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Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely spoke with Arutz Sheva Wednesday evening about her efforts to forge a united right-wing bloc to run in next March's general elections - and said the Israeli electorate should be focusing on the policies of candidates, not their personalities. "The time has come to stop dealing all the time with the personal side but rather with the (policy) direction." "We saw how a leader got here, from Yesh Atid, who sold hollow slogans to the public," she said of Yair Lapid, who was fired yesterday by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu prior to the PM's announcement of...

After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu fired ministers Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni on Tuesday paving the way for snap elections, a Channel 2 poll has shown what results can possibly be expected from the upcoming voting session. According to the poll, Likud would remain the largest party if elections were held today, gaining 22 mandates. Jewish Home would strengthen to 17 mandates. The third largest party would be Labor, at 13 seats. Yisrael Beytenu would gain ten seats, and the as yet unnamed new party of former Likud minister Moshe Kahlon would likewise gain ten, becoming the surprise of the...

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday responded to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's decision to disband the Knesset. Kerry said that whatever government will be formed, he hoped it would be able to "negotiate and move towards resolving differences between Israelis and Palestinians." In April, Kerry's push for peace talks were torpedoed right ahead of their nine-month deadline by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which formed a unity agreement with Hamas after breaching the Oslo Accords by making unilateral moves to join international conventions. The PA has been inciting and praising the recent spree of high-profile terror attacks concentrated in...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the nation on Tuesday night shortly after 8 p.m., less than two hours after firing coalition members Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni (Hatnua), effectively disbanding the government. "I turn to you tonight because in the current situation, in the current government, it is impossible to lead the nation," said Netanyahu, saying the impasse is preventing him from fulfilling his role as prime minister. While Netanyahu called it "one of the best governments, one of the most stable governments in the history of Israel," adding it was "a true unity...

The Turkish Science Minister has become the latest public figure to make outrageous claims over Islam's hand in science and technology, the Hurriyet Daily News reported Friday - this time, claiming that Muslims discovered that the world is round. "Some 700-800 years before Galileo, 71 Muslim scientists led by al-Khwarizmi convened by the order of the Caliph Al-Ma'mun and revealed that the Earth is a sphere," Minister Fikri stated on Thursday. Fikri further claimed that a copy of the original document proving Islam's role in astronomy is currently in the Museum of Islamic Science and Technology in Istanbul. The Earth...

Amir Benayoun is a popular Mizrachi Israeli singer/composer with a small problem. He’s not left-wing, and sometimes his songs are political commentary — and not from a left-wing perspective. This past week he released a song called “Ahmed Loves Israel” (song and translated lyrics below) In particular, it reminds the listeners that the Arab terrorists in Har Nof Massacre, in the Merkaz HaRav Massacre, in the Rechavam Ze’evi assassination, in the Yehuda Glick assassination attempt, and in many of the other terror attacks worked near the places where they committed their terror attacks, and they seemed normal, until they weren’t....

One person was killed in Cairo on Saturday night, in clashes that erupted after an Egyptian court dismissed a murder charge against former President Hosni Mubarak over the deaths of protesters during the 2011 uprising. The ruling enraged Mubarak’s opponents, with about 1,000 converging on a central Cairo square to denounce the government, according to the AFP news agency. A health ministry official said one person was shot dead after police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters, resulting in scattered clashes. Police arrested at least 100 protesters. Seven of Mubarak's security commanders, including former interior minister Habib al-Adly, had...

The New York Times published a most unfortunate editorial on Tuesday based entirely on an inaccurate premise.... "It is heartbreaking," the paper's editorial board wrote, "to see the Israeli cabinet approve a contentious bill that would officially define Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, reserving 'national rights' only for Jews." The paper implicitly refers to the bill as one that "diminishes the rights of [Israel's] people" and "[denies] full rights to minorities." The proposed bill does neither of these. By granting the Jewish People exclusive "national rights" in Israel, the new bill does not deny civil or democratic...

sraeli singer Amir Benayoun released a song Sunday about a theoretical Arab Israeli youth stabbing Jews, garnering accusations of racism as Israel copes with a wave of attacks by East Jerusalem residents “It’s true that I am just ungrateful scum,” Benayoun sings in “Ahmed loves Israel.” “It’s true, but I am not guilty, I wasn’t brought up on love. It’s true that the moment will come when you will turn your back on me, and I’ll stab you right in the back.” In the song, one version of “Ahmed” lives in Jerusalem, studies at the Hebrew University, and is well-liked....

