PM: Palestinian failure to recognize Jewish links to Israel is a 'tragedy'
Netanyahu addresses issue of democracy, refers to Jewish state bill, during first visit of Serbian prime minister to Israel.

It is a “tragedy” that many Palestinians deny any Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Monday at the start of a meeting with visiting Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic.
This marks the first ever visit to Israel of a Serbian prime minister.
“Here, in the State of Israel, the Jewish people have achieved their self-determination in a democratic state that guarantees equal rights for all its peoples, all its citizens, regardless of race, religion or sex,” Netanyahu said, as the debate over the Jewish state bill seemed to animate part of his welcoming comments to Vucic.
“It is indeed a tragedy that so many of our Palestinian neighbors still repudiate the basic facts of history. They deny the more than three thousand year-old connection between the people of Israel and the Land of Israel,” he said.
Netanyahu bewailed what he said was the Palestinian denial of Israel's right to national self- determination, even as they demand that right for themselves...
More at the Jerusalem Post site (Dec 1, 2014)

Four killed in Jerusalem synagogue terror attack
Netanyahu convenes security meeting, says Israel will respond with 'firm hand;' Abbas condemns attack, Hamas lauds it; eight wounded; all fatalities held British or American citizenship.
By Nir Hasson, Barak Ravid, Jonathan Lis, Jack Khoury, Gili Cohen and Yair Ettinger

Four Israelis were killed and several others wounded in a terror attack on Tuesday morning in a synagogue in the western Jerusalem neighborhood of Har Nof.
Two assailants were killed at the scene by police.
Eight people were wounded in the assault, including four seriously, two moderately and two lightly. Magen David Adom ambulances administered first aid to the wounded before evacuating them to hospitals in the city. Five were taken to Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, and the rest to Shaare Zedek Medical Center.
One of the critically wounded was a police officer, who was reported to be in critical condition in Hadassh Hospital last night.
The hospital's spokesperson said on Tuesday night that of the other four casualties in the hospital, two are in serious condition, one in moderate condition and the injury of the fifth is regarded as light...
More at the Haaretz Site (Nov 18, 2014)

Condemnation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway: Press release

An editorial cartoon in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper is drawing criticism for using Sept. 11 imagery to depict U.S.-Israel relations under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In it, a character resembling Netanyahu is seen flying a small plane into a building that resembles a World Trade Center tower. An American flag flies atop the skyscraper.
The cartoon, which appeared Thursday, comes after the Israeli leader was reportedly criticized by an Obama administration official as being a "chickensh**."
The paper, and its political cartoonist Amos Biderman, faced widespread criticism on Twitter.
More at Yahoo News (Oct 30, 2014)

Hamas says 3 senior leaders killed in Gaza strike

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed three senior leaders of the Hamas military wing on Thursday, the militant group said, in what is likely to be a major blow to the organization's morale and a significant scoop for Israeli intelligence.
The strike near Rafah, a town in the southern part of the coastal territory, was one of 20 the Israeli military said it carried out after midnight on Wednesday.
In a text message sent to media, Hamas said three of its senior military leaders - Mohammed Abu Shamaleh, Mohammed Barhoum and Raed al-Attar - were killed, along with three other people.
Gaza police and medical officials said scores more people remained under the rubble of a four-story structure destroyed in the airstrike.
The three Hamas leaders are considered to be at the senior levels of its military leadership and were involved in a number of high profile attacks on Israeli targets.
More at the the AOL site (Aug 21, 2014)

Israeli wedding of Jew, Muslim draws protesters amid war tensions

By Allyn Fisher
Ilan Related Stories Dozens of Israelis defy police to protest Gaza war Reuters Israeli soldier missing in Gaza is dead: army AFP Israel Ready To Continue Gaza War After Tunnels Razed: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Huffington Post Netanyahu says determined to destroy Gaza border tunnels before truce Reuters Israel has the right to defend itself. What about the Palestinians? The Week (RSS) RISHON LEZION Israel (Reuters) - Israeli police on Sunday blocked more than 200 far-right Israeli protesters from rushing guests at a wedding of a Jewish woman and Muslim man as they shouted "death to the Arabs" in a sign of tensions stoked by the Gaza war.
Several dozen police, including members of the force's most elite units, formed human chains to keep the protesters from the wedding hall's gates and chased after many who defied them. Four protesters were arrested, and there were no injuries...
More at the YahooNews site (Aug 18, 2014)

Israel's Netanyahu says Hamas to blame for Gaza deaths

Israel's Netanyahu makes the rounds on U.S. Sunday morning news programs, saying among other things that Hamas is to blame for civilians deaths in Gaza. Rough Cut (No reporter narration).

