Category: News

Prominent representatives of the Jewish community in the Netherlands have expressed outrage over the Cabinet’s plans to cease providing funding for Jewish Broadcaster Joodse Omroep, the only Jewish broadcasting network in the Netherlands. The announcement came earlier this week from Dutch State Secretary for Culture Sander Dekker and drew harsh criticism from well known figures…

In an interview Thursday morning, the Border Police officer who killed an Arab terrorist in Hevron Wednesday said that she shot the terrorist because she feared a fellow officer would be killed by the terrorist. The officer, N, said that the terrorist had aimed his gun at the head of a fellow officer, and that…

Three Arab teens were arrested Wednesday night on charges that they attacked and harassed a hareidi-religious Jew near the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. The three confessed to the attack under questioning, and are being held by authorities pending an indictment. The victim was a 19 year old yeshiva student who was…

Palestinian Authority Arabs rioted Thursday in Hevron, where they hurled rocks and bottles at Israeli soldiers. IDF troops responded with mob control methods that included the use of tear gas. There were no reports of serious injuries, according to local sources, who said that nearly a hundred protesters had attempted to storm the IDF troops. A…

Egypt has approved the entry of an Iranian aid convoy into Gaza, a security official told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency on Wednesday. The Iranian government had contacted Egypt to ask that the convoy be allowed into Gaza via the Rafah crossing, the Egyptian security official told Ma’an. The food and medical aid will enter…

The European Union is angered by comments made by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and may sanction Israel over them, Channel 2 News reported on Wednesday. According to the report, the EU is considering sanctions such as imposing additional taxes on products manufactured in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, as well as having Israeli citizens…

Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad have fired Scud missiles at rebel fighters in recent days, Obama administration officials said on Wednesday, according to The New York Times. The move represents a significant escalation in the fighting, which has already killed more than 40,000 civilians in a nearly two-year-old conflict and suggests increased desperation…

A 90-year-old menorah from a synagogue on Long Island that was devastated by Hurricane Sandy will be displayed at the White House Hanukkah party on Thursday evening as a symbol of perseverance and hope. The brass menorah, standing 6 feet tall, survived the storm unscathed, unlike six Torah scrolls, books and other artifacts that were…

A 17-year-old Palestinian Authority Arab teenager was shot and killed on Wednesday evening after pulling a fake gun on Border Police officers near Hevron. The incident occurred at approximately 8:00 p.m. local time, when the teenage boy arrived at a Border Police position located the on the road connecting between Kiryat Arba and the Cave…

Foreign media and international leaders have condemned Israel for building on “E-1,” but many of the “facts” they quote are fiction. A three-year-old study by Nadav Shragai of the Jerusalem Center of Public Affairs sets the record straight. “E-1,” which probably would have been more accepted had it borne a more inviting name such as “Sleeping…

A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers are circulating a letter on Capitol Hill calling on President Barack Obama to close the office of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Washington, D.C. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Edward Royce (R-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) are circulating a letter in response to the Palestinian Authority’s…

Israeli and Jewish officials in Denmark on Wednesday warned Jews to avoid openly wearing religious symbols and dress when moving about Copenhagen amid rising anti-Israeli sentiments. “We advise Israelis who come to Denmark and want to go to the synagogue to wait to don their skull caps until they enter the building and not to…

A troubling resurgence of anti-Semitism in Europe, Iran’s subterfuge on the road toward a nuclear weapons capability, and the lopsided vote at the United Nations to upgrade the status of the Palestinian delegation topped the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual list of issues affecting Jews in 2012. Also among the Top 10 issues affecting Jews: Israel’s…

A San Diego woman and a Chicago man were sentenced to jail this week for what is becoming commonplace in the United States – aiding Muslim terror. The woman, a native of Somalia, was convicted Tuesday to eight years in prison for sending money to a suspected terrorist organization in her native country, The Los…

The new Congress has fewer Jews for the second straight time. Israel is less of a drawing card. Just ask outgoing non-Jewish Rep. West. Jewish representation in the next Congress will drop by nearly 20 percent, the second consecutive time fewer Jews were elected. Although the number of Jews voting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney…

Israel has decided to pay off Palestinian Authority debts for electricity by using tax money the government collects for it. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz ordered that 435 million shekels – more than $110,000 – not only will be withheld from the Palestinian Authority but also will be transferred to the Israel Electric Corp, leaving an…

U.S. President Barack Obama proclaimed Syria’s newly reframed opposition as the “legitimate” representative of the nation’s people on Tuesday, AFP reported, in the most significant U.S. intervention in a brutal civil war. As Washington cranked up pressure on beleaguered President Bashar al-Assad, the Obama administration also blacklisted the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Nusra Front, which officials fear seeks…

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to soon propose to Iran that it negotiate directly with the Americans about its nuclear program, Channel 10 News reported on Tuesday. The report, which cited a senior American official, said that Obama’s move was made without any coordination or consultation with Israel. According to the report, the Americans probably will…

Israeli students achieved their best results ever in international standardized tests for math. The results of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) showed Israeli students reaching seventh place in the worldwide rankings. The results released Tuesday are for the test that was given at the end of the 2011 school year to…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday expressed his confidence in the members of the Levy Committee, who authored a report declaring that there is no “occupation” and international law allows Jews to live in Judea and Samaria, as its status was not that of a nation in 1967. Netanyahu’s remarks came in response to comments…

Iran is continuing to boast close relations with the terrorist organizations operating in Gaza. A spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that the relations between Iran and both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad are better than they have ever been. Speaking at a press conference and quoted by the Iranian Mehr news agency,…

British Prime Minister David Cameron announced the creation of a “tech envoy to Israel” as part of a move to encourage further co-ordination between the two countries. Saul Klein, a partner at investment firm Index Ventures, will be tasked with promoting the growing technological partnership, working with the recently established UK Israel Tech Hub and…

“If Israel continues with this (settlement plan), we will respond using all methods, obviously peaceful, and including the court,” said the PA chairman at a press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul. The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly approved granting the PA “non-member” observer status on November 29, in a vote of 138 to 9,…

The UN delivers a “One Arab State Solution” through an art exhibit that shows all of Israel as Palestine, mirroring Mahmoud Abbas’ “peace process map.” The exhibit is displayed at the public entrance of the United Nations, where the Palestinian Authority chairman two weeks ago delivered a speech before the General Assembly vote that granted…

Jihadist victories on the Syrian battlefield may put them side-by-side with Hizbullah, Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood as Israel’s neighboring regimes. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) admitted on Monday that jihadists acted on their own to attack a key military base in northern Syria. Along with the emergence of  Al Qaeda, jihadists have taken a leading role…

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty has paid tribute to two leaders of the National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) for their efforts on behalf of the community in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. NCYI Associate Vice President Hillel Adelman and Chief Operating Officer Chaim Leibtag were among those recognized by the Met Council, which…

The United States is considering an Israeli request to buy 6,900 GPS bombs, weighing up to one ton, as Middle East tensions rise, Defense News reported Tuesday. The Pentagon notified Congress on Monday of the potential $647 million sale of bombs, the smallest of which weighs 250 pounds. “The United States is committed to the…

Egypt’s increasingly unstable Muslim Brotherhood regime, voted into power on an anti-US and anti-Israel platform, is about to receive 20 F-16 fighters jets despite calls to suspend arms sales to Cairo, Fox News reported Tuesday. The jets were ordered by deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, and the Muslim Brotherhood is about to take over the inheritance.…

Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa said on Monday his country would consider granting asylum to his embattled Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad, AFP reported. “Any person that requests asylum in Ecuador, obviously we are going to consider as a human being whose basic rights we have to respect,” Correa told the daily Folha de Sao Paulo in…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday vowed to respond if Israel moves ahead with plans to build 3,000 new Jewish homes in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. “If it becomes a reality … we will then respond through other means,” Abbas told the Turkish parliament, without elaborating, according to AFP. Last week Abbas said that…

A Hanukkah miracle. Sergeant Shimon Alankri, who was seriously wounded last month when a jeep of the IDF’s Givati ​​Brigade was hit by an anti-tank missile fired by Gaza terrorists, has recovered. On Monday, Alankri spoke to Channel 2 News, recalled the attack and talked about what he has gone through since. “The fact that…

Iran has launched its own video-sharing website to compete with Google’s YouTube, whose content is deemed inappropriate by the Islamic regime, state television reported Sunday. The website, “Mehr”, meaning “affection” in Farsi, aims to attract Persian-speaking users while promoting Iranian culture. “From now on, people can upload their short films on the website and access…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cut the ribbon on Monday to inaugurate Google’s new R & D center and start-up incubator in Tel Aviv. The “campus” covers an entire floor of a high-rise office building and will be devoted to encouraging innovation in Israel. Last week, the United Nations passed an “Entrepreneurship for Development” resolution that was…

The new Hamas-Fatah unity further exposes the Palestinian Authority’s failure to live up to pledges to stop incitement. Abbas’ unity with Hamas now unmasks his image of a “peace partner” by binding him as a partner in Hamas’ stated goal of killing Jews and destroying Israel. Hamas TV broadcast 10 days ago a speech by…

The New York Yankees reportedly offered Jewish free agent Kevin Youkilis a one-year, $12 million contract. Youkilis was a three-time All-Star for the Red Sox, playing for their championship teams in 2004 and 2007 before a trade to the Chicago White Sox in June. A source with direct knowledge of the offer told The New…

President Barack Obama released his yearly message Friday, wishing Jewish people around the world a happy Hanukkah. “Michelle and I send our warmest wishes to all those celebrating Hanukkah around the world,” the president says in his 2012 statement. “This Hanukkah season we remember the powerful story of the Maccabees who rose up to liberate…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with representatives of the foreign media in Israel on Monday, denouncing the hypocrisy that has come to dominate the international community’s handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict. “This weekend Hamas leaders openly called for Israel’s destruction. Where was the outrage? Where was the UN? Where was Abu Mazen?” Netanyahu demanded. “Why…

The only Jewish day school in New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington has closed after over 25 years of serving the community. Founded in 1985, the Moriah Jewish day school had nearly 60 students at its peak, but fewer than 20 students aged 5 to 13 in recent years, prompting it to close its doors.…

