Category: News

A group of 45 UN peacekeepers from Fiji taken hostage in the Golan Heights two weeks ago will be released soon, the Fiji government said Tuesday night, according to AFP. “Fijian troops will soon be released. More details to follow,” the Ministry of Information said in a one-line statement on its official Facebook page. Details…

Russian officials have traveled to Iran’s capital to boost economic ties between the two countries, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Tuesday. Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh and Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation, oversaw a meeting of businessmen in Tehran, calling on them to increase trade, according to the report. Zanganeh…

A number of bronze shoes were stolen from the riverside Holocaust memorial ‘Shoes on the Danube’ in Budapest, Hungary, The Budapest Beacon reported on Tuesday. It is not known whether the incident was racially motivated or simple theft, the report said. The memorial by Gyula Pauer and Can Togay, which was erected on the left…

Palestinian Arab terrorists who are serving time in Israeli jails announced on Tuesday night that they will start a hunger strike on Wednesday. The mass hunger strike is a response to the death of an Arab terrorist jailed in Israel, who committed suicide by hanging himself at the Eshel prison in Be’er Sheva. The terrorist,…

Greece on Tuesday ratcheted up its punishments for racism, anti-Semitism and hate speech, in a move prompted by the surprise rise of a neo-Nazi party.   A new law approved by parliament sets prison sentences of up to three years – up from two years – and fines of up to 20,000 euros ($26,000) for…

Technology juggernaut Apple unveiled the iPhone 6 on Tuesday, the newest entry in its highly popular line of cellular phones, along with its foray into the smart-watch market entitled the Apple Watch. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7-inch screen and comes in dark black and gold, while the iPhone 6 Plus features a 5.5-inch screen.…

Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have reportedly arrested Fares Kawasmeh, a Hevron-based member of the Hamas-linked Kawasmeh clan that conducted the abduction and murder of Naftali Frenkel (16), Eyal Yifrah (19) and Gilad Sha’ar (16) on June 12. Hamas senior sources on Tuesday afternoon confirmed reports cited on Channel 10 about the arrest. According to the reports,…

Former President Shimon Peres coordinated a goodwill soccer game for “peace,” in which 80 Israeli and Arab children participated last Monday. According to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the “friendly” match was nothing less than a “crime against humanity.” Leading the charge against the game, in which children aged six to 16 played in Kibbutz Dorot,…

Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov claimed on Tuesday that the joint Israeli and American test of an Arrow (Hetz) 2 interceptor missile, conducted in a simulated ballistic missile attack by Iran, failed. According to Konashenkov the target missile, which was supposed to be shot down in the test, was found by Russia in the…

The United Nations (UN) and Palestinian Authority (PA) on Tuesday called for international donors to supply $550 million to the Hamas terror enclave of Gaza, despite the fact that Hamas has already restarted construction on its terror tunnels to attack Israel. The appeal seeks to repair damage caused in the 50-day Operation Protective Edge, which…

As the INS Tanin, Israel’s fourth and most advanced Dolphin class submarine, is making its way to Israel from Germany, it has elicited criticism from various German political leaders in terms of continuing the supply of weapons to Israel. According to a report in Die Welt, Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has recommended a cutback in…

The controversy over the Jewish Home party’s new constitution continues to rage among party MKs, revealing what could be described as a crossroads for the religious-Zionist party, as well as for the religious-Zionist community in Israel as a whole. The new constitution grants the party leader, currently Naftali Bennett, greater power to decide who is…

A fugitive rabbi fleeing sex-crimes charges in Israel has once again evaded police in Johannesburg, South Africa. Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who heads the Shuvu Banim hassidic sect, was conducting a wedding for one of his followers at a house when police attempted to arrest him. However, relatives and other supporters managed to spirit him away,…

Murdered journalist Steven Sotloff was kidnapped and sold to the radical Islamic State terrorist group, or ISIS, by one of the “moderate” rebel groups to whom the US government has considered offering support, according to his family’s spokesman. Barak Barfi told CNN that Sotloff – who was Jewish and a joint US-Israeli citizen – was…

Israel’s honorary consul to Wales, UK has called for the dismissal of the Deputy Lord Mayor of Cardiff, the country’s capital, after the latter dismissed Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians as “firing toy rockets” at an August rally. Labor party councillor Ali Ahmed’s comments were made at a hard-left “No NATO” rally, as part of…

“Provocation”, “a Moroccan Muslim”, “an Ayatollah”: the appointment of a young Morocco-born woman as France’s education minister has sparked a wave of attacks that has renewed concerns about racism in the country. Najat Vellaud-Belkacem is one of the brightest lights in President Francois Hollande’s deeply unpopular government. The 36-year-old telegenic Hollande protegee was appointed last…

It’s a comparison that Hamas’s leadership can’t stand, but Jewish-American rapper Ari Lesser has released a new single comparing Hamas – the Islamist terrorist organization which rules the Gaza Strip – to Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other jihadi groups. The song, which is simply entitled “Hamas,” focuses significantly on the group’s cynical use of…

Arab foreign ministers said on Monday they will back Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s efforts to lobby the United Nations to set a deadline for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The PA’s ambassador to Egypt, Jamal al-Shobaki, said that the Arab League resolution issued a day earlier…

Palestinian Authority (PA) officials on Tuesday claimed Israel committed a “war crime,” after an Arab terrorist jailed in Israel committed suicide by hanging himself. Israel Prison Service spokesperson Sivan Weizman told AFP the prisoner hung himself in the bathrooms at Eshel Prison in Be’er Sheva, adding that a medical team had tried to revive him but that…

The New York Jewish community and its supporters will stage an historic march on September 14 in downtown Manhattan, protesting the recent skyrocketing wave of anti-Semitism and media culpability in an event entitled “Silence? Never Again!” In the wake of the 50-day counter-terror Operation Protective Edge, studies have found global the rate of anti-Semitic incidents…

The Jewish museum in Brussels will reopen on Sunday under tight security, in a message of defiance after terrorist Mehdi Nemmouche, a former torturer for the brutal Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Syria, shot dead four people there in May. “We should not give free rein – I dare say – to bastards,” the museum’s secretary general…

US-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Tuesday accused Israel of “illegally” sending almost 7,000 illegal immigrants back to their home countries in Africa. “Israel’s convoluted legal rules thwart Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers’ attempts to secure protection under Israeli and international law,” claims HRW in the 83-page report. HRW, whose head Kenneth Roth directly condoned Hamas…

Syrian rebels strengthened their hold of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights on Tuesday morning, conquering the mountain Al-Mal in the Quneitra region where they have recently been capturing control from Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces. In conquering the strategic point on Tuesday, rebel forces killed roughly ten Syrian soldiers according to Arab news…

Five weeks following the arson of a synagogue in Wuppertal, Germany, Germany police placed two German nationals under arrest for the crime. At the height of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge, amid a major surge in anti-Semitic attacks in Europe, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the synagogue, seriously damaging the building’s facade. Security cameras managed to film three suspects. One of…

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri on Tuesday denied reports that Hamas was planning to imminently resume rocket fire against Israel. “Hamas denies what has been reported on an Israeli website – and not from Ismail Haniyeh’s lips – about the decision to renew the conflict at the end of the ceasefire,” he said. Zuhri was…

Residents of cities throughout Israel had front-row seats to a successful test of the IDF’s long-range missile defense system Tuesday. The Israeli Defense Ministry, together with the American Missile Defense Agency (MDA), conducted a drill simulating a ballistic missile attack by Iran on Israel, firing a single Arrow (Hetz) 2 missile in what was described…

Sometime in the coming days a governmental committee is to convene to decide whether a new Qatari-funded Arab city in the heart of Samaria will be populated. It is currently expected that Israel will remove the last barrier blocking the city – which is already near completely-built – and allow the city to be connected…

The tension between Hamas and Fatah continued on Monday, with Hamas accusing Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas of trying to sabotage a fragile reconciliation agreement. According to AFP, Hamas’s accusation came after Abbas accused Hamas of running “a shadow government” in Gaza. In a sharply worded attack on Hamas, Abbas on Saturday…

As the U.S. considers how to expand operations against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Iraq, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Monday that President Barack Obama needs to weigh all the consequences of what could be a lengthy campaign, and what could go wrong, according to The Associated Press (AP). Speaking to reporters in…

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Monday denied reports that he had offered to establish a Palestinian state in the Sinai Peninsula, the website of Egypt’s Al-Ahram newspaper reported. In a speech to mark national teachers’ day and which mostly dealt with education, Sisi stressed that no one can make such promises and that there…

Iran is far apart from the six world powers negotiating with it over scaling back its nuclear program, but that gap could be narrowed in talks next week, the European Union’s foreign policy chief said on Monday, according to Reuters. Iran and the powers failed to meet a July 20 target date for an agreement…

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, underwent prostate surgery on Monday and was recovering at a government hospital in Tehran, The Associated Press (AP) reported, citing Iranian state media. The 75-year-old Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters and has been Iran’s top leader since 1989, was reported to be in “good condition”…

Communications Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) recently received an offer to be appointed as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Channel 2 News reported. According to the report, the current ambassador, Ron Prosor, has indicated that he wishes to conclude his term earlier than expected, and the role was offered to Minister Erdan. This is not…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned on Monday that Iran is trying to renew its aid to Hamas. Speaking at the 14th International Conference of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Ya’alon also pointed out that Turkey and Qatar are supporters of Hamas, and called on the international community to speak up over…

Terror attacks in Jerusalem have grown exponentially over the past few months, a Shabak (Israel Security Service) report Monday said. According to the statistics, three terror attacks occurred in the city in March 2014. In April 7 terrorist attacks took place, while in May and June, there were already 22 attacks, In July and August,…

An Israeli woman who converted to Islam and married a Muslim Arab was sentenced to a year in prison Sunday after she smuggled her husband into Israel illegally. The woman illicitly took advantage of the trust the state put in her as a security official stationed at the Meitar checkpoint, on the road between Hevron…

