Free Republic

For thousands of years the Jews dreamed of reclaiming their country. The left had another dream. It dreamed of a country run by bureaucrats that worked only three days a week. It dreamed of unions running monopolies that worked whenever they liked and charged whatever they wanted. It dreamed of children raised on collective farms without parents and of government as a Socialist café debate. Most of all it dreamed of a country without conservatives. It still hasn’t gotten that wish. Netanyahu’s victory hit hardest in Tel Aviv where, as Haaretz, the paper of the left, reports, “Leftist, secular Tel...

Memo Reveals Plan of U.S.-Funded Groups to Influence the Israeli Elections Nonprofits targeting populations, such as Arab Israelis, opposed to Likud BY: Alana Goodman - The Free Beacon February 5, 2015 3:30 pm http://freebeacon.com/issues/u-s-groups-funding-liberal-gotv-effort-in-israel/ [For copy of the memo: http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/APDF-GOTV-Arab-Community-MK-12-17-14.docx1-1.pdf http://bit.ly/1DMu8RV http://bit.ly/1AzUEzP http://bit.ly/1FebGCF http://bit.ly/1zo2zOR ] A coalition of U.S.-funded progressive groups has planned a massive get-out-the-vote effort to influence the Israeli elections, targeting communities that are most likely to vote against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-leaning Likud Party, according to a confidential strategy memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The U.S.-based 501(c)(3) group Ameinu sent out the...

JNS.org – In various cultures, a particular month, day or time is associated with a certain annual activity. For example, here in the United States, November—every other year—is election time. In Israel, every May brings the solemnity of remembering fallen soldiers, followed immediately by celebrations of national independence. And if it’s March and you happen to live in Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled territory, then you know it’s time for publicly praising and honoring one of the most gruesome Palestinian massacres of Israelis and Americans in modern history. That’s because March 9, 1978, was the day that a squad of 13 Palestinian...

Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing tens of thousands from Rabin Square live. Live video at link in English.

A major campaign rally for the right wing is planned for Sunday evening in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square. The “United for the Land of Israel” rally is being organized by Nachala, an organization run by former Kedumim mayor Daniella Weiss and United Headquarters for the Land of Israel. Like everything else to date in the run up to the Israeli elections, it too is fraught with internal conflict. Right wing leaders are opposed to the rally and Weiss has been trying for several weeks to convince them to attend the event. Many of the leaders on the right actually wanted...

Members of Eli Yishai’s Yachad—Ha’am Itanu party and Baruch Marzel with members of his Otzma Yehudit party took a tour of southern Tel Aviv on Sunday, where they surveyed how the massive influx of illegal immigrants from Africa has impacted the neighborhood, which suffers drastically raised crime levels. During the visit, which was guided by Otzma Yehudit member May Golan, who is chairperson of the “Hebrew City” movement and a longtime champion of Jewish rights in the area afflicted by infiltrator settlement, the group came across infiltrators who openly said they were in Israel illegally and were unapologetic about it....

On a Mediterranean beach 10 miles south of Tel Aviv, Israel, a vast new industrial facility hums around the clock. It is the world’s largest modern seawater desalination plant, providing 20 percent of the water consumed by the country’s households. Built for the Israeli government by Israel Desalination Enterprises, or IDE Technologies, at a cost of around $500 million, it uses a conventional desalination technology called reverse osmosis (RO). Thanks to a series of engineering and materials advances, however, it produces clean water from the sea cheaply and at a scale never before achieved ...

TEL AVIV – A consulting firm almost entirely composed of former staffers of President Obama’s re-election campaign has been hired to run an election effort in Israel aimed at defeating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The conservative blogosphere is reporting Jeremy Bird, national field director for Obama’s 2012 campaign, is now working for a new non-profit group, V15, that is running an effort to defeat Netanyahu in the upcoming election. A closer look at Bird’s consulting firm as well as its working relationship with the Israeli groups finds he is just one of scores of former senior Obama election campaign staffers...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyTel Aviv, Israel — January 21, 2015 … An elite Israeli police unit, which serves both prisons and courts, reacted quickly in capturing a 22-year-old Islamic terrorist from the West Bank city of Tulkarm. The terrorist boarded bus number 40 in central Tel Aviv and began to attack the driver. The wounded driver Herzl Biton, 55, a father of three and a bus driver for over 23 years responded by spraying the attacker with mace spray. Biton, who was stabbed in the chest, was evacuated by Magen David Adom emergency medical services to Ichilov and...

A suspected terrorist stabbed at least nine people on the 40 bus line in Tel Aviv near the Maariv junction on Wednesday morning. Two of the victims were seriously injured and several others suffered moderate injuries, Magen David Adom said. Others at the scene were treated for shock. The injured were evacuated to the Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer and Ichilov Hospital at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv. The attacker fled on foot but was shot and neutralized by police and is being questioned. The assailant is a 23-year-old man from the West Bank city of Tulkarm, illegally...

