Category: News

Iran is “stalling the time until they get the bomb,” Dr. Joseph Frager, Chairman of the World Committee for the Land of Israel, told Arutz Sheva at the Jaffa Institute Gala Dinner honoring Rabbi Yaakov Nasirov last week. “It’s going to happen while under President [Barack] Obama’s watch, and it will make his presidency one of the all-time…

MK Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home party reaffirmed Monday morning that her party and Likud have agreed to refrain from attacking each other “We have decided to talk in a positive manner, so as not to harm the right-wing bloc,” Shaked told Channel 10. “It is important to us that there will be a…

Israel and Mexico sealed an industrial research and development (RD) agreement over the weekend according to a government statement released Monday, putting the two nations in position to further advance their bilateral ties in a variety of joint projects. The agreement, which was signed by Israeli Ambassador to Mexico Rodica Radian Gordon, will see the Office…

At a Labor party meeting Monday afternoon, Chairman Yitzhak Herzog stated his intentions to form a large “centrist” leftist bloc and take over control of the country.  Last Friday evening Channel 10 News reported that Hatnua chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Herzog were very close to reaching an agreement under which they will run together in the next elections. Herzog would,…

Although Israel refuses to confirm or deny Syrian accusations that Israeli warplanes carried out two airstrikes near Damascus on Sunday, Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz made clear Monday that the Jewish state would not allow “sophisticated weapons” to fall into the hands of its enemies.  The two strikes on Sunday, allegedly targeting anti-tank rockets and surface-to-air missiles destined…

Attorney Betzalel Smutrich of the Regavim movement explained to Arutz Sheva what the recent rejections by the High Court of most of the petitions by radical leftist Peace Now activists to destroy six small communities in Judea and Samaria mean. According to the attorney, the ruling was important in terms of legal precedent, as he noted…

Deputy Transport Minister Tzipi Hotoveli (Likud) discussed the upcoming elections and explained that voting for Yisrael Beytenu can be a “dangerous” thing. In an interview with Erel Segal on Galei Israel Radio, MK Hotovely attacked both Avigdor Liberman and Moshe Kahlon for “taking a sharp leftward turn” and zigzaging ideologically. She warned: “It’s not [an…

Amnesty International’s data on Operation Protective Edge in Gaza is “faulty and incomplete,” the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor organization noted Monday – and organizations and journalists should not use Amnesty as a source.  “By Amnesty’s own admission, its methodology in Gaza is faulty and incomplete,” said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor.…

Syria, which accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes near their nation’s capital Sunday, subsequently complained to the United Nations about the strikes.  In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that Israel “has committed a heinous crime against the sovereignty of Syria.” Describing the “crime,” the letter continued:…

The head of the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei insists that US President Barack Obama is chasing after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, according to footage provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).  “When you see the American president knocking on every door just to meet our president for a few minutes,…

A preacher at the Al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem – Judaism’s holiest site – engaged in blatant incitement against Jews and Israel in an impromptu speech two weeks ago, in remarks translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.  “Let me start by saying that talking about the traits of the Jews requires…

The Subcommittee for Judea and Samaria of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee hosted on Sunday the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), Major General Yoav Mordechai, for a discussion of illegal construction in Judea and Samaria. According to information presented to the committee, about 550 illegal structures were built by Arabs…

Jewish Temple activist Yehuda Glick has gone back to the scene of the attempt on his life with a Channel 2 television crew, and recounted what transpired outside the Begin Center in Jerusalem on Wednesday, October 29. “I see myself downstairs, talking with the friends, with Shai [Malka] and Moriah,” he told the Uvda documentary…

The legal aid NGO Honenu, which assists Jews who are suspected of nationalist crimes, as well as IDF soldiers who face legal action for defending themselves in the line of duty, condemned on Sunday the decision by the Military Prosecution, to launch investigations against soldiers who were involved in five incidents during Operation Protective Edge, in which…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appears to have hinted at the reported strike against targets in Syria, several hours before it occurred, in a comment he made at the start of Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, as cameras rolled. “We are following with great alacrity the goings on in the Middle East,” Netanyahu said – “with alert…

Israel played a key role in stopping a deal with Iran on reining in Tehran’s nuclear program from going ahead last month, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday. The deal would have “effectively left Iran as a threshold nuclear power,” he told the Saban Forum, organized bythe Brookings Institution, in a recorded speech transmitted via satellite, adding that Israel’s “voice and…

MK Yifat Kariv (Yesh Atid) responded to reports from foreign media that the IDF struck Syrian Army targets in Dimas and near Damascus on Sunday – by claiming it was a calculated political move by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu before the elections. “Bibi cannot put together an alternative coalition and decided to choose the path…

The Central Unit of the Border Police, as well as the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet), has arrested several suspects in last week’s arson on a Jerusalem dual Arabic-Hebrew language kindergarten, it was cleared for publication Sunday.  The Petah Tikva Magistrate’s Court has, as of Sunday night, extended the detention of suspects for…

Syria on Sunday accused Israel of carrying out air strikes against two government-held areas in Damascus province, one of them near the capital’s international airport, state television said. “The Israeli enemy attacked Syria by targeting two safe areas in Damascus province, namely the Dimas area and the area of Damascus International Airport,” said the channel,…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is often touted by the West as a “peace partner” of Israel’s, recently declared that there are six million “Palestinian refugees”, and that he is one of them. Abbas’s comments were made in an interview with the Egyptian daily Akhbar Al-Yawm, published last week and translated by the…

Israel provided Jordan with information regarding a secret military organization within the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, whose goal was to purchase weapons and then smuggle them into the Palestinian Authority, Jordanian security sources told the Al-Hayat newspaper on Sunday. The security sources revealed that 31 members of the local branch of the Muslim Brotherhood have been…

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Sunday said he was “surprised” there were not more demonstrations on the streets against anti-Semitism and racism, in response to a brutal anti-Semitic attack on a young couple in Paris last week. “What happened in Creteil, this abominable crime, this violence, the rape of a young woman, (the attack on) a…

A Cairo court on Sunday referred four Muslim Brotherhood leaders, who are on trial for the killing of nine and injuring more than 90 in 2013, to Egypt’s grand mufti to consider the death penalty. The defendants in the case include 17 Brotherhood leaders, among which are former Parliament Speaker Saad El-Katatni, Brotherhood Supreme Guide…

Syria’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday demanded that the United Nations impose sanctions on Israel in response to what it termed “the Israeli aggression on the Syrian soil”, hours after Syria accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes against two government-held areas in Damascus province. In a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN…

A Muslim convert who left Canada last year to join the Islamic State (ISIS) resurfaced in a propaganda video on Sunday to threaten Canadians they will be “indiscriminately targeted” in retaliation for joining the international military coalition fighting the terror group. According to the National Post, in a six-minute video, the man said the October…

A political official on Sunday night rejected the allegations made by Knesset members from the opposition, who claimed that airstrikes in Syria attributed to the Israeli air force were carried out due to political considerations of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ahead of upcoming elections. “There is no political consideration in Israel’s military moves, without reference…

Nahum Barne’a, one of Israel’s most respected veteran journalists, admitted Sunday that he erred when he falsely quoted MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) as telling justice ministry officials she intends to become justice minister so that she can “destroy” them. Writing in Yediot Aharonot, Barne’a published a rare apology, admitting that the statement he ascribed…

Just a few days after their dramatic arrest amidst the Judean Desert cliffs, would-be thieves of ancient scrolls and precious archaeological artifacts were indicted this morning in a Be’er Sheva court. Concluding a year-long Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) operation to locate such thieves, with the help of Israel Police, this was the first time in…

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin expressed his concern Sunday morning over the public’s distrust of holding another election, which could result in a low turnout on election day.  In a speech at the Israeli Business Conference, held by newspaper Globes, Rivlin suggested that lack of public voting in the upcoming election could “cause disruption to the democratic system”…

Moshe Kahlon, whose new party is expected to receive 7-10 Knesset seats according to recent polling, truly meant what he said when he spoke of making land concessions for peace, says ex-MK Carmel Shama-Hacohen. Shama-Hacohen denied, in an IDF Radio interview Sunday, that he himself would be running for the Knesset in Kahlon’s list, or…

The Likud Central Committee will meet Monday in Ariel to approve conduct rules for its primary elections. The primaries will determine the party’s leader as well as its Knesset list for March’s upcoming elections.  Danny Danon, the Likud Central Committee Chairman, who has often clashed with current party leader, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, revealed the…

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett expounded his political vision and discussed upcoming elections Saturday night at the Saban Forum in Washington during an interview with Martin Indyk, US President Barack’s Obama’s envoy to Israel-Palestinian Authority peace talks.  In a heated portion of the dialogue, Bennett asked Indyk: “How many people need to die before you wake…

Prominent Israeli novelists and left-wing thinkers Amos Oz, A.B. Yehoshua, and David Grossman have attached their signatures to a letter calling on European parliaments to recognize the “State of Palestine” alongside Israel.  The left-wing initiative has so far collected signatures of some eight hundred Israelis. The letter was sent Sunday, specifically to members of the…

Daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported Sunday morning that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is looking into the possibility of forming a new coalition with hareidi parties without holding an election, and is trying to enlist Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s support for this move. According to the report, Netanyahu came to Nokdim, where Yisrael Beytenu head Liberman…

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke on Friday night at the Saban Forum in Washington and said that her country should strengthen its ties with Israel. Clinton dismissed reports of tensions between Jerusalem and Washington, saying the cooperation between the two countries is “quite extraordinary” and citing “funding of the Iron Dome, the…

Shas is not obligated to support Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu after the elections, its chairman MK Aryeh Deri made clear on Saturday night. “We have no obligation, but I do not belong to the ‘Anyone but Netanyahu’ coalition,” Deri said in a interview on Channel 10 News. “If Netanyahu goes with what we believe in,…

Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai is considering becoming an MK, Labor members close to Huldai’s office told Walla! News Sunday – and has already been making preparations for a national campaign ahead of the 2015 elections in March. “As far as we know, there have been no attempts to stop Huldai from running from within the party,” senior…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party has denied blame for the current round of elections Sunday, after Likud sources and MK Yariv Levin claimed the party refused to cooperate in a coalition with the hareidi parties. “Why do we oppose the construction of an alternative government in this Knesset?” the party stated, “Because it…

Eight teenagers from the northern Israeli town of Fureidis were recently arrested on suspicion of involvement in manufacturing pipe bombs and throwing a pipe bomb at a police car, it was cleared for publication Sunday, during violent Arab rioting on November 9. The eight were arrested as part of a joint operation of the Israel…

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee debated Sunday a groundbreaking proposal to offset the money Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority (PA) by funneling money given to terrorists back into the State. MK Orit Struk (Jewish Home), one of the initiators of the bill, noted that funds given to the PA are a significant…

A Palestinian man who was injured in the November 5 car attack at a Jerusalem light rail station outside the Old City succumbed to his wounds Sunday. Abd al-Karim Nafith Hamid, 60, was injured when terrorist Ibrahim al-Akkari plowed his car into a group of pedestrians, killing a border police officer and a 17-year-old yeshiva student, and wounding…

An Eilat resident filed a class action suit in the Tel Aviv District Court Sunday, on behalf of all the residents of Eilat against the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC) for last week’s oil spill in the Arava desert. The class action suit, amounting to 380 million shekel ($95.4 million), was brought by Eilat resident Lisa…

With elections in the air, pollsters are already working frantically to predict how Israel’s 20th Knesset will look come March 18. Will a “right-wing” bloc mobilize to ensure a staunchly nationalist government? Does it even need to? Or will the flagging Israeli Left mobilize a bloc of their own – an eventuality which one recent…

France’s interior minister vowed Sunday to make the fight against anti-Semitism a “national cause” after the country was rocked by a brutal anti-Semitic attack on a young couple in Paris. Speaking at a rally in the Paris suburb of Creteil, where the attack took place on Monday, Bernard Cazeneuve said: “We need to make the…

Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, admitted on Saturday night he has an “arrangement” with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud party, according to which the sides will not attack one another during the election campaign. Bennett’s revelation came in a discussion at the Saban Forum in Washington, where he…

Egyptian authorities have enacted new rules that ban their countrymen from travelling to Turkey without a permit, a move intended to stem terrorist recruitment, Egyptian airport officials told The Associated Press (AP) on Saturday. According to the officials, Egyptians aged 18-40 now need to apply for security clearance in central Cairo ahead of departure to…

British-born American journalist Luke Somers and a South African teacher, Pierre Korkie, were killed on Saturday by Al-Qaeda terrorists in Yemen during a failed rescue bid. According to the BBC, Saturday’s operation was carried out by joint U.S. and Yemeni special forces in the southern Shabwa region. The two hostages were being held by Al-Qaeda…

Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni says she is “ready to be Prime Minister”. Speaking to Channel 2 News on Saturday night, the head of the Hatnua party confirmed reports that she and Labor leader MK Yitzhak Herzog were holding talks about running together in the next elections, and predicted that a joint list will ultimately…

Opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog (Labor) is joining in on the efforts to secure the release of Jonathan Pollard. Herzog, currently in the United States for the Saban Forum on Saturday met with American officials and asked them to be considerate of Pollard’s medical condition. The meetings came a day after Pollard, who just recently…

Lander College for Men (LCM)-Beit Midrash L’Talmud (Talmud study hall) in Queens, NY will host an honorary “Chag HaSmicha” dinner for its students next week Sunday, as a tribute to its graduating students.  The smicha program at the Beis Medrash L’Talmud immerses students in Shas (the Talmud) and deepens their understanding of Halakha (Jewish Law),…

Chabad’s annual Yud Tet Kislev holiday will be commemorated this week in a number of memorable ways. The main event will be held this coming Wednesday and Thursday at the Jerusalem Convention Center (JCC, Binyanei HaUmah). The original copy of the prayerbook of the famed Maggid of Mezritch will be on display there, together with…

Dr. Inna Rogatchi, president of the Rogatchi Foundation, author, film-maker, philanthropist and publicist whose op-eds on Arutz Sheva aattract a wide audience, has become the third person and the first woman awarded the Solidarity Prize by The Patmos Foundation. In the foundation’s words, the prize was awarded for her ‘life-long mission for the sake of the…

Israel’s former ambassador to the United States Dr. Michael Oren addressed the Saban Forum Saturday on the topic of the political process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority – and had some damning words for the Israeli Left. “The Left in Israel has crashed, because it has not yet internalized that the Palestinians are not…

US Vice President Joe Biden Saturday dismissed the “malarkey” about efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran, and reassured Israel its security would not be put at risk. “There’s absolutely no daylight, none, between us and the Israelis on the question of Israel’s security,” Biden told the pro-Israel Saban Forum in Washington. “But as friends we have an obligation to…

Col. (res.) Danny Efroni, Chief Military Advocate General (MAG) of the IDF, ordered investigations to be launched by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) against soldiers over claims of unusual incidents during Operation Protective Edge. Among the instances, Efroni ordered an investigation into the killing of four children on a fishing beach adjacent to Gaza Port, saying…

Egypt held its “Badr 2014” military maneuver between October 11 and November 6, its largest exercise since 1996 which was only half the size – according to a senior security expert the Nile state has its sights on Israel, despite the peace treaty. Col. (res.) Dr. Shaul Shay, former deputy head of the Israel National…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reportedly is working to advance Likud primary votes, so as to prevent former Likud Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar from challenging him for leadership of the party. Sa’ar only has a week left before the period in which he can submit candidacy for Likud leadership ends, meaning that Netanyahu’s advancement of the…

After losing consciousness and being hospitalized last Friday, 60-year-old Jonathan Pollard has emerged from the imminent danger posed to his health – and been returned to his jail cell, where he has been incarcerated for the past 30 years. Pollard’s wife Esther was informed of his release from the hospital. Apparently he will need to…

As reports flood in of a hareidi coalition being eyed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and even Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid, who ran on an anti-hareidi ticket, a new poll shows that a full 62% do not want to see the hareidi parties in the next coalition government. The poll, which was conducted by…

Pakistan’s military on Saturday said it eliminated Al-Qaeda’s global operations chief, Adnan el Shukrijumah, who had planned bombing attacks on trains in New York and London. Shukrijumah was taken out in a raid in South Waziristan in the country’s northwest, a region bordering Afghanistan, reports BBC. Two other terrorists were killed in the Saturday raid according…

45 Republican Congressmen fired off a stern letter to President Barack Obama demanding that he “clarify recent reports” which suggest his Administration has held classified meetings over the past several weeks to discuss the possibility of imposing sanctions against Israel for its decision to construct homes in eastern Jerusalem. Congressman Mark Meadows tweeted that the anti-Israel…

Former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon, who is forming his own party and will run for the next Knesset, said on Friday he would not rule out giving up territory for peace. Kahlon, who is mostly known for his social platform, met youth activists in Tel Aviv and said he would not hesitate to concede land…

Frenchman Mehdi Nemmouche, suspected of killing four people at Brussels’ Jewish Museum in May, was remanded in custody for another three months on Friday, judicial officials said, according to AFP. Nemmouche, 29, of Algerian origin and who spent more than a year fighting with Islamic extremists in Syria, has been charged with “murder in a…

U.S. President Barack Obama met on Friday with King Abdullah II of Jordan at the White House, saying he was “concerned” about the tensions between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs. “We share concerns about the continuous tensions between Israel and Gaza,” Obama was quoted by UPI as having said following the meeting, adding, “We are going…

As speculated, United States President Barack Obama on Friday named Ashton Carter, a technocrat and academic with deep experience working in the Pentagon, to replace Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Obama praised the 60-year-old former deputy defense secretary, saying that he would bring to the job “a unique blend of strategic perspective and technical know-how,”…

France said on Friday it had agreed to put $60 million into a fund managed by the United States to compensate Holocaust victims deported by French state rail firm SNCF to Nazi death camps, Reuters reports. About 76,000 Jews were arrested in France during World War Two and transported in appalling conditions in railway boxcars…

Channel 10 News reported on Friday evening that Hatnua chairwoman Tzipi Livni and Labor chairman Yitzhak Herzog are very close to reaching an agreement under which they will run together in the next elections. According to the report, the two have already agreed on several principals. As part of the agreement being formulated, the second…

Reports on Friday indicated a rapidly forming coalition between Opposition and Labor party chairman Yitzhak Herzog and Hatnua chairperson Tzipi Livni, in which the two would likely form a joint list – with Kadima possibly joining along for the ride. According to Walla!, Herzog and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid are competing to bring Livni into…

The National Unit for Prison Investigations arrested a 20-year-old prison guard on Friday, after the jail guard had planned to pass a cell phone to a Fatah terrorist jailed in Israel.  During investigation, the guard admitted that the had planned to transfer the device to the security prisoner, and that he had made similar transfers…

Is the rift between President Reuven Rivlin and singer Amir Benayoun over his recent song against Arab Israelis who commit terrorist attacks, which Rivlin responded to by disinviting him from an official performance, irreparable?  Rabbi Dr. Benny Lau, a high-profile religious-Zionist figure, revealed he is trying to bridge that rift while speaking with his brother Chief…

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal has blamed the rise of terror in Jerusalem and in Israel as a whole on a “spontaneous reaction to Israeli stubbornness,” in an interview with Sky News Friday morning.  Mashaal, who gave his first interview since Operation Protective Edge in Gaza and spoke from Hamas headquarters in Qatar, blamed Israel and Prime…

A new US poll found that a full 34% of Americans support a one-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, by which all of Israel’s territory would become a single state with equal rights for all citizens. The poll, held by the Saban Forum, noted a 10% increase in support for the one-state solution from the…

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday made a surprising statement during his annual state of the union address, in which he talked about his country’s “absolutely legitimate” annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in March amid a Russian military invasion. According to Putin, the historic landmarks of Crimea are sacred for Russians, and are as important…

