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Israel's new rocket defense system has proven a hit-to-kill capability. Officials said Israel's Iron Dome has achieved the ability to strike incoming short-range missiles and rockets. They said the Iron Dome demonstrated this during its first live fire test in mid-2009. "They met head on," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. In a Nov. 17 address to the International Aerospace Conference and Exhibition-Israel, Barak said Iron Dome exceeded all expectations. He said the assessment within the Defense Ministry and military had been that the interceptor would explode 10 meters from the incoming missile.

So, they don't exactly enjoy paying federal taxes. In preparation for the annual "Land Day" demonstrations, Arab Ra'am-Ta'al party Knesset Member Ahmed Tibi raged against the 'injustices' visited upon the Israeli-Arab sector: "The Israeli society is racist and all of the governments have always demeaned our needs and wouldn't recognize us as a minority in need of services...." Tibi accused Israel of insensitivity and discrimination against the Arab populace by treating them as enemies of the state. Outrageous, indeed! Yet, I fully agree. Wow. Before you rip this article to shreds and burn me at the stake, Tibi accused Israel...

'Hezbollah is arming Gaza for a new war on Israel', says Israel's spy chief By Michael Hirst and Clancy Chassay (Filed: 03/09/2006) Israel's spy chief has given a warning that Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip are garnering increasing numbers of weapons and tactical expertise from Hezbollah fighters since the war in southern Lebanon erupted earlier this summer. Yuval Diskin, the director of Shin Bet, Israel's equivalent of MI5, said Egypt's Sinai Peninsula was being used as a terrorist base and fast becoming a haven for arms smugglers preparing to shift their wares into the Gaza Strip. He added that...

Hamas and Syria feel Israel's fury By Tim Butcher in Rafah (Filed: 29/06/2006) Israel showed off its military might from Gaza to Syria yesterday as Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, threatened "extreme steps" to secure the release of an abducted teenage soldier. An Israeli soldier carries a shell to a 155mm mobile artillery unit firing towards Gaza Tanks occupied a small section of southern Gaza near Rafah in the early hours, forcing at least 20 Palestinians to flee their homes, while planes bombed nearby unmanned training camps belonging to Hamas. Aircraft also attacked three bridges connecting Gaza's northern and southern...

Hamas may recognise Israel's right to exist By Tim Butcher in Gaza City (Filed: 26/05/2006) Signs of a breakthrough in the stand-off between the international community and Hamas emerged last night after the Islamist movement prepared to moderate its hostility towards Israel. While weeks of negotiations will be needed to confirm the policy shift, it raised the hope of a new era in the Middle East and even a return to peace negotiations aimed at ending decades of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. A masked gunman from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades The shift came as Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate Palestinian president, sought...

There is opposition to a plan by Israeli Arabs to march in the center of the Israeli city of Lod to mourn the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation. Residents of Lod filed a request with Lod Police Commander Amichai Eshed to prevent a public observance in the city on May 15th (the anniversary of the end of the British Mandate) of Al-Nakba – which is Arabic for "The Catastrophe," a reference to the founding of the State of Israel. They wrote in their letter that, "Nakba Day testifies more than anything to the disloyalty of Palestinians in Israel to the right...

Saturday, December 10, 2005 00:34 IST JNW HEADLINE NEWS Sharon violating Israel’s covenant with God By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff April 28th, 2005 JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is, with his plan to uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria, violating a divine covenant whereby the Almighty deeded the entire land of Israel to the Jewish people as an eternal possession. So said Knesset member Benny Elon (National Union) Wednesday in a speech to more than 50,000 anti-disengagement activists during a rally in southern Gaza. Sharon’s treachery goes beyond violating God’s Word, however, and is directly endangering the...

Zachariah Anani, an Ex-Muslim militant who grew up in Lebanon hating the state of Israel, has since become one of Israel’s most staunch supporters. Anani, along with two other former Muslims, plans to address an audience at Princeton University next month to voice his controversial views. "I was brought up to hate Jews and Israel. That was my first raising, my first attitude," Zachariah Anani told Israel National Radio's Tovia Singer. Anani describes the circumstances that prompted him to make the decision to turn his life around. "In the 70's I became a Christian, but even as a Christian, Jews...

Rice: Israeli settlements contravene U.S. policy By Shmuel Rosner and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, and the Associated Press Several hours ahead of her meeting with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States delivered harsh messages to Israel over construction between Eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Ma'aleh Adumim, which contravenes the Bush Administration policy in the Middle East. Speaking at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Rice said that the U.S. is concerned about Israeli construction in the West Bank, and cuts back on economic aid to Israel due...

Yuval Diskin, new head of the Shin Bet, painted a bleak picture of Israel's security after the expulsion, warning the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of Kassam rockets from Samaria. Yuval Diskin, the new head of Israel’s clandestine domestic security agency, the Shin Bet (GSS), made his first appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee today (Tuesday). He assumed his post on Sunday, succeeding Avi Dichter. Diskin painted a bleak picture of what he expects to be Israel’s security situation after the explusion. He cited, for one thing, the possibility that terrorists would begin firing missiles into...

They are dedicated to a country without Arabs and democracy. They see themselves at war with secular Israeli society. They believe they are acting out God's will...An investigation of Israeli religious right wing extremeists who are girding for battle to stop Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza.

On July 9, 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel's security barrier was a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Eleven days later, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 to condemn Israel and demand removal of the barrier. All twenty-five members of the European Union supported the motion.[1] The EU position would not have been so offensive had it not then undertaken an act of stunning hypocrisy. In August 2004, the EU put out tenders for companies to construct a European separation fence to prevent migration into the EU from countries excluded from...

TEL AVIV — Palestinian infiltrators have succeeded in breaching Israel's new security fence and barrier system. Israeli security sources said Palestinian infiltrators have scaled the four-meter high concrete fence by using a simple ladder. The Israeli project calls for the establishing of a 730-kilometer fence at a cost of $1.9 billion. Most of the project consists of a concrete wall or chain-link fence with sensors, cameras and military patrols. In one case, the sources said, Arab infiltrators brought a ladder to the fence in the northeastern West Bank. They quickly scaled the fence and entered a waiting car that took...

Israel's move will explode entire area, says new PM By Donald Macinyre in Jerusalem 12 September 2003 Palestinian leaders reacted with anger last night to the Israeli security cabinet's decision, in principle, to expel Yasser Arafat from his headquarters in Ramallah. As the Palestinian Authority President told a crowd of supporters outside his Maqata site that they were the people who could stop the Israelis fulfilling the threat, Ahmed Qureia, the incoming Palestinian prime minister, said the decision was "crazy". Despite doubts ­ even among some Israeli government officials ­ over whether the decision would be enforced, the threat introduces...

An article in last week’s al-Ahram, the leading Egyptian daily, calls the US-led war against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq “a proxy war, one fought by the United States on behalf of Israel.” The writer, a professor of Political Science at Cairo University, is far from alone in expressing that belief in the Arab press, but his article is one of the most articulate and straightforward on the matter. Calling the war on Iraq “the first of a different genre”, Hassan Nafaa writes, it “was neither necessary nor inevitable. It was a voluntary act of aggression, for it took place...