Free Republic

Israeli officials on Saturday reportedly confirmed the Israeli Air Force carried out a strike against Syria and say it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles. The officials said the shipment was not of chemical arms, but of “game changing” weapons bound for the terror group Hezbollah. One official said the target was a shipment of advanced, long-range ground-to-ground missiles.

An Iranian citizen has been arrested for spying on Israeli sites in an apparent search for a target, Channel 2 news reports. The man was found to be in possession of a false Israeli passport. He had received the false passport in Malaysia and had successfully used it to enter Nepal and Sri Lanka. He was seen by an Israeli as he spied on the Israeli embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal. He reportedly confessed to the suspicions against him.

It's Passover, and although Barack Hussein Obama's lineage is far removed from that of Abraham, the man should at least put a little of the emergency transfusion blood that they bring along in the president's motorcade over the lintels of his door. Mr. Obama's first trip to Israel as president was similar to his Jakarta jaunt in 2010 and his "Return to Moneygall" tour in 2011. In Indonesia, the trip was cut short when Java's Mount Merapi began spewing ash in Air Force One's direction. In Ireland, while revisiting his roots, Obama's limo got hung up on a bump as...

"This is part of the lively debate we talked about," Obama said. "This is good." He added, "You know, I have to say, we actually arranged for that because it made me feel at home. You know, I wouldn't feel comfortable if I didn't have at least one heckler." The heckler appeared to be screaming in Hebrew, though it's not clear what he was saying. UPDATE: The White House pool reporter adds: There was a heckler about 15 minutes into remarks. Man standing to Obama’s left back near center press platform began shouting in Hebrew. A reliable Hebrew speaker seated...

The map of the Middle East displayed in an Obama administration video released days before President Barack Obama’s visit to Israel shows the Jewish state dispossessed of substantial parts of its current territory, including its capital. The map of Israel, displayed repeatedly during the video, shows the Golan Heights, Jerusalem, northern Israel, and areas surrounding what is currently the West Bank as non-Israeli territory. The Golan Heights is shown as part of Syria; Jerusalem is shown as part of the West Bank; and northern Israel is shown as part of Lebanon. The itinerary on the White House website also implies...

Channel 2 is broadcasting its interview with the president, ahead of his scheduled arrival in Israel on Wednesday Ahead of his first visit to Israel as president next Wednesday, Barack Obama was interviewed yesterday by Israel’s Channel 2. The interview at the White House, with news anchor Yonit Levy, is being screened this evening. Follow it here. Pollard committed a very serious crime Spy-for-Israel Jonathan Pollard “committed a very serious crime” and Obama has to follow the rules of review in his case. No plans to release him “immediately.” But he’ll be “accorded the same kinds of review” open to...

Three Israeli surfers went to the aid of eight children struggling in the waters off Hawaii on Saturday, Channel 2 television reported, after huge waves began surging toward the coast. The three - Tzvika Elias, Yair Naftali and Gabi Liptz - were hailed as heroes by the children’s parents. “We had gone to a remote beach half an hour from Honolulu,” 30-year-old Elias, who lives in New York, told Channel 2. “The waves there were high, huge breakers about four meters high, and as the minutes past, the waves got stronger and even higher.” Elias and his friends then saw...

More than a dozen Israeli citizens are facing immigration charges for overstaying their visas after federal agents arrested them working at kiosks in the Galleria and The Woodlands Mall. Shortly before the two malls closed late Wednesday night, federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations arrested 13 Israeli citizens along with an immigrant from Moldova. They were detained on administrative charges of remaining in the U.S. beyond the expiration date of their tourist and student visas, confirmed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Greg Palmore. The eight women and six men detained Treasury approved big

JERUSALEM – In a stunning setback, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's hard-line bloc fared worse than expected in a parliamentary election Tuesday, exit polls showed, possibly forcing the incumbent Israeli leader to invite surprisingly strong moderate rivals into his government and soften his line toward the Palestinians. TV exit polls showed the hard-liners with about 61 seats in the 120-seat parliament, a bare majority, and the counts could change as actual votes are tallied. The unofficial TV results had Netanyahu winning only 31 seats, though he combined his Likud Party with the far-right Yisrael Beitenu for the voting. Running separately four...

The White House is closely following the elections in Israel, Channel 10 News reported on Tuesday. According to the report, the U.S. is particularly concerned over the growing strength of the Habayit Hayehudi (The Jewish Home) in the polls and over the fact that there is hardly talk about negotiations with the Palestinian Authority as part of the election campaign. The U.S. is concerned, according to Channel 10, that Bennett's strengthening will cause Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in turn, to strengthen the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. The report comes on the heels of the harsh criticism by President...

