Click here to watch the video where David Bedein, of the Israel Resource News Agency, explains what he will be speaking to US Congressmen about. This video also provides the official Palestinian Authority documentation that writes out, in black and white, the positions of the Palestinain Authority and Salam Fayad. The documentation has no mention of...
As a result of the building plan for Ramat Shlomo, Ramot, Jerusalem, publicized by the Interior Ministry in Israel, The Arab League has announced that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will not participate in the proximity talks being pushed by the United States. With all the terror of the palestinian Arabs and with Iran rushing to develop nuclear weapons...
Ramat Shlomo is the latest Israeli building project to be condemned by the United States and the world. Ramat Shlomo is a neighborhood in Ramot, more Southern Jerusalem than East Jerusalem. However, to the world it is East Jerusalem, since it was redeemed by Israel after the 1967 six day war. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has profusely apologized to...
The Palestinian Authority is planning to prevent its residents from working in the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria – if a legislative proposal submitted by its finance minister passes, which appears likely. Hassan Abu Libda, responsible for the PA's finance ministry, is the sponsor of the bill. Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen...
Speaking to a Suadi paper and Arab journalists, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan continued his assault on Israel by attacking the Israeli decision to include Rachel's Tomb and The Cave of the Patriarchs on the National Heritage list of sites. The Turkish PM went further to say that the Temple Mount was never a Jewish site either. These...
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been counting on the diplomatic initiative of President Barak Obama and the United States to bring about a worldwide coalition supporting crippling sanctions against Iran. All this in an effort to hurt Iran economically and bring its nuclear pursuit to a slowdown. Prime Minister Netanyahu has thrown his weight behind...
Click here to see this must see video interview with the author of "The Terrible Truth about Hamas", written by son of a founder of Hamas. The author, son of major Hamas terror leader, had a change of heart and provided critical information to Israel for a decade - now interviewed about his life and decisions. (source: foxnews)
Once again, the Arabs are inciting to violence because of the Israeli Government's decision to include Rachel's tomb and The Caves of Patriarchs in Hebron as National Heritage Locations. Even though the obvious connections between those 2 important places and the Jewish people, the Arabs are using the decision about these places as the spark to...
Click here to see the great new show, Latma, that does satire and parody shows on the Isreali media and how they deal with newsworthy issues. This episode includes a satirical scene on the Mossad hit of Haman and a commercial for peace now. Latma is a project started by Caroline Glick to use the famous Israeli satire in order to highlight the way...
THURSDAY'S D-DAY!! HERE'S WHY: The Merkaz-Likud (Likud Central Committee) is extremely influential over the voting behavior of both ministers and Knesset members, so it can easily determine the fate of Judea and Samaria, Golan and Jerusalem. Merkaz Likud has many rightwing members - but also many Kadima-leftwing members who were miraculously installed in...
Click here to watch the Jpost video recording this event. Brooklyn ZOA President Rubin Margules led an effort this year, for the 10th consecutive year, to distribute 5,000 mishlochei manot to soldiers throughout the country. This year 4,500 manot were packed by students from four Samaria schools, organized and supervised by David Ha'ivri and Yafit Ezra...
Admiral Mike Mullen Reaffirms Strong U.S.-Israeli Bond in Visit to Israel. Chairman of the U.S. Join Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike G. Mullen, visited Israel and was hosted by Chief of the Israeli General Staff, LTG Gabi Ashkenazi, on February 14 and 15, 2010. During his visit, Chairman Mullen met with top Israeli military and government officials. He...
Political analyst Dan Diker, of the JCPA, spoke at the Jerusalem Conference on the possibility of the palestinians unilaterally declaring independence. Mr. Diker clearly expressed his analysis that Jordan and Egypt are extremely upset at Muhammed Abbas for stopping the peace negotiations and pushing for a unilateral independence. Click here to...
Caroline Glick, one of the leading Jewish journalists today, clearly stated at the Jerusalem Conference 2010 that the palestinians have no interest in a state but rather in the destruction of Israel. Click here to watch Caroline Glick's speech at the Conference.
At an event commemorating the first full year of weekly rallies in support of Israel held at Broward Boulevard and Northeast Third Avenue in Fort Lauderdale Florida keynote speaker Joyce Kaufman a WFTL 850 talk show host details "The 7 Reasons to Support Israel." Click here to watch Joyce in action. This is a presentation in support of...
This Sunday evening a group of people entered Yericho to pray at the ancient synagogue that was torched by the Arabs during the second intifada. As of this moment, a group of 24 of them have been arrested by Israeli police for illegaly entering Yericho. When stopped at the military checkpoints the group claimed that they had a right to enter every city...
Click here to watch the video of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanahu calling For crippling sanctions on Iran. The pressure of an Iranian nuclear bomb is weighing heavy on Israeli PM Bibi who represents an Israel under existential danger with the world giving clear signs of acceptance of a nuclear Iran. At the 2010 Jerusalem Conference, Netanyahu...
As a testament to the verbal terrorism that is now being used against Israel and its representatives on College campuses click here to watch this video of Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, being heckled at UC Irvine by anti-Israel students, February 8, 2010. He persevered, completing his speech, while the anti-free speech students...
Washington, D.C. (February 17, 2010) -- The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) today, in a letter, called on President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to repudiate remarks by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) calling for U.S. intervention to break the Israeli "blockade" of Gaza. We find Rep. Baird's comment disturbing and...
The following text was communicated by the Bureau of Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon to the public. Today (Tuesday, 16 February 2010), Deputy Foreign Minister addressed the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and spoke about a wide range of issues. Campus extremism and Israeli reaction to 'verbal terrorism' Referring to his...
In response to a question posed by Meretz chairman Chaim Oron, the Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilanai stated that 29 settlements are defying the building freeze orders. The following communities were noted as in violation of the building freeze: Adam (Geva Binyamin), Oranit, Eilon Moreh, Alfei Menashe, Elkana, Beit Aryeh,...
Thanks to the very successful campaign of the Im Tirzu movement in exposing the New Israel Fund as an organization that supports organizations out to destroy the Jewish character of the State of Israel, the Jerusalem Post has fired Naomi Chazan, the Israeli chairman of the New Israel Fund. Im Tirzu claimed in a feature published in the Hebrew daily...
Due to the destruction of homes and communities in Haiti, the UN estimates 100,000 family sized tents are needed to house about 500,000 people, but they say that up to 1 million people might require shelter. To deal with this situation, the Haitian government has begun putting up tent settlements to house their citizens. They say that the tent...
J Street, the left-leaning organization referred to by the Israeli government as "a unique problem" and considered "pro-Ishmael instead of pro-Israel", is launching its grassroots initiative on February 4, 2009. This event will be held in a Hillel building at the University of Pennsylvania campus. Many in the Jewish community...
After planting trees in Gush Etzion in the beginning of the week and declaring the importance of the region to the State of Israel, now and in the future, today Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the city of Ariel in the Shomron and delivered the same message. Ariel is the capital of the West Bank and an indisputable part of Israel pledged...
In an effort to press Obama to pressure Israel, fifty four members of the U.S Congress, led by Representative Jim McDermott from Washington and Keith Ellison from Minesota (both Democrats), signed a letter asking the President to pressure Israel to ease the siege of the Gaza Strip. The representatives wrote that even though they understand the threats...
During a festive tree planting ceremony in Gush Etzion for the upcoming holiday of Tu B'shvat, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated clearly that the areas of Gush Etzion, Maale Adumim and Ariel (aka "Settlement Blocs") would remain with Israel in any peace deal. During his speech at the ceremony the Prime Minister was very clear - "Our...
An all day conference was held in Gush Etzion on Sunday to provide a forum for well-known and less well-known thinkers to present their views of Israel's options in depth. Ehud Ya'ari, Udi Segal, Yoram Ettinger, Dan Shifton and others were given a platform to explain their views at length. Some may have been surprised to hear Ya'ari say that he, too,...
THE URGENT NEED Since the Oslo Accords were established, the Palestinian Arabs have floated disinformation creating the impression that a Palestinian state would be moderate, democratic and peaceful. Those governments inclined to support the establishment of such a state have eagerly embraced this disinformation, ignoring and even burying clear...
http://www.mishpacha.com/getPdf/1/289/18/0/ Whether al-Dura himself is dead or alive, the al-Dura case is still living and breathing and expelling a foul stench that still hovers over Israel to this day. Nine years ago, it was one of the pivotal developments that gave impetus to the Palestinian Authority to launch its intifada against...
It's been promised so many times -- the building freeze against Yehuda and Shomron will NOT apply to schools, which will continue to be built as usual. Both Prime Minister Netanyahu and Education Minister Gidon Saar have promised this to the public. But this week it turns out that Mr. Barak has no intention of approving construction of schools. This...
Tucked into the rocky thickets of Mount Carmel in northern Israel, 43 American 20-somethings gathered in a hotel conference room to play a simple game — using their bodies as place markers, they lined up across the room according to how important they found dating Jews, and Jews alone. At first, only four people stood on the “date Jews”...
Yisrael Beteinu Minister Dr. Uzi Landau will visit the Yesha strike tent today at 13:00 after the weekly cabinet meeting concludes. Landau, long known for his loyal support for Yesha communities, is a natural friend to Yesha and firmly committed to strengthening the Jewish civilian presence there. He joins an ever-increasing number of visible political...
"The Sixties" band played to a sold out house of 400 people in the Gush Etzion Matnas located in Alon Shvut on Saturday night. It was the 4th annual JobKatif Benefit Concert with proceeds going to support that organization's ongoing efforts to put all Gush Katif refugees back to work. 1700 Jewish families were expelled from their homes in the...
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, after significant pressure created by Yesha's escalating protest, has made some changes to the directive dealing with the building freeze in Yesha. The changes, however, do not significantly change the dire effects of the freeze on Yesha communities. Basically, the ability to grant residents small home renovations and public...
After a significant lull in the rocketing of Israel's southern towns, attacks have begun again. Starting with a rocket here and a rocket there, residents of the south have once again been shocked out of their daily activities with several rockets a day. Last week signified what seemed to be an attempt on the part of Gazan terrorists to return to the...
Does anyone still remember Binyamin Netanyahu's election platform? As the blonde blogger from "Eretz Nehederet" might say - Passe, Jose. Criticized for yet again flip-flopping in his call to Abbas to sit at the negotiating table, the PM put on his best face of sincerity to assure his constituency that he has not changed his position. While...
It’s hard to find a book endorsed by Meg Whitman, Tom Brokaw and George Stephanopoulos but Start-Up Nation is so well researched and written it would be difficult to find anyone who wouldn’t love this non-fiction gem. Authors Dan Senor and Saul Singer pose the question many of us have about Israel: How does a tiny, nascent country...
Once again proving that there just when you thought you "got it" as far as the pathetic level of rhetoric spouted in the knesset, an MK manages to go even lower, Arab representative Taleb A-Sanaa gave some pause in the knesset meeting this week . Heard the saying, "Been down so long, everything looks like up to me."? There we...
On the brisk frist work day of 2010 Yesha municipalities called a work strike, allowing all employees who wished to do so to participate in a demonstration and march to protest the ongoing building freeze in Yesha communities. MKs Danny Danon and Zvulun Orlev were among those making their views visible, with Limor Livnat and others scheduled to join...
TODAY (Sunday 3 Jan, 1 PM - 1300 oclock) - important ministerial meeting about adding new judges, who are NOT left-wing, to the Supreme Court. Every single judge on today's Supreme Court, other than 1 - 2 of those just appointed, is left or extreme left in orientation. This is why the Supreme Court did not intervene in the decision to banish 9000 Gush...
At an ambassador conference held in the Foreign Ministry, FM Avigdor Lieberman said that Israel's ambassadors must observe proper protocol and respect in foreign countries and carry out their job to explain Israel's position and bolster the possibilities for international friendship. However, one of the main thrusts of his message was that this does not...
This week Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas once again honored the memory of the terrorist Dalal Mughrabi - this time by sponsoring a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of her birth. Mughrabi led the worst terror attack in Israel's history in 1978, when she and other terrorists hijacked a bus and killed 37 civilians. Present at the...
The case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Nigerian man accused in the attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner, has reinvigorated a debate about whether British universities are being used as breeding grounds for radical Islam. For three years, Abdulmutallab made the short journey from his apartment in central London to an 11-story brown brick building at...
Critics have a simple message for Israel’s top diplomat and the Obama administration’s envoy on anti-Semitism: Reread your job descriptions. Every Israeli ambassador to Washington launches his tenure by assembling the Israeli and Jewish press and listing what he sees as his priorities: High among them, always, is outreach to U.S....
Did you know that there's actually an official position at the United Nations called UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of humaan rights in the Palestinian territories since 1967? Yep, and you can just imagine what kind of reporting gets done by the person in this position. But maybe you can't imagine that the person filling that position is not only...
Remove inciteful Videos from YouTube – Here's How Thanks to Sally Zahav a. Go to YouTube's home page, www.youtube.com b. Type "Al-Awlaki" in the search bar. Note that at the bottom of the page, YouTube provides additional spellings for his names. c. The search option also has the capability to search the...
After it was reported that the US pointed an angry finger at IDF after the 3 terrorists responsible for murdering Rabbi Chai, 45 year old father of seven, even Obama's bunglers seemed to be embarrassed by their puzzling behavior. Backpedaling, as the US is so often forced to do in order to remove a large foot from their mouth, they have now corrected...
Aliya is rising in Israel for the first time in a long time - about a decade. Still not a significant number or anywhere near what Israel would like to see, the increase from the 14,000 or so new immigrants in 2008 to over 16,000 in 2009 is a welcome change and one hoped to indicate a new trend. The 16,200 olim registered during 2009 were close...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County, along with the Jack and Jessica Blinkoff Scholarship Fund and the Youth to Israel committee, is offering Israel Experience scholarships. Their aim is to encourage Jewish high school students to visit Israel to build or reinforce their Jewish identity, to appreciate the land and its culture, and to...
With The Sun on hiatus for Winter Break, there is time for us Sunnies to see the world that exists beyond the confines of 139 W. State St. Thanks to Project Interchange, I will be spending the next week in Israel with a delegation of student journalists from across the country. A non-profit institute of the American Jewish Committee, Project...
Although Hamas hoped to show a population unified in support of their control and in opposition to compromise with a rally commemorating the anniversary of the IDF military operation, Cast Lead, they were greeted with only 2000 or so people milling around instead of the tens of thousands expected. When the siren went off signalling a moment's silence in...
Three men, Aksa Martyrs Brigades operatives, Abbas's own Fatah movement . who were involved in the fatal shooting attack on Thursday that killed 45-year-old father of seven Rabbi Meir Hai, הי"ד, near the settlement of Shavei Shomron, where he lived were killed by IDF after they refused to surrender to troops. The three, 38-year-old...
Rabbi Chai, 45, father of seven, who was murdered on Thursday by Arab terrorists, was laid to rest Friday morning in Jerusalem. Thousands came from all parts of Israel to accompany the beloved religious studies teacher to his final resting place. Renewed terror on the roads at this critical time in the prisoner exchange process brings home very clearly...
The identification of American diplomats from the consulate at IDF checkpoints has been a major sticking point for several years. In January 2008, the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria filed complaints with the Foreign Ministry after both US Security Coordinator Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton and then-consul-general Jacob Walles refused to roll...
Just before dusk, Rabbi Meir Chai, 40, was killed by terrorists between the two Yesha communities of Einav and Shavei Shomron as he was driving on Route 57. Police give two scenarios: one in which the terrorists shot from a passing car and the other a roadside ambush. The irony of a terrorist murder on the eve of one of the biggest releases of...
MKs Eli Aflalo, Ronit Tirosh, Shai Hermesh, Otniel Schneller, Aryeh Bibi and Yulia Shamalov Berkovich reportedly signed on to make the move from Tsippi Livni's Kadima party to Bibi Netanyahu's Likud with MK Ze'ev Boim and other Kadima legislators expected to join the move soon. There are those who claim that each of the MKs who leave Kadima...
The Israeli government has issued a warning to Israelis not to travel in the Sahel region in the northern part of Africa. The Al Qeida affiliate terrorist group threatening to abduct Israelis has been responsible for the kidnapping of Canadian, Austrian and German citizens and a bungled attempt to kidnap four U.S. nationals. The warning specified the...
More than 350 clinical trials professionals recently attended the inaugural session of CTrials, a new professional society in Israel for the advancement of biomedical research. CTrials is the first professional forum to serve as a source of knowledge and support for those involved in clinical trials in Israel. Beachwood’s economic...
Impressed by the American use of micro-UAVs in Iraq, Australia has obtained the Skylark system from Israeli firm Elbit. Australian troops in Iraq will receive one Skylark system (three ten pound UAVs, plus one set of ground control equipment), with more to follow once the troops sign off on it. The Skylark, like most micro-UAVs, is a battery...
Israel is about to become the first country in the world to encourage citizens to sign organ donor cards by rewarding them with priority status should they later need a transplant. The reward "provides an incentive for individuals to agree to help each other" according to one of its architects, Professor Jacob Lavee of Sheba Hospital near Tel...
Hannah Rosenthal, appointed last week as the United States State Department’s official envoy to combat anti-Semitism, delivered an address on Wednesday to more than 500 people who participated in the Jerusalem-based Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism. Ms. Rosenthal opened her address by invoking her own father, who was the only member...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave an interview to al-Jazira television, December 10, which reminds us of something exceptionally important for any discussion of the Israel-Palestinian conflict: what her husband offered the Palestinians-the last time a comprehensive deal was proffered-and was turned down almost exactly nine years ago. How...
Dozens of left wing agitators accompanied by a handful of Arabs descended upon Yaacov Sharvit, age 60, Shilo farmer and long time resident, on the land he's been farming for over 25 years. Uprooting plantings, they attacked Sharvit, better known for his bee-sting remedy for various illnesses for which people come to him from all over the country. He was...
Police forces barged into the large Jewish community of Tsofim on Tuesday where they "violently threw children and adults onto the sidewalks. Eleven people were injured. Some were treated here and others were evacuated to hospitals." according to eye witnesses at the scene. "The inspectors came and took equipment...
After Tzippi Livni cancelled a speech at England's JNF because of a warrant issued in that country for her arrest for war crimes, FM Lieberman and PM Netanyahu responded with harsh words. "We will not agree to a situation in which Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni will be summoned to the defendant's bench. We will not agree that IDF commanders...
A spike in terrorism cases involving U.S. citizens is challenging long-held assumptions that Muslims in Europe are more susceptible to radicalization than their better-assimilated counterparts in the United States. American Muslim organizations, jolted by the spate of cases, are abandoning their hesitation to speak out about the issue. While underlining...
N.Va. men allegedly drafted to fight U.S. troops abroad Pakistani authorities on Saturday were searching for an insurgent figure believed to have aided five Northern Virginia men who allegedly tried to join al-Qaeda, saying the case could help unravel a growing network of terrorist recruiters who scour the Internet for radicalized young men....
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Israel sat down Monday with representatives of the Jewish Federations of North America to discuss how the two overseas organizations split the unrestricted money that the federations give them each year. The JDC and JAFI split anywhere between $180 million and $200 million...
Last week, Attorney Lee Bender, head of the Beth Hillel Wynnewood-based Israel Advocacy Committee, received documentation from Karmel Israel-Nytt, a Norwegian newspaper published in Oslo, Norway with editorial offices in Jerusalem, that the Norwegian government has allocated 1.3 million Kroner, something over $200,000, to "Peace Now," a...
So J Street’s pollster, Jim Gerstein (who was also a founding VP of J Street), has done a poll of Israelis for the New America Foundation. It is being billed as a repudiation of the famous Jerusalem Post poll conducted in June that found that only 6 percent of Israelis consider the Obama administration to be pro-Israel. The new Gerstein poll is...
The Israeli ambassador to the United States blasted J Street, saying the organization was "fooling around with the lives of 7 million people." Michael Oren, responding to a question during an appearance before the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism's biennial convention, described the left-wing pro-Israel group as "a unique...
Over 100 police personnel and "yasamnikim" (special riot forces) infiltrated the community of Kedumim through an Arab village after being held off by Kedumim residents for three days at the front gate. Handing out work cessation orders at buidling sites where construction began long before Netanyahu's recent freeze edict, a violation of...
The Organization for the Renewal of the Temple (ORT) has announced aThursday pilgrimage to Temple Mount. "We do everything legally and in conjunction with the police," ORT's Yosef Rabin said. "And as long as we do, there shouldn't be any problem."' Rabin said he had personally spoken with police about Thursday's pilgrimage and that...
Presenting his new political platform, Hezbollah's leader said armed struggle is the only way to get back land captured by Israel. "Israel represents a constant threat and an impending danger to Lebanon," Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said Monday during a speech filmed by closed-circuit cameras and broadcast to reporters....
The move to pardon Gush Katif activists took a giant step forward when The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee unanimously approved the measure last week. The bill will be voted upon on the floor of the Knesset, after which, if approved, it will move to the Knesset Constitution and Law Committee, headed by MK David Rotem, before a final vote in...
Netanyahu's freeze is far from cosmetic or minor. Rather it is an unprecedented freeze of all building in Yesha which includes the large blocs about which there has been a long-standing agreement within Israel and with the US that they would be included in Israel. Ariel, Ma'ale Adumim, Beitar Ilit and Efrat - Yesha cities - long part of any...
Israel will continue developing touristic places in the West Bank despite the government decision to freeze settlement activities for 10 months, Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov said Saturday. "The freeze of the constructions in the West Bank represents a diplomatic achievement that Israel should use to its advantage in the international...
Dire Straits once sang about getting their “money for nothing.” That’s not the way it works for University of Michigan junior Brett Siegal, founding board member and vice president of fundraising for Tamid Israel Investment Group. Siegal, of Aurora, spends 30 hours a week outside of his normal coursework helping connect...
Civil Administration inspectors, barred from entrance to Kiryat Arba, Har Gilo, Yakir, Revava and Karnei Shomron on Tuesday came back with security forces on Wednesday to force entry into Jewish communities in Yesha. In quiet Beit Aryeh, located just 20 minutes from Ben Gurion airport, residents clashed with Civil Administration inspectors arriving...
Likud Knesset Member Danny Danon, in the forefront of those slamming Netanyahu's 10-month Yesha freeze, said at Saturday night's rally that the freeze declaration is basically "telling 300,000 Jews that they're a problem," referring to Yesha residents. "President Obama should not interfere with the rights of the Jewish...
The Civil Administration moved swiftly over the weekend to distribute injunctions to settler leaders which immediately suspended for 10 months all new Jewish construction projects in the West Bank that have not broken ground. According to the Civil Administration, the injunctions were handed out to 22 out of the 24 local and regional council heads in...
The Office for Israeli Constitutional Law, a non-governmental legal action organization, sent a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week, warning that by labeling Jewish settlements in Yesha illegal, she is violating international law. The little-known Anglo-American Convention, a treaty signed by the US and British governments...
In one of the more important quiet battlegrounds, the world of Jewish philanthropy is facing a rebellion of no small concern to those who recognize the historic importance of diaspora funding for Israel projects. An agreement has existed for decades that one quarter of the hundreds of millions of dollars raised every year by the mainstream Jewish...
A research and development foundation will provide up to $3.3 million to fund four clean-energy projects in the United States and Israel, the U.S. Department of Energy announced. The money, given in part by the energy department and the Israeli Ministry of National Infrastructures, will be allocated in coming months by Israel-U.S. Binational...
Pinchas Wallerstein, the director of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, said that settler leaders learned of the new measures to be used against Yesha residents, communities and builders only a few days ago from the media. He said of the Defense Ministry memo, "It's a scandalous letter and its author...
Denying that the 10 month freeze on settlement in Yesha is connected to the possible Shalit-terrorists exchange, PM Netanyahu called his cabinet together to vote on the freeze which is not to include Jerusalem within its framework. Of course, turning his back oon his constituency ultimately does Netanyahu no good since Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat...
As once again Israelis hold their collective breath and many express willingness to set even the most bloodthirsty of Arab terrorists free if only the Shalit family can have their son home safely, Hamas balks at not receiving 100% of their demands. In a country where it is not politically correct to remind others that those to be set free committed...
In his column of November 20, “Salam Fayyad builds Palestine,” Jerusalem Post Editor David Horovitz describes “two staunch Jewish supporters of Israel” - Senator Joe Lieberman, former vice presidential candidate, and Representative Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee - “nodding their...
Expectations of a swap in the coming week have been raised by a round of meetings in Cairo sponsored by the Egyptian government, and by a growing number of statements by Israeli, Palestinian and Egyptian officials. “Those who don’t know can talk,” Dan Meridor, Israel’s intelligence minister, said Monday on state radio....
Canada-based Bontan Corp. Inc. announced the indirect acquisition of exploration and drilling licenses in the Levantine Basin off the coast of Israel. Bontan said the two drilling licenses and one exploration permit cover a total area of more than 1,000 square miles in the Israeli waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The Israeli Petroleum Co. holds...
Israel is the most attractive country in the Middle East for venture capital and private equity investment, according to a new survey. Israel comfortably beat regional competitors United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to rank 22nd overall in The Global Venture Capital and Private Equity Country Attractiveness Index, which was published Monday by...
Israeli security sources said the Israeli military and security services maintain a constant watch over Abbas. The sources said the military and the Israel Security Agency have been directed to treat Abbas as a strategic asset to Israel who must be protected at virtually any cost. To counterbalance Hamas, Israel not only protects Abbas physically but...
More than half the nearly three billion dollar cost of developing and building Arrow has come from the United States. In addition, American firms have done some of the development work, or contributed technology. The U.S. wants to cut its contribution for future Arrow development, if only to allocate more resources to U.S. anti-missile systems (Aegis...
Condemning IDF soldiers who refuse to expel Jews from their homes in Judea and Samaria as "contravening the values of the IDF" begs the question; what are the values and what is the role of the IDF? That soldiers should refuse such orders because it is "against Halacha," is arguable. Refusing an order that has nothing...