More than 140 Canadian citizens have been involved in terror activities outside Canadian borders, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Services (CSIS), Michel Coloumbe, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner, Bob Paulson, revealed to Parliament earlier this week. Over the past two years, the Canadians have committed dozens of terror attacks and participated…

Outgoing United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that he and President Barack Obama had “no major differences” that led to Hagel’s resignation, The Associated Press (AP) reported. Hagel said he simply came to the conclusion that it was the right time for him to step aside, and he leaves believing that he accomplished…

The Jordanian parliamentarian who led a prayer in parliament in honor of the two terrorists who murdered five people in a Jerusalem synagogue has reaffirmed his hatred for Jews. “I hate the Jews, I hate the Jews, I hate the Jews,” the MP, Khalil Attieh, on a television show featuring Jordanian MPs discussing parliament’s moment…

Tel Aviv district police launched a massive crackdown Thursday night closing 30 African bars in the Old Central Bus Station of the city, which served as crime dens for illegal infiltrators and posed security threats due to extreme sub-par safety standards. Over 150 police officers, Yassam SWAT forces, tax investigators, as well as representatives of…

Jonathan Pollard (60), who just recently began his 30th year of incarceration in the US on charges of spying for Israel, lost consciousness on Friday and was admitted to a hospital outside the prison. Pollard’s wife Esther was informed about his hospitalization; his health has been gradually worsening over his many years behind American bars,…

Yesh Atid MK Rabbi Dov Lipman sharply criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in an interview with Arutz Sheva on Friday, claiming that Netanyahu is unsuitable to be Prime Minister and that he is only interested in gaining power.  “We have unnecessary elections now that the Prime Minister says he wants to hold,” Lipman stated. “What was…

Members of the Lehava anti-assimilation organization, led by director Bentzi Gopshtain, protested on Thursday night outside the Rami Levy supermarket in Jerusalem’s Givat Shaul over the employment of Arab workers at the store. Just on Wednesday a 16-year-old Arab terrorist stabbed two Jewish shoppers at a Rami Levy branch in Mishor Adumim to the east of Jerusalem.…

Coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) and Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked signed Thursday an agreement which would benefit both parties in the 20th Knesset elections. The agreement, a “surplus vote agreement,” stipulates that additional votes from the two parties – votes which do not amount to a Knesset seat for either party if counted…

A recently published report claiming that Washington is determined to condemn the Israeli government even more in the next several months for its construction in Judea-Samaria is a media ploy to sway public opinion, an expert on US-Israel relations told Arutz Sheva Friday.  On Thursday, Haaretz reported that the US is considering sanctions against Israel over the construction,…

Housing Minister Uri Ariel, head of the National Union party’s Tekuma faction that ran on a joint list with Jewish Home in the last elections, spoke on Friday morning about the deep divides between his party and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home. Ariel spoke about the ongoing unification discussions he has been holding with…

The cost of the massive pipeline oil spill in the Arava desert, near Be’er Ora 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Eilat in the southern Negev, will cost Israel a whopping 30 million shekels ($7.6 million) according to Dr. Gilad Golub, director of Israel’s Environmental Services Company. Golub told Walla! that the value of the oil spilled stands between…

MK Elazar Stern (Hatnua) aroused controversy Thursday when he said, in a conference hosted by Besheva magazine, that public leaders should not rely exclusively on G-d. “We have to hope, we need to pray, but to be rational,” he explained. “In the places that I am aware of, when we only trusted G-d, we lost…

The judicial branch in Israel is more powerful than the executive and legislative ones, Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked stated Thursday at an Israel Bar Association conference in Tel Aviv – and she vowed to do something about it in the next Knesset. “My world view and that of many other MKs from various factions…

Rome has a new walk on its historical tourism circuit on a dark page of history: a virtual stroll through the streets of the ghetto to which Jews were confined for more than three centuries in an anti-Semitic policy. From Friday, visitors to the Italian capital’s Jewish museum will be able to explore the jumbled, overcrowded neighborhood as it…

Former Likud Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who last month stepped down to take a break from politics, is reportedly currently considering a comeback to challenge Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for control of Likud. Likud activists checked in recent days to see if Sa’ar could still run in January primaries, and found that the latest date…

A new poll shows that Opposition and Labor party chair Yitzhak Herzog and Hatnua head Tzipi Livni would be the largest party if they unified into a leftist front – although they still likely wouldn’t be able to stop Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s chances of forming a new coalition. Livni and Yesh Atid chairperson Yair Lapid…

Amid great tensions over hareidi enlistment, about 60 hareidi soldiers joined the ranks of the IAF Tuesday as part of the Shahar Kahol project, writes the IAF Website. The new recruits will be integrated into a variety of professions and roles in the IAF, including programmers in the IAF’s Ofek computer unit, software inspectors, network…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Hussein demanded that Israel transfer to the PA the bodies of the two “martyr” Arab terrorists Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal, who murdered five in an attack with hatchets, knives and guns on a Jerusalem synagogue in Har Nof two weeks ago. Hussein, who in the past said Muslims…

To a thronging crowd in the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber in the UN’s headquarters in New York City, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor declaimed Wednesday that the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries who fled in the aftermath of Israel’s creation in 1948 “deserve justice – and we [Israel]…

MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) told Arutz Sheva on Thursday that Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid indeed tried to organize a putsch against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with the hareidi parties, as Netanyahu accused Lapid of doing in a press conference this week. However, Ze’ev said, Lapid did not directly approach Shas but rather sent “messengers”…

An official in Hamas recently vowed to annihilate the “brothers of apes and pigs” – that is, the Jews. The comments by former Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad aired on the Al-Jazeera Network on October 31 and were translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “We say to the brothers of apes and…

Former Minister Moshe Kahlon’s party does not even have a name, but has already attracted much interest and been the subject of speculation. Kahlon has yet to officially announce the names of any candidates who will run with him in the upcoming elections, but Israeli media reported on Thursday about several names who were reportedly…

Top Nazi fugitive Alois Brunner died in Syria at least two decades ago, a renowned French Nazi hunter said Thursday, disputing recent claims he died four years ago. Brunner, who topped most wanted lists over the Holocaust, “died in his bed but he died 20 years ago or more, in my opinion,” French lawyer Serge…

Belgium is jumping on the “recognition of Palestine” bandwagon, according to The Associated Press (AP). The news agency reported that Belgian legislators are working on a resolution to recognize a Palestinian state but the government says any timing to proceed will depend on European Union action. Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said on Wednesday he…

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett met on Thursday afternoon with Housing Minister Uri Ariel, who heads the National Union/Tekumah faction of the Jewish Home party. Bennett’s office said that the meeting was conducted in a good atmosphere and that the two agreed to continue talks in the coming days. Ariel and Jewish Home chairman Naftali…

MK Binyamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) was admitted to the Assaf Harofeh Hospital on Thursday evening after feeling unwell. The hospital said that Ben-Eliezer was in light condition and was hospitalized due to fever. He is in stable condition and fully conscious. In May, Ben-Eliezer underwent a kidney transplant but resumed political activity immediately after the surgery,…

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has revealed that the Syrian government’s Counterterrorism and Religious Extremism Conference is the latest conference organized by a foreign government that has attracted American anti-Semites. The conference in Syria, held on November 30 and December 1, brought together representatives from 25 countries with Syrian government officials who reportedly harshly criticized the…

Trading at NIS 3.98/dollar at the opening of business Thursday morning, the once-mighty shekel is likely to go north of 4 to the dollar by the end of this week – and the bottom is nowhere in site, say economists, considering the prospects for government instability until at least after the upcoming March 2015 elections.…

Hatnua Chairman Tzipi Livni, following in the footsteps of other dismissed minister, Yair Lapid, issued a personal attack against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Thursday morning. “Netanyahu is frightened,” Livni stated to Yediot Aharonoth, “And unfortunately he passed this fear on to large segments of the public. Israel is a strong country with a weak prime minister,” she…

Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) called on former Likud Minister Moshe Kahlon Thursday to declare that he will only be a partner in a nationalist government.  Hotovely’s Facebook comments came a day after Channel 10 News reported that Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman and Kahlon are considering cooperating with one another in the next elections.  This…

The United States is considering taking “harsher action” against Israeli construction efforts in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, reports Thursday said. According to the report in Ha’aretz, the White House has been discussing taking “active measures” to discourage Israeli construction, instead of just issuing condemnations, as it has done until now. But commentators on…

Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen has threatened to execute a British-born American journalist if its demands are not met within three days. 33-year-old Luke Somers was kidnapped by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in September 2013 in the Yemeni capital Sana’a. US special forces reportedly attempted to free him as recently as November…

Environmental activists have declared an “environmental disaster” in Israel’s Arava desert, after thousands of cubic meters of crude oil spilled out from a leaking pipeline overnight Tuesday. The leak, about 20 kilometers north of Eilat, has spilled oil hundreds of meters from Road 90, where the leak was first detected, into the surrounding desert and…

Reports have surfaced that a Malaysian hairdresser in Seremban requires his customers to step on an Israeli flag, serving as a doormat, upon entering his hair salon.  The barbershop in southeast Malaysia called “Hair Styles for Men” offers its customers a variety of special and unusual haircuts, provided they must step on a rug in…

While social activists celebrated the increase in Israel’s minimum wage Wednesday, officials in a number of low-margin industries were expressing worry at how to pay for the wage increase. Speaking to business daily Calacalist, officials in the grocery and supermarket industry said that they now had no choice but to lay off workers. A senior member of…

The already low cellphone service prices in Israel are set to drop even lower, after the entry of yet another low-cost service provider to the market. Walla Phone is now open for business, and is offering a discount deal of unlimited calls within Israel, plus 3 gigabytes of data surfing, for NIS 39 (about $10)…

The Rami-Levy supermarket in Mishor Adumim re-opened its doors to the public Wednesday evening, only two hours after the terrorist stabbing attack, which left two people moderately injured. However, concerns and fear remained, particularly in the Mishor Adumim industrial area where both Palestinians and Israelis frequent for shopping and trade.  Rami Levy, the CEO and owner…