Islamic Jihad has placed Israel on warning it will break the ceasefire on missile attacks if its leader is banned from entering Gaza. Israel has been spared rocket and missile attacks since the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire took effect on November 21 after the IDF’s Pillar of Defense campaign and the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system pushed…

The Muslim Brotherhood has replaced Hosni Mubarak, but an inside look at Egypt’s torture chambers reveal that they remain the same despite the Obama administration’s attempt to make Egypt safe for democracy. At least two things have not changed: Violence and protests. The Egyptian Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper, with the help of a Brotherhood-owned television station,…

Sectarian clashes linked to the 21-month conflict in Syria killed six people and wounded 40 in neighboring Lebanon on Sunday, a security official said, according to AFP. The latest fighting in the northern city of Tripoli between Sunni Muslims and Alawite co-religionists of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came amid growing international concern about the potential…

Representatives of the Arab League, who met in Qatar’s capital Doha on Sunday, pledged to transfer a monthly sum of 100 million dollars to “the state of Palestine”. The money is meant to give the Palestinian Authority government under Mahmoud Abbas a “financial safety net.” The exact form of the payment has not yet been…

Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard returned to prison after spending a week in the hospital undergoing a battery of tests and medical consultations, including an MRI brain scan. After spending last week in the hospital, Pollard’s condition was stable enough for him to be returned to the Butner Federal Correction Institute to be monitored by the…

Some 20,000 IDF soldiers are this week attending special tours of the country, based on the history and traditions of Hanukkah. The “In the Footsteps of the Maccabees” program has exposed many soldiers to history and traditions of which they may have not been aware, while showing others the places where the important events from…

Khaled Mashaal has revealed Hamas’ real face, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday, while Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas  hides behind him by not condemning remarks to destroy Israel. Mashaal, Hamas’ surpreme leader, visited Gaza, kissed the ground and triumphantly stated that Arabs will never cede “one inch” of “Palestine,” referring to all of Israel. Prime Minister…

Trade between Iran and Turkey has risen nearly 50 percent this year, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). The monetary value of Iran-Turkey trade reached $20 billion in a 10-month period ending in November, the news agency reported. Of the $20 billion in trade, $7 billion resulted from Turkish exports of gold to…

Too little, too late: Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi backed down on Saturday and annulled a controversial decree raising his authority above that of the judiciary, but demonstrators are threatening to continue their protests. Security forces have moved into place, and it appears that more clashes between rulers and ruled in Cairo are likely, despite similar…

IDF Special Forces are operating inside Syria to track chemical weapons, the London Sunday Times reported. The Israeli government has not commented on the report. The report from London comes hours after Syrian opposition forces released a video showing that Syrian President Bashar Assad has used chemical weapons in the commercial center of Aleppo. The…

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi on Saturday backed down in a dire political crisis marked by weeks of street protests, after the army gave an ultimatum to him and the opposition to sit down for talks. AFP reported that Morsi annulled a controversial decree issued last month that put all his decisions beyond judicial review, a…

Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement on Saturday in honor of the first day of Hanukkah, and reaffirmed his country’s support for the Jewish people. “I would like to send my warmest greetings to the Jewish community in Canada and around the world for a happy and peaceful Hanukkah,” Harper said. “The story…

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal on Saturday rejected ceding “an inch of Palestinian territory” to Israel or recognizing the Jewish State, reported AFP. Mashaal, on his first ever visit to Gaza, made the remarks in a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the founding of the terror group. “Palestine is our land and nation from…

Italian police on Saturday seized a shipment of weapons intended for Egypt with a final destination of Gaza, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. The report said that the weapons were hidden in a cargo shipment and were found in the port of Naples. Local police confirmed the report. The weapons, which included a rocket…

Israel should have taken advantage of Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal’s visit to Gaza and eliminated him, Kadima chairman MK Shaul Mofaz said on Saturday. “Israel missed an opportunity to eliminate the head of the serpent. I would recommend that Mashaal to pack his bags and leave Gaza as soon as possible,” said Mofaz. “We stopped…

Syria warned on Saturday that rebels could use chemical weapons in their fight against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, and insisted that the regime will never unleash such arms on its own people, AFP reported. British Foreign Secretary William Hague, however, said there was evidence the Damascus government could actually employ chemical weapons stocks in the…

A Swedish artist who created a painting out of what he said are Holocaust victims’ ashes is being investigated and a decision will then be made if charges will be filed. The investigation was launched against artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff only after a complaint was filed by a private citizen claiming that von Hausswolff’s…

The Israeli Navy is prepared to neutralize threats targeting Israel’s Tamar natural gas rig, the IDF Website reported Saturday. The Navy will protect the reception facility – a vital infrastructural facility to pump gas from the rig – which is currently being built. The IDF’s defensive model has been tested in three scenarios: routine, escalation,…

Two Iranian warships docked in Port Sudan on Saturday, a witness told AFP. This marks the second port call by the Iranian navy in Sudan in five weeks. The Iranian navy said the 1,400 ton frigate Jamaran and the 4,700 ton support ship Bushehr “docked in Port Sudan, after successfully carrying out their assignments in the…

CBN terror analyst Erick Stakelbeck visited Judea and Samaria as the guest of the Shomron (Samaria) regional authority last week. “I’m just honored to be here,” he said, “and I have to say… my dad he would always talk about ‘the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ He wouldn’t just say ‘G-d’, he would say…

Jews in Hevron are facing the prospect of another expulsion after the State Prosecution adopted a former senior prosecutor’s opinion in favor of evicting Israeli Jews from Beit Ezra. Beit Ezra is a Jewish owned building in Hevron that was abandoned in 1947 when Jews were forced from the city, but was restored to Jewish…

Some protesters in Egypt removed on Friday evening the barbed wire and barriers leading to the presidential palace in Cairo. According to a report on the website of the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, the guards formed a human chain to block protesters from reaching the palace. A number of marches had arrived in the area…

Swedish police on Friday said they had launched an investigation into an artist who says he used paint mixed from the ashes of Holocaust victims in a picture, AFP reported. Carl Michael von Hausswolff claims he used ashes he took from a crematorium at the Majdanek concentration camp in 1989, mixing them with water to…

Tzipi Livni’s new party will not be a part of a government led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, MK Amir Peretz said on Friday. A day after he left the Labor party and joined Livni in a surprise move, Peretz told Channel 2 News, “Tzipi Livni refused to enter the Netanyahu government and I believe…

The Obama administration expressed fears on Thursday that the beleaguered Syrian regime may unleash chemical weapons on rebels who are pressing their campaign closer to the capital of Damascus. “I think there is no question that we remain very concerned, very concerned that as the opposition advances, in particular on Damascus, that the regime might…

The National Salvation Front in Egypt, a recently created umbrella group comprised of opposition groups, issued a statement on Thursday in which it said that the “authority” had lost its legitimacy and called for mass protests on Friday. According to a report on the website of the Egyptian Al-Ahram daily, the statement follows deadly clashes…

The European Union called in Israel’s ambassador on Thursday to express its concerns over Israel’s plans to build thousands of new homes in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem, AFP reported. A spokeswoman told the news agency that Ambassador David Walzer met Pierre Vimont, number two in the European External Action Service, the EU’s diplomatic service.…

After weeks of wrangling and infighting, all the parties that plan to run for seats in the19th Knesset have filed the names of their candidates. As of the Thursday night 10 PM deadline for filing, 34 parties had submitted lists, and received authorization from the National Election Commission to run for office. One party that…

FremantleMedia, one of the leading creators of television entertainment brands worldwide, is teaming up with veteran writer and producer, Marshall Herskovitz, for a television drama series inspired by Andrew Nagorski’s book Hitlerland. The book, released earlier this year, provides accounts from American diplomats and correspondents in Berlin during the 1920s and 30s who knew Hitler…

If you want to live a long, healthy life in Israel, live in Ra’anana, a study by the Central Bureau of Statistics released Thursday said. Residents of Ra’anana live to the ripe old age of 85.5 years on average, with residents of Maccabim-Re’ut in second place at 84.1 years, and residents of Beit Shemesh in…

Officials in the Darfur region of Sudan were proud to tell local media that they had seized an Israeli “spy” – in the form of an eagle that the Sudanese alleged was taking photos of the area and transmitting them to Israel. But that eagle was no spy, said Israeli officials – it was a…

Fears are being raised in Washington that a secret delivery of arms shipments to Libyan rebels, Okayed by the Obama administration, might have gotten into the hands of Islamic terrorists, and may very well be the weapons used by Al Qaeda linked terrorists to kill U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. The United States agreed last year…

The Egyptian army’s Republican Guard, an elite unit assigned to protect the president and his palaces, surrounded Mohamed Morsi’s gated palace in Cairo Thursday with six tanks and two armored vehicles and put up barbed wire, sending a clear message to protesters that the violent clashes which took place the night before would not be tolerated.…

As the Thursday night deadline for finalizing their Knesset lists draws closer, the last parties that have not yet submitted the names of their candidates are making their final arrangements. Among the last parties to file was Shas, which did so Thursday afternoon. The party, which counts among its voters Hareidi and religious Israelis from…

Egyptian security forces deployed at least five tanks outside the presidential palace in a street where supporters and opponents of President Mohamed Morsi had been clashing into the early hours of the morning, witnesses told Al Jazeera Thursday. “The Republican Guard began a deployment around the headquarters of the presidency … to secure the headquarters…

Jordan’s King Abdullah II flew in to Ramallah on Thursday. The monarch arrived by military helicopter from Jordan, landing at the presidential headquarters known as the Muqataa, where he was greeted by Palestinian Authority (PA) head Mahmud Abbas and other senior Palestinian officials. “We and our Palestinian people and its leadership welcome this historic visit,…

Former diplomat, politician and presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei has risen again, this time to lead Egypt’s opposition movement. ElBaradei has become the coordinator of the National Salvation Front, a newly unified secular movement determined to oppose Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. The group threatens nationwide protests until Morsi responds to calls for national dialogue over…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday afternoon following a meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, that the two were not in agreement over a housing project being planned in an area on the outskirts of Jerusalem. “On the question of settlements, we are agreed that we are not agreed,” Merkel told a joint news conference…