Archaeologists have discovered a 2,750-year-old temple along with a cache of sacred artifacts, providing rare insight into religious practices at the time, the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday. The temple was uncovered west of Jerusalem, at the Tel Motza archaeological site, in preparation for work on Highway 1. Among the finds are pottery figurines, fragments of chalices and decorated pedestals, which indicate the site was the stomping ground of a ritual cult. "The ritual building at Tel Motza is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any remains of ritual buildings of the...

Today the National Journal reported that Obama is reconsidering his decision to appoint Chuck Hagel Secretary of Defense. As I wrote in my previous post, there is no chance that Obama will appoint a supporter of a strong Israel to any senior foreign policy post because he wouldn't appoint someone who doesn't share his basic animosity towards Israel. But in Hagel, he chose someone even more outspoken in his animus towards the Jewish state than Obama. Hagel's looming appointment provoked angry responses from many leading Jewish voices in the US. Whether this opposition made a difference in driving Obama to...

For the second day in a row, the Obama adminstration criticized Israel on Tuesday for its decision to build new housing units in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo, often wrongly described by anti-Israeli media as an "illegal settlement in east Jerusalem". “We are deeply disappointed that Israel insists on continuing this pattern of provocative action,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters. “These repeated announcements and plans of new construction run counter to the cause of peace. "Israel’s leaders continually say that they support a path towards a two-state solution, yet these actions only put that goal further...

From 1900 to the late 1990’s, there were no mass school shootings. Lest it be thought that guns were uncommon in schools, that was not the case. Guns were commonly brought to school for shooting competitions, hunting after school, for teachers to trade or show to each other or their students, or for show and tell. Guns were even made in shop class under the supervision of the shop teacher. Guns were common in gun racks in pickup trucks in the school parking lot. Even today, many schools provide special dispensation for students to take off from school for deer...

Supporters and opponents alike of gun control will point to this fact in the coming days: Connecticut already has some of the toughest restrictions on gun laws in the United States. For gun control supporters, the shooting at a Newtown elementary school will be one more piece of evidence that even stronger laws are needed, including at the national level. “We have some of the strongest gun laws in the United States, but if you don’t have strong federal gun laws, that makes it that much more difficult,” said Ron Pinciaro, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence. But advocates...

Israel's ambassador to the United States warned Sunday that any evidence of chemical weapons being passed from the Assad regime to extremist groups like Hezbollah would be a "game-changer," and said that would be a "red line" for Israel. The remark comes amid claims that the Syrian regime is mixing and moving the components for the deadly sarin nerve gas. Ambassador Michael Oren said he could not confirm those reports but made clear that Israel is watching the situation "very carefully." "Were those weapons to pass into the wrong hands -- Hezbollah's hands for example -- that would be a...

WASHINGTON - The White House said on Friday a new Israeli settlement expansion plan was "counterproductive" and could make it harder to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. "We reiterate our longstanding opposition to settlements and east Jerusalem construction and announcements," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinian journalists in their cars Tuesday, a Gaza health official and the head of the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV said. Israel acknowledged targeting the men, claiming they had ties to militants. The strikes came on the seventh day of Israel's offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers. A number of journalists have been killed over the years while covering fighting between the Jewish state and the Palestinian militant group, but not in targeted strikes Israel acknowledged. Two of those killed were cameramen working for Al Aqsa TV, the centerpiece of a growing...

An Israeli strike on a Gaza City high-rise today has killed one of the top militant leaders of Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian militant group said. The second strike in two days on the downtown Gaza City building that houses the Hamas TV station, Al Aqsa, has killed Ramez Harb, who is a leading figure in Al Quds Brigades militant wing, according to a text message Islamic Jihad sent to reporters. Witnesses told the AP that the Israeli airstrike, part of a widening effort to suppress Hamas rocket fire into Israel, struck the building Monday afternoon,

Palestinian militants barraged Israel with more than 200 rockets on Thursday, killing three people as Israel pressed a punishing campaign of airstrikes on militant targets across the Gaza Strip. Late in the day, Israel signaled a ground operation may be imminent as forces moved toward the border area with Gaza. At least 12 trucks were seen transporting tanks and armored personnel carriers, and a number of buses carrying soldiers arrived. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he had authorized the army to call-up additional reservists for possible action. The army said it was prepared to draft up to 30,000 additional...