Episodes in both houses of Congress exposed the raw nerves of lawmakers flooded with stories of unemployment and economic hardship back home. They also underscored the stiff headwinds that the administration faces as it pushes to enact sweeping changes to the financial regulatory system while also trying to create jobs for ordinary Americans. ...
Sarah Palin, former candidate for the vice presidency of the United States, told Barbara Walters in a recent interview when asked about the Obama administration's insistence on a settlement freeze in Yesha, "I disagree with the Obama administration on that. I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because...
To keep the Palestinian Authority government working after its term expires in January, Palestinians are turning to an unelected group of political insiders instead of holding new elections, according to Palestinian officials and outside analysts. The Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council -- more than 100 political officials and...
There is 'Israeli consensus' that the eastern Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood of Gilo belongs to Israel, opposition leader Tzipi Livni said. "Beyond dealing with the immediate issue, this understanding is important for all discussions about permanent borders," Livni, head of the center Kadima Party, told French Foreign Minister Bernard...
After a rocket landed in the Israeli town of Sderot, IDF bombed two locations in Northern Gaza, a munitions factory and weapons storehouse. Saying that "The IDF will not tolerate any attacks by terror organizations against Israel and it's citizens.", the bombings were carried out on Saturday.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement released on Tuesday regarding 900 housing units approved for the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo that "at a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed." This knee jerk response to Nabil...
As if the world didn't have enough tension and aggression, PA officials raised the flame and stirred the brew a bit more with their attempts to bypass diplomatic negotiations and have the UN force an independent Palestinian State on the Middle East. On Sunday, after PM Netanyahu's response was that unilaterial decisions can work both ways,...
The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Fair Play Campaign Group urged shoppers to buy as many Israeli products as possible this week in response to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign's targeting of Waitrose and Morrisons, reported the London Jewish Chronicle. Pro-Israel groups said a number of stores had almost sold out of their kosher products,...
The board of trustees of a university in Norway unanimously decided not to initiate an academic boycott against Israel. The board of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology met on the recommendation Thursday. The boycott recommendation originated with a letter to the board from 34 university professors and assistant professors, which...
A jailed Sudbury terror suspect fighting to be put under house arrest yesterday drew more than 100 outraged supporters to federal court, where his lawyer claimed that the trained pharmacist was charged only after he refused to become an FBI informant. As prosecutors argued Tarek Mehanna, 27, is too “radicalized” to be sprung from...
Hanna Nasser, chairman of the PA election commission says their recommendation is based on an inability to hold elections in Gaza. When the commission approached Hamas to come to an agreement about the logistics of a presidential election there, they were told that they were not welcome and that cooperation would not be forthcoming. Abbas has vowed not...
The United States on Friday rejected a call by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for it to choose between supporting Israel or Iran. “Israel is a very, very close friend of the U.S., and we don’t think we have to choose between Israel or any other country,” State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. Ahmadinejad...
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the United States must choose between Israel and Iran. In remarks Wednesday during a speech in Turkey, Ahmadinejad called on Obama to make a big decision about which country he will support, the official state Islamic Republic News Agency reported. "The support of both Israel and Iran can't go hand...
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pushed back Tuesday against those who had raised questions about the US commitment to Israel and its focus on Israeli settlements, arguing that the issue shouldn't keep the parties from working toward peace. "It is only through dialogue that we can achieve the lasting peace that Israel seeks," Emmanuel...
Washington, D.C. - infoZine The Gladstone report, in case anyone has forgotten, was presented Sept. 29, and deals with the fighting last winter that left more than 1,000 people dead, all but a handful Palestinians. House Resolution 867, which calls "on the President and the Secretary of State to oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further...
The annual Hebron dinner, one of the more popular dinners in the NY/NJ area, will be held this year at the Met's stadium. Eleven organizations, including Jews Against the Occupation-NYC and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, had asked the Mets to cancel the Nov. 21 event at Caesar's Club at the field. Shlomo Mostofsky, president of the The...
Lecturer Neve Gordon from Ben Gurion University has been in the news quite a lot in recent years. Despite his currently serving as chairman of the department of political science at Ben Gurion University, he issued a public call this summer for a worldwide boycott of Israel, including Israeli universities, in order to coerce Israel to submit to Arab...
In a legal battle that turns the norms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict upside down, a group of settlers is claiming that their settlement is not in Israel, while Palestinians are insisting that it is. A municipal employee in Ma’ale Adumim in the West Bank cleans a set of glass doors.The issue of where exactly the municipality of Ma’ale...
While it is assumed that PM Binyamin Netanyahu's message to President Obama was similar to that which he conveyed to the Jewish Federations, namely that his "goal is not negotiations for the sake of negotiations but to achieve a permanent peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians -- and soon.", there was no post-meeting press...
Ruby Rivlin is a true democrat. He truly listens to the public. Please write to him TODAY (fax:02-6496193 02675396) so the upcoming fiasco won't happen. Here's an example letter and an explanation of the issues, all in one ( but feel free to write your own letter!): "Dear Mr. Rivlin, It is my understanding that in the next couple of days...
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas may follow through on his vow this week not to run for reelection. But that hardly means he'll fade from the limelight. Even if his term expires in January -- and there is little certainty that a vote for his successor will be held as scheduled -- Abbas holds three other titles that would continue to...
Israel delivered 20,000 swine flu vaccines to the Palestinian Authority ahead of the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. The Civil Administration in the West Bank (sic), a unit in the Israeli Ministry of Defense, arranged for the entry Thursday of 20,000 doses of swine flu vaccine into Ramallah via the Kalandiya crossing. This year, Saudi Arabian...
AS the founder of Human Rights Watch, its active chairman for 20 years and now founding chairman emeritus, I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group’s critics. Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been...
Israel's national security is predicated on three strategic pillars: The commitment, resolve and resilience of Israel's people; the Israel Defense Forces and other defense agencies; and the "special relationship" with the United States. All three face serious challenges today. The U.S.-Israel relationship is largely unparalleled in...
Please send a fax or make a phone call (or, last choice, send an email) to your elected official if on the list below. The members of congress on this list are endorsing the J Street conference by lending their good name to an organization which claims to be "pro-peace and pro-Israel," but is nothing of the kind. Here is Z Street's sample...
Both President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke at the ceremony, which took place at Ze'evi's grave at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery. "Jerusalem owes a debt of honor to Ghandi," Netanyahu said, using Ze'evi's nickname, adding that Ze'evi was "an exemplary figure." "For 19 years Hebrew Jerusalem was...
With all the amazing sites, historical, archaeological, religious and nature, throughout Israel, the British Tourism Ministry has seen fit to lower the security warning for British tourists and begin a marketing campaign to encourage them to visit...the areas of Yesha under PA control. The Telegraph reports: The West Bank boasts a surprising number of...
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday announced he would call for general elections in January if Egypt failed to reconcile Palestinian rivals. The Egyptian efforts are meant to restore political unity to Gaza and the West Bank, respectively ruled by Islamic Hamas movement and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian National Authority (PNA)....
International relations professor Michael Stathis doubts the new president will be able to broker lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. The timing, he said, simply isn't right. "The downer here is that it seems like every couple of years, when we look at the players in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the reality is that one-third...
IT’S GETTING harder each day for US president Barack Obama to maintain the illusion of progress in Middle East peacemaking. The UN Human Rights Council’s vote to condemn January’s Israeli assault on Gaza, rejected by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, was only one of the recent blows to US efforts to kickstart negotiations on a...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want Ankara serving as mediator in any future diplomatic negotiations with Syria, in view of the crisis in relations between Israel and Turkey. On Friday, Israel's ambassador in Ankara, Gabi Levy, officially protested to Turkey's Foreign Ministry about a drama aired on public television in which actors...
Israeli gymnast Alexander Shatilov won the bronze medal in the 2009 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships on London Saturday. The 22-year-old won for his floor routine. He is the first Israeli gymnast to ever grace the podium in this championship. Romania's Marian Dragulescu won the gold medal, while the silver went to current Olympic...
Thank you, Mr. President. I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Government's Joint...
Judge Richard Goldstone’s condemnatory report on Israel’s actions in Gaza has been dismissed as hopelessly one-sided by neutral observers — The Economist, for example, denounced the report’s “wilful blindness”. Goldstone’s “thimbleful of poison” has, it says, made the peace process all the harder....
The U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday endorsed a controversial report on alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip, advancing a process that has roiled Palestinian politics and threatens to further derail the Middle East peace process. The vote drew condemnation from Israel's main political parties, while both the Islamist Hamas movement and...
The University of California, Irvine has asked federal investigators to look into a complaint that a Muslim student group raised money for a terrorist organization. The university on Wednesday forwarded a complaint filed by the Zionist Organization of America charging that the Muslim Student Union sent funds collected at a May 21 event to Viva...
The best defense is a good diplomatic offense. Defense Minister Ehud Barak spoke with a number of senior European officials in the past day ahead of the UN Human Rights Councils' discussion Thursday of the Goldstone Report that researched actions in Operation Cast Lead. Among those who received a phone call from the defense minister were...
According to a political source in Jerusalem, the PA's ambassador to UN institutions in Geneva, Ibrahim Khraishi, told the ambassadors of the countries involved, most of them Arab and Muslim, that the main motivation behind the Palestinian request to discuss the Goldstone report stemmed from "Israeli provocations in Jerusalem." The Palestinians...
Mitchell wrapped up his 5-day trip to the Middle East, which included Egypt and Israel, with no visible progress toward the beginning of negotiations. He has also made no progress toward the normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel or any other Arab country, despite continued efforts. The lack of achievement in this arena allows Israel...
The letter below was reportedly received by The New York Times, but not printed. Since hitting the net, it has received over 500,000 hits. Whether authentic or not, many of the fears of increasing numbers of Americans are expressed well here. Dear President Obama You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others,...
At the Aspen Institute's Ideas Festival this past July, Salam Fayyad, acting prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, spoke enthusiastically about the rule of law in a future Palestine. I asked him whether the same rights would be available to Jewish citizens of a Palestinian state that are available to the over one million Arab citizens of Israel....
The path to the Nobel prize sometimes converges with the path to hell: both are paved with good intentions. In the long history of the prize, it has been given on a number of occasions to people who had nothing to do with peace. The most insulting example of the previous generation was Yasser Arafat, but there were many others, including the...
When Jeremiah prophesized, twenty-seven centuries ago, that "Evil shall come forth from the North" (Jeremiah, 1:14), he meant Syria. In today's bizarre world, this prophecy surely would apply to Scandinavia. On the face of it, Scandinavians should count their blessings: great bodies, safe cars, pristine views, and a generous welfare...
There have been numerous reports in the past number of months about the flourishing economy under the leadership of Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Various data demonstrate a significant rise in the GDP and the quality of life. Ramallah, the reports inform us, has Tel Aviv-style pubs. Cool. And Jenin, the city that achieved infamy because of the...
What is a Buddhist leader doing in a synagogue's sukkah? Though he was not invited to the White House, the Adas Israel Synagogue in Washington received the Dalai Lama with open arms on Saturday. He met with the congregation's worshippers in the synagogue's sukkah after the Sukkot holiday prayers. The relationship between Tibet's...
Several hundred young people sang and danced the night away at Shvut Ami, a hill with several makeshift structures, near Kedumim for Hakafot Shniyot. Early the next morning, however, a large group of security forces awakened them with the news that the area has been declared a closed military zone. The youth remaining at Shvut Ami after the night's...
Madees Khoury's favorite days are the ones where she wakes at 5 A.M., slips out of the house, enters the huge shed in the yard and, still in her pajamas, climbs the ladder to the top of the stainless steel tanks to begin brewing beer. A graduate of Hellenic College, Boston, Khoury, 24, is the only woman brewer — or brewster — in the Middle...
A group of Israeli scientists has set up access to reliable, free, "green" electricity for the 300 Arab residents of a Yesha village near the Jewish community of Sussiya. They installed solar panels and wind turbines to illuminate the homes - often tents and caves.. At night, rudimentary streetlights dot the otherwise...
In the mind of Gabriel Schoenfeld, a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute and a former senior editor at Commentary, J Street is in bed with John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, the authors of "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." Schoenfeld noted that Walt had endorsed J Street a few weeks ago and said J Street...
There are varying reactions to the shocking news that Barak Hussein Obama, the American President who has probably promised the most and delivered the least, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Surprise and disbelief are only two of them. Even Obama supporters are shaking their heads today in bafflement. With a health care revampment he has been...
One of the few spots in the world seeing economic growth is the Arab sector in Yesha. GDP there is expected to rise 5 percent this year after The International Monetary Fund issued its first upbeat report about the area last year reporting a 7 percent growth rate for 2009. In further support of the continual economic growth, car sales in...
[Israel Foreign Minster Avigdor] Lieberman told Israel Radio on Thursday that anyone who thinks the two sides can soon reach a deal ending their decades-old conflict "doesn't understand the situation and is spreading delusions." What the two sides should do, he said, was to come up with a long-term interim arrangement that would ensure...
A strong majority of Americans would support military action to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, according to a new poll. Asked whether it was "more important" to "prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, even if it means taking military action" or to "avoid military conflict, even if Iran may develop...
Elbit Systems of America, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems Ltd., has won a five-year contract to supply up to $11.4 million worth of 100-watt power amplifiers for the US Navy's Digital Modular Radio (DMR) program. The US Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SPAWAR) awarded the contract. Controversial Deal Israeli company to...
Earlier this week, the Egyptians announced that Hamas and Fatah had agreed to sign an accord on October 25 that would end their dispute and pave the way for holding new presidential and parliamentary elections in the first half of 2010. The agreement was to be signed at the end of a three-day conference of various Palestinian factions in Cairo to...
A Jewish group called on federal authorities to probe University of California, Irvine students for allegedly raising funds for Hamas. In a letter dated Oct. 2, the Zionist Organization of America urged the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the students over suspicions that they collected money for the Palestinian terrorist group....
The United States is committed to a diplomatic resolution to Iran's nuclear issue, but it is also prepared to impose new sanctions against the country in case it does not live up to its obligations in the process, a senior American official said here Tuesday. "This administration has demonstrated that it is committed to a diplomatic resolution of...
Ada Yonath's pioneering work in understanding how cells build proteins brought her the coveted Nobel Prize for chemistry, along with American George Feher. In 2006 the two shared the Wolf Prize in chemistry, which can sometimes serve as a barometer of future Nobel winners. Ada Yonath, Weizman Institute researcher, was born in Jerusalem to...
The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court released head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch Sheikh Raed Salah Tuesday night, just hours after his arrest for incitement, but issued an injunction prohibiting him from entering Jerusalem for 30 days. Salah's remand hearing took place Tuesday night. At the start of the hearing, the police...
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is considering firing a number of his top aides who advised him to withdraw a motion to the UN Human Rights Council regarding the findings of the commission of inquiry led by Justice Richard Goldstone into Operation Cast Lead. Abbas's decision to withdraw the motion has triggered a wave of unprecedented...
President Obama has cancelled a meeting with the Dalai Lama, leader of the displaced People of Tibet who fled their country in face of Chinese terror and atrocities. The Dalai Lama's visit to Washington DC next week will mark the first time since 1991 that the respected leader has made such a visit without meeting the American president. In 2007, the...
Hikes through rivers and by springs, arts and crafts activities for children and adults, tours of archaeological sites, music galore - all are to be found during Chol HaMoed at many, many locations throughout Yesha. Every day in every region of Yesha. Call for information: Binyamin - 02-997-5515 Shomron - 02-997-3106 Elon Moreh - 02-997-3106 Gush...
Facing an unprecedented wave of condemnations and accusations of treason, beleaguered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday announced the establishment of a commission of inquiry into the circumstances that led the Palestinians to abandon their demand that the UN Human Rights Council endorse a resolution condemning Israel's failure to...
Elements within Israel's Right have blasted the decision by Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch and Israel Police chief Dudi Cohen to promote Brigadier General Niso Shaham to the rank of major general and appoint him head of the police's Logistic Support Department. Shaham, the former police commander of the Negev region,...
In an e-mail he sent to Buskila, Goldstone wrote, "I fully share your hope that peace will come to your region and when I next visit Israel, I would like to accept your invitation to visit Sderot." He wrote the letter two days after the UN Human Rights Council acceded to a request by the Palestinian Authority to defer until March its...
At last week's debate in the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva on the Goldstone commission report , a disfigured Israeli victim of a rocket attack on Sderot unnerves the report's author, Richard Goldstone, UN Watch reports: In a surprise appearance arranged by the Geneva human rights organization UN Watch, Dr. Mirela Siderer --an Israeli doctor who...
The only clue to what's inside this secret location is a small mezuza, a door ornament that traditionally marks a Jewish home. Nearby, Indian police officers with assault rifles stand guard near high iron gates. This is Mumbai's new Chabad House, a Jewish center that keeps its whereabouts private after attacks here in November that left more than 170...
Bentzy Lieberman, who headed the Yesha Council during the Disengagement, will now head the efforts to rehabilitate the expellees. The government held a special Cabinet meeting last week to confirm Lieberman’s appointment as chairman of the Sela Administration. Sela - a Hebrew acronym for “Aid to the Gaza Evacuees” –...
More than four years after the evacuation of the Jewish residents of Gaza, their rehabilitation is not finished, a government appointed panel reported. The official committee evaluating the treatment of Gaza evacuees by Israel since the disengagement delivered an interim report last week to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. "The removal of...
Spain expelled a team representing Ariel University Center of Samaria from an international contest called the Solar Decathlon, in which 20 universities are presenting designs for solar-powered homes, a Housing Ministry official said. Spain, not exactly the bastion of pro-Israel sentiment or friendly relations with Jews in general, cited the...
A curious thing happened on the way to the meeting that Middle East analysts and nuclear weapons-watchers have all been waiting for: Israel dialed down its rhetoric against Iran. On Thursday, officials from the Islamic Republic of Iran will meet in Geneva with officials from the US and other UN Security Council members to discuss Iran's...
The (Israeli) defense establishment recently relaunched its campaign with its Western partners to block Hamas' fund-raising network, Haaretz has learned. The government, meanwhile, is considering launching an awareness campaign to highlight the link between fund-raising for Palestinian causes and terror funding. Israeli efforts have had some success in...
Whose Fault is it that We All Hate Settlers? Hatred -- of any group -- does not drop out of the sky like rain. It is cultivated. Let's ask the JTA (the news agency which supplies most American Jewish newspapers) not to cultivate hate and not to falsely accuse settlers of criminal deeds. Here's an example letter that you can send (or write your...
Tikun: by David Bedein The principle of Freedom of the Press assures every media outlet the right to publish freely in the public domain. Yet on Yom Kippur, we couch that freedom with a restraint on "Hotzaat Shem HaRa" - denigration in the public domain In 2008, Tikkun magazine, a fellow member of the American Jewish Press Association, won the...
Israeli officers toured the city of Bethlehem Thursday in preparations for the delivery of security control in the city to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), sources said. Avi Mizrahi, a general in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), entered the city followed by white pick-up trucks carrying the Palestinian officers and policemen, the sources...
World Likud Cordially Invites You to Attend A “Wine, Cheese, and Water Tour” of the Magnificent Shomron • Elon Moreh • Yitzhar’s Organic Vineyards • Itamar’s Organic Farms • Har Kabir • Nachal Tirtza • Ma’ayan El Kabira A Support Rally for the Citizens of Judea and Samaria With...
Netanyahu began his dramatic, strong speech in the UN with a condemnation of Ahmadinejad and a challenge for the world to call the documents and photos of the Holocaust a lie. Holding up original documents given to him by the German government - architectural plans for Aushwitz and notes from a 1942 meeting at which senior Nazi officials finalized...
"In an unprecedented find, a group of Egyptian researchers and archeologists has discovered a cache of coins from the time of the Pharaohs. Its importance lies in the fact that it provides decisive scientific evidence disproving the claim by some historians that the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with coins and conducted their trade through...
The first criminal trial of a current or past Israeli prime minister opened Friday morning in the Jerusalem District Court. Charges against former premier Ehud Olmert include fraudulent receipt of goods, false registration of corporate documents, fraud, breach of trust, and tax evasion in the so-called Rishon Tours scandal, the "Talansky...
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) sent an official letter on Sept. 13 to three human rights groups informing them that they would no longer be able to act on behalf of Palestinians with urgent requests to leave Gaza. They must instead refer such requests to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee, in accordance with the...
The Essex House Hotel in New York on Thursday canceled an event scheduled to host Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian delegation to the United Nations' General Assembly. A few days ago the New York Helmsley Hotel cancelled the Iranian delegation's reservation for Friday. Essex House, which is owned by a company based in Dubai,...
I take umbrage at the characterization of President Obama of my residential community as "illegitimate". More than illegal, that term used conveys to me a sense of moral repugnancy which I find hard to accept. Jews lived in Judea and Samaria right up until the end of the Mandate, in Hebron, Shchem (Nablus), Gaza, Jenin, Jerusalem's...
A senior Israeli official welcomes steps by Russia toward endorsing additional sanctions against Iran as a way of stopping its nuclear program. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev opened the door to a firm international stand against Iran. Ayalon told The Associated Press on Thursday that Russia's...
While President Obama flagrantly goes back on previous American agreements with Israel, calling all Yesha communities illegal and illegitimate, Maskiot, in the Jordan Valley, began to build the 20 houses which constitute their part of the non-breakthrough breakthrough - Barak's list of 455. Promised this building project and having had it approved...
Obama has seemingly abandoned his tough bravado against Israel and slid back into the failed strategy of many American Presidents before him. If there were those who had hoped he would bring a fresh look at the Middle East deadlock, they are being forced to give up their illusion. He could have approached the situation with new eyes, thrown out the stale...
There is a common misconception that the Gaza Strip is “one of the most populated places on the planet”. Sometimes this is said because people want to emphasize the plight of the “overcrowded” Palestinian people, accuse Israel of stealing most of “Palestinian” land, and sometimes it is said by others to remark that in...
Other than a photo of Netanyahu and Abbas shaking hands for Obama to put in his presidential spin album, nothing has come out of the much publicized trilateral meeting in Washington. Is the world getting used to and fed up with Obama's proficiency at photo opportunities, Letterman show appearances, twitter messages and well-delivered speeches yet?...
As Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sits down with US President Obama in Washington this week, ministers and MKs at home express support for his resolution thus far in not caving in to unprecedented pressure for a building freeze in Yesha. At the same time, they reserve a certain amount of skepticism as to his performance. One of the most positive and...
Addressing the Iranian nuclear threat, on the backdrop of the Russian president's claim that Israel had promised not to strike in Iran, Barak told US Sec'y of Defense Robert Gates said that the Jewish state "is not taking any option off the table. It means what is says, and it advises other countries to act the same way." Back in Israel, Deputy...
Just as his domestic honeymoon has clearly ended, international events have demonstrated the limits of Obama's personal charm. "The president needs to convert his widespread popularity in much of the world into effectiveness in much of the world," says Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and...
Yesha leaders began a demonstration across from the Prime Minister's office on Monday out of concern over the continuing focus on building in Yesha as a central issue in talks between the US and Israel. As the Prime Minister and many other elected representatives in Israel have repeated consistently, Jewish communities in Yesha are not the obstacle...
Referring to the recently published report penned by a UN commission headed by South African former judge Richard Goldstone which criticized the IDF and accused Israel of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead, Ashkenazi said the report was "biased and unbalanced." "As someone who planned this operation, I want to say here: we did...
A New York hotel canceled a banquet it was scheduled to host after learning that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was slated to speak. The New York Helmsley Hotel announced Sept. 17 that the event, booked by an Iranian student group for Sept. 24, would not be held at its facility, the New York Post reported. The hotel said it was unaware...
Despite contradicting media reports, it seems that PM Netanyahu has, thus far, stood firm in his commitment to allow Yesha communities some limited freedom for natural growth. Mitchell was unable to deliver the much-publicized temporary freeze and, in any case, Abbas remained adamant that nothing short of a total freeze in Yesha and Jerusaslem would bring...
PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the Holocaust a lie overnight, raising the stakes against Israel just as world powers try to decide how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of an Iran in political turmoil. "The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false ... It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical...
As it pushes for international action against Iran's nuclear program, Israel is steadily assembling one of the world's most advanced missile defense systems, a multi-layered collection of weapons meant to guard against a variety of threats, including the shorter-range Grads used to strike Israeli towns like this one and intercontinental rockets. The...
A team of archaeologists has discovered a 2000-year-old Roman amphitheatre near Tiberias in Israel. According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper, Archeologist, Doctor Valid Atrash, from the Israel Antiquities Authority, said that the remnants of the Roman amphitheatre peaks from 15 meters below ground. The 1990 findings came as a surprise to the...
Thursday, September 17, 2009 Dear Friends, As Jewish communities around the world celebrate Rosh Hashana 5770, I want to wish you all a Shana Tova from Jerusalem, the eternal undivided capital of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. Rosh Hashana offers all of us an opportunity not only to take stock of the past year but also to focus our...
Obama, whose entire race for the presidency was one long media spin of youth and the re-energizing of America, continues his pose of youthful renewal with an emphasis on electronic appeal. In an August Twitter message, he jumped the gun with a Rosh HaShana message of - shana tovah to all of you - and, surprisingly, did not get called on his being off by...
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is distributing 46,000 Fellowship gift cards this year to needy families with children in Israel, enabling them to purchase food for the High Holy Days. Based in Chicago and Jerusalem, IFCJ also will distribute food baskets through the Latet and Colel Chabad organizations to an additional 75,000...
Lital CarmelBut as the new executive director of the S.F.-based Israel Center, she wants to go deeper than slogans. “The Israel Center is trying to do a different kind of engagement,” Carmel says. “Engagement with the real Israel, the one happening right now on the other side of the world. So when people go to Israel they will...
In a wide-ranging interview with the Jewish News, Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week reiterated his commitment to tackling anti-Semitism and opposition to boycotts of Israel, and said his thoughts were with Israelis as they prayed for the safe return of Gilad Shalit. "I am absolutely against any boycott of Israel because I cherish our...
