Free Republic

About 2,000 people arrived on Sunday evening at the government complex in Tel Aviv to demonstrate against public housing conditions in Israel. During the protest, the demonstrators tried to block major traffic arteries. At the same time, there were also demonstrations in Jerusalem, Haifa and Be’er Sheva. Five protesters were arrested during the demonstration in Jerusalem after they tried to block a street. The latest protests came following Saturday night’s self-immolation of Moshe Silman, a social justice protester who set himself ablaze during a rally in Tel Aviv, blaming government officials for his troubles. Prior to lighting the match, the...

Bikini-clad, gun-toting Israeli woman becomes an Internet sensation A photo of a gun-wielding, bikini-clad woman standing on a crowded Tel Aviv beach has become an Internet sensation, with thousands of viewers curious about whether the brunette beauty is part of Israel's military and why she wasn't in uniform with her weapon in tow. The newspaper Haaretz notes that 'To an Israeli, the photo makes perfectly practical sense. When soldiers take their weapon off military premises, they must guard it closely and keep it on their person, at all times. Having one's weapon stolen is harshly punished with time in military...

Israeli metropolis beats New York and Toronto in poll naming best urban destinations for gay travellers Tel Aviv has been named the world's number one gay city. The Israeli metropolis beat out competition from New York to top a survey carried out by American Airlines and GayCities.com to find the most popular destination for gay travellers. It landed a staggering 43 per cent of the vote, way ahead of runner-up New York's 14 per cent and third-placed Toronto with 7 per cent. Sao Paolo came in at four with 6 per cent, while rounding out the top five with 5...

Tel Aviv rape: Palestinian arrested near crime scene Resident of Nablus area apprehended near Gan Ha-Ir parking lot; police say he has been residing in Israel illegally; four other Palestinians arrested on suspicion of helping him rape teenage girl while forcing her boyfriend to watch Eli Senyor Latest Update: 05.15.12, 00:38 / Israel News Police arrested Monday evening a 21-year-old Palestinian on suspicion of brutally raping a 18-year-old girl in a parking lot adjacent to the Tel Aviv municipality building over the weekend. Another four Palestinians were arrested on suspicion of being his accomplices.   Officers from the Yarkon police...

The summer “social protest season” opened Saturday night with a demonstration in Tel Aviv, attended by some 3,500 people. The demonstration in Rabin Square was the largest since last summer, when tens of thousands of protesters gathered in cities around the country demanding a more affordable cost of living. Protesters blocked streets in Tel Aviv, and demanded that the government act to end social injustice and ensure that the country's resources are more equitably divided. Police arrested five protesters. Smaller protests took place in several other cities in Israel, and protests were also held in cities throughout Europe, including Spain,...

Hizbullah leader Hasan Nasrallah threatened on Friday to strike multiple targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv. Speaking on the occasion of the completion of the Waad project, aimed at rebuilding parts of the southern suburbs of Beirut that were damaged in the July-August 2006 war between Lebanon and Israel, Nasrallah said Hizbullah could target Tel Aviv in any future war with the Jewish state. “We are capable of not only hitting specific targets in Tel Aviv but also any place in occupied Palestine,” he said, according to a report in the Lebanon-based Daily Star. “The era has come when we...

A vaccine that can train cancer patients' own bodies to seek out and destroy tumour cells has been developed by scientists. The therapy, which targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of all cancers, could provide a universal injection that allows patients' immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast and prostate cancer. Preliminary results from early clinical trials have shown the vaccine can trigger an immune response in patients and reduce levels of disease. The scientists behind the vaccine now hope to conduct larger trials in patients to prove it can be effective against a range of...

For more than a decade, Israel has systematically built up its military specifically for a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. It has sent its air force on long-distance training missions, procured American-made "bunker-busting" bombs and bolstered its missile defenses. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threats to strike Iran, voiced last week during a high-profile visit to the White House, were not empty bluster. Although a unilateral Israeli attack would probably not destroy Iran's nuclear program, it appears capable, at least for now, of inflicting a serious blow. "If Israel attacks, the intention is more to send a message of determination,...

Despite its confident saber-rattling, Israel’s concern is growing that the country is vulnerable to a devastating counterstrike if it attacks Iran’s nuclear program. An announcement this week that a mobile rocket-defense system soon will be built just outside Tel Aviv - where Israel’s sprawling military headquarters sits smack in the middle of office towers, museums, night spots and hotels - caused some jitters. Israeli officials cite intelligence reports that Tel Aviv would be a main target of any attack. Increasingly, the debate in Israel is turning to whether a strike can do enough damage to the Iranian program to be...