The Prime Minister’s Bureau denies reports that it is trying to split the Yesh Atid party and get some of its members to stay in the coalition alongside hareidi parties, thus making it possible to avoid early elections. The bureau issued a statement Thursday according to which “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is not taking action…

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday slammed an “unbearable” anti-Semitic attack on a couple by assailants who apparently targeted them because the man is Jewish, storming into their flat, raping the woman and stealing jewelry and bank cards. Both the country’s prime minister and interior minister have already blasted the brutal assault, which happened on…

Fascinating new details have emerged regarding Canadian-Israeli Gill Rosenberg (31), who made waves when she joined the Kurdish forces battling against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria, and who on Monday dispelled rumors she had been captured. The Canadian National Post released an investigative report into Rosenberg’s background on Thursday, dispelling myths and detailing the…

Reportedly elements within the ruling Likud party are making last ditch efforts to avoid elections by getting the two hareidi parties – Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ) – to join the coalition instead of Hatnua and Yesh Atid, which have been booted from it. In addition, the two-seat Kadima party is also being wooed. If…

The Israel Air Force is shopping around for new non-combat recruits to work in support roles – and among the places it is shopping is in the religious-Zionist Hesder Yeshiva movement. Armed with statistics showing off the “high value” of Hesder soldiers, Air Force brass have asked Hesder Yeshiva heads to promote service in the…

A major pipeline leak has caused oil to gush into the Arava desert in southern Israel threatening a protected nature reserve, officials said Thursday, as roughly 80 people over the Jordanian border sought medical care due to the fumes. The incident took place roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of the Red Sea resort city of Eilat and 500…

The anti-Zionist Satmar sect of Hassidic Judaism has offered to pay $100 to every Israeli who won’t vote in the elections for the 20th Knesset on March 17, 2015, Walla! News reported.  According to senior Satmar officials, the intention is to prevent as many Israeli citizens from voting on election day as possible.  The distribution of the…

Proof has now been produced that the Associated Press implemented a policy of banning quotes from the head of NGO Monitor on Israel-Gaza issues. NGO Monitor attempts to fight the anti-Israel bias of seemingly objective non-governmental organizations. One of its blatant campaigns was after the recent conflict in Gaza, when Israel was under a heavy…

In the past month, Hamas, the terror organization that controls the Gaza Strip, has increased its rocket launching from Gaza into the sea, as part of test experiments for its rocket system.  In just the past two days, there have been seven such launches. Two of them occurred Thursday morning, Walla! News reported. The threatening show of force…

A series of letters from French nationals, who have left home to join the terrorist group Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, were published recently by the Le Figaro newspaper. The letters offer a rare glimpse into the lives of these unhappy militants – some even begging to come home – whose complaints range from…

Knesset Committee Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) explained to Arutz Sheva why the coalition dissolved Wednesday, noting that, in his eyes, “the writing was on the wall.”  “The writing was on the wall, there was no choice but to take this step,” Levin told Arutz Sheva Wednesday night. “It is very unfortunate that we are going to…

Pentagon officials believe Iran conducted airstrikes against the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) in Iraq in recent days – marking the first time Tehran has deployed its air force against the jihadi group and confirming previous reports of direct Iranian intervention. According to Reuters, senior US officials said there was evidence to suggest Iran had deployed…

A Paris court has sentenced the killers of an Israeli woman in 2011 on Wednesday, with the two defendants sentenced to five years and 15 months in prison.  Pilates instructor Lee Zeitouni, 25, was hit by a speeding BMW on a city street in September 2011 and left to die when the drivers failed to stop.…

Israel is not the only country going to snap elections after a coalition crisis exploded this week: Sweden, too, will hold elections in the near future – just two months after the current government was elected to power. The sudden elections were called Wednesday after the populist Democrats joined the center-right opposition against the current…

Arutz Sheva has obtained an audio recording of the Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedic who was wounded in Wednesday’s stabbing in a Mishor Adumim Rami Levy store calling the MDA number, 101 – Israel’s equivalent of 9-1-1.  During the conversation, the paramedic can be heard briefing civilians nearby how to handle the attack.  “Listen: I am injured…

Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely spoke with Arutz Sheva Wednesday evening about her efforts to forge a united right-wing bloc to run in next March’s general elections – and said the Israeli electorate should be focusing on the policies of candidates, not their personalities. “The time has come to stop dealing all the time with the…

Yesh Atid party leader Yair Lapid has lashed out at Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following last night’s blistering attack by the PM on the now-fired Finance Minister, as well as former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni. Noting the “personal attack” directed towards him by Netanyahu – who accused Lapid and Livni of leading a “putsch” from…

The Jerusalem city council said Wednesday it will spend millions of dollars beautifying Har Homa (Homat Shmuel), and will use 50 millionshekels ($12.5 million, 10.2 million euros) to fund development in the neighborhood, according to AFP.  The money will be channeled toward construction of a park, children’s playgrounds, green spaces, new street lighting, as well as football and basketball grounds, the council said. …

Political tensions have spilled far beyond the Knesset plenum, Walla! News reports Wednesday – after Shas MK Eli Yishai filed a report to the Knesset police stating that he had been threatened if he formed a new party. Yishai stated that he had received several anonymous phone calls, during which he was threatened to be “stabbed” if…

France’s interior minister on Wednesday condemned an “anti-Semitic” attack on a young couple that saw armed assailants storm into their apartment, rape the woman and steal jewelry and bank cards. Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement quoted by AFP that the “anti-Semitic nature (of the attack) seems proven,” adding that the assailants “started…

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman and former Minister Moshe Kahlon are considering cooperating with one another in the next elections, Channel 10 News revealed on Wednesday. According to the report, the three have been discussing ways to cooperate over the past several weeks. This cooperation could come into play after…

The United States Congress voted unanimously Wednesday to pass legislation making Israel a “major strategic partner” of the United States, deepening a bilateral bond that has recently shown signs of strain, AFP reports. In a voice vote, the House approved the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014, which expands cooperation in defense and security,…

Al-Qaeda terrorists have claimed responsibility for a car bomb that killed three people at the Iranian ambassador’s residence in Yemen on Wednesday, Reuters reports. Wednesday’s bombing, the second in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa claimed by Al-Qaeda in as many months, blew a large hole in the Iranian residence and sent rubble flying across the…

French police have arrested two men in the city of Creteil after a young couple were assaulted in a suspected anti-Semitic incident, the European Jewish Press (EJP) reports, citing the French newspaper Le Parisien. The two suspects, both adults, are in police custody for questioning while a third suspect is still being sought. The attack…

An oil pipeline burst in southern Israel on Wednesday night, causing thousands of cubic meters of crude oil to spill onto Highway 90, the main road leading towards the resort city of Eilat. As a result of the leak, Highway 90 was blocked to traffic from Be’er Ora to Ketura in both directions, a distance…

Arutz Sheva learned on Wednesday that Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) and MK Eli Yishai (Shas) met this week and discussed the possibility of establishing a joint party. Political sources said that the plan is that Ariel and Yishai will split off from their parties with the members of their camp, that is Yishai…

The heads of all Knesset parties met Wednesday morning at Knesset Speaker MK Yuli Edelstein’s (Likud) office to set a date for upcoming snap elections. The elections will be held next March 17, which falls on a Tuesday. Setting the date for elections comes after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu dismissed ministers Tzipi Livni and Yair…

Jewish Israeli teenagers have faced more anti-Semitism and anti-Israel expressions online in 2014 than they have in previous years, a new poll reveals.  The poll, conducted in Hebrew by the Israeli polling company Geocartography, was sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) – an international organization based in the United States which fights against anti-Semitism and…

Only one politician stands to gain from these very early national elections, and his fingerprints are all over it. His name is Naftali Bennett, and he is proving to be the smartest and most dynamic player in the Israeli political system at this time. Bennett stands to gain because, according to every single poll, his…

Two people were injured in a stabbing attack Wednesday afternoon, after a terrorist began attacking civilians at a Rami-Levy superstore in Mishor Adumim, near Ma’ale Adumim in the Jerusalem area. Magen David Adom (MDA) forces arrived at the scene shortly after the attack began at around 4:20 p.m., and gave emergency first-aid treatment to the…

Early elections may not be the only shake-up in Israel’s leadership, Channel 2 reports Wednesday: the dissolution of the Knesset may postpone the appointment of a new Police Commissioner as well – just as tensions over his role as a policeman and public figure reached an all-time high.  The declaration of an official date for elections…

Deputy Transportation Minister and prominent Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely is working towards forming a united right-wing bloc to run in general elections early next year, including Likud, Jewish Home and Moshe Kahlon’s new party. Polls show such a bloc would do well, and impact considerably on the character of the next prime minister. On Wednesday,…

Former Likud MK and political candidate Moshe Kahlon has outlined some of his new party’s platform, Walla! News reports Wednesday – one focused on economic development and fixing the cost of living crisis.  “We need a new framework with fresh faces, who are determined, who come to serve the public, not to serve their own power,” Kahlon…

Tensions flared between the Jewish Home party and the National Union’s Tekuma faction, which ran on a joint list in the last elections but are experiencing heavy friction in trying to unify ahead of March 17 elections. The most recent spat came after Minister for Senior Citizens MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) took a dig…

Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz (Likud) let slip during a speech from the Knesset podium Wednesday that Israel is engaged in “a sensitive, large scale intelligence effort to deny Iran nuclear weapons.” Steinitz was responding to a no-confidence bill submitted by Labor head MK Yitzhak Herzog, and extolling the leadership abilities of the government under…

The Jerusalem Kivun Center, an employment center opened in March as part of an Economy Ministry initiative, has announced its 500th job placement indicating success in bringing hareidim into the work force. The Economy Ministry initiatives aims to increase employment among hareidi men from 45% in 2012 to 63% in 2012, with a budget of…

Muslim Arab terrorists hurled a pipe bomb at about 1 a.m., Tuesday night at a Border Police vehicle that was driving on the military road next to the security barrier at Abu Dis, just east of Jerusalem. No one was reported hurt in the ambush, which led policemen – along with another Border Police team…