Daniel Sokatch has left his position as CEO at the San Francisco Federation barely a year after beginning his work there. He will be working for the New Israel Fund. Hardly a surprising choice given his championing of the Israel-bashing play which caused some donors and associated organizations to bail on the SF Federation....
In meetings between Syrian President Bashar Assad and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Assad said that "On the peace issue, we don't think Israel is present as a partner." He accused Israel of maintaining construction of Israeli settlements and continuing its aggression against Gaza. On the other hand, Iraq is demanding...
Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal's rejection of the Obama administration's Middle East approach was a lot more comprehensive than a blunt refusal to improve relations with Israel to help restart peace talks. DEBKAfile's Washington sources report that in closed-door talks with US leaders, including secretary of state Hillary Clinton, the Saudi...
Until last week, Facebook followed the lead of the United Nations, Britain, the United States and the European Union, which all regard the Golan Heights as occupied territory. Facebook incensed the Syrian government after it reportedly succumbed to a campaign of pressure mounted by Jewish settlers in the Golan and a pro-Israel lobby group to change the...
"The comparison between those who pursue terror and terror victims is inconceivable," a source close to Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday, after the release of the Goldstone Report – the UN inquest into the Israeli offensive in Gaza in early 2009. The report, added the source, "Not only rewards terror it also encourages it......
Netanyahu wants Jerusalem off the table, "natural growth" of Yesha communities excepted from the building freeze, a freeze timeframe of 6 months only, re-starting negotiations with no pre-conditions. Abbas wants Jerusalem included in the freeze, all building frozen without exception and pre-conditions before sitting down to a meeting. Mitchell...
The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said on Sunday it positively considers a meeting to be held between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, while Hamas movement slammed the meeting. Ghassan al-Khatib, chief of the Palestinian government's media center in the West Bank, told Xinhua that the meeting...
A previously unknown group, with reported links to al-Qaeda, has claimed responsibility for last week's rocket attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon, Lebanese radio reports said Monday. The Brigades of Abdullah Azzam, Battalion of Ziad Jarrah, made the claim in a statement published on the website Al-Fajr Media Centre, which has close ties to the...
An ancient road in Jerusalem that pilgrims used to reach the Second Temple was uncovered during excavations. The excavation in the City of David was made public Sunday by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The road has been known for more than 100 years, when it was discovered in the late 1890s by Professor Frederick Bliss and Archibald Dickey of...
The funeral of Asaf Ramon, who died Sunday afternoon when his Israel Air Force F-16 crashed in the South Hebron Hills, will take place on Monday at 4 p.m. at the military cemetery in Nahalal. He will be buried next to his father, Ilan Ramon, who died in the Columbia space shuttle disaster six years ago. Ramon family left grieving for second time in six...
"While we have not yet reached agreement on many outstanding issues, we are working hard to do so, and indeed the purpose of my visits here this week is to attempt to do so," Mitchell said. It's unclear to what outstanding issues Mitchell, who arrived in Israel on Saturday, is referring. It seems that while rhetoric is sounding more and...
In a new audio tape seen on the internet this week, Bin Laden warns the US away from its relationship with Israel. "The time has come for you to liberate yourselves from fear and the ideological terrorism of neo-conservatives and the Israeli lobby. The reason for our dispute with you is your support for your ally Israel, occupying our land in...
The United States has decided to ignore Iran's refusal to discuss its nuclear program and instead accept a vague Iranian plan for talks on security issues as the opening gambit to draw Tehran into real negotiation. The effort to "test" Iran's intentions, announced on Friday, came after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said his...
US pension fund giant TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity) confirmed Saturday that it has sold its holdings in Africa Israel Investments, owned by billionaire Lev Leviev. The divestment request came for 60 of the company's investors, reportedly due to Africa Israel being "a company which violates human rights and international...
In The London Review of Books in 2006, an article appeared by the political scientists John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, which was expanded into a book, which infuriated many readers by its air of conspiratorial hugger-mugger; by its insistence that Jewish neoconservatives had persuaded President Bush to go to war in Iraq in order to protect Israel;...
The Israeli High Court of Justice has ordered the state to demolish illegal structures built by Palestinians near Nablus. In the past, the court had only ordered the state to implement demolition orders against illegal construction by Jewish settlers. Justices of the court on Wednesday made the order for immediate implementation of demolition...
Changes to Facebook will allow residents of the Golan Heights to register themselves as living in Israel. The social networking site changed its personal information settings. Residents of some Golan towns previously had only been given the option of listing Syria in the Hometown section. The media watchdog group Honest Reporting, based in...
While the international media and world community continues to complain and criticize the 2500 building units the PM approved and 450 Barak additions permits, more knowledgeable observers shake their heads at the frenzy. A few minutes research shows that the permits given are no more than another layer of permits on top of those already given,...
The largest ever cache of coins from the period of the Bar Kochba revolt was found in a cave in the Judean Hills. The 120 gold, silver and bronze coins, as well as some pottery and weapons, were discovered during a cave research and mapping project by Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University researchers, it was announced Wednesday. The coins...
At a ceremony markinig the '29 Hebron atrocity when the entire Jewish community was mercilessly slaughtered by their Arab neighbors, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) attacked Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's plans to freeze construction in the settlements saying that "He who thinks that drying up Ariel and Ma'ale Adumim will build Tel Aviv...
Yesha Council Chairman, Dani Dayan, was hosted by The Foreign Press Association at The King David Hotel Monday morning. FPA Chairman Conny Mus (Holland) introduced Dani who went on to give 20 minutes of opening remarks about all Yesha issues other than the current controversy concerning PM Netanyahu's building decisions. Sixty or so representatives of...
Sweden's foreign minister abruptly called off a visit to Israel this week, an Israeli spokesman said Sunday, amid a feud over a Swedish newspaper article and a growing gulf between Israel and the international community over West Bank settlement construction. Foreign Minister Carl Bildt has called off a trip to Israel planned for this Friday,...
Likud's "Support Judea and Samaria's Right to Build!" meeting is this WEDNESDAY 9/9/9. Please urge each and every minister and MK to come and be counted --as being Judea and Samaria supporters! Let them know that Judea and Samaria is what you believe in and who you vote for! Here is an update -- with email addresses: * The majority of...
A day after Norway announced its divestment from holdings in electronics defense company Elbit Systems for ideological reasons, human rights organizations are calling on Oslo to dump its holdings in Africa Israel Investments as well. Norway's problem with Elbit Systems is its provision of equipment to monitor the separation fence between Israel and...
Yesha Council Chairman, Dani Dayan, had alot to say about Netanyahu's promised pleasant surprise for the Right constituency which put him in power. Dayan pointed out that the much flouted accomplishment of grabbing away 2500 or so housing units from the US grip on building in Yesha is no accomplishment at all. Not only were those 2500 authorized by the...
An acute water shortage has prompted Jordan and Israel to embark on audacious water-supply projects that supporters say will prevent an impending regional crisis but environmentalists have criticized as ill-advised attempts to rewire nature. The efforts include a pipeline to Amman from the Dissi Reservoir in Jordan's southern desert and an...
A reporter at Israel's daily Ha'aretz has been publishing unsourced and inaccurate reports about the dynamic between the administrations of President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 18, 2009. President Obama told Jewish leaders in a July meeting that Israel needs to “engage in serious self-reflection.”...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to approve next week plans for hundreds of new housing units in the West Bank before considering a moratorium "for a few months" on further construction, local daily The Jerusalem Post cited a senior source as reporting on Friday. According to the source in the Prime Minister's Office...
Israeli Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal Thursday summoned the Norwegian ambassador to Israel, Jakken Biorn Lian, to protest Norwegian government's decision to divest Israeli arms firm Elbit from Norway's global pension fund. "Israel will consider further steps of protest in the future," Israeli Foreign Ministry was quoted by...
"A clear, wide majority in the Likud would not give a hand to any step that would strangle the settlements, which is one of the party's banners. We need to take steps to advance the diplomatic process, but with conditions, and one of them must be not freezing the settlements that we built. The Palestinians cannot ask us to make unilateral,...
For the past 5 years Peace Now has been flaunting its partnership with a politicized judiciary with continuous court suits against building in Yesha communities. Finding their suits falling on fertile ground, they have kept Yesha communities busy and Yesha resources tied up in fighting what are essentially the government's battles. The Netanyahu...
Grover has been getting to know Israel. The furry, blue “Sesame Street” character has visited the Dead Sea, Caesarea, the Western Wall and even Jerusalem’s shouk to sample the produce. Along with Disney Channel star Annelise van der Pol, Grover has been exploring the Jewish state as part of a Sesame Workshop production called...
During nearly a decade of intermittent attacks from Gaza, Mivtzah Kadesh Street became infamous in this battered town as a frequent target for rockets as well as a bombed-out backdrop for visits from foreign VIPs expressing solidarity. Now, eight months after Israel's Gaza offensive to punish Hamas for attacks, Sderot's wrecked homes have been...
Israel has announced it is dispatching senior government ministers and a former diplomat on a public relations (PR) exercise to the United States. From time to time Israel launches media blitzes, but ask any pro-Israel activists overseas and they will tell you they are in no way impressed by the country's PR machine. The announcement was made...
This should be a joyous time for Rivka Singer and her husband, Ari. Singer, a 26-year-old English teacher living in the West Bank town of Beit El, is pregnant and expecting her first child in three months. But the couple is running out of time to find a larger living space. Currently they are renting a basement apartment in Beit El, but dream of owning a...
The discovery of a rare, four-centimeter-long stone fragment at the point where the Jordan River exits Lake Kinneret, has suggested a link between ancient Egypt and Israel around 3,000 BCE during the Early Bronze Age. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Tel Aviv University (TAU) and University College London archeologists found the fragment....
In a meeting with PM Netanyahu last month, Yesha mayors from the so-called large blocs of settlement and consensus settlement, Benny Kashriel (Ma'ale Adumim), Ron Nachman (Ariel) and Shaul Goldstein (Gush Etzion) were joined by Bet El mayor Moshe Rosenboim. The four made it clear in no uncertain terms that disappointment with the Prime Minister is...
If SV (Socialist Left) gets their way, there will be no more tax exemptions for donations to organizations which support settlers on the West bank. The Ministry of Finance is, in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considering tightening the rules for exemptions for donations to voluntary organizations. The elucidation was authorized...
Israeli Arab leaders threatened to "revolt" after Israel's education chief said the word Nakba would be removed from their classrooms. Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar made his announcement Sunday as part of a briefing on the start of the 2009-10 school year. Nakba, which means catastrophe in Arabic, is used in the Arab community to...
In a meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak Monday, Yesha leaders Dani Dayan, Pinchas Vallerstein, Zev Hever, Benny Kashriel and others drew clear lines in their ongoing discussions of outpost status. In the past, the Yesha position has been that since most of the so-called outposts require only cosmetic bureaucratic attention to straighten out their...
A Hamas spiritual leader on Monday called teaching Palestinian children about the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews a "war crime," rejecting a reported U.N. proposal to include the Holocaust in Gaza's school curriculum. A senior Israeli official said such statements should make the West think twice about ending its boycott of Hamas, in place...
ON 9/9/9, 6 PM, LIKUD'S "WE LOVE YEHUDA & SHOMRON" CONVENTION IN TEL-AVIV! *Your personal presence is strongly requested -- please - every additional person helps. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1251145138115 * Reporters are ALREADY calling to ask how many Likud voters or...
An Israeli-Arab man was indicted for helping Hezbollah in a plot to assassinate the Israeli army's chief of staff. Rawi Fuad Sultani, 23, of Tira was indicted Monday in Petach Tikvah District Court. He was arrested Aug. 10 by the Shin Bet and Israel Police. Sultani, the son of a well-known attorney in Tira, was charged with several security...
Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was indicted on corruption charges Sunday, becoming the first Israeli premier to go on trial and highlighting a series of cases that have shaken the public's faith in the political system. The charges likely end the three-decade career of a man who just three years ago seemed poised to lead his nation to a bold...
Palestinians in north Gaza fired at least two mortars towards Sderot Sunday evening, but there were no reports on injury or damage. Security officials initially believed that the siren heard throughout the Negev region was the result of a malfunction, but later reported that two mortar shells landed near the security fence separating...
Aboul-Gheit told reporters in Stockholm that Jerusalem is Arab "and it will continue to be so." He added that the Arab world expects the area to be included in a moratorium on settlements. The Egyptian foreign minister warned that peace talks would last only as long as a freeze on settlement construction was held in place. "If the...
The "Kulanu" Festival was held on Friday in Tel Aviv's Hangar 11. Billed as a festival of Arab and Jewish cooperation in business enterprises, the exhibitors were, like last year, mostly women and mostly showing food and crafts. Assaf Golani from Minerva Publishing who had an exhibit at the festival was not only disappointed with the turnout...
Tennis star Venus Williams received an award from the Anti-Defamation League for opposing the exclusion from play of an Israeli tennis player. Williams was presented with ADL's Americanism Award on Tuesday for speaking out against a move in February to exclude Israeli tennis player Shahar Pe'er from a tournament in Dubai. The United Arab Emirates...
With pressures on Israel from world leaders to freeze settlement construction, Yesha residents marked the 30 year anniversary of Binyamin Regional Council, which covers 42 settlements in Yesha, declaring Thursday that they would keep building. Thousands showed up for a rally in Latrun, including many residents of the West Bank...
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will return from his European trip to find that two Likud rallies have been organized to express opposition to the settlement freeze he reportedly negotiated with US envoy George Mitchell in London. The first, scheduled for Tuesday at Tel Aviv's Azrieli Tower, was organized by Minister-without-Portfolio...
While US officials insist their position on the matter has not changed, they are now hinting that a less blanket moratorium would be acceptable provided the Palestinians and Arab states agree. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Thursday that the US "position in these discussions remains unchanged," but he added that the US...
BAGHDAD, Aug. 26 -- Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of Iraq's largest Shiite political party, died Wednesday, creating a leadership vacuum that could weaken the bloc ahead of the January parliamentary election. Hakim, 59, died in Tehran, where he was being treated for lung cancer, his relatives and associates said. Leaders of the Islamic Supreme...
Israel and the U.S. are making headway in defusing an unusually public disagreement over West Bank settlements, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said as he met a top American envoy in London on Wednesday. Netanyahu has said ahead of his meeting with U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell that he wants an agreement that allows Israel to proceed...
WASHINGTON – The US will always stand by Israel's side, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said overnight Thursday during a farewell party for Israel's military attaché in Washington Major-General Benny Gantz, who will be retuning to Israel following his appointment as IDF deputy chief of staff. The event, which was...
In London, pointing out that territorial issues can be dealt with at the negotiation table, PM Netanyahu called the Yesha issue a distraction to the more significant issues of Palestinian recognition of the existence of Israel as a Jewish State and a looming nuclear Iran. Although the Prime Minister reiterated that the hostilities, aggression and wars in...
Israel accuses IAEA Chief Mohammed ElBaradei of dereliction of duty to Iran's nuclear case. As Israel steps up a verbal attack on the United Nations, it accuses the UN nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei of dereliction of duty toward Iran's nuclear case. ElBaradei "has been quite negligent in revealing all the difficulties that...
There is no need for a blood libel like the one published by Aftonbladet to realize they don’t like us in Sweden. In the country that likes to present itself as equal and neutral, Israel is considered the greatest nemesis of our time. It is difficult to find media reports that show at least the required neutrality of a news report....
The "Elders," as they are called, are a group of prominent former heads of state, renowned activists, and global business leaders who are trying to use their clout and cachet to affect change. Included in the delegation here are former President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Irish President Mary Robinson who...
The Hamas government in Gaza will require female students to wear Islamic clothing to school. The new regulation announced Monday was set to take effect immediately, according to reports. Gazan schools opened Sunday, a week before West Bank schools were scheduled to start. The new rules require that all female students wear a head covering and...
"Surely, nobody expects [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu to offer more than what [former prime minister Ehud] Olmert offered [to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas]," Intelligence Affairs Minister Dan Meridor [Likud] told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Tuesday. Meridor was speaking with the magazine ahead of...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will ask US Mideast Envoy George Mitchell to pressure the Saudis into opening diplomatic channels and opening its skies to Israel as a leading condition towards normalization of ties between Israel and Arab states. If this is done, the Israeli government will be able to reach an agreement on freezing...
The man who turned the tide and made the breakthrough possible for the appointment of three new Supreme Court judge appointments was Justice Edmond Levy, who broke ranks with Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch and announced during the first meeting of the committee on Friday that he would support the choice of Neil Hendel, even though the...
Ben Gurion Political Science professor, Neve Gordon, wrote in an LA Times op-ed that he has come to the realization that the “only way” to save Israel from itself is “through massive international pressure” and joining the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Although BGU President Rivka Carmi was quick to...
Claims that the Jerusalem Municipality has approved the construction of 104 housing units for Jews in the eastern neighborhood of Ras al-Amud continue to make waves. The Jerusalem Municipality has denied the claims made by the Ir Amim association, which says that the new project will be connected by a bridge to the Jewish neighborhood of Ma'aleh...
Cost overruns, court rulings and a decline in violence have led Israel to slow construction of a barrier through and around the occupied West Bank, and many analysts predict the project, which is a deep source of contention between Israelis and Palestinians, will not be completed. The last substantial work on the barrier, a network of fences and concrete...
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas personally intervened to foil a prisoner deal between Hamas and Israel last June, a prominent Hamas official said on Saturday. "We were very close to striking a deal that would have resulted in the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit," said Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator and spokesman....
In a survey, 12 percent of Israelis said President Obama supports Israel more than he does the Palestinians. In the poll conducted this month, 40 percent of respondents said he was more supportive of the Palestinians and 38 percent said he was even handed. The Aug. 9-15 poll, conducted jointly by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the...
This week's reading portion is Shoftim in Deuteronomy and verse 6 in Chapter 19 reads: And what man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not [yet] redeemed it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the war, and another man redeem it. ו. וּמִי הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר נָטַע כֶּרֶם וְלֹא...
Among all Americans, 49 percent now express confidence that Obama will make the right decisions for the country, down from 60 percent at the 100-day mark in his presidency. Forty-nine percent now say they think he will be able to spearhead significant improvements in the system, down nearly 20 percentage points from before he took office. As challenges...
Unless there are last minute developments in which one of the two warring parties backs down, the Judicial Selection Committee will likely fail to fill the three sorely needed vacancies on the Supreme Court when it meets on Friday morning. The warring parties in this case are Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch and her two colleagues, Justices Ayala...
President Obama appealed to a group of rabbis to help him pass health care reform legislation. Moline [Rabbi Jack Moline, the rabbi of the Conservative Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria] noted that in the lead up to the president's address, as the rabbis waited on hold, "there was a lot of chatter" among some participants who felt that...
MKs Ophir Paz-Pines, Eitan Cabel, Yuli Tamir and Amir Peretz, the four so-called 'rebel' members of the Labor party decided in recent meetings that breaking off from Labor at this stage would cause too many legal problems and could result in them having to pay part of the party's astronomical debt. They chose instead to form a new political...
For five months, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been fending off U.S. pressure to halt the expansion of West Bank settlements. Now he is reaping dividends for his defiance. Although Israeli leaders have historically been reluctant to publicly break with the United States for fear of paying a price in domestic support, polls show that...
Israeli army kills Palestinians and harvests their organs: Swedish paper This fantasy has been advanced by the paranoid Arab press for years. But it's still shocking to see it in a western newspaper. And it's not hidden away in some dark corner of the newspaper, as Morten Berthelsen and Barak Ravid of Haaretz report: A leading Swedish newspaper...
Mike Huckabee, governor of Arkansas for eleven years and presidential hopeful for 2012, visited with supporters at The Shepherd Hotel on Monday. Joking that he'd like a photo of the handful of demonstrators outside critical of his visit to show his children that they aren't the only ones critical of their Dad, Mr. Huckabee was extremely gracious and...
The sewage around Yesha community, Ofra, is seeping into the mountain aquifer and causing grave damage to the groundwater, according to a report sent to the state comptroller by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and Professor Haim Gvirtzman of Hebrew University. For about two years now, a legal dispute has been raging with regard...
In an unprecedented move, four government ministers visited Yesha today together with Zev "Zambish" Hever, Director General of Amana, Pinchas Vallerstein, Director General of The Yesha Council, and Gershon Mesika, Mayor of The Shomron Regional Council. The four, Yaalon, Hershkovitz, Ishai and Edelstein, included Homesh, Bruchin, Nofei Nehemia...
M a t t o t A r i m ' s K n e s s e t A c t i v i t y R e p o r t Highlights: Likud ministers are asleep, new Likud MKs surprisingly good. Shas doubles UTJ. Jewish Home doubles Liberman's party - National Union creams both Gone are the days when Knesset Members and ministers can slack off and YOU the voter know nothing about it. Attached is our...
JStreet, the new pro-Israel lobby kid on the street, which burst onto the scene from out of the blue and had veterans scratching their heads, may be coming out of the closet after having been outed by federal regulatory filings which show tens of thousands of dollars of donations from dozens of Arabs, Muslims and organizations advocating for Palestinian...
Three boys from the Yesha community of Dolev were fired upon as their car drove the twisty road up to Maale Levona Wednesday night. Two were lightly wounded when Arabs in a passing car opened fire on them. An IDF source said that the two were injured by shattered glass, and were evacuated to Jerusalem's Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital for medical treatment. The...
A 13-year-old from New York has decided to give $40,000 he received from his parents for his bar mitzvah to the children of Sderot. The municipality says the money will go to build a park with recreational facilities. Although Sderot's municipal workers are currently on vacation, they turned up to thank the boy, Benjamin Sternklar Davis, at a...
It comes after Americans for Peace Now and other left-wing pro-Israel groups - including Brit Tzedek v'Shalom and J Street - made a battleground of the document, which was circulated by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and James Risch, (R-Idaho). They called on senators not to sign it unless it is amended to include mention of steps that all the parties in the...
The Defense Ministry seemed to be apologizing for not apologizing in the statement given about Barak's presence at Ohel Yitzhak in The Muslim Quarter of The Old City of Jerusalem on Sunday. The synagogue, established in 1867, is located close to The Western Wall, in The Muslim Quarter where Jewish families began moving back in over a decade ago. Many of...
Sunday. A new week begins with the same old deadlocked rhetoric. Abbas promises his constituents an Arab state with Jerusalem as its capitol. Barak states that there is no simple solution to the Middle East turmoil and a negotiated agreement, with Obama as conductor, is the only viable option. Meanwhile, the man with the final say has said....
A bit of an uproar is greeting the decision of Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, to circulate a photograph of the mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, meeting with Hitler. Lieberman, the newspapers report, instructed Israel’s diplomats to circulate the photo, which was taken in 1941 when the mufti, then the leader of the...
Fatah's sixth General Assembly on Saturday approved a resolution saying Jerusalem is an "integral part of the Palestinian homeland and political entity" and vowing to foil Israel's alleged efforts to erase the city's Arab and Islamic character. The resolution is the latest in a series of hard-line decisions that were...
In the power vacuum created by the apparent death of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, a gun battle broke out Saturday between Taliban leaders vying to seize his mantle in the tribal borderlands, Pakistani officials said, the first indications of a struggle that could prompt fighters to move across the border into Afghanistan. The effect of...
The New York Post’s Page Six gossip column reports today that Sex and the City star Kirstin Davis has been eased out of a spokeswoman role at Oxfam International because the so-called human-rights organization is shocked to learn that Davis endorses Israel’s Ahava cosmetics line of Dead Sea products. You see, the oh-so-principled good...
"We hear time and time again that Netanyahu does not accept American demands," said Dani Dayan, chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The prime minister has said Israel has a right to build to meet the demands of "normal life," but in practice, he has frozen new construction by not issuing...
Speaking at the Fatah's sixth general assembly in Bethlehem on Tuesday, MK Ahmed Tibi (UAL-Ta'al) said that the Palestinian state must be free of Jewish settlers and that Israeli Arabs were an inseparable part of the Palestinian people. "Whoever came last should be the first to leave," Israel Radio quoted Tibi as saying, adding...
Barak intends to use the convention to pass a controversial new party constitution that would give him unprecedented powers. It would delay the next Labor leadership race from April 2010 to six months before the next general election, which is currently set for November 2013. It would also set a 10-month minimum membership requirement to vote in...
The New Israel Fund most recently told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that it would never cross “four red lines”: (http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/07/24/1006776/new-israel-funds-red-lines) • Engaging in racist behavior. • Demonizing any particular group. • Using or advocating violence as a means of effecting...
The Fatah congress will not remove the clause supporting armed struggle from its platform, and will add a clause declaring that the movement does not, and will never, recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The new platform, which will be brought for approval two days from now during the movement's congress, will contain one positive change: a...
Jordan on Monday joined Saudi Arabia in publicly rejecting US appeals to improve relations with Israel to help restart Middle East peace talks, throwing a damper on President Barack Obama's administration's push for Arab support behind new negotiations. After talks with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh...
Israeli police evicted two Palestinian families from homes in eastern Jerusalem to clear the way for Jews to move in. Sunday's evacuation took place in the neighborhood of Sheik Jarrah, where tension has been rising over plans to build 20 new apartments for Jewish families. Israel's Supreme Court decided last week that the homes belong to Jews,...
Four years after the disengagement, many families are still without work, more are under-employed. Lask week marked the four year anniversary of the Gush Katif disengagement in which 1700 families, 9000 people, were uprooted from their homes. Some of these families had spent 30 years building their homes, farms and businesses and were forced to...
A search is underway for a dual Israeli-American citizen missing in India's mountainous Pervati Valley region. Amichai Steinmetz, 24, of Ma'aleh Halevona, set out from the village of Kiriganga on a day trip July 22 and hasn't been seen since. "He went with a friend and the friend went one way and he went the other," Amichai's...
The US government agency, USAID, is involved in an illegal building project on the site of the Shdema refugee camp, near Beit Sahur, members of a Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee subcommittee discovered on a tour of the eastern Gush Etzion area. National Union MK Arye Eldad protested the illegal building in a letter to the US embassy...