Video at the YahooNews site (July 28, 2014)

Israel-Hamas fighting enters 18th day

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli aircraft struck 30 houses in the Gaza Strip early Friday, killing a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group and two of his sons, while ground troops and Hamas gunmen fought intense battles in the north and center of the territory, Palestinian officials said.
The Israeli military confirmed dozens of sites were hit, including what it said were Hamas command posts, but did not elaborate.
With the current round of fighting entering its 18th day, Israel's Security Cabinet was to meet later Friday to decide whether to expand its operation or consider ideas for a cease-fire.
One plan calls for a five-day humanitarian truce during which Israel and Hamas would negotiate new border arrangements for blockaded Gaza, said Hana Amireh, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official in the West Bank, who is involved in cease-fire efforts.
Hamas has said it will not halt fire without international guarantees that Egypt and Israel will open Gaza's border crossings and end their seven-year-old border blockade. Israel and Egypt are reluctant to ease the blockade, fearing this will enable Hamas to tighten its grip on Gaza...
More at AOL.com, July 25, 2014

Inside Gaza's vast network of tunnels

Israeli bulldozers demolished more than a dozen tunnels Saturday in the Gaza Strip, and Palestinian authorities reported intensified airstrikes and shelling as the death toll from Israel's ground offensive rose to at least 342 Palestinians. Diplomats struggled to revive a cease-fire.
Israeli soldiers uncovered 34 shafts leading into about a dozen underground tunnels, some as deep as 30 meters (yards), that could be used to carry out attacks, the military said...
More images and video from AOL.com, July 23, 2014

Israel starts Gaza ground offensive

The Israeli military has begun a ground offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, stepping up its 11-day-old military operation.
Troops and tanks were sent into Gaza to deal "a significant blow to Hamas", Israel said.
A Hamas spokesman said Israel would "pay a high price" for its actions.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the invasion after days of intensive rocket fire and air strikes between the two sides.
Gaza's health ministry said 11 Palestinians had been killed since the ground offensive began on Thursday night.
A five-month-old child was among the dead, Palestinian medics told AFP news agency. Israel said it had killed 14 "terrorists" overnight.
Israel meanwhile suffered its first military fatality, with the death of a soldier during the invasion, it said.
Some 258 Palestinians - three-quarters of them civilians - have died since the start of the wider Israeli operation on 8 July, officials in Gaza say.
An Israeli civilian was killed from mortar fire, and several Israelis have been seriously injured, Israeli medics say...
More from BBC News, July 18, 2014

Ground operations in Gaza 'might become necessary', Israeli official says
By Diana Magnay, Ed Payne and Josh Levs CNN July 9, 2014

Jerusalem (CNN) - Israel intercepted a rocket fired at Tel Aviv on Tuesday and killed militants who stormed into Israeli territory, the military said, as people on both sides of the Gaza border were living under a barrage of attacks from the air.
In a dramatic escalation of the conflict, militants fired more than 130 rockets at Israeli civilians, Israel said. Palestinians reported 24 people in Gaza were killed and more than 150 injured in Israeli airstrikes. Israel said it targeted about 150 "terror sites" in Gaza.
The warning sirens that blared in Tel Aviv, one of Israel's most populated areas, showed a threat Israel had warned of. The country said militants' rockets from Gaza are powerful enough to reach 3.5 million Israeli citizens. "Hamas will pay a heavy price for its vicious attacks on millions of Israeli civilians," the Israel Defense Forces said on Twitter...
More from CNN.com

