Free Republic

After additional ballots were counted overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, it appeared that Likud had risen from 29 to 30 seats and Meretz had gained another seat, totaling five mandates. According to the most recent estimates, United Torah Judaism dropped to six seats along with the Joint (Arab) List dropping to 13 mandates. According to Channel 2, the figures were calculated after some 200,000 ballots were counted from soldiers, absentees, prisoners and the hospitalized. The Central Elections Committee was expected to release the official final count for the 20th Knesset election on Thursday afternoon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement early Wednesday morning inviting potential coalition partners to immediately enter talks for the swift formation of what is expected to be a religious-nationalist government in Jerusalem. "The reality isn't waiting on us," Netanyahu said just hours after it became clear that his Likud party had scored a decisive victory over Zionist Union in Tuesday's poll. "Reality isn't taking a break. The citizens of Israel expect us to quickly put together a leadership that will work for the sake of the country's security, economy, and society as we promised to do, and that is...

Meretz chair Zehava Gal-On announced on Wednesday that she is resigning from her position at the helm of the party in the wake of the movement's disappointing showing in Tuesday's election, Channel 2 reported. The left-wing party barely earned enough votes to get into the Knesset, with the official tally giving Meretz four seats. Television exit polls had given Meretz five seats, but the official count before dawn on Wednesday revealed that it had in fact dropped a seat. Gal-On is preparing to hand the reins of the party over to MK Tamar Zandberg, Channel 2 reported.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cincinnati issued a warning to Christians about the movie Fifty Shades of Grey, ahead of its release over the weekend weekend. "The story line is presented as a romance; however, the underlying theme is that bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism are normal and pleasurable," Archbishop Dennis Marion Schnurr posted on the Archdiocese of Cincinnati's Facebook page. The movie tells the story of a sexual relationship between a wealthy businessman and a college student and includes scenes that depict whipping and bondage. "This movie is in direct contrast to the Christian message of God’s design for self-giving...

Early Wednesday morning, the IDF Engineering Corps demolished the east Jerusalem home of the terrorist who killed a three-month-old baby girl and a woman from Ecuador last month when he rammed his vehicle into a crowd of people in the capital. Abdel Rahman al-Shalodi, a convicted Palestinian terrorist from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan was shot by police and died in hospital after the October attack that killed the baby Chaya Zissel Braun, as well as Karen Yemima Mosquera, a 22-year-old Ecuadorian. A demolition notice signed by the IDF Home Front Command was given to al-Shalodi's family last week.

The suspect in the Yehuda Glick shooting has been killed by police and the Shin Bet, police confirmed on Thursday morning. The shootout took place in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Tor. Forces arrived at the house of the suspect on Thursday morning after conducting an investigation. During police attempts to arrest the suspect, he refused arrest and a shootout took place. He was killed by police fire. The weapon in his home was taken by police for investigation on whether or not it is linked to the murder of Glick.

“We’re called the Eitam Battalion because that was the name of the second stop overtaken by [the biblical] Israelites in Sinai, on their way out of Egypt,” Savion said. “We are a strategic combat response to any developments on this border. If we see travelers in this region during the holidays, it’s a sign we are succeeding.” THIS IS how the battalion works: The surveillance towers growing out of the dunes feed control centers with advanced radar and visual imagery, and the data is sent to two regional control centers. From there, controllers scanning their screens direct security forces to...

Russian lawmakers approve bill making Holocaust denial illegal Russian lawmakers approved a bill that would make Holocaust denial illegal. The lower house of the Russian Parliament, or Duma, passed the measure Friday on its first reading, the Voice of Russia reported Monday, making it illegal to deny the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal and punishing the “rehabilitation of Nazism.” Those found guilty of the crime could be fined up to $8,300 or imprisoned up to three years. Public officials or media personalities would be fined nearly double or face up to five years in prison. The bill also needs the...

The United States-Russian deal for the destruction of Syria's huge chemical weapons stocks caused Israelis to breathe an audible sigh of relief. Many expected that a U.S. strike would push either Syria or its ally Hezbollah tio retaliate by attacking Israel. Over the past few weeks, thousands of Israelis, not known for their patience, spent hours waiting in line for government-issued gas masks. Yet the deal also increases pressure on Israel to get rid of its chemical and, even more troubling to the Jewish state, its nuclear stockpile. If Syria must get rid of its chemical weapons, the reasoning goes,...

Caroline Glick, Senior Contributing Editor of the Jerusalem Post said the Israeli people consider President Obama "a hostile president overall," on "Mornings on the Mall" on WMAL-FM in Washington DC. Appearing with Brian Wilson and myself Wednesday morning, Glick said the Israeli people "can't figure out what he's doing here," when asked about the mood in Jerusalem as the President's plane touched down for the first time in his presidency.

