliaments across Europe, and the United…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Libeman condemned the Palestinian Authority Thursday for submitting a draft resolution to the UN Security Council to force Israel to withdraw from all of Judea and Samaria, and most of Jerusalem. PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said Liberman, “is interested only in attacking Israel. The Palestinians have no other purpose. They will just…