Egyptian Security foiled car bombing on Gaza border

Egyptian intelligence report that they were able to thwart terror attack at Rafah border crossing.

Explosives, RPG, and grenades were found at scene

By Elior Levy, AP

 

A senior Egyptian intelligence official in northern Sinai said Monday the the military foiled an attempted car bombing near a church and a military camp along the Egypt-Gaza border.

Egyptian security forces in Sinai – Photo: AFP

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Egyptian intelligence received word that militants were preparing a car bomb attack meant to target a military base in a deserted part of Rafah, which borders Gaza. Continue Reading »

Senior Investigator Bumped from Bulgaria Bombing Probe

After sensitive information was revealed to the public, Bulgarian officials removed a senior detective from the investigation that killed five Israelis in Burgas.

By Rachel Hirshfeld

 

Bulgarian officials have removed a senior investigator from a probe into a tourist bus bomb attack that killed five Israelis, after she revealed sensitive information to the media.

The state-run news agency BTA reported Monday that Stanelia Karadzhova, head of the regional investigation unit in Burgas, the location where last July’s attack took place, had been taken off the case because “she spoke to the media without clearing her statement with the supervising prosecutor.” Continue Reading »

Bennett Supports Netanyahu, says Left unable to unite as alternative bloc

 

Naftali Bennett, Habayit Hayehudi chairman on the PM: “I worked for Netanyahu, and his heart is in the right place … He wants to do good, and he needs strong, ethical people by his side to guarantee that he remains steadfast.”

By Efrat Forsher

 

 

Israel’s left-wing parties are too weak to hinder incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s chances of winning a third term in the next Knesset, but Netanyahu will try to form a left-wing governing coalition with them, Habayit Hayehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett said in speeches Sunday and Monday.

Speaking to students, Bennett says the prime minister’s heart is in the right place.

Continue Reading »

Bishop Fellay, head of Society of St. Pius X calls Jews ‘enemies’ of the Church

The society’s founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, in a 1985 letter to Pope John Paul II identified the enemies of the faith as “Jews, Communists & Freemasons.”

Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications imposed on the Society’s 4 bishops. One of the bishops Richard Williamson, denied the Nazis used gas chambers & asserted that no more than 200,000-300,000 Jews died during  World War II.

 

 

By JTA

 

TORONTO  — Jews are “enemies of the Church,” the head of a radical Catholic sect said in Canada.

Bishop Bernard Fellay, superior of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, made the remark during a Dec. Continue Reading »

Sen. Rand Paul in Israel: US foreign aid “would be a sale, not a grant”

Republican Senator tells Jerusalem crowd it’ll be harder to be a friend to Israel if the US is “out of money.”

 

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, a fierce opponent of US foreign aid who is being touted already as a likely 2016 presidential candidate, said in Jerusalem on Monday that the United States is and always will be a friend of Israel, but thinks “it will be harder and harder to be a friend if we are out of money.”
Sen. Rand Paul

Speaking to the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, Paul said it is one thing if you are giving foreign aid out of your savings, but it is something completely different if you are “borrowing from one country to give to another.

Continue Reading »

Israeli media banned from Gaza

The Hamas Terrorist group controlling Strip says Israeli media outlets are portraying Palestinians in the strip in negative way.

By jn1.tv

 

VIDEO – Hamas has announced a ban on Israeli media from working inside the Gaza Strip, claiming that media outlets portray Palestinians in a negative way.

Israeli media rely on local Palestinians or foreign media for reports from Gaza (archives) Photo: AFP

Israel tightened its blockade and banned Israeli journalists from entering Gaza in 2006 after Hamas, an Islamist group that refuses to recognize the Jewish state, took power of the enclave.

Israeli media rely on local Palestinians or foreign media outlets for reports from inside the battle-torn coastal strip. Continue Reading »

Taglit-Birthright: Visiting Israel, our start-up-nation

Not many remember that when the flagship program 13 years ago was launched, it had many detractors. But today, few initiatives enjoy this much support from the Jewish world.

 

Some critics see Taglit-Birthright as nationalist and right-wing, but the former leader of Israel’s left and architect of the Oslo peace process isn’t worried at all.

Birthright group meets up with area security director and visit IDF outpost on the Israel-Lebanon border – IsraelandStuff/PP

Birthright group meets up with area security director and visit IDF outpost on the Israel-Lebanon border – IsraelandStuff/PP

 

“People say Birthright is right-wing but they’re wrong,” says Yossi Beilin, a former head of Israel’s justice, economics and religious affairs ministries. “I’m all in favor of a debate on Israel’s policies and don’t think Jews in the Diaspora should blindly support it, but this has nothing to do with visiting Israel.” Continue Reading »

Iran Claims Turkey’s Request for Patriots Is Meant to Protect Israel

Tehran charges Turkey’s deployment of Patriot missiles in is strategically designed to protect Israel from Iranian threats.

By Elad Benari

 

The deployment of Patriot missiles in Turkey is designed to protect Israel from Iranian threats, Iran charged on Sunday, according to the Turkish daily Hurriyet.

