UK Prime Minister Cameron to Make First Official Visit to Israel

 

Following Germany’s Chancellor Merkel’s visit, UK prime minister to make his first official visit to Israel, where he too will give a Knesset speech, meeting with Netanyahu in Jerusalem and then on to visit Abbas.

By The Associated Press

 

Prime Minister David Cameron plans to make his first visit as British leader to Israel and the Palestinian territories this week.

Cameron and Netanyahu. London. (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom)

Cameron and Netanyahu. London. – Photo: Amos Ben Gershom

Cameron’s Downing Street office says he will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and deliver a speech to the Knesset on Wednesday. He also is scheduled to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas during his two-day trip. Continue Reading »

Al Qaida-inspired jihadi movement challenging Hamas in Gaza

 

The rise of organized, heavily armed militant jihadi movements in the seaside strip poses serious threat to both Israel – and Hamas.

 

A leader of one of Gaza‘s secretive jihadi groups says the al-Qaida-inspired movement now has several thousand armed fighters in the seaside strip, posing a formidable threat to both Israel and the area’s Hamas rulers.

Palestinian members from Youth Salafists group chant slogans

Palestinian members from Youth Salafists group chant slogans, Gaza, August 22, 2013.- Photo: AP

In an interview with The Associated Press, Abu Bakir al-Ansari described a movement that is larger and better organized than is generally believed, with dozens of fighters now in Syria, and claimed his group killed an Italian activist three years ago.

Continue Reading »

IDF Shoots Dead Palestinian Rock Thrower Before Cars Pelted

IDF force sitting in ambush catch an Arab terrorist who prepared to throw rocks at passing Israeli cars north of Jerusalem.

By Gil Ronen and Ari Soffer

 

An IDF force lying in ambush shot dead an Arab terrorist who was preparing to throw rocks at Israeli cars traveling on Road 60, north of Jerusalem. The incident took place near Givat Asaf, in the Binyamin region, on Monday evening.

The ambush was placed following an uptick in the number of similar attacks as of late. It is too early to say whether it signals a change in IDF policy toward rock throwers, but the military action appears to be a departure from the policy of the last few years, which has been marked by extreme hesitance to use deadly force against rock and firebomb throwers. Continue Reading »

Prior to ‘Monuments Men’ hits French screens, France to return Nazi-looted art

Although, 3 masterpieces are being returned, about 2,000 works whose owners have not been identified, are still being held by French museums.

By TA

 

Ahead of the French premiere of “The Monuments Men,” France said it will return three precious paintings to the heirs of their owners.

File:Ausstellung entartete kunst 1937.jpg

Goebbels views the Degenerate Art exhibition that was confiscated by the Nazis – Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

The paintings are to be returned Tuesday, one day before the film on Nazi-looted art starring George Clooney debuts in France.

The conjunction of the two events is “an opportunity to remind people that Culture Minister Aurelie Flipetti is very attached to this gesture of remembrance,” France’s Culture Ministry told the French news agency AFP on Saturday.

Continue Reading »

Hamas promises Gaza rockets will land in northern Israel

 

Before Israel televised their captured advanced rockets bound for Gaza, Hamas’ armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade said bloodshed will not end until ‘owners of Palestine recover their rights.’

By AFP

 

GAZA – Hamas’ armed wing threatened Monday to shoot rockets that would reach northern Israel during its next confrontation with the IDF.

M75 monument

Members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, stand in front of M-75 monument at the al-Jalaa square on March 10, 2014 in Gaza City. – Photo: AFP photo/Mahmud Hams

During the 2012 Operation Pillar of Defense, Gaza terror organizations for the first time fired rockets that reached Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Video: Wounded Ukrainian protesters airlifted for medical treatment in Israel

This project faced initial obstacles in terms of both hospital access within Israel & funding.

Dr. Valeriya Babchik, a physician at Kaplan, helped to organize the project, along with Arieli & Marina Lysak, Kiev residents.

 

TEL AVIV (JTA) – For 17-year-old Bolodimir Bedyuk, a Ukrainian who was severely wounded in clashes with Ukrainian police on Feb. 18, Israeli medical care may be his only hope.

A wounded individual is transported to a waiting plane, where he will be flown to Israel to receive medical care. (Shimon Briman)A wounded individual is transported to a waiting plane, where he will be flown to Israel to receive medical care. (Shimon Briman)

After a pitched battle with Ukrainian police forces on Institutskaya Street in Kiev, Bedyuk suffered chest wounds and extensive liver damage — his brother Aleksei said Bolodimir’s liver “was torn practically in half.”

Continue Reading »

Genetic mutation causing disease in Moroccan Jews identified by Israeli researchers

 

Ben-Gurion University researchers found that 1 in 37 Moroccan Jews carries 1 of the 2 mutations of the gene PCCA 2, that causes severe mental retardation & epilepsy in infants.

 

Researchers from Ben-Gurion University in Be’er Sheva have identified the genetic mutation behind a hereditary disease that causes epilepsy and severe developmental delays among Moroccan Jews.

It all comes down to a simple blood test (illustrative).

In light of the high carrier rate for the disorder, screening for the disease will likely be added to the routine genetic testing offered to couples of Moroccan Jewish heritage. – Photo: Dreamstime

The disease, which the researchers are calling Progressive cerebello-cerebral Atrophy, type 2, is caused by mutations in the VPS53 gene.

Continue Reading »

Returning Terrorist at Jordanian Border Shot Dead after Attacking IDF Soldier

An alert IDF soldier shot & killed a Palestinian Arab who attacked him at the Allenby Bridge crossing Monday.