Israel is providing intelligence, including satellite photos and classified information, to support the efforts of the US-led coalition against the organization “Islamic State” (IS; formerly known as ISIS) in Iraq, a Western diplomat stated to Walla! News Monday.  The diplomat stated to the Israeli daily on condition of anonymity that, once the information has been processed…

Poles who saved Jews during the Holocaust will be honored with a new memorial in the Polish capital Warsaw paid for by the children of survivors, organizers said Monday. “It will be a gesture of gratitude, not from a government, or a city, but from the Jewish diaspora, from those Jews who were saved and whose descendants now want to…

As polls show Naftali Bennett increasing in influence and more Israeli voters supporting the right, Yesh Atid head and Finance Minister Yair Lapid said that he intended to stay in the government and provide a bulwark defense against the growing influence of the right. “The peace process is on hold, and a regional conference on…

The Jerusalem Municipality and the National Lottery, in conjunction with the Ariel Municipal Company and Moriah, dedicated the Jerusalem HaPayis (Lottery) Hall on Monday, due to be the largest sports hall, leisure hall, and culture center in the Middle East. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat spoke at the hall’s opening ceremony.  “We’ve been dreaming about this…

The Eshel Hashomron hotel unilaterally canceled an event that was to be held by anti-missionary activists. One of the activists organizers of the event, Yekutiel Ben-Yaakov, intends to sue, said his attorney, Itamar Ben-Gvir. In a letter issued by the hotel’s management, Ben Ya’akov was told that the event, set for this Wednesday, had been…

Stray gunfire from Syria wounded an Israeli soldier in the Golan Heights on Monday, the army said. “An IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldier was injured by errant fire from internal fighting in Syria. He was evacuated to hospital,” an army statement said, without elaborating. The soldier is reportedly from the Armored Corps., which is currently stationed along the Israeli-Syrian…

In his first public speech since the conclusion of Operation Protective Edge, Economics Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett sharply criticized the Israeli left, accusing them of having outmoded world views that they have refused to update. “I cannot believe the things I hear from supporters of the left,” said Bennett. “They speak…

British women and Islamist extremists have joined forces again, international media reported Monday – this time, to suppress women’s rights in Islamic State (IS; formerly ISIS) territory in Syria.  Tens of female jihadists from the UK have joined IS’s al-Khaansa Brigade which operates to punish women ‘deviating’ from strict moral and modesty codes in the IS…

Although most in the political establishment agree that elections are not in the offing, a new poll released Monday shows that if elections were held today, the Likud would retain its strength as the biggest party in the Knesset. Running this time without Yisrael Beytenu, the Likud would garner 28 Knesset seats. The Knesset Channel‘s…

Minister of Communications Gilad Erdan (Likud) said an alleged proposal by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi to establish a Palestinian Arab state in Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, was an example of the type of “innovative” solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict that has been sorely lacking until now. Speaking at an Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference…

Hiddush, the liberal Movement for Religious Freedom and Equality, on Monday debunked the figures spread by the Yesh Atid party the day before, which bragged of a dramatic increase in hareidi IDF enlistment over the last year thanks to a new draft law. According to Hiddush, the claims of a dramatic increase are “as accurate…

During the course of intense Arab rioting in Jerusalem on Sunday, Jerusalem Councilman Aryeh King reports that a massive explosion was miraculously averted in the north-eastern neighborhood of French Hill. King arrived at a gas station in the Jewish-majority neighborhood on Sunday night, and reports that dozens of Arab rioters attempted to ignite the fuel…

Goel Ratzon, 63, was convicted Monday of most of the counts of sexual abuse he was accused of, including rape and rape of a minor. He was acquitted of the charge of enslavement. Ratzon was arrested in 2010 and accused of being the leader of a harem cult with at least 17 wives, who gave…

A media gag order was lifted on Monday on the testimony of the main complainant against the extremist Messianic cult exposed the day before, which brain-washed Jewish women into taking drugs and having sex with Arab men in order to “bring the redemption.” The Lehava anti-assimilation organization led police in gathering evidence and exposing the cult, which has…

The Israeli government has rejected New Zealand’s new ambassador Jonathan Curr because he was also accredited to the Palestinian Authority. New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully said that the dual representation’s never been a problem in the past, according to NewsTalkZB. “McCully says there are various ways of achieving diplomatic representation under the changed circumstances…

Leaders and residents of the south expressed frustration at the government, after a senior diplomatic source revealed assessments on Sunday showing that despite the ceasefire Hamas has restarted construction of rockets and terror tunnels to attack Israeli civilians in the region. “Continued tunnel digging towards our communities is a cause for war,” Hof Ashkelon Regional…

Egyptian president General Abdel Fatah A-Sisi has offered Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas to cede 160 square kilometers of the Sinai Peninsula adjoining Gaza to the PA, thus creating a Palestinian state five times the present size of Gaza. In return, the PA would stop demanding that Israel return to the 1967 borders. The offer…

Mehdi Nemmouche, the terrorist behind the deadly shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May, planned to launch a terror attack along the Champs Elysees, the Fifth Avenue of Paris, on France’s biggest national holiday, Buzzfeed reported on Sunday, citing the French newspaper Libération. According to the report Nemmouche, who has been extradited to…

Hamas’s ‘greatest victory’ in fifty-day Operation Protective Edge was swaying the hearts and minds of the Western media, its deputy political leader Ismail Haniyeh insisted, in a clip of an August 29 speech newly released Monday.  “In this war, we won the media war as well,” Haniyeh stated. His words were translated by the Middle…

With the Shemitta year fast approaching, farmers and students will be able to get a first-hand look at how to conduct themselves in accordance with the Jewish laws that apply to this special year at six “model farms” that the Knesset Agricultural Lobby will be funding. The Committee will spend NIS 900,000 on the project,…

Israel will prosecute any individual who expresses public sympathy or admiration for the Islamic State (formerly known as ISIS), the Islamist group that has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, said Israel Police Commander Yochanan Danino. Danino’s comments come in the wake of a report in the daily Yisrael Hayom newspaper Friday…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende on Monday, focusing mostly on the regional threats to the Middle East from Islamic State (IS; formerly known as ISIS).  “You came here during a turbulent time,” Netanyahu began. “Among the international community there is a growing awareness to the threat of terrorism and…

Members of the Knesset Interior Committee on Thursday will conduct a special tour of the Mount of Olives in order to examine up close the security arrangements there. The tour comes after hundreds of complaints by Jewish visitors to the huge cemetery located on the Mount of rock-throwing attacks by Arabs, and vandalism of the…

The war with Israel may be over, but now the fight is turning inward with bitter rivalry between Fatah and Hamas threatening to shatter a fragile Palestinian unity deal.  In the latest spat between the factions, Palestinian Authority head Mahmoud Abbas accused Hamas of running a “shadow government” in Gaza, prompting the Islamist movement to…

Slowly but sure, without great fanfare, the Ramat Givat Zeev neighborhood north of Jerusalem, is breaking sales records and is moving steadily towards realizing the dream of this unique neighborhood in the Jerusalem Hills. The sales department of Nofei Israel, the developer of the project, has reported heightened interest, and the signature of many contracts.…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s office wasted no time on Monday denying reports that Egypt had offered the PA a state in the Sinai Peninsula, in return for the PA agreeing to forego demands on the 1949 Armistice lines as borders. Al-Tayyib Abd Al-Rahim, Secretary-General of Abbas’s office, told the Palestinian Arab Ma’an News Agency that…

Two separate technical malfunctions hit two different Israeli airlines on Monday – one on a cross-continental flight by the international airline El Al, and the other a Cessna 208 Caravan single-propeller airplane from the domestic aviation company Ofek Jets. In the first instance, an El Al flight with 150 passengers aboard was set to take off…

Saudi Arabia has launched the construction of a high-security five-layered fence on the border with Iraq to protect the desert kingdom from “infiltrators and smugglers,” according to state media quoted by RT. The fence will cover 900 km (560 miles) of Saudi Arabia’s northern frontier, SPA state news agency reported. Watchtowers, night vision and radars…

A shirt worn by a member of the Navy SEAL team during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011 went on show in New York on Sunday, AFP reports. The garment is part of an exhibition at the National September 11 Memorial Museum portraying the decade-long hunt to find the Al-Qaeda…

The United Stated, Israel and Saudi Arabia have jointly created the Islamic State group, an Iranian lawmaker said Sunday, according to PressTV. “The [IS] terrorist group is the joint product of the U.S., the Zionist regime [of Israel] and Saudi Arabia in the region and there is no doubt about that…,” the spokesman for Iranian…

Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird has expressed Canada’s determination to act against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) which has declared an Islamic caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq. In an article he wrote and which was first published in The Globe and Mail newspaper, Baird said that IS poses a threat not…

Tunisia’s main Islamist party, Ennahda, said on Sunday it would not contest a presidential election in November, in the interest of ensuring an inclusive government for all Tunisians, according to Reuters. Ennahda is one of the two front-runners to win next month’s parliamentary election and provide the next prime minister, but opposition groups say its…

Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, who is being tried in Jordan on terror charges, on Sunday denounced the beheading of U.S. journalists by the Islamic State (IS), AFP reported. Speaking to reporters from the dock at a Amman courthouse Sunday, Abu Qatada repeated his condemnation of IS that controls swathes of territory in Iraq and…

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal is trying to cool the tensions in his group’s relations with the Palestinian Authority and its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas spoke to Arab journalists in Cairo on Saturday night, warning that the unity deal he sealed with Hamas in April is on the brink of collapse. Speaking in the wake of…

MK Miri Regev (Likud) on Sunday issued a warning to Hamas’s former Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, after he threatened that Hamas would resume the rocket attacks against Israel. In a sermon he gave this past Friday, Haniyeh declared that Hamas would resume the rocket fire towards Israel on September 25 unless Israel ends its naval…

Police in the German city of Wuppertal are investigating several young men who announced themselves to be “Sharia police”, Russia Today (RT) reports. According to the report, the group was patrolling the streets, urging people to refrain from various sorts of activities and entertainment. The young men wearing orange safety vests with the words “Sharia…