A violent face-off developed Thursday afternoon between IDF soldiers and Arabs in Hevron. In the wake of the face-off, a major Arab riot developed, with Arabs throwing stones and bricks at IDF soldiers. Israeli forces used anti-riot tactics to break up the fracas. IDF officials said they considered the incident “serious,” and that an investigation…

U.S. Representative and former GOP presidential candidate Michele Bachmann underlined Sunday night at the Bet El Institutions Dinner in New York City that U.S. demands for more Israeli concessions are suicidal for the Jewish State. “Israel is G-d’s idea. All we are trying to do is following His leading,” she began. During her keynote address,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited Prague on Wednesday where he thanked Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas for his country’s vote against the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral statehood bid at the United Nations last week. The Czech Republic was the only European country among the nine countries that voted against the resolution to recognize “Palestine” as a…

The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Al-Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday. The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens…

Lithuanian Jews who survived the Nazi Holocaust and Soviet terror during World War II will receive symbolic compensation from the Baltic state next year, a Jewish group leader said Wednesday. Andrew Baker of the American Jewish Committee told journalists in Vilnius that three million litas (870,000 euros, $1.l4 million) “will be used as a symbolic payment…

Rival protesters clashed outside the presidential palace in Cairo on Wednesday, as unrest grows over a controversial draft constitution, the BBC reported. According to the report, petrol bombs were thrown and a number of people were injured, amid reports of shots being fired. Supporters of President Mohammed Morsi dismantled tents set up outside the presidential…

A mortar shell fired from Syria fell on the Israeli side of the border fence on the Golan Heights Wednesday afternoon, security sources said Wednesday night. The incident occurred near the Tel Azeka IDF post on the Golan. IDF sources said that they did not believe that the shell was fired on purpose, but was…

A Swedish artist has been accused of desecrating the bodies of Jewish Holocaust victims after it emerged that he used ashes taken from the crematoria at Majdanek concentration camp to paint a picture, the British Telegraph reported on Wednesday. According to the report, the artist, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, mixed the ashes from the infamous…

Police and the IDF have stepped up their search for Liran Benevisti, a 20 year old IDF soldier who has been missing since Tuesday. Units were searching door to door and using dogs to track the soldier’s scent, after he left his base near Gedera Tuesday. Residents of a neighborhood in Herzliya reported seeing him…

The Civil Planning Authority issued on Wednesday a “go” decision for building 3,500 residential units in two E-1 areas in Maaleh Adumim, but politics and bureaucrats may leave the plans on paper. E1 refers to an area that was designated nearly 20 years ago for residential building, but US presidents, including Clinton, Reagan and Obama,…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is in Berlin Wednesday to “defend the fort” against charges its building plans will torpedo a Palestinian Authority state that the international community presumes must be established according to the PA’s territorial demands and without declaring peace. Israel announced building plans for Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria in a swift reaction to…

Israeli researchers have discovered that fish oil helps heal bed sores, and can help ease the pain of the critically ill. Tel Aviv University Professor Pierre Singer of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Ph.D. Candidate Miriam Theilla at the Rabin Medical Center found that common fish oil provided a host of healing benefits for…

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi reportedly returned Wednesday morning to his palace after violent protesters left the area. Traffic is reportedly flowing in a routine pattern around the Heliopolis district in Cairo, which Tuesday night was jammed with rioting demonstrators. At least 100,000 protesters clashed with police in Tahrir Square and around the presidential palace walls.…

Israel’s giant Teva Pharmaceuticals has signed a deal with Galena Biopharma to develop and sell NeuVax breast cancer treatment in Israel. Phase II trials for NeuVax will take place in four places, including Israel. The move is part of a strategic change in Teva’s business model, whose reliance on generic drugs and its Copaxone drug for…

Boeing has successful tested an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) missile that turns “science fiction into science fact” and could be the doomsday weapon against Iran, but media have largely ignored the development. The U.S. Air Force and Boeing demonstrated the device more than two months ago over a military site in the Utah desert, reported the…

Israel is closely monitoring Syria’s potential use of chemical weapons, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. Speaking at the National Public Diplomacy Forum, which convened to summarize Operation Pillar of Defense, Netanyahu said, “Together with the international community, we are closely monitoring developments in Syria regarding its stores of chemical weapons.” “I heard President…

The entire conflict between Israel and the Arabs is over their denial of Israel’s right to exist and not about Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. Netanyahu spoke at the meeting of the National Public Diplomacy Forum to summarize the recent Operation Pillar of Defense, which targeted Hamas’s…

Israelis’ investment portfolio has reached an all-time high. At the end of October, Israelis had a total of two trillion, six hundred eighty two billion shekels (nearly $700 billion) in investments. The figures were reported Tuesday by the Statistics Division of the Bank of Israel. The figure includes investments in mutual funds, direct investments, and…

Building Israeli homes between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim is a completely natural thing to do, and should not be taken as “anti-Palestinian,” Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party head Naftali Bennett said Tuesday. “The area in question is an indivisible part of Jerusalem. It is fifty meters from Hebrew University, and it connects Jerusalem to the…

The latest report on traffic violations in Israel breaks down offenses by gender and ethnicity, showing that men, and Arab men in particular, are more likely to offend. Both Jewish and Arab women were disproportionately unlikely to be stopped for a traffic offense. The report from the Central Statistics Bureau covered 897,000 instances in which…

Electricity filled the air on Sunday evening, December 2nd, as over 2,000 people gathered for the annual gala dinner supporting the town of Bet El, a vibrant and growing Jewish community nestled in the hills of the Shomron (Samaria) in Israel. Held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square and sponsored by the American…

For the first time, an Israeli company will run an ad in the Superbowl. Sodastream, which produces carbonated drink systems for home use, will run an ad that will tell hundreds of millions of people around the world that it is the preferred choice for anyone seeking a healthier beverage – and a healthier environment.…

Tens of thousands of Egyptian demonstrators encircled the presidential palace on Tuesday, after riot police failed to keep them at bay with tear gas, in a growing crisis over President Mohammed Morsi’s decree widening his powers. The protesters cut through barbed wire a few hundred meters from the palace, prompting police to fire the tear…

Jordan’s King Abdullah is set to arrive in Ramallah on Thursday on the first visit of an Arab leader to the area since the Palestinian Authority was granted UN recognition as a non-member observer state. “King Abdullah will visit the state of Palestine the day after tomorrow, on Thursday, in the first visit by a…

The Israeli government is standing up to pressure from all quarters, including local mainstream media, and reasserted Tuesday that critics of building plans in response to the Palestinian Authority’s UN ploy don’t understand the map. Government secretary Tzvi Hauser responded Tuesday to pressure from the international community against Israel’s approval for construction of new housing…

US intelligence agencies have significantly stepped up spying operations on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor prompted by concerns about the security of weapons-grade plutonium there, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Citing unnamed American officials, the newspaper said the increased US surveillance of Bushehr has been conducted in part by its unmanned drones operating over the…

A bomb exploded outside the offices of the Greek neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party near Athens early Tuesday, causing significant damage to the building but no injuries. The explosion, caused by a home-made explosive device that appeared to contain dynamite, occurred before dawn at in the town of Aspropyrgos, authorities said. The blast caused significant damage…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement is marching hand-in-hand with Hamas, which has offered the movement, founded by Yasser Arafat, “to put our hands together and carry the gun.” The rift between the two rival factions seemed irreparable in 2007, when Hamas ousted the Fatah leadership from Gaza in a bloody militia war of…

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday they downed another American spy drone hours after reports that the United States stepped up spying on the Bushehr nuclear plant. The Guards captured a ScanEagle drone over the Persian Gulf waters upon its intrusion into the Iranian airspace, Iran’s regime-controlled Press TV and Fars News Agency reported. There…

French police on Tuesday arrested two alleged accomplices of gunman Mohamed Merah, whose Al-Qaeda-inspired shooting spree in and around the southern city of Toulouse in March killed seven people, including a rabbi and three Jewish schoolchildren. A man, described by police as a member of a traveling community, was arrested in the southern town of…

Scores of prominent European public figures, including a Nobel laureate and a Nazi-hunter, backed a call on Monday to march against a neo-Nazi surge in Greece, AFP reported. The silent walk from the Greek parliament to the Acropolis is set for December 15, according to the Paris-based organizer, the European Grassroots Antiracist Movement (EGAM). EGAM said…

Engineers working for President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria have begun combining the two chemical precursors needed to weaponize sarin gas, an American official with knowledge of the situation told Wired.com’s Danger Room on Monday. International observers are now more worried than they’ve even been that the Damascus government could use its nerve agent stockpile…

Israel has revived a plan to construct 1,600 new homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo that raised U.S. objections when it was first announced in 2010, an official told AFP on Monday. “In the next two weeks the interior ministry’s district committee for Jerusalem will convene to discuss the objections to the program…

Israeli security forces continue to foil Arab road terror attempts, including an attempted axe-murderer and a briefcase bomb under a bridge. An Arab terrorist was shot dead near the Samaria (Shomron) Jewish community of Shavei Shomron on Monday morning after he attacked a group of Shin Bet (Shabak) agents.  The attack began with ramming the…

Israel has consulted with Jordan twice over the issue of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, according to a report published Monday by The Atlantic, both times with plans to take out multiple sites. According to intelligence officials in two countries quoted by correspondent Jeff Goldberg, “Israel has been seeking Jordan’s ‘permission’ to bomb these sites, but the…

The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) has fined Turkish private broadcaster CNBC-E a total of 52,951 Turkish Liras, approximately $29,630, for airing an episode of the animated sitcom “The Simpsons” in which G-d is shown to be under the command of the Devil, Hurriyet Daily News reported. RTUK said the fine had been…

The United States called on Israel Monday to “reconsider” a decision to allow 3,000 more Jewish homes in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. “We urge Israeli leaders to reconsider these unilateral decisions and exercise restraint as these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct negotiations,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said. “We reiterate…