By Ari Yashar

 

An Arab terrorist was shot to death Monday morning at the Allenby Bridge crossing to Jordan, after he attacked an IDF soldier. The bridge, which is not open to Israeli Jews, was closed due to the incident as an investigation was carried out.

The confrontation apparently started when the terrorist attempted to wrestle the soldier’s gun away from him, leading the soldier to defend himself and in doing so shoot the attacker to death.

“A short while ago a Palestinian attempted to seize the weapon of a soldier at the Allenby Bridge crossing from Jordan. Continue Reading »

Arab League supports PA’s refusal to recognize Israel as Jewish state

 

Israeli PM Netanyahu responded to Abbas’ refusal saying “It is absurd to think that in an agreement in which we will recognize the nation-state of the Palestinian people they will not recognize the Jewish state.”

By i24NEWS

 

The Arab League on Sunday has given its seal of approval to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s refusal to meet Israel’s demand to recognize it as a Jewish state.

Arab League - Photo: AFP

Arab League – Photo: AFP

The issue is a key Israeli demand, which will likely be included in the framework agreement that US Secretary of State John Kerry is scheduled to present to the sides at the end of April. Continue Reading »

Palestinians Complain to UN Over Jewish Presence on Temple Mount

 

Palestinian Authority reports to the UN that increased Jewish visits & Knesset debates over Temple Mount sovereignty are ‘provocative’

By Israel Today Staff

 

The Palestinian Authority’s mission to the United Nations last week filed an official complaint over a growing Jewish presence on and claims to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Temple Mount - Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Temple Mount – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Riyad Mansour, the PA’s observer at the UN, said that regular visits to the Temple Mount by Jewish worshippers and Israeli officials were “provocative” and could further enrage the entire Muslim Arab world.

 

RELATED:

Mansour took special exception to the Israeli Knesset’s recent discussions about fully extending Israeli sovereignty over the Temple Mount, which is Judaism’s holiest site. Continue Reading »

2013 holds record number of Jewish births in Israel

 

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics show Jewish births increased by both numbers & percentages, while the Muslim Arab birth rate has reached an all-time low.

By Zeev Klein

 

Continue Reading »

Israeli products overrun Gaza supermarkets

 

Since Gaza is a captive market as Israel controls the formal movement to & from Gaza, it goes without saying that Israeli companies control its market.

By Elior Levy

 

Cookies, coffee, soap and even hummus – these are just some of the Israeli products one can find on the grocery stores’ shelves in Gaza, written in Hebrew just like the ones in the nearby Israeli retail chains.

Products from Israel in Gaza (Photo: Gisha Organization)

Products from Israel in Gaza – Photo: Gisha Organization

Apparently, beneath the surface of the daily military tensions between Israel and the Gaza Strip, there is a meaningful economic relationship. In 2012 the value import of Israeli products to Gaza stood at NIS 1.3 billion ($375 million), including not only water, gas and electricity, but also food and cleaning products from well-known Israeli companies such as Telma, Willifood, Osem and Tnuva, which brings subtantial tax profit to Israel. Continue Reading »

Cruise ship captain acquiesced: Israelis barred from entering Tunis

 

Non-Israeli Jewish passenger were allowed to disembark and that the ship personnel kept it all a secret.

 

Israeli tourists aboard a Norwegian cruise ship were barred from disembarking in the Port of Tunis Sunday. They were forced to remain on the “Norwegian Jade”, while non-Israeli Jewish passengers were allowed off.

Cruise ship, illustrative

Cruise liner Pacific Princess, June 3, 2010 – Photo: Carnival Cruise Lines

A Jewish Canadian passenger on the ship who preferred to remain nameless told Haaretz that there were approximately 20 Israelis on the ship and that at first, no one knew they were denied entry because “the ship kept it a secret.”

Continue Reading »

IDF Photo Album: Klos-C’s unloaded booty

Also on Iranian arms ship: 40 Rockets, 181 Mortar Shells, 400,000 bullets for Kalashnikov (AK-47) automatic assault rifles.

By Gil Ronen

 

The IDF Spokesman said Sunday that operation “Full Exposure,” for intercepting Iranian arms ship Klos C, has ended. The containers aboard the ship, which was intercepted by IDF naval commandos off the coast of Sudan, have all been offloaded and their contents thoroughly examined.

Arms on Klos C – IDF Spokesman

Forces from the Navy, the Combat Engineering Corps and the Munitions Corps took part in offloading and inspecting the containers, following the ship’s arrival in Eilat yesterday.

 

The list of weapons that the ship carried is as follows:

  • Forty M-302 rockets, with a range of 90 to 160 km.
Continue Reading »

After too long a dry season rain begins to fall in Israel

Rainfall from the Upper Galilee to desert flooding between highway 40 from the Zin Valley to Mitzpe Ramon.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

With one of Israel’s driest winters on record nearing its end, light rain began to fall in various parts of the country on Sunday.

Rain in Jerusalem, March 9, 2014.- Photo MARC ISRAEL SELLEM

Both Arab & Jew get wet together from the Rain in Jerusalem, March 9, 2014.- Photo MARC ISRAEL SELLEM

As of 5 p.m. a wide band of rain stretched from north of the Sea of Galilee to the southern Negev.

Due to floods in the desert, police closed Highway 40 from The Zin Valley to Mitzpe Ramon on Sunday afternoon. Continue Reading »