Israel’s Shin Bet thwarts Temple Mount terrorist attack by Israeli Arabs

In an ISIS inspired terror-attack, 3 Arab citizens of Israel planned to open fire at one of the world’s holiest sites, Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM

 

Three Arab citizens from the village of Um el-Fahm were indicted on Monday for plotting a terrorist attack on the Temple Mount in the name of Islamic State, the Shin Bet security agency announced.

The suspects, identified as 20-year-olds Muhammad Mas’ud Muhammad Jabarin and Imad Lutfi Muhammad Jabarin, as well as a minor, were arrested during January and February in a joint operation by the Shin Bet and the Israel Police

The attack was thwarted thanks to accurate intelligence information that enabled the security forces to arrest the members of the terrorist cell before they could obtain weapons and actualize their plans. Continue Reading »

Egyptian President: “We scored a big goal” in $15B gas deal made with Israel

Egyptian President al-Sissi praised the $15 billion natural gas arrangement with an Israeli energy company that will facilitate Egypt’s move into a regional energy hub with the purchase of 64b m³ of gas to Egypt’s Dolphinus Holdings over 10 years.

By The Associated Press

 

The Egyptian president declared that his country “scored a goal” by signing a $15 billion deal with an Israeli company to supply natural gas that will help turn Egypt into a regional energy hub.President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s televised remarks were the first high-level comments on the deal that fueled controversy on social media.

The project “has a lot of advantages for us (Egyptians). Continue Reading »

Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre closes its doors in protest

The proposals being protested by the Church is to block Jerusalem municipality’s intention to apply property tax on land used solely for commercial enterprises, and allow the State of Israel eminent domain expropriations, ending the Church’s extensive land sales in Israel’s capital by the Catholic Church & Greek Orthodox Church to private and/or foreign companies.

By Mordechai Sones

 

Christian leaders today took the rare step of closing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, in protest of Israeli tax measures and a proposed property law.

Tomb of Jesus inside the edicule Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem -Photo: Wikipedia

The decision was made in protest against the bill, which is expected to be discussed today by the Ministerial Committee on Legislation, allowing the State to expropriate land that the churches have sold since 2010, as well as to protest the Municipality’s intention to collect municipal property taxes. Continue Reading »

IDF Thwarts ISIS Attack on United Arab Emirates Airliner

Released: An Etihad Airways’ civilian airplane en route from Australia to Abu Dubi had been targeted by ISIS, but then Israel’s secretive cyber intelligence Unit 8200 stepped in and saved hundreds back in July 2017.

By Tsvi Sadan

 

The IDF on Wednesday decided to provide a quick glimpse into the clandestine activity of Unit 8200, the Israeli military’s equivalent to America’s NSA. This secretive unit was able to thwart an ISIS attempt to blow up a civilian airplane en route from Australia to Abu Dubi. The IDF referred to a July 30, 2017 news report about Australian police arresting four suspects in Sydney who were planning to “commit a terrorist act using an improvised device.” Continue Reading »

Israeli satellite captures images of Russian stealth fighter jets at Syrian air base

Israeli satellite images posted on Twitter offer credence to accusations of Moscow exploiting Syria as a testing ground for Russia’s newest fighter jets.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM

 

Israeli satellite imagery has confirmed the deployment of Russia’s newest Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter jets in war-torn Syria.

Images of the two planes being escorted to the Russian Khmeimeim Air Force base in the coastal province of Latakia being escorted by Russian SU-30SMs were first published on Twitter by local activists on Thursday.

ISI photo – Screen Shot/ Wolfgang Dressler @dressler_w, Twitter

On Saturday satellite operator iSi released a statement saying that their Israeli Eros B satellite spotted the two jets which are not fully operational. Continue Reading »

Qatari diplomat in Jerusalem says he secretly visited Israel 20 times since 2014

Qatari ambassador visiting Israel stresses how Qatar is not colluding with Hamas, saying, “If we were helping Hamas, do you think the Israelis would allow us to go in and out? They know we’re not helping Hamas.”

By Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

 

Israel Qatar is helping Israel avoid another Gaza war by funneling relief money to impoverished Palestinians, with Washington’s blessing, a Qatari diplomat said on Thursday, in an effort to demonstrate Doha’s distance from Islamist Gaza rulers Hamas.

Qatari envoy Mohammed Al-Emadi interviewed in Jerusalem, on 22 Feb 2018 – Photo: Reuters

Since coming under an embargo last year, imposed by its U.S.-allied Continue Reading »

Despite allegations of corruption, here’s 7 reasons why Netanyahu is more popular

If you’re dumbfounded as to how an Israeli prime minister can be suspected of bribery, and yet his popularity is steadily growing in each survey taken, here’s seven reasons.

By GIL HOFFMAN

 

Plenty of people mocked the survey by pollster Avi Degani that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on his Facebook page, which gave his Likud a 34-to 20-Knesset seat lead over the Yesh Atid party of Yair Lapid, the central witness against him in Case 1000, the “expensive gift affair.”

MK Yair Lapid, then Minister of Finance, speaking at the 14th Annual Herzliya Conference – Screenshot

After all, Degani has been paid to take polls for the Likud for many years, and the survey was leaked to the pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom newspaper. Continue Reading »

Palestinians riot after U.S. announcement to open Jerusalem embassy in May

More bluster, bravado & b.s. from the Palestinian leadership:     

  • Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat portrayed U.S. President Donald Trump’s stance on Jerusalem as a ‘violation of international law, [that would] destroy the two-state solution.’