The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation provides direct grant support to cultural heritage preservation projects in developing countries. Oddly enough, however, Arab requests for funding in Yesha have been granted while no Jewish sites have been awarded funds from this "neutral" source. The program was established by the...
Some of the Jewish leaders present at the White House meeting with President Obama on July 13, 2009 want the president to pick up the pressure on the Palestinians and Arabs. There's pressure that hurts and pressure that heals. Two weeks after President Obama promised more of the latter, establishment Jewish groups are still squirming --...
The Left prefers to pretend not to understand the difference between foreign governments funding anti-government political activities in Israel and foreign individuals funding humanitarian projects. While it would seem that the distinction between an organization such as Hadassah, which funds hospitals, and one like Breaking the Silence, which has a...
The Economy, Health Care Reform and Gates Grease the Skids Generally, the new survey shows that since June, Obama’s overall job approval ratings dropped among most political and demographic groups. The greatest declines are apparent among Republicans and independents, poorer people, especially poorer whites, and 30 to 49 year olds. When looking at...
Although reminiscent of the gathering of Gush Etzion families on the nearest hilltop to look longingly at their former homes after the fall of Gush Etzion in the '48 war, the similarity ended there for the thousands who met on Tuesday at the closest point to their former homes in Gush Katif. Forcibly evicted by their brethren, the Jews of Gush...
At a recently opened eco-friendly bar in Tel Aviv, customers can enjoy vegan delicacies, politic with left-wing activists or indulge in green-colored beer. But wearing green may get them thrown out. The Rogatka Bar - the word means "slingshot" in Russian and was used colloquially to describe slingshots used by Palestinian youth during...
Americans for Peace Now is urging U.S. senators not to sign a letter encouraging the Arab world to normalize ties with Israel because it does not mention efforts to halt Israeli settlements. The bipartisan letter to President Obama, circulated by Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and James Risch (R-Idaho) and backed by the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, is...
Supporters of an independent Israel dusted off their demonstration clothes and headed for the streets in Jerusalem this evening as Mitchell and his 2 colleagues arrived to continue their "friendly" pressure on PM Binyamin Netanyahu. People began streaming in Paris Square in the center of the city from all over the country to begin on their way...
The protest held by right-wing activists on the outskirts of the Negev town of Rahat on Sunday was part of a large-scale effort to voice criticism against the state for ignoring illegal construction of homes by the Israeli-Arab sector, while following a policy of evicting unauthorized Jewish settlements in the West Bank, MK Michael Ben-Ari (National...
In his weekly sermon Saturday evening, Shas' spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef slammed US President Barack Obama and other western leaders for pressuring Israel to freeze construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. "'You can't build here, you can't build there' – it's as if we were their slaves," the rabbi...
While criticism of President Obama's demand for an Israeli settlement freeze has been relatively muted among U.S. Jewish organizations, this week's Christians United for Israel conference here provided the opportunity for some prominent Jews and Christians to level some public complaints. Far and away the most forceful came from U.S. Rep. Shelley...
In the never boring irony of the radical Left's behavior in Israel, Yesh Din has brought suit against the government for allowing The Binyamin Regional Council to plan and carry out the building of a sewage treatment center to service the Arabs and Jews living in the Ofra area. The plan originated years ago and has gone through various stages of planning...
It's no news that the Obama administration takes every opportunity to pressure Israel about internal affairs. President Obama, similar to every other American president since Dwight Eisenhower, wants to glorify his place in history as being The One who gets an Israeli-Arab agreement signed. He may be the president with the least grace and finesse in his...
Jerusalem's Rabbi Shalom Gold, formerly of New York, wrote a petition with a strongly worded message to Rabbis all over the world, asking that Rabbis and other people of influence in the Diaspora call on President Barak Hussein Obama to cease his pressure on Israel concerning Judea and Samaria. Chief Rabbi of Israel Amar heads the list of the...
One of Israel's strongest and most loyal supporters of the Jewish right to live in the Land of Israel, Uzi Landau visited the Eli neighborhood of Yovel on Tuesday. Yovel is home to, among others, Ro'i Klein's, הי"ד, widow. Ro'e Klein received the nation's highest honor posthumonously in recognition of his bravery in saving the lives of his...
Yisrael Beiteinu member, Uzi Landau, sent Arab MK El Sana a letter saying he will not grant his request to discuss Bedouin sector issues because El-Sana 'refuses to unequivocally condemn Hamas' terror activity'. El-Sana's illogical response was to say, "I guess an Arab lawmaker has to convert in order to meet with Landau." rather than...
J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami, says the October conference will allow its participants a chance to "feel less like lone voices in the wilderness." Left-wing advocates of a two-state solution and a greater U.S. role in the peace process are joining forces in support of what they hope will be a groundbreaking conference this October...
Can there ever be too many pro-Israel organizations? Apparently not. The latest is Z Street, which from its name appears to be a response to J Street (which, of course, was itself a response to many of the traditional mainstream pro-Israel groups). Created by activists Lori Lowenthal Marcus of Philadelphia and Allison Rowen Taylor of Los...
"There is no difference between a settlement in the West Bank and a so-called neighborhood in east Jerusalem," said Hatem Abdel Qader, who until recently served as PA minister for Jerusalem affairs. "In both cases we are talking about territories that were occupied in the 1967 war." Qader refers to neighborhoods like French...
"I call anew on the United States to come up with a plan and a timetable for its application that will contribute to put an end to Jewish settlements and Israeli offensives, and lead to serious negotiations," Fayad was quoted by AFP as saying on Saturday. In a speech at the Kalandiya refugee camp he added that the international community...
Look in "What's Hot" for follow-up articles Israeli officials said the country's ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that a project being developed by an American millionaire in the disputed section of the holy city should not go ahead. Settlements built on captured lands...
A day after releasing a damning report on Operation Cast Lead, and amid accusations that it is operating without transparency, the group Breaking the Silence on Thursday presented The Jerusalem Post with its donor list for the year 2008, which included several European governments. On Wednesday, "Breaking the Silence" released a report...
While it's not clear that public opinion has an effect on radical left-wing groups or even on the government, here's something you can do to try. Click here http://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/be770/1/0/62/ to sign a petition preventing the destruction of Ro'i Klein's, הי"ד, home. If you don't read Hebrew, here's what you do. Enter your...
As one of a variety of commemorative events being held on the fourth anniversary of the expulsion of Jewish families from Gush Katif and Northern Shomron, HaRav Shreiber, the Rav of Kfar Darom, will be speaking at the Dati Leumi Shul located at 22 Chai Taib Street in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem. A documentary film will also be shown. This...
The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court convicted David Edri, a former police horseman, of assault Tuesday, after finding him guilty of intentionally trampling over a settler with his horse during the 2006 eviction of the West Bank settlement of Amona. The eviction of Amona took place in February 2006 and was the scene of violent clashes between settlers and...
In their first official White House meeting, US President Barack Obama tried to reassure American Jewish leaders that there was a mistaken perception that the United States is pressuring Israel more than the Palestinians or Arab countries. Several in attendance said Obama referred to the dispute over the settlement issue - in which the US has...
2 court sessions have been scheduled in the Shalom Courthouse in Jerusalem for the trial of a policeman accused of beating a Jewish youth in Amona. The sessions are to be held on Monday July 13 and Wednesday July 15 They are scheduled for 9 AM - 2 PM but you are allowed to attend for part of the time if you are unable to remain for...
MUNICH – German prosecutors formally charged John Demjanjuk on Monday with 27,900 counts of being an accessory to murder at a Nazi death camp during World War II. The charges against the 89-year-old retired auto worker, who was deported from the U.S. in May, were filed at a Munich state court, prosecutors in the city said in a brief...
In a lecture in London, European Union Foreign Policy chief Javier Solans called for the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state by a certain deadline even if the Israelis and Palestinians have not reached agreement among themselves. "After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the...
In a speech at Jerusalem's Mount Herzl National Cemetery, PM Binyamin Netanyahu took the opportunity to emphasize Israel's great desire for peace. "I long for the day when Palestinian leaders will tell their people 'we have had enough of the conflict. We the Palestinians recognize the Jewish nation's right to its own state in this country. We will...
Britain has slapped a partial arms embargo on Israel, refusing to supply replacement parts and other equipment for Sa'ar 4.5 gunships because they participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. Britain's Foreign Office informed Israel's embassy in London of the sanctions a few days ago. The embassy, in a classified...
Group's ‘mainstream’ Islamist convention last weekend featured hate speech and Hezbollah Defense A top aide to President Barack Obama provided a keynote address at last weekend's 46thIslamic Society of North America (ISNA) national convention, a gathering that attracted thousands of people and also featured anti-Semitic, homophobic...
100 days into the administration of Binyamin Netanyahu, a poll shows Likud and the nationalist wing gaining popularity. According to a telephone poll carried out by Shvakim Panorama for Israel Television Channel One's Friday Night news magazine, the right wing bloc would grow from the current 65 seats to 71 while Kadima would lose five seats and Labor...
PARIS – Anti-Israel boycott: Leaflets calling for a boycott on Israeli products were handed out to locals leaving Paris for the weekend, urging Parisians to refrain from purchasing goods produced by "war criminals." The leaflet, which is part of a wider anti-Israel boycott initiative, provides the names of more than 20...
Wajeha al-Huwaider picked up her passport, got in a taxi, and headed from her home in eastern Saudi Arabia to the nearby island kingdom of Bahrain -- a 45-minute drive that many Saudis take to get away for the weekend. Wajeha al-Huwaider says women face too many controls in Saudi Arabia. Despite having a valid passport, Saudi authorities at the border...
Israeli officials said that Obama was continuing pushing hard on the settlement issue because of a feeling he needed some breakthrough here to be able to go to the Arab world and build coalitions to help the US deal with mounting problems in Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran. Basically, to gain respect in other venues the American President is throwing his...
The European Union Commission apologized to Israel's Ambassador to the Union, Ron Kuriel, over statements it made earlier this week claiming that the settlement policy was stifling the Palestinian economy and increasing Palestinian dependence on foreign aid – and therefore was costing European citizens in taxes. The apology was issued after EU...
MK Tzipi Hotovely initiated the letter a day after Netanyahu told the cabinet that his government had brought about a consensus on the need for two states for two peoples. Channel 2 reported that half of the Likud faction had signed the letter. The signatories include deputy minister Ayoub Kara and Danny Danon, Miri Regev, Tzion Pinyan, Carmel Shama and...
"Major-General Barak is making rookie mistakes by committing to a quick evacuation of outposts," Edelstein said. "This issue can only be cleared up by talking to the heads of settlement in the context of an agreement permitting construction in existing settlements in Judea and Samaria." He added, "The last thing...
Defense minister meets with US envoy Mitchell, sees 'progress' in talks although 'there's still a way to go. Mitchell assured by Barak that Israel will dismantle the 23 illegal outposts in space of weeks or months – not years Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with US Middle East envoy Senator George Mitchell in London on Monday, for their...
Any decision on policies regarding construction in West Bank settlements must be first be brought before a broader government forum for discussion, Likud ministers demanded of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday. Speaking with Ynet before the weekly cabinet meeting, Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein said Netanyahu...
I recently attended a press conference on the highly controversial subject of Jewish communities in Judea/ Samaria, which, according to Israel Harel, former chairman and CEO of Yesha Council, the council of Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria, has become an issue above and beyond what's going on in Iran. He chose to put it in proportion by saying...
In the guise of the familiar, "everyone knows that..." argument, liberal Democrat Robert Wexler, told The Jerusalem Post that Israel would lose nothing, and potentially gain everything, by agreeing to a temporary moratorium on construction in the settlements for a short period of time. Congressman Robert Wexler, a close political ally...
Settlers leaders will lobby against concessions that Netanyahu might consider on Yesha construction in upcoming meetings with US special envoy George Mitchell. "We have two weeks to work with," said Dani Dayan, who heads the Council of Jewish Communities of Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. He added that the council was seeking a meeting with...
On May 1 and 16, 2003, during discussions of Israel’s reservations in respect to the Road Map initiative, it was agreed that there will be no construction at Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza, with the exception of existing communities. These words were uttered, agreed upon, and documented in the records of the talks kept at the Prime...
Defense Minister Barak's central messge to Obama through US Special Envoy George Mitchell in their NY meetings was the necessity to look at more the one narrow issue of building in Yesha - for natural growth or any other purpose. For unknown and illogical reasons counter-productive to real progress in the Middle East, Obama has publicly put all his eggs...
After several administrations in Israel who have deferred to international presure and foreign leaders' wishes, it seems that intervening in Israeli internal affairs has become par for the course. In a shocking disregard for diplomatic civilities, speaking of FM Lieberman, France's Sarcozy recommended to PM Netanyahu that he "get rid of that...
Rumors abound that Defense Minister Ehud Barak will be proposing a 3-month continuation of the freeze on Yesha building in his talks in Washington D.C. Barak and others in the government deny that such a plan has been approved by the Netanyahu administration. Should such a temporary agreement be instated, Netanyahu may quickly find himself mired in vocal...
An article written by Yesha Council's Pinchas Vallerstein was published in the Binyamin Regional Council newspaper outlining the Council's concept used in negotiations with the Defense Ministry over the past several years. The basic idea is one which allows for the "legalization" of the majority of the so-called outposts which are, after all,...
Ma'ale Rehavam has won its court case against one of Israel's two main newspapers, Maariv, claiming that the newspaper inaccurately stated that the community sits on private Arab land. The Jerusalem court order the paper to pay damages of NIS 13,000 (approximately $3400) plus court costs of another NIS 4946 (approximately $1270). In addition, the court...
Senior officials in the legal system have leveled harsh criticism at former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak over his recent comments regarding the "problematic" human rights situation in the "occupied territories." "Barak has lost it; he's acting as though he's chasing after PR and is unaware of his position" a retired...
As far as 58-year-old laborer, Abu Mohammed al-Najjar, is concerned, freezing the construction would be a disaster not only for him and his family, but for thousands of other Palestinians working in various settlements in the West Bank. Of course, this does not mean that they support Israel's policy of construction in the settlements....
Elliot Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, handled Middle East affairs at the National Security Council from 2001 to 2009. Mr. Abrams had this to say in his article in The Wall Street Journal: Despite fervent denials by Obama administration officials, there were indeed agreements between Israel...
While the real estate market in Israel is experiencing a slump, the Yesha Council reports that rent and sale prices for properties in Yesha communities are on the rise. According to the council's data, a house in the Benyamin area, which would have sold for NIS 500,000 (roughly $120,200), can now sell for NIS 800,000 ($192,250); an apartment in the...
Increasing tensions between rival Palestinian factions in the West Bank have turned violent. Fatah leaders say Hamas is plotting to take over the West Bank by force — in a move similar to events in the Gaza Strip, where Hamas fighters overwhelmed Fatah forces. Ahmed Shreen, the Fatah representative in the West Bank city of Qalqilya, says...
In the 60's the American Left became incensed with the US government's interference in South American countries, prime example being the US collusion with reactionary forces who overthrew Chilean President Allende's government. Obama, the darling of the Left, is making his clear his determination to see Israel heel in obedience to the new direction he's...
Israel and the US are continuing to negotiate the parameters of a settlement construction freeze, diplomatic officials said Tuesday, soon after it was announced that a scheduled meeting Thursday in Paris between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to discuss the matter had been postponed. In lieu of a...
Arabs near the Jewish community of Bat Ayin where a 12 year old boy was killed recently by an axe-wielding Arab, tend their orchards peacefully all week long. On Friday, "peace activists" enter the picture when they have time off from their jobs and, mysteriously, the scene changes to one of rocks flying through the air towards Bat Ayin...
Calling for a "decisive response" from the UN, Foreign Minister Lieberman asked that the UN meet to intervene in Iran. Pointing to the recent violence in Iran resulting from the questionable election results (where more than 100% of the population voted), Lieberman asked that the UN consider the consequences of a government which kills its...
The international guarantees Israel is seeking to ensure that a future Palestinian state remains demilitarized does not mean the introduction of foreign forces, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the cabinet at its Sunday meeting. Expanding on his speech last week at Bar-Ilan University in which he said international guarantees were necessary to make...
In response to a Smith research poll which found only 6% of Israelis believe Obama's administration to be pro-Israel while a whopping 50% believe Obama to be pro-Palestinian, some of the same Jewish leaders who urged Jewish voters to support Obama point to Obama's Cairo speech where he said, "America's strong bonds with Israel are well...
PM Netanyahu rejected the popular Arab assumption that all peace negotiations must begin at the self-destructive point to which Olmert's administration over-extended itself. In a more realistic bid for compromise which does not compromise Israel's security or survival, Netanyahu outlined a possibility which left certain strategic points in The Golan...
Former prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an interview with Newsweek - his first interview since leaving office in March - said that he offered to allow into Israel a small number of Arab "returnees" as a humanitarian gesture, even though the number was smaller than the Arabs wanted. Abbas, however, confirmed that Olmert had accepted the principle...
RCA Expresses its Full Support of the June 14 2009 Policy Statement of Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu The Rabbinical Council of America expresses its admiration of, and full support for, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's recent far-reaching address on foreign policy. We laud the government and people of the State of Israel in their...
The Expulsion from Gush Katif Reviewed by Jay Levinson Jerusalem: Southern Hills Press, 2008 ISBN 978-1-933882-06-2 As the nostalgic reminiscences in this book recall, life in Jewish Gush Katif was a modern expression of the Zionist spirit. These were vibrant settlements which developed agriculture, industry, and a strong sense of...
Islamic Movement leader Sheikh Raed Salah gave a talk to Arab students at Haifa University on Wednesday, while Jewish students were not allowed into the lecture hall. Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement's northern branch. The Jewish students expressed their outrage at how the hard-line sheikh was let in to the campus, but the...
The always-articulate, always-clear Uzi Landau, the man who will be Yisrael Beiteinu's No. 1 should Avigdor LIeberman be indicted, spoke to a packed room of Jerusalem-area English-speakers on Tuesday night at Cup o'Joe. While he pulled no punches, stating that there is the nature of a Palestinian state would be a Hamas or Iranian state,...
Leader of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin visited in the Binyamin and Shomron regions last week. Beginning in Binyamin, he met first with Mayor Avi Roeh, Chairman of The Yesha Council Board Dani Dayan and MK Uri Ariel. Area residents, including a group of Talmud Torah children, planted a tree together with MK Rivlin in the new Eli neighborhood, Yovel....
U.S. President Barack Obama has reservations, the Arabs are protesting and the Europeans are doubtful, but for the Israeli public, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech on Sunday evening was a big success. Right and left, Kadima and Likud, new immigrants and old-timers all found something they liked in the address at Bar-Ilan University. For...
After having uttered the least favorite pair of words in the right-wing hemisphere, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu braced himself for an onslaught of domestic criticism on Monday as he faced his own party. But the reception he got turned out to be more lukewarm than cold. "There are new and continuous international circumstances that compelled...
BBC reports that Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the Israeli leader's speech "torpedoes all peace initiatives in the region". Another Abbas aide, Yasser Abed Rabbo, told the AFP news agency that recognition of Israel's Jewish character was a demand for Palestinians "to become...
Point by point, PM Netanyahu met Obama as an equal in his Bar Ilan address. From pointing with pride at the 3500 years the Jewish People remained together as a People to come back to their Homeland to pointing out that Arabs have rejected the offer of 97% and even 98% of the territory they claim to be an obstacle to peace, Netanyahu didn't let one single...
Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah on Sunday expressed outrage and shock over Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's call for the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state and his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state. The officials said that the speech which Netanyahu delivered at Bar Ilan University was much...
Basking in the glow of his spectacular election showing in last week's European Union (EU) vote, Geert Wilders, the head of the Dutch Freedom Party, told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview on Friday that the EU is "one-sided and always against Israel," adding that "nothing will happen" if Israel "depends on the...
A cautious, wary Binyamin Netanyahu met with many from within his party during the day before his Sunday evening policy address. It seems that the majority of those who had the Prime Minister's ear in these last hours before he speaks at Bar Ilan urged him to remain loyal to his constituency and the Likud platform for which they voted. Although several...
A new voice has been heard today. It is the voice of a group of young women, many of whom are married to IDF officers, who live in those pastoral neighborhoods where neighbors take care of neighbors and concern about the environment is actually lived daily – have you guessed? These are the "unauthorized outposts" so vilified in the press....
Israeli warplanes bombard two smuggling tunnels in southern Strip early Sunday after Palestinians fire rocket at Negev on Saturday IDF fighter jets struck two Palestinian smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip in a pre-dawn raid on Sunday. The army said that two of the tunnels had been hit but there were no reports of casualties. ...
Take your pick of the following views about tonight's speech at Bar Ilan University PA: The keys were and remain in Obama's hands Barak: Netanyahu's speech will be ambiguous and vague Boyim: Country in a needless panic. What's important is action and not words Netanyahu: The message will be clear
It is Prime Minister Netanyahu's obligation to state unequivocally in his address on Sunday night the right of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel – a right from the aspects of history, justice, and ethics – with no differentiation made between one part of the country or another. Millions of people around the world watched President...
A letter was sent to Binyamin Netanyahu from the Gush Katif refugees asking that he omit the words "settlement freeze" and "community evacuation" from his political lexicon. Pointing out the dire circumstances in which the majority of the 8000 Gush Katif residents still find themselves and the trauma their expulsion caused Israeli...
In intense meetings with George Mitchell, the Netanyahu administration, including the PM himself in a 2-hour face-to-face meeting, has made it dipolomatically, politely clear that Israel would not bring all settlement construction to a complete halt, even though this continues to be the US's stated position. While the meeting was "friendly and...
Minister for strategic affairs and former IDF chief of staff, Moshe Ayalon, couched his comments at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, as taking on the "conventional wisdom" of the mainstream media. He belittled the notion that dialogue would dampen Iranian nuclear ambitions or that it made sense to aggressively pursue the...
If American Jewish leadership is still naive enough to believe the reassuring phone calls from the Obama administration saying that Obama's Cairo speech didn't mean a change in the nature of America's relationship with Israel, the Arabs have little doubt that the direction has changed and is pointing in their direction. One PA official made the Arab...
Rewriting history, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says there have never been any informal agreements between Washington and Israel allowing for growth in the Jewish communities of Yesha. Speaking Friday in Washington...Clinton forcefully denied claims by Israeli leaders they had an understanding with the Bush administration that Jewish expansion...
The Supreme Court and other courts are expected to shift to the Right and become less activist after the Knesset voted two right-wing MKs to the judicial selection committee on Monday. National Union MK Uri Ariel and Israel Beiteinu MK Dudu Rotem were voted on to the committee as representatives of the opposition and coalition respectively, defeating...
I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt's advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your...
David Rotem, candidate for the committee to choose judges in Israel, grew up in Jerusalem, where he was a pupil at the Horev Elementary School and the Horev Yeshiva High School. Between 1967 and 1971 he studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, gaining an LLB. In 1972 he became an assistant at the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan...
Iran's supreme leader said on Thursday the United States was deeply hated in the Middle East and told US President Barack Obama that "beautiful" speeches alone would not improve its image in the Muslim world. Speaking on the same day Obama gave what was touted as "a new beginning" and an historic speech to the Islamic world in...
A 200 room hotel near The Rockefeller Museum has, to be built on Israeli-owned land by the Jerusalem Development Corp., has the Obama administration reportedly "furious". In support of a Yesha Council CEO Vallerstein comment yesterday (Monday), this latest sign of US belief that it, and not Israel, should control official approval of internal...
Dani Dayan said Monday that Obama is conducting a policy of political terror against Israel. Dayan pointed out that US behavior in talks with Israel thus far ignore President Bush's commitment in April 2004 to Jewish settlement blocs in Yesha. He went on to say that first impressions of Obama's change of diplomatic and strategic approach seem to hint at...
Israeli government sources downplayed reports Monday that the US was considering taking punitive measures, such as decreasing its support for Israel at the UN, if Jerusalem didn't comply with demands to freeze settlements. The officials said it was much too early in the debate over the issue for the Americans to threaten sanctions, with Israeli sources...
A major corruption scandal involving the smuggling tunnels between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is making waves throughout the Strip. The affair began shortly before Israel's incursion into Gaza in December, when tunnel owners affiliated with the ruling Hamas party offered Gazans an opportunity to invest in the goods smuggled through the tunnels. It...
"The American demand to prevent natural growth is unreasonable, and brings to mind Pharaoh who said: Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river," Science Minister and Habayit Hayehudi head Daniel Herschkowitz said Sunday, referring to US President Barack Obama's demand to freeze all settlement activity, even that ensuing from natural...
The ministerial committee on legislation voted down a controversial, Israel Beiteinu-sponsored bill on Sunday that would have required a loyalty oath and service to the state for citizenship. Likud, Labor, Shas and Habayit Hayehudi ministers voted against the bill, while Israel Beiteinu supported it. Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov of...
One afternoon, you come home exhausted from work and collapse into bed for a nap. Suddenly, in the middle of your nap you find yourself waking up to the sound of glass shattering all over your back. It takes you a moment to realize that the window above your bed has exploded and that shards of glass lie everywhere. Your dad comes racing...
Why has the United States consistently failed to achieve its strategic goals in the Middle East? According to Dennis Ross and David Makovsky, two of America's leading experts on the region, it is because American has been laboring under false assumptions, or mythologies, about the nature and motivation of Middle East countries and their leaders. In...
Netanyahu to his cabinet: no intention to build new settlements but "it makes no sense to ask us not to answer to the needs of natural growth and to stop all construction." In answering a question asked by Kirit from ABC at a press conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit on May 27th, Hilary Clinton said...
BBC's Jerusalem correspondent, Tim Franks, spent 10 hours getting acquainted with boutique wineries and winemakers in Yesha on Tuesday. Starting out with Yaacov Berg at Psagot Winery is always a treat given the lovely visitors' center and Berg's knack at setting a beautiful table with goat cheese and fresh vegetables alongside his award-winning wines. The...
