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WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Israel’s announcement of 700 new apartments for Jewish settlers in East Jerusalem precipitated the bitter impasse in peace negotiations last week between Israel and the Palestinians. While Mr. Kerry said both sides bore responsibility for “unhelpful” actions, he noted that the publication of tenders for housing units came four days after a deadline passed for Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and complicated Israel’s own deliberations over whether to extend the talks. “Poof, that was sort of the moment,” Mr. Kerry said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Still,...

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya´alon is apologizing for the second time in two months about critical statements he made against the U.S. government. In the wake of tremendous anger in Washington, a telephone call between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a personal talk with the prime minister, Ya´alon told his American counterpart, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, that there was no defiance, criticism or intention to hurt the United States or Israel´s relations with its ally with his words. Ya´alon said he sees utmost importance in the strategic relations between the countries, as...

The White House appeared to double down on its policy of engagement with Iran following Wednesday's dramatic pre-dawn high seas capture of an Iranian missile cache destined for Hamas by Israeli naval commandos. Senior administration officials worked quickly to prevent the raid from undermining public confidence in President Obama's continued belief that Iran is a trustworthy and reliable negotiating partner, even going so far as to claim credit for the raid themselves. Several dozen advanced medium range missiles were found hidden under false bottoms of phony shipping containers on board the Panamanian flagged "Klos-C" frigate seized in a dramatic pre...

Received by email: B'nai Brith Canada has learned from Canadian Jewish tourists aboard a Norwegian Jade cruise ship that Israeli tourists have been denied the right to disembark when the ship dropped anchor at the Port of Tunis, Tunisia. As passengers began preparations to visit the country, Israelis on board were quietly told that they were not welcomed by the Tunisian Government and would have to remain onboard. According to some Jewish passengers no prior notice was issued, either in writing or by public announcement. The cruise line also failed to advise passengers in advance that Israeli tourists would...

BREAKING: Israeli Navy Captures Iranian Boat Loaded With Syrian Missiles Destined for Gaza (VIDEO) MARCH 5, 2014 8:53 AM 9 COMMENTS Benny Gantz Ram Rothberg Israeli Navy KLOSCIran Gaza KLOSC Shayetet 13Israeli navy commandos KLOSC arms shipM-302 missile Iran Gaza StripM-302 missile Second Lebanon WarMoti Almoz Israeli Navy KLOSC Iran Israeli Naval commandos on Wednesday intercepted an Iranian ship in the Red Sea weighed down with missiles that was en route to the Gaza Strip, the IDF said in a statement. The boat, named KLOSC, was stopped by the elite naval commando unit Shayetet 13 as it was heading to...

One day ahead of his meeting Monday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Barack Obama is urging the Israeli leader to make peace with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Speaking to Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg in an interview published Sunday, Obama warned that time was running out to negotiate a peace agreement. Obama further claimed that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas “is sincere about his willingness to recognize Israel and its right to exist.” “We are coming to a point, though, over the next couple of months where the parties are going to have to make some decisions about how they move...

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German-Israeli relations are at a nadir as German Chancellor Merkel begins her third term. When leaders of the countries meet next week, deals on smaller issues may be possible, but divisions over Israeli settlements will persist. […] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman—with whom (German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter) Steinmeier already had a tepid relationship—read out a laundry list of complaints to his colleague from Berlin. It even included lesser issues, like research and scientific cooperation, an area in which Israel claims Germany is imposing unacceptable conditions. Lieberman said Berlin often hides behind European Union positions rather than presenting its own views....

John Kerry invoked his Vietnam War service to push back against an Israeli cabinet member who criticized his recent comments on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. During a security conference in Munich last weekend, Kerry suggested that if his Israeli-Palestinian peace effort fails, there could be serious consequences for Israel. “For Israel there is an increasing delegitimizing campaign that has been building up,” Kerry said, without condemning the effort. “People are very sensitive to it. There are talks of boycotts and other kinds of things.” In response, Israel’s economy minister Naftali Bennett harshly criticized Kerry’s failure to speak out against the...

Two of the largest banks in northern Europe have announced they will boycott Israeli banks because they operate in “occupied territories”, the Walla! Hebrew-language news website reported on Saturday. The two banks in question are the Swedish Nordea Bank, which is the largest bank in Scandinavia, and the Norwegian Danske Bank, which is the largest bank in Denmark. Danske Bank, which serves five ​​million customers in Denmark and Northern Europe , publishes on its website a list of companies which are boycotted for legal and ethical reasons. Two weeks ago the list was updated and, according to Walla!, for the...