  • Hamas official: U.S. Embassy move “to Jerusalem is a declaration of war against the Arab and Muslim nation.”

By REUTERS

 

RAMALLAH, West Bank/GAZA – Palestinians reacted on Friday with anger to reports that the United States will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem within months, saying this could destroy the prospect of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Clashes erupted in Gaza and the West Bank earlier on Friday in a weekly protest against US President Donald Trump’s stance on Jerusalem, which has also angered Arab political and religious leaders across the region and dismayed European allies. Continue Reading »

Watch: Palestinian demonstrators hurl eggs at US delegation visiting West Bank

Angry Palestinian protestors confront a visiting American delegation in Ramallah, chanting “US is the problem – not the solution,” as they hurl eggs at the NYC Council members.

By David Rosenberg

 

Arab demonstrators hurled eggs at an American delegation, including members of the New York City Council, as the delegation visited Ramallah on Thursday, as part of a demonstration against President Donald Trump’s declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Palestinian counter-terrorism police form protective corridor to shield visiting Americans from violent locals throwing eggs. – Screenshot: YouTube Arab media

Members of the American delegation were visiting a Palestinian Authority polling firm Thursday, AFP reported, when anti-US protesters gathered outside. Continue Reading »

IDF: “The State of Israel and its army care for Palestinian life more than Hamas”

IDF soldiers hastened to treat and save the life of a wounded man who stumbled into Israel after being shot in Gaza by Hamas.

By Israel Today Staff

 

A Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip stumbled across the security fence into Israeli territory on Wednesday after having been shot by Hamas forces.

Soldiers with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), who are so often smeared as blood-thirsty racists, did not hesitate to provide the man with emergency medical treatment.

IDF Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, head of COGAT (Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories), took the opportunity to set the record straight, posting to Facebook in Arabic the following message to the people of Gaza:

Nothing simpler: a Palestinian passed the security fence from the Gaza Strip into Israel today after Hamas forces shot him.

Continue Reading »

Provocative Holocaust video pulled from YouTube was offensive to Poles

Over 600,000 sign petition calling for U.S. to cut ties with Poland until the new Polish law that criminalized attributing Holocaust atrocities to Polish state or nation, is rescinded.
• While the new law is contested by Israel and Jews world-wide, a Polish journalist says video “spits in the face of every Pole.”

By Dan Lavie, Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

 

The Ruderman Family Foundation, a prominent, private Jewish-American Foundation based in Boston, removed a video from YouTube on Wednesday that had sparked outrage in Poland .

The video provocatively used the term “Polish Holocaust,” which is historically inaccurate, to protest a controversial new Polish law criminalizing the suggestion that Poland was complicit with Nazi Germany’s crimes, especially the Holocaust. Continue Reading »

UNIFIL inadvertently confirms Israeli claims: Lebanese army under Hezbollah influence

Former liaison officer with the UN’s Interim Force in Lebanon tells French newspaper how, “the Lebanese Army would prevent us [UNIFIL] from posting observers. …Everyone knows that Hezbollah is using [preparing] the area for the next war.”
– WATCH IDF video: 5 Ways Hezbollah Violates UN Resolution 1701

By ANNA AHRONHEIM

 

The UN force in Lebanon has accused Hezbollah and the Lebanese Army of hampering their work, which includes spying on the peacekeepers, in a report due to appear on the website of French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, on Friday.

The report quotes a chief warrant officer for the French contingent as saying during an interview: “In the evening we never leave the barracks because the Lebanese forces are not friendly. Continue Reading »

Warsaw should confer honorary Polish citizenship on Mahmoud Abbas

Without a doubt, Mahmoud Abbas’ antisemitic doctoral thesis he wrote for a Moscow university currently qualifies him as the perfect candidate for Polish citizenship, especially after Polish President Mateusz Morawiecki, speaking at the Munich Security Conference quoted Abbas saying, ‘Nazis were not the only perpetrators of the Holocaust – there were Jewish perpetrators as well.’

By David Bedein

 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has declared that it would engage in an international campaign to denounce Polish President Mateusz Morawiecki, who told participants at the Munich Security Conference on Feb 17, 2018, that Nazis were not the only perpetrators of the Holocaust – there were Jewish perpetrators as well. Continue Reading »

WATCH: Netanyahu announces $15B natural gas deal sold to Egypt

Gas operators Delek and Noble of Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields will supply Egypt with seven billion cubic meters of gas annually, in a deal worth an estimated $15 billion.

By MAX SCHINDLER

 

The operators of Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan natural gas fields have signed decade-long contracts to sell $15 billion worth of natural gas to Egypt, according to a statement from Delek Drilling on Monday.

Israel announces new agreement to export natural gas to Egypt, February 19, 2018./GPO – TRANSLATION: “I welcome the historic agreement now published on the export of Israeli gas to Egypt. This will bring billions into the coffers of the state, in favor of the education, health and welfare of Israeli citizens. Continue Reading »

Icelandic lawmakers rush to ban circumcision

Eight Icelandic parliamentarians from across the political spectrum have signed the proposed legislation banning circumcision, proposing 6 years in prison for violators who perform the Jewish religious rite.

By Kobi Nachshoni

 

A bill submitted this week to the Icelandic parliament is calling for the banning of circumcision and sets the penalty for violators at six years in prison.

Senior European rabbis are fuming at the legislative initiative and are calling on Jewish communities on the continent to apply international pressure in order to prevent the bill’s adoption and ensure freedom of religion.

A Jewish ‘brit’, circumcision ceremony. – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP.pn

Continue Reading »