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What I discovered the next day is that Cruz had known exactly what he was doing.  Indeed, he had read the article that had been published about the event just that day and which essentially repeated Frank Ghadry’s allegation that the conference organizers were close to Hezbollah.   Whether Cruz ever contemplated withdrawing from the event is not certain, but what is clear is that he was keenly aware of the alleged links between the organizers of the event and Hezbollah, and he was not going to let that go untested.  Many have criticized Cruz since the event, saying he should have...

US airstrikes already making headway, says Israeli official. Israel may play a frontline role in the international coalition forming against Islamic State – the jihadi group sweeping through Iraq and Syria in its bid to reinstate a Middle East caliphate. As world powers unite around a US-led plan for military action to topple the militant group, Jerusalem is signaling that if Islamic State decides to spread out to Jordan – Israel will not hesitate to act. "We will use any means necessary," a senior Israeli official told local television station Channel 2. "Let me make this clear: If Islamic State...

Rapper Ari Lesser penned a catchy song that outlines what Hamas is, and why he thinks it is foolish to support them. The rap, titled “Hamas,” outlines the way the terrorist organization oppresses fellow Palestinians, kidnaps civilians, and fires thousands of rockets in Israel. So you want to criticize Israel that’s cool But if you support Hamas, you’re a fool Unless you want radical Islamic rule And stockpiles of rockets at your kids’ school Remember they send their own people out strapped With suicide bombs blowing up in their lap You think they seek peace, that’s a bunch of crap...

In a scene that has become emblematic of Friday prayers on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, masked men hurled firebombs and stones at police in the Mughrabi Gate, which leads to the historic site. As worshipers descended from the Temple Mount, a mob threw rocks at police forces, who were monitoring the traditional prayer sessions. Three rioters were arrested for disrupting the peace and taken into custody. Not far away, three east Jerusalem residents, including a minor, were arrested in the Arab neighborhood of Silwan after they threw rocks at Jewish homes in the area. They were taken into custody and held...

Iran calls on the United Nations’ atomic agency to condemn Israel over the drone Iran downed above the Natanz uranium enrichment site. Snip .... accused Israel of a "flagrant violation" of the Islamic Republic's territorial integrity "in contravention of the principles of international law and provision of the United Nations charter." The Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Air Force claimed that the drone was an Israeli-made "Hermes" drone with a maximum flight range of 1,600 km (994 miles) and a 800-km (500 mile) combat radius. Israeli officials declined to comment on the allegation by its arch foe, which the Jewish state and...

Remembering 9/11 – Smoke, Tears, Islamic JihadBy Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyNew York … On a sun drenched, cool Autumn morning, within a period of two hours, the United States had lost its innocence, isolation and security. Islamic terrorists attacked multiple targets in the US murdering over 3,000 civilians. Four civilian airliners, packed with passengers and fuel became deadly suicide missiles hitting, collapsing New York’s World Trade Center and destroying a part of Washington’s Pentagon. As a journalist reporting from New York, I visited “Ground Zero” twice. A hellish, gray gas, smoke filled area where only twisted metal and body...

Some of the things I don’t claim to know about the Ted Cruz-IDC kerfuffle:1 – I don’t know what Cruz was thinking when he told attendees at The IDC Summit for Middle East Christians that “Christians have no greater ally than Israel.” Maybe he was baiting the crowd and looking for reason to walk off the stage. If so, he’s doing an excellent job being a politician.2 – I don’t know whether it was only a “vocal and angry minority of attendees,” as Cruz contends, who participated in this “shameful display of bigotry and hatred.” The IDC says “a...

Jane's confirms that Muslim nation purchased 12 boats, based on photographs on website of Azerbaijani president. Azerbaijan is reportedly acquiring 21 new coast-guard vessels from Israel, according to Eurasianet.org. While Azerbaijan made no formal announcement about such a purchase, Jane's, the defense and intelligence publication, confirmed Thursday that the Azerbaijan Coast Guard ordered six Shaldag Mk V patrol boats and six Saar 62 offshore patrol vessels. Jane's based its assertion on images obtained in mid-July showing details of work being done on the vessels at a new shipyard. Images of the vessels are available on the website of the president...

Dear Megan (Marzec): I am writing to express my extreme disappointment with your recent actions as Ohio University’s (OU) student senate president. In my constitutionally protected opinion, you have exhibited some serious anti-Semitic tendencies. You have also come across as an unprincipled opportunist. Of course, I am referring to the manner in which you responded to the charge from OU President Roderick McDavis to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Instead of taking it seriously, you decided to douse yourself in fake blood in order to make a grossly ill-timed political statement. According to my friends at Campus Reform,...

Ted Cruz’s commitment to the state of Israel is sincere and beyond reproach. So too, it seems, is his commitment to grandiosity and self-promotion.With that in mind, having read the Washington Free Beacon’s reporting about Hezbollah supporters being featured at the Middle East Christian conference he would address Wednesday night, the choice to take a public stand for Israel – a move which got him booed off stage! – probably seemed like a slam dunk.How could defending Israel possibly turn out badly? On top of everything else, it would show boldness and courage.That was my initial take, too — and...