Hoping to satisfy the demands of Barack Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war this week on two dozen Jewish settler outposts he considers illegal in the Israeli-occupied West Bank (sic). The already battered hillside trailer park, Givat Assaf, is one of them. Givat Assaf is situated a few kilometres northeast of...
Minister of Intelligence Agencies Dan Meridor set out late Monday night for the United Kingdom in what is reportedly part of a government effort to secure American backing for settlement expansion in return for the dismantling of illegal outposts. Nine illegal outposts in West Bank are to be served with zoning notices Meridor, accompanied by...
A novel detailing the 2005 Gush Katif disengagement will now be included on the list of books being vetted for use in an English Literature section of the country's matriculation exams, after it was initially rejected out of hand by an Education Ministry employee. Following a query by The Jerusalem Post on Monday, an Education Ministry spokeswoman...
Jerusalem sources claim that PM Binyamin Netanyahu will try to capitalize on former agreements made by Sharon and Olmert with former President Bush defining limited areas where building in Yesha is not disapproved by the U.S. These areas are implicitly or informally defined by "The Road Map" agreements and allow for the following: 1) Building...
According to Minister Moshe "Boogie" Ayalon, reflecting on the Netanyahu/Obama talks in Washington, Israel will not stop building in Yesha and will certainly not prevent the natural growth that is any free community's right in a democratic nation. He went on to say that Jewish settlement in Yesha has never been an obstacle to peace and is not...
Benny Morris has been at the center of academic debate for many years. Benny Morris has been at the center of the debate about Israel since the appearance of his book, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in 1987. Morris joined a group of Israeli scholars known as the New Historians who challenged earlier Zionist interpretations of Israeli...
Huge back-up of Yesha newlyweds waitiing for housing in their communities The regional and international pastime these days seems to be prophesies about the outcome of President Barack Obama's meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu next week. With King Abdullah of Jordan calling it the acid test for the White House's commitment to peace in the...
Unlikely beauty queen hopeful covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil Sukaina al-Zayer is an unlikely beauty queen hopeful. She covers her face and body in black robes and an Islamic veil, so no one can tell what she looks like. She also admits she's a little on the plump side. But at Saudi Arabia's only beauty pageant, the...
Righting a decade old injustice to Binyamin residents...temporarily While tens of thousands of work-bound Jerusalem area residents moan the inconvenience caused by the vast road-closings in Jerusalem for the Pope's week-long visit, the residents of Western Binyamin plan to take advantage of the road-opening created...
A non-Jew, British playwright Richard Stirling questioned the content of the play, "Seven Jewish Children". This British playwright and author, angered by a controversial play written to protest Israel's operation in Gaza, has written a theatrical response. Richard Stirling penned "Seven Other Children," which this week began a...
Recent publicity that surrounded the Hezbollah terrorist group’s subversive operations in Egypt has diverted media attention from Hezbollah’s greater goal — to take over the Lebanese government. A study released yesterday by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, run by former Israeli ambassador to the U.N., Dr. Dore Gold,...
A textbook example of beauty being in the eye of the beholder Jerusalem has long been the city most visited by tourists to Israel. With well over 50% of international conferences held in Israel choosing Jerusalem as their location and several of Jerusalem's historic sites being, overwhelmingly, the most frequented by visitors from abroad, the...
US National Security Adviser declares intent to get tough with Israel Gen. James Jones, national security adviser to President Barack Obama, told a European foreign minister a week ago that unlike the Bush administration, Obama will be "forceful" with Israel "The new administration will convince Israel to...
The Minister of the Interior met with business people who purchased land in Siilwan Minister of the Interior, Eli Yishai, told a group of people who have purchased land in Silwan that "The City of David and everywhere in Jerusalem that was the origin of our growth is our sovereign...
The National Council of Young Israel condemns PA decision as racist The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI), a national American synagogue organization comprising 150 synagogues throughout the United States, issued a harsh condemnation yesterday of the Palestinian...
Academic freedom only for the person who stands at the front of the class Naturally William I. Robinson, a sociology professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, says that his comparison of Israel to the Nazi regime is not anti-semitism...those kinds of things never are. He sent...
Psagot Winery Opens Visitors' Center with Big Plans for the Future The Psagot Vineyard and Winery will likely cause fermentation among leftist spirits, as well as among the grapes. The project, which was almost demolished once, has its roots near the controversial outpost of Migron. In 2008, the State...
EU to be blocked from Israeli-Arab diplomatic process A Foreign Ministry official has been warning European countries that unless they curtail criticism of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, Israel will block the European Union from participating in the diplomatic process with the Palestinians. The main target...
Danny was born in Cleveland, Ohio, an only son with four sisters. He grew up in the warm Jewish community of Cleveland, but the curious, creative boy was not satisfied to remain in the secure atmosphere of his hometown and planned to make aliyah. After several trips to Israel, Daniel joined the ulpan in Ofra and decided to settle down there. He enlisted...
China exports Israeli citrus to Iran When Iranian shoppers discovered recently that they were apparently being offered Israeli pomelos for sale, a storm of protest swept the Islamic Republic. The media showcased the contraband citrus, the warehouses where it was stored were shut...
Michael Oren says he'd be honored to serve at Israel's ambassador to the United States, but has not been offered the job. Oren was responding to a flurry of media reports in recent days speculating that he was a leading candidate for the ambassador post. A Maariv article earlier in the week (link in Hebrew) said, without...
Jewish professor wins "The Arab Nobel Prize" An American professor has become the first Jew to win the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine, popularly known as the "Arab Nobel Prize." Stanford professor Ronald Levy, who heads of the university's Oncology department, told Haaretz that as an...
Arab terrorist killed 13 yr old for religious reasons The suspected murderer of 13-year-old Bat Ayin resident Shlomo Nativ was arrested earlier this month in a joint operation conducted by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and the IDF, security officials announced Sunday afternoon. On April 2,...
Introducing Israeli students to Jewish heritage in the Jewish State Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar declared upon taking office that he will reinstate Jewish heritage studies into the curriculum as one of the first goals for his administration in the ministry. Part of Sa'ar's proposed plan includes school tours of Jerusalem...
Netanyahu: We will not let the Holocaust deniers perpetrate another holocaust on the Jewish people. The diplomats rose from their chairs and walked out of the hall in Geneva as Ahmadinejad launched a tirade against the Israeli government. The Iranian leader also blasted the United States for its...
Israel steps in to save lives of Arabs who sold land to Jews A Ynet report that the Palestinian Authority halted an investigation against Palestinians suspected of selling land to Jews in east Jerusalem and in Yesha and released the suspects due to Israeli pressure has sparked a row in the PA. The Palestinian government...
Zahalka: a victim of oppression sitting in the Knesset? Balad chairman MK Jamal Zahalka, who will attend Durban II, addressed the crowd at the NGO Civil Society Forum March in Geneva on Sunday, presenting himself as a Palestinian victim of "Israeli racist apartheid" and concluding his speech by proclaiming:...
UN conference on global racism run and attended by terrorist states The United Nations opens its first global racism conference in eight years on Monday with the US and at least five other countries boycotting the event out of concern that Islamic countries will demand that in denounce Israel and ban criticism of...
Wolf discards granny's clothes When PM Binyamin Netanyahu stated that recognition of the Jewish State of Israel is a pre-requisite for progress in peace negotiations, some of the more naive in the world may have scratched their heads in bewilderment. What could be so tough about recognizing a simple fact in the history books?...
Mitchell: Tthe conversation was "good, full and candid." Palestinian recognition that Israel is a Jewish state is a fundamental element for any talks between the two parties, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told visiting US envoy George Mitchell on Thursday evening. The two-hour meeting in...
Arab terrorist attempt foiled in Southern Hebron Hills community An Arab terrorist entered the Southern Hebron Hills community of Beit Hagai on Friday morning intent on stabbing Jewish residents.. When confronted by Beit Hagai members on guard and questioned, he pulled a knife and tried to kill them. One of the guards was...
Interrogation of terror suspect leads to true goals of Hizbulla According to the report, which was based on the interrogation of terror suspect Sami Shihab, Hizbullah was not planning to transfer weapons to Hamas in the Gaza Strip via Sinai, but rather to use them to carry out attacks within Egypt. The...
Man detained along with driver, eight-year-old son about week ago, security sources said Egyptian police have detained a man they say was transporting $2 million to north Sinai to be smuggled into the Gaza Strip to Hamas, security sources said on Saturday. The man, Hassan Mohamed Hassouna, was detained in Cairo...
All over Yesha, and the world, men, women and children mark the 28th year event Tens of thousands of men, women and children woke up at the crack of dawn Wednesday to take part on the Blessing of the Sun prayer. The unique event occurs only once every 28 year when, according to Jewish tradition, the sun...
Lieberman claims that the Israeli Left out of sinc Speaking at an Israel Beiteinu conference in Jerusalem, Lieberman said "there's a withdrawal from talks, and we have to understand and acknowledge that we're at a dead end." Lieberman said that the world was interested in his ideas, but the...
The Labor party cannot function as is The internal strife enveloping the Labor Party may soon reach boiling point, with senior party members admitting Monday that a split among Labor ranks may be inevitable. The party cannot function under the current circumstances, a Labor source told Ynet, adding that...
Carbon copy of original list discovered in box A copy of the list compiled by German businessman Oskar Schindler which saved hundreds of Jewish workers during the Holocaust has been discovered by a researcher at an Australian library Workers at the New South Wales State Library found the...
A community in mourning used for political headlines National Unity leader Yaacov "Ketsele" Katz blamed the terror atrocity in Bat Ayin, which left a 13 year old boy dead and a 7 year old with a fractured skull, on Binyamin Netanyahu for adding Ehud Barak to his government instead of Katz's own party (the same...
Shlomo Nativ was killed and a seven-year-old boy was moderately injured in an attack carried out by a terrorist carrying an axe in the Gush Etzion community of Bat Ayin Thursday noon. According to the police, the terrorist managed to flee the scene. The IDF launched a hunt for the terrorist, set up roadblocks and boosted security...
"Saying peace 20 times a day won't make it a reality" What began as the usual ceremony which puts everyone to sleep with the niceties of a bureaucratic handover of political control, with Tsipi Livni saying her differences with Lieberman are not so great and she would be pleased to represent his office...
In case anyone forgot, selling land to a Jews is a capital offense The latest warning was issued on Wednesday by the Chief [Islamic] Judge of the Palestinian Authority, Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi, who reminded the Palestinians of an existing fatwa [religious decree] than bans them from selling property to Jews....
Clearly impossible to have broad-based govt without broad-based ministries Continuing the yammering for which Livni and her Kadima compatriots have become so well-known, the banner being held aloft and waved enthusiastically by the usual media agenda reads that the government Netanyahu has presented is too large. An...
Israel Ministry of Interior trying to reach all Israelis known to be in area Interior Minister Roberto Moroni, arriving in L'Aquila hours after the quake, said 50 people had been killed. Officials said the death toll was likely to rise as rescue crews clawed through the debris of fallen...
Wines produced in Yesha won 50% of the medallions awarded at this years prestigious "Eshkol Zahav" awards for boutique wines held at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv where 60 wineries, among the most highly regarded in Israel, entered their wines. Only 12 wines received a gold medallion, chosen by a panel comprised of wine...
Insufficient evidence and evidence based on hearsay cited Citing insufficient evidence and hearsay, the Israeli military on Monday closed an investigation into two cases of alleged killings of Gaza civilians that had caused an uproar in Israel and around the world. Israeli soldiers had described the...
Operation Cast Lead Ended Way Too Soon Arab militants have smuggled nearly 70 tons of explosives and bomb-making materials and other weapons into Gaza since Israel ended an offensive meant to choke off the arms flow, a senior Israeli defense official said Sunday. The assessment by the chief...
Court criticized police action as unnessarily risky Police launched an appeal to the Petah Tikva District Court on Saturday evening, after a Kfar Saba court closed the case on Friday against six settlers arrested by undercover officers in the northern West Bank. The Kfar Saba Magistrate's Court also...
Long overdue but it makes a statement Kamil Said Hassan Hneish, the terrorist who planned the 2002 attack in Itamar in which Rachel Sabo was murdered along with her three children, has been ordered by Jerusalem's District Court to compensate the family with NIS 60 million ($14 million.)...
Will Kadima and/or Labor still be around for the next elections? While at least 8 members of Labor plan to boycott their party's final vote to join the government, political analysts around the world are already questioning what the Labor/Likud agreement means for the next elections. There are those who claim that Barak's...
After heated deliberation leftist party's Central Committee decides to back Ehud Barak's coalition bid, vote in favor of Labor joining Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu's government "This is such a disgrace," she added. "I was so sure the bid would fall. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. This really is the end…...
Southern Command chief Major-General Yoav Galant commented for the first time Tuesday on the IDF's recent military operation in the Gaza Strip and the ethical dilemmas that accompanied it. 'My impression is that IDF behaved ethically and morally. If there were incidents, they were limited,' says Gabi Ashkenazi in his first response to...
Labor comes in 4th in elections but receives huge power in new govt 1,071 party members attended the convention, with 58 percent voting in favor of joining the government and 42% voting against it - a margin of 173 votes. Prime Minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu called Barak to congratulate him on the...
Mazuz considers indicting Olmert in Talansky affair Talansky's attorneys, Jacques Chen and Yehoshua Reznick, said Talansky would return to Israel on condition that the State Prosecutor's Office abides by their agreement, according to which their client's testimony would not be used in the investigation currently being...
Deal struck at the 11th hour The deal, struck at the 11th hour and dubbed "an unprecedented move" by its supporters and a "breach of all the rules" by those objecting to it, will now have to be approved or denied by Labor's 1,476 delegates. Barak also...
Will Labor be part of Netanyahu's government? The party's decisive moment is only a few hours away, and the parties' leaders are close to an agreement. The Labor Party's Central Committee will convene at Tel Aviv's Exhibition Grounds on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the matter. Chairman Ehud...
Israel must not conduct itself as if Gilad Shalit is the last captive Once upon a time, many years ago, Yaron London asked one of Israel’s most prominent poets, known for his scathing criticism of the State, under what circumstances he would agree to embark on war for the sake of the homeland....
The whole world is against us, goes an old Jewish joke, and now we've joined in. That witticism came to mind while reading headlines in the Hebrew press Thursday about the testimony that soldiers who took part in Operation Cast Lead in January gave at the Yitzhak Rabin pre-military preparatory course at Oranim Academic...
Police dismantle bomb found in parked car by Lev HaMifratz mall Explosive devices found in car near Lev HaMifratz center in Haifa bay, terror organization claims responsibility for bombing attempt. Mall was previously hit by Scud rocket during Operation Desert Storm A private vehicle wired with explosives and parked...
Can't agree on cabinet or honoring agreements with Israel Talks between rival Hamas and Fatah factions in Cairo ended on Thursday without a deal on a national unity government, Palestinian officials said. Top Palestinian officials Ahmed Qureia of Fatah, left, and and Moussa Abu Marzouk of Hamas...
20 Wantd Arab suspects arrest in pre-dawn raid in Yesha Thursday Army forces launch raid early Thursday, arresting some 20 wanted Palestinian suspects. According to Hamas officials, at least seven of the detainees are senior group members. According to the Palestinians, the detainees include Nasser Shaher, a former...
Perceptions could be wrong but Washington wary A Congressional aide who works on Middle East issues said that members were still waiting to find out more about him and the policies of the new government, which hasn't yet been officially formed. He noted that perceptions could be wrong, as was the case when...
Rumored that Netanyahu will ask for 2 wk extension Labor Chairman Ehud Barak says he is interested in bringing the prospect of his party joining the Netanyahu government to a vote. "Most citizens and most Labor voters want to see the party as leadership partner," Barak's office said in a...
Hamas: no difference between Olmert and Netanyahu The disagreement which led to the deadlock in the negotiations aimed at securing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit's release was not over the number of prisoners slated to be freed by Israel, but rather over their deportation, Hamas sources told the London-based...
A government shouldn't operate based on the weeping of mothers For most of Monday, parents of fallen soldiers and terror victims occupied a small tent beside that of Shalit family's opposite the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem where they held a quiet protest against the possible prisoner swap. Each are...
Yisrael Beiteinu and Likud have signed an agreement After series of meetings with Likud chairman, Kadima leader remains firm in demands, including agreement on two-state solution, rotation in PM's role. Meanwhile, Netanyahu aide says 'door still open for Kadima' According to the agreement, Stas Misezhnikov will receive...
Yesha Council Chairman Blames Outgoing Govt Policy Two Judea and Samaria Traffic Police officers were found shot dead in their overturned patrol car near Moshav Masua in the Jordan Valley on Sunday evening, apparently the victims of a terrorist attack. Their patrol car crashed on Route 90...
Left-wing provocation ends in tragedy An International Solidarity Movement spokesperson said Tristan Anderson, of the Oakland, Calif., area, was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops who were being pelted with rocks by the protestors near the Arab village of Naalin. The...
Media solidarity in attempt to create instability from the outset Headlines scream "Known for extreme pronouncements, Lieberman's rise fuels serious concern" (msnbc). Other stories highlight disharmony among coalition factions such as Haaretz writing that Netanyahu negotiations "infuriated many Likud MKs, as now...
Israel sent a message to Hamas Saturday that the final date for reaching an agreement on a prisoner exchange will be Sunday night. The head of the Shin Bet security service and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's envoy to the talks on releasing captured soldier Gilad Shalit left for Cairo Saturday in a last-ditch effort to reach a deal with Hamas. On...
German prosecutors attempt to bring a 30-year international legal battle to a close Israel had a go at concentration camp guard John Demjanjuk in a heart-wrenching court battle many years ago only to release the Nazi after legal technicalities concerning proof of identification proved too great. It would seem that,...
Exiting, Chas Freeman Attacks 'Israel Lobby' A former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia resigned Tuesday from his new post as chairman of the National Intelligence Council following congressional criticism for comments about the Israeli government and alleged ties to foreign governments. Charles Freeman's resignation came...
The children of Sderot finally have a safe place to play Brightly painted walls surround a mini-soccer field, video games, a climbing wall and play areas. The converted warehouse also has a new thick concrete roof, a half dozen shelters and an alert system to give a 15-second warning of incoming rockets. The children of...
Politically correct to protest for Shalit's release at any price? Lawyers and families of terrorists imprisoned for murdering Jews report that Israel is interviewing them for possible inclusion in the prisoner exchange to free Gilad Shalit. 226 such murderers have reportedly been approved for the exchange out of the 450 on the...
Sports triumphs over politics: Anti-Israel protestors clash with police outside In the first match, Sela got so upset when he lost the third set he cracked his racket against the indoor carpet. The burst of anger appeared to have energized the Israeli, who broke Johansson's serve in the first game of the fourth. Meanwhile,...
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayad submitted his resignation Saturday Fayad was appointed prime minister by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in June 2007, in response to the violent takeover of Gaza by Hamas in June 2007. Abbas and the Fayad government control the West Bank while Hamas continues to rule Gaza. ...
Israel Ambassador to US, Meridor, resigns Israeli Ambassador to the United States Sallai Meridor on Thursday evening explained his decision to quit following the election results. "I have a contract until the end of October, but Israel's ambassador to Washington must have the trust of the government and the...
The National Fraud Unit said Thursday that it has finished its investigation into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's alleged improper involvement with the Israel Investments Center, which took place during his tenure as industry and trade minister. The police said that there was enough evidence in the case to file charges of fraud and breach of...
Taxi driver shoots and wounds third tractor terrorist A tractor driver was shot after intentionally attacking a police car on Thursday and trying to tip over additional vehicles including a public bus at the Golomb intersection, near Jerusalem's Malha Mall. Army Radio reported that the tractor driver was critically wounded...
Protests at British Science Museum call for boycott of Israeli scientists Britain's Science Museum was at the center of a resurgence in the demand to boycott Israeli academia on Monday night, when a series of over 400 British academics, including a former Nobel laureate, demanded that the prestigious museum stop promoting scientists and...
Peace Now claims that 73,000 homes in Yesha are planned for approval by new govt Peace Now would have us believe that according to plans formulated by Construction and Housing Ministry officials over the last few years, some 73 thousand housing units will be built, including 19,000 apartments in Jewish settlements on the...
Red Lines in dealing with Iran to be Presented on Clinton's first visit Israel plans to present U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with a series of "red lines" it wants Washington to incorporate into its planned dialogue with Tehran about Iran's nuclear program. Clinton arrived in Israel Monday night and will...
EU opposes Muslim attempts to railroad UN conference on racism European Union countries Tuesday stepped up opposition to Muslim attempts to shield Islam from criticism and attack Israel through a UN conference on racism. EU members were unusually outspoken in appearances before the UN Human Rights Council, saying they were...
Sea of unity closing around Livni's obstinance While Kadima head Livni remains stubbornly against any compromise offered to create a stable government, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz begins to rally Kadima members to form a negotiating team to replace her lone representation of Kadima. Claiming that Netanyahu's abandonment...
Ultra-Orthodox expected to focus on issues and leave ministerial demands for later Both ultra-Orthodox parties expected to focus demands on child welfare, religious education, leave ministerial demands for later The ultra-Orthodox parties, with whom Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu will...
Just one year ago chaos reigned at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva as the boys prepared for their Purim party A memorial was held Tuesday afternoon marking one Jewish calendar year since a terrorist attack at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem killed eight yeshiva students. The memorial gathering included a ceremony marking the conclusion of...
Behind the scene tensions growing Despite publically backing Kadima Chairwoman Tzipi Livni, behind the scenes tensions appear to be growing over Livni's declaration that she will not be joining a Likud-led government. In a talk with Ynet Monday, senior Kadima officials slammed Livni's rejection of Benjamin Netanyahu's...
Kadima leader, Tsipi Livni, rejected Binyamin Netanyahu's outstretched hand Sunday in a meeting of less than 2 hours...including lunch. As tempting as it is to see Livni's actions as that rarity in Israeli politics - integrity - her own history in the public arena and certainly that of her cronies makes it far more likely that the veteran analyst's...
Olmert ousts Gilad as a result of his undiplomatic, public criticism Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will replace Israel's pointman to Egyptian-brokered truce talks with Hamas after the envoy publicly criticised the government's negotiating strategy, officials said on Monday. Gilad heads the political-security bureau of the Defense...
Kadima's senior members say not to rush to decisions Several of Kadima's senior members say that the party should not rush into any decisions ahead of Chairwoman Tzipi Livni's meeting with Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, scheduled to take place Sunday afternoon. Despite the talks of a rotation...
Court orders two police officers to pay NIS 4000 in damages The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ruled recently that police officers who struck a right-wing activist during the evacuation of a West Bank outpost (sic) were liable for NIS 4,000 (about $963) in damages. The incident took place about 18 months ago, as several...
Hamas will not discuss Shalit connected to Gaza truce Hamas on Monday insisted it wouldn't discuss releasing captured Israel soldier Gilad Shalit as part negotiations with Israel for a lasting truce in and around the Gaza Strip. A Hamas delegation told this in Cairo to Omar Suleiman, the head of Egypt's...
It's not a secret that George Mitchell is loathe to see even one structure go up in Yesha. Mitchell has made it clear that even natural reproduction will not be accommodated in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria if he has his way. The fact that George Bush ignored his strong recommendations regarding this issue all throughout his two...
Courts rule contested area to be government land After years of struggle, the 7th and final hill around Efrat has been granted status of "government lands". Located to the north of today's Efrat perimeter, 1700 dunam of contested land is now available for Efrat to begin the processes necessary to build...
Reality dawns on Kadima: Netanyahu will be Prime Minister Although Livni seems to still harbor some remant of the delusion that her party's 28 mandates means the Isaeli people have spoken in her favor, reality checks have shown quite a different statement in other Kadmia minds. The clear 65:45 (at best) ration of...
Israel must not wait for Egypt to curtail Hamas arms smuggling Public Security Minister Avi Dichter urged the government to operate against the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip using the same military techniques employed against rocket fire itself. "Egyptian action is too slow and the government must set an...
First to play in Qatar but denied opportunity in Dubai Shahar Peer, who became the first Israeli to play tennis in Qatar and the entire Persian Gulf region last year, hoped to make history again in the United Arab Emirates by taking part in the Dubai Tennis Championships this week, but was denied the chance to do so by the hosting...
You've gotta hand it to Tsipi Livni - it takes really poor math skills or alot of chutzpa for her to claim that her 28 mandates show that the Israeli voting public has made a decision to support her policies. No matter how the sympathetic Israeli media misstates the situation - and the spin is enough to topple Humpty Dumpty off his wall many times over -...
The Israeli media can wish with all their might that the small, surprising lead in mandates shown by the exit polls for Tzipi Livni mean that the Likud has been overthrown but that won't make it true. The Likud may not have won more mandates than Kadima, though even with all the ruckus being made that won't be known until 4 or 5 a.m. Israel time, but...
Far-right activist Baruch Marzel was banned by police from entering of Umm el-Fahm Marzel was banned from entering the Arab city on Tuesday morning to serve as a polling station chairman due to security concerns, as dozens of local residents gathered at the entrance of the town in an effort to prevent his entry. Election Day...
With Kadima consistently lagging behind Likud, Livni who arrogantly gave up the possibility of forming a coalition and taking the reins of government from Olmert because of Shas's stubborn refusal to consider dividing Jerusalem, she now would welcome them in her coalition should they simply throw out their ideals along with hers and meet her halfway on...
Those on board ship that was seized while heading to Gaza in defiance of Israeli blockade will be handed over to Israeli police The Israeli navy on Thursday intercepted a ship delivering 60 tons of supplies from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip and said it was towing the vessel into an Israeli port. The ship set sail from the Lebanese...
Despite the alleged ceasefire in southern Israel, an air raid siren sounded in the city of Ashkelon shortly after 7 am Tuesday, followed by an explosion. A Grad rocket landed between buildings in a residential neighborhood in the city center as residents were making their way to school and to work. Three people suffered shock, several...