Officials:
Israel finds bodies of kidnapped teens
By Josef Federman

JERUSALEM (AP) -- The Israeli military found the bodies of three missing teenagers on Monday, just over two weeks after they were abducted in the West Bank, allegedly by Hamas militants. The grisly discovery culminated a feverish search that led to Israel's largest ground operation in the Palestinian territory in nearly a decade and raised fears of renewed fighting with Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was huddling with his Security Cabinet late Monday to discuss a response.
Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, disappeared while hitchhiking home near the West Bank city of Hebron late at night on June 12 and were never heard from again. Despite the dangers, hitchhiking is common among Israelis traveling in and out of Jewish settlements in the West Bank...
More from the AOL.com (June 30, 2014)

Shimon Peres Says ISIS Should Unite Arabs And Israel

WASHINGTON -- The threat posed by a network of Sunni extremists sweeping through Iraq and Syria is changing the political calculus in the Middle East, Israeli President Shimon Peres said in an interview this weekend after receiving the Congressional Gold Medal in Washington.
Israel, he said, is no longer the most significant threat to the majority of Arabs in the Middle East.
"Until now, maybe Israel was the first problem in the eyes of many Arabs," he said. "Today, they have to say it openly, the real problem for the Arabs and for us are not the mutual mistrust but really the problem of terror, which is a common danger to them and to us."
Peres said the peace process could be kick-started by the new common enemy.
"We have to take the joint interests, which are many, and didn't exist before," he said, proposing "to establish a functional headquarter of Arab countries and Israel to fight a common danger, because the terrorists are destroying the Arab world. They are the greatest danger to the Arab world, as well as to us a great danger. We have to fight them in order to stop it."...
More from HUFF POST site (June 29, 2014)

Right-winger Reuven Rivlin elected Israel's president

(Reuters) - Reuven Rivlin, a right-wing legislator opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, was elected Israel's president on Tuesday to replace the dovish Shimon Peres in the largely ceremonial post.
Rivlin, 74, is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party. He has a reputation for political independence and has had a frosty personal relationship with the Israeli premier.

A former speaker of parliament, Rivlin defeated Meir Sheetrit of the moderate Hatnuah party by a vote of 63-53 in a run-off in the legislature, after none of the original five candidates won an outright victory in a first-round ballot.
Although Israeli heads of state are not directly involved in political decision-making, Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, used the presidency as a pulpit for advocating peace with the Palestinians, often taking a more conciliatory stance than Netanyahu...
Whole text from the Ruters site (June 10, 2014)

20.05.2014 - Pope Francis in Israel - May 2014

Pope Francis will be the fourth Pope to come to the Holy Land. He will visit Israel on May 25-26, 2014 - the 50th anniversary of the historic visit of Pope Paul VI.

Pope Francis announced his pilgrimage to the Holy Land on January 5, 2014: "The main purpose of this pilgrimage of prayer is to commemorate the historic meeting between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, which took place on 5 January, exactly 50 years ago today."
(Source: Embassy of Israel, Belgrade)

Israel overjoyed by Maccabi's basketball title

Thousands of fans flood Tel Aviv main square in spontaneous celebration after local team beats Real Madrid in Euroleague final.
Jubilant Israeli basketball fans are still celebrating Maccabi Tel Aviv's dream season, which culminated with an overtime victory over Real Madrid in the Euroleague basketball final in Milan on Sunday.
Thousands of fans clad in Maccabi yellow filled Tel Aviv's Rabin Square overnight, with many jumping into its landmark fountain. Celebrations erupted in other cities as well, with TV and radio stations airing special broadcasts.
The victorious team is scheduled to return to Tel Aviv on Monday, where it will be officially received by the mayor. Afterward, the team will be celebrated by the public in Rabin Square.
According to initial ratings figures, about a third of the country watched Sunday's game live on TV, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. Both men called head coach David Blatt after the game to offer congratulations...
Whole text from the Haaretz site (May 19, 2014)

Former Israeli Leader Is Convicted of Taking Bribes
By JODI RUDORENMARCH 31, 2014

JERUSALEM — Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister who was forced from office under a corruption cloud, was convicted Monday of taking bribes to ease the construction of a huge housing complex while he was mayor of Jerusalem, dashing his much-discussed dream of a political comeback.
The verdict was the most severe ever against a former Israeli prime minister, and was viewed by analysts as a victory for prosecutors whose campaign against corruption has been criticized as expensive and overzealous.
Mr. Olmert, who did not go to jail after a 2012 conviction for breach of trust in a separate case, could now face up to seven years in prison, legal experts said.

