Israel will not release 4th group of 26 Palestinian security prisoners Saturday

 

By law, the names of the murderers chosen for release must be made public 48 hours prior, not including Shabbat, in order to allow time for appeals to the High Court of Justice.

Israel’s Prime Minister heads committee that decides which prisoners will be released.

By HERB KEINON, KHALED ABU TOAMEH

 

 

 

Israel will not release a fourth batch of 26 Palestinian security prisoners Saturday night as stipulated under the framework deal that led to the renewal of negotiations last July.

Gaza woman walks past posters of Palestinian prisoners

Gaza woman walks past posters of Palestinian prisoners – Photo: REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

The five-minister committee chaired by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that is empowered to choose which convicted terrorists will be released would need to have met on Wednesday to make a Saturday-night release possible. Continue Reading »

Israel to allow cement and building materials into Gaza for Turkish hospital

 

Official in Jerusalem says reconciliation efforts with Turkey played a significant part in decision to allow construction materials and electric equipment into Hamas controlled Gaza.

By Reuters

 

Israel said on Thursday it will allow into the Gaza Strip construction materials and electric equipment to help build a Turkish-sponsored hospital, in a possible sign of improving ties with Ankara.

The decision came as Israel and Turkey try to hammer out the details of a US-backed reconciliation announced a year ago. Relations between the once-close allies ruptured in 2010 over a deadly Israeli naval raid on a Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla.

Nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed when the commando raid aboard the Mavi Marmara turned violent, sparking a major crisis between the long-time regional allies and compensation demands from the victims’ families. Continue Reading »

1st Time Ever: Palestinian students visit Auschwitz in organized visit

Visit to Nazi death camp is aimed to teach Israeli & Palestinian students about the other side’s suffering, in effort to see how empathy can facilitate reconciliation.

 

A group of 30 Palestinian students arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau on Thursday, in what is believed to be the first organized visit by Palestinian students to a Nazi death camp.

The gate of the former German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.

The gate of the former German Nazi death camp of Auschwitz.- Photo by AP

The students are spending several days in Kraków and Oświęcim guided by two Jewish Holocaust survivors.

A news blackout on the trip was requested by the organizers.

Continue Reading »

Boycott Jewish products? – The Ultimate Response to BDS

 

 

Brother Rashid, a charismatic & popular Moroccan Christian television preacher, has a few choice words for those who would divest themselves of Jewish inventions & products.

Translated by: www.israelinarabic.com

Brother Rashid from YouTube screenshot

Brother Rashid from YouTube screenshot

Continue Reading »

Pope Francis II Plans Full State Visit

Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Israel is planned as a full state visit, with official meetings scheduled with the President, Prime Minister & Chief Rabbis

By David Lev

 

Assuming Pope Francis makes it to Israel on his planned trip in May and is not delayed by the ongoing strike by Foreign Ministry workers, his stay will include visits to the Church of the Nativity, a Catholic site, as well as to the Temple Mount, where he will visit the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Western Wall.

Pope Francis – Reuters

The Pope’s schedule was announced Thursday by the Latin Patriarchate, responsible for the affairs of the Catholic Church in Israel. Continue Reading »

Christian Israelis Take On Anti-Israel Campaign on Facebook


Israel’s Arabic-speaking Christians come out strong against fellow Christians whose comments defame the Jewish state on Facebook.

By Ryan Jones

 

The Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum on Thursday came out swinging against yet another malicious propaganda campaign targeting Israel on the popular social network Facebook.

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The campaign appears to center around a composite picture of six= dilapidated local churches that are presented as false evidence that the Jewish state discriminates against and seeks to remove Christians from the Holy Land.

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Such notions have undergirded a new Evangelical Christian movement that paints Palestinian Christians as the suffering Jesus to Israel’s strong-armed Romanesque oppressor. Continue Reading »

UN condemns all Syria military activity on Golan Heights

 

The U.N. Secretary-General warns that “heavy clashes” in the area of separation on Syria’s border with Israel could “jeopardize the cease-fire between the two countries”.

U.N. Security Council expresses concern over Syrian regime’s use of barrel bombs.

The Associated Press & Israel Hayom Staff

 

Continue Reading »

Al-Quds U. president resigns a few days after Hamas rally

A similar rally in support of Islamic Jihad on the Al-Quds campus in November led to the suspension of ties between Al-Quds University & Brandeis University.

By JTA

 

Sari Nusseibeh, the president of the Palestinian Al-Quds University, resigned three days after a rally in support of Hamas at its eastern Jerusalem campus.

Hamas rally at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. - Photo: Facebook

Hamas rally at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. – Photo: Facebook

Nusseibeh will step down at the end of the academic year, according to an announcement on the university’s website. The announcement said that Nusseibeh announced his decision on Wednesday at a meeting of the university’s board of trustees, since he has reached the retirement age of 65.