It is understandable if the non-Israeli reader finds it hard to follow the changes that have been taking place daily in the lists of Israeli political parties. Arutz Sheva has decided to try to set the reader straight. First, the established – well, sort of established – parties. Likud-Yisrael Beytenu: The two parties, one nationalist and the other…

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon (Likud) said Monday that he is “not aware” of British and French plans to recall their ambassadors to Israel because of a government decision to build 3,000 homes in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Following a report in Haaretz that the diplomatic steps are being considered, Yaalon told Arutz Sheva, “I…

A group of American donors recently visited the AMIT network of schools in southern Israel, in the wake of the recent escalation in rocket attacks on the region. The donors took some time to visit the family of 24-year-old Itzik Amsalem in Kiryat Malachi. Itzik was killed when a missile fired by Gaza terrorists hit…

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) recently held its General Assembly in Baltimore. One of the initiatives of the JFNA is the Israel Action Network (IAN), a strategic initiative in partnership with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs to counter the assault on Israel’s legitimacy. “Israel today faces an intensive and increasingly sophisticated assault…

The organizers of ‘Go4Israel’ have defined two goals for the delegation: introducing Israel to top decision makers in the Chinese economy, and presenting the Israeli business and industry sector to the Chinese leaders and potential investors. The Chinese delegation consists of leaders from the technological sector in China, including IT, telecom and media, internet, life…

A terrorist was shot dead near Shavei Shomron in Samaria Monday after he attacked a Shin Bet agent with an axe. According to initial details, the terrorist rammed his vehicle into an IDF jeep in the course of IDF security activity. As a result, the jeep overturned.   Four Shin Bet men who were in…

Jonathan Pollard, the victim of cruel and unusual punishment in the U.S. over spying for Israel, is in stable condition. Pollard’s wife, Esther, received an update Sunday night from the U.S. prison where Pollard is being held that he is still hospitalized but his condition is now stable. She had been informed Saturday that Jonathan…

The terror attack in central Tel Aviv that occurred several weeks ago in the midst of Operation Pillar of Defense, in which an Arab threw a firebomb in the window of a bus, took place just a few meters away from some of Tel Aviv’s most important government buildings – courts, the Justice Ministry, and…

Israel’s stock market was the 35 best in the world for investors, a CNN study said. According to the study, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange was number 35 in terms of profitability for investors. Israel came in one spot ahead of the United States, which, when averaging out the New York Stock Exchange, American Stock…

Several thousand people attended a rally in front of Hungary’s parliament Sunday to protest anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli remarks by far-right politicians, AFP reported. The rally, called “Mass Protest against Nazism”, organized by a Jewish group and a Pentecostal-Evangelical church, was called in response to remarks in parliament by a deputy in the far-right Jobbik party.…

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has criticized Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu over what is perceived as his public support of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the last election, Channel 2 News reported on Sunday. According to the report, Emanuel, a former White House Chief of Staff, said during a closed session at the Saban Forum…

Israel must respond to the United Nations recognition of “Palestine”, Senator John McCain said on Sunday. McCain, the Republican candidate for the presidency in 2008, made the comments in a special interview with Israel’s Channel 10 News. He said that Israel should consult carefully with the U.S. on how it should respond to the unilateral…

At a cabinet meeting Sunday, IDF Reserve General Yossi Kuperwasser, Director of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, showed government cabinet members some of the more egregious examples of anti-Israel propaganda that the Palestinian Authority has published and distributed in its schools recently. The messages, Kuperwasser told cabinet members “are being distributed by senior Palestinian officials,…

There are signs of new activity at Syrian chemical weapons sites, Western intelligence officials said, according to The New York Times. The report, published Saturday, quoted a U.S. intelligence official as saying the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is “doing some things that suggest they intend to use the weapons. “It’s not just moving stuff…

The Cabinet unanimously voted Sunday morning to reject the United Nations decision to grant the Palestinian Authority nonmember observer state status. The move allowed the PA to circument its obligation under the internationally-mandated Oslo Accords, signed by both parties in the early 1990s, to negotiate a final status agreement with Israel. At its regular weekly…

Supporters of the cultural boycott of the State of Israel have targeted Canadian singer Alanis Morissette over her scheduled performance in the Jewish state, calling on her to “shun Tel Aviv.” A seven-time Grammy winner, Morissette is set to give a concert in Tel Aviv on Monday, for the first time since she performed in…

PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Sunday promised someday the PA flag would fly over “Jerusalem, eternal capital of the state of Palestine.” Thousands of people greeted Abbas rapturously upon his return from the United Nations, where the General Assembly granted the PLO, representing the PA, upgraded status as a nonmember observer state. “Raise your heads high,…

Israel has decided to withhold taxes collected for the Palestinian Authority that were to be transferred later in the month. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz made the announcement Sunday morning at the weekly government Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. The move is being made in response to the United Nations vote to approve a new status for the…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to convince Israel that her nation has remained the good friend to the Jewish State it has always tried to show itself to be. Merkel said in a podcast broadcast Saturday that Germany maintains an unchanging commitment to Israel’s security. “Germany will always stand by Israel,” she said, when…

Unemployment reached a new high in October in the European Union, spiking at 11.7 percent in the 17-nation bloc. Data showed that 173,000 more people joined the jobless lines in October, over the 18.7 million in the previous month – an increase of 0.1 percent. The dismal news reflects a return to recession – defined…

Nearly two years after the Jasmine Revolution brought down the government, Tunisians are still not satisfied, and renewed riots started last week over economic difficulties once again, sparking concerns over more Islamist unrest. The economic struggles that ignited the self-immolation of a despairing pushcart vendor set off what days later became known as the country’s…

The latest trade data quoted by Iranian news media indicates Turkey imported more than 75,000 barrels of oil daily in October from Iran. The report, released Friday, said Turkey’s crude oil imports from Iran in October reached 75,281 barrels of oil per day (bpd). Iran is now the third-largest crude oil supplier to Turkey, Iran’s semi-official…

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will travel to Germany next week for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel, primarily regarding the situation in the Middle East, Berlin said on Friday. Netanyahu’s visit to Berlin on on Wednesday and Thursday is part of a further round of German-Israeli government consultations, Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said, according to…

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi called on Egyptians on Saturday to vote in a December 15 referendum on the controversial draft constitution at the heart of a political crisis, AFP reported. Morsi made the announcement following a ceremony where he received a copy of the charter from the head of the Islamist-dominated constituent assembly, boycotted by…

Former Labor chairman Amram Mitzna has decided to join The Movement headed by Tzipi Livni, it was reported Saturday. Mitzna will hold a press conference on Sunday during which he will announce that he will be running with Livni. According to the agreement between the two, Mitzna will be number 2 on the party’s list…

Turkey’s Foreign Minister blasted Israel on Saturday, one day after the decision to build 3,000 new homes in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. “It is high time to take a firm stance against Israel’s activities that destroy the peace process in the Middle East,” Ahmet Davutoglu said during a meeting of the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum in…

Amir Peretz, who occupies the Number Three spot in the Labor party’s list for the Knesset, mounted an attack on party leader Shelly Yechimovich on Channel 2‘s Meet the Press Saturday. He demanded that Yechimovich state clearly that she will never sit in the Netanyahu government, and insisted that she spell out a detailed plan…

Jonathan Pollard was hospitalized after he collapsed in his jail cell during the weekend. His wife, Esther, was informed of this Saturday. His condition is not known. Pollard began his 28th year in jail two weeks ago. He has been suffering from intense pain in the past few weeks but it is not known if…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, over the weekend, spoke with Czech Republic Prime Minister Petr Necas and thanked him for his country’s courageous UN vote against the Palestinian Authority’s request to be recognized as a nonvoting member state. Prime Minister Netanyahu agreed with his Czech counterpart that Netanyahu would stop in Prague this Wednesday – en…

The United States and Israel on Thursday hailed the performance of the Iron Dome missile defense system in combating the recent attacks launched by terrorists in the Gaza Strip, as Washington reaffirmed its commitment to the program. The highly acclaimed Israeli anti-missile system played a prominent role in the eight-day confrontation between the Jewish state…

Less than 24 hours after the United Nations voted to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a non-member observer state, Israel has responded by approving construction of new Jewish homes. On Friday afternoon, the forum of nine senior ministers approved the construction of 3,000 housing units in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. In addition, the nine ministers…

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved on Friday new economic sanctions aimed at further crippling Iran’s energy, shipping and port sectors, a year after Congress passed tough restrictions against Tehran. AFP reported that the amendment, tacked on to a sweeping defense spending bill being debated by the chamber, passed 94-0 and should sail through the House…

The White House on Friday condemned Israel’s decision to build 3,000 new homes in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria as “counterproductive” and said it would make resuming peace talks harder. “We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and east Jerusalem construction and announcements. We believe these actions are counterproductive and make it harder to resume direct…

An Egyptian panel rushed through a draft constitution seen as undermining basic freedoms on Friday, resulting in mass protests in Cairo. AFP reported that tens of thousands of protesters rallied as the opposition piled pressure on President Mohammed Morsi. “Down with the constitutional assembly,” vast crowds armed with megaphones chanted as they filed into Tahrir…

Canada on Friday ordered back its heads of mission in Israel and Ramallah, as well as its envoys to the United Nations and Geneva, after the Palestinian Authority’s bid for an upgraded status at the United Nations was passed with a large majority. “Canada is deeply disappointed but not surprised by yesterday’s result at the…

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor’s office said on Friday it was considering the legal implications after the UN General Assembly’s overwhelming vote to recognize the Palestinian Authority as a non-member state. “The Office of the Prosecutor takes note of the decision” and will now “consider the legal implications of this resolution,” it said in…

While Hamas welcomed a UN vote to recognize “Palestine” on Thursday, on the same day it issued a statement rejecting the UN’s famous Resolution 181, in which the world body voted in favor of a plan to recognize two states in what was then British Mandatory Palestine – one Arab, and one Jewish. The Arab…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to supervise construction of a five-story underground facility for an Israel Defense Forces complex, oddly named “Site 911,” at an Israeli Air Force base near Tel Aviv. “Expected to take more than two years to build, at a cost of up to $100 million, the facility is to have classrooms…