Ireland is considering dropping out of the UN peace force on the Golan Heights, after dozens of Filipino peacekeepers were kidnapped by Islamist rebel groups on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights border. Speaking Sunday, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said that he did not want to see Irish soldiers serving on behalf…

They stick out like a sore thumb in the steamy bustle of Guatemala’s capital: 230 haredi Jews, some speaking broken Spanish and eking out a makeshift living in a decrepit office building. They belong to the extremist Lev Tahor cult, and had been residing in a Mayan Indian village until Thursday, when they were abruptly…

The Ambassador for the European Union (EU) in Iraq, Jana Hybaskova, admitted last week that several EU member states have bought oil from the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist organization that has been brutally conquering large portions of Iraq and Syria. Hybaskova made the revelation at the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, but refused…

The newly re-elected mayor of the second-largest city in Greece, Thessaloniki, also known as Saloniki or Salonica, wore a yellow Star of David at his swearing-in ceremony in the city town hall last week. Mayor Yiannis Boutaris, 72, explained his gesture in connection with the fact that over 90 percent of the city’s population was…

In a further sign of the rapid deterioration of the April “unity agreement” between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority (PA), a leader in the Gaza-based terrorist group ordered members in Judea and Samaria to resist summonses for investigation by PA security forces. Senior Hamas leader and spokesperson Hussam Badran slammed the “escalation in the amount…

Iranian authorities say they have arrested a man suspected of attempting to sabotage the Bushehr nuclear power plant. The man is a Ukrainian national who worked as an “expert” together with Russian contractors at the site, according to AP, quotin Iranian daily Hamshahri. He has not yet been named, and details surrounding his alleged “sabotage”…

For the first time a recent poll has found that a majority of Scottish voters support choosing independence from the UK in a September 18 national referendum. The poll, carried out by YouGov for The Sunday Times, sampled 1,084 respondents between September 2 and 5, and found that 51% want to break away from the UK, with…

An emergency situation was declared at Ben Gurion International Airport on Saturday night, after an El Al plane suffered an engine malfunction, forcing it to conduct an emergency landing with only one engine and 194 passengers on board. Rami Nir, Head of Ground Operations for the Israel Airports Authority, told Arutz Sheva that at 2:15 a.m. on…

The US Air Force has reportedly bombed Islamic State positions near the Haditha Dam in western Iraq.  Iraqi forces and local Sunni Arab tribesmen are currently in control of the dam, which is the second-largest in Iraq and controls the flow of the Tigris River. The airstrikes are apparently an attempt to prevent an advance…

The constant terrorism of rock throwing in Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem is becoming an increasing threat, not only for Jews who happen to pass near such neighborhoods but for residents of all parts of the capital city. CityPass, the company operating Jerusalem’s light rail system, announced Sunday morning that “due to continued and repeated rock…

The brutal Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist organization has continued its bloody string of executions, this time finding fit to shoot two female doctors to death after they refused to treat members of the terror group. According to reports six people, including three women, were executed in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul by…

The state must immediately release a ship seized in 2012 which tried to break through the sea blockade the Israeli Navy is maintaining off the coast of Gaza. According to Haifa Regional Court Judge Ron Sokol, the fact that the state waited ten months between seizing the ship and asking for legal recognition of the…

Syrian rebels have made fresh advances near the Israeli Golan Heights in Quneitra province, where 26 troops and 17 rebels were killed in a battle on Saturday, a monitoring group said. Fighting has raged in the province since August, when rebels and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front took control of a border post. “Rebels have since…

If history is an indication, it may be a very long time before anything gets built on land in Gush Etzion that was declared state land last week. Another declaration by the government over a decade ago has been winding its way through the court system, and it was only on Sunday that the High…

A radical new law regulating the public activities of business and cultural groups on Shabbat is just another attempt “by those in Yesh Atid and Hatnua to harm Judaism and the entire Jewish world,” said MK Eli Yishai (Shas). “It’s also just another sad attempt by these MKs who are doing poorly in the polls…

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett and Environment Minister Amir Peretz reached a compromise on how much consumers who choose to use plastic grocery bags supplied by supermarkets will have to pay. While the bill originally called for a 60 agurot (18¢) charge for each bag “purchased,” the compromise will set the charges significantly lower. Bennett had…

A Jerusalem court on Sunday rejected a petition by the Education Ministry for an injunction against the use of a secular school by a hareidi girls’ school in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The court accepted the Beit Shemesh municipality’s argument that as the owner of the building, the municipality could allocate classroom space as it saw…

Largely in response to an Arutz Sheva report on a counter-anti-Semitism event hosted by the Permanent Mission of Palau to the UN, organizers say that there has been a surge of over 500 RSVPs for the event. The organizer of the historic event, Ms. Ugoji Eze, CEO/President of the Eng Aja Eze Foundation, proudly remarked, “It looks like it’s going to…

Rabbis of the religious-Zionist Tzohar organization decried the refusal of city rabbis in Petah Tikvah to register members of the Ethiopian community for marriage. According to reports, Ethiopian community members who seek to get married in the city are sent elsewhere. In Israel, all marriages must be officiated by a religious official – depending on the…

“Moderate” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has bragged of his regime’s role in aiding Hamas’s terror war against Israel, even as Iran is locked in a final round of negotiations with world powers over its nuclear program. Speaking to the Arabic-language news source Al Meyadeen, Rouhani claimed the “victory” of Gaza in Operation Protective Edge was only…

As the government worked over the past year on a bill that would require hareidi youths to serve in the IDF – or possibly serve time in prison – leaders of the hareidi community swore that youths would go to jail en masse if necessary to avoid being taken out of yeshiva study halls. Yet…

Jack the Ripper was a 23-year-old Polish immigrant called Aaron Kosminski, according to an author claiming to have exposed the serial killer’s true identity using DNA evidence. Russell Edwards, 48, who describes himself as an “armchair detective”, believes he has identified the infamous Victorian serial murderer for the first time. The Independent reported that he…

The Arab League said Sunday that it would back military action led by the US and Europe against IS (aka ISIS or ISIL), the Islamist group that has taken over large portions of Syria and Iraq. US President Barack H Obama said in an interview Sunday that the US would step up its aerial campaign…

Dozens of Arabs rioted in the Wadi Joz area of Jerusalem Sunday following the death of Mohammed Abu Sankara, 16, who was injured during another riot a week earlier. He was in a coma for a week and succumbed to his wounds Sunday. The rioters are hurling rocks and fireworks at police, according to Voice…

Egypt arrested seven men on Saturday for taking part in a gay wedding video that went viral on social media, accusing them of inciting debauchery and undermining public morals. The arrest of two other participants is pending. The video purporting to show the country’s first gay marriage and featured two men exchanging rings surrounded by friends.  “Nine of…

President Barack Obama said he will explain to Americans and congressional leaders this week his strategy to deal with and ultimately defeat the Islamic State terrorists, who he said could eventually become a threat to the United States. Obama will make a speech on Wednesday to “describe what our game plan’s going to be,” and…

Two weeks after the IDF’s counter-terror operation Protective Edge in Gaza was halted by a ceasefire, a senior diplomatic source says that Hamas has renewed its production of rockets and the smuggling from Egypt, and is rebuilding its attack tunnels. The terror group is smuggling in materials for restoring its rocket array, says the senior source.…

During 50 days of war against Hamas in Gaza, one of the stated goals of Israel was the demilitarization of Gaza. Officials and politicians from parties both right and left demanded that Israel ensure the disarmement of Gaza as a condition of instituting a permanent ceasefire, and as a prerequisite for allowing Gaza to rebuild…

Egypt on Saturday charged ousted president Mohammed Morsi and several other people with endangering national security by leaking state secrets and sensitive documents to Qatar, Reuters reported. Security sources had said last month that Egypt was investigating the ousted Muslim Brotherhood president in connection with documents they said were leaked to Qatar and its satellite…

The Somali Al-Shabaab terrorist group confirmed on Saturday that its leader Ahmed Godane had been killed in a U.S. airstrike this week and named a new leader, Reuters reported. U.S. forces struck Godane’s encampment in south-central Somalia with Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions on Monday, but the Pentagon did not confirm his death until Friday.…

Hundreds of people gathered over the weekend at a synagogue in Miami, Florida for a service in memory of Steve Sotloff, the American-Israeli journalist who was brutally beheaded by terrorists from the Islamic State (IS). According to a report in Kol Yisrael radio, Sotloff’s parents were in attendance and said that their son’s happiest moments…

Middle East studies expert Dr. David Bukay of the University of Haifa ridicules intelligence experts trying to downplay the danger posed by the extremist group Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), which has captured large swathes of Iraq and Syria in recent months. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Bukay explained “today they have nearly 20,000 fighters; it’s a…

A freed French hostage has said the terrorist behind the deadly shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May was among his Islamic extremist captors in Syria, and was part of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terror group. Writing on the website of his former employer Le Point magazine, Nicolas Henin said Mehdi Nemmouche, who…

A senior member of the Palestinian Arab negotiating team that reached a ceasefire deal with Israel on August 26 in Cairo said Saturday that restarted talks on larger demands will begin in another two weeks. Qais Abd al-Karim, a leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) terrorist group that is a…

Concerns that a young Nigerian tourist hospitalized in Jerusalem’s Sha’arei Tzedek Hospital may have been carrying the lethal Ebola virus were dismissed on Saturday night, as test results revealed she did not have the disease. It was found in the tests that the tourist was suffering from an infection in her digestive system, as opposed…

Before Shabbat began on Friday evening, residents of the northern Jerusalem neighborhood Pisgat Ze’ev reported to the 100 police emergency hotline that they heard gunshots from the adjacent Arab neighborhood of Shuafat towards their direction. Police forces that arrived on the scene found two bullets, one lodged in the rear windshield of a car and…

Knesset Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud) on Saturday indicated in a TV interview that the coalition may be in for a shake-up in the near future – and that “childish” Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) does not have high chances of being invited back in. “We must weigh the possibility of a change…

The Lebanese army says it is looking into reports that the Islamic State terrorist group has beheaded another of its soldiers Saturday. An IS commander told Turkey’s Anadolu news site that the soldier – identified as 24-year-old Abbas Medlej – was executed after trying to escape. An image of a masked man holding a severed head in front…

