Oman’s Foreign Minister: ‘Time to accept Israel’

After Netanyahu’s secret visit, Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman’s minister of foreign affairs, says his country is offering ideas to help in the peace process; “We are not saying that the road is now easy and paved with flowers, but our priority is to put an end to the conflict and move to a new world.”

By Reuters

 

Oman described Israel as an accepted Middle East state on Saturday, a day after hosting a surprise visit by its prime minister that Washington said could help regional peace efforts.

Oman is offering ideas to help Israel and the Palestinians to come together but is not acting as mediator, Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah [photographed above], the sultanate’s minister responsible for foreign affairs, told a security summit in Bahrain. Continue Reading »

IDF shoots 4 Palestinian terrorists dead during Gaza border riots

IDF Spokesperson’s Unit reported many of the estimated 16,000 demonstrators attending Friday’s riots were burning tires on Israel’s border; many others were hurling Molotov cocktails, hand grenades and stones at the Israeli soldiers.
– IAF jets hit 3 Hamas posts in northern Gaza.

By Matan Tzuri & Elior Levy

 

Four Palestinians in their 20s were shot dead Friday during the weekly Hamas-led Gaza border riots, despite earlier report by the The Al-Hayat newspaper, according to which Israel and Hamas managed to reach understandings regarding a long-term ceasefire arrangement, which would see the lifting of the Gaza blockade in exchange for complete cessation of border violence. Continue Reading »

PM Netanyahu returns from secret trip to Oman, on the Arabian Peninsula

Watch: Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu makes an undisclosed  official diplomatic visit to the Arabian country of Oman, a nation still without diplomatic ties with the Jewish State.

By Tzvi Lev

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife held an official visit to Oman on Friday. This is Netanyahu’s first official visit to Oman since 1996.

The Prime Minister was invited to visit by Sultan Qaboos bin Said, ruler of Oman, after lengthy negotiations between the two countries.

Together with Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife attended the visit of Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabat, Foreign Ministry Director-General Yuval Rotem, Chief of Staff Yoav Horowitz and Military Secretary Brigadier General Avi Balot. Continue Reading »

Human Rights Watch: World should stop financing a Palestinian “Police State”

HRW director details his two years of documenting arbitrary arrests & torture which has been “systematic” under Palestinian rule for decades, while the West continues to finance it, ignoring the horrible transgressions by the Fatah & Hamas kleptocrats, to focus rather on the Jewish State.

By Israel Today Staff

 

More often than not, allegations of Israeli abuse take up all the headlines, leaving little room (or desire) to report on the verifiable abuses being perpetrated against the Palestinians by their own governments.

And, according to a scathing report produced by Human Rights Watch, those abuses are “systematic.”

The report labeled both the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and the Hamas regime in Gaza as “police states,” and wondered why Western governments that purport to oppose such things continue to send so much of their taxpayers’ money to the Palestinians. Continue Reading »

Madonna seeking private kosher chef

Megastar Madonna is seeking a personal cook with “private Household/Superyacht experience” and prefers someone with experience in cooking “healthy, simple and family style” food, instead of “fine-dining.”

By JTA

 

Madonna is advertising for a private chef who has “confident knowledge of kosher cooking.”

The pop singer is offering a yearly salary of nearly $142,000 for the personal chef to prepare the kosher meals for her and her six children and be willing to travel, the Evening Standard reported.

Hey, I’m a Kosher cook! – Photo: IsraelandStuff/PP

Madonna, 60, has residences in London, Lisbon and New York.

The advertisement, which the newspaper identifies as being placed by Madonna, is seeking someone with “private Household/Superyacht experience” and has experience in cooking “healthy, simple and family style” food instead of “fine-dining.” Continue Reading »

IDF Search & Rescue assist Jordan; 21 dead, many missing in Dead Sea floods

With 21 dead and dozens missing in floods on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, both Israel and Jordan are braced for their first major rainstorm of the winter.

By i24NEWS

 

At least 21 people, most of them children, were killed in a fierce flood on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea Thursday.

Dozens more were missing, students and civilians whose bus was swept away by flash flooding as they were traveling there. Extensive rescue efforts were underway in the area.

Along with Search & Rescue teams, IDF & Israel Police personnel, a fleet of MDA Ambulances at the ready in last year’s flash foods by the Dead Sea that led to the drowning of ten 18 yr-old pre-military students on a hiking trip..

Continue Reading »

Egyptian and church officials upset after Police subdue Monk in Jerusalem

Police and Coptic priests scuffle outside Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulcher in protest of planned restoration work; Egyptian Foreign Ministry condemns behavior of Israel Police officers’ handling of the incident.

By AP

 

A scuffle between police forces and Coptic priests at a major Christian holy site in Jerusalem on Wednesday drew condemnation from Egypt and churches in the Holy Land.

Police and Coptic priests wrangled outside a contested chapel at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

Israel Police contain rowdy Coptic priests protesting outside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Continue Reading »

Holocaust institute switches trips from Poland to Ukraine over ‘Holocaust Law’

The Israeli Holocaust education institute said the end of trips to Poland is to send “a clear message of rejection of the state’s interference with the narrative of the Holocaust,” when it outlawed ‘claims of Polish collaboration’ during the nazi genocide.

