ISIS appears to be using tens of thousands of people as “human shields” in and around Mosul, where Iraqi forces are waging a large-scale offensive aimed at retaking the city. The UN human rights office has received reports of more than 200 people being killed for either refusing to comply with ISIS orders or belonging to Iraqi security forces previously. “ISIL is attempting to use the presence of civilian hostages to render certain points, areas, or military forces immune from military operations, effectively using women, men, and children as human shields,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani of the Office of the UN High…
Browsing: News
Improving weather conditions, a massive influx of support from the international community, and efforts by Israeli first responders have enabled the Jewish state to get an outburst of raging wildfires under control. The recent week’s fires are expected to be among the costliest in Israeli history, with unofficial preliminary estimates projecting about $520 million in damage. The direct damage to Israeli homes is reportedly estimated to be more than $182 million, while destruction to public property such as roads, electrical power systems, and other infrastructure amounts to at least $78 million. “These damages are on an enormous scale, the likes…
Around 200 high school students from the “Amal” network of schools joined hands in forming a ring around Israel President Reuven Rivlin. What is special about this group is that it includes students from all four of Israel’s modern tribes (secular Jews, traditional religious Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Arabs). The event saw students come from all over the country to the President’s residence in Jerusalem, where Rivlin told them, “It is through you that we have come to understand that we can live together if we study together. You are the next generation of Israel’s leaders and you must always remember…
Prior to the election, the now President-elect Donald Trump stated to members of his Israel Advisory Committee his policies on multiple issues very close to Israel’s heart. Jason Greenblatt, one of the members of Trump’s committee, published a thorough statement detailing exactly what Trump stated towards each issue. Here is Trump’s policy statement, word-for-word, from the President-elect himself. 1. The nature and character of the State of Israel Israel is the state of the Jewish people, who have lived in that land for 3,500 years. The State of Israel was founded with courage and determination by great men and women…
One would think a story like this would be making major headlines, given the amount of attention that is afforded every other aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the forced conversion of Christians to Islam by Gaza’s Hamas rulers just doesn’t seem to interest the media. This should be a wake-up call! Arab media commentator Raymond Ibrahim brings to light the story after surveying Arabic-language media sources, where the plight of Gaza Christians seems to be covered far more regularly than what we are regularly seeing. “…we hear of the kidnapping of Christians and the coercion of them to embrace the religion…
Although it will be some time before President-elect Donald Trump names the members of his cabinet, the three individuals most often mentioned as contenders for the administration’s top foreign policy post all have strong pro-Israel records. John Bolton Bolton, 67, served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 2005-2006 in the George W. Bush administration. Bolton strongly criticized the Obama administration last month for changing a White House press release that had referred to Jerusalem as being in Israel. He said Obama’s stance on Jerusalem is “a more radical position than the official position of the United States” and…
Israel celebrated its first Aliyah Day with a ceremony at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem last Tuesday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver, and Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky attended the ceremony. In June, the Aliyah Day law was passed to recognize the importance of immigration to Israel and its development as a multicultural society. The law designated Aliyah Day as the seventh day of the Hebrew month of Heshvan, coinciding with the reading of the Lech Lecha Torah portion, which describes the divine commandment directing Abraham to go to the land of Israel. “The democratic…
Israel recently rebuffed the Obama Administration’s objection to a new building project in Jewish settlement of Shiloh, the biblical site that was home to the Ark of the Covenant for centuries prior to the conquest of Jerusalem by King David. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government told the Israel High Court that it intends to move forward with the construction of 98 new homes in Shiloh. The new neighborhood will be used to house Israelis evacuated from the illegally-built Jewish outpost of Amona. Shiloh was the first major holy site following Israel’s entry into the Promised Land. It was there that…
The Palestinians must confront their “demons” over a Jewish state if they wish to achieve Palestinian statehood, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Jerusalem. “And I turned not only to Hamas, but to President Abbas, and I said, ‘Would you recognize a Jewish state, assuming we solve the settlement problem?’” Netanyahu said in his opening remarks with Mattarella, who met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “And they won’t, because the real settlement issue are the settlements of Tel Aviv, Jaffa, Haifa, and Akko. The persistent refusal to recognize a Jewish state is at…
Preservation experts have recently removed a marble slab covering what Christians believe to be Jesus’s tomb inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, exposing for the first time in centuries the original surface. National Geographic says the marble slab was pulled back for 60 hours as part of a restoration and archaeological study. Scientists at the site said the tomb has been covered by marble cladding since at least 1555 CE, and most likely dating to an even earlier period. “The marble covering of the tomb has been pulled back, and we were surprised by the amount of fill…