The United States said Friday it has “no plans” for any military coordination with Iran in the fight against Islamic State fighters operating in Iraq and Syria, AFP reported. “We are not going to coordinate military action or share intelligence with Iran and have no plans to do so,” State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf…

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to combat anti-Semitism, the White House said in a statement. “The President met with Turkish President Erdogan today in Newport, Wales, where both leaders were attending the NATO Summit. They exchanged views on how best to cooperate in the struggle against ISIS and…

New York’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) is in the process of revoking a license plate reading “HAMMAS,” which it says never should have been issued in the first place, New York Magazine reported on Friday. The DMV said the “patently offensive” plate can be read as a message of support for Hamas which is…

U.S. and Iranian officials on Friday met for a second day of negotiations in Switzerland as they work towards hammering out a full nuclear deal ahead of a November deadline, AFP reports. The U.S. team, led by Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns and Under Secretary Wendy Sherman, began meeting Thursday with an Iranian delegation…

Opposition leader and Labor party chairman MK Yitzhak Herzog on Friday spoke with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the first conversation between an Israeli leader and Abbas since the end of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. Writing about the conversation in a post on his Facebook page, Herzog said he had asked the PA…

A two year-old has been declared dead on Friday, according to Magen David Adom (MDA) medics, in the second serious baby-left-in-car incident in Israel in 24 hours.  The child was left in the car, which was parked in the city of Yehud, as the infant’s mother, sister, and aunt were shopping, according to a preliminary…

Al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, the Al-Nusra Front, on Friday threatened Lebanon’s Sunni Muslims they must support its cause or “pay the price”, Reuters reports. The group said the coming period would be decisive for anyone who stood with the Lebanese army, the report said. The statements were made in a video which purported to show several…

An odd social media trend transcended political and cultural boundaries, international media reported Friday, after the popular “ALS Ice Bucket Challenge” (#ALSicebucketchallenge) has sparked a movement to make burning the Islamic State (IS) flag viral instead.  Dubbed the #BurnISISFlagChallenge, hundreds of Lebanese activists have taken up the North American trend – which has become a…

US President Barack Obama urged NATO to intervene in Islamic State’s conquests of Iraq and Syria Friday, ending a two-day conference with the international body stating that it has “a critical role to play in rolling back this savage organization [IS] that is causing chaos in the region.” “There is unanimity that (IS) poses a significant…

The Pentagon confirmed on Friday that Ahmed Abdi Godane, leader of the Somali Al-Shabaab terrorist group, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Somalia this week, Reuters reported. “We have confirmed that Ahmed Godane, the co-founder of Al-Shabaab, has been killed,” Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said in a statement. Kirby said…

A Nigerian tourist in her twenties was hospitalized in isolation at Shaarei Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem Friday, after rising concerns that she may have tested positive for Ebola, according to Walla! News. The tourist complained of high fever before being rushed to hospital, the news site said, and tests were conducted on her to diagnose…

The Lebanese military said one person was killed as Israel blew up a suspicious device after it had been detected in southern Lebanon on Friday. The official National News Agency (NNA) said earlier that a spying device had been found and blown up. “A military intelligence patrol found a suspicious device near the town of Adlun,” the army said in…

The reclusive son of a Nazi-era art dealer who amassed a giant secret collection snuck a Monet with him into the Germanhospital where he died in May, investigators said Friday. The executor of Cornelius Gurlitt’s estate discovered the French Impressionist artwork in a suitcase handed over to him by the clinic this week. “The work on paper shows…

At least three Canadians who joined Islamic State (IS; formerly known as ISIS) and other Al Qaeda-offshoot groups in Syria were directly involved in abducting and interrogating two US journalists, CBC News confirmed earlier this week. Sources told the Canadian news outlet that the three took part in the imprisonment of Theo Curtis and Matt Schrier,…

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Friday dismissed Jerusalem Councilman Aryeh King from his position on the municipal coalition, due to an administrative petition King submitted to the Jerusalem District Court over recent Arab building plans. In the letter to King, Barkat wrote “coalition members can’t do conflicting things – both being part of the coalition that…

Police forces were alerted and rushed to save a one-and-a-half year old infant from suffocation in a locked car in Elad, located in Israel’s coastal plain area to the east of Tel Aviv, in what appears to be an egregious case of negligence. Two police from the Rosh Ha’ayin station were called to the scene on…

The 45 UN peacekeepers from Fiji who were abducted by Al Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front rebel forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights last Wednesday are to “stand trial” under sharia (Islamic law), according to a Britain-based monitoring group. Rami Abdul Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the commander of…

The leadership of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist group in Syria and Iraq took a sharp blow on Thursday, as roughly 20 senior figures, including a top aide to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were killed in airstrikes according to the Iraqi defense ministry. In airstrikes on the northern Iraqi city of Mosul,…

The West has long threatened to stop donating to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if it continues to pay salaries to its terrorists – and so the PA has found a “creative solution”: It will give the money to the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), and the PLO will pay the salaries instead. PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas…

A senior leader of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction has launched a new international campaign against Israel, calling on nations of the world to cancel the citizenship for IDF soldiers after Operation Protective Edge. The Fatah leader, Mohammed Shtayyeh, a Member of the Fatah Central Committee and former PA cabinet minister, stated there was…

Former Arkansas governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee visited Gush Etzion on Thursday, days after Israel’s announcement that it would declare 4,000 dunams of land in the region as state land. During the visit, Huckabee met with MK Danny Danon (Likud), who explained why it was inappropriate to use the term “annex” when referring to…

French prosecutors have launched a probe into a controversial comic widely accused of anti-Semitism for mocking the decapitation of American journalist James Foley in a video, AFP reports Friday.  Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, whose trademark “quenelle” salute – a stiff-arm gesture widely seen as a disguised Nazi salute – is no stranger to controversy and has been fined several times in France…

Hamas is not willing to discuss the possibility of demilitarizing weapons from its “military wing,” the Al-Qassam Brigades, or other Palestinian terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza, one of its leaders announced Friday.  In his first Friday sermon after the war, Ismail Haniyeh, the deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, said that Hamas does not…

Reports on Friday indicated that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei authorized his army to coordinate joint military operations with the United States against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in Iraq. Iranian sources in Tehran told BBC Persian about the development, which comes as the Sunni extremist group that has conquered vast swathes of Iraq and Syria…

Former Yesha Council director and Binyamin Regional Council head Pinhas Wallerstein was called on to help develop the Gaza Belt communities, and has been doing so while staying at Kibbutz Nahal Oz even as it came under intense Hamas mortar and rocket fire. Speaking to Arutz Sheva, Wallerstein recounted how Energy Minister Silvan Shalom (Likud), who also serves…

France for the first time has become the country with the highest numbers of aliyah (immigration to Israel), according to the French office of the Jewish Agency for Israel on Friday. “France is today the leading country for Jewish emigration to Israel. It has never been before,” said Ariel Kandel, who heads the French office of…

Gila Tragerman, the mother of four-year-old Daniel hy”d who was killed by a Hamas mortar shell on August 22 while in his Kibbutz Nahal Oz home, criticized the United Nations (UN) on Friday morning for their culpability in her son’s death. “It is unthinkable that from within UN buildings, schools and hospitals, terror infrastructures are…

Egyptian officials expect the Israeli negotiating delegation to arrive in Cairo within a week to continue indirect talks, sources in Egypt told the Ma’an news agency on Thursday. Egypt has been in contact with both Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli officials this week to determine a date for further talks following a cessation to hostilities…

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said on Thursday that the United States is concerned that the most dangerous terrorist groups could get a hold of chemical weapons if Syria is hiding any stockpiles. Power spoke to reporters after the Security Council received a briefing from Sigrid Kaag, who heads the international effort…

The deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament Ahmad Bahar has accused the national unity government and its prime minister Rami Hamdallah of “negligence” towards Gaza, the Ma’an news agency reported on Thursday. Speaking at a symposium held in Gaza City, Bahar urged the government to fulfill its duties in Gaza, particularly the reconstruction of buildings…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned on Thursday against cuts to the defense budget. “The Middle East is changing. The great armies have been replaced by bloodthirsty terrorist groups, that are skilled and trained, and armed from head to toe not only with weapons but also with ideology that challenges the world order and the West…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sent his condolences on Thursday evening over the passing of comedy icon Joan Rivers, who died earlier in the day at the age of 81. “Joan Rivers brought laughter to millions around the world and was proud of her Jewish heritage and a vocal supporter of the State of Israel. We…

More than one hundred people demonstrated on Thursday evening at the Ariel junction in Samaria, in protest over the danger presented by Palestinian Arab workers who use the subsidized public transportation buses for Jews living in Judea and Samaria. The residents are warning that these Arabs are a security threat since they are being allowed…

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Thursday defended the policy of not paying ransom to terrorist groups for the release of kidnapped civilians. “I know it is difficult to hear and I have thought about this very carefully. I am absolutely convinced that the policy of not paying ransoms to terrorists for kidnaps is right,”…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday sent his condolences to the family of journalist Steve Sotloff, who was beheaded by terrorists from the Islamic State. “Steven was murdered because for the terrorists he was a symbol of the West – the same culture that extremist Islam wants to eradicate,” Netanyahu said, speaking at an event…

Dear Sir, My name is Gila, I am an Israeli citizen, and I am a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, near the border with Gaza.  A week ago, we lost our elder son, Daniel, 4.5 yrs old, who was killed by a mortar shell, fired from Gaza into Israel deliberately. I address you after your announcement to Prime…

Bat-Galim Sha’ar, the mother of abducted and murdered 16 year-old Gilad, spoke passionately about the need to stop terror and bloodshed Thursday after new details were revealed about her son’s murder.  “Even during the difficult days we went through, after we found out that Gilad was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, we stated that we rely…

MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beytenu) was sworn in to the Knesset Thursday. Miller, who served in the 17th and 18th Knessets (2006-2013) replaces former MK Carmel Shama-Hacohen (Likud), who is Israel’s new ambassador to the OECD. Miller was placed in the 33rd slot on Likud-Beytenu’s joint list in the elections for the present, 19th Knesset,…

