American Jewish college student stabbed to death in Egypt

Andrew Pochter (ז”ל), active at Hillel & teaching English to 7 & 8-yr-old Egyptian children, was stabbed in Alexandria when protesting against the Muslim Brotherhood.

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt – An American college student stabbed to death during a protest in Egypt was in the country teaching English to children and improving his Arabic, according to a Facebook post on Saturday that appeared to be from his family.

Protesters demonstrate in Sedy Gaber in Alexandria, June 28, 2013

Protesters demonstrate in Sedy Gaber in Alexandria, June 28, 2013 – Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghan

According to the The Kenyon Collegian, the student newspaper, Pochter was active in Hillel, the campus’s center for Jewish life, and lived at the group’s on-campus house. Continue Reading »

Amman Report: 4-way peace summit to be announced

Jordanian media reports Israel capitulates to advance peace-talks by agreeing to freeze settlements, release prisoners & define borders ahead of peace talks, according to unconfirmed Palestinian sources.

By Elior Levy

Jordanian media reported that a joint Israeli, Palestinian, American and Jordanian summit will possibly be announced soon, in a move which will signal the restarting of the stalled peace process.

נתיהו וקרי, מוקדם יותר השבוע (צילום: משה מילנר, לע"מ)

Netanyahu, Kerry earlier this week – Photo: Moshe Milner, GPO

According to the reports, which cite Palestinian sources, the Americans told the Palestinian side on Friday that Israel agreed to their preconditions of settlement construction freeze, prisoners’ release and defining the borders on which basis the negotiations will be held, though these will be implemented gradually, and not all at once. Continue Reading »

New Jewish Newswire Challenges JTA for Piece of Jewish Media Market

A new, more Right-leaning Jewish News Service (JNS) is trying to replace center, pro-Israel and established JTA.

By Josh Nathan-Kazis

 

A new, right-leaning Jewish newswire is seeking to displace the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as the Associated Press of the Jewish media.

Russel Pergament says his Jewish News Service is growing fast because Jewish newspapers appreciate its stridently pro-Israel tone - and its lower cost. - Photo by Courtesy of Boston Phoenix

Russel Pergament says his Jewish News Service is growing fast because Jewish newspapers appreciate its stridently pro-Israel tone – and its lower cost. – Photo by Courtesy of Boston Phoenix

 

Nearly two years after its launch, Jewish News Service is growing fast by promoting its pro-Israel perspective, offering ad-friendly special sections — and by giving it all away cheap. Continue Reading »

Real Apartheid: An Italian Jew is Banned from Joining PA Delegation

He sent Abbas a letter, a missive from a proud Jew whose words show up the cowardly Italian gov’t & the openly apartheid policies of Abbas’ Palestinian Authority.

By Giulio Meotti

 

The concept of removing a religious or ethnic community from a certain region brings back the dark memories of World War II, yet has become mainstream when it is applied to a part of the land of Israel.

Hamas cartoon – Israel news photo screenshotA recent official visit to Ramallah, the “capital” of the Palestinian Authority, by the official delegation of the Italian city of Turin, and led by leftist mayor Piero Fassino, could not include the Vice President of the Jewish Community, Emanuel Segre Amar. Continue Reading »

Israeli Rabbi Decrees: Grass is kosher if it’s medicinal

If grass is administered to relieve pain, then the person giving it is “performing a mitzvah,” and the person using the drug is using it “in a kosher fashion.”

By JTA

 

 

TEL AVIV (JTA) — An Israeli Orthodox rabbi ruled that distributing and smoking medicinal marijuana is kosher, but using weed for fun is forbidden.

Marijuana leaf - Photo Reuters

Marijuana leaf – Photo Reuters

Efraim Zalmanovich, the rabbi of Mazkeret Batia, a town south of Tel Aviv, made the distinction in a recent halachic ruling, NRG, the news site of the Maariv daily reported on Friday. Leading rabbis frequently weigh in on matters of reconciling halacha, or Jewish law, with modern living. Continue Reading »

German intelligence maintains concealment of Eichmann related materials

German Federal Court rules against intelligence services releasing classified Eichmann files that may reveal the post-war gov’t knew of his whereabouts and gave assistance to Israel’s Mossad in apprehending the Nazi official in Argentina.

By Ynet

A German court has prevented the publication of secret intelligence documents regarding the senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, the British paper The Daily Mail has reported.

Eichmann trial – Photo: Government Press Office

Assessments believe that the documents reveal that the West Germany’s intelligence knew of the Nazi officer’s post-war whereabouts, and had in the passed blocked the publication possibly fearing embarrassing senior German officials’ secret Nazi past

The Daily Mail reported that the German Federal Administrative Court rejected Thursday a request lodged by the German daily paper Bild to receive the Eichmann related files. Continue Reading »

Terror attack averted when sniper rifles with silencers seized by police

A major disaster has been averted with the 3 Palestinians men caught in possession of weapons in West Bank village.

By Itamar Fleishman

A Border Guard force arrested three Palestinians near the village of Al-Khader in the West Bank on Thursday. The three were carrying sniper rifles, silencers, telescopic sights, magazines and a pocketknife.

כלי הנשק שנתפסו. מעורר דאגה

Confiscated arms

They were turned over for questioning to security forces, who say they admitted they were planning a terror attack. The weapons were discovered during a search in the village after a Molotov cocktail was hurled at a Border Guard vehicle. The forces spotted a car with three men who raised their suspicion and ordered it to stop. Continue Reading »

Hamas reiterates for Kerry: Palestinians will never recognize Israel

This is why peace is impossible – Hamas will never recognize Israel, and the Palestinians supporting Hamas grows each year.