Embassy of Israel ✔ @IsraelinUSA @ScottPelley @CBSEveningNews today's show ignored the 150+ rockets fired at Israel this week. No other state would accept a similar reality. 14 Nov 12 Reply Retweet Favorite Conservatives aren’t shy about calling out American news networks for overlooking stories that doesn’t fit the liberal narrative, but the Embassy of Israel took to Twitter today to call out Scott Pelley and the CBS Evening News for not reporting on the rocket attacks on Israel this week. CBS’s Mark Knoller notes that the rare occasion of a presidential news conference dominated the news cycle today.

Hamas confirms Ahmed Jabari killed when a missile hit two cars near the Gaza port; Palestinians report another person was killed.

A math teacher at the University and College Union (UCU) -- the largest trade union and professional association of higher education for professors, academics, lecturers and researchers in the United Kingdom -- says the institution has repeatedly singled out Israel for condemnation at its annual conferences and created an intolerant environment in which "it is no longer tenable to be a Jew in UCU", The Telegraph reported. Ronnie Fraser, who is suing the union for race and religious discrimination, had opposed a controversial motion passed by the union in 2007 calling for a ban on all Israeli academics working in...

Soon after he took office, President Barack Obama began a process ultimately designed to reestablish full US diplomatic relations with Iran, including a reopening of embassies, an Israeli daily reported Sunday. The initiative, part of a wider shift in America’s diplomatic orientation, aimed at reaching understandings with Tehran over suspending its nuclear program, Maariv claimed, citing “two Western diplomats very close to the administration.” The initiative led to at least two US-Iran meetings, the report said. Israel was made aware of the contacts, and opposed them. But Iran rebuffed the “diplomatic hand” offered by the White House, Maariv reported.

Why does the RNC need to spend any money when Debbie Wasserman Schultz is already on the DNC's payroll? Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed on Monday that Israel’s ambassador to the United States has accused Republicans of being “dangerous” to Israel by criticizing President Obama’s record.... [Israeli] Ambassador Michael Oren just released this statement: “I categorically deny that I ever characterized Republican policies as harmful to Israel. H/T: Dan Friedman

CHARLOTTE – Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed on Monday that Israel’s ambassador to the United States has accused Republicans of being “dangerous” to Israel by criticizing President Obama’s record. The Florida congresswoman made the charge at a training session for Jewish Democrats held by the Obama campaign here at the Democratic National Convention, aimed at teaching Jewish Democrats how to convince their fellow Jews to vote for Obama. Much of the session, which featured a string of speakers from the Obama campaign, was devoted to defending Obama’s record on Israel.

The US announced it will take further indirect action against Iran in an effort to delay a possible Israeli strike against the country. Washington’s plans to halt Iran’s embattled nuclear program include military exercises in the Persian Gulf. In addition to increasing US naval activity in the region, Washington is also preparing to intensify economic sanctions against Iran’s oil industry, the New York Times reported. The US – along with 25 other countries – will conduct extensive joint minesweeping exercises in the Persian Gulf in October. The move aims to increase pressure on Iran and prevent it from closing the...

Senior officials in the Obama Administration sent a message to Tehran in the past few days, according to which the U.S. does not intend to join Israel's side if it decides to attack the Iranian nuclear installations on its own, reports Israel's second-largest paper, Yediot Aharonot. According to the report, the U.S. sent the message to Iran in order to avoid an Iranian response military response that would target U.S. installations in the Gulf region. The message was reportedly conveyed to Iran through two European countries that serve as a conduit of communication between Iran and the U.S. in times...

Intelligence sources in Cairo told Egyptian media that an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) fired at a terrorist in Sinai Sunday and killed him. According to the reports, the terrorist was hit by a missile that was fired at him as he rode a motorcycle in the Bedouin area south of the village of Al-Kasia, about 15 kilometers from the Israeli-Egyptian border. Witnesses said the explosion left a crater two meters wide and 50 centimeters deep.

News channel France 24 hosted a panel Monday night to discuss Egypt’s first civilian president, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi. One of the guests on the panel, via satellite from Cairo, was Nader Amram, a member of the Freedom & Justice Party’s foreign relations committee. (The Freedom & Justice Party (FJP) is the Muslim Brotherhood’s political party.) When Amram learned that an Israeli journalist was also included on the panel, he protested that he had not been informed beforehand that he would have to appear with an Israeli. He then launched into a mini-diatribe about how Israel is the real...

