Free Republic

Yaakov Berg, CEO of Psagot Winery, revealed to Arutz Sheva that the international boycotts of Israel products began precisely in Tel Aviv. There, the discrimination by Israelis against domestic produce from over the 1949 Armistice line opened the international floodgates. “Today everyone is attacking the countries that boycott us, but I want to say that the true boycott began from among us,” emphasizes Berg. […] Berg noted that he is convinced the Tel Aviv boycotters will in the end be boycotted as well, a prediction borne out by reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry is manipulating the EU...

The Fatah party of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has posted threats to bomb Tel Aviv on its official Facebook page. The threats came in the form of a video by Fatah’s armed wing—the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade—which threatened to turn Tel Aviv “into a ball of fire”, as well as escalated rocket fire on Israeli civilians. […] The threats come despite the fact that the Palestinian Authority is engaged in “peace negotiations” with Israel, and bolster claims by Israeli leaders that the PA is not really serious about finding a peaceful political solution to the conflict. …

Shin Bet officials announced on Wednesday that they have arrested three Palestinians, two of them East Jerusalem residents with Israeli identification cards, for alleged involvement in an Al-Qaida plan to carry out terror attacks in Israel. The group had planned two simultaneous suicide attacks, the Shin Bet said, one at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem and the other at the United States embassy in Tel Aviv. The three men were arrested on December 25, a gag order on the case lifted Wednesday revealed. A high-ranking Shin Bet official told reporters in Tel Aviv that a member of one of...

Israeli authorities today announced the arrest of three global jihadists who were allegedly preparing to carry out terror attacks after being recruited by an al-Qaeda-linked operative in the Gaza Strip. The three terrorists were identified as Iyad Mahmoud Khalil Abu Sara, Rubin Abu Nagma, and Ala Yasin Mohammed Anam. The arrested Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem area were recruited online and planned to carry out kidnappings and bombings at the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem as well as the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, among other attacks. Israeli authorities kept their counterparts in the "US and elsewhere" updated...

JERUSALEM – Israel's internal security agency says it has foiled an Al Qaeda plan to attack the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and hit other targets in the country.

Tel-Aviv Yafo's mayor, Ron Hulda'i, reacted Sunday to the demonstration by tens of thousands of infiltrators from Africa, who assembled at Rabin Square and demanded that the government allow them to stay in Israel and work legally. "The demonstration today is only the beginning of a process that unfortunately will only escalate,” he predicted, “and I regret to say that we will see violence in the streets.” Hulda'i accused the government of ignoring the difficulties that the infiltrators face, as well as the difficulties faced by residents who suffer from the immigrants. He demanded that a clear government policy be...

Cyndi Lauper let her true colors shine through on Saturday night at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Foul-mouthed, big-hearted and still quirky as hell after all these years, the bright-red haired, combat boot-wearing 60-year-old entertainer revisited her landmark debut album She's So Unusual, performing it in its entirety upon its 30th anniversary. Whether spinning like a dervish, climbing onto speaker stacks, roaming out into the audience, or getting down on her knees to sing, Lauper has lost none of her spunky spirit, nor her powerful lung capacity. Her crack band, anchored by bassist William Wittman who performed and acted...

Several thousand African infiltrators who entered Israel illegally via Egypt staged a peaceful protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday, police said to AFP. The demonstrators denounced the refusal of the authorities to grant them refugee status, as well as holding several hundred in detention centers. They marched, some holding candles and others placards bearing the slogan "We are refugees", to cries of "Freedom!" Israeli left-wing activists also joined the march from a southern neighborhood to Yitzhak Rabin Square, where they gathered outside the municipality. Earlier this month, over 250 inmates marched from the Holot detention center to Jerusalem in protest...

Dozens of residents of south Tel Aviv on Tuesday demonstrated, after the High Court on Monday declared the government’s policy on detaining illegal immigrants—under which illegals could be detained for up to three years—violated several Basic Laws. Some 2,000 illegal Africans are to be freed from an encampment in the Negev in the next 90 days, most likely heading to Tel Aviv, where there is already a large illegal African community. The government has the option to attempt to deport the illegals, but many of them claim that they are genuine refugees from political repression, so deporting them would likely...

A senior official in the Syrian army warned the United States and its partners on Tuesday that waging a full-scale war on Syria would be reciprocated with an immediate attack on Tel Aviv. "If Damascus comes under attack, Tel Aviv will be targeted too and a full-scale war against Syria will actually issue a license for attacking Israel," the Syrian army source told the Iranian Fars news agency. "Rest assured that if Syria is attacked, Israel will also be set on fire and such an attack will, in turn, engage Syria's neighbors," he added. The source also warned the U.S....