Fijian President Frank Bainimarama began a three day visit to Israel on Monday ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Tuesday evening, after the latter fired key ministers and sent Israel to snap elections. Bainimarama, who was elected in September, is the first democratically elected president in Fiji’s history. The country has just come…

Knesset Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) on Tuesday night invited all Knesset party heads to his office Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. to set the date for snap elections, in a meeting even before the Knesset votes on opposition bills to disband the Knesset. The party heads will set a date between them for elections…

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to disband the Knesset. Kerry said that whatever government will be formed, he hoped it would be able to “negotiate and move towards resolving differences between Israelis and Palestinians.” In April, Kerry’s push for peace talks were torpedoed right ahead of their…

Rabbi David M. Feldman, Rabbi-Emeritus of the Jewish Center of Teaneck, New Jersey, passed away on Friday at the age of 85.  Rabbi Feldman was known as a pioneering expert on medical ethics and Jewish Law (halakha), on which he wrote several books, including the multi-edition “Birth Control in Jewish Law.” This work includes an introduction on the…

Leftist MK Stav Shaffir (Labor), a former leader of the social protest movements, hailed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision Tuesday night to disband the coalition government, firing ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni. Shaffir referred to Netanyahu by his nickname saying “the state of Israel isn’t stuck with Bibi anymore.” “The time has come for the…

In a Facebook post, Elderly Affairs Minister Uri Orbach said that his Jewish Home party had not sought elections at this time. “Despite the polls that show us gaining strength, and despite the opportunity to grow even further, we did not seek elections. It was the ongoing rift between Prime Minister (Binyamin) Netanyahu and Finance…

While no date has been set for elections yet, the Central Elections Commission has been preparing for weeks for the possibility that a vote would be held soon – and one of the ideas it has been considering is the implementation of electronic voting, at least to some extent, in the upcoming elections. However, it’s…

After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fired ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni on Tuesday paving the way for snap elections, a Channel 2 poll has shown what results can possibly be expected from the upcoming voting session. According to the poll, Likud would remain the largest party if elections were held today, gaining 22 mandates. Jewish Home…

With elections almost certain to be called in the coming months given Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s dismissal of ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni, parties from all parts of the political spectrum are preparing for the big event – among them the Arab parties. Speaking Tuesday, radical pro-Hamas Arab MK Hanin Zoabi, currently suspended from…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after 8 p.m., less than two hours after firing coalition members Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government. “I turn to you tonight because in the current situation, in the current government, it is impossible…

The House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously approved a new bill stipulating that that Nazis should not get Social Security benefits, AFP reports. By a vote of 420-0, the House of Representatives passed the No Social Security for Nazis Act, a bill that closes legal loopholes that have allowed a small number of World War…

The UN General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved an Arab-backed resolution criticizing Israel for refusing to join an international treaty against nuclear proliferation, according to The Associated Press (AP). The resolution notes that Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that is not party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). It…

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid on Tuesday evening spoke with opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog (Labor) and assured him that he will not try to assume his position, now that he and the rest of his ministers have left the government. Lapid’s decision not to ask to head the opposition comes despite the fact that…

Jordan on Tuesday launched a bid to win backing for a UN resolution on a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement that could be presented to the Security Council in the coming weeks, AFP reports. Jordan’s Ambassador to the UN, Dina Kawar, said she would be meeting with representatives from Arab countries and council members to gauge whether…

MK Danny Danon, who heads the Likud Central Committee, on Tuesday evening said that elections could have been prevented, and said he hoped the Likud will learn the lesson from the coalition collapse. “The makeup of the coalition undermined the governance, the mistake was that instead of forming a government with Bennett and the hareidi…

The Knesset plenum will vote Wednesday on Opposition bills to dissolve the coalition in a preliminary reading, Likud officials told Walla! News Tuesday.  In the event the bills pass on their preliminary reading, a discussion will begin in the Knesset plenum over a date of elections, to be agreed upon by all parties. The expected date…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s intentions to hold elections on Tuesday morning, calling the move “unnecessary” after a tense meeting Monday night.  “The Prime Minister decided last night to lead Israel into unnecessary elections,” Lapid fired. “He is dragging the country into this without a need to do so,…

US authorities are highly concerned that Islamic State (ISIS) is targeting its military servicemen – not only in the Middle East, but at home.  An internal memo obtained by ABC News Monday night revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have asked veterans to carefully monitor their social media…

Attacks on Route 60 have become so commonplace that new measures to keep children safe on school buses have been enacted in at least one Samaria community, Arutz Sheva has learned Tuesday.  The education committee of Ma’ale Levona, in Binyamin, has begun a “Shuttle Guard” program to keep students safe on their way to school outside of…

The Knesset plenum approved a bill in its second and third readings Monday night prohibiting employers from discriminating against job candidates based on their place of residence – leaving the Left livid.  The law, which had been submitted by MK Shuli Muallem Refaeli (Jewish Home), now holds employers who are found to discriminate against potential candidates based…

Israel must formally declare Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre, the Students for Israel movement appealed to the Ministry of Defense Tuesday.  From September 5-6 1972, masked terrorists stormed the apartments where Israeli athletes were staying in the Olympic Village for the 1972 Munich games. The terrorists took the athletes…

It’s aimed at children, but instead of princes and princesses, fairies and magicians, the heroes of Lebanon’s Mahdi magazine are the “fighters who fell resisting the Israeli enemy.” Produced by Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement for the last 11 years, Mahdi aims to teach a new generation the Shiite terror group’s ideology of “resistance” to the Jewish state, AFP reports Tuesday. Packed full…

A draft resolution to revive talks on a final Israeli-Palestinian settlement is expected be presented to the UN Security Council by the middle of the month, the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) to the United Nations said Monday, according to AFP. The representative, Riyad Mansour, said the text being shepherded by France is expected to lay out…

Syria’s deputy foreign minister denied on Monday that his government ever used chemical weapons or chlorine during the country’s brutal civil war, reports The Associated Press (AP). The deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, warned that “terror groups”, the Syrian government’s term to describe rebels, are using such weapons. Mekdad was speaking at a meeting of…

Foreign Minister and Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman, a key member of the Knesset coalition, announced clearly on Tuesday that elections are certain at this point, after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s last minute talks with Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid fell through on Monday. Liberman stated “it’s not a secret that the people of Israel…

The current year is shaping up to be a record breaking one for Israeli car importers. According to statistics released Tuesday, Israelis have so far this year bought 229,294 vehicles – and that doesn’t include December, which has just started. Already, purchases this year have surpassed the previous full-year record set in 2012, of 226,000…

A US official has confirmed that Iran is taking part in attacks against the ISIS terror group that has captured large parts of Iraq and Syria., the Huffington Post reported Tuesday. According to the report, Iranian planes have been bombing ISIS positions in Iraq. Iran’s attacks on ISIS are apparently being done with at least…

As high-profile terrorist attacks escalate in Israel, particularly around the Jerusalem area, a new Palestinian Arab video uploaded to YouTube last week shows the idolization of terrorism and propaganda fueling the current wave of attacks. In the video, one Arab terrorist wrapped in a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag and with a hand grenade strapped…

After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s (Yesh Atid) failed meeting Monday night apparently spelled the end of the coalition and impending elections, former MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari announced his Otzma Leyisrael party intends to compete. “Many are asking me tonight: are you running for the next Knesset? The answer is clear:…

Mishelet Israel is a great way to help Israel’s farmers and soldiers. Founded by Guy and Dor Saban, the Mishelet Israel Project was set up in order to help their community to keep the mitzvah of “Shmitta” and to raise money to help Israel’s combat soldiers. Dor is currently serving in the IDF and Guy…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon met with Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenés in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, where he stressed the need for cooperation between Israel and Spain in light of ongoing tensions in the Middle East.  “I’m glad to have you here, and happy about the relationship between the state and defense establishments,” Ya’alon stated. “The…

Liverpool football (soccer) player Mario Balotelli is the latest sports player under fire for anti-Semitism on social media, after he posted – then deleted – a photo on Instagram of nintendo character ‘Super Mario’ with the caption “jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”  Balotelli may now face a five-game ban…

Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri says he is relishing the prospect of new elections, despite the fact that his party is expected to suffer a slight drop in seats according to a series of recent polls. Speaking to journalists at a press conference in the southern city of Ashdod, Deri voiced his satisfaction at the…

MK Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) blasted amendments to the Infiltrator Law on Tuesday, telling an Interior Committee meeting that the changes render the bill ineffective at addressing Israel’s illegal immigration issue.  “First of all I would like to remind the audience why we’re here,” she began. “We’re here because of the powerlessness of the prosecutor’s…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday evening met one on one with Finance Minister Yair Lapid amid the ongoing crisis in the coalition. During the meeting, Netanyahu told Lapid that the coalition cannot continue as long as Lapid and members of his Yesh Atid party constantly attack the government of which they themselves are members.…

British authorities believe Al-Qaeda is planning a major terror attack for the Christmas holiday, according to a British news daily, including placing bombs on five passenger planes. “We’ve been told that five planes are being targeted in a high profile hit before Christmas,” an airport security official told the Sunday Express. “They’ve been waiting for the…

Channel 10 News revealed Monday night that Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon cancelled a project, being developed under his tutelage, which would allow career combat soldiers and combat support to move to parts of Jerusalem beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines at discount prices. The unprecedented project involved IDF soldiers moving into apartments near the Ramot neighborhood in…

The IDF has resumed its search for missing soldier Guy Hever, who disappeared from the Golan Heights 17 years ago and was last seen on his assigned base.  Channel 2 reports Monday that the search for Hever has now focused on two minefields near the Barak artillery base, near the town of Nes Golan.  As part…

The Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF), the umbrella organization of all French Jewish organizations called on French Jews to refrain from protests against the parliament’s December 2 vote on the recognition of the Palestinian state.  The non-binding vote will take place Tuesday at the National Assembly. It is a draft motion that Socialist…

The Central District Planning Committee decided Monday that the famous Palmachim Beach shall continue to remain the secluded, natural area it has always been – and not be bulldozed and concretized into a 350-room holiday resort. Located midway between Tel Aviv and Ashdod, the site has been the subject of bureaucratic battles for several years.…