The IDF returned fire at a Syrian army position along the northern border Thursday afternoon, after a mortar shell struck Israeli territory. Sirens were heard throughout throughout the Golan Heights earlier, as a mortar shell had struck in an open field in the northern Golan. No damage or injuries were reported. A military spokeswoman told AFP…

The Hesder Yeshiva Association on Thursday reported that the number of students in its institutions grew at the beginning of the academic year. As of the first day of the Hebrew month of Elul, when the new yeshiva sessions begin, the number of students in Hesder yeshivas grew by 5%. In the Hesder program, students…

Former head of IDF Intelligence Amos Yadlin on Wednesday expressed a contrarian opinion on the dangers of the terrorist group ISIS, responsible for the beheadings of two journalists, as well as thousands of “infidels” in Iraq and Syria who do not subscribe to their particular brand of Islam. According to Yadlin, there’s nothing to fear…

Deputy Education Minister MK Avi Wortzman (Jewish Home) applauded the conviction and sentencing of ex-Balad MK Sa’id Nafa, who will be spending the next year in prison. Nafa was convicted Thursday for traveling to an enemy country and meeting with foreign agents. At issue was a trip Nafa organized to Syria in 2007. The indictment…

An indictment was submitted today (Thursday) against the mastermind of the kidnap and murder of Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sha’ar and Naftali Frenkel, as more details emerge about the circumstances of their abduction. With the completion of the interrogation of the suspects, several new pieces of information have been released for publication. One month…

Yiska Hetzroni, 24, of Kiryat Arba, had a premonition that something bad was going to happen to her that day. “I knew it was going to happen to me,” she told Arutz Sheva. “I had a feeling before I left the house and I told my husband that I have a bad feeling. I was…

Media personality Joan Rivers has died after being taken off life support, her daughter Melissa said in a statement Thursday night. She was 81. Rivers is survived by Melissa, 46, and grandson Cooper Endicott, 13. “It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my mother, Joan Rivers,” Melissa Rivers said in a statement released…

The investigation into the travel spending habits of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) has ended, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein announced Thursday night, bringing what the Israeli media calls the “Bibitours affair” to a close. In May 2013, State Comptroller Yosef Shapira announced that he would launch an investigation into rumors of the Netanyahu family’s spending on…

A new UN probe of allegations that Iran worked on nuclear weapons has stalled, according to diplomats, leaving investigators not much further than where they started a decade ago and diminishing US hopes of reaching deal with Tehran by the November deadline that had been set, according to a report by Fox News. Two weeks…

A St. Louis-based publishing company caused some controversy Thursday, after it re-released coloring books to educate children about Islamist terrorism to include pages on the evils of Islamic State (IS, or ISIS) and asked for educators to incorporate them into their curricula.  The coloring books, entitled “The True Faces of Global Evil Terrorism” and “We…

Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) sent an open letter Thursday to party chairman and Economics Minister Naftali Bennett, in which he warned that Bennett’s attempts to push through a party constitution could lead to a split in its ranks. The letter was also addressed to members of the central committees of the…

The legality of Israel’s declaring about 4,000 dunams (close to 1,000 acres) of land as “state land” in Gush Etzion is undisputed, rights group Regavim noted Thursday – despite the actions of leftist groups, the media, and the international community to defame Israel as “annexing” land claimed to be “occupied territory.”  Sunday’s announcement sparked widespread…

The Grimhøjmoskeen mosque in Aarhus, Denmark, has openly declared support for Islamic State (IS; formerly known as ISIS), claiming a state under Sharia law is a matter of national-religious pride.  “An Islamic state will always be what Muslims long for, therefore we cannot help but to support the Islamic State. Even if it makes mistakes,…

Garik Zylberbord, 47, a prominent member of the Jewish community in Ukraine, was killed in Donetsk while trying to stop pro-Russian rebels from robbing his neighbor’s home on Saturday, reports Chabad.org. Rabbi Pinchas Vishedski, a close friend of Zylberbord, described him as someone who became closer to his Judaism over the years, being circumcised (his…

The United States’ UN Ambassador, Samantha Power, said Wednesday that Washington is “deeply concerned” by Israel’s decision to turn 4,000 dunams of land in the Etzion Bloc region into state land. The US “position on settlement activity is very well known,” she told reporters. “We have long made clear our opposition to settlement activity. We’re…

An antique Torah scroll that was discovered in the home of a Polish family was returned to Israel this week. The scroll had been hidden in the family’s house by their Jewish neighbors with the onset of World War II. The Torah scroll was discovered at the village of Wrubleski Filipov northern Poland. A group…

Former MK Sa’id Nafa will be spending the next year in prison. Nafa was convicted Thursday for traveling to an enemy country and meeting with foreign agents. At issue was a trip Nafa organized to Syria in 2007. The indictment against Nafa includes charges against him and 16 other individuals, most of them Druze sheikhs,…

If the government intends to eliminate one of the offices of the Chief Rabbi, it should be that of the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, said Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef. Speaking to yeshiva students in Jerusalem, Rabbi Yosef pointed out that his office – that of the Rishon LeZion, the head of the Sephardic community in…

US President Barack H Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron intend to build an international coalition against ISIS, the terror group that has conquered large portions of Iraq and Syria. In the wake of the revelation of a second video showing the beheading of a Western journalist by ISIS this week, Obama and Cameron…

In its latest canard against Israel, Palestinian Authority television has compared the demolition of a 12-story building in Gaza that was a Hamas headquarters outpost to the destruction of the World Trade Center. A video clip from PA television, released by Palestine Media Watch (PMW), places the two attacks side by side, and implies that…

Israeli citizens who wave the flags or display other symbols associated with ISIS, Hamas, Hezbollah, or other terror organizations, will be subject to arrest and prosecution, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has decided. A report in Yisrael Hayom quoted a letter sent by Weinstein’s aides to members of the Justice Ministry staff. The letter says that,…

Former Judea and Samaria Council head Dani Dayan warned that those who opposed the designation of 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Gush Etzion as state land, along with other plans such as the continued development of Jewish settlement in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, are seeking to demoralize and eventually destroy the entire…

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday issued a sharp warning to the Islamic State group, saying after the United States is done grieving the death of two American journalists, their killers will have to answer for their actions. “They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought…

A Saudi court on Wednesday sentenced 22 Saudi citizens, an American and a Yemeni to jail terms of between two and 27 years on terrorism charges, Reuters reported, citing the official news agency SPA. The court said charges ranged from “the establishment of a terrorist cell planning to targeting oil pipelines,” having weapons, and planning…

The United States is hoping for unanimous approval of a UN resolution calling for global action against the growing phenomenon of foreigners traveling to fight for terrorist groups, U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press (AP). Power told reporters that foreign fighters like those in Iraq and Syria participate in “brutal…

A group of Jordanian deputies demanded on Wednesday that the kingdom stay out of any war against Islamic State jihadists who have captured swathes of territory in neighboring Iraq and Syria, AFP reports. 21 MPs, who represent various factions in the 150-seat parliament, sent a memorandum to speaker Atef al-Tarawneh demanding “the government not involve…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid declared on Wednesday that he would quit the government should taxes be raised following Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. “Israeli citizens will not be required to pay more taxes following Operation Protective Edge,” Lapid told Channel 2 News, adding, “I will not sit in a government that once again reaches into…

Retired general Andrew Leslie, one of the Canadian Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau’s top advisers, has accused Israel of firing “indiscriminately onto Palestinian women and children” during the recent operation in Gaza. According to The Toronto Sun, Leslie’s remarks were made August 19 but only surfaced this week when transcripts of his remarks, including a…

The United Nations nuclear watchdog is expected to issue a report this week showing little progress is being made in its long-running investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran, diplomats told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday. The unnamed diplomats said the quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran was likely to…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu (Likud) met with rabbis from the Tzohar rabbinical organization Wednesday night, to thank them for their work during Operation Protective Edge.  “We passed trying times,” Netanyahu began. “An important part of this test was safeguarding the strength of the people and the great unity of the nation.” “It is good to…

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on Wednesday announced the formation of an Indian branch of his terrorist group, Reuters reported. The Al-Qaeda leader declared the new branch would spread Islamic rule and “raise the flag of jihad” across the subcontinent. In a 55-minute video posted online, Zawahiri also renewed a longstanding vow of loyalty to Afghan…

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Wednesday signed a declaration which designates the Islamic State (IS) and the Lebanon-based Abdullah Azzam Brigades terrorist groups as unlawful organizations. The designation allows for legal action and other measures against these organizations, as well as against anyone fundraising for them or carrying other activities associated with these organizations. The…

The Chief of the Northern Command, Major General Yair Golan, met last month with the mayors of communities near Lebanon and addressed concerns from residents that Hezbollah is actively digging tunnels toward Israel. Golan said that the IDF is prepared to deal with any attempt to act against the inhabitants of the region, including against…

Mayor of Efrat Oded Revivi spoke to Arutz Sheva on Wednesday about the media firestorm over Israel’s declaring 4000 dunams as “state land” Sunday, explaining that the term “annexation” is a misnomer. “Despite the fact that Israel didn’t do any annexation, despite the fact no legal change has happened, despite the fact that Israel has only decided to…

The UN Security Council on Wednesday demanded the release of 45 Fijian peacekeepers held in the Golan Heights by Syrian Al-Nusra Front terrorists, according to AFP.  The 15 members of the council unanimously approved a declaration condemning “in the strongest terms” the detention of the Fijians. They were captured almost a week ago, when the rebels stormed a Golan Heights crossing.…

Two thousand, five hundred (2,500) new housing units were slated for building in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the cancellation of thousands of building tenders just two days ago.  The international community remained silent at this announcement, however, as Wednesday’s building tenders were for Arab – not Jewish – neighborhoods in Jerusalem.  The houses will be built…

Jewish Home MK Moti Yogev on Wednesday wrote to his party’s committee that is to approve a controversial new constitution next week, warning that if passed, the constitution threatens to split Jewish Home apart. “I appreciate you all and your dedication to renewing the Jewish Home party constitution,” opened Yogev cordially in the letter, which…