The IDF has been stepping up its fight against Hamas in Judea and Samaria (Shomron) in wake of the recent open battle with Hamas in Gaza. Earlier this week troops went to arrest a terror suspect in Hevron and ended up finding a weapons warehouse in a private home. First Lieutenant Erez Korach told Arutz…

The Labor party has released the results of its primary elections. Current MKs Yitzchak Herzog, former head of the Histadrut Labor Union and ousted Labor party head Amir Peretz – and longtime Labor activist and MK Eitan Cabel took the second, third and fourth slots, respectively. Party head MK Shelly Yechimovich, a former radio commentator, whose emphasis is…

Jewish groups expressed deep concern over the decision of the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday to vote in favor of upgrading the status of the Palestinian Authority to non-member state. The resolution, which was approved by a vote of 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions, has granted the Palestinian Authority de facto status as a sovereign…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Office responded on Thursday to the speech given by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to the UN General Assembly, as well as to the UN’s passing of the resolution to give “Palestine” the status of a non-member observer state. “The world watched a defamatory and venomous speech that was full of…

The Czech Republic was the only European country that voted against the United Nations resolution on Thursday to recognize “Palestine” as a non-member observer state. The resolution passed with an overwhelming majority of 138 votes in favor and nine against. 41 countries abstained. In addition to Israel and the Czech Republic, other countries that voted…

Two UN soldiers who were wounded in Syria on Thursday will receive treatment in Israel. The defense ministry in Vienna, Austria, said on Thursday evening that two Austrian soldiers stationed with the UN force on the Golan Heights were shot and wounded in Syria while their convoy was travelling to the Damascus airport. The pair,…

Legendary songwriter, musician and singer Stevie Wonder cancelled his scheduled performance at a fundraiser to benefit the Israel Defense Forces. Wonder, the recipient of 25 Grammy Awards and an Academy Awards, claimed that his attendance at the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) Western Regional Gala on Thursday, December 6th would be inconsistent with…

As expected, the United Nations passed a resolution on Thursday evening recognizing Palestine as a non-member observer state. This status has only been accorded to the Vatican until now. 138 countries voted in favor of the resolution, nine countries voted against it, and 41 countries abstained. Shortly before the vote, Palestinian Authority (PA) Head Mahmoud…

A Jewish woman was murdered Monday in Iran by Muslim extremists intent on taking away her home. The brutal killing took place in the city of Isfahan, today home to fewer than 100 Jewish families, and one of the cities where a nuclear reactor is located. According to the woman’s family, a mosque has been…

Islamist Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has begun to threaten producers of a popular Turkish television series about the Ottoman Empire. Likewise, the secular opposition CHP Republican People’s Party is using the program as a vehicle to needle the prime minister, head of the ruling Islamist AK party. The popular soap opera, which began…

Syrian rebels killed a top official in the ruling Baath party Thursday, along with three of his bodyguards. The assassination took place in the southern Syrian city of Dera’a, where the revolution against President Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011. Rebel forces detonated a car bomb next to the home of Hussein Rifai, according to the…

The Women in Green movement is calling on the Israeli government to immediately annex Judea and Samaria. The call came in response to the application by the Palestinian Authority Thursday for status as a non-member observer state at the United Nations General Assembly. In a statement sent to media, WIG spokespersons Nadia Matar and Yehudit…

Australia’s Labor Caucus has forced Prime Minister Julia Gillard to a compromise on her vote over the Palestinian Authority’s bid for statehood at the United Nations on Thursday. When it comes time to vote on the resolution to grant nonmember observer state status to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Gillard said she will have to…

The only path towards a Palestinian state is through direct negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasized on Wednesday, according to AFP. “I have said many times that the path to a two-state solution that fulfills the aspirations of the Palestinian people is through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not New York,” Clinton told reporters, reiterating…

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas rejected on Wednesday last minute U.S. pressure to back off his unilateral statehood bid. Abbas will make the case for “non-member observer state” status and indicate his conditions for talks with Israel in a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, officials said, according to AFP. He is guaranteed…

Pakistan on Wednesday said it has successfully test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The military described the Hatf V Ghauri missile, which has a range of 1,300 kilometers (approximately 800 miles), as a liquid fuel missile, capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear warheads. “The test consolidates and strengthens Pakistan’s…

Israel transferred on Tuesday money to the Palestinian Authority to pay its employees’ salaries, Army Radio reported on Wednesday. The transfer of the money, 200 million shekels, took place just two days before the vote in the United Nations General Assembly on the PA’s unilateral bid to become a non-member observer state. The transfer was…

It won’t be a unanimous vote for the Palestinian Authority bid for nonmember observer state status at the United Nations on Thursday. Not quite.   The United States, Canada and Israel will oppose the resolution, but few others have stated any intention of doing so. Most have already said they will support the PA declaration…

The king of Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, is clinically dead, reports the daily Al-Sharq il-Awsat. His reported brain death occurred following complicated back surgery that took place in Riyadh on November 17 at the National Guard’s King Abdulaziz Medical City, according to the report, and the king’s aides claimed he is in good…

Syrian rebels downed an army helicopter for the first time on Tuesday with a newly-acquired ground-to-air missile, in what a watchdog said could be a turning point in the 20-month-old conflict, AFP reported. Another bad sign for Syrian President Bashar Assad is Russia’s sudden change of heart, indicating that Moscow realizes it is supporting a…

The World Bank has come to the rescue of Hamas, giving it $6.4 million to improve water and sewage services after the latest escalation in attacks on Israel that drew Israel into the eight-day Pillar of Defense counterterrorist campaign. The Islamic Development Bank is contributing an additional $11.1 million, but there has been no report…

Denmark will back a Palestinian Authority bid to upgrade its United Nations status to that of a non-member observer state at a General Assembly vote this week, the Danish foreign ministry announced Wednesday. “I am happy to announce that Denmark will vote in favor … (in) the vote on Thursday,” Foreign Minister Villy Soevndal said…

Jewish millionaire and philanthropist Guma Aguiar may be alive, said his wife’s attorney says five months after he disappeared on his boat in a storm off the Florida coast in June. Attorney William Scherer, representing Aguiar’s wife Jamie, told Florida’s CBS4 local television that they are investigating a report that Guma’s sister Angelika is moving…

Palestinian Authority Arab terrorists are continuing road terror attacks on Israelis, although rocket fire is now banned due to the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza terrorists. The deal, which ended Israel’s eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense counter terror offensive in the region, was brokered by Egypt and the United States last week with Gaza’s…

A key United Nations committee passed on Tuesday resolutions condemning human rights abuses by Iran, Syria and North Korea, reported AFP. A larger number of countries than last year backed a resolution against Syria but a reduced majority passed a condemnation of Iran’s human rights record at the UN General Assembly committee, noted the report.…

Tens of thousands of people packed Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Tuesday, to protest a power grab by President Mohammed Morsi, piling pressure on him as he faces his most divisive crisis since taking power in June. AFP reported that the huge turnout in the iconic square in the heart of Cairo, as well as in…

A mass funeral was held this week for Jewish holy books destroyed and damaged by Hurricane Sandy last month. The funeral was held in the Far Rockaway area of Queens, which experienced some of the worst damage from the storm. The funeral – in which a caravan of three trucks carrying prayer books, bibles, Talmud…

Iran is planning to build a nuclear bomb with at least triple the force of the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in World War II, diagrams obtained by the Associated Press indicates. According to AP, the diagrams were first discovered by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scientists after an inspection of an Iranian nuclear facility. The…

Seven Knesset members who belong to the Kadima party have filed a request to split off from the party and form a Knesset faction affiliated with Tzipi Livni’s new political party. Seven Knesset members can form a new faction, according to Israeli law. Livni was formerly head of the opposition, as leader of Kadima, but was voted…

France will vote in favor of the Palestinian Authority’s bid for “non-member observer state” status at the United Nations General Assembly, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told parliament, according to the AFP news agency. Israeli sources said the French decision “comes as no surprise.” “We knew that France was inclined to vote for this resolution,…

IDF soldiers stationed along the border fence with Gaza say they have received new orders on opening fire, which allow Arabs in Gaza to endanger soldiers and Israeli civilians in nearby communities. “Between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. there are hundreds and possibly thousands of people roaming near the fence, including uniformed Hamas men,” a…

PBS’ “Newshour,” with host Hari Sreenivasan, followed the direction of the majority of mainstream media programs last Thursday in presenting a wholly biased and inaccurate portrayal of the situation in Israel and the Gaza Strip following the end of Operation Pillar of Defense. The news program aired two back-to back-stories– one focusing on Israel, the…

Former Kadima chair Tzipi Livni held a news conference at 12:00 noon to announce that she is running for the 19th Knesset at the helm of an independent party, “The Movement – Headed by Tzipi Livni.” Livni met Monday with another former Kadima chair, Ehud Olmert, and informed him of her decision. According to a Maagar…

Former Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni announced on Monday evening that she will hold a press conference on Tuesday morning. Livni is expected to announce at the press conference that she is running for the Knesset at the helm of a new party. On Saturday it was speculated that Livni would take over a non-functioning party,…

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has agreed to pull back decrees announced last Thursday granting himself sweeping new powers. The Islamist leader originally told a panel of Egypt’s top judges that he would not change his stance on the edicts, insisting that he was acting within his rights. But according to a report by a television network…

Moshe Feiglin is highly likely to be a Knesset member after the upcoming elections, according to preliminary, unofficial results of the Likud primaries, which ended on Monday evening after a two-day vote. Feiglin placed 14 in the primaries, meaning he will be placed 15th on its Knesset’s list (Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu as party chairman…

The staff of Israel’s embassy in Cairo has returned to Egypt, according to a source at the city’s airport. The employees had left the embassy during the eight-day Operation Pillar of Defense counter terror offensive against Gaza. Seven staff members arrived from Tel Aviv on Monday led by General Consul Yehuda Golan, according to the Egypt…

Four Israelis made it this year to the prestigious “Top Thinkers” list published by Foreign Policy magazine. Among the top 100 thinkers in the international arena listed by the magazine for their political creativity and accomplishment are Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, both sharing 13th place, followed by former Mossad head…