The High Court on Wednesday kiboshed government plans to demolish the homes of terrorists. One of the few methods security forces in Israel have to discourage Arabs from joining the ranks of terrorists – demolishing the homes of those involved in terrorism – was taken off the table as the result of a lawsuit by an Arab rights group. The government must now respond to the restraining order the Court issued on home demolitions if it wants to continue using the sanction. According to security officials, the prospect that their family's home will be demolished has discouraged potential terrorists from...

ustice Minister Tzipi Livni, head of the Hatnua party, welcomed on Tuesday evening President Reuven Rivlin’s criticism of the controversial Jewish State Law. Rivlin, who spoke at a conference earlier Tuesday, said, "The State of Israel is the national state of the Jewish people. A small, abhorred minority, undermine this fact, both from within our own and from outside, and so, we must ask ourselves seriously, what is the point of the proposed law - Israel: The National State of the Jewish People." "Does the promotion of this law, not in fact, question the success of the Zionist enterprise in...

Iran’s President, Hassan Rouhani, on Monday welcomed the extension of talks between his country and six world powers, and hailed it as “victorious” for Iranians. “We have neither compromised over Iran’s nuclear rights, nor will ever do so, and there is no doubt that the Iranian nuclear technology will remain functioning,” he said, according to the IRNA news agency. Rouhani once again repeated the slogan he used during his presidential campaign that the centrifuges will never cease rotating, while the wheels of the people’s lives, too, will rotate more smoothly. "Our nation has emerged victorious and will be victorious," emphasized...

What we are seeing in Jerusalem today is not simply Palestinian terrorism. It is Islamic jihad. No one likes to admit it. The television reporters insist that this is the worst possible scenario because there is no way to placate it. There is no way to reason with it. So what else is new? The horrible truth is that all of the anti-Jewish slaughters perpetrated by our Arab neighbors have been motivated to greater or lesser degrees by Islamic Jew-hatred. The only difference between the past hundred years and now is that today our appeasement-oriented elite is finding it harder...

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon predicted on Monday that the “momentum” of countries recognizing the “state of Palestine” will grow. Ban, who spoke before a UN committee on Palestinian rights, urged Israel and the Palestinian Authority to "step back from the brink" and return to peace talks. "The Israeli and Palestinian people face a shared fate on shared land. There is no erasing the other," Ban said, according to the AFP news agency. "Governments and parliaments are taking action. That momentum will grow," said Ban, referring to recent moves by governments in Europe to recognize “Palestine”. British lawmakers voted overwhelmingly...

European Parliament Member Bastiaan Belder of the Netherlands has urged the parliament to hold a debate on anti-Semitism. "It's a shame that this has not been done before,'' he said. Belder made his latest comments in an address at the annual conference of the European Coalition for Israel (ECI), a Christian initiative promoting European-Israeli cooperation. The session took place in the European Parliament on Thursday. Following the synagogue slaughter in Jerusalem last week, the ECI called upon the European Union to halt its funding to the PA until incitement to violence by PA leadership stops. MP Belder deplored the situation...

Photo (of Lurch and Zarif not shaking hands) The United States suggested to Iran on Sunday that it consider extending nuclear talks, The Associated Press (AP) reports. Iran and six world powers are holding talks in Vienna in an attempt to reach a lasting agreement on Tehran's disputed nuclear program before a deadline on Monday, but little progress has been made. A senior U.S. official told AP that with the Monday evening cutoff date a little more than a day away, Secretary of State John Kerry proposed to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that the two sides start discussing...

In an interview on the i24news network, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu referred Sunday to the anticipated vote in the French parliament on recognizing a Palestinian state: “Of course I'm worried about this because what they're voting on is Palestine without peace," he said. "That's what the Palestinians want. They want to have a state to continue, not to end the war with Israel, but to continue the war from improved boundaries. That's all they're saying. Look at what has happened. Every time we gave territory to the Palestinians, for example in Gaza, Iran walked in with its Palestinian proxies, fired...

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri justified a foiled plan to assassinate Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) on Friday, claiming that while he does not personally know of information regarding the plot, "all the leaders of the occupation are considered legitimate targets for resistance." "The leaders of the occupation, who are responsible for the killing of women and children and the desecration of holy places, are legitimate targets," he said, in remarks translated by Channel 10 news. On Thursday, the Israeli Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) revealed that three Hamas terrorists had been planning to assassinate Liberman during Operation...

Following discussions last week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday night is expected to propose a bill negating permanent residency status and social benefits from Arab residents of Jerusalem conducting riots and terrorist attacks. "It cannot be that those who act in terror against the state of Israel enjoy rights such as national insurance," said Netanyahu. The bill, which would include in its scope those inciting terrorism against the state, would target not only the Arab terrorists but their families as well in stripping their residency and social benefits. Interior Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) on Saturday announced that he was...

Ambassadors from five major European Union (EU) member states met with the Foreign Ministry's senior diplomat Alon Ushpiz in Jerusalem on Thursday, where they voiced opposition to the demolition of the homes of Arab terrorists. Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain were the five countries whose consul generals argued that such demolitions, which are meant as a deterrent for future terrorists and a punishment for heinous crimes, are "counterproductive." The ambassadors also denounced the attack on a Jerusalem synagogue this Tuesday in which four Jews and a Druze police officer were murdered by two Arab terrorists, reports Haaretz citing Israeli...