Palestinian media rejoiced Wednesday over the gruesome Tel Aviv stabbing attack with a series of celebratory cartoons. The first cartoon, drawn by cartoonist Bahaa Yaseen, was posted within the first 90 minutes following the attack. It shows a smiling terrorist holding a bloody knife and praising the attack, which at the time was reported to have injured 10 people. The figure stands in front of a sign that reads "Occupied Tel-A-rabia," a play on the words Tel Aviv. On the bus is the number of the bus line on which the attack took place and a Jewish star. Blood pours...

Israeli police say they have shot an attacker who stabbed at least nine people on a bus in central Tel Aviv. The stabbing incident occurred on the Maariv bridge, police said, adding that the stabbings took place both in and outside the bus. At least two of the victims were in a critical condition......

Passengers on board two Delta flights at Kennedy Airport were taken off each of the aircrafts Monday night as authorities investigated a bomb threat that turned out to be unfounded, officials say. An anonymous phone call was placed to Delta headquarters just after 6 p.m. suggesting a pipe bomb was on Delta Flight 468, according to Port Authority spokesman Joe Pentangelo. There are two Delta flights with the number 468: one has a Boeing 757 plane landing at JFK from San Francisco at 8 p.m., with 171 passengers on board, according to Delta Airlines. The other flight has a Boeing...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed US Secretary of State John Kerry’s upcoming talks in Rome on Sunday, during opening remarks for his weekly Cabinet meeting. “Tomorrow I will leave for Rome to meet with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and US Secretary of State John Kerry,” he said. “I will tell them that Israel, to a large degree, stands as a solitary island against the waves of Islamic extremism that are washing over the entire Middle East.” “Until now, we have successfully withstood and repelled these attacks and now we also stand against the possibility of a diplomatic assault, i.e....

Eleven crew members and two passengers fell ill on a US Airways flight from Tel Aviv to Philadelphia on Saturday, causing it to make an emergency landing in Rome, AFP reported, quoting Italian media. According to the report, the crew members and passengers were suffering from red eyes and vomiting. A malfunction in the ventilation system of the plane could be to blame but no further information was available.

A Tel Aviv synagogue was vandalized Sunday with graffiti reading, “In a place where the Jewish State Bill will be legislated, books will be burned.” The vandals left a pile of burned books next to the wall that bore the graffiti. The books are not sacred texts. The attack took place at the The Tel Aviv International Synagogue where Ariel Konstantyn of the Orthodox Zionist Tzohar Rabbis organization, originally of New York, serves as rabbi. Rabbi Konstantyn says the incident has been referred to the police but he views it as a “clear act of anti-Semitism.” According to the rabbi,...

Almog Shiloni, the 20-year-old IDF soldier who was critically wounded in a terrorist stabbing attack at the entrance to Tel Aviv's Hahagana train station on Monday, has died of his wounds. Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics tried to resuscitate the victim at the site before sending him to Tel-Hashomer Hospital where he was brought to the surgery room. Shiloni was reportedly stabbed numerous times, including in the upper body and waist, as he tried to fight off his attacker. The attacker proceeded to try and escape from the scene towards Levanda Street as he was pursued by security forces and...

A soldier was stabbed Monday afternooon at the Haganah Train Station in Tel Aviv. He was evacuated in critical condition to Sheva Hospital in Tel HaShomer. Police suspect possible terror attack. Police forces and Magen David Adom emergency teams were deployed to the scene. Eyewitness accounts said the young man was stabbed in his stomach and sustained massive blood loss. The suspect fled, but police officers arrested him a few streets from the scene. The suspect is an 18-year-old resident of Nablus, illegally staying in Israel.

Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) on the first day of classes Monday visited the “Reishit” school in Tel Aviv, a rapidly growing religious school in the traditionally secular city. At the school, located in southern Tel Aviv, Ben-Dahan spoke before hundreds of students. Reishit boasts some 400 students, the highest number in its history. If the students "work hard they can get to anywhere they want. Any one of you can be an IDF general, a rabbi, minister, or director of a large company," remarked Ben-Dahan at the school. "We need faith in religious and state...

Thrash metal band Megadeth and hip hop star CeeLo Green joined a growing list of entertainers on Tuesday whose scheduled concerts in Israel have been cancelled amid the Gaza crisis. Los Angeles-based Megadeth was due to play in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, but on its website the group said it wasn’t able to secure a guarantee that it could make it. “The band was looking forward to this concert and is disappointed they will not be able to put on the show for their fans, but expects to return to Tel Aviv on their next international tour,” it said.