Egypt could become an Islamist state or face another military takeover if President Mohamed Morsi’s judicial power grab is left unchecked, US Senator John McCain warned Sunday. McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, urged President Barack Obama to be prepared to use billions of dollars of American aid as leverage to force Egypt’s first Islamist…

A raging three-alarm fire ravaged a popular Jewish deli in Manhattan on Sunday, resulting in minor injuries to several firefighters, officials and witnesses said. The blaze started in Sarge’s Delicatessen Restaurant on Third Ave. between E. 36th and E. 37th streets around 6:50 p.m. and quickly spread throughout the four-story building, the New York Daily…

Defense Minister Ehud Barak is quitting politics. In a dramatic announcement, he said he decided to end his career and claimed successes as Defense Minister, a post he will leave when the next government is formed after the January 22 elections. However, he still could be appointed as Defense Minister without being in the Knesset.…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz and GOC Air Force Maj.-Gen. Amir Eshel, visited the Palmahim Air Force Base on Sunday afternoon. The Prime Minister met with the pilots who took part in the aerial attacks in Gaza during last week’s Operation Pillar of Defense and…

The Hamas terror government in Gaza will establish a committee that will investigate the circumstances surrounding the execution of seven Gazans during the recent Operation Pillar of Defense, Kol Yisrael radio reported on Sunday. The seven were suspected of collaborating with Israel and were executed without trial. Six of them were executed last week, after…

The Palestinian Authority will release Hamas-affiliated detainees as a goodwill gesture to boost reconciliation efforts, a PLO official said Sunday, after Hamas announced similar measures earlier. Nabil Shaath told the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency that preparations will begin in the coming days to release dozens of Hamas prisoners held for political reasons, adding that the…

On the heels of the very successful performance of Iron Dome during Operation Pillar of Defense, the IDF on Sunday tested yet another missile defense system, “Magic Wand,” also known as David’s Sling, designed to shoot down long range missiles fired at Israel. Whereas the Iron Dome system is designed to intercept short-range rockets that…

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday that his country had resumed contacts with Israel, despite the freezing of diplomatic relations in 2010. The contacts were resumed during Operation Pillar of Defense in an attempt to work towards a cease-fire, Davutoglu said in a televised interview, quoted by the Anatolia news agency. “In the Gaza…

Islamic terrorists destroyed part of an Egyptian security building at Rafiah Saturday night, challenging Cairo’s control over the Sinai after the ceasefire with Israel. No one was injured in the explosion at the base, under construction n the Egyptians side of Rafiah, the smuggling capital of Gaza. The attack came 48 hours after Egyptian President…

Jewish reggae artist Matisyahu has released a new song titled “Happy Hanukkah” to celebrate the upcoming holiday. All proceeds from the song will go to the Jewish Federations of North America and The Robin Hood Foundation to help victims of Hurricane Sandy until the end of Chanukah on December 16. “I am from New York…

The recent Pillar of Defense counter terror offensive against the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza was a win for Israel in numerous ways. Launched with the assassination of the key figure in the Izz a-Din al Qassam military wing of Hamas, Ahmed Jaabari, the eight-day operation was conducted primarily from the air. Hamas terrorists said they fired…

Iran has loaded a ship with new missiles to replace those destroyed by Israel in Operation Pillar of Defense, the London Sunday Times reported. The missile-laden ship was reportedly spotted by Israeli satellites. The report comes one day after de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh claimed that the ceasefire agreement hammered out last week…

Iran is trying to close surround Israel on three sides with its “axis of evil” by offering free oil to Jordan. Iran and Syria, through its Hizbullah ally, threatens Israel on the northern border, and the Hamas-Muslim Brotherhood alliance south of the border allowed massive rocket and missile attacks on Israel until the ceasefire last…

Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, has expressed “shock and dismay” at the latest display of anti-Semitism among supporters of the Italian club S.S. Lazio, which occurred during a Europa League match between Lazio and the English club Tottenham Hotspur in Rome on Thursday evening. The match was marred by anti-Semitic chanting,…

The office of a political-science professor and outspoken defender of Israel in Montreal was vandalized Tuesday night with anti-Semitic slogans. The words “Heil Israel”, written in French, were found scrawled on Julien Bauer’s office door at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Along with the phrase, referencing the infamous Nazi slogan “Heil Hitler”, a message…

This past week, as Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense against Hamas’s terror infrastructure in Gaza was going on, about 150 people attended a rally in support of Israel outside the Israeli Consulate in Toronto. According to a report in the Shalom Toronto newspaper, during the demonstration, which was led by the Hillel Jewish student union,…

Palestinian Authority officials said on Saturday they would exhume the body of former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat next week to see if he was poisoned with a radioactive isotope, AFP reported. The announcement came as a group of international experts arrived in Ramallah to take samples of the remains of Arafat’s bones and clothing for…

In the wake of the great success of the Iron Dome anti-missile system, which was able to intercept many of the rockets fired from Gaza at populated areas during Operation Pillar of Defense, Israel is now pushing ahead with the development of Magic Wand, which is supposed to be able to intercept short-range and medium-range…

Israel achieved the goals it set for itself in Gaza, causing Hamas leaders to “run for their lives”, Colonel Richard Kemp told Arutz Sheva this week. Colonel Kemp travelled to Israel on the outbreak of Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza, in order to gain a firsthand insight into the conflict and be able to…

Former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will announce that she is running for Knesset at the helm of a political party this week – most likely on Tuesday, according to reports. Livni will not form a new party but rather take over a non-functioning party, Hetz, which was registered several years ago by ex-Shinui minister Avraham…

The past week’s terrorist attacks against the State of Israel have rekindled calls for Twitter to ban Hamas from utilizing the social networking site to incite hate. A letter sent to FBI Director Robert Mueller called on the U.S. to vindicate a similar request made by seven House Republicans in September, calling for Twitter to…

The Supreme Judicial Council, Egypt’s highest judicial authority, described President Mohamed Morsi’s decision to grant himself new powers putting him above the judiciary as an “unprecedented assault” on the independence of the judiciary. The new edicts give the president near-absolute power as well as immunity from appeals in courts for any decisions or laws he…

A controversial new website levels a series of severe accusations at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), the UK’s leading anti-Israel group. ‘Exposing the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’ alleges that extremism, support for terrorism, anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry are “an institutionalized problem” within the PSC. One of the site’s founders spoke exclusively to Arutz Sheva…

Israeli state officials on Saturday confirmed that Israel has started introducing easements for civilians in Gaza in accordance with the ceasefire understandings. Meanwhile, Hamas’ Deputy Politburo chief Mousa Abu Marzook said Hamas won’t stop making weapons in Gaza or smuggling them to the territory. A cease-fire has held so far, and Abu Marzook told AP…

Syria said on Friday that plans by Turkey to deploy Patriot missiles along its border were “a new act of provocation,” AFP reported. Iran and Russia warned the move would complicate the situation and could spark a regional conflagration, the report said. Turkey turned to its NATO partners earlier this week to request the deployment…

President Mohammed Morsi on Friday insisted Egypt was on the path to “freedom and democracy”, as protesters held rival rallies over sweeping powers he assumed a day earlier. “Political stability, social stability and economic stability are what I want and that is what I am working for,” he told an Islamist rally outside the presidential…

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the founders of the Hamas terrorist organization and author of the book “Son of Hamas,” said on Friday that Israel made a mistake by agreeing to a ceasefire with Gaza’s terrorist rulers. Yousef has spent a number of years abroad following a decade in which he risked his life…

Leaders of the Jewish community in Venezuela said about 50 anti-Israel protesters gathered outside the country’s largest synagogue on Thursday to demonstrate against the recent Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. The Venezuelan Confederation of Israelite Associations said in a statement that demonstrators gathered outside the country’s synagogue in Caracas, hurling fireworks, disrupting activities and…

The IDF is on alert in Judea, Samaria (Shomron) and Jerusalem on Friday over threats of further terrorist attacks. There has been increased violence in the region in recent days, beginning with the outbreak of the Pillar of Defense battle with Gaza terrorists. On Thursday night the IDF conducted an arrest operation, detaining 28 Palestinian…

Spain announced Thursday that it would grant automatic citizenship to Jews of Sephardic descent as a further gesture of reconciliation after their ancestors were expelled from the country more than five centuries ago or forced to convert to Christianity. While Sephardic Jews have been able to seek Spanish naturalization for decades, the change means that…

In hopes of providing residents of the South with a degree of solace from the recent barrage of rocket attacks from terrorists in the nearby Gaza Strip, the Jewish Agency for Israel took 9,000 children and teenagers out for a day of fun. The children and their families enjoyed a range of fun activities Thursday,…

Post-ceasefire violence continued Friday with a violent clash along the Gaza security fence. According to AFP, Gaza residents say one local man was killed by IDF fire and several others were wounded. There was no immediate confirmation from the IDF. Spokespeople confirmed there had been “disturbances” and that soldiers had fired warning shots, but could…

While the media’s eyes this past week were fixed on the situation in the south, focusing their attention on the rockets raining down on Be’er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and dozens of other communities in the area, the terrorists’ scope reached Judea and Samaria as well, as reports of a massive increase in violent demonstrations, stone…

Some of southern Israel’s students will return to school to Friday, as residents of the south try to resume their normal lives after days of having to remain in shelters. The students remained at home on Thursday, but in the evening it was decided that students in the cities of Be’er Sheva, Ashdod, Ashkelon and…

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is calling for a jihad (“holy war”) to liberate the Palestinian Authority areas. “Jihad is obligatory” for Muslims, top Islamic cleric Mohammed Badei said, adding that peace deals with Israel are a “game of grand deception”. Badei added that there have been enough negotiations and that the “enemy knows nothing but the language…

The Shin Bet has arrested members of the terror cell that carried out the attack on a bus in Tel Aviv Wednesday. According to initial reports, most of the suspects are from the village of Beit Lakiya in the Binyamin region, near Highway 443. The cell’s members, who are identified with Hamas and Islamic Jihad,…