Of Politicians and Moral CouragePosted By Caroline Glick On September 12, 2014 @ 12:54 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 2 Comments Originally published by the Jerusalem Post. Leaders are not elected. Politicians are elected. Their election in turn provides politicians with the opportunity to become leaders.You don’t become a leader by telling people what they want to hear, although doing so certainly helps to you get elected. A politician becomes a leader by telling people what they don’t want to hear.If they are lucky, politicians will never have to become leaders. They will serve in times of peace and plenty,...

Assyrian Christians are standing with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) after he was booed for his support of Israel by some Middle East Christians gathered in Washington, D.C. Wednesday at an event hosted by an organization called "In Defense Of Christians."

A court has leveled unprecedented criticism against State Attorney Shai Nitzan, who has previously been accused of a strong left-wing bias, over the “scandalous” bias he showed as Deputy Attorney General. The details of the case emerged in the trial of Uri Baram, who three-and-a-half years ago published videos against Nitzan. On Wednesday the court accepted the defense’s arguments against Nitzan, presented by Attorney Adi Kedar of the Honenu legal rights aid organization in his defense of Baram. The court ruled that Nitzan enforced the law selectively by automatically closing complaints submitted against left-wing activists or Arabs who incited to...

A family accidentally drove into the Arab neighborhood of Wadi Joz in Jerusalem on Thursday night, and nearly paid for the wrong turn in Israel’s capital city with their lives. After entering the neighborhood, the family car was beset upon by a hail of potentially lethal rocks and massive bricks that broke the windshield, in what the mother of the family Etti Cohen described to Yedioth Aharonoth as “nearly a lynch mob.” Fortunately the family managed to escape with only minor physical wounds. “I feel like we got out of there by a miracle,” Cohen recalled tearfully. “I woke up...

MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) visited eastern Jerusalem and the Temple Mount on Thursday with members of the Internal Affairs Committee, where he told Arutz Sheva that he is convinced the wave of terror in the capital will only increase in coming days. “The loss of control over Jerusalem, and by continuation also over Gaza, started on the Temple Mount,” Feiglin said, while at the French Hill gas station that Arab rioters tried to explode on Sunday. Feiglin’s comments come in the wake of the dismantling of a new access ramp to the Temple Mount in a folding to Jordanian pressure,...

IDF forces played a crucial role in helping Irish soldiers rescue UN troops from the clutches of Syrian jihadists in a fierce clash on the border with Israel last week. Senior military sources said that Irish soldiers would have been killed or taken captive if it weren’t for action taken by the IDF on August 30 during a mission to evacuate dozens of Filipino soldiers who were surrounded by a larger force of militants, the Irish Independent reported on Sunday.

The University of Illinois board of trustees on Thursday affirmed its refusal to hire a professor who posted a series of harsh anti-Israel tweets this summer. The professor says the act is part of an effort by “wealthy and well organized groups to attack pro-Palestinian students and faculty.” The case has drawn wide attention on college campuses because it raises the issue of the suppression of academic freedom around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—a hot-button topic at universities across the country. Steven Salaita, a Palestinian-American professor with an expertise in indigenous studies, accepted a tenure-track position last year to start working in...

Meghan Marzec, the President of the Ohio University student Senate turned the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge into an anti-Israel blood bucket challenge. At a Student Senate Meeting Wednesday evening, pro-Israel students protested the anti-Israel action and several of the pro-Israel students were escorted out and arrested by campus police. According to the student newspaper, The Post: Ohio University Police Department Chief Andrew Powers told The Post that four students were arrested at Wednesday night’s Student Senate meeting in Walter Hall. ... Rabbi Danielle LeShaw, who went with the arrested students to OUPD’s station, told The Post they were charged with...

Assyrian Christians are standing with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) after he was booed for his support of Israel by some Middle East Christians gathered in Washington, D.C. Wednesday at an event hosted by an organization called "In Defense Of Christians." Yet not all of the Christians present disagreed with Cruz--and some have begun speaking out in favor of Cruz's view that defending Israel and defending Christians in the Middle East go hand-in-hand. Martin Youmaran, a Chicago-based activist in the Assyrian American National Federation (AANF), posted on Facebook Thursday: I am deeply saddened to hear about the disrespectful display that some...

In Defense of Christians President Toufic Baaklini issued the following statement in response to a disruption at the Inaugural Summit Gala Dinner: “As Cardinal Rai so eloquently put it to the attendees of the In Defense of Christians’ inaugural Summit gala dinner: ‘At every wedding, there are a few problems.’ In this case, a few politically motivated opportunists chose to divide a room that for more than 48 hours sought unity in opposing the shared threat of genocide, faced not only by our Christian brothers and sisters, but our Jewish brothers and sisters and people of all other faiths and...