In this weeks average poll statistics (www.behirot2009.co.il) the Israel Right pulls as much as 68 mandates, including Agudat Yisrael, or 63 without them. Barak's peformance in Operation Cast Lead gave Labor an initial boost. However, his show of timidity in pulling out before accomplishing true deterrence, seems to have cost his party their third place...
Palestinian gunmen fired at an IDF force near the border fence in the Kissufim area. The soldiers fired back. There were no injuries. On Saturday morning, a Grad rocket landed in an open area south of Ashkelon. There were no injuries in this incident as well. The rocket alert system was not activated in the Eshkol Regional Council before the rockets...
The Yesha Council prepared a special welcome for visiting US Mideast Envoy George Mitchell on Wednesday – a presentation displayed in Tel Aviv titled "A Palestinian state will blow up in our face". Settlers wished to illustrate the danger the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank would pose on central...
Ceasefire violations increase as Hamas capability increases An IDF pointman killed and others wounded by sniper fire at the Kissufim crossing. Israel retaliates by bombing a weapons manufacturing factory in Gaza. Hamas responds by firing rockets into the southern city of Sderot...sound familiar? sound like a ceasefire? Bibi Netyanyahu, speaking...
Assad has told Lebanon's Al-Manar TV that the new American administration has already sent officials to Damascus to start a dialogue. He did not name them but says they had visited Syria before. Assad said in Monday's interview that despite the positive signals from Washington "we have learned to be cautious, as the relations have...
Report to World Jewish Congress: Venezuelan president endorses anti-Semitism The president of the Jewish community in Venezuela on Monday accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of promoting anti-Semitism and giving the phenomenon legitimacy. Speaking at the World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem on Monday, Abraham Levy...
Hoped for several hundred turned into 35,000 volunteers When they woke up yesterday, Yuval and Naomi Kadosh from Ramat Hasharon hoped that at least a few hundred people would show up for the drive they had put together to find bone marrow donors for their six-year-old daughter, Amit, who is suffering from leukemia. They never expected 35,000...
Pollard left alone yet again George W. Bush did not pardon Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard on his last day as president of the United States, ending hopes that a president who boasted of his close ties with Israel would leave with this parting gesture to the Jewish state. The petition [to commute Pollard's sentence] was on the president's desk and...
Despite decisive battle defeat, Hamas insists group won war Hamas rulers, triumphant at having survived Israel's military operation in Gaza, held victory rallies Tuesday amid the ruins left in the wake of the IDF's campaign in the Strip. Thousands of Hamas supporters thronged a square outside the remains of the parliament building in Gaza City,...
Hamas boasts: We know how to acquire weapons "Do whatever you want. Manufacturing the holy weapons is our mission and we know how to acquire weapons," Abu Ubeida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, told a news conference. Israel wants Egypt to prevent arms from reaching Palestinian militants through tunnels running under the border...
Israel claims the rockets fired Sunday were because of lack of communication between Hamas leaders and rocket launchers Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Sunday that Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip was a failure and had not cowed the Palestinians, but praised his movement for deciding to declare a cease-fire. "The...
Three weeks of barrages with casualties and panic won't end so fast. "I would like express a hope that a first step has been taken towards a different reality of security and calm for Israel's residents," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Saturday night as he concluded his declaration of a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. ...
Hamas fires 7 rockets into Israel to celebrate Olmert's unilateral ceasefire announcement. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, patting everybody on the back verbally (except for the glaring exception of the totally unmentioned Tzippi Livni), announced Israel's unilateral ceasefire in Gaza to begin at 2 a.m. Sunday morning. He...
Reading the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire, it's hard to imagine why A government source said Thursday that defense official Amos Gilad had returned from Egypt with a very reassuring report of progress in negotiations. However, a check with the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv reveals that Egypt has only elicited a Hamas offer of yet another...
Three of Hamas' most senior officials: the group's Interior Minister, Said Siam, the head of its security apparatus, Salah Abu Shreh, and the head of its military wing, Mahmoud Watfah, were killed in an IAF strike Thursday. The IAF strike was on the house of Siam's brother, who was also killed. Hamas TV later confirmed that Siam had been killed....
In a heart-wrenching Torah message, Rabbi Ze'ev Karov explains the importance of a groom going to war. Just two weeks after his wedding, Aharon Karov lies critically wounded, having left from his wedding directly to fight in Gaza. His father, Rabbi Ze'ev Karov, suffering the worst kind of trepidation a parent can have for his son, surely wept at...
UN's Ban calls for ceasefire because "too many people have died." Does anyone expect Israel to take UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon seriously when he does not relate to the reasons behind the Gaza initiative or Hamas's brazen use of civilians as human shields to defend themselves from the IDF and for their terrorist...
Israeli sources claim Arab rock-thrower seriously wounded. Arabs claim he's dead. A Yesha resident whose car came under attack by Arab rock-throwers, claims to have shot in the air to scare off his attackers. Arab sources claim that one of the men throwing rocks was killed during the clash. The issue is under investigation. Israelis have learned...
An additional 50 Hamas targets hit on Tuesday. Overnight in northern Gaza, Hamas gunmen fired at troops from a mosque. The soldiers returned fire, and the IAF then bombed the mosque's courtyard after spotting the armed men. The air force bombed some 60 targets overnight, including seven weapons storehouses, 15 Kassam launch pads and 10...
IDF picks its way through Gaza homes riddled with homemade bombs and booby traps. Israeli ground forces made their deepest foray yet Sunday into Gaza's most populated area, with tanks rolling into residential neighborhoods and infantry fighting urban warfare in streets and buildings with Hamas militants who kept up their rocketing of southern...
Egypt has become the focus of the world as attempts are made to terminate Hama's ability to rearm from the Egyptian border. In spite of Hamas's continuing rhetoric including Damascus-based Mashal claiming that Hamas will never agree to a settlement with Israel, Hamas's military capabilities continue to dwindle. Another 10 Hamas operatives...
With over 300 Hamas operatives being killed since the beginning of the Gaza operation, exhaustion and desertion among the Hamas ranks has become prevalent. In Gaza City, the Hamas officer, Mansi, in charge of missile launching from that encircled city launched missilies when his soldiers deserted. He and the two terrorists with him were...
In Oslo, pro-Arab protestors attacked pro-Israeli demonstration. Six people injured; 31 arrested. Thirty-one people arrested as some 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters attack pro-Israeli demonstration in Norwegian capital; clashes said to be worst in Oslo since 1980s . Six people were injured and 31 were arrested when some 1,000 pro-Palestinian...
UN Resolution- Ceasefire; Israel and Hamas refuse to recognize UN authority The resolution adopted Thursday night by the United Nations Security Council calls on Israel to cease fire immediately, but does not mention Hamas. Kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is also not mentioned. Condoleesa Rice, acting in defiance of the White House...
Hizbollah claims not to be responsible for rockets which fell in Northern Israel today Defense officials agree that it is highly unlikely that the katushas which fell in the North today, including by a senior citizen's home where shrapnel lightly injured one resident, are Hizbollah rockets as they are an outdated kind of rocket for Hizbollah....
IDF targets tunnels, buildings near Gaza-Egypt border; leaflets urge locals to leave area The IDF expanded Wednesday evening its aerial assault on arms smuggling tunnels along the Philadelphi Route. The offensive aims to gravely undermine the ability of Gaza terror groups to bring more weapons into the Strip. As part of...
Fearing a UN resolution that Israel would be forced to ignore, huge efforts were made to prevent such a resolution. Tiptoeing among the eggshells, Condoleesa Rice said in the UN Security Council meeting that the US understands "the urgency of an end to the fighting" and is working around the clock to achieve it. She went on to say,...
Hamas commits war crimes by forcing Gazans to be human shield in UN school Ahmed Tibi calls the shelling of a UN school a "war crime". But who's committing the war crime? Gaza residents are reporting being locked in their homes by Hamas operatives who are forcing them in this way to shield terrorists. One Gazan man, apparently no...
Israel mourns the bitter price of this just, necessary war. Three of one of Israel's toughest fighting units, the Golani Brigade, will be laid to rest today after being killed in action in Gaza. One of those killed was identified Tuesday morning as Yousef Moadi, 19, from Haifa. He will be laid to rest at 3 p.m. Tuesday in the Druse...
Put Arab propaganda aside for a minute and put yourself in Israel's shoes Analogy One: A fanatical religious party wins a string of elections in Mexico's northern states, then stages a civil war to drive out the federal government and take full control. The party's charter demands the return to Mexico of the occupied territories of...
Hamas command capabilities severely curtailed. IDF reaching goals. Defense officials said that the IDF operation was having an effect on Hamas's command-and-control capabilities and that the group was not able to mobilize large forces to fight against the IDF. Officials said that it was likely that a number of senior Hamas operatives and terror...
France's Chief Rabbi: 'Israel is simply fighting for the survival of its people." Several thousand demonstrators waved Israeli flags and sang Hebrew hymns in Paris Sunday to show support for Israel in its military offensive in Gaza, a day after a huge pro-Palestinian rally. Warmly dressed to brave seasonably cold...
IDF land offensive begins. Morale high. Immediate forces bisected Gaza to prevent replenishing of military supplies. Israeli ground troops clashed Sunday morning with Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip, and reportedly bisected the coastal area. Early Sunday, thirty Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, in clashes...
US blocks UN call for ceasefire in Gaza. The United States late Saturday blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers, diplomats said. French U.N. Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, the council president, said the 15 council members could not agree on a statement in...
Oslo and the expulsion of the Jewish communities from Gush Katif led to war, not peace. When those opposed to the expulsion of Jewish communities in Gush Katif claimed that such a move would bring terror and war and not peace, it was not empty rhetoric. The truth in such statements has been born out by the immediate five-fold increase in...
Egypt has harsh words for Hamas Ahmed Aboul Gheit's comments came as Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Egypt's president, part of a tour by the Turkish leader to work out an Egyptian-Turkish initiative to end the violence. The initiative calls for a halt to Israel's assault, a return to a Hamas-Israel truce and an...
Shows true colors with an idea meant to make your eyes roll While defense officials tend to favor a clear agreement with Hamas, even if it is not enshrined in a written document, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is considering another idea. She reportedly believes that it might be better to aim for a situation in which there is no clearly set-out...
Click on media section to see Netanyahu statements on Gaza Netanyahu gives over 20 interviews on Tuesday alone to inernational media Opposition leader, favored Prime Ministerial candidate and famed public speaker Binyamin Netanyahu is taking a break from politics to defend Israel in the international arena. Netanyahu gave 20 interviews on...
Running for his life, Haniyeh claims "Victory will be ours." Shamelessly unconcerned about Arabs killed Hamas prime minister Haniyeh barely comments on his hundreds of operatives killed during the Gaza campaign. While he speaks from carefully guarded shelter of ultimate victory, his terrorists suffer the airstrikes...
Israel rejected international pressure to suspend its air offensive in Gaza Israel has rejected international pressure to suspend its strikes against Palestinian militants whose rocket barrages are striking close to the Israeli heartland, sending warplanes Wednesday to demolish smuggling tunnels that are the lifeline of Gaza's Islamic Hamas...
Shin Bet right: Missiles land in Beersheva At approximately 9 p.m. Tuesday night Hamas proved the head of Israel's Shin Bet correct in his evaluation that Hamas is capable of hitting Beersheva with rockets. Two grad missiles landed in Beersheva; one in eastern Beersheva and one in northern Beersheva. One of the missiles hit an empty kindergarten...
Six clichés you are likely to hear constantly in the coming days, and why they’re false 1) “Israel’s response in Gaza is disproportionate” Since when is war a mathematical equation? The basic objective of any warring party is to inflict maximal damage on the enemy while minimizing its own casualties. Was...
Two Israelis were killed in Monday's Hamas attacks in the south and others were critically wounded. It is estimated that Hamas has a stockpile of 3 months worth of rockets and missiles, at least a dozen of them the long-range type capable of travelling 30 kilometers. Showing determination to put an end, once and for all, to the unceasing Hamas...
After months of Hamas rockets landing in southern Israel, damaging property, agriculture and forcing Sderot residents into shelters time and time again, Hamas announced that they were ending their ceasefire. Apparently several rockets landing daily was considered a ceasefire by Hamas and their announcement declaring an end to the ceasefire heralded in...
While rockets fall unceasingly on the Jewish residents of Sderot and other Southern communities, "human rights" organization, B'tselem, continues to ignore human rights violations against Jews, preferring to entertain any claim by any Arab anywhere of Jewish injustice towards him. No claim is too outlandish or too antique. Now that the olive...
As she sits in the governments cabinet and does nothing, outside of the cabinet meetings media darling, Tzippi Livni, promises that her government will take control away from Hamas in Gaza...but won't explain any of the steps "her government" will take. Meanwhile, Defense Minister Ehud Barak has the nerve to say that he hurts along with the...
The good news and the bad news Even before publication of the Bayit HaYehudi list criticism abounded pointing out that starting a new party with an unknown at the head of the list is a recipe for disaster. Promises of two secular candidates and two women candidates in the top ten have not been fulfilled. Zvulun Orlev, whose refusal to leave the...
The democratic process shone on Monday as the Likud primaries resulted in a list reflecting the full gamut of firmly committed Zionists from Dan Meridor , Limor Livnat and Silvan Shalom on the centurist left to Moshe Ya'alon to the centurist right and Moshe Feiglin on the right. Bibi Netanyahu leads this diverse list, which many say could...
Beit HaShalom, the disputed house in Hebron, was evacuated just hours after Defense Minister Ehud Barak met with Yesha leaders. It might be said that Barak was not negotiating in good faith, given the timing of events. It's difficult to choose a villain in this tragedy of errors. It could be the Arab who sold the house to the Jewish purchasers and then...
Retired General James Jones, Obama's choice for national security advisor, known to favor NATO presence in Yesha A former commander of NATO, Jones has for the past year served as a security envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. During his meetings with Israelis, Jones has proposed that a NATO-based international force deploy in...
Rivki Holtzberg's father says he will take over Chabad in Mumbai Rebbetzin Rivkah Holtzberg, the slain Chabad representative in Mumbai who was laid to rest in Jerusalem's Mount of Olives cemetery along with her husband Gavriel on Tuesday evening, was five months pregnant at the time of her murder. Shimon Rosenberg, the grieving...
In a moving letter, Rabbi Nahman Holtzberg pleas with Olmert not to destroy Jewish Unity HaRav Nahman Holtzberg, father of HaRav Gavriel Holtzberg, ה"יד, one of those murdered in the Chabad House in Mumbai, has written a letter to Prime Minister Olmert pleading with him not to destroy the unity created by the murder of his son,...
Judge rules that Federman does not pose a threat to public safety The State petitioned the Court to prohibit Noam Federman, on trial for alledgedly attacking a policeman when he evicted him and his family from their home before destroying it, from entering Yehuda or Shomron during his trial. Judge Shulamit Dotan,...
Arabs stealing antiquities is a common phenomenon; getting caught - less so Nature guides from the Gush Etzion Field School came across an area Arab stealing antiquities by using a metal detector to discover antique coins in Tel Fuar. After a brief chase, they were able to catch the man caught in an act which is quite common, while catching...
In meetings last week between dead duck Olmert and lame duck Bush, Olmert tried to convince Bush that negotiations with Syria are important strategically while Bush asked why Israel would want to give Syria the Golan Heights and get nothing in return. (good question, that) Explaining that in his view Syria only pretends to be friendly to Iran and can be...
Rabbi manages to cover wife with tallit before he is murdered The 29-year-old rabbi, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, and his 28-year-old Israeli wife were among nine killed in the center run by the ultra-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch sect and nearly 200 dead in the 60-hour rampage by suspected Muslim militants. The carnage ended earlier Saturday....
At least three buildings in the Indian port city of Mumbai were taken over by terrorists - the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Hotel and the nearby Chabad House. Indian commandos began "taking" the buildings on Thursday, with the battle over the Chabad House beginning in the early morning hours. Three loud explosions were heard at the...
Mazuz told Olmert to expect an indictment on charges of fraudulent receipt of goods under aggravated circumstances, fraud, breach of public trust, false registration in corporate documents and tax evasion. The prime minister is suspected of having sent bills to more than one non-profit organization for trips that he made abroad to raise money for...
Nowhere have the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously than in France: In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious center was firebombed; so were synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles; so was a Jewish school in Creteil - all recently. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked with...
Eight weeks before Barack Obama is sworn into office, signs have emerged over the weekend that point to what is turning out to be the new administration's plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is the conclusion that one reaches when considering the upcoming appointment of Hillary Clinton to the position of secretary of state; the reports...
Thousands in Hebron for Chayei Sara - tense but quiet After a tense but relatively quiet weekend in Hebron, security officials Saturday expressed concern that some security personnel would refuse orders to forcibly evict settlers from a disputed building in the city. Officers in the IDF's Central Command said they were concerned that when...
"I will stay here as long as I need to, until the army comes. I hope that if we are here, the army won't come," said Ze'ev when moving into Beit Hashalom. The High Court issued a decision calling for the eviction of Jewish residents of Beit HaShalom until the regular court system could rule on the evidence as to the legality of the purchase....
Former Chief of Staff Moshe "Boogie" Yaalon has decided to join Likud after weeks of serious exploration both as to Netanyahu's true intentions on important issues and as to his own political conscience. Known for his analytical acumen as well as his decision to leave a lauded military career because of the evacuation of Jews from Gush Katif, a...
In light of the Israeli Supreme Court ruling ordering the evacuation of Beit Hashalom, the joint committee has met. The committee is comprised of representatives of the Hebron Municipality, the Jewish Community of Hebron, the local council of Kiryat Arba, residents of Beit Hashalom, Committee for Chomesh First, The Land of Israel Faithful, Youth...
6% think US should stand behind Palestinians Only 6 percent of Americans think the United States should stand behind the Palestinians in Middle East peace talks, according to a recent poll of voters conducted by Public Opinion Strategies and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research and commissioned by The Israel Project. Comparatively, 66 percent...
In a communique from the Al Qassam Brigade they reported on Friday's kassam rocket attacks on Ashkelon and Sderot: Day: Friday. Time: 11:20. Operation: Shelling Al Majdal (sic) (Ashkelon) settlement (sic) by two Grad rockets. Result: "18" Zionist settlers was wounded in the city. We are warning the Zionist entity...
Winning over 53% of the vote, entrepreneur Nir Barkat won his second bid for Mayor of Jerusalem. Running on a campaign which promised change (sound familiar?), Barkat brought a breath of fresh air to a city plagued by a population heavily weighed down by large families who pay little or no taxes and the responsibility of being the most important tourist...
At a Tel Aviv rally commemorating the 13th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin's assassination, Defense Minister Ehud Barak implied that Jewish extremists are responsible for the violence permeating Israeli society. "We used to call them wild weeds, but now they are tumors with secondary growths," said Barak. Shas's Industry, Trade and Labor Minister...
Judges admit that olive harvest violence not what it seems With the cards totally stacked against her, tireless Orit Struck, champion of the legal rights of Jews in Israel (how alarming is it that this is such an uphill struggle?), released transcripts from two Jerusalem Magistrate's Courts hearings which indicated that the harvesters...
Hamas challenges Obama to follow through on campaign pledges "[Obama] should know he has duties to the United States and in the whole world and in hotspots especially in the Middle East," Meshal told Sky. "Yes we are ready for dialogue with President Obama and with the new American administration with an open mind, on the basis...
MKs from Kadima, Shas, Likud, Aguda and NRP toured Beit HaMariva (Beit HaShalom) in Hebron last week in response to Defense Minister Ehud Barak's eviction notice. Saying that the notice was a move of dirty politics on Barak's part, taking advantage of the lack of government during the current transitional government, the MKs signed a petition demanding...
A cry from the heart Tension around controversial reference to World War II pope did not begin last weekend. The plan, involving appealing to the pope by lobbying his ambassadors around the world, was approved on Thursday night in New York and will be announced formally on Monday, a leader of an organization spearheading it told...
Labor and Kadima claim Netanya's worldview too different for Obama The newest political campaign spin of the Israeli Left seems to be the claim that Bibi Netanyahu's world perspective both regarding Israel and general economic issues differ too greatly from Barak Obama's to make him a reasonable choice for Prime Minister. Netanyahu, who...
Now that the US Presidential election is over it seems to be clear that yet again the American people have voted for one candidate only to see the "winner take all" electoral college system reflect a different reality. In spite of a slim 6% lead in the popular vote, in spite of Obama running away with the electoral college. A gracious John...
Although admitting that the overwhelming majority of Jewish settlers in Yesha are law-abiding citizens, Olmert went on to say in the weekly cabinet meeting that “there is also a not small group of wild people who behave in a way that threatens proper law and governance, not only in the areas in which they live, but also in the overall...
The campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain is demanding the Los Angeles Times release a video purportedly showing Barack Obama at an event in which he spoke of his friendship with a controversial Palestinian scholar, the newspaper reported on Tuesday. The footage is said to be of a 2003 banquet during which Obama, who was then an...
After talks broke down between Kadima and potential government partners, time ran out and President Shimon Peres rescinded Kadima's mandate to form a government. Kadima grandstanded by announcing they would run a bill through to disperse the knesset immediately, only to back down from that claim and support the original election date of February 10th....
Media, govt, police turn a blind eye to vast Arab destruction of Jewish agriculture. In one of the extreme Left's most successful public relation spins, the media, Leftist groups in Israel and from abroad have managed to pull political committees into the fray concerning the vandalism and sporadic, minor violence involving Jews against Arab...
Jesse Jackson: Zionists will lose their clout when Obama's in White House My observation of the "Jewish American view of Sen. Obama" was that there was an atmosphere of unreality surrounding Jewish advocacy and Jewish opposition to Sen. Barack Obama. Both pro-Obama and anti- Obama forces in the Jewish world related to the senator...
Statistics bear out that Arabs vandalize and destroy Jewish olive orchards in much higher numbers than vice versa. The IDF stopped three Palestinians on Saturday afternoon who were suspected of trying to infiltrate the Har Bracha settlement in Samaria. According to the military, the three came very close to the settlement's security fence when...
Police vs Settlers: Best defense is a good offense The Israeli police is attempting to activate that old adage which says that the best defense is a good offense, only this time the adage is being used to threaten the democratic process. In response to being "outed" as reacting with excessive force in confrontation with political...
In his first official visit to Israel, PA Foreign Minister Riad Al-Malahi, mouthed the stale rhetoric we're grown to know and but not yet love - 1) settlement in Yesha is a "ticking bomb" 2) if the PA loses the Arab street, Hamas is the only alternative and 3) they are "losing hope" for a piece (oops, I mean, peace) agreement. Yawn....
True Leftists should be protecting Jewish agricultural products and livestock from Arab destruction, vandalism and theft. Even in the face of statistics to the contrary, Leftist groups have succeeded in making it seem that Jews wantonly destroy Arab olives and olive trees in such vast numbers that the Civil Administration today gave special...
Yakir Segev announces campaign to enrich secular Zionists Oct. 2nd, at The Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, Yakir Segev, leader of the reservists call for Olmert's resignation in light of the his failures during the Second Lebanon War, announced the opening of a public information campaign aimed at secular Zionists. The campaign is...
Brash, irresponsibility in Olmert's latest venting Continuing his brash, irresponsible declarations, Olmert vented his bitterness in an interview with Yediyot Ahronot Erev Rosh HaShana calling for a "going out of business" giveaway of parts of Israel Arabs never dreamed might be theirs - ceding virtually all of Yesha, The Jordan...
Deposed PM Olmert would be well advised to reduce the level of his rhetoric One more beacon shining on the nasty fact that incitement is tolerated when spouted by the Left and punishable by imprisonment when even its scent is picked up on the Right. Ehud Olmert invoked that epitome of red flags to the Israeli public - the assassination of...
Settlement Affairs: Dani Dayan: The anti-extremist With his business suit and tie, Dani Dayan's very appearance goes against the stereotypical media vision of a settler - sandals, a kippa and an assault rifle strapped to his shoulder. Dani Dayan, an atypical 'settler.' Elected only last summer as head of the Council of Jewish...
A film every Jew and Non-Jew should see -- Amazing It takes a few minutes to watch, but is very important. Please help to pass this important information. http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, former head of the National Security Council, warned in a new report that the current formulation of the two-state solution is untenable. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski "Israel and the Palestinians do not truly desire the conventional two-state solution, and the Arab world - especially Jordan and Egypt - does not...
As people streamed toward Jerusalem's Old City for shlichot services Monday night, an East Jerusalem terrorist took the opportunity to ram his BMW car into a group of soldiers milling around chatting with friends at the city's main intersection to the Old City, Kikar Tzahal. About 15 people were injured, three in moderate condition and the others...
At the end of her first weekend as Israel's intended prime minister, it became clear to Tzipi Livni that she would have an easier time forming a coalition with Syrian President Bashar Assad than with her colleagues back in Israel. Judging by the editorial about her in the Syrian daily Tishrin - which represents the official line - Assad has a...
After a night filled with drama as the results came in from polling stations around the country, Mofaz - who trailed the foreign minister in television exit polls by as much as 12 percent - lost by just 1.1 percent. It is generally accepted that the inaccurate and highly biased television exit polls themselves may have created an atmosphere which...
If she were leading a rock group, we could call it Tzipi and the Expectations. She is expected to form a nimble yet stable government, broad enough to avert early Knesset elections yet efficient enough to work and to make policy. Her first priority will be to briskly de-Olmertize the party and to purge the rot and corruption at the top of the...
The government's national committee for planning and construction approved the establishment of the Lachish region community of Mirsham yesterday, rejecting demands to prevent the community for Gush Katif refugees based on environmental issues. The same environmental groups leading the protest against the establishment of the community of Mirsham...
Nine year old Tuvia Shtetman fought for his life on Shabbat after being surprised by his Arab attacker while on his way to shul. After children smelled fire and found a neighbor's house aflame, Tuvia was stabbed seven times before escaping his attacker, who fled into his nearby village. Tuvia managed to drag himself home where his father, Ido, first...