By Israel Today Staff

 

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh this week reiterated that the Palestinian Arabs as a whole will never recognize Israel’s right to exist, and certainly not to exist as the Jewish state.

Haniyeh: Palestinians will never recognize Israel

“We had two wars…but Palestinians did not and will not recognize Israel,” Bethlehem-based news agency Ma’an quoted Haniyeh as saying as he welcomed a solidarity visit by international activists.

Why should anyone care what Hamas says at this point? Continue Reading »

Even if you give up all the land, it won’t solve Israel’s problems

 

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of “Infidel” says, “From the perspective of the Arab leaders, reaching a two-state solution is to betray God. If you want peace and not merely a process, you must make peace with the people. The negotiators themselves are of no importance.”

By Dror Eydar

 

 

There is something dignified in the quiet, determined manner of Ayaan Hirsi Ali as she rises from the audience and walks towards the podium to deliver her lecture. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s intricate history starts in Somalia, where she was born to a Muslim family. At the age of five she underwent female genital mutilation.

Continue Reading »

Madonna may be house hunting in Tel Aviv

Madonna was photographed with a brochure for the Meier on Rothschild tower, a luxury housing development going up in Tel Aviv.

Madonna at the 2013 Billboard Music Award in Las Vegas, May 19, 2013. - PR PHOTOS

Madonna at the 2013 Billboard Music Award in Las Vegas, May 19, 2013. – PR PHOTOS

Users of a Facebook page for Israeli Madonna fans wondering the very same thing blew up the shot and discovered that this wasn’t just any white folder, but a brochure for the Meier on Rothschild tower, a luxury housing development going up in Tel Aviv. 

Continue Reading »

Iron Dome deployed near Haifa amid heightened tensions on Northern borders

IDF: The Anti-rocket battery move was dictated by changes in security situation.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

 

 

The IDF deployed an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in the Haifa area early Friday morning, amid heightened tensions in the North stemming from the ongoing Syrian civil war.

Iron Dome battery deployed in North

Iron Dome battery deployed in North – Photo: Ben Hartman

The IDF Spokesman’s Office stated that Iron Dome batteries are redeployed periodically in accordance with appraisals of the security situation.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz told pilots receiving their wings at the Hatzerim Air Base Thursday, “The region is shaking, from south to north.

Continue Reading »

Naval Soldier killed falling from moving train

 

Navy soldier’s tragic death appears to have happened after falling from moving train on which he jumped on to retrieve his forgotten backpack, on his way back to base.

Ilana Curiel

What was initially thought to be suicide now appears to be a tragic accident: Navy combat soldier Hanan Maman was killed falling from a moving train after forgetting his backpack in the train, an investigation into his death on Thursday suggests.

מוות מחריד בין אשדוד לאשקלון

Soldier jumped on train to retrieve backpack

Police suspect the soldier documented the event on his cell phone, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

According to the investigation, Maman, who was on his way to his base in Ashdod, forgot his backpack before getting off at the Ashdod railway station. Continue Reading »

Egypt hurts Gaza’s tunnel smuggling operations curtailing taxes to Hamas

Egypt deploys security reinforcements & sets up roadblocks across the huge Sinai desert running from the Suez Canal east to the Gaza border, causing shortages in the Palestinian enclave and hurting smuggling taxes to Hamas’ leaders.

 

An Egyptian security crackdown has severely disrupted smuggling to the neighboring Gaza Strip, causing a fuel shortage, doubling the price of building materials and shutting down some construction sites in the Hamas-ruled territory.

Tunnel smugglerEgypt’s military clamped down on the lawless Sinai Peninsula, which abuts Gaza, in the run-up to mass protests planned for Sunday by Egyptian opposition activists trying to force out the country’s president, Mohammed Morsi. Continue Reading »

Dr. David: Here’s How Mohammed al-Dura Really Died

Dr. Yehuda David who won his own Supreme Court case in France, regrets not being part of the latest Al-Dura hoax slander suit, & gives Mohammed al-Dura’s real cause of death.

By Maayana Miskin

 

The Israeli doctor who won a libel suit victory in the Mohammed al-Dura case regrets that he was unable to help French media analyst Philippe Karsenty to do the same.

Dr. Yehuda David won his case in France’s Supreme Court in 2012 after being accused of libel for revealing that Jamal Al-Dura, Mohammed al-Dura’s father, had lied. Karsenty lost his own Supreme Court case this week, and was convicted of defamation for accusing French state television of deliberately staging the hoax. Continue Reading »

IDF Chief Ganz: The Flames are Creeping Up on Nasrallah

 

In graduation ceremony of Air Force’s 166 flight course, IDF chief says Israel should prepare for ‘changing reality.’ Over 200 Hezbollah operatives killed in fighting rebels in Syria & Lebanon with thousands injured.

By Ilana Curiel

 

 

“Syria is still bleeding, and in Lebanon the flames have started to creep up on Nasrallah,” said IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz Thursday, at the graduation ceremony of the IAF’s 166 flight course, adding that the Israeli Air Force is “the strategic arm of the IDF; it can make our enemies pay, anytime, anywhere.”

מזכ"ל חיזבאללה נסראללה (צילום: EPA)

Gantz: Nasrallah is burning – Photo: EPA

“All fronts – from south to north – are turbulent,” Gantz noted. Continue Reading »