In exactly one month, singer Tom Jones is expected to take the stage at Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena. But behind the scenes, an online battle is being waged between anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists, who are pressuring the Welsh singer to cancel his performance in Israel, and Israel supporters who express their encouragement and love for the singer. A group of British BDS activists are circulating a petition calling on Jones to boycott Israel and cancel his show. The petition was already signed by more than 1,000 internet users. … As of now, Jones is not caving to...

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Monday evening toured southern Tel Aviv’s neighborhoods, which have been literally taken over by illegal infiltrators from Africa, and was shocked by what he saw and heard. Weinstein was accompanied by the Deputy Attorney General, Raz Nizri, and Dr. Roy Schondorf, who heads a special task force charged with handling international legal proceedings against Israelis. Residents of southern Tel Aviv have been suffering from endless harassment, fear and violence perpetrated by the many illegal Eritrean and Sudanese infiltrators who enter Israel to find employment and come to live in their working class neighborhood. The residents,...

Activists from the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party’s Young Leadership movement spent the Sabbath in one of the neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv, and were shocked at what they found. The young visitors were horrified to hear that the synagogue they visited, Etz Chaim, had been left nearly empty due to violence from illegal infiltrators living in the area. The gabbai of the synagogue, who coordinates the prayers, told them that infiltrators would hit worshipers in the area of the synagogue, until many were afraid to come. Until the young activists’ visit, it had been three years since the synagogue...

SNIPPET: "The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa announced Thursday that a grand jury has indicted Shelton Thomas Bell, 19, of Jacksonville, on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two charges. According to the indictment, Bell had planned to travel to the Arabian Peninsula and join Ansar Al-Sharia, which is an alias for al-Qaida there. The group has taken responsibility for multiple attacks on Yemeni forces, including a suicide bombing during a parade in May 2012, which killed more than 100 Yemeni soldiers. The...

For four years, leftists blamed the religious sector, and especially hareidim, for the double murder in Tel Aviv's Barnoar club, which caters to homosexual youths. A gunman opened fire on youths at the club, killing a young man and a young woman, and leaving others crippled. Now, police have arrested four people in connection with the attack. According to leaks, the police have solid evidence that the attack was carried out by a group of young men with criminal backgrounds in revenge over the alleged rape of their relative, a male youth, by the manager of the club. Leftists are...

Record-breaking 100,000 turn out for Pride Parade as Mayor Huldai lauds Tel Aviv as world's most gay-friendly city. A record-breaking 100,000 people from Israel and abroad took part in the annual Tel Aviv Gay Pride Parade Friday, which took place as planned despite the arrests made earlier in the week in connection to the 2009 shooting at the LGBT youth center Bar Noar. Thousands of people crammed into Gan Meir park in central Tel Aviv as the festivities got under way with a community "happening," complete with music performances, stalls representing local organizations and speeches from public figures such as...

Tel Aviv hosted its 15th annual Gay Pride Festival on Friday, with a record-breaking 100,000 spectators and participants attending the celebrations, including droves of tourists from all over the world. The Festival began at 10 a.m. at Gan Meir park, home to the city’s gay community center, and featured performances, speeches and music. A massive parade of tens of thousands of participants started at 1 p.m., making its way from the park through central Tel Aviv and culminating at the iconic Gordon Beach. Attendees at the event included Finance Minister Yair Lapid, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Minister of Culture and...

A few years ago, a gay English-speaking immigrant to Israel was standing in line at the post office for the very first time. Wary of using his limited Hebrew at the counter, the man, Phil, turned to a gentleman standing behind him and asked him if he spoke Hebrew and could help. That man didn’t just speak Hebrew. He was also gay, and friendly, and within days of that chance meeting waiting in line for postage stamps, Phil found himself completely tapped into the LGBT community in Israel. snip “If this group didn’t exist, I don’t know how I would...

I’ve been asked by several followers to share my experiences and thoughts on Israeli airport security and how it stacks up against the TSA here in the U.S. First let me detail my experiences with Israeli security. We arrived to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv via a local taxi. The car was stopped at the gate to the airport and a security guard armed with an M4 rifle asked the driver a few questions in Hebrew. He then walked around the car and opened the rear door to ask me where I was going. I responded I was going...

Israel is acting to prevent Syrian weapons from reaching Lebanon's Hizbullah and will continue to do so, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, AFP reports. His remarks came two weeks after air strikes near Damascus that were widely attributed to Israel, which a senior Israeli source said were aimed at preventing the transfer of sophisticated Iranian arms to Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shiite ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Netanyahu said the Middle East was going through its most sensitive period for decades, with the conflict in Syria at the center of the turmoil. "We are closely following developments and...