IDF reserve officer Lt. Boris Yarmulnik, 28, died Thursday of wounds he suffered from a terrorist rocket fired by Gazans a day earlier. The rocket was fired at the Eshkol area in the early afternoon, before the “ceasefire” with the terrorists went into effect. Lt. Yarmulnik, a resident of Netanya, is the second IDF soldier…

The UJA-Federation of New York teamed up with Catholic Charities this year to distribute food to the needy in time for Thanksgiving and continue the fight against hunger. The religious charities have partnered to help New York soup kitchens and food pantries in this time of higher demand partly due to the devastating aftermath of…

Terrorists opened fire at an Israeli bus at the Gush Etzion junction on Wednesday night, Kol Yisrael radio reported. No one was hurt in the incident, but the bus was damaged. A later inspection of the bus found holes from a bullet on its walls. IDF forces were searching the area in an attempt to…

A female Arab terrorist attempted to murder an Israel Border Guard on Sultan Suleiman street in Jerusalem. The Arab attacked the officer with a knife outside a police station on the street. The officer fought back his attacker, and was lightly wounded. The terrorist was subdued by several officers near the building. It was just…

Five victims of the bus blast in Tel Aviv Wednesday are still in the hospital, officials at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv said Thursday. A number of them are still in serious condition, and have undergone operations. At least two are likely to be released Thursday, and doctors are hopeful that the other victims will…

Noam Bedein is a photojournalist, lecturer and founder/director of Sderot Media Center. He lives approximately two miles away from the Gaza-Israel border in the missile-battered Israeli city of Sderot. From the last day of Operation Cast Lead (January 18, 2009) until the 1st day of Operation Pillar of Defense, the Gaza Hamas regime launched 2,000 aerial…

On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced that Israel was accepting the U.S.-Egypt brokered cease-fire with Hamas, saying that it would “provide an opportunity for the situation to stabilize and become calmer.” But on his Facebook page Wednesday night, Netanyahu wrote that despite the cease-fire, “it may be necessary for us to conduct a…

After days of unrest in Judea and Samaria in the wake of Operation Pillar of Defense, the IDF conducted a large-scale arrest campaign in the area overnight Wednesday. The IDF was assisted by the Israel Police and Border Guards. Fifty-five terrorists were arrested in the campaign, among them members of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Fatah.…

Syrian warplanes on Wednesday bombarded a hospital in the rebel-held district of the city of Aleppo, causing dozens of casualties, AFP reported, based on a monitoring group. “Dozens of people were killed or injured by an air strike on a building in the district of Shaar” in eastern Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights,…

Former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab warned in a BBC interview Wednesday that Syrian policy is controlled by Russia and Iran. Hijab defected earlier this year from the Damascus regime of President Bashar al-Assad, and fled to Jordan. Speaking in Amman, he told the BBC that Assad would never voluntarily surrender power even if offered…

Gaza’s terrorist rulers marked the ceasefire that went into effect on Wednesday evening by continuing to fire rockets at southern Israel. According to Kol Yisrael radio’s midnight newscast, 20 rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel since the ceasefire went into effect at 9:00 p.m. Wednesday evening. There were no reports of physical injuries…

Unknown gunmen assassinated the temporary security director for the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, state media reported Wednesday. Col. Faraj al-Dursi was shot dead by three unidentified men in a car in front of his home on Tuesday night, security officials said, according to Libyan state news agency LANA. The gunmen fled the scene and…

A landmark ruling in a New York court allows Israeli terror victims of Hizbullah missile attacks in 2006 to sue the New York branch of a Lebanese bank for handling millions of dollars of transfers. The lawsuit was filed by American, Canadian and Israeli citizens who suffered injuries and property damage in the attack during…

Egyptian protesters firebombed the office of satellite broadcaster Al-Jazeera in Cairo on Wednesday, as the third day of violent anti-government demonstrations rages on in the volatile Egyptian capital. Hundreds of protesters reportedly attacked the studio overlooking Tahrir Square with Molotov cocktails, engulfing it in flames. “At about 11 o’clock (1100 GMT) a group of protesters…

The IDF hit more than 1,500 targets in Gaza during Operation Pillar of Defense, according to a statement released Wednesday night. The statement was a summary of the counterterrorist operation, which came to an end after a ceasefire was announced on Wednesday evening. The IDF said it achieved the goals that were set prior to…

Despite a ceasefire that went into effect at 9:00 p.m. (Israel time) on Wednesday evening, the Home Front Command is not taking any chances and schools in southern Israel will remain closed on Thursday. According to the instructions issued by Home Front Command, schools and work places in communities located at a distance of up…

This is the partial text of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, as brokered by Egypt and the U.S. and reported by AFP. “Israel shall stop all hostilities in the Gaza Strip land sea and air, including incursions and targeting of individuals. “All Palestinian factions shall stop all hostilities from the Gaza Strip against…

Two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards the Israeli border on Wednesday evening, a Lebanese security official told AFP. “Two rockets were fired, one fell in what was clearly Lebanese territory, the other went towards Israel,” the official said on condition of anonymity. It was not immediately clear where the second rocket fell. On…

An IDF reservist officer suffered critical wounds early Wednesday afternoon when a Hamas Katyusha rocket exploded in the Eshkol area. The injury was only announced in the evening, after the officer’s family was notified. Earlier Wednesday, seven people were injured when a mortar shell struck the Eshkol area. Two of the wounded were taken to…

Egypt announced on Wednesday that a ceasefire had been reached to end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, starting later in the day. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr made the announcement in a joint news conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The ceasefire would come into effect at 9 pm, Amr…

As the eight-day holiday of Hanukkah approaches, Israel marks the eighth day of Operation Pillar of Defense by counting the missiles fired. Hanukkah is a holiday especially precious to children, but this year as the festival approaches, Israeli families are focused more on the safety of their children than on shopping for their gifts. Gaza’s…

Iran has sent financial and military aid to Hamas in Gaza in an attempt to boost the efforts of the terrorist group as it continuously and unremittingly launches attacks against the Jewish state, parliament speaker Ali Larijani said on Wednesday. “We are proud to defend the people of Palestine and Hamas … and that our…

As Iran urges Arab nations to send military aid to Gaza to increase its attacks on Israel, Western leaders plainly condemn the terrorism. For the first time, international leaders abandoned attempts to “balance” their  statements about Israel’s response to the constant rocket fire and Wednesday’s bombing attack on a public bus in Tel Aviv, even…

Arabs living in Lebanese refugee camps celebrated Wednesday after a bomb ripped through a bus in Tel Aviv, injuring over twenty people. In Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon muezzins sang out words of praise to G-d via their megaphones, while fireworks lit the sky and terrorists handed out sweets, AFP reported. In Ain al-Hilweh…

Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said the Israeli police had been expecting additional terrorist attacks, similar to the one that shook Tel Aviv Wednesday afternoon. Aharonovitch had previously clarified in an interview with Voice of Israel Radio that the government and security forces were being increasingly vigilant, due to warnings of increased terrorist activity in…

According to the latest reports from Cairo and Israel, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Wednesday evening and asked him to agree to abide by a ceasefire with Hamas. The terms of the ceasefire are not known. Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed Kamel Amr, speaking at a joint news conference in…

Egypt and Israel are engaged in a war of words over a possible ceasefire as Hamas continues to attack Israeli civilians and Israel retaliates. Hamas also is reportedly divided over terms of a truce, which its officials have insisted include Israel’s removing the maritime embargo, which is designed to prevent or at least limit the…

IDF soldier Yosef Fartuk, killed in a mortar shell attack Tuesday, wrote on Facebook before his death,” Woe to the first terrorist who falls in my hands.” “Either we enter Gaza or we go home,” he wrote. “I am on my way to Gaza.” The resident of Immanuel, located in central Samaria, was the fourth…

The sole surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed a Chabad rabbi and his wife was executed Wednesday, nearly four years after 166 people were killed in a three-day rampage through India’s financial capital, officials announced. Pakistan-born Mohammed Kasab was hanged early Wednesday after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his pleas for mercy earlier…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday evening with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. The two made statements to the press, and Netanyahu stressed that while Israel always makes sure to avoid hitting civilian casualties when attacking Gaza, Hamas and other Gaza-based terrorists deliberately fire at innocent civilians in southern Israel.…

The United States criticized Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, after he once again chose to attack Israel over its counter-terrorist operation in Gaza. In his latest hateful remarks, Erdogan accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, saying the Jewish state’s air raids could not be considered self-defense. “Israel is committing ethnic cleansing…

Rabbis from the Rabbinical Council of America arrived in Israel on Tuesday for a three-day solidarity mission with residents of the south, who are facing constant rocket and missile attacks by Gaza terrorists. The rabbis started their mission in Kiryat Malachi, where three citizens were killed last week when a missile exploded in a building…

8:09  IDF spokesperson  Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai says a ground operation in Gaza still is an option despite Hamas’ stated assumptions of a truce. 8:03  IDF soldier Yosef Fartuk, killed in a mortar shell attack Tuesday, wrote on Facebook before his death,” The first terrorist will fall in my hands.” “Either we enter Gaza to…

An IDF soldier who was critically wounded in a rocket attack Tuesday evening in the Eshkol region has died. He has been identified as 18-year-old Yosef Fartuk of Emanuel. Fartuk was posthumously promoted from private to corporal. Israeli civilian Alayaan Salem al-Nabari was killed in a mortar shell attack in the Eshkol region at approximately…

An Israeli woman believed to be in her late 50s was wounded Tuesday evening in what appears to have been a terrorist attack. The incident took place near the city of Beitar Illit, south of Jerusalem. The victim reached an IDF checkpoint, where soldiers called for help. Paramedics said the woman had suffered neck and…

Despite its ongoing attacks on Israel, Hamas found time Tuesday to execute six Gaza residents without trial. The terrorist group claimed the six were “caught red-handed” assisting Israel. The six “possessed hi-tech equipment and filming equipment to take footage of positions,” Hamas commanders said in a radio broadcast. Gaza witnesses said the men were pushed…

The IDF on Tuesday night eliminated a senior Islamic Jihad terrorist who was responsible for firing missiles at Eilat several months ago. Yunus Shaluf, who fired the rockets at Eilat in August from Sinai with the assistance of Sinai Bedouin, was eliminated in an IDF strike on southern Gaza. Meanwhile, an IDF plane on Tuesday…