Patriot missile

Patriot missile – AFP photo

Speaking to Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV station, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast was quoted as having said the missiles were “placed by NATO and the West to protect Israel” against possible incoming Iranian missiles.

Iran believes Turkey would not permit its airspace to be used in an attack on the Islamic Republic, Mehmanparast said, but added that the control of the Patriots was not in the hands of Turkish authorities. Continue Reading »

Palestinian PM angry at Arab ‘donors’

 

‘Palestine’ PM Fayyad accuses Arab states of failing to uphold their promises of cash support, says his government close to being ‘ completely incapacitated’

Associated Press

 

The Palestinian self-rule government is close to being “completely incapacitated,” largely because Arab countries haven’t delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in promised aid, the Palestinian prime minister said in an interview Sunday.

Salam Fayyad – Photo: Noam Moskowitz

If allowed to continue, the Palestinian Authority’s unprecedented financial crisis will quickly double the number of Palestinian poor to 50 percent of a population of roughly 4 million, Salam Fayyad told The Associated Press. Continue Reading »

Netanyahu promises construction of fortified fence along Syria-Israel border

Prime Minister Netanyahu expresses concerns that Syrian violence may spill over, or worse, that the Assad regime will fall and be replaced by Islamic extremists armed with chemical weapons.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged Sunday to build a fortified fence along the frontier with Syria, warning that radical Islamist forces have taken over the area.

The Israel-Syria border.

The Israel-Syria border. – Photo by Yaron Kaminsky

Israel has largely stayed out of the civil war that has engulfed Syria and killed more than 60,000 people, but it is concerned that violence could spill over into Israel.

Israel worries that Syrian President Bashar Assad might try to draw Israel into the fighting as a distraction if his situation becomes desperate. Continue Reading »

Op-Ed: Arab Christians, You’re Next

Arab Christians are cosying up to the Muslims, but it won’t do them any good, since they’re also on the ‘Jihad list’. This includes a noted Palestinian Christian Arab columnist who has revealed his true colors in an article for the Arab media.

By Giulio Meotti

 
Given the common status as minorities within an overwhelmingly Islamic region, you might expect Christian Arabs to find common cause with Jews and Israel. But it seems that the traditional hatred of Eastern Christianity for Judaism has closed off that option.

First the Saturday people then the Sunday People

The proof is Ray Hanania, a regular columnist for the Jerusalem Post and other publications, a well known Arab Christian, considered by them to be a “moderate Palestinian”. Continue Reading »

‘Palestine’ says “NO!” to UNRWA request to accept Syrian Palestinian refugees

Palestinians don’t want Palestinian refugees as Gaza & Ramallah both refuse UNRWA’s request to ‘help their brothers’.

Past calls to come to ‘Palestine’ were empty promises of help; were only made to rattle Israel.

By Aviel Schneider

 

The Palestinian governments in Gaza (Hamas) and the so-called “West Bank” (Mahmoud Abbas) have refused to take Palestinian refugees from war-ridden Syria.

Recently, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which was created to handle the issue of Palestinian Arab refugees, asked the Palestinian governments to allow their brothers from Syria to enter.

Palestinian Arabs in Syria have had to flee their refugee camps under attack from Syrian rebels who view the Palestinians as supporters of dictator Bashar Assad. Continue Reading »

Israel braces for heavy rains, snow & strong winds

Meteorologists expect one of the rainiest weeks in recent memory, with showers falling from the Galilee to the Negev and 100 km/h winds.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

 

Heavy rain fell from the North to the Negev overnight Saturday, with the stormy winter weather expected to continue on Sunday and throughout the week.

winter skies in the Galilee

Winter skies in the Galilee – IsraelandStuff/PP

Forecasters expect the coming week to be one of the rainiest in recent memory with some 100 millimeters of rain expected in central Israel and as much as 250mm. expected to fall in the North.

Mount Hermon is also expected to see continued snowfall throughout the week.

Continue Reading »

Has the 3rd intifada already begun?

A Senior IDF officer, the Ezion sector commander makes grim prediction about Palestinian protests in the West Bank, but adds the IDF is always prepared to battle terror.

Itamar Fleishman

 

The defense establishment has been careful not to overstate the significance of the recent – growing – wave of unrest sweeping the West Bank, but according to IDF Ezion Sector Commander Colonel Yaniv Alaluf, the third intifada has already begun.

Colonel Yaniv Alaluf – Photo: Effi Sharir

“We’re no longer on the verge of a third intifada – it’s already here. We anticipate many more (clashes) from now on,” he said. Continue Reading »

Israel’s IDE to build desalination plant in San Diego worth $650m

An Israel Chemicals & Delek joint venture will design & supply equipment, and operate the Carlsabad desalination plant in San Diego for it’s first 30 years.

By Globes’ correspondent

 

IDE desalination plant, Jamnagar, India – Photo: IDE-tech.com webpage

IDE Technologies Ltd., owned in equal shares by Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG) and Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL), has signed a $150 million contract with one of the largest desalination ventures in the US to plan and supply equipment for the largest desalination plant in the country. The plant will be built near the Encina power station in Carlsabad, in San Diego County, California. Continue Reading »