Tens of thousands of people in Yarmouk, mostly palestinians, have been besieged for months by Syrian government forces, with little access to food and medicine. The below video was taken in Yarmouk and posted to YouTube Palestinian In Damascus: “We Do Not Want Palestine..We Ask For Israeli Citizenship” Posted by: Aussie Dave in Aussie Dave January 26, 2014 4 Comments 156 Views Tens of thousands of people in Yarmouk, mostly palestinians, have been besieged for months by Syrian government forces, with little access to food and medicine. The below video was taken in Yarmouk and posted to YouTube . It’s...

Comatose for the last eight years after a stroke, former Israeli leader Ariel Sharon has died.

A group representing 5,000 U.S. professors has endorsed an academic boycott of Israeli colleges and universities. The American Studies Association says it voted for the boycott "as an ethical stance." "It represents a principle of solidarity with scholars and students deprived of their academic freedom and an aspiration to enlarge that freedom for all, including Palestinians," a Dec. 4 statement said. According to The New York Times, which reported the boycott Monday, the action — the first time the group has called for an academic boycott of any nation's universities — makes the group the largest of its kind to...

The British government tried to cover its tracks. But a new cache of documents Robert Spencer and I have received in our battle to overturn our being banned from Britain reveal that a chief reason why we were banned from the country was because we strongly support Israel. As part of our lawsuit against the Queen of England and the Home Secretary et al, we have received numerous documents between the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Office of Security and Counterterrorism, and the Home Secretary. In one of them, an official in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office whose name was...

Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) slammed Israel on Friday, accusing the Jewish state of attacking its neighbors and committing atrocities. "Israel, sitting on 200 nuclear warheads all of them targeted at Muslim cities ... is crying wolf about nuclear proliferation,” the envoy, Reza Najafi, told the UN nuclear agency. “This regime (has) a long history of aggression against neighbors, atrocity against peoples under occupation and clandestine development of all kinds of” weapons of mass destruction, he declared in the comments quoted by The Associated Press (AP). In response, Joseph Macmanus, the chief U.S. delegate to the...

Hasan Faraji, 31, was arrested by Azerbaijani police after displaying “suspicious behavior” while wandering around the Israeli embassy in Baku on October 31. Faraji, who resisted arrest, was sentenced to 30 days of administrative detention, according to the APA news agency. According to Channel 10, Faraji is a part of the Iranian Quds Forces, a special unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that, among other oles, is tasked with planning and executing terrorist attacks against Israeli targets overseas. On Thursday an Iranian diplomat said Faraji denies he was planning any attack... Iranian embassy officials met Faraji in custody... Azerbaijani police raided...

Survey indicates backing drops even further if US opposed to move; second poll reveals majority of Americans favor deal with Tehran Slightly fewer than half of Israelis back the use of a military option against Iran’s nuclear program, with the number dropping even further should the US not lend support for such an action, a poll released Thursday night showed. At the same time, a separate poll among US citizens showed growing support for a diplomatic deal with Tehran. The Israeli poll, commissioned by Channel 2 political anchor Nissim Mishal, showed 49.1 percent of Israelis backing a last-resort military strike...

Obama administration official confirms to CNN that Israel attacked missiles and equipment it felt might be transferred to Hezbollah; Al-Arabiya reports Israel destroyed SA-8 missiles in Damascus and Latakia. Israel conducted air raids against a Syrian missile base near the port city of Latakia early on Thursday, according to an anonymous US administration official. The official, speaking to CNN, said Israel targeted missiles and related equipment out of concern that they would be transferred to Hezbollah. It is unclear why the US would leak such information, as it could increase the pressure on Syria to retaliate against Israel.

(CNN) -- Israeli warplanes struck a military base near the Syrian port city of Latakia on Thursday, an Obama administration official told CNN. An explosion at a missile storage site in the area was widely reported in the Israeli press, but an attack has not been confirmed by the Israeli government. The target, according to the Obama administration official, was missiles and related equipment the Israelis felt might be transferred to the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah. The official declined to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information. When asked for comment, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman told...

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