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Israel on Tuesday night for meetings with officials, in an attempt to achieve a ceasefire in the fighting between Israel and Gaza. Clinton and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made statements to the press shortly before they met one on one. Netanyahu welcomed Clinton to Jerusalem and noted…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle Tuesday. Before they met, they spoke in the presence of reporters. “I’m very pleased to see you again, Guido,” said Netanyahu. “You’re an old friend and Germany has been constant, supportive, clear-sighted and upright in support and we appreciate it. As we speak right…

Anti-Israel demonstrators gathered outside of the Israeli embassy in Denmark, throwing fireworks and spraying the embassy walls with graffiti. Some 20 protesters assembled outside the embassy in Hellerup Sunday evening and spray-painted the words “Child killers” on the white walls that surround the Israeli diplomatic mission.  “There were between 20 and 30 people that congregated…

A rocket exploded in an open area near an Arab village in Gush Etzion around 2:15 p.m. as sirens wailed in Jerusalem during another barrage of rockets and missiles unleashed by Hamas. The missile exploded in an open area, and no one was injured. Minutes before the sirens rang out, an AFP correspondent in Gaza City…

Hizbullah is supplying long-range missiles to Hamas even as Israel’s Iron Dome system blows them up after launching, a Lebanese newspaper claims with pride. The claim is unsubstatiated by other sources, but if true, implies the compliance of Egypt. The Al-Ahkbar website and newspaper, which previously published WikiLeaks material before they were released, claimed that…

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a video conference on Monday with volunteers who are working to assist in the national public diplomacy efforts of the State of Israel. Participating in the video conference were personnel from the Prime Minister’s Office National Information Directorate, the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry, the IDF Spokesperson’s Office New…

A delegation of the European Jewish Union (EJU) and of the European Jewish Parliament (EJP) delivered humanitarian aid Monday to Israeli soldiers on the front line. The delegation, led by EJU President Igor Kolomoisky and EJP’s co-chairs Joel Rubinfeld and Vadim Rabinovich, launched an extensive program aimed at providing humanitarian support for the Israeli Defense…

Pillar of Defense Live Blog: Day Seven 14:14  Multiple warnings of missiles in Jerusalem and Gush Etzion 14:09 Hamas’ leader Khaled Mashaal charges an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza is a bluff. “If you wanted to launch it, you would have done it.” 14:00 Rocket damages home in Gaza Belt area. Possibility of victims trapped…

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will leave Asia on Tuesday to visit Israel and Egypt, an official said, as the United States pushes to avoid an escalation of the Gaza crisis. After departing from her trip with President Barack Obama to Southeast Asia, Clinton will meet Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem as…

A Reserve officer was seriously wounded by shrapnel from a Hamas rocket in the Eshkol region in the Western Negev Tuesday morning and was flown by helicopter to Tel Hashomer Hospital in Tel Aviv. First aid at the base where he was stationed was credited with saving his life. “We have witnessed this morning an…

A ceasefire between Israel and Gaza could go into effect “within several hours”, according to a Monday night report by the Al-Arabiya network. The report said that the forum of nine senior Israeli ministers was expected to approve an initial outline for a ceasefire with Hamas. According to the outline offered by Egypt and described…

Three U.S. Navy amphibious warships are returning to the eastern Mediterranean to remain on standby in the event they are needed to assist Americans leaving Israel in the coming days, two U.S. officials told CNN on Monday. The officials stressed that an evacuation remains an extremely remote possibility and the Obama administration is not currently…

IDF planes on Monday targeted and eliminated another four senior Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists. The four were eliminated as part of the IDF’s efforts to dismantle the Hamas terror infrastructure in Gaza, and to restore calm and quiet to southern Israel, the army said in a statement. The four were eliminated in a joint…

A man was lightly hurt Monday evening when fallout from an Iron Dome interception smashed into the windshield of his car. The man was driving through the Bnei Shimon Regional Council district when the Color Red rocket alert siren activated, warning of a Grad Katyusha attack on the area. Within moments, the Iron Dome anti-missile…

Although “only” three Israelis have been killed as a result of the ongoing Hamas terror rocket attacks against Israel, hundreds of thousands of people are suffering – perhaps none more than residents of immigrant absorption centers in southern Israel. Unlike veteran Israeli families, these new immigrants – many of them olim from Ethiopia – have…

Tens of thousands of army reservists are waiting for orders to move into Gaza. A poll shows 84% of Israelis support Pillar of Defense. A ground incursion apparently awaits the outcome of efforts for a truce. A Dialogue survey carried out for the Haaretz newspaper revealed that 39% of respondents support a continuation of aerial…

As Operation Pillar of Defense continues with mounting losses for Gaza Arab terrorists, Arabs in Judea and Samaria have begun to show their solidarity with their fellow Arabs – by rioting and throwing stones and other objects at Israeli cars driving on the roads. A large number of Israeli drivers have reported being targeted in…

A poll conducted on behalf of an Israeli political education group showed that the vast majority of Israelis supported Operation Pillar of Defense. According to the poll, taken by the Panels organization on behalf of the the Israeli Center for Political Training (ICPT), 85% of Israelis think that the operation against Hamas is a good…

There may be talk going on about a ceasefire, but Hamas is not interested, said Hamas top terrorist Khaled Mashaal. Speaking in Gaza Monday afternoon, Mashal said that there would be no compromises with Israel. “There may be or may not be an agreement, but that is up to Israel,” he said. “There are efforts…

Two Katyusha missiles aimed at Israel from Lebanon were “discovered” Monday in the southern region. Both were set to launch, a security source told Lebanese newspaper The Daily Star. The rockets were found in Mazra’at Halta, near Kfat Shuba Hills. They were defused by security forces, the source said, who added that attempts to launch…

Live Blog Pillar of Defense Day 6 14:11  Tens of thousands of army reservists are waiting for orders to move into Gaza. A poll shows 84% of Israelis support Pillar of Defense. A ground incursion apparently awaits the outcome of efforts for a truce. 14:04  Iron Dome intercepts missile on Be’er Sheva. Two others land…

This weekend, the Chairman of News Corp, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, stirred controversy for some of his tweets – and that was because, of course, he was absolutely right. Murdoch tweeted: “Middle East ready to boil over any day. Israel position precarious. Meanwhile watch CNN and AP bias to point of embarrassment.” And he was, of course, prophetically…

Israel has delivered an ultimatum to Hamas through Egypt, according to which the IDF will widen its offensive in Gaza in 36 hours unless Hamas ceases firing rockets and smuggling arms into Gaza, IDF Radio reported Monday morning. Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told the station that the time left before Israel steps up its attack can…

The flight paths for landing and takeoff in Ben Gurion Airport have been altered, because of the activity of the Iron Dome anti-missile battery in Tel Aviv. The Civilian Aviation Authority (CAA) carried out the changes out of concern that planes could inadvertently be hit by the Iron Dome missiles. Timetables for flights in and…

An explosion in Eilat that was thought to be a rocket attack turned out to be from a blast at work on the security fence, and at least person was treated for shock. Police are investigating to determine if there was any damage. The explosion followed two other blasts that were heard Sunday night, apparently from…

The IDF Sunday night bombed a Gaza City soccer field that camouflaged a Hamas underground missile launching site it used to attack Tel Aviv last Friday. Use of the soccer field to attack Israel explains several Hamas claims in the past that Israel has attacked children playing soccer. Covering an underground missile site with a…

Israel said it had become the victim of a mass cyber-warfare campaign with millions of attempts to hack state websites since the beginning of Pillar of Defense counterterrorist campaign last week. Speaking Sunday ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the government was now waging war on “a second front…

Senior PLO official Nabil Shaath said on Sunday that there is full coordination between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal regarding the negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza. Speaking with the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency, Shaath said that he met with Mashaal and his deputy, Moussa Abu Marzouk, who filled him…

The IDF attacked more than 130 targets in Gaza on Sunday, as Operation Pillar of Defense continued. According to statistics released by the IDF, since the operation began last Wednesday, the IDF has attacked 1,110 targets in Gaza. The Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted more than 35 rockets on Sunday, and a total of 280…

Senator Saxby Chambliss, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Senator Joe Lieberman, head of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, both expressed support on Sunday for Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense in Gaza. Both men appeared on Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace. “I don’t think the Israelis really want a ground war,” said Lieberman.…

The Home Front Command (HFC) issued on Sunday updated instructions to Israeli citizens residing in communities located at a distance of up to 40 kilometers from Gaza. The instructions are in effect until Monday at 6:00 p.m. Israeli time, when they may be amended. Residents of communities located at a distance of up to seven…

Hamas cannot possibly say that it is firing rockets at Israel because of the “occupation”, President Shimon Peres said on Sunday. Peres made the remarks during a meeting with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who arrived for a series of talks with Israel and the Palestinian Authority because of the escalation in the south. “The…

The IDF gathered intelligence on Hamas terror sites months ago, but did not act until the latest escalation. Military spokesmen, in summing up Sunday’s counterterrorist maneuvers, said that details of terror sites have been collected for months, providing the IDF ample information for pinpoint strikes. “Gaza has turned into an Iranian base that places Israeli…

Israel’s campaign against Hamas terrorists in Gaza has led to repercussions in the Jewish world, as anti-Semites and anti-Israel activists around the world organize mass protests against Israel’s defensive actions. As a result, synagogues and Jewish institutions in large cities, including New York, have been advised by police to take extra steps to ensure their…

A resident of Ashdod on Sunday may have saved many lives – when he found an unexploded rocket on the roof of his apartment building. During the five days of Operation Pillar of Defense, hundreds of rockets have been fired at Israel by Gaza Arab terrorists. The Iron Dome missile interception system has had an…

Israel has sent a representative to Cairo for mediated talks with Hamas regarding the possibility of a ceasefire – but these talks have failed, according to a Hamas spokesman quoted by Channel 2‘s Ehud Yaari. Yaari said that Hamas is broadcasting fantastic claims of its alleged military successes against Israel, including the supposed shutting down…