Traffic in Tel Aviv? Work ends at the same hour in the Government Complex, the Defense Ministry, and the Azrieli Towers? No problem. The streets in the area, as of today, are going underground, and residents and patrons of the Sarona neighborhood and its beautifully landscaped commercial district will be able to travel and walk…

Philanthropists and community leaders will gather at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City for the Yeshiva University’s 90th Annual Hanukkah Dinner and Convocation on Sunday, December 14, 2014, YU representatives stated Monday. The gala evening is a cherished University tradition that recognizes distinguished members of the YU community who have demonstrated committed leadership and dedication to the University’s…

Temple Mount rights activist Yehuda Glick’s official security detail ended after he left Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem – despite the attempt made on his life in October and the revelation recently of an additional attack planned against him.  Glick’s friend and current acting bodyguard, Amir Ohana, spoke about the phenomenon to Arutz Sheva, stating Monday that…

Sunday, on November, 30, Israel marked the first annual national day of remembrance for the hundreds of thousands of Jews displaced from Arab countries through the course of the 20th century.  In June, the Knesset adopted the Exit and Deportation of Jews from Arab Lands and Iran Law designating November 30 as the national day of commemoration for…

The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC is urging a dramatic escalation in sanctions on Iran in response to a recent seven-month extension of nuclear talks, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday. According to the report, the group wants the United States to reinstate all economic penalties on Iran suspended during the diplomacy. It also seeks a…

The public is tired of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, MK Shelly Yechimovich (Labor) said on Monday night. Her comments on Facebook came hours after a meeting between Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid which was aimed to save the coalition failed, paving the way for likely elections. “I am happy that a year and a…

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the country will never return to the corrupt ways of the past, after a court dismissed murder charges against former leader Hosni Mubarak. “The new Egypt, which emerged from the January 25 (2011) and June 30 (2013) revolutions, is on a path to establish a modern democratic state based…

Gill Rosenberg, the Canadian-Israeli who volunteered to join the Kurdish militia, on Monday sought to dispel reports that she had been kidnapped by Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists. “Guys, I’m totally safe and secure. I don’t have Internet access or any communication devices with me for my safety and security,” Rosenberg wrote on Facebook, calling her…

Iran will convert more of its higher-grade enriched uranium into reactor fuel under an extended nuclear deal with world powers, making the material less suitable for building atomic bombs, a diplomatic source told Reuters on Monday. Last week, Iran and the United States, France, Germany, Britain, China, and Russia failed to meet a November 24…

Knesset Members from the left and the right responded on Monday night to the likely possibility of early elections, following the five conditions set for Finance Minister Yair Lapid by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. MK Danny Danon (Likud) blamed Lapid for the coalition crisis, saying, “The rookie Lapid and the leftist partners that were forced…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday evening met one on one with Finance Minister Yair Lapid amid the ongoing crisis in the coalition. During the meeting, Netanyahu told Lapid that the coalition cannot continue as long as Lapid and members of his Yesh Atid party constantly attack the government of which they themselves are members.…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu issued sharp criticism against several of his ministers, particularly Finance Minister Yair Lapid, blaming them for the current coalition crisis. “The government must work in harmony,” Netanyahu stated during a Likud faction meeting Monday. “For this reason I supported bills that I did not feel ‘complete’ over, such as [Lapid’s –…

A decade after receiving official recognition as a world heritage site for its beautiful collection of 4000 original white Bauhaus buildings, Tel Aviv is being recognized as the newest member of UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network in the category of Media Arts.  UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, has established the Creative Cities…

On the heels of Hatnua Chairman Tzipi Livni’s address to her party about the possibility of breaking apart the current coalition, Finance Minister Yair Lapid spoke at his party Yesh Atid’s faction meeting Monday about his meeting with Netanyahu and the chance of elections in the near future.  Addressing his upcoming visit with Prime Minister…

Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) call on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold elections Monday, noting that frustrations over the coalition crisis are at an all-time high. “The public who chose you has lost faith in the coalition, which is in conflict and dysfunctional,” Feiglin stated. “Yesh Atid proves every day that even…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the coalition member Hatnua faction, spoke on Monday at a meeting of her party about the possibility of breaking apart the government.  At the opening of the Hatnua meeting, Livni said “the government of Israel has reached a crossroads, and the prime minister was correct to say ‘no more’…

New research published on Monday by the Bank of Israel shows how Israel’s housing crisis has harshly cut into the ability of young couples to buy a home. The research, which was conducted on figures between 2002 and 2012 on home acquisition, shows that prices are rising at a much higher rate than the increase in…

Josh Yehoshua Lorech is the victim of the stabbing attack on Monday, in which a female Arab terrorist of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction attacked him with a knife at Gush Etzion Junction in Judea. Recounting the attempt to murder him, Lorech said on video “I stood at the hitchhiking station, I…

The US and Turkey are close to an agreement on joint military action against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in northern Syria, according to the Wall Street Journal. Citing officials from both the U.S. and Turkey, the paper reported that the proposed deal would allow the U.S. and its coalition partners access to Turkish…

The Labor and Meretz factions have proposed a motion for dissolving the Knesset and holding elections. The motion will be brought to a plenum vote but is unlikely to pass, as long as the coalition factions vote against it. “Every additional day of the government takes Israel several steps back,” Labor Chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog…

The Ministerial Committee of Acquisitions decided Sunday to approve the purchase of 14 US-made F-35 stealth jets, instead of the 31 jets that the Defense Ministry and IDF wanted to buy. Israel will reserve the option to buy additional F-35 jets at a later date. The 14 jets are in addition to the 19 jets…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni condemned on Sunday night the incident in which a synagogue in Tel Aviv was vandalized with graffiti. The graffiti read “In a place where the Jewish State Bill will be legislated, books will be burned.” The vandals left a pile of burned books next to the wall that bore the graffiti.…

Former Likud Minister Dan Meridor revealed on Sunday that Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni offered him to join her party before the last election. Meridor, considered one of the “moderates” in the Likud party, was a longtime fixture in the party, but was placed in an unrealistic spot on the Likud’s Knesset list in the primaries before…

Pope Francis on Sunday called on Muslim leaders to issue a global condemnation of terrorism, saying it would help to dispel the stereotype that equates Islam with terror. Speaking to reporters aboard the plane as he returned from Turkey, Francis said, according to the Reuters news agency, that he made the suggestion in private talks…

An Egyptian judge sentenced the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Badie, and 25 others on Sunday to three years in jail for insulting the court, Reuters reports. Badie, who is the Brotherhood’s general guide, is among hundreds of the group’s members who have already received death sentences and lengthy jail terms in mass trials…

In what may be another sign of the disagreements between the members of the coalition, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Sunday ordered that the IDF’s move to a new training complex in the Negev, known as Ir HaBahadim (lit. the city of training bases), be stopped. Ya’alon cited his differences with Finance Minister Yair Lapid over the…

The Orthodox Union (OU) was moved by the story of Zidan Seif, the 30-year-old Druze police officer who was murdered by terrorists at the Jerusalem synagogue in Har Nof, as he tried to stop their attack in which they murdered four Jews. Rabbi Avi Berman, Director General of the Orthodox Union in Israel, recently visited…

Aliyah organization Nefesh B’Nefesh, in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and JNF-USA, recently held the Impact Israel conferences. The two events took place in mid-November in New York and Los Angeles. The event featured information-packed sessions on various aspects of working and studying…

Former senior Mossad man and government minister Rafi Eitan, who was Jonathan Pollard’s handler, is admitting for the first time that he ordered to turn away Jonathan and his then wife Anne from the Israeli Embassy in Washington, when they came to seek refuge on the morning of November 21, 1985. Jonathan and Anne were…

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is to hold a special session on preserving Jewish historical sites that have fallen under the iron grip of the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization, which has been looting and wrecking ancient non-Muslim relics. Prof. Shmuel Moreh, a Middle Eastern Studies expert of Hebrew University who was…

Nir Hefetz, an advisor to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, said Monday that the point of the meeting later in the day between Netanyahu and Yesh Atid party chairman, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, is not “reconciliation” between the two men. In an interview with IDF Radio, Hefetz said that Netanyahu intends to demand answers from Lapid…

Despite the fact that the Hamas-Fatah unity government held its first cabinet meeting in Gaza in October and declared the “division is over,” the two rival groups appear firmly divided over whether that government has expired or not. Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri said Sunday that the six-month mandate of the unity government agreed on in…

Sources in the Kurdish underground in Syria denied Sunday night that Canadian-Israeli Gill Rosenberg, 31, had been in the Kobane region, as claimed by Islamist and Palestinian websites that reported she was captured by ISIS during the fighting in that area. The report about Rosenberg’s capture has not been confirmed by ISIS. An American who…

Canada said Sunday it was “aware of reports” that one of its nationals may have been kidnapped in Syria, amid suggestions it could have been a woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Kobane. Earlier on Sunday, the monitoring group SITE said Islamic State (ISIS) jihadists claimed a woman described as a “female Zionist soldier” had…

If the coalition indeed collapses, it will not be because of the Jewish State Law, coalition chairman MK Ze’ev Elkin (Likud) said Sunday night. Speaking to Channel 2 News, Elkin said that he is open to negotiations on changing the wording of the controversial law, of which he is one of the authors and to…

An Egyptian court on Sunday designated the Islamic State (ISIS) a terrorist organization and banned it in the country. According to The Associated Press, the court ruling adds that it considers all of the ISIS’s affiliates to be terrorist organizations as well. One of the ISIS affiliates is the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdis, which has…

A young Jewish man reported to police in Jerusalem Sunday morning that two Arab youths on bicycles threatened him with a knife at the intersection of French Hill.  He reported being afraid the Arabs would stab him and that he immediately fled the scene.  A search was dutifully conducted. Border Patrol officers soon spotted two…

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz praised the appointment of Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot to succeed him as Chief of Staff, saying Sunday morning that he was “happy” over the decision.  “The issue of the 21st chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, has come to a close,” Gantz said Sunday morning outside his home.…

Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) responded to the comments former Shin Bet Chief, Carmi Gillon made against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his government. “Israel is headed today by a bunch of pyromaniacs and is being led by an egomaniac to its final destruction,” Gillon said, at a leftist demonstration against the Jewish State Law…

Israel’s work to help Syrian refugees has gained national and international acclaim, with Syrian citizens themselves noting that their treatment at the hands of Israeli care providers and government officials has changed their views of the Jewish state.  But at least one group has urged Jerusalem to stop providing aid, claiming that the praise is…

In the aftermath of the arson on a dual Arabic-Hebrew language kindergarten school in Jerusalem, the Ministry of Education and the Jerusalem Municipality have come out in condemnation of the attack, while the left is arguing Netanyahu and his policy of incitement is to blame.  As children returned to school this morning, forensic police remained on…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will present an amended form of the Infiltrator Law to the government on Sunday, after the bill to send illegal aliens to the Holot detention center was struck down by the High Court of Justice. The new version of the law, formulated by Netanyahu, the Interior Ministry and the Justice Ministry,…

Shas Chairman Aryeh Deri spoke Saturday night regarding tensions in the current government and inquiries from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and others parties, to form an alternative coalition.  “I made an agreement with Netanyahu that we will do nothing if he decides to dissolve the coalition. We will not establish an alternative. We will only…

“We will never recognize the Jewishness of the state of Israel,” Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared on Saturday. Abbas’s statement came at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers and was quoted by Channel 10 News. At that same meeting, the foreign ministers announced their “categorical rejection of recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.” According…

Early elections are “inevitable”, Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) said on Saturday night. Akunis’s comments came after Yesh Atid chairman, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, declared that the government was “stuck”, as he put it. “Lapid is arrogant and a hypocrite,” charged Akunis, adding, “If Lapid does not want to serve in the government, he can…

Deputy Knesset Speaker MK Uri Maklev (United Torah Jewry) said Sunday that volunteers of the United Hatzalah organization should be allowed to carry weapons. In a letter to Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich, Maklev said that allowing the volunteers to carry such weapons would increase security for Israelis. “In light of the tense situation these…

The Ministerial Law Committee is taking under advisement a proposal to change the law on marriage and divorce in Israel, which MK Aliza Lavie called “anti-democratic.” According to the current law, Israelis who marry or divorce outside the purview of the Rabbinate must report the fact to the Rabbinate. Those who fail to do so…

According to unconfirmed reports on jihadist websites cited by Channel 2 News, Islamic State (aka ISIS) terrorists have captured Jill Rosenberg, a Candian-Israeli woman who volunteered to join the Kurdish fighters in Syria that are struggling with Al Qaeda in the battle for Kobane. The reports – which have no official confirmation – said that…

Dr. Efraim Zuroff of The Simon Wiesenthal Center says that the center has received reliable information according to which Alois Brunner, a top Nazi fugitive whom Final Solution architect Adolf Eichmann called his “best man,” is dead and buried in Damascus. Brunner advised former Syrian dictator Hafez Asssad on torture techniques and repression, said Zuroff.…

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved a crucial water-filtering bill Sunday, which – if ratified into law – would introduce water recycling into private homes. According to the proposal, submitted by MK Zevulun Kalfa (Jewish Home), water from sinks and showers would be transferred to a water purification tank in every home, where it would…

At its weekly meeting Sunday, the Cabinet approved for a preliminary Knesset reading, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Civil Services Commissioner Moshe Dayan’s joint proposal to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities in the civil service.  The proposal stipulates that disabled persons will receive representation of not less than 3% of all civil service…

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation unanimously passed Sunday a proposal by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) to cancel debts for every Israeli citizen facing debt collection measures from the Enforcements and Collections Authority under certain preconditions.  Citizens who face legal action from the Authority on debts below 400,000 shekel ($102,777) and are defined as having “limited…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, will submit, next month, for Cabinet approval, a plan for significant investment in the minority Druze and Circassian towns and communities.  The plan will include funding for education, infrastructure, and employment in order to reduce the existing gaps between the minority communities and the rest of Israel, and move these communities…

The Turkish Science Minister has become the latest public figure to make outrageous claims over Islam’s hand in science and technology, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Friday – this time, claiming that Muslims discovered that the world is round.  “Some 700-800 years before Galileo, 71 Muslim scientists led by al-Khwarizmi convened by the order of the…

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will discuss a proposal to pay off the debt owed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the Israel Electric Company with money that Israel transfers to the PA. A discussion on the matter will be held next Sunday. According to MKs, the PA has been using money that…

Construction and Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) paid a visit Sunday to the Bilingual School that was attacked by arsonists and proclaimed zero tolerance to intolerance. “I came here to express my anger at the fact that people take Torah books and Qurans and put them on a door and try to burn a…

Mahmoud Abbas’ Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs, Mahmoud Al-Habbash, has been invited to speak at Ben Gurion University on “Religious Aspects of the Israeli – Palestine Conflict and the need for religious tolerance,” reports Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). For years, Al-Habbash has been promoting conflict and war with Israel in the name of Islam.…

In a wide-ranging interview in Asharq Al-Awsat, a pro-Saudi Arabian paper, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri warned Qatar to cease its efforts to destabilize Egypt and stated that concerning ties with Iran, “the situation has not changed much over the past 25 years. Ties are frozen and diplomatic relations severed.” Israel didn’t rate a mention…

A Tel Aviv synagogue was vandalized Sunday with graffiti reading, “In a place where the Jewish State Bill will be legislated, books will be burned.” The vandals left a pile of burned books next to the wall that bore the graffiti. The books are not sacred texts. The attack took place at the The Tel…

Bread could be in short supply in Israel within a few weeks. The Histradrut labor union announced Sunday that workers at Angel Bakeries, the country’s largest producer of bread, had declared a work dispute. The two sides will now enter binding arbitration on their disagreements. If the issues are not resolved within two weeks, the…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet on Monday with Finance Minister Yair Lapid – who heads Yesh Atid – and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni – who heads Hatnua – after weeks in which they hardly exchanged words, and in which the government appeared to be heading for dissolution. The meetings are being described…

Depending on the procedure, Israelis can find themselves waiting just a few days for necessary heart, lung, or stomach surgery – but can wait months, or years, for other procedures, especially involving plastic surgery. That is the conclusion of a report released Sunday by the Health Ministry, which evaluated waiting times for 73 procedures in…

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino toured eastern Jerusalem Sunday and spoke to police and Border Police officers who are part of the beefed up force patrolling the city streets, following a spate of terror attacks. “The situation is very sensitive and tense,” Danino told the press. “Any serious event or terror attack could send us backward…

Opposition leader MK Yitzhak Herzog (Labor) is confident that he will be Israel’s next Prime Minister. “I think today it is clear that I present an alternative to [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu],” Herzog told Channel 10 News on Saturday, amid speculations that early elections are coming. “I believe I’ll lead the next government. With the…

Former Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) chief Carmi Gillon on Saturday night launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Israeli government. “Israel is headed today by a bunch of pyromaniacs and is being led by an egomaniac to its final destruction,” said Gillon, who spoke at a demonstration by leftists protesting…

One person was killed in Cairo on Saturday night, in clashes that erupted after an Egyptian court dismissed a murder charge against former President Hosni Mubarak over the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising. The ruling enraged Mubarak’s opponents, with about 1,000 converging on a central Cairo square to denounce the government, according to…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is close to making a decision regarding elections, his associates said Saturday night. According to the associates, Netanyahu is closer than ever to deciding on early elections, despite the fact that the vote on the controversial Jewish State Law has been postponed for a second time. They further said that Netanyahu’s…

The Arab League on Saturday backed Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s plan to seek UN endorsement for a timetable for declaring an independent state, and rejected recognizing Israel as a Jewish nation, AFP reports Saturday. But the extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers, which Abbas attended, did not announce when they would approach the United Nations Security Council. A statement said the…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has extended the military seizure order on Yitzhar’s Od Yosef Hai yeshiva Saturday night – this time for another six months.  Chief of Central Command, Nitzan Alon, signed the order last Thursday, Yitzhar representatives told Arutz Sheva, which will remain in effect until the end of May.  The yeshiva was initially seized by Border…

A fire broke out at a dual Arabic-Hebrew language kindergarten school building in Jerusalem’s Pat Saturday night, in an apparent “price tag” attack in the capital.  Firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze shortly after it was set alight, and no injuries were reported. The kindergarten is heavily damaged, however – and graffiti was discovered on…

A Knesset plenum vote on the ‘Jewish State Law’ has been postponed yet again, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s advisor Nir Hefetz stated Saturday night – five days after the vote was postponed for a week due to controversy over the text of the proposal.  Last week, a vote on the controversial set of laws was…

French MP Meir Habib met with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Prime Minister Manuel Wells to discuss Paris’s hearing on Palestinian statehood on Friday, where he stressed that recognition of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a “country” for all intents and purposes will not lead to actual peace.  “The proposal to recognize a Palestinian state…

A department store in Sweden is sweeping a toy scandal from its shelves, the Local reports Saturday – after customers complained that a toy soldier selection appeared to be modeled after Nazi uniforms. Toy soldiers being sold at the Gekås superstore in the western city of Ullared appeared to bear Nazi symbols, parents stated to local news…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon officially declared Major General Gadi Eizenkot the next IDF Chief of Staff on Saturday, explaining that Eizenkot is “an excellent candidate who is worthy and experienced” for the job. “I believe that Major General Gadi Eizenkot right person at this time to lead the army in the coming years,” Ya’alon stated…

An umpire and former captain of Israel’s national cricket team died on Saturday after being hit in the jaw by a ball, the country’s cricket association said. The umpire collapsed during the course of the game after being hit, prompting bystanders to call Magen David Adom (MDA) medics to the scene. The medics carried out CPR, an MDA representative…

An indictment against three Israeli Arabs was filed in the Jerusalem District Court on Friday, after the three allegedly planned to attack Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick or MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud).  The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office, via Attorney Yifat Pinhassi, filed the indictment against the three, names as Maj’d Ben Maher Qaraqi (21), Muhammed…

Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been acquitted on charges of corruption and killing protesters during the 2011 uprising on Saturday, in the final verdict in a lengthy retrial which has stretched for months.  Mubarak and his former interior minister Habib al-Adly were sentenced to life in prison in June of 2012 for failing to prevent the…

MK Ofer Shelah, faction leader of Finance Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party, on Friday verbally attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who is waiting for a response after the weekend from hareidi parties in an attempt to replace the current coalition. “The state of Israel is operating without a budget, every reform is stuck because…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman’s party Yisrael Beytenu is veering sharply to the left, according to a document leaked to Yediot Aharonot Wednesday – a leak that comes amid high tensions over the possibility of early elections. The document, entitled “Swim Against the Current – Yisrael Beytenu’s vision” details a “regional peace plan” replete with land concessions…

Disturbing new details have emerged about an incident Thursday, in which a young female police officer was run over in Bat Yam while trying to arrest a driver committing sex crimes – who turns out to be an employee of a professional basketball team in the Israeli league. The 19-year-old traffic officer, who has been…

A 17-year-old Arab woman carrying a knife was arrested outside of Hevron’s Cave of Machpelah, preventing a potentially fatal stabbing attack on an IDF soldier. The Arab woman refused to be checked at the site, with police officers warning her that she must undergo a security check. At a certain point the woman drew the…

A funeral for a fallen soldier was held in the Nahalat Yitzhak cemetery on Thursday, in an emotional ceremony to mark the life of a young man who died fighting for Israel. But while hundreds of funerals are, unfortunately, held every year in the Jewish state, Thursday’s ceremony was special – as it was the…

Former Likud Minister Moshe Kahlon held a meeting of his new party on Thursday, in preparation for upcoming elections in the Knesset which may come sooner than expected. Kahlon, who officially left the Likud last month so as to form the new party, held the meeting with 350 party activists in a Netanya hotel closed…

French lawmakers were to debate on Friday a motion urging the government to recognize the Palestinian Authority (PA) as “Palestine,” according to AFP. The symbolic motion is expected to pass comfortably on December 2 when the lower house of parliament votes on the text proposed by the ruling Socialists. The vote comes hot on the heels of a similar resolution approved by…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (Likud) had no choice but to essentially concede to figures presented against him in a question session at the Knesset on Wednesday by MK Orit Struk (Jewish Home), which reveal the unfair practices against Jews in Judea and Samaria. Struk began by responding to Ya’alon’s plan to heighten criminal enforcement of construction…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is continuing to seriously consider calling early elections, Channel 2 News reported on Thursday evening. According to the report, Netanyahu is considering three options, but it is believed that his preferred route would be to dissolve the Knesset. The first option is for Netanyahu to wait until March 31 without the…

Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino has hit back at Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) Friday, after Edelstein stated Wednesday that Danino is “not suited” to give advice over issues relating to the Temple Mount and parliamentary immunity. “Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein does not understand at all what the role of the commissioner [entails],” Danino said Friday,…

The Egyptian buffer zone along the Sinai border with Gaza has sent prices soaring in the Hamas-ruled enclave, after the Nile state cracked down on illegal smuggling tunnels to Sinai that were reportedly used by Hamas to arm lethal attacks on Egyptian soldiers. The price of cigarettes nearly tripled in Gaza, with local merchant Imad…

A local British municipal council has dropped a motion to boycott all products from the State of Israel, UK’s Jewish News reported Thursday – amid a rising trend of British councils, chains, and groups supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish State.  The Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council (DMBC) of West Midlands – near…

Likud Central Committee head MK Danny Danon, currently challenging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in primaries for leadership of the party, criticized Netanyahu on Friday morning in a meeting with Likud’s “Nationalist Camp” faction leaders in Psagot, to the north of Jerusalem. “I present an ideological and moral alternative to the path of Likud chairman and…

Paris has returned 250 ancient artifacts to Egypt that were illegally imported into the country and seized by French customs officials, the foreign ministry said Thursday. Amulets, rings, funerary statues and pitchers, dating from 2000 BCE up to the Roman, Byzantine and Medieval eras were returned to the Egyptian embassy. Foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has appealed repeatedly to the hareidi parties, hareidi newspaper Hamevaser revealed Friday – even though United Torah Judaism (UTJ) officials reportedly turned him down in recent attempts to draft them into the coalition.  Hareidi party demands include adding funds to yeshiva (Torah academy) budgets, adding funds to the State of Israel’s child…

Israeli police are preventing a soldier currently in a course to become a captain, who serves in an elite unit and fought to defend Israel in Gaza, from receiving permission to have a private handgun – for a very politicized reason. The soldier lives in Kfar Tapuah, located near Ariel in northern Samaria, and due…

“One cannot govern under the present situation”, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told his associates in recent days, according to a report Friday on Channel 2 News. Netanyahu, according to the report, has been holding talks with his aides in light of the ongoing tensions in the coalition. These conversations have highlighted Netanyahu’s frustration over the…

Just days after he called for “dialogue” with the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group, Pope Francis on Friday condemned the group and called for interfaith cooperation in order to combat it, Reuters reports. The pope, who is visiting Turkey, said that “an extremist and fundamentalist group” had subjected entire communities in Turkey’s southern neighbors to…

Two people were killed in clashes between Islamist protesters and Egyptian police in Cairo on Friday, security officials said, according to AFP. The army and police had fanned out across the capital in anticipation of rallies called by an Islamist group, and police quickly moved in to quash the small gatherings after they began outside…

Major General Gadi Eizenkot will be appointed as the next Chief of Staff of the IDF, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon decided on Friday. An official announcement about the appointment is expected to be published on Saturday night, following the conclusion of the Sabbath. Eizenkot, 54, has served over the past…

Syrian hackers on Thursday wished a Happy Thanksgiving by hacking the websites of British and North American media organizations and retailer Wal-Mart’s Canadian unit. According to Reuters, the attack was believed to have been carried out by the Syrian Electronic Army, an amorphous hacker collective that supports Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Among media sites hit…

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Thursday he backed extended nuclear talks with world powers, and also took advantage of the opportunity to threaten Israel’s security. Khamenei said that if the talks, extended on Monday for seven months beyond the November 24 deadline, ultimately failed, “the sky won’t fall to the ground” and that…

The Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group blocked all mobile phone networks in the largest Iraqi city they control, Mosul, accusing informants in the city of tipping off coalition forces to their whereabouts, residents told The Associated Press (AP) on Thursday. Residents described a scene of “chaos” and “paralysis” in the city, a day after the…

Yisrael Zeira, head of the non-profit Rosh Yehudi outreach organization, was the target of an attempted terrorist attack on Thursday night. Arabs opened fire at Zeira’s car as he was traveling near Kiryat Arba. At least two bullets hit the car but miraculously, no one was hurt. Security forces began searching the area in an…

Just one day after appealing the Zoabi Bill, which would make it possible to dismiss MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) from the Knesset, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday cancelled her appeal. The appeal prevented the bill from being brought to a vote in the Knesset, and a Knesset plenum discussion of the bill that was…

The world has been silent thus far in the face of Egypt’s expulsion of residents in Gaza’s south and the demolition of their homes by dynamite and bulldozers. The silence was broken on Thursday, however, as Amnesty International condemned Egypt’s demolition of hundreds of homes and called for a halt to its “unlawful evictions” of…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday came under attack from two presidents – the former and the current – over the controversial Jewish State Law. Former President Shimon Peres and current President Reuven Rivlin both used their speeches at the state memorial for Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, to warn against the law.…

Reports notwithstanding, there is no “deal” brewing right now between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and hareidi parties, a top hareidi political source told Arutz Sheva Thursday. “We have a ‘green light’ to talk to him, but we have not yet heard his opinions on our demands,” the source said of Netanyahu, after reports said that…

It has been released for publication that Israeli security services, together with the IDF, broke up a major Hamas terrorist cell in September that was planning attacks on a range of high-profile Israeli targets, including Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium. According to the Israeli Security Agency (ISA or Shabak), the cell – which was based in Judea…

Israel and the Palestinians held secret back-channel negotiations to achieve a “two-state solution” deal even while official US-brokered negotiations were faltering, the New Republic revealed Wednesday in a first time report.  The secret talks began in 2010 between Yitzhak Molho, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s attorney and point man for negotiations, and a confidante of Palestinian Authority…

Weighing on the “debate” over whether or not Hezbollah has dug tunnels under the border between Israel and Lebanon was Lieutenant Oshri Lugasy, a top member of the IDF Engineering Corps. According to Lugasy, it is very unlikely that such tunnels exist. “Unlike in Gaza, the northern border does not have any tunnels,” Lugasy said.…

An Australian cricketer died after being hit by a ball in a freak accident during a game at the Sydney Cricket Ground. 25-year-old Phillip Hughes was struck in the lower back of his neck by the ball on Tuesday, and collapsed unconscious. He was evacuated to St Vincent’s hospital in critical condition and placed in a medically-induced…

Balfour Hakak, former chairman of the Hebrew Writers Association, told Arutz Sheva that Mifal Hapayis’ (Israel’s official state lottery) decision to award the Landau Prize for Arts and Sciences in the poetry category to radical leftist poet Yitzhak Laor is “surprising.”  Laor, a controversial figure and writer, has expressed vitriolically anti-Zionist stances both in his poetry and prose work. In a…

The Israel Navy has picked its first woman ship captain ever. Captain Or Cohen, a graduate of several officer’s courses, will be transferred to a warship, where she will take on the position of deputy commander, and at the conclusion of another course she is taking, Cohen will be given her own ship. Her first…

It took several IDF soldiers in a helicopter to rescue two youths stuck in a flash flood near the Dead Sea. After nearly 15 hours in the rain and wind, the two were found and removed from Nachal Og, where they survived by remaining on high ground throughout the night. They have been taken to…

Israel, along with allies the United States, Canada, and Australia are attempting to dissuade nearly 200 states that make up the Fourth Geneva Convention from convening a special session in regard to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  The special session, slotted for mid-December would address the conditions of Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria, the Gaza Strip,…