Israel is to supply Jordan with natural gas from its vast Leviathan offshore gas field over a period of 15 years, US giant Noble Energy announced Wednesday. A source close to the deal said it was worth $15 billion (11.4 billion euros) – a significant chunk of some $60 billion which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said will come from…

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi blamed Israel for fueling terrorism in the Middle East by not making peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA) on Wednesday, in light of the tensions between the West and the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). The lack of a “peace process” in Israel contributes to a “fertile environment for the growth…

Not just people, but relics, have incredible survival stories from the Holocaust, the Sham Olam (Heb: “The World is There”) Institute for Holocaust Studies discovered Wednesday.  A silver brooch, or keepsake pin, was uncovered featuring artwork of the Lodz Ghetto and originating from within the ghetto walls. The pin features the ghetto’s fence and guard…

US President Barack Obama vowed Wednesday that the United States would not be intimidated by the beheading of a secondAmerican reporter, but acknowledged the fight against the extremist Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) would take time. Obama pledged that justice would be done to the IS murderers who brutally beheaded 31-year-old reporter Steven Sotloff, who was also an Israeli citizen,…

Famous American pop star Lady Gaga, who will perform in Israel later this month, has already angered Arab fans, Al Arabiya reports. The cause of the anger, according to the report, is a video released by the singer in which she greets her Israeli fans with “Shalom”. “Shalom, Israel,” the pop superstar said in the…

Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) sharply criticized the European Union (EU) and the U.S. State Department on Tuesday, after both issued condemnations of Israel’s plans  to declare 4,000 dunams of land in Judea, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land. “Israel will continue to work to promote settlement on its land – just as every other…

U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday called for Secretary of State John Kerry to present administration policy for “rolling back” the Islamic State’s (IS) gains, after the rampaging group claimed it beheaded a second American, AFP reports. With members of the House and Senate warning that President Barack Obama has not done enough to combat the extremist…

U.S. and Somali officials confirmed on Tuesday that an American military airstrike in Somalia targeted the leader of the Al-Shabaab group, Ahmed Abdi Godane, Reuters reports. However, the officials said, it may take time to determine whether Godane was killed. The United States launched Hellfire missiles and laser-guided munitions to destroy an Al-Shabaab encampment in…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday once again slammed the United Nations over its decision to probe Israel’s actions in Gaza. Speaking before naval cadets who graduated from an officers’ course, Netanyahu praised the IDF as being the most moral military in the world. “Operation Protective Edge once again proved that there is no power…

Egypt’s ambassador to the Palestinian Authority said on Monday that Cairo is in contact with Palestinian Arab and Israeli officials to determine a date for further ceasefire talks following a cessation to hostilities last week. The ambassador, Wael Atiyeh, told the PA-based Ma’an news agency that a date has not yet been set for a…

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday condemned as “despicable and barbaric” a new video that was released by the Islamic State and which shows the brutal beheading of Jewish-American journalist Steve Sotloff. According to the Mirror, Cameron said he would be chairing a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee on Wednesday morning. “If…

Israel was again condemned on Tuesday over its decision to declare 4,000 dunams of land in Judea, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land, with the European Union (EU) and the U.S. State Department being the latest ones to issue condemnations. “We condemn the new appropriation of land in the West Bank, relating to plans for…

The Shurat Hadin civil rights group has announced it has submitted a criminal indictment against Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal at the International Criminal Court in the Hague (ICC). Shurat Hadin, which prosecutes international terrorist groups and their supporters, said the indictment was in response to the summary execution of 38 Palestinians in Gaza during the…

Sudan has expelled the Iranian embassy’s cultural attache, in a slap in the face to its one-time ally over creeping “Shia influence” in the Sunni-majority country. The Sudanese government closed down the Iranian Cultural Center in the capital Khartoum, and ordered the attache and all the center’s staff to leave the country within 72 hours.…

Hassidic music sensation Lipa Schmeltzer paid a visit to IDF soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda (formerly Nahal Haredi) battalion, to perform for soldiers as a show of solidarity. American musician Schmeltzer is considered something of a maverick; he hails from the deeply conservative Skver hassidic sect, and has faced criticism form some within his community…

Israel will soon receive its fourth “Dolphin” submarine, in a significant boost to the IDF’s naval capabilities, according to Channel Two. “At this very moment, after leaving Germany, it is making its way to Israel,” Navy chief Vice Admiral Ram Rothberg said at conclusion of a navy captain’s course Wednesday, noting that it will become the…

American journalist Steven Sotloff, who was brutally beheaded by the Islamic State terrorist group, took great risks to keep his Jewish faith in captivity, a former fellow-captive of the murdered journalist told Yediot Aharonoth. Sotloff reportedly made sure to fast in secret during Yom Kippur and even prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, as is…

One day after it was revealed that IDF forces had quietly abandoned the Gaza border community of Netiv Ha’asarah, Nahal Brigade soldiers have returned once again to guard the town. But Penina Rogolski, a member of the local council, says that she is still concerned the error could repeat itself. “We have still not yet…

Less than two weeks after construction began, and before it could be used, Israeli police began dismantling the new bridge to replace the unstable wooden walkway to the Temple Mount on Wednesday.  The new bridge was announced two weeks ago, and would have replaced the shaky wooden construct of the bridge leading up to the…

A senior security source in the Sinai peninsula has revealed that the explosion that killed 11 Egyptian soldiers on Tuesday, which occurred near the Rafah crossing to Gaza, was in fact caused by an explosive planted in a tunnel. The source was cited by Yedioth Aharonoth as saying the tunnel was dug under the main traffic circle…

It no longer is located in Neve Dekalim, a community in Gush Katif that suffered expulsion in the 2005 Disengagement plan which forcibly removed all Jews from Gaza. But today, nine years later, the Neve Dekalim Girls’ High School retains its name and heritage as it settles into a new permanent campus. Arutz Sheva was on…

Islamic State terrorists fresh from the conquest of the last Syrian military base in the north of the country sent a “special message” to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, as well as his key ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin. Tabqa airbase was taken after prolonged and intensive fighting which left hundreds of Islamic State and pro-regime forces…

American journalist Steven Sotloff, who was brutally beheaded by the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, took great risks to keep his Jewish faith in captivity, a former fellow-captive of the murdered journalist told Yediot Aharonoth. However, it turns out that Sotloff was in fact Israeli. A media gag order on the issue was released on…

A far-right weekly has sparked a firestorm of controversy by describing France’s new education minister as a “Moroccan Muslim” and calling the appointment of the 36-year-old rising star a “provocation.” Moroccan-born Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is the first woman in French history to hold the office of education minister, the latest step in a brilliant career for…

An Israeli delegation is to travel to Washington DC next week to petition US officials to take a tough line in renewed talks between major world powers and Iran, in which the sides will discuss the Islamic regime’s nuclear program. “I will travel to Washington next week at the head of an important delegation, in light of what…

A senior army intelligence official said on Tuesday that the IDF underestimated the determination of Hamas terrorists in Operation Protective Edge, terming it a “tactical assessment mistake.” “If you’d asked me two months ago, I wouldn’t assess that it’s going to take us 50 days,” the official said to AFP in a Tel Aviv briefing late Tuesday on…

About two months after Givat Oz veGaon was established, in memory of the three youths Gilad Sha’ar, Eyal Yifrah, and Naftali Frenkel hy”d, a moving event was held on the hill – the first brit milah (ritual circumcision) ceremony in the forest, which is situated facing the Gush Etzion junction. David and Ilana Brenner, residents of Elazar in Gush Etzion, invited…

Chief Palestinian Authority (PA) negotiator Saeb Erekat will present plans to US Secretary of State John Kerry with a timetable for Israel’s pullout from Judea and Samaria, PA-affiliated sources told Lebanese news site Ya Libnan Tuesday.  Erekat and PA “Intelligence Minister” Majid Faraj will hold a series of meetings with senior officials in Washington, the sources said,…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) “unity government” intends to seek a UN Security Council resolution setting a three-year deadline for forcing Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official said Tuesday. Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the leadership of the PLO [the terror group behind the PA – ed.], acknowledged at a news conference…

Two Frenchmen allegedly involved in the hit-and-run death of an Israeli woman in Tel Aviv will stand trial in Paris on November 27, judicial sources told AFP Tuesday. 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. Eric Robic, who…

Eleven Egyptian policemen were killed when a roadside bomb blast struck their armored vehicle in the restive Sinai Peninsula on Tuesday, security officials said. Islamist terrorists have claimed a string of attacks that have killed scores of policemen and soldiers, mostly in north Sinai, since the army overthrew president Mohamed Morsi in July last year. An officer and 10 conscripts…

Police on Tuesday recommended putting former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi on trial in the infamous Harpaz Affair, in which it was charged that Lieutenant-Colonel Boaz Harpaz forged a document meant to prevent General Yoav Galant from becoming Ashkenazi’s successor. Ashkenazi was recommended for trial on charges of passing secret information and breach of trust in the…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) on Monday sharply criticized the Sunday declaration of 4,000 dunams (988 acres) near Beitar Illit in Judea as state land, labeling the move harmful “opportunism.” “This is opportunism and was not brought to the Cabinet, and at the current time it simply causes damage to Israel,” complained the minister. “We’re…

Further testimony has been brought regarding the powerful recruitment pull of the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) on the West, as two young Muslim converts from Canada have been identified in the ranks of the extremist terrorist group. The brothers Gregory and Collin Gordon of Calgary recently converted to Islam, taking the names Abdul Malik…

Arutz Sheva got a chance on Monday at the start of the school year to speak with Ido Aharonovich, Principal of the AMIT Yud High School in Ashdod and an IDF commander who served in Operation Protective Edge. “It’s not easy but it’s very important for all the students to talk about what happened to them, and…

Leaders of Judea and Samaria expressed their outrage over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s de facto construction freeze, after reports Monday revealed he cancelled 2,500 housing units in the region and Jerusalem due to international pressure. “The prime minister vowed to advance programs and start construction, but in reality after this type of (building) advancement is published everything…