It has been reported that Abbas is demanding pre-1967 borders. Included in his demands are Ma'ale Adumim and Givat Ze'ev. He is "willing" to negotiate over the status of Gilo and the French Hill. Sound beyond incredible chutzpah? Olmert's desperation gives Abbas the idea that such demands will not be received as such. Channel 2...
According to the Eretz Yisrael Shelanu newsletter, people who were wounded and evacuated from Amona in the 2006 confrontation with security forces there have begun to receive letters from Magen David Adom demanding that they pay for their evacuation. The letters threaten that legal steps will be taken against the victim's possessions and bank...
A beleaguered Prime Minister, wearing an open-neck shirt and looking like he hadn't slept in weeks, met an excited 240 olim from North America on Monday morning after their Nefesh b'Nefesh flight landed at Ben Gurion. On the chairs were copies of Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post, given out free to the 800 guests who awaited the planeload of homeward bound...
The Central Region Commanding Officer recently signed directives restricting the movements of three Israeli Jews - residents of Yesha - forbidding them from freedom of movement in Yesha, including their own homes. The reasons behind the directives are classified and the three effected by the orders have no access to the information even in order to...
After debate in the Ministry of Domestic Security and in the knesset and knesset committees, the decision was made to destroy the home of the East Jerusalem terrorist who murdered eight young yeshiva boys at Mercaz HaRav Kook Yeshiva six months ago. Andre Rosental, lawyer for a human rights group, petitioned the high court on behalf of the terrorist's...
Jerusalem District Court Judge Aharon Farkash ruled on Monday that it was possible to implement a 2004 US court ruling, according to which the Palestinian Authority must pay compensations of more than $116 million to terror victims' families. In July 2004, a US court ruled that the Palestinian Authority was to pay some $116 million to the relatives of...
Israeli officials say security services have foiled two attempts by the Lebanese militia Hezbollah to kidnap Israeli businessmen. Details are sketchy, and Israel's military censor banned publication of some of them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because no official statement had been made. Channel 2 TV said Hezbollah has cells in...
Some 50 Balad activists and pupils demonstrated outside the Taufik Ziad School in Nazareth on Monday in protest of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's visit. The protesters held placards, which read, "Not welcome, no 'ahalan.' Get out you murderer." Balad Secretary-General Wail Omari said the demonstration was held in protest of Olmert's aggressive...
Shas leader, Eli Yisha, claims that Olmert has no legal or ethical right to come to any agreement with what he considers the fake leadership of the Arab community, Abu Mazan, and certainly not any agreement which concerns Jerusalem. Responding to a report in Haaretz which stated that Olmert and Abu Mazan have a tentative agreement about Jerusalem and the...
Two of the "stars" of one of Salah-a-Din's recent training camp are an 11 year old and a 4 year old who participated in gun and rifle practice without the aid of adults. When asked why he preferred such training to spending the day at the beach, the 11-yr-old answered that he wanted to learn to kill Jewish children to give their soldier parents...
An Islamic Jihad cell plotting to assassinate Israeli pilots, scientists and university lecturers was exposed in a joint IDF, Shin Bet and police operation. The arrest was cleared for publication on Thursday evening. Worrying Phenomenon? Bedouin accused of contacting al-Qaeda / Yonat Atlas Tel Sheva resident charged with attempting to...
Hamas recently jacked up the number of Palestinian prisoners it wants Israel to release in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, from 1,000 to 1,500, a senior government source said. At a meeting with senior cabinet ministers on Wednesday, both Shin Bet security service chief Yuval Diskin and Ofer Dekel, who was appointed by Prime Minister...
The Defense Ministry is considering turning over the strategic hilltop in Gush Etzion which was once the IDF army base Shadma to Beit Sahour to build a hospital. Although the need for a hospital in the area is clear, Jewish area residents feel that this strategic defense position should remain in Jewish hands and one of the 4 alternative sites for...
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss explained that while Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor, Olmert "systematically breached protocol" in pushing government funding for a project in Eilat called "Aquaria" which did not provide sufficient economic feasibility documentation. The comptroller's report states that the venture was...
The BBC has denied charges that money raised by a BBC charity was used to recruit and train the terrorists involved in the 7/7 terror attacks on London that killed 52 people in 2005. The BBC's own Newsnight current affairs programme reported on Tuesday night's broadcast that the BBC's Children in Need charity had donated around £20,000 to the Leeds...
The IDF shut down BBC radio transmitters in Hebron on Wednesday, acting on orders of the Communications Ministry and citing interference with communications at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The IDF Spokesman said the transmitters were illegal, adding that the Communications Ministry had found them to be jeopardizing contact between Ben-Gurion's...
www.myrightword.blogspot.com Israel should not have to trade land for peace, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee said as he explained to a small group of reporters Tuesday morning why he believed Israel should remain sovereign both in Jerusalem and the West Bank. "As an American, I do not feel that the Israelis are obligated or required to give...
Reports showing video clips and quoting terror organization leadership claim that women are fast becoming Hamas's new best weapon against IDF soldiers. Because Israeli soldiers are known to hesitate from following regulations to the letter when dealing with females in the Arab population, Hamas has been training large groups of women in the fields of Gaza...
In the continuing saga of Migron, The Supreme Court handed down its response to the government's decision to allow Migron to remain in place while a permanent site is built close by. Taking into account the agreement between The Yesha Council and the government, the court gave Peace Now and the organization's Arab partners until the first half of...
Just hours before he was to perform at a concert in memory of the Dickstein family and Elazar Leibowitz who were killed by Arab terrorists six years ago, Ehud Banai cancelled his participation saying that the evening had taken on a "political flavor". Banai was virtually isolated within his milieu for performing in Gush Etzion several years back...
Rivka Turgeman was 18 when she sat with a group of other girls on the road leading up to Amona in the hours before daybreak on the day of confrontation. She was trampled by a horse whose horseman not only did not try to avoid her but did not slow down or check to see what her condition was after running her over. While the other girls...
Inevitably the media fastens on to the craziest of the people who come out of the woodworks when there's controversy in the air. The flames fanned by a couple of Yesha rabbis and a few more from outside of Yesha against the outpost victory that The Yesha Council's perseverence snatched out of the jaws of defeat have produced the usual knee-jerk responses...
Abu Abir, Spokesman for Salah a-Din, an Arab terrorist group in Gaza, told the press on Saturday that an exercise was carried out by two units of 50 terrorists each to practice kidnapping an Israeli soldier from an IDF post. The terrorist used to play the part of the kidnapped soldier looked remarkably like Gilad Shalit. Abir went on to say that should...
Update: Migron Agreement Well-known, outspoken right-wing lawyer, Eliyakim HaEtzni, from Kiryat Arba writes about The Yesha Council agreement with The Defense Ministry concerning Migron: A not-so-young woman went to a new doctor. During initial intake the doctor asked her how old she was. She answered, "People give me 40 years old."...
Justice Dept. Encouraged to Encroach upon Legislative Arm Radical left-wing group, Peace Now, in its continuing encouragement of the justice system to seize legislative and executive powers, too, has informed Mazuz and The Justice Dept. of its intention to petition The Supreme Court to rule against the law pardoning Gush Katif expulsion...
Hamas wants Egyptian negotiators replaced by Germans. An Arab newspaper out of London has reported that Hamas is delaying progress in talks about Gilad Shalit's freedom. Unhappy with Egypt's 500 policeman at the Gaza-Egyptian border to contain Gazan infiltration and what Hamas considers foot-dragging in pressuring Israel to release Hamas...
Abu Ala pessamistic about reaching an agreement this year. Arab Negotiator, Abu Ala, expressed his pessamism about the possibilitiy of reaching a "peace" agreement with Israel. He said that any two-state solution would necessarily require a division of Jerusalem and that thus far Israel has not agreed to include that discussion in this...
Third anniversary of forced expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif marked. The central event marking the 3rd anniversary of the traumatic and tragic expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif was held at the Kisufim junction. Over 5000 people attended the rally coming from all over the country on pre-arranged buses and in private cars. The Kisufim junction...
Left-wing extremists claim that IDF restricts their protest in Hebron. They met in an emergency meeting to discuss what can be done about IDF interfering with their free movement in Hebron. According to Peace Now the new military officer in charge makes it difficult for them to carry out their bus trips to Hebron protesting the...
A high-ranking officer described the conditions under which 188 members of Fatah, many teenagers among them, were rescued from Gaza under fire and hospitalized in Soroka, Barzelai and Kaplan hospitals. Those rescued were questioned in order to ascertain that they did not pose a security threat to Israel. The rescue was approved by Defense Minister Ehud...
At a Kadima conference held in Kiryat Ono, Shaul Mofaz, just returned from the U.S., said that he would form a coalition government once elected leader of Kadima. Tsippi Livni told the press after the meeting that she, too, would aim for creating a coalition government. Both, however, may well be building castles in the sky with such promises. Livni, it...
In the late afternoon excited whispers began that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would be announcing his resignation in the evening Wednesday. This man, with more corruption allegations pending than any other politician in the history of the State of Israel, with less popular support (3%) than any other Prime Minister in the State of Israel, a product of Arik...
After a stormy debate during which Meretz MK Zahava Galon compared the behavior of right-wing activists to that of the Nazis, capitalizing on democracy's weakness during the Weimer Republic, the first reading of a bill to pardon Gush Katif protestors was passed. One of the initiators of the law, Ruby Rivlin, said, after the vote, that there are times...
The central ceremony commemorating three years to the destruction of the Jewish communities of Gush Katif will be held on Wednesday, August 6th, beginning at 5 p.m. at Kisufim, the closest point to the destroyed communities. During these days leading up to Tisha B'Av, when we observe the rituals of mourning, we see a direct link between mourning and...
Undisclosed sources on the Right echoed Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni's, concerns that Prime Minister Olmert is making out-of-proportion promises to Syria just for Syria's agreement to have direct talks instead of indirect talks through Turkey. Those sources claim that Olmert has already pledged territorial compromise in return for the honor of...
Likud hawks expressed skepticism about Maj. Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan's joining their party pointing out his support for the Oslo Accords and unilaterial disengagement from Gush Katif. Citing other high-ranking military personalities who received a warm welcome into the Likud only to depart for greener pastures when they found it politically...
While emphasizing in an interview on Israeli television on Friday that those who responded with violence to security forces evacuating an "outpost" last week reflect a small number of Yesha residents, Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan also pointed out that this response reflects an understandable response to the government having repeatedly...
Yesha's population grows by 5.5% in spite of Olmert government's Draconian measures and continual harrassment by the radical Left in the courts and on the ground. Yesha's population continues to grow faster than any other part of Israel. With the facts in from the bi-annual government-sponsored census, it is seen that Yesha's population has grown a...
In an interview with Arutz7 this week, Danny Dayan, Chairman of The Yesha Council, praised the first building block in trust between the government and Yesha supporters as a possible beginning of an end to the inhumane freeze on development in Yesha. The Jordan Valley community of Maskiot was initially approved by Amir Peretz when he was Minister of...
Saying that no public official has ever created such obstacles to being interrogated, Attorney General Mazuz went on to say that “The situation in which a prime minister sits in office while multiple criminal investigations are being conducted against him is likely to raise questions regarding his ability to fill his post, both in regards to his...
Just hours after another act of bulldozer terrorism in Jerusalem, this time only meters away from The King David Hotel, Barak Obama, the golden boy of liberal America, arrived in Israel's capitol. Having been given a lesson in the knee-jerk response to anything approaching real support for Israel, Obama managed to remain within the rhetoric borders...
"And the threefold cord is not easily broken" (Kohelet 4:12) On the 3rd Anniversary of the Disengagement from Gush Katif and Northern Shomron CYIR: Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel in conjunction with The Jerusalem Great Synagogue invite you to a special evening of commemoration, inspiration and solidarity HaRav Yosef Tzvi...
The driver of the Egged bus first hit by the tractor terrorist thought he'd been involved in a simple traffic accident. When he stopped and the tractor driver bashed into the bus again, he realized that it was a terror attack and drove quickly out of range. Many passengers had already been wounded lightly by breaking glass but escaped further injury....
In a London paper an Egyptian source is quoted as saying that Israel has made up a list of 70 terrorists Israel agrees to release in exchange for the kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit. The much-feared Bargouti, serving out 5 life sentences is on the list. Ahmed Sadaat, in prison for his involvement in the assassination of Minister Ze'evi (Gandi), is not on...
For some reason, when Israel came under Gordon Brown's criticism for its settlement policy, Olmert felt an appropriate response was to predict an Israel-Palestinian agreement before the end of the year. Olmert seems to be one of the few remaining people in the civilized world behaving as if totally unaware that he is setting an historical precedent...
The precedent set by the release of Kuntar has led to Hamas leader Haniya's boast that "the day will soon come for celebration and victory with the release of every prisoner from Israeli jails." Israel has long held fast to the principle that long-time security prisoners guilty of murdering Israelis are not eligible for exchange in political...
Hours of grueling cross-examination by Olmert's lawyers could not budge Talansky from his damaging testimony or confirm Olmert supporters' attempt to discredit him as shady, violent and dangerous. A clip of the police interrogation of Talansky, touted to discredit him, only made him easier to identify with when he said that he'd given the (illegal) money...
With big headlines and imaginary trumpets sounding in the background, the media announced, coincidentally on the day that Israel set the precedent for releasing a brutal murderer in exchange for bones, that 24 Hamas activists were arrested by Israeli Defense Forces in Judea and Samaria during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. As Hamas prepared for...
Okay, so Israel is unwilling or unable to catch and punish Arabs who have been stealing copper from electrical infrastructure in the Binyamin Region for years. Thousands of motorists have become accustomed to driving in total darkness for kilometer after kilometer as a result. The cost of constantly replacing the stolen copper became so astronomical that...
The much-awaited Hamas report concerning missing navigator Ron Arad has been received...and says nothing. It contains four versions of what may have happened to Arad, all claiming his death but under various circumstances. It's accepted that kidnapped soldiers Goldwasser and Regev have been dead for some time. In spite of there being no live Israeli...
Makes you want to slap your forehead yet again at the crazy things Israel does in the name of humanity in spite of the international community continuing to denounce Israel at every turn for being inhumane. Yes, the Israeli government has been subsidizing the burial of terrorists through payments made by the National Insurance Institute. In his...
It was discovered quite by accident this week that the families of at least three Arab terrorists killed while carrying out murderous actions against Israelis continue to receive all sorts of government subsidies and assistance as if their terrorist relative were still alive. The families of the bulldozer terrorist, the Mercaz HaRav terrorist and even...
The blood libel stamped through the ages on the Jewish People in various forms has no defined beginning and, apparently, has no end. Claims which seem to us obviously ridiculous and which we might think noone with a shred of sense would believe, we've learned to take seriously because of the murder and mayhem which result from...
In Monday's court hearing concerning Yesh Din's petition against the nine houses most recently populated in Ofra it was decided to give the residents of those houses 30 days to prepare their response. The State was given an additional 30 days to prepare their response. At the end of those 60 days, the court will decide upon a date for discussion of the...
Hamas remains adamant that Israel release 1000 Arab terrorists from prison in exchange for the kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalit, now in his third year of captivity. Furthermore, Hamas has now stated that no more "signs of life" will be forthcoming as long as negotiations are stalled. Unhappy with Egyptian negotiations on their behalf, Hamas...
Barak's order to demolish terrorists' homes was mainly based on Thursday's announcement by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz stating that razing homes of terrorists is permissable by law. Mazuz informed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Barak that rulings made by the High Court of Justice over the years clarify there is no constitutional barrier to...
When policemen hesitated to shoot and kill the bulldozer terrorist last week, we all saw how an unarmed young man, now known as "M", grabbed a nearby weapon and shot the terrorist in the head at close range. Orit Stroch, director of an organization which monitors the judicial process to insure the rights of Jews, explained to Army Radio that...
Receiving information that Peace Now intended to stage provocative confrontations with residents in Ofra and Migron Friday, the police and army organized Thursday afternoon to prevent their entrance to the two communities. With the Supreme Court hearing (bagatz) concerning Ofra just days away, it seems that Peace Now hopes to stage photos of seemingly...
Member of Knesset Yuval Steinitz (Likud) came out publicly calling for the demolition of the house of Wednesday's terrorist in Sur Bahir, adding that it should be done as soon as possible to show determination on Israel's part to punish terrorism. "We must create a situation where terror is not rewarded," he told Army Radio....
The middle of the day. The middle of the week. An Arab tractor driver appears seemingly out of nowhere and drives down busy Yafo Street near the old Sha'are Tzedek Hospital toward the entrance to Jerusalem. Driving the wrong way down this one-way street, he manages to turn over a city bus and smash several cars before he is shot and killed. The attack...
By Jacob Richman On Wednesday, July 2, 2008, the Gush Katif Documentation Center was opened in Nitzan. Unique documents, pictures and materials from 35 years of settlement were presented to the public for the first time. At the ceremony, the public was shown the design of the Gush Katif stamp that will be issued officially by the Israel Postal...
For the eighth time, the knesset voted to continue the limitations on immigration of Arabs into Israel - even in the case of the claim that the request is on the basis of the unification of families. Unsurprisingly, Arab party representatives denounced the decision....again. Also unsurprisingly, Zahava Galon (Meretz) echoed her Arab allies in the...
The US State Dept. has reacted with anger to the leak from an anonymous source that the United States believes that Israel is planning to attack Iran before the end of the year. In addition to the anonymous source, Tom Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN, told Fox News that it is believed that Israel will attack Iran after the Nov. 4th presidential...
The first reading of three necessary to make a law requiring a public referendum before Israel can make territorial concessions in The Golan Heights (and any other land within the borders of the State of Israel) passed with a vote of 65 in favor, 18 against and no abstentions on Monday. The striking similarities in the statements made by Meretz and the...
Saying that “The objective and assumption leading us all this time has been that we are working to return live men. Today we know for certain that this is not the case. ", beleagured Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remained adamant and gained approval for one of the largest terrorist exchanges in the history of the State of Israel. The cabinet...
Even the 75% of Israelis polled who said they had no faith in the ceasefire in Gaza lasting probably didn't think there would be four violations in the first 10 days of the agreement. In a pathetic continuation of Middle Eastern behavior, Israel's government entered into a bad agreement in which they did not stand firm on their own terms and has not...
According to Olmert aides, President Shimon Peres may be receiving the Prime Minister's letter of resignation if the motion for the Knesset's dissolution passes a preliminary vote on Wednesday. "If the Knesset dissolution bill passes on Wednesday, the choice will be between resigning or having to face the government's collapse...
Lecturing Israel on making "bad decisions" and explaining to Israel's leadership that the only good solution for the future is a Palestinian State and a divided Jerusalem, Sarkozy was made to feel right at home by a government who's become quite accustomed to representatives deciding its policy. Meanwhile, Sarkozy's wife, model Carla Bundi, was...
Just when it seemed he could sink no lower, Prime Minister Olmert showed that he can still surprise with his flagrant misuse of power. Desperately trying to retain his job, Olmert threatened to fire 5 ministers in his cabinet should they vote in favor of the preliminary reading of a bill to disband the knesset early. Fearing for his political life,...
Hamas says it will break ceasefire in Gaza if Shalit's petition is granted. Noam and Aviva Schalit petitioned the court on Saturday night and a discussion will be held on Sunday to halt the easing of economic restrictions at the Gaza borders until their son, Gilad, is released. Last Wednesday, their lawyers, Prof. Ariel Bendor, Eldad Yaniv and Sharon...
Jewish settlers in Yesha replaced an illegal (sic) structure that was demolished last week by security forces in the (Yesha) settlement of Yitzhar with another caravan. "We will rebuild each and every outpost, including Homesh," settler leader Yossi Dagan told Ynet on Saturday. Violent riots broke out on Thursday between...
In spite of rumor to the contrary, security forces were informed about the hike beforehand. Three yeshiva students from the Yesha community of Itamar in the Binyamin region were wounded Friday in a shooting attack against a group of hikers near Neveh Tzuf, northwest of Ramallah. Two masked terrorists opened fire on the three while they were...
Nine houses, eight of which have families living in them, surrounded by other Ofra houses populated years ago and uncontested, are the middle of the latest provocation of the radical left. After intensive and expensive research "Yesh Din" managed to find Arabs willing to have their names on a request from The Supreme Court to have an injunction...
In Parshat Shelach Lecha all but one of the "spies" or scouts sent by Moshe into Eretz Yisrael, finding a land filled with abundance, choose to report back only the most frightening of what they've found. "…a land that eats up its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature…and we were in our...
In an interview conducted in Hebrew (lest you think he was unable to make himself clear), Olmert told BBC that he sees Hamas as a viable partner for peace if the terror organization pays lip service to recognition of the State of Israel. Olmert went on to say that he was elected to make peace, most Israelis want peace, ergo he will rush to an agreement...
Noam Shalit, the father of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, strongly attacked Israel's agreement to a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip because it did not guarantee his son's return. In an interview with Haaretz, Shalit accused Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of violating his commitments - and of showing a lack of sensitivity for abducted soldiers. Shalit...
How many times will our blood pressure rise at hearing Condoleesa Rice once again say that building in the settlements might harm negotiations with the PA? How many times will we be pleased to hear Condoleesa Rice once again say that the rockets must stop falling in Southern Israel? The most effective thing Rice seems to be able to do is to snarl...
Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz on Friday characterized the cabinet's decision to continue indirect cease-fire talks with Gaza as problematic, adding that Hamas should be asking Israel for calm rather than the other way around. "We must act against terror through deterrence," Mofaz told Army Radio. "The Gaza regime is in the...
Chairman of the Labor party Ehud Barak attacked the government saying that “if this government was not shadowed by Kadima's primaries, the decision on a temporary ceasefire would have been accepted long ago.” According to Barak, “This government is not capable of making decisions opposite Hamas, the Syrians, Lebanon,...
In a recent issue of "Foreign Affairs", Condoleesa Rice points out that although Hamas won 2004 elections handily and rules in Gaza with a brutally strong thumb, the party has been put in a position with those elections to convert itself from a terrorist organization to one which leads and controls a population and its everyday life. In that,...
The majority of the Israeli public believes Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is currently under investigation for allegedly receiving unlawful funds from American businessman Morris Talansky, should step down immediately; even before Attorney General Menachem Mazuz and the State Prosecutor's Office decide whether or not an indictment is warranted in his...
The parents of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was taken prisoner by Hamas over 20 months ago, have received another letter from their son, Monday. The letter – which was preceded by two others – was relayed by Hamas as part of the group's pledge to former US President Jimmy Carter. Shalit's father, Noam, confirmed that a...
In committee meeting Wednesday, June 4th, committee chairperson, David Tal (Kadima) brought up for discussion an offered bill that passed preliminary discussion last year calling for a public referendum prior to any agreement with Syria which includes territorial compromises concerning The Golan Heights. At the request of Zahava Galon (Meretz) and Eitan...
In a world run amuck with political correctness and spin, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz became a beacon for reason when he said that the window of opportunity for reasonable discussions with Iran has closed. He went on to say that "Ff Iran continues its plan to develop nuclear weapons, we will attack it." While a beleagured Olmert,...
With Salaam Fiad lobbying The European Union to nix strengthening economic ties with Israel at their upcoming June 16th meeting in Luxubourg partially because of the building in East Jerusalem and Abu Alla shouting for a one-state solution as a result of this flagrant violation of international law, Housing Minister Ze'ev Boim remains unruffled. Pointing...
Following immediately on the heels of a Fatah statement that, given the state of the negotiations, there can be no agreement this year, wonder of wonders, is a statement from Abu Alla, on the one hand, that an agreements is being drafted and, on the other hand (and for a different forum), that there can be no agreement which does not include Jerusalem,...
There's been lots of talk lately about the supposed agreement between Yesha leaders and representatives of the Defense Ministry. Never has there been so much to do about nothing. If only all the noisemakers knew what The Yesha Council principles are for any possible such agreement, perhaps they would lament the fact that there is no agreement here on...
A small band of Yesha teens, led by former-mayor, former-politician Daniella Weiss, ignored the right of Migron residents to invite and host The Yesha Council as their guests for Yom HaAtzmaut. Creating disturbances before, during and after the Yom HaAtzmaut activities, they were, however, unable to ruin the festive atmosphere as...
On the one hand, should Mazuz decide to indict Olmert, the Prime Minister would have to resign, based on decisions handed down by the High Court of Justice in cases involving Shas leaders Aryeh Deri and Raphael Pinhasi. On the other hand, knowing the seriousness of the investigations against him, Olmert has met with Abbas this week for "...the most...
Born in South Africa in December 1914, he was in his 94th year. He was a Betari, a confidant of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, a member of the High Command of the Irgun, elected to the first Knesset, Zionist thinker, author and ideologue. He had been in an old-age home for the past few years and just two months ago, underwent an operation caused by blood circulatory...
With a blanket of silence still spread over the issues for which Prime Minister Olmert was called in for questioning, Condoleesa Rice arrived in Israel for what was to be Olmert's greatest hour of political maneuvering. Speculation is running high as to the reason that the country's highest judicial official Mezuz issued an urgent order for Olmert's...
Adding insult to injury, the settlement division of the World Zionist Organization has demanded repayment of 125 million shekels worth of loans given to Gush Katif residents over the most recent three decades of Jewish residency there. With the majority of Gush Katif refugees still unemployed and without permanent housing, the absurdity and just...
Israeli officials declined to comment on the report, but the message and the unwillingness of the government to comment creates a sense of deja vu. Last time it was Jerusalem and this time The Golan Heights. Syrian Emigrant Affairs Minister Buthaina Shaaban told satellite television al-Jazeera that the message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud...
Two Israeli guards were killed Friday morning in a shooting attack in an industrial zone near Nitzanei Oz in the Sharon region. The two were in charge of checking Palestinians arriving from the West Bank. The two were identified as Shimon Mizrahi, 53, of Bat Hefer and Eli Wasserman, 51, of Alfei Menashe The Al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic...