In a searing verdict whose reading stretched for nearly two hours and was shown live on television Monday morning, Judge David Rosen of Tel Aviv District Court said that Mr. Olmert had “told lies in court.” The judge also decried “a corrupt political system that has decayed over the years.”
Whole text from the New York Times site

January 27, 2014 - Hague

I wish to thank the Staff Union of the International Criminal Tribunal for The former Yugoslavia in The Hague, for having given us the opportunity to talk about the bright side of the dark period of the Second World War. Also I would thank to all of you who came to hear us.
The Second World War was largely raging when on 6th April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers, from all directions. The army of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia capitulated within 11 days, and some 200,000 officers and soldiers were taken to Germany, to the prison camps...
Whole text from supplement by Milan Folel, Israel. Click on image to see Photo Gallery

Snow in Jerusalem!

Snow in Jerusalem is always a special and newsworthy event here. For some, it is a delightful occasion; for others, an annoyance.
While more well-prepared and equipped than any other nation to deal with serious emergencies, including terrorist threats and situations of war, somehow the cold but lovely, white blanket practically shuts down the capital. This is an amusing phenomenon to immigrants from places such as Moscow and Montreal, where people are accustomed to much deeper snow.
The Prime Minister’s Office cancelled a number of meetings due to inclement weather. Most notably, US Secretary of State John Kerry’s meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres has been postponed, The Jerusalem Post reported.
More from the United with Israel site (December 14, 2013)

Israel blocks construction materials from Gaza after 'terror tunnel' discovery

The discovery of a secret tunnel from the Gaza Strip into Israel has prompted the Israeli government to order an immediate halt of all construction materials to Gaza.
The Israeli military found the mile-long underground passage running between a home in a Hamas-controlled area, and a site close to a kibbutz (community settlement) last Monday, according to a BBC report.
An Israeli Army spokesman said the tunnel could have been used to attack or kidnap civilians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the army for finding the tunnel, but warned that the "quietest year in over a decade" had been disturbed by recent militant activities.
Just last month, Israel lifted a ban on the transfer of building materials in the private sector, but this recent discovery has broken the trust.
Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said exposing what he described as the "terror tunnel" was "further proof that Hamas continues to prepare for confrontation with Israel and for carrying out terror attacks, if it feels it is possible.”...
More from FOX News (October 14, 2013)

Nazi memorial in Croatia a disgrace to Europe
A service for Hitler is unthinkable. So why is the world quiet in response to a service for Ante Pavelić?

Imagine for a minute that memorial masses were held in two major cities in Germany on the anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler. Needless to say, such a ceremony would arouse fury, indignation, and widespread protests not only in Germany, but throughout the entire world. Last week, the local equivalent of such an event took place in Croatia, but instead of anger and demonstrations, not a single word of protest was heard from anywhere in the country.
I am referring to the December 28 memorial masses conducted in Zagreb and Split (and perhaps elsewhere as well) to mark the 51st anniversary of the death of Ante Pavelić, the head of state of the infamous Independent State of Croatia, created by the Nazis and their Italian allies in 1941. Following its establishment, rule was turned over to the local fascist movement, the Ustasha, headed by its Poglavnik (leader) Ante Pavelić..
More from Jeruselam Post (June 11, 2013)

Israeli Warplanes Strike Syria In Escalation: Official

BEIRUT — Israel rushed to beef up its rocket defenses on its northern border Sunday to shield against possible retaliation after carrying out two airstrikes in Syria over 48 hours – an unprecedented escalation of Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war.
Syria and its patron Iran hinted at possible retribution, though the rhetoric in official statements appeared relatively muted.
Despite new concerns about a regional war, Israeli officials signaled they will keep trying to block what they see as an effort by Iran to send sophisticated weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia ahead of a possible collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
Israel has repeatedly threatened to intervene in the Syrian civil war to stop the transfer of what it calls "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah, a Syrian-backed group that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006...
More from huffingtonpost.com (May 5, 2013)