Eli Valley, artist in residence at the far-left, Obama-supporting Jewish Daily Forward has created one of the most anti-Semitic cartoons ever published. Placed at 972mag.com, the radical website dedicated to anti-Israel rhetoric, the cartoon depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu eating Barack Obama’s limbs, then forcing him to give him oral sex, all in the name of Israeli defense. But Valley’s “art” is hardly confined to radical websites. It’s been published in New York Magazine, The Daily Beast,

Manufacturer in Nuremberg sends anti-Semitic mail to owner of Tel Aviv toy store after business deal turns sour. Eti Doron wanted to buy toys from a company in Germany for her store in Tel Aviv, but when the deal fell through she started receiving anti-Semitic letters. Doron provided The Jerusalem Post with emails in which Walter Adler, who identifies as the founder of Hoff-Interieur, a manufacturer based in Nuremberg, calls Jews a disease and praises German poet Günther Grass for saying Israel is a danger to world peace. “We see that you have decided to be a real Jew, not...

A former Israeli spymaster has branded the country's leaders unfit to tackle the Iranian nuclear program and "messianic" in the strongest criticism from a security veteran of threats to launch a preemptive war. Other veterans have come out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak. But the censure from Yuval Diskin, who retired as head of the Shin Bet domestic intelligence service last year, was especially strong and unusual in using the language of religious fervor that Israelis associate with Islamist foes. "I have no faith in the prime minister, nor in the defense minister," Diskin said...

A major Israel TV station on Sunday night broadcast a detailed report on how Israel will go about attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities in the event that diplomacy and sanctions fail and Israel decides to carry out a military strike. The report, screened on the main evening news of Channel 10, was remarkable both in terms of the access granted to the reporter, who said he had spent weeks with the pilots and other personnel he interviewed, and in the fact that his assessments on a strike were cleared by the military censor. No order to strike is likely to be...

The leaks continue from the Obama administration with regard to Israeli defense secrets. On Sunday, the New Yorker printed a report stating that US had worked with the Iranian opposition group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK). The US was apparently receiving intelligence from the group, including intercepted cell phone calls and text messages. But sources also confirmed that Mossad was helping to funnel resources and train members of the MEK. As Seymour Hersh writes: [E]arly last month NBC News quoted two senior Obama Administration officials as confirming that the attacks were carried out by M.E.K. units that were financed and trained by Mossad,...

Iran's plan for a second Holocaust must be stopped John Bolton The Obama administration is leaking information to pressure Israel not to bomb Iran. Enemy in the White House. Not only is Obama an anti-semite, he is anti-American (anti-freedom.) His islamophiliac polcies compromises American security. Iran is clearly an American threat.They have been at war with us since '79. Israel was willing to do the heavy lifting because our reckless and feckless president was too weak, too compromised. But to betray an ally like this? 'Baku grants Israel use of its air bases' Senior US officials tell 'Foreign Policy' "Israelis...

Thousands of protesters burned Israeli flags in Morocco and protested the presence of an Israeli diplomat, threatening his safety. Thousands of protesters marched in the Moroccan capital of Rabat on Monday, torching Israeli flags and protesting the presence of diplomat David Saranga. The Israeli official was in town to attend a meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership (EUROMED) at the Moroccan parliament. However, he was quietly escorted out a side door of the building for his own safety after the meeting, when protesters stormed the building. He was swiftly placed in a car and taken to the airport under heavy security,...

Egyptian security forces were able to foil a terror attack on Israeli vessels in the Suez Canal, Cairo's Al-Ahram weekly reported Saturday. According to the report, the Egyptian investigation into the matter concluded that the potential attacks were orchestrated by Iran. Egyptian authorities have two suspects in custody – Saliman Rizek abdel Razek and Salame Ahmed Salame. The two deny any involvement, but according to the report authorities have evidence linking them, via the offer of a 50 million Egyptian pounds payment, to a third suspect – Muhammad Zakri – who they allegedly tried to hire to execute the attack....

Knesset speaker banned MK delegation after National Union MK Ben Ari's application was denied based on State Department's prerogative to ban terrorists from U.S. Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin announced Monday he is banning a delegation of MKs from attending a women's conference in Washington this month because the United States has denied entry to MK Michael Ben Ari (National Union) MKs Zahava Gal-On (Meretz), Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) and Einat Wilf (Atzmaut) were scheduled to take part in a four-day conference on women that begins March 25 and will be hosted by the U.S. Congress. They were due to sit on...

The videos are on an Israeli Hebrew source. The videos are available to click on. Recent, real time, live fire.

