The Irish parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of Irish government recognition of a Palestinian state. The motion passed unopposed. The non-binding motion called on the Irish government to “officially recognize the State of Palestine, on the basis of the
According to a Palestinian opinion poll released Tuesday, an overwhelming majority of Palestinians are in favor of the recent round of terror attacks against Israeli civilians in and around Jerusalem. The Washington Post reports that the poll also showed a
Quiet allegations of Iranian cheating on its interim nuclear agreement are fueling speculation in the Israeli press that Israel may be preparing to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, reports the Algemeiner. The official position from Washington has
While Israel remained silent about its role in an alleged air raid into Syria on Sunday near Damascus, Syrian opposition sources maintained that an Israeli attack destroyed a storage facility holding anti-aircraft missiles and drones belonging to Hezbollah, reports The
In one of Israel’s worst environmental accidents, millions of liters of crude oil gushed from a pipeline leak into a desert nature reserve on Wednesday and Thursday, causing severe damage, reports the BBC. The spill damaged the Evrona nature reserve
In a lopsided 161-5 vote, the UN General Assembly on Tuesday approved an anti-Israel resolution backed by Arab nations. The resolution calls on Israel to not only subject its nuclear facilities to international oversight, but also to renounce possession of
Two Jordanian MPs on Jordanian television went on verbal attacks against Jews and Israelis, praising the recent Jerusalem synagogue massacre and encouraging incitement against Jews. The Times of Israel reports that according to Middle East media watchdog MEMRI, the anti-Semitic
Leaders of Hamas, the Palestinian terror group in control of Gaza, announced Sunday that the unity government it had established with Fatah last spring is now over, reports The Jerusalem Post. Fatah is the leading secular Palestinian political party in
Israel announced Thursday that it had discovered and prevented multiple plans by Islamist group Hamas to launch a series of terrorist attacks against Israelis in several locations, including Jerusalem’s largest soccer stadium, the city’s light rail, the West Bank, and
A recent Statnet Research Institute poll reported by the Jerusalem Post shows that 77% of Israeli Arabs prefer to live under Israeli rule than to be governed by Palestinians. Of the Arabs who responded that they prefer to live
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume peace talks, predicting the current pro-Palestinian diplomatic wave will only get stronger. Israel National News reports that Ban predicted that the recent trend of countries
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in a weekend newspaper interview that Egypt was willing to lend troops to help secure a future Palestinian state, offering stability for local police and providing an extra level of security reassurance for Israel,
Three Israeli Arabs from northern Israel were arrested after taking possession of two shipping containers supposedly filled with Christmas decorations–which were in fact full of knives, swords, Tasers and fireworks, according to the Israel Police. Especially in clashes on the
The Jordanian Parliament on Wednesday opened a cabinet meeting with a moment of silence–not for the victims of Tuesday’s Jerusalem synagogue massacre, but in honor of the two Palestinian terrorists who carried out the attack, reports The Algemeiner. Following the moment of
Two Palestinian men armed with a meat cleaver and a gun killed fourJews worshiping at morning prayers (Update: and one police officer) in a West Jerusalem synagogue early Tuesday, reports Reuters. Israel’s ambulance service said that several other people were seriously wounded.
A Galilee field trip and hike turned into a nightmare Wednesday for several Israeli sixth-grade girls and their teachers as they came under an attack of rocks thrown by Arab teenagers, the Algemeiner reported. The girls, aged 10-11, from a
In Mecca, rapid new construction has already destroyed hundreds of historic monuments. Now, reports the Independent, even the site where Mohamed is said to have been born is about to be replaced by a huge royal palace. The multi-year, multi-billion
A French Socialist Party proposal to recognize Palestine as a state will be voted on in the French National Assembly on November 28, reports AFP. Because France’s president holds the ultimate prerogative to recognize states, the vote would be nonbinding.
On Monday, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor chastised the UN Security Council for its silence in the face of a number of recent terror attacks against Israel, and slammed EU countries for efforts to prematurely recognize a Palestinian
Defenders of Israel’s conduct of this summer’s war in Gaza got a significant boost Thursday when General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed Israeli policies and procedures saying that Israel went to “extraordinary lengths” to
Israel’s closure of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews and Christians as the Temple Mount, following an assassination attempt on Wednesday, is tantamount to a “declaration of war,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday morning. Only one day
By better than a three to one margin, Israelis now consider U.S. President Barack Obama more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israel. According to a Smith Research/Jerusalem Post poll taken Wednesday night, only 16 percent of Israelis believe President Obama’s administration is more
An Israeli aid agency has been quietly operating in Iraq, providing emergency relief for Iraqi Kurds. Recently, in the Kurdish city of Dohuk, IsraAID, the Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid, supplied beds, blankets, and food to over 1,000 families,
One of the more bizarre episodes in Israel’s history has come to an end, as polygamist cult leader Goel Ratzon was sentenced by the Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday to 30 years in prison on his convictions for sex
Praise was heaped Thursday on terrorist Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, who killed three-month-old American Chaya Zissel Braun and injured eight other Israelis in a hit-and-run car attack in Jerusalem Wednesday. Both a senior aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and
Hamas planned to carry out a massive attack on Israel by penetrating Israeli communities via tunnels dug under the border from the Gaza Strip, then killing or kidnapping as many people as possible, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials confirmed Tuesday.
The US military has dominated the airstrike campaign against ISIS, having carried out nearly 90% of air strikes to date in Iraq and Syria, according to US defense officials. Arab and European coalition allies have carried out less than 200
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shot back at the Obama administration’s criticism of planned Israeli construction in Jerusalem in an interview which aired Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. He charged that the White House’s rebuke of Israeli construction and Jewish home
US Secretary of State John Kerry is reportedly seeking to hold new direct intensive talks between Israel and the Palestinians under the auspices of regional Arab nations. The Times of Israel, citing Israel’s Channel 10, reports that Kerry is calling
Some 80 percent of Palestinians in the West bank and Gaza Strip support the resumption of rocket fire into Israel if Israel does not allow unfettered access to Gaza, according to a new poll published by the Palestinian Institute for
Palestinian sources say that the US, UK, and Australia have each indicated that they would reject a Palestinian-proposed UN Security Council resolution setting a timetable for ending Israel’s administration of the West Bank and establishing an independent Palestinian state on
According to a high-level Iranian source, the United States gave advance warning to Iran before striking ISIS and al-Qaeda-linked targets in Syria, and promised Tehran that it would not target any forces of the Syrian government, reports Reuters. The report
The Israeli Defense Forces shot down a Syrian fighter plane over the Israeli Golan Heights Tuesday morning using a Patriot missile, the Israeli army said. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israel Air Force detected a Sukhoi-24 Syrian fighter jet
Syria, which had claimed to have destroyed all of its chemical weapons production facilities, has revealed a previously undeclared research and development facility and a ricin-producing laboratory. Reuters reports that, according to diplomatic sources, Syria detailed three new facilities to
The al-Nusra Front, the Syrian rebel group linked to al-Qaeda, has seized UN weapons, uniforms, and vehicles from peacekeepers in the Golan and set up a zone from which to wage attacks, according to the Syrian United Nations ambassador. AFP
ISIS, the terror group that also calls itself the Islamic State, “can muster between 20,000 and 31,500 fighters across Iraq and Syria,” according to a CIA spokesman, CNN reported today. U.S. officials previously estimated ISIS had only as many as
In spite of its promise to NATO to help fight the Islamic State, Turkey will not take part in combat operations against militants and will refuse to allow any US-led coalition to attack jihadists in neighboring Iraq and Syria from
Israel on Wednesday voiced support for U.S.-led efforts to form an alliance to fight Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq but expressed concerns of a rapprochement between Washington and Iran. On the eve of President Obama’s prime-time address on
One of the highest-ranking Palestinian officials condemned a recent soccer match between Israeli and Palestinian schoolchildren on a southern kibbutz, calling the bridge-building event “a crime against humanity.” Palestinian Media Watch reports that Jibril Rajoub, the deputy secretary of the Fatah Central
Israel has provided intelligence, including satellite imagery, in support of the U.S.-led aerial campaign against Islamic State in Iraq, according to a Reuters report. According to the diplomat cited in the Monday report, the information has often been shared by