Just outside the 11th-century walls that surround Avila in central Spain, rows of granite slabs surrounded by neatly trimmed grass mark the spot where ancient Jewish graves lay. Local authorities spent 250,000 euros ($335,000) to build the memorial garden, which opened last year, on the grounds of a medieval Jewish cemetery in what used to be an empty field…

Turkey’s new prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, was pessimistic on Monday regarding the possibility of his country normalizing ties with Israel. According to Reuters Davutoglu, who spoke to parliamentarians, said he saw no hope of “normalizing” ties with the Jewish state. He said progress in the normalization of relations with Israel would only be possible if…

An Israeli Arab who was apparently trying to smuggle Palestinian Arab workers illegally into Israel tried to run over an IDF soldier at the Eyal interchange near Qalqiliya, Samaria Tuesday afternoon. An IDF officer from the Kfir Brigade opened fire at the vehicle, injuring the driver; he was shot in the head and is in…

Daniel Fish, a soldier in the elite Magellan unit, has made a miraculous recovery, doctors say. Fish was evacuated from Gaza to Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center in late July, after he was wounded in a bombing attack which killed three friends.  He faced critical injuries and was transferred to Soroka’s Trauma unit in a…

Some 4,500 people from many Jewish and non-Jewish denominations rallied in front of London’s Royal Courts of Justice on Sunday, as part of a campaign launched by the newly-formed Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAAS) for “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism in Britain.  Photos of the event quickly began circulating on social media, under the hashtag #NotoAntiSemitism. Supporters bore…

To the mournful strains of a single cello and tearful remembrances by family members, Germany Tuesday inaugurated a national memorial to the 300,000 ill and disabled people systematically murdered by the Nazis. The site next to the Tiergarten park is the fourth and likely final major memorial in Berlin’s city center to groups targeted in the Holocaust, following monuments dedicated over the…

The Canadian Ministry of Public Safety last Friday released its 2014 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada, in which it detailed the troubling phenomenon of Canadians traveling to the Middle East to join in jihad – and later return to potentially conduct attacks. “As of early 2014, the Government was aware of more than…

Yesha Council Chairman Avi Roeh accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday of conducting a “covert freeze” on building in Judea and Samaria, and called out “right-wing” Likud and Jewish Home MKs for their notable silence on the issue. “It can certainly be said there’s a freeze, a covert one, planned so that no one…

Support for the terrorist organization Hamas has skyrocketed in Judea, Samaria and Gaza according to a new poll, after Hamas “skyrocketed” Israel with a massive missile barrage and terror war in Operation Protective Edge. A full 61% of Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza would pick Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh for unity government president…

Large police, Border Patrol and Israel Security Agency (ISA) forces were deployed late Tuesday morning to track an Arab terrorist from Samaria, who apparently breached into Israeli territory to conduct an attack. A few hours after the manhunt began police reported that the search has been called off, saying “the danger of an infiltration incident…

The grassroots Zionist student movement Im Tirtzu on Tuesday called on Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) to rescind the nomination of Prof. Barak Medina to the Supreme Court, after he pressed for the “right” of Arab residents to protest Israel’s very existence. Im Tirtzu cited a campaign initiated by Medina for academics to sign an…

Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro claimed on Monday that the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was behind the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, AFP reports. Castro’s claims were made in a column published in Cuban media in which he lashed out at the United States and Europe and accused them of war-mongering. He also compared the…

The Al-Nusra Front, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Syrian rebel group, has presented its demands for the release of 43 Fijian peacekeepers they kidnapped last week, The Associated Press (AP) reported Monday night. Fiji’s military commander, Brig. Gen. Mosese Tikoitoga, said the rebels have issued three demands for the release of the peacekeepers: to be taken off the…

U.S. military forces conducted an operation on Monday against the Al-Shabaab terrorist network in Somalia, Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said, according to CNN. “We are assessing the results of the operation and will provide additional information as and when appropriate,” he said. No other information was immediately available. The United States designated…

Ireland may not replace its 130-person rapid response force in the Golan Heights, where 44 peacekeepers from Fiji are being held by rebels, Ireland’s Defense Minister said on Monday, according to Reuters. According to the minister, Simon Coveney, Ireland would like the United Nations to review its mandate for its forces there. Ireland’s contingent, which…

Egypt on Monday denounced Israel’s plans to  to declare 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land, AFP reported. Cairo said the move violates international law and is an obstacle to efforts for a lasting Palestinian-Israeli peace agreement. “This is not a positive step – it contradicts international law…

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday voiced optimism that a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program can be resolved by a November 24 deadline, Reuters reports. Zarif’s comments came after talks with European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. “I am quite optimistic after discussions with Lady Ashton that we can in fact resolve…

Israel is to get a fourth television station, if a law proposed by Communications Minister Gilad Erdan passes. Beginning April 1, 2015, the current Channel Two will be divided into two other stations, each of which will broadcast full time. The stations will be run respectively by the two networks that today jointly operate Channel Two,…

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday condemned Israel’s decision to declare 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea as state land, AFP reports. Ban’s spokesman said that the UN chief is “alarmed” by the Israeli plans and feared they could lead to more “settlement activity”. “The Secretary General is alarmed by…

Terrorists who are imprisoned in the Megiddo prison will no longer be able to watch the National Geographic channel on prison televisions, Channel 10 News reported on Monday. According to the report, the channel was pulled for fear that the imprisoned terrorists would take advantage of its programming to plan escapes from prison. The National…

The British government on Monday said it “deplores” an announcement made by Israel on Sunday, in which the Jewish state declared 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea as state land. “The UK deplores the Israeli government’s expropriation of 988 acres of land around the settlement of Etzion,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said…

A poll released Monday by the Knesset Channel found that 39% of respondents called Economics Minister Naftali Bennett leader of the “right-wing” in Israel, giving him the edge over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Coming in second, Netanyahu got 28% support, while 20% picked Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman as their right-wing leader of choice. The poll…

The crisis in Economics Minister Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party appears to be reaching a boiling point, as several party MKs on Monday berated Bennett’s new party constitution that critics claim will give him “absolute power” – and which the two say threatens the religious Zionist movement. MK Yoni Chetboun (Jewish Home) criticized the final draft of…

As fighting intensified between Syrian army troops and Islamist rebels, the IDF increased its presence on the Golan Heights Monday afternoon. Security officials fear that the fighting could “spill over” the Israeli border. A senior Israeli security official said that the IDF had recently changed its conception of defense on the Golan. A group of highly…

Newly inducted President Reuven Rivlin spent the first day of the school year in the Negev, visiting classrooms and planting trees. Rivlin visited the Yitzchak Sadeh school in Dimona, sitting in on classes and talking to students. The president met with first-graders who entered the school’s gates as students for the first time, while accompanied…

Senior Israeli officials report that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu submitted to international pressure, primarily from the US, and cancelled a planned construction announcement for 2,500 housing units in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. The sources told Walla! that after the June 12 abduction and murder of Gilad Sha’ar (16), Naftali Frenkel (16) and Eyal Yifrah (19), Netanyahu ordered…

Residents of the village of Netiv Ha’asarah along the border with Gaza were met with a nasty surprise last night, when they noticed that IDF soldiers stationed to protect the community during the 50-day Operation Protective Edge had disappeared. Troops from the Nahal infantry brigade had been withdrawn without a word to the community, which…

In honor of the new school year and in a show of solidarity to embattled residents of southern Israel, senior government officials toured schools and educational institutions throughout the Negev. Among them, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the city of Sderot, together with Education Minister Shai Piron, to open a new religious high school. During…

Economics Minister Naftali Bennett and MK Shuli Mualem (Jewish Home) visited the Mekor Chaim yeshiva high school in Kfar Etzion on Monday, as the school starts a new academic year in the shadow of the brutal kidnapping and murder of two of its students in June. Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar, both 16, were abducted…

Hundreds of people on Monday attended the funeral of 20-year-old IDF soldier Shahar Shalev hy”d from Alonei Habashan. Shalev was badly wounded during Operation Protective Edge and hospitalized at Rambam Hospital in Haifa, where he died of his wounds on Sunday, roughly five weeks after receiving the critical wound. He became the 72nd Israeli to die…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Monday denied reports that it was planning to pay the salaries of Hamas employees this Wednesday. Earlier, Hamas spokesperson Mousa Abu Marzouk said that the PA had agreed to pay the salaries, claiming the salary payment is a tenet of the ceasefire Hamas and Israel agreed to last Tuesday. According…

Rabbi Dov Zinger, dean of the Mekor Chaim Yeshiva high school in Kfar Etzion, opened a new school year on Monday. However, the rabbi revealed it doesn’t feel like a new year, but rather a continued period since two of his students, Naftali Frenkel (16) and Gilad Sha’ar (16) hy”d, were murdered along with Eyal Yifrah…

A three-year-old toddler was lightly wounded on Monday night by Arab terrorists that hurled rocks through the window of the bus she was riding in, as it passed through Uzi Narkis Street in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat. Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics rushed to the scene to provide the baby girl with medical…

As school resumed in Ramat Beit Shemesh on Monday, the friction between secular and hareidi residents of the town did as well, with the Education Ministry issuing a closure order against a hareidi girl’s school that was opened on the grounds of an existing school. The municipality over the summer decided to dedicate one of…

With Gaza terrorists showering Israel with rockets, August didn’t bring much good news for Israelis. But every cloud has a silver lining: in August a noted increase was recorded of illegal African immigrants leaving the country. While there was no specific connection to the war, observers said that many in the infiltrator community were taken…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with US congressmen Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) on Monday, and remarked on the threats to Israel while receiving their pledges of continued American support. Netanyahu began by mentioning the intense fighting between the Syrian army and rebel forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which…

Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) on the first day of classes Monday visited the “Reishit” school in Tel Aviv, a rapidly growing religious school in the traditionally secular city. At the school, located in southern Tel Aviv, Ben-Dahan spoke before hundreds of students. Reishit boasts some 400 students, the highest number in…