A seismic shift in American politics has occurred over the past decade that has created a gap so wide and so bitter that America is a nation of growing polarization where issues once embraced by both sides are now being challenged. In the shift, the far right has embraced Israel as a means of separating itself from Democrats, causing many Americans to question what, until then, has been unquestioned loyalty. Although Israelis have always enjoyed support from both mainstream political parties, the extremists in America who are using support of Israel as a litmus test are forcing many to examine...

As hands are wrung in the aftermath of the near-tragedy on a Northwest Airlines flight approaching Detroit, a conversation from London's Heathrow Airport in 1986 comes to mind. It consisted of an El Al security agent quizzing one Ann-Marie Doreen Murphy, a 32-year-old recent arrival in London from Sallynoggin, Ireland. While working as a chambermaid at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, Murphy met Nizar al-Hindawi, a far-leftist Palestinian who impregnated her. After instructing her to "get rid of the thing," he abruptly changed his tune and insisted on immediate marriage in "the Holy Land." He also insisted on their...

Congratulations on an outstanding job, Osama. You masterfully pulled the strings, and the most powerful nation in the world jumped. You caused turmoil in major airports around the world on the busiest travel day of the year, cancelling and delaying thousands of flights. Now we discover that there is a new place to hide explosives as we scurry around to devise solutions. Passengers go through a pre... Passengers go through a pre-flight security screening at Ben-Gurion Airport. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski [file] Creating havoc at airports will divert our attention from your real targets. Perhaps our fragile electricity grid? Or our...

One of the holy grails of the Palestinian movement is the "right of return," and it is one that always haunts any peace agreement. Alongside it is one of the most vilified pieces of Israeli legislation, the Absentee Property Law, which has provided more grist for the academic mill of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than anything else. Even after 60 years of conflict, there is very little understanding by Palestinians or others of either the concept of "return" or that of absentee property - which together represent an idea and the thing to which people might return. It is important to...

A top Pentagon official said Monday that a US missile defense drill will simulate an Iranian attack, a departure from the usual scenario of a North Korean attack, according to Reuters. "Previously, we have been testing the GMD system against a North Korean-type scenario. This next test ... is more of a head-on shot like you would use defending against an Iranian shot into the United States. So that's the first time that we're now testing in a different scenario," Lt. Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, head of the US Missile Defense Agency said at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in...

The concept of 'one for all and all for one' can get pretty absurd," the late Jerusalem Post staffer and columnist Sam Orbaum wrote about his identical triplet daughters 14 years ago. The Orbaum girls in uniform. The Orbaum girls in uniform. Orbaum, who passed away in 2002 at the age of 46, went on in the column, entitled "The threeness of it all," to describe life as a father of identical triplets. Not only did he sometimes mix them up, Orbaum wrote in his well-known wry, comic style, but he was also constantly impressed by their tight bond -...

As Iran tests the capabilities of its air defense systems in nationwide exercises, the Israeli air force is reported to be planning special seminars to prepare its attack pilots to cope with heavy surface-to-air missile defenses. According to The Jerusalem Post, the sessions will encompass "future conflict with Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran" in which air force crews will "have to deal with an unprecedented number of surface-to-air missiles, most of them Russian-made." None of these adversaries is considered to pose an overwhelming air-defense threat, although Israeli intelligence believes that Iran has supplied some shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles to the Palestinian...

He's only been in the job for a month, but already the foreign minister is fed up with the 'slogans' he keeps hearing from his international counterparts: occupation, settlements, land-for-peace, two-state solutions... His favored key words? Security (for Israel). A stronger economy (for the Palestinians). And stability (for all). Bringing peace to our region is more complex than sloganeering would allow, he tells The Jerusalem Post in this interview, his first with an Israeli newspaper. And it's time we all faced up to the inconvenient reality. Last Thursday, just a few hours after The Jerusalem Post completed this interview with...

Is Binyamin Netanyahu's government too big? Yes. Is that good? No. So why would Netanyahu, an experienced politician, create such an unwieldy beast? He and his government face two historic challenges: an economic crisis that has yet to fully unfold, and a nuclear threat from Iran. We all want a government that can face these challenges. Could Netanyahu's critics suggest a better alternative to the coalition he managed to form, considering the sanctimonious refusal by Kadima to join a wider coalition? Netanyahu would probably prefer a more compact government. No one has suffered more from coalititis - the disease afflicting...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Tuesday congratulated the defense establishment on the morning's successful test of the Arrow missile. "I would like to congratulate the defense establishment on the successful test. While we are for peace, we will know how to defend ourselves," said Netanyahu. The Prime Minister was speaking at a pre-Passover chametz-selling ceremony also attended by Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. He also spoke with Defense Minister Ehud Barak about the results of the test.