Rabbi Yisroel Gabbai’s self-appointed mission is saving Jewish graves all over the world. A rare video shows his visit last year to Iran and the tomb of Queen Esther and Mordechai, the central Jewish figures iin the story of Purim, which Jews celebrate this week. A member of the Breslov stream of Chassidism and now living in Israel, Rabbi Gabbai travels with a passport from France, where he was born and married. He has visited Gaza and Lebanon during wars and also has been to Damascus. Rabbi Gabbai wears traditional hareidi religious black clothes and a black hat, with his...

sraeli state officials were disappointed Tuesday with the results of the Netanyahu-Obama meeting at the White House on Monday. "There were no surprises," a senior state official said. "It was clear from recent months that there are differences between ourselves and the Americans. We have different perspectives when it comes to the question of time and red lines." It was claimed that the Americans view the Iranian issue in the context of the upcoming presidential elections. "It's a bad message for the issue and a good message for the Iranians," a state official said.

In a White House appearance before reporters ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama President reaffirmed U.S. commitment to the key Mideast ally, saying that America's would "always have Israel's back" and that the U.S.-Israeli bond is "unbreakable." Netanyahu, while appreciative of the president's comments, reminded Obama of a few things. "When Americans look at the Middle East, they know there is one reliable, stable and faithful ally to the United States and that is the democracy of Israel," he said. Iran, Netanyahu stressed, knows this and that Israel must be allowed to make its own...

As the rampant speculations that Israel will soon launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities continue, a report on NBC on Friday revealed what such an attack may look like. The report, the main points of which were presented by Israel’s Channel 10 News, is based on conversations the American network held with current and former officials in Israel and the United States. The report suggests that an attack on Iran will combine air and ground faces but will not include naval forces. The officials interviewed said that the attack will be led by the Israeli artillery, which will...

"Azerbaijan thwarts terror attack against Israeli, Jewish targets Security official in Baku links Iran to planned operation; three men detained." SNIPPET: "Three men were detained last week after planning to attack two Israelis employed by a Jewish school in Baku, the Azerbaijan Ministry of National Security has revealed. Meanwhile, an Azeri commentator considered close to the republic's president has launched a scathing indictment of Iran. The Azeri ministry said it had arrested a cell that planned to "kill public activists," before it became apparent that the intended victims were two Israeli Chabad emissaries, a rabbi and a teacher employed by...

The Jewish Week reports that a speech last week by Stuart Appelbaum, president of the left-wing Jewish Labor Committee, prompted Israel’s deputy consul general to walk out of its gala dinner after Appelbaum criticized Israel in blunt, undiplomatic terms. Though Appelbaum also noted “new expressions of contempt for Israel within the Arab world,” he launched a vitriolic attack on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu: …[S]adly, Israel is cursed with a right-wing coalition government that’s regularly giving credence to it. We all know Benjamin Netanyahu talks a good game about a two-state solution, but, at the very same time, his administration...

Jewish Journal Reports: Israeli officials are stepping up their criticism of The New York Times, slamming columnist Thomas Friedman and arguing that the newspaper is an unfit venue for an Op-Ed from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a scathing letter first leaked last week to The Jerusalem Post, Ron Dermer, a top aide to Netanyahu, declined an invitation for the prime minister to write an Op-Ed for the Times. By way of explanation, Dermer cited what he alleged was the newspaper’s anti-Israel tilt. “It would seem as if the surest way to get an Op-Ed published in The New York...

Israeli physicist Dr. Haim Harari, former president of Israel’s world-renowned Weizmann Institute of Science, recently laid forth an analysis of the Arab Spring and its aftermath that is a must-read as Egyptians elect a new government this week. Harari points out that the only stable and powerful political forces in most Arab countries are the military and the Islamist movements, with some tribal forces playing a role in certain Arab states. The outlook for true liberal democracy–with individual rights, respect for opposition, and checks and balances of power–is therefore grim, Harari concludes. In addition, Harari offers an analysis of the...

A Melbourne Israeli Dancing group was dropped from participating in a Victorian dance festival after refusing organisers’ moves to drop all references to Israel. The Machol Israeli Dancing Club was scheduled to appear at Multicultural Folk Dance Festival of High Country in the Victorian country town of Mansfield earlier this month. The festival was organised under the auspices of the Victorian Multicultural Commission and a grant had been awarded to Marta Balan who according to a submission to the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission approved the performance of the Machol Group. When the participants’ names were released, Esther...

JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) -- Many of Israel's official websites have gone down in what the government says is a broad technical malfunction. The sites include that of the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence services, the military spokesman, the Interior Ministry and others.