A new report has exposed the details of a heated meeting held between Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Qatar-based Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal on August 21 in Doha, in which Mashaal apparently submitted to a ceasefire with Israel. The report was published Monday by the Lebanese Al Akbar news site, as cited by Walla!, and…

At least 42 children have been killed in government air strikes and shelling across Syria in the last 36 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Sunday, according to AFP. The Britain-based Observatory said 25 children had been killed between midnight on Saturday and Sunday afternoon, with 17 more killed between Friday…

Iran warned on Sunday of “unpleasant” responses to new U.S. sanctions against it, Reuters reports. The declaration by Iran’s Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, came after an announcement on Friday that Washington was going to penalize a number of Iranian and other foreign companies, banks and airlines for violating sanctions against Tehran, most of which…

Several senior British Muslim clerics have added their support to a fatwa (Muslim religious decree) against the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist group, ITV News reported on Sunday. The fatwa calls IS “an oppressive and tyrannical group” and forbids British Muslims from joining. Part of the fatwa, published in the Sunday Times, reads, “IS…

A 16-year-old girl suspected of trying to reach Syria to join Islamist rebels has been arrested in the southeastern French city of Nice, Reuters reported on Sunday. France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement that border police at Nice airport arrested the girl on Saturday, before her departure “for jihad” purposes. A man…

B’nai Brith Canada has announced that it will nominate Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, for the Nobel Peace prize. In a statement released on Friday, B’nai Brith CEO Frank Dimant said that “with recent developments across the globe posing new and difficult challenges, only one leader, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, has maintained the moral clarity…

The United States on Sunday condemned Israel over its decision to assign about 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea and Samaria, mostly in Gush Etzion, as state land. Officials in Washington quoted by the Reuters news agency said that the U.S. sees Israel’s announcement as “counterproductive” to peace efforts. “We have long made…

Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday a press conference at the Government Press Office in Jerusalem, in which he suggested that the Arab world should work with Israel and the West to help rehabilitate Gaza. In the press conference, the Finance Minister called to convene a regional summit with Middle Eastern leaders with the goal…

As part of his visit to Israel, New York Republican candidate for Congress, Bruce Blakeman, visited the Jewish communities of eastern Jerusalem and the old city of Jerusalem. Hosted by the Ateret Cohanim staff, Blakeman visited the Jewish homes that are part of a big project of strengthening Jewish presence in all areas of the…

There were conflicting reports Sunday evening on who, If anyone, was in control of the abandoned US embassy in Tripoli, Libya. According to reports, an Islamist militia group had taken over the building and a residential compound attached to it, and were “guarding” it to prevent other groups from invading it. The leader of the…

A mortar shell fired from Syria struck an open area on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights Monday morning, as fighting across the border continued to rage between pro-regime forces and Syrian rebels. No damage or injuries were reported. The incident follows the shooting down of a Syrian drone yesterday by IDF forces, after…

The Palestinian Authority “unity government” with Hamas is totally bankrupt, according to a leading PA minister, who blamed broken promises by America and Arab states for the dire situation. “The government’s budget is below zero, and it’s starting to borrow from banks to move forward, because only less than third of donor funds that were…

A group of prominent Turkish-Jews have released a letter in protest of the “racist” way in which they and the wider Jewish community has been targeted in response to Israel’s military operation against terrorists in Gaza. The letter, dated 30th August, was signed by leading intellectuals, including scholar and columnist Soli Özel, leftist writer Roni Margulies,…

2,105,394 children will begin the new academic year today (Monday), at kindergartens and schools throughout the country. 149,705 of those are students entering their first year of school, according to the Ministry of Education, compared with 112,750 entering their 12th and final year of studies. Alongside them, 164,999 teaching staff begin their new year. According to…

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday once again threatened to pursue Israel through the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, Kol Yisrael radio reported. Speaking at a meeting of his Fatah faction in Ramallah, Abbas reportedly said that unless Israel agrees to discuss a Palestinian state along the indefensible pre-1967 borders, he…

The government on Sunday ratified an across-the-board 2% cut in the budgets of all state ministries to pay for Operation Protective Edge. Two ministers – Housing Minister Uri Ariel and Environment Minister Amir Peretz – voted against the cuts. Abstaining were Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, Elderly Affairs Minister Uri Ariel, and Negev and Galilee Development…

MK Danny Danon (Likud) on Sunday filed a petition with the High Court demanding that the Attorney General begin the process of filing an indictment against MK Hanin Zoabi. The petition and demand for investigation and indictment on charges of incitement revolve around Zoabi’s comments justifying the abduction and subsequent murder of Israeli teens Eyal…

It remains to be seen if apartment prices fall when (and if) the 0% VAT plan proposed by Finance Ministry Yair Lapid is enacted into law, but according to a study by the Ministry, the fact that potential home buyers believe it will be put into effect has been driving down sales – and driving…

Schools in Israel have improved over the past several years – altogether, 98% of Israeli children now finish 12 years of study – but there are still better and worse schools. On the eve of the opening of the new academic year, the Central Bureau of Statistics released data on which cities and towns had better…

The government is seeking to cut NIS 1.9 billion from the state budget in order to pay for Operation Protective Edge, but further cuts should be expected, because the Defense Ministry’s budget is likely to be increased. At Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that while Israel had many needs, “security comes first.…

School is set to start Monday on schedule, Education Minister Shai Piron said Sunday. For the first time in several years, there are no threats of labor actions by teachers dissatisfied with their contracts – and the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, assuming it continues to hold, means that children can safely gather at…

There has been a recent series of incidents in which children swallow magnetic beads; on Sunday, the latest small victim of the dangerous toys was brought to the Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petah Tikva. The two-and-a-half year old infant girl had swallowed a string of four small round magnets which attached to each other…

The Israeli Air Force downed an unmanned drone (UAV) over the Golan Heights as it attempted to enter Israeli airspace from Syria. Forces fired a surface-to-air Patriot missile at the drone, which came from the area of Quneitra – which has seen fierce clashes between Syrian rebels and regime forces. The Israel Defense Forces told…

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday promised to pay Hamas employees in Gaza their backlogged salary “as soon as possible,” but one PA official revealed fears over the group’s international purse-strings are behind the continuous postponement in pay. Tensions in the wage war began with the PA-Hamas unity deal in April, after which Hamas’s 40,000 employees…

The son of the president of Suriname has admitted to aiding Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah on Friday. Dino Bouterse, 41, who had initially denied the charges, was filmed last year telling undercover agents posing as Hezbollah operatives that he was willing to help the Iranian-backed terror group set up a base in the central American…

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is demanding an apology from Andrea Tantaros of Fox News for comments she made on the show “Outnumbered. The AAJA statement said that “AAJA calls for Tantaros and Fox News to apologize for the irresponsible, inflammatory statements. We also call on Fox News to discourage its journalists from making…

Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman has been very critical of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s handling of Operation Protective Edge, and there are some in the political establishment who think he is planning on bolting the government in protest over Netanyahu’s failure to decimate Hamas. But Liberman put those rumors to rest Sunday. In an interview on…

The Cabinet, at its weekly meeting Sunday in the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council area, approved a 1.3 billion shekel five-year plan for the economic, social and communal development of Sderot and the communities in the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip. The plan was submitted by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and…

Shimon Shalev, father of paratrooper Sgt. Shahar Shalev hy”d, spoke Sunday about his son, who succumbed to his wounds today after being critically wounded during Operation Protective Edge. “We received our boy for one and a half months as a gift,” he said, “because his friends were killed in that battle and we had the…

Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmoud Abbas said in a PA TV interview Thursday translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), that the casualties of the Gaza war could have been avoided if Hamas had only agreed to a ceasefire early on. In the end, he said, “we went back to talking about an…

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas is livid over the decision by the government earlier Sunday to assign about 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of land in Judea and Samaria as state land. Most of the land involved is in the Gush Etzion region. The decision opens the possibility of further construction in the region. The decision…

Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) expressed her opposition Sunday to the government’s decision to declare 4,000 dunams (about 1,000 acres) in the Etzion Bloc as state land, in response to the murders of three Jewish teens on June 12. Livni told IDF Radio that she was powerless, however, to prevent the decision, which was announced…

Jerusalem Magistrates Court Judge Tamar Bar-Asher Tzaban has ruled against the community of Itamar, in Samaria, in a libel suit it filed against Haaretz journalist Neri Livneh, reports The Seventh Eye. Speaking on TV Channel 1 news interview show Politika in 2012, Livneh said that her impression of Itamar is that of “a settlement populated…

Former IAF Chief Maj. Gen. (res.) David Ivry says, in a new article, that Israel needs to rethink the concepts of ‘deterrence’ and ‘decisive victory’, which are less relevant in today’s assymetrical battlefields. “Limited-scale, asymmetrical conflicts have become the norm. All-out wars between states where both parties invest all of their national resources in an…

On a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem and eastern neighborhoods of the city, Knesset Interior Committee chairperson MK Miri Regev (Likud) examined the ongoing attacks by Arabs against Jews in the area, especially at the Beit Yehonatan building in the City of David. Attacks have risen significantly since the beginning of Operation Protective…

The Philippine military chief confirmed on Saturday night that more than 70 Filipino peacekeepers have escaped from two areas in the Golan Heights that came under attack by Syrian rebels, according to The Associated Press (AP). Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said in the Philippine capital, Manila, that the Filipino peacekeepers separately moved to positions that…

MK Alex Miller (Yisrael Beytenu) suggested on Saturday night that MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Miller’s comments came a day after Zoabi, along with other Arab MKs, participated at a Hamas “victory rally” in which she said that Arab Israelis were Palestinians and even sung the Palestinian anthem. “The long time support…

After Arab citizens of Israel led by radical Arab MKs held a “Hamas victory rally” in the Galilee last Friday, Arab residents followed suit on Saturday in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority (PA) stronghold in Samaria. Thousands of local Arabs took part in the rally, which was organized by the Hamas movement in Ramallah in celebration…

A government spokesperson announced Sunday morning that following instructions issued by the political echelon after Operation Brother’s Keeper, 4,000 dunams (988 acres) of Judea and Samaria land will be declared state land, opening the possibility of further construction in the region. The spokesperson for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) stated that “the…