Four rockets were fired at Ashkelon on Friday morning, one of then landing in the city's southern cemetery. Dozens of graves were damaged. The al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, as well as for a shooting attack which left two Israeli guards dead in an industrial zone in the...
Taking advantage of the crossings into Gaza used for humanitarian needs, Palestinians attempted to pull off major terrorist attacks to strike fear into the hearts of Israelis as they began the Pesach celebration. Exploding two vehicles packed with explosives accompanied with a barrage of 15 mortar shells, 13 soldiers were wounded, in spite of a third...
This Pesach remember those who are not free On the eve of this Pesach holiday when we are preparing ourselves to sit around the Seder table to read the Haggada, drink 4 cups of wine and talk about the exodus from Egypt, the escape from slavery into freedom, to work toward the geula – at this very time we must remember those who are unable...
Two weeks ago, The Yesha Council, the Mevo Horon Council and The Defense Ministry agreed to make Mevo Horon the test case for the ongoing "outpost" talks between Yesha leadership and the Ministry. The Yesha Council's position has, and continues to be, that almost all of the so-called outposts can easily be made legal if the government simply...
A Long Island mogul is at the center of a sensational bribery scandal that could bring down embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, The Post has learned. Millionaire financier Morris Talansky - who runs an investment firm out of his tony home in Woodmere - allegedly passed money to Olmert while the politician was mayor of Jerusalem in the '90s,...
The IDF is carrying out an arrest operation in Ramallah and Bituniyah, The operation includes the encircling of 9 or 10 homes there. Reportedly, among the homes involved in the operation are the homes of President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas leader Dr. Myriam Salah, currently jailed in Israel, and a senior member of Hamas, Omar...
The High Court of Justice on Monday rejected a plea filed by 30 Sderot residents The residents' suit called on the government to fortify 800 private homes in the Qassam-battered town. The residents claimed the government was not upholding its responsibility to defend Israeli citizens against the threat of Qassam rockets. The Court...
Former US Pres Jimmy Carter Receives a Cool Reception in Israel. Israeli leaders are shunning former President, Jimmy Carter, apparently for his having accused Israel of apartheid and for planning to meet with the head of the violently anti-Israel Hamas group. A schedule released by the U.S.-based Carter Center showed no plans for the...
The numbers of demonstrators increased at the Rimonim junction this week as the IDF continued to pack up their security checkpoint. The Yesha Council leadership, the mayor of The Binyamin Regional Council, Amana leadership and many like-minded people gathered again to take up where the government is forcing IDF to leave off. Refusing to leave motorists...
Yesha Council leadership will be joined by the Mayor of the Binyamin Regional Council and many others at the site of an IDF checkpoint which is to be removed. Not far from this intersection between Jerusalem and Jericho just south of the Jewish communities of Rimonim and Cochav HaShachar, Eti Gehalia, mother of 7, was murdered by terrorist gunfire as she...
Remember Amir Peretz as Minister of Defense? In his brief and quite inappropriate stint in the Defense Ministry, Peretz became the first to create and destroy a community with the stroke of a pen surprising even Peace Now at the power their opinion had never levied before. Approved at every level, the young evacuees of Gush Katif's Shirat HaYam, were all...
Motti Kirshenbaum, of London and Kirshenbaum fame, enthusiastically accepted Pinchas Vallerstein's invitation to come see what all the outpost noise is really about. His partner, Yaron London, who was to join them, declined at the last moment. Beginning in Bruchin, driving through Ariel to Nofei Nehemia and Eli, Kirshenbaum saw the 6 houses in Givat Tet...
The NYTimes published the full results of a Ramallah-based public opinion poll conducted by the respected Halil Shakaki Institute, thought to be a reliable source for Palestinian public opinion. The Shakaki Institute reported unprecedented support for violence against Israelis with 64% in favor of the kassam rockets used...
John McCain spoke out strongly for Israeli action. In fact, McCain managed to come out more strongly against the continuing Palestinian aggression against Israel in his one week visit to Israel than Olmert has exhibited in his entire term in office so far. Calling the situation "insufferable" in a conversation with Sderot mayor, Eli...
The following is an excerpt from Commader Designate of the Israel Air Force, Major General Ido Nehustan, written in a publication of the Jerusalem Institute for Public Affairs. Gaza as an Example of the New Conflict Paradigm The process that we see in Gaza is the first appearance ever of a regime affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. Hamas is...
At least three Kadima representatives concur with colleague Amira Dotan's assessment as vice director of the knesset committee entrusted with the situation of the Gush Katif refugees when she said that it was a disgrace. Zev Alkin, Marina Slodkin and Shlomo Mula expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of results thus far. With 1600 people...
As various government office continued to study the issue of the legality of destroying the Jabel Mukaber home of the terrorist who murdered 8 young men at Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva in Jerusalem, rising frustration at the government's seeming impotence and foot-dragging led 200 protestors to gather at Talpiot's Promenade from which many entered...
The Palestinian Authority declared Sunday that it would rebuild the home of Islamic Jihad operative Muhammad Shahade, who was killed by the IDF in Bethlehem last week along with three other gunmen. Palestinian Economy Minister Kamal Hassuneh, who headed an official PA delegation to the mourning tent over the weekend, announced that the Palestinian...
IDF officials were quick to evaluate the situation at the Shilo junction where Rabbi Erez Bar-On fired on and killed an Arab terrorist as he tried to stab a 15 year old Jewish boy at a bus stop at the Shilo junction. They said that Rabbi Bar-On's level-headed and quick response was both decisive and appropriate given the circumstances and that his action...
Moshe "Boogy" Ayalon, former IDF Chief of Staff, spoke to a room filled to capacity in the community of Ofra Saturday night. A Gofrit member, a kibbutz located near Eilat, and former Peace Now supporter, Ayalon talked about the process he went through to become an supporter of Yesha residents firmly committed to the belief that...
Foreign Minister Livni will be sending a legal document to the ministry's legal advisor in the coming days which will , in turn, be sent to the regional court, clearing the way for victims of terror to bring suit against the Palestinian Authority for not preventing terrorists from entering Israel to carry out their acts of terror. This directive,...
At the end of shiva for the 8 young men cut down by terrorist gunfire last week, every inch of Mercaz HaRav Yeshiva was taken by a country in mourning for some of its most committed, most wholesome young. Praised by the Defense Minister as a bastion of Zionist strength, Mercaz HaRav is a symbol of belief in and investment in the future of Israel. Among...
Wednesday evening, Israel Police's elite Yamam counter-terror unit raided Bethlehem and killed four Islamic Jihad gunmen, including Mahmoud Shehada, 45, the commander of Islamic Jihad in the city. The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) said the four had constituted the leadership of the terrorist group's armed wing in the city. When the men's bodies were...
"Almagor", an organization for victims of terror, turned to Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Barak and Internal Security Director Dichter demanding they lift the smokescreen of legal issues behind which the political echelon is hiding in order not to take action against the East Jerusalem home of Ala Abu-Dayhem, the terrorist who carried...
A 750 home building project begun in the Givat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem in 2000 stopped when the Intifada broke out. When contractors wanted to get back to work, the government, taken aback by the international outcry at the building initiative in Har Homa, put bureaucratic obstacles in their way. A legal battle between the contractors an the...
Although Israel said earlier in the week that it would not intervene in the value of the dollar, Thursday the Bank of Israel stepped in and bought a rumored 50-100 million dollars as the dollar fell to 3.35 shekels to the dollar, its lowest value since 1997. The dollar dropped 2.42% today and 11% since the beginning of the year.
The American Physicans Fellowship (AFP), which has been bringing US doctors to Israel for emergency and trauma medicine courses so they could fill in for Israel counterparts in an emergency, has established The Sderot Fund to build bomb shelters for residents of the city and others under Palestinian rocket attacks. APF President Dr. Norton Greenberger...
The names of the victims murdered in the deadly terrorist gunfire on Thursday evening at Mercaz Harav in Jerusalem were cleared for publication Friday just hours before a joint funeral began. The murdered were identified as Yohai Lifshitz, 18, of Jerusalem; Yehonatan Yitzhak Alder, 16, of Shilo; Yonadav Haim Hirshfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar; Neria...
In an interview on Israel Radio Reshet Bet with Aryeh Golan, former head of Military Intelligence, Yaacov Amidror, made it clear that in his opinion, small excursions into Gaza will not solve any problem there and will, necessarily, be seen as failure on Israel's part and used as such by the Palestinians. Comparing the situtation to someone who has...
"I cannot look you in the eye and promise that such incidents will not recur in the future," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said during a condolence visit Monday night to the Mercaz Harav rabbinical seminary in Jerusalem, the site of Thursday's terror attack that left eight Israelis dead. "The battle against terrorism is at its peak, but this...
As shell-shocked Ashkelon residents come back to see the damage to their homes from the Grad missile strikes on Thursday, they can be heard wondering how they could have escaped safe and sound. One single mother explains that she found her teenage son, in his room when the missile hit their apartment, on the window ledge about to jump, thinking it the...
A Kadima committee made up of members of knesset who are not ministers met on Feb. 25th while Olmert was in Japan. They discussed the issue of Jerusalem and made it clear to the media and to the country that Kadima plans to stick with its original platform which confirms the sanctity of an undivided Jerusalem. Eli Aflalo, Coalition Chairman, was joined...
Some Israeli citizens may be surprised to learn that they are listed on Ministry of the Interior forms to be found of the official website as residents of a foreign country - no different than France or the USA. Yesha is listed on the official Interior Ministry's site in the foreign country list of options when asked to define country of...
During the last snow storm when Yesha was hardest hit and road closings and school closings were widespread, Yesha residents were left guessing since the Israel Broadcast Authority, in keeping with their usual practice, did not report on Yesha weather conditions. An Eli resident, fed up with the lack of basic services, turned to the Authority in...
Intensified rocketing of southern Israel targets were felt all over the south on Wednesday and Thursday, with at least one hitting its target with deadly results. Roni Yechiah, a 47 year old Logistic student at Sapir College, died of massive chest wounds from shrapnel shortly after being evacuated from the Sapir College campus. Yechiah, who received was...
Hizballah secretary-general Nasrallah gave a fiery speech at a memorial event in which he claimed the "fact" that Israel will disappear and the decline has already begun with Israel's poor performance and subsequent defeat in the Second Lebanon War. He went on to point out that in spite of Israel's plan to kill Hizballah leaders on their way to...
The first car convoy to Sderot drew 300 cars filled with people who infused the Sderot economy with 1.5 million shekels in purchases from local businesses. Over 700 cars pulled into Sderot in August for the second supportive car convoy with 2 million shekels spent during the day in Sderot shops and restaurants. On Friday, Feb. 22nd, over 10,000 people...
The reality is the reality. Again, cities are being bombarded. The government is the same government, the leadership is the same leadership and the floundering is the same floundering. This was also the message Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter conveyed when he read aloud a section from the Winograd Report at a weekly Cabinet meeting...
Former diplomat and respected political analyst, Yoram Ettinger, responds to Palestinian Census Report by replacing wishful thinking with fact. When the Palestinian Census Report came out recently claiming a 30% rise in the Arab population in Yesha over the past decade, many could be heard crying ¨gevalt¨. Yoram Ettinger, whose in-depth...
Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lopolanski: "Jerusalem will not be the latest illegal outpost!" Olmert claims that Jerusalem will not be part of the initial talks, initial perhaps being the key word, with the Palestinians. Abbas confidently announces that there would be no talks at all if Jerusalem were not being discussed. Shas leader Eli Ishai...
Activist organization pressing for Zoldan´s murderers to be turned over to Israel but skeptical that it will happen. The murderers of Ido Zoldin, z"l, were apprehended shorted after his murder. They are reportedly being held by The Palestinian Authority, although there are those who are doubtful whether they are actually behind bars. The...
Danny Dayan writes to Police Chief Cohen with a copy to Minister of Domestic Security to protest the treatment of female minors held after demonstrating evacuation of outposts. Yesha Council Chairman, Danny Dayan, sent off a missive to Dudi Cohen asking for clarification in the case of the girls arrested during the evacuation of an outpost and...
Eli Yishai, in a moving speech this week, said that building in Kiryat Sefer, Beitar Elit and Elad will continue. Shas MK Eli Yishai said this week that in spite of Olmert´s attempts to procedurally strangle any further building in Yesha, the Yesha communities of Kiryat Sefer, Beitar Elit and Elad will not be stopped. Furthermore,...
High Court Denies Peace Now Petition Israel's Supreme Court, led by Dorit Benisch, has denied Peace Now's petition to convert the court's decision regarding Migron to a legally defined requirement. Peace Now, saying that history has shown the various Israeli governments reluctant to carry out evacuation decisions in Yesha, petitioned the High Court to...
A military panel has rescinded its order forbidding Beit HaShalom residents from putting in windows to get through the winter. Previously the panel turned down the request saying that it violated humanitarian rights...apparently the right of Arabs to watch Jews suffer the winter cold. Consistent and persistent pressure from MK Eli Yishai finally...
Some say that Barak's desertion of the principles he represented a mere week or so ago to Yakir Segev of the Reservists Organization is reminiscent of his desertion of wounded soldiers at Bzelem years ago. Others have said that his decision is a reaffirmation that politics is stronger than principles and promises. In response to media and politicos...
2006 Lebanon campaign ended without victory, army did not provide effective response to Hizbullah rocket fire, inquiry commission head tells reporters. 'Olmert acted in what he thought was the interest of the State of Israel,' Winograd adds "Overall, we regard the Second Lebanon War as a serious missed opportunity. Israel initiated a long...
School distrupted in Jerusalem, the Galilee, the Golan, Gush Etzion and all over Yesha. Even the university at Ariel is closed. Many Yesha roads are closed today including the roads along the hill country, from Jerualem to Shilo and in Gush Etzion. Snow plows are out in force but so far 17 centimeters of snow has fallen in the Jerusalem area with the...
With Shas reiterating that it will have no choice but to leave the government should Jerusalem be placed on the negotiation table, Olmert announced to fellow Kadima members that he will not open talks with the subject of Jerusalem. Although his dodgey comment means relatively little since it is clear that "not opening the talks with the subject of...
Defense Minister Livni, meeting with families who have lost loved ones in military actions, was reported by family representatives, to show identification with their criticism of Olmert's actions during the second Lebanese war. Minister of Infrastructure, when meeting with the families, said that Olmert would best not take the Labor Party's presence in a...
"What made the government - our government - decide to build outposts on the hilltops? Was it by chance? Someone's capricious move? Not at all. The outposts on the hilltops were meant to allow the Jewish settlements to live in security." These unequivocal statements were made in October 1999 by the man who would, years later, father...
Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe "Boogy" Yaalon said Tuesday that there was no chance for a peace agreement with the Palestinians and that the negotiations with them were doomed to fail. According to Yaalon, in order to make diplomatic progress, the Palestinians must carry out a reform. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference, the...
A change in EU attitudes towards Israel? In a briefing to Israeli reporters Tuesday, European commissioner for Justice Freedom and Security, Frano Frattini, said that the steps leading up to the Gaza blackout cannot be construed as a war crime and criticized the incessant Qassam rocket fire on Israeli civilian population centers. In a lecture...
"There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza," a military official told Ynet Sunday, claiming that the Palestinians had enough food supply to last them for the next weeks, and that any reports of such a crisis were created and promoted by Hamas. While admitting that the situation in the Gaza Strip was far from good, the official rejected...
The Olmert strategy of fighting early elections is to both attack Barak and shout Olmert's refusal to give up his job. The Olmert message is that the problems highlighted in the Winograd Report have been "fixed" and that Olmert has learned his lesson and is now more readily consulting with experts about the areas of government he knows...
"The final report of the Winograd Commission is expected to be dramatic and decisive," a member on the commission told Ynet Thursday. The member also stated that the report could have "drastic ramifications" for the political system, and could even lead to a toppling of the government. The commission's spokesman refused to comment on...
Fifteen months after being sworn in, Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman announced Wednesday he was resigning his office and that his party was leaving the coalition. The move, which was announced in a press conference, came just two weeks before the Winograd Commission, probing the...
The statistics are in for terrorism in 2007. Relative quiet still equals 13 Israelis killed and 500 wounded. Hatzalah has made its annual report for 2007 which is based on the daily incident report kept in their offices. While there has, thankfully, been a sustained reduction in Israelis killed by terrorism (down to 13 from 29...
Yesha Council Chairman Danny Dayan met with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair along with others from Israel's political Right. Along with Effi Eitam and others, Danny Dayan met with Tony Blair making this a first-time experience for the political veteran. Meeting with the political right, Blair heard opinions voiced that...
The battle over Beit HaShalom, the building between Hevron and Kiryat Arba purchased by Jews several months ago, is one being waged in the court system. The next court date is later this week when the issue of whether or not the documents presented by the Jewish owners were genuine or forged as the government claims will be on the...
Yesterday Omert and Mofaz traded insults regarding failures in The Lebanon War. Today Olmert and Barak trade barbs about Outposts On Sunday Defense Minister Barak slammed PM Olmert for his remarks on the failure to evacuate "illegal outposts". This in response to Olmert's referring to the fact that no...
If such restrictions were decided against Arabs the courts would yell discrimination! At an emergency meeting in Ariel, Mayor Ron Nahman told his municipal council that even the most basic of community building will now require personal approval of Olmert via the Defense Ministry. He went on to explain that he and others...
Foreign volunteer killed by Palestinian sniper gunfire from within Gaza; man was shot as he was working in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. Hamas claims responsibility A 20-year-old volunteer from Ecuador was killed after he was shot by a Palestinian sniper from within the Gaza Strip as he was working in the fields of the Ein...
Housing and Construction Minister Ze'ev Boim (Kadima) called Sunday for building to continue in sensitive areas in Jerusalem. "Jerusalem has municipal boundaries that were established and within these domains it is our right to build. If we don't say this, we are pulling the rug out from under ourselves and placing a...
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia will meet Monday for a first discussion on the core issues, which include Jerusalem, Yesha communities, Arab refugees, Israel's borders, security and the water resources. PA President Abbas announced that core issue talks with Israel would begin Jan....
Shas's position is that Jerusalem is not up for negotiation and that the first step toward serious negotiations of any kind is the cessation of Arab terror. After Sunday's meeting, however, Rafael Pinhasi, the Council's secretary said clearly that "The moment Israel starts discussing Jerusalm with the Palestinians, Shas will immediately resign...
In the Olmert style to which we've become accustomed, UTJ was promised 173 million shekels and support for tax benefits for organ donors if they join the coalition. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert took time out from preparation for Bush's visit to meet with United Torah Judaism MK Avraham Ravitz last week in a concerted effort to bring United Torah...
Beinisch meets with the US ambassador to Israel. Politician or Jurist? A letter calling for Supreme Court Dorit Benisch to suspend herself from all legal discussions concerning building in Yesha, the legitimacy of outpost evacuations and the route of the separation fence has been signed by 20 Knesset members spanning several...
At a Yisrael Beiteinu faction meeting on Monday, Lieberman made his case for quitting the coalition. Party Leader Lieberman said the government has crossed the red lines Yisrael Beiteinu set for itself, seemingly leaving the party no choice but to leave. However, he asked faction members to refrain from engaging in...
Jewish leaders are reeling after what they say was a decision by Ms. magazine to refuse to accept a full-page advertisement featuring three prominent Israeli women. The advertisement, submitted to the feminist publication by the American Jewish Congress, featured photographs of three women who hold leadership positions in Israel,...
In an emergency meeting held Jan. 6 in Ariel, 13 Yesha mayors plus Yesha Council's general director, decided on a united campaign to turn the tide of Olmert's illegal building freeze. The following decisions were agreed upon: Unification of all mayors into a cooperative bloc for a continued fight against the building freeze...
Lieberman to meet with Olmert Monday or Tuesday to determine whether Yisrael Beitenu remains in the coalition. "If the prime minister launches talks on the core issues we will be out of this government by the end of the week", Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beiteinu) said last week. Aharonovitch's...
Israelis living in the West Bank (sic) should ignore the law and continue to build in their communities in a show of civil disobedience to the government-ordered construction freeze, MK Arye Eldad (National Union-National Religious Party) said Sunday. "Our instructions to the residents of Judea and Samaria are to violate the...
Along with traffic snarls and myriad ceremonies announcing the visit of George Bush, there were also those who chose to send another message to the American president. Thousands of people, young and old, religious and secular, rabbis, soldiers, mothers and youth groups, gathered to hold hands, making a human chain around and on top of the walls of The...
A handful of people, including several minors, were arrested for putting up posters depicting Peres, Olmert and Bush wearing kaffiyah. Those arrested explained that they were being paid to put up the posters and others have pointed out in response to the arrest that both the person employing those detained, as well as those detained, were engaging...
Migron settlers keep watering gardens Nadav Shragai - Haaretz Migron, an outpost whose evacuation American diplomats demand every time they discuss the outposts with their Israeli counterparts, ceased to be an outpost a long time ago. Seven years after it was established, Migron now looks like a full-fledged settlement: two permanent houses and...
Hamas official quoted by Al-Hayat as saying former Fatah leader will be freed as part of prisoners' deal to release kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit. 'Israel has become more flexible,' he says. Israel has agreed to release former Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti in the framework of a future prisoner exchange deal for the release of kidnapped IDF soldier...
With an overwhelming majority vote of confidence by the extended general board of The Yesha Council, Pinchas Vallerstein, former mayor of The Binyamin Regional council, was elected to the position of General Director of Yesha in Thursday evening's vote. He was also installed a member of the board with full voting privileges. With only a small dissenting...
Citing the terrorist murder of two off duty soldiers as they hiked with a friend on Friday, Danny Dayan has called for an immediate change in Olmert's policy of releasing terrorist security prisoners. Furthermore, he has called for the cancellation of the ministers' committee set up to re-define the term "prisoners with blood on their hands"...
Foreign Minister Tsippi Livni toured some of the so-called outposts on Jan. 8th, flying overhead in a helicopter , presumably to be better informed for President Bush's upcoming visit to Israel on Wednesday. In a statement during the day, Livini said that the government's position on the outposts is not a bluff and that enforcing the law is something...
Cpl. Amihai and Sgt. David Ruben, both of Kiryat Arba and both from special fighting units in the IDF, were murdered by terrorists on Friday as they hiked in a wadi near Hebron with a female companion on Friday. In a fierce firefight between the two and their attackers, one terrorist was killed and another critically injured. The young woman hiker was...
Public Security Minister, Avi Dichter recently wrote to MKs Uri Ariel and Aryeh Eldad (National Union - NPR) that Jews are not allowed to pray openly on the Temple Mount, even if it just entails moving their lips. Over ten years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that it accepted the government's position that it was not opposed to individual Jewish...
Human Chain Around Jerusalem On the day before President Bush begins his visit to Israel, One Jerusalem is organizing a massive human chain around the walls of the Old City. The Human Chain is an expression of firm support for united Jerusalem. The Human Chain is grassroots opposition to Prime Minister Olmert's declaration that Jerusalem...
In a letter handed to US President George Bush, former Sephardic Chief of Israel Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu admonished the US president to avoid any course of action that would harm the Jewish nation. “The Jewish nation is eternal, and forever remembers those that have aided it throughout history, as well as those that have...
Cinematography lecturer Nizar Hassan is still on suspension from his academic duties at the Sapir College in southern Israel pending a hearing on his divisive decision to bar a student wearing an IDF uniform from his class - but a new controversy has already reared its head and is further threatening the Hassan's future at...
Israel is planning to allocate funds to build over one thousand apartments in east Jerusalem and the West Bank as part of its 2008 budget, despite previous statements that it would not expand West Bank construction, Army Radio reported. 500 apartments are planned to be built in Har Homa and another 240 in Ma'aleh Adumim. This is in addition to the 340...
Prof. Tamir Shafer and his research student Itai Gabai evaluated thousands of news reports and quotes in the British and American media before and after the expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif. To their surprise, they found that world opinion, not particularly favorable to Israel prior to the expulsion, was even less favorable after the action. Considering...
Dozens of activists from the Jewish National Front movement infiltrated demonstrations staged by teachers against the government during their two-month strike and documented the behavior of police officers towards the protesters. Now the activists intend to file a civil lawsuit against the police for what they say is discriminatory behavior against...
Security Forces claim that the violence used in the confrontation in Amona was just the very bottom rung of possibilities while reportedly some right wing sources are calling for taking the battle to enemy territory. This seems an ominous sign for future attempts at evacuations in Yesha. In what may be a fear tactic being used by security leadership, a...
In June before the transfer of Jewish families from Gush Katif, the Harel (Levenstein) brothers, Mordi and Elizur, along with a third companion, placed old cars adjacent to the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway with the intention of setting fire to them to call the attention of drivers to their opposition to the pending evacuation. Before they carried out...
A military rabbi, along with a number of IDF soldiers and Chabad members affixed a mezuzah Monday on a wall at the entrance to one of the most sensitive areas in Yesha – the Casbah in Hebron. Judea Brigade Rabbi Captain Eliyahu Peretz presided over the unusual ceremony, which lasted only a few minutes. Aluf Yehuda Fucks, Mahat Yehuda, has...
The Left Speaks to the Left Again The Ministers' Committee headed by Haim Ramon met this week ostensibly to understand and deal with the outstanding issues which make the communities known as the "unauthorized outposts" problematic. The nine ministers, among them Foreign Minister Livni, Minister of Agriculture Simhon, Minister of Defense Barak,...
Ariel Herbst is spending her first autumn in the bay area town of Berkley, California. Ms. Herbst accompanied her parents, Yehuda and Shani, to sunny California so that her father, an Israeli lawyer, could receive a Master's Degree in Law from Boalt College of Law at Berkley University. Next year, the three will reside on the Upper Westtside of...
Kadima is slated to meet today, Thursday, but so far has been seen to rally around its tainted leader. Pouncing on the Winograd conclusions that Olmert and the rest of the political echelon was weak and at fault but the military was worse, there are those who are ironically even asking for an apology to Olmert. Israel waits to see what Barak and Labor...
