Last week Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told the European Union Parliament that rabbis were instructing Jews to poison Palestinian water supplies. Abbas now admits what any reasonable person already knew – that he lied. In apparently unscripted remarks to European leaders, Abbas screeched that “a number of rabbis in Israel announced, and made a clear announcement, demanding that their government poison the water to kill the Palestinians.” He called it a “clear incitement to commit mass killings against the Palestinian people.” His tirade won Abbas a standing ovation from the EU parliamentarians. Of course, there was absolutely zero evidence that…
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Israeli Minister of Transportation Israel Katz (Likud) this week presented to foreign media outlets his ambitious plan to create an artificial island just off the coast of the Gaza Strip to provide the area’s residents with a modern airport and seaport. Katz noted that the project would significantly ease the difficult economic situation in which Gaza finds itself without harming Israel’s security. Predictably, the Palestinians themselves protested the plan, insisting it was an Israeli scheme to drive a further wedge between Gaza and the so-called “West Bank.” If implemented, the plan would see the construction of an artificial island eight…
During a campaign interview this week, presumptive Republican candidate for the US presidency, Donald Trump, used Israel as an example of the kind of racial and religious security profiling he feels is necessary to keep America safe. “I think profiling is something that we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” the real estate mogul said. “Other countries do it, you look at Israel and you look at others, they do it and they do it successfully. And I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense and we have to use…
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah this week issued a statement condemning Israel’s response to last week’s deadly Tel Aviv terrorist shooting, and insisting that Muslims be given free rein in Jerusalem’s Old City. Following the shooting at Tel Aviv’s Sarona Market, Israel learned that the shooters had come from the Hebron-area Palestinian village of Yatta. As expected, Israeli forces sealed off the area and conducted investigations in and around the village for several days, before largely lifting the restrictions this week. According to Hamdallah, this mode of operation is unacceptable. Misrepresenting international law, Hamdallah was adamant that as a…
American blogger Elder of Ziyon has pointed out a disturbing “sensitivity” of the “official U.S. VISA information and appointment services.” Of the countries listed on this government website, Cyprus does not have a flag and capital city. This is probably an indication of the United States’ displeasure over the island’s division between Turkey and Cyprus. Since this website is divided into rubrics representing countries, the rubrics separating between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv means that they represent two countries, but which? Since Israel does not appear on this list of countries, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem appear as some kind of unidentified, exterritorial…
This week we mourn the passing of Avraham Goldman, Yonatan Suher, and Simcha Damri who were killed on Saturday, March 19 in a terrorist attack in Istanbul, Turkey. The three were a part of a culinary tour group that included 14 Israelis. Mehmet Ozturk, inspired by the malicious Jew-hatred that ISIS spreads worldwide, killed himself in the suicide bombing along with three Israelis and two others. Avraham Goldman and Yonatan Suher both held dual Israeli – American citizenship. Of the 36 wounded in the attack, 10 were Israeli. The wounded Israelis have been flown back to Israel after receiving preliminary…
After 450 rockets were fired at Israel between January and July, 2014, Israel undertook Operation Protective Edge with two objectives: “restoring security to Israeli civilians living under Hamas rocket fire” and “dismantling the Hamas tunnel network used to infiltrate Israel.” According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Hamas entered Israel through tunnels four times. The IDF destroyed 32 terror tunnels, 14 of which had openings inside Israel’s borders. In recent years, the threat from the tunnels is an entirely new dimension of the terror emanating from Gaza. Lt. Col. (ret.) Jonathan D. Halevi writes: “The attack tunnels create a new…
France threatened Israel with recognizing the Palestinian Authority as a nation-state only a day after Iranian business agreements were made with French companies – a deal worth several billion euros. Coincidence? As the saying goes, money talks. During Iranian President Hasan Rouhani’s recent diplomatic tour of Europe, meetings took place with the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Pope Francis, over twenty French business leaders, and French President Francois Holland. The business deals arranged included over 118 Airbus commercial planes and renovations for Iran’s Peugeot car plant, amongst others agreements. After the dangerous JPOA nuclear deal, Iran has emerged from its…
Fifteen years ago, Ouda Tarabin was falsely accused by the Egyptian government of spying for Israel. He was imprisoned for espionage, and this week was finally released after years of negotiations and sent home to Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu vouched for Tarabin’s innocence, and worked hard to secure his release. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this story is that Tarabin is not Jewish – he’s Arab, one of the nomadic Bedouin tribes who live in Israel and have a positive relationship with the Israeli government. The Egyptian government has a long, and often outlandish, history of accusing Israel of…
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lit the first Hanukkah candle Sunday evening with Border Police personnel at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and gave an uplifting message on the significance of Israel as a light to the world: “2,200 years ago, a handful of Jewish fighters arose and defeated what was then a global empire. This was before the rise of Rome. The Seleucid Greek empire was then very strong and – during the reign of Antiochus IV – very cruel. Indeed, the threat was to our unity and our greatness. The Maccabees fought, first of all to restore this [spiritual]…