By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

 

A Holocaust education institute that trains guides for study trips abroad said it will switch it activities to Ukraine from Poland following that country’s law prohibiting some rhetoric about the genocide.

The Shem Olam Institute, located in a small village in central Israel and which includes a small museum, focuses on religious life during the Holocaust, and has so far trained some 20 guides for Holocaust study trips in Poland. Continue Reading »

$777m deal: Israel Aerospace Industries to fit 7 Indian navy ships with Barak 8

State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries signs an additional contract worth $777 million to supply the Barak 8, LRSAM air and missile defense systems on 7 Indian navy ships.

By Reuters

 

State-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has won an additional $777 million contract to supply LRSAM air and missile defense systems to seven ships in the Indian navy, the company said on Wednesday.

The contract is with India’s state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), which is the main contractor in the project, IAI said.The LRSAM, part of the Barak 8 family, is an air and missile defense system used by Israel’s navy as well as India’s navy, air and land forces. Continue Reading »

NY Dem congressional candidate disapproves of US Embassy in Jerusalem

WATCH New York congressional candidate, who says Israel isn’t a ‘Jewish democracy’, debates Republican opponent, Rep. John Faso who is very pro-Israel.

By Elad Benari

 

A Democratic congressional candidate in New York is under fire for denying Israel is a “Jewish democracy” during a debate against his Republican opponent.

Antonio Delgado, who is running against Rep. John Faso in New York’s 19th Congressional District, made the comment during debate on Monday, reported The Washington Free Beacon.

Delgado, who said his wife and children are Jewish, was asked at the debate whether he agreed with President Donald Trump’s decision to relocate the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Continue Reading »

Arab-Israeli Christian Soldier: IDF is Most Moral Army in the World

After learning of Harvard University’s decision to host members of the radical anti-IDF organization, “Breaking the Silence,” Yoseph Haddad felt compelled to speak up as an ex-‘minority soldier’ in the IDF.

By Israel Today Staff

 

Israel is facing increased efforts to besmirch both its governmental policies and the conduct of its military, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Christian Arab, Yoseph Haddad, Defends Israel – Photo: Ynet [unattributed]

But that has also resulted in a growing number of minority citizens and soldiers coming forward and exposing the half-truths and outright deceptions employed by the Jewish state’s detractors.

Among them is Yoseph Haddad, a 33-year-old Arab Israeli Christian from Nazareth who served proudly in the IDF during the Second Intifada and the Second Lebanon War. Continue Reading »

After a year in hiding, Biafra statehood leader pops up in Jerusalem

Noting he received help from Israel’s Mossad, the wanted Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu said, “I owe my survival to the State of Israel.”

BY JTA

 

JERUSALEM — Nigerian separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu announced that he is in Israel a year after he disappeared from his home in southeast Nigeria.

Kanu has been campaigning for an independent state called Biafra in south-eastern Nigeria.

A video live-streamed on Friday on social media showed him praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, wearing a kipa and tallit.

Kanu claims the Igbo people, who are the majority in southeast Nigeria, are a lost tribe of Israel and that he will lead them to the promised land of Biafra. Continue Reading »

IDF exposes Hezbollah exploiting agricultural NGO posts for military use

IDF: Hezbollah is using multiple posts under the auspices of the NGO environmental group, ‘Green Without Borders’ to observe and report on IDF troop movements, a violation of UN Resolution 1701.

By Mordechai Sones

 

The IDF has revealed another Hezbollah position under the auspices of the “Green Without Borders” agricultural front organization.

“Hezbollah violates Resolution 1701 on a regular basis, operating in the area south of the Litani River, using civilian camouflage and reinforcing military capabilities in the rural areas of the Shi’ite villages in violation of UN resolution,” the IDF said.

Hezbollah uses Green Without Boundaries as a front for operations in the contact zone and establishes observation posts for gathering information about IDF troop movements. Continue Reading »

Israeli martial-arts NGO takes regional coexistence award

Budo for Peace, an Israeli NGO dedicated to coexistence, was recognized for its ‘outstanding contribution to peace in the world using the power of sport’ at the 2018 Peace and Sport Regional Forum in Greece.

By Brian Blum

 

When does fighting contribute to fostering peace? When it’s part of an Israeli-run martial arts program that trains young Jews and Arabs in Israel, the Palestinian Authority territories and the wider Middle East.

Budo for Peace was named NGO of the Year at the 2018 Peace and Sport Regional Forum last week in Rhodes, Greece.

The group’s nomination for the Peace and Sport Award followed its February 2018 annual international seminar, which included 80 international senseis (teachers) and 800 Jewish and Arab youth martial-arts representatives from as far afield as Iran and Greece. Continue Reading »

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin calls to establish a ‘Reverse Birthright’

In bid to strengthen Israel-Diaspora ties, President Rivlin says a ‘Reverse Birthright’ will facilitate truly honest conversations between Israelis and the Jewish diaspora communities worldwide, “We need to talk, we have to talk, and we need to listen. We are not ‘strategic allies’; we are family.”

By i24NEWS

 

Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin at JFNA GA, 22. October 2018 – Photo: Mark Neiman (GPO) the establishment of a ‘Reverse Taglit-Birthright’ program during his address to the General Assembly (GA) of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) on Monday, in what appeared to be an effort to bolster ties with Jewish diaspora communities abroad. Continue Reading »