The IDF is planning to deploy an Iron Dome battery in the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area for the first time as part of a drill simulating a missile attack, Ynet learned Sunday. The Iron Dome system aims to provide protection from medium-range rockets used by Hamas and Hezbollah and is part of Israel's multi-layered defense layout which also includes the Arrow 2 and Magic Wand systems. Residents of Central Israel will be able to get a closer look at the Iron Dome battery which has been found to be effective in intercepting rockets fired at southern communities. The aim is...

The Jihad Will Be YouTubed by Raffaello Pantucci December 15, 2011 FOREIGN POLICY - The AFPAK Channel SNIPPET: "While clearly the technology to make such videos is something that is universal, it does seem as though it is aspirant jihadists in the West who find it easiest to use. There was no evidence that Gul was being directed by foreign terrorist organizations to produce his material, and his case shows the continued existence of young Westerners producing radical material on their own. It may indeed be the case that the virtual armies have yet to fully emerge as active warriors...

GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich promised Republican Jewish activists on Wednesday that, if elected President, he would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The Washington Post reported that Gingrich also promised to use U.S. dollars to fund “every dissident group” in Iran and said he would appoint former UN Ambassador John Bolton, a conservative favorite, to head the State Department. Gingrich’s pro-Israel speech was made as part of a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Washington. All GOP presidential candidates except for Rep. Ron Paul spoke during the gathering and all expressed strong support for the...

Syria will strike Israel and "set fire" to the Middle East if foreign forces choose to launch a military strike on the protest-ridden country, Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Tuesday. During a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Assad was quoted by the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars as saying that Syria would not hesitate to strike major Israeli cities if it was attacked. "If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv," Assad

Over 153,000 people gather across country to take part in social protest movement marches, rallies being held; protesters in Tel Aviv's Kikar HaMedina prepare for huge rally. Over 100,000 people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday evening for social movement protests taking place as part of the “March of the Million.” People were gathering in Kikar Hamedina in the city where a huge rally was set to take place after a march through the streets of the city.

Security guards working at the south Tel Aviv night club targeted by a terrorist Sunday night recalled the moments of horror from their hospital beds, and said that the outcome could have been much worse had the attacker managed to enter the club. "I have no doubt that he was trying to get to the kids," one of Haoman 17's security guards, Aviv Krief, told Ynet. "I'm afraid to think what would have happened if he succeeded. There were thousands of kids there. It was a miracle they weren't hurt." Krief was hit by the by the terrorist's car in...

Last weekend's protests were among the biggest Israel has ever seen Last Saturday, hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of a Middle Eastern city. Demanding change, they were fed up with the ruling elite and said their government was no longer listening to its people. But this was not Egypt, Tunisia or Libya. This was Israel. If the Israeli government had hoped the street protests, which began three weeks ago, would lose momentum and fade away, it has not happened. An estimated 300,000 people from different backgrounds joined the latest marches across the country. Just as their...

There was a noticeably quieter atmosphere along the length of Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard on Monday evening, as Tisha Be’av came in after sunset. Trance parties and impromptu jazz parties were replaced by a series of lectures and a number of campsites where readings of the Book of Lamentations were held. At busier spots throughout the boulevard, such as the Student Union headquarters and the main kitchen at the corner of Rothschild and Marmorek, signs were posted calling on people to respect the fast, and notifying passersby that there would be no music parties, performances or entertainment scheduled for the...

“I stood at the bus stop and saw a speeding truck that caused cars to fly left and right,” said eyewitness Shlomo Gabbai. “It took down a railing and hit cars, until it reached the junction and saw the Egged bus which headed towards it. It turned and stopped right in front of the bus. It hit the bus and then both of them went under the bridge and stopped.” Sigal, another eyewitness, said: “I stood here and I saw a truck dragging a white car and not letting it go. Then the truck started going in a zigzag. I...

At 39, Anjem Choudary should be a symbol of success. Born into a working-class family, he has risen - thanks to opportunities offered by the British education system - to become a lawyer. Instead, Mr Choudary preaches hatred and murder in the streets of Britain to the next generation of young, impressionable Muslims. This week he stood outside Westminster Cathedral to call for the execution of the Pope as punishment for 'insulting Islam'. He fulminated against Benedict XVl, adding: "Whoever insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment." It's a long way from days as...

JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists said Monday they may have found the earliest evidence yet for the existence of modern man, and if so, it could upset theories of the origin of humans. A Tel Aviv University team excavating a cave in central Israel said teeth found in the cave are about 400,000 years old and resemble those of other remains of modern man, known scientifically as Homo sapiens, found in Israel. The earliest Homo sapiens remains found until now are half as old.