Continue Reading »

Australia’s Woodside buys 25% of Israel’s largest gas well, the Leviathan

 

Australian energy firm to acquire 25% ownership of Israeli reservoir in $2.71 billion deal.

 

 
Amid months of uncertainty and lack of transparency surrounding Leviathan gas reservoir arrangements, Australian hydrocarbon firm Woodside is expected to sign a $2.71 billion agreement to acquire a 25-percent share of the field on Thursday evening.
Leviathan gas field - Albatross - 09012012

Leviathan holds 453 billion cu.m. of gas [file] Photo: Courtesy of Albatross

The agreement will build upon a memorandum of understanding signed with the reservoir’s partners on February 7, which provided a framework for final negotiations, following months of uncertainty and anticipation surrounding the agreement. An original agreement in principle occurred among the parties in December 2012, which had called for Woodside to acquire a larger, 30% stake of the reservoir.

Continue Reading »

Israel unacquainted with Turkish reports of Mavi Marmara compensation deal

 

The Israeli gov’t claims to be unaware of Turkish papers reporting Israel to pay Turkey $21 million for deaths in 2010 raid on Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara, & an end to the Gaza blockade, after which Erdoğan will visit Israel’s capital of Jerusalem.

By Ynetnews, AFP

 

Israel knows nothing about a reported final compensation agreement for a deadly IDF raid on a Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, and did not coordinate any announcement on the matter, a source in Jerusalem told Ynet on Thursday.

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan & Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu – Photo: REUTERS

The statement came after varying reports of a deal emerged in the Turkish media, including one report that Israel would end the blockade on the Gaza Strip. Continue Reading »

Soldier LIED Blaming Arab Attack for Silly Fall

IDF soldier admitted to Police investigators he was not attacked, rather simply fell down.

 

An Israeli army soldier admitted to police that he was not stabbed by a group of young Arabs on Thursday in Jerusalem, but instead fell, contrary to his first version of events.

Pisgat Ze’ev - Emil Salman - 12082011

The separation fence near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev. – Photo: Emil Salman

Earlier it was reported that the soldier’s alleged Arab assailants fled the scene in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev after stabbing him in the leg and lightly wounding him.

Police believed the attack was nationalistically motivated and launched a search for the attackers.

Continue Reading »

3 Arab Terrorists Stab IDF Soldier in Jerusalem Neighborhood

Terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s northern neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev left the IDF soldier with light wounds.

By Uzi Baruch, Ari Yashar

 

Three young Arab terrorists carried out a stabbing attacking Thursday morning, targeting a soldier in Jerusalem’s northern neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev.

The soldier was left with light stab wounds in his leg, after being attacked on Nativ Hamazalot Street in the capital city.

Magen David Adom (MDA) crews treated the soldier, and evacuated him to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital nearby. He was released shortly thereafter.

 

Police have opened an investigation to track down the attackers. Apparently the stabbing was nationalistically motivated, a crime carrying a heavier penalty. Continue Reading »

IDF’s all volunteer Desert Reconnaissance Battalion celebrates 20 years

 

IDF officials say the number of Arabs, Bedioun, Circassians & other minorities who volunteered for the special unit has increased dramatically, including new recruits from East Jerusalem.

To his soldiers who never finished high school, the Unit commander recommends IDF educational courses.

By Shlomo Diaz

 

Continue Reading »

PA official: If Abbas won’t bend to US, Israeli pressure he may meet Arafat’s fate

Kerry confers with Jordan’s King Abdullah before meeting with PA President. Officials say Kerry wants Abbas to agree to extend talks until end of year.

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
 

 

Palestinian officials in Ramallah said Wednesday that they don’t rule out the possibility that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would agree to the extension of the peace talks with Israel after the nine-month deadline set by the US Administration expires at the end of April.

John Kerry and Mahmoud Abbas.  - Photo: Reuters

John Kerry and Mahmoud Abbas. – Photo: Reuters

The officials said that US Secretary of State John Kerry has been exerting pressure on Abbas to agree to the extension of the talks at least until the end of the year. Continue Reading »

Israel’s Former Defense Minister: Hezbollah will soon pick which building to hit

 

Former Defense Minister Barak says advanced missile technology will soon become cheaper for Hezbollah & other terror organizations to acquire in just five years’ time.

By Ynetnews

 

In five years, terror organizations will have missiles so precise they could “choose which building in Israel to hit,” former defense minister Ehud Barak warned on Wednesday.

Israel’s former defense minister Ehud Barak – Photo: AP

These advanced missile technology “will spread and become cheaper to terror organizations like Hezbollah and to Hamas militants in Gaza,” Barak continued, speaking at a panel on the use of science and technology in Israel’s security and intelligence. Continue Reading »