Nikolić visits Israel
Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic began a two-day visit to Israel on April 29 by meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic began a two-day visit to Israel on Monday by meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres, with whom he talked about the historically good ties between the Serbian and Jewish people and possibilities for expanding economic and scientific cooperation.
In Jerusalem, Nikolic spoke in favor of strengthening economic cooperation between Serbia and Israel, and thanked the country for its principled support to Serbia's stance on the unilaterally proclaimed independence of Kosovo-Metohija, expressing hope that this position will be maintained.
Nikolic said his visit to Israel is an expression of Serbia’s and his personal gratitude for Israel’s consistent and principled position, and invited Peres to visit Serbia.
Peres said he is particularly glad that the EU is seriously considering Serbia as a new member state because of the progress achieved in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, and underscored that all conflicts should be resolved in this way...
More from ISRAEL DIPLOMATIC NETWORK site (April, 29 2013)

Serbian leader hails Israel ties before visit
Tomislav Nikolic: Despite pressure, Serbia will not recognize independent Kosovo; Iran will continue nuclear development.
On the eve of his first state visit to Israel beginning Monday, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic offered warm words of praise for the Jewish state, saying in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, “We have a lot to learn from Israel – not only how to love one’s country, but how to create earth out of sand, how to develop hi-tech, how to feed your people.”
In the interview, the full text of which will appear in this Friday’s Jerusalem Post Magazine, Nikolic also stated that he believes Iran will press forward with efforts to develop its nuclear program despite Western attempts to halt it...
More from The Jerusalem Post (April, 29 2013)

Obama Mideast Trip:
U.S. Officials Set Low Expectations For President's Journey (VIDEO)
By MATTHEW LEE 03/19/13 10:12 PM ET EDT

WASHINGTON -- On his second trip to the Middle East as U.S. commander in chief, President Barack Obama this week will confront a political and strategic landscape nearly unrecognizable from the one he encountered on his first trip to the region shortly after assuming office in 2009.
Gone are the authoritarian regimes and leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and the once seemingly indestructible Assad regime in Syria is tottering on the brink of collapse. Uncertainty abounds in the wake of the revolutions that have convulsed the Arab world for the past two years and shaken many of the strong but imperfect pillars of stability on the planet's most politically volatile patch of land.
And the few constants are hardly cause for cheer: a moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process that remains mired in mutual distrust and recrimination, an Iran that seemingly inches closer to nuclear weapons capability despite intensified international sanctions, and the ever-growing threat from extremists...
More from HUFF POST site

Netanyahu says Iran using nuclear talks to "buy time" for bomb

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Renewed international efforts to negotiate curbs on Iran's disputed nuclear program have backfired by giving it more time to work on building a bomb, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.
His remarks on the inconclusive February 26-27 meeting between Iran and six world powers signaled impatience by Israel, which has threatened to launch preemptive war on its arch-foe, possibly in the coming months, if it deems diplomacy a dead end.
Senior U.S. diplomat Wendy Sherman flew in to brief Israel about the Kazakh-hosted talks, in which Tehran, which denies seeking nuclear arms, was offered modest relief from sanctions in return for halting mid-level uranium enrichment.
There was no breakthrough. The sides will reconvene in Almaty on April 5-6 after holding technical talks in Istanbul...
More from Yahoo News (March 4, 2013)

Defiant Israel to boost settlements after UN's Palestine vote

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel plans to build thousands of new homes for its settlers in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, an Israeli official said on Friday, defying a U.N. vote that implicitly recognized Palestinian statehood there.
The United States, one of Israel's few allies in Thursday's battle at the world forum, called "counterproductive" the construction blueprint, which included a stretch of land east of Jerusalem that Palestinians fear would bisect much of the West Bank and choke off their access to the holy city.
The Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conservative government had authorized the construction of 3,000 housing units and ordered "preliminary zoning and planning work for thousands of units in Jerusalem and settlement blocs including Maale Adumim and E1".
Israel froze much of its activities in E1 under pressure from former U.S. President George W. Bush and the area has been under the scrutiny of his successor, Barack Obama...
More from Yahoo News (November 30, 2012)

9 dead in Israeli attacks on Hamas in Gaza

(CNN) -- An Israeli air strike Wednesday killed the head of Hamas' military wing, the first attack in a broader military operation against terrorist targets in response to an increase in rockets fired on Israel from Gaza.
Palestinian leaders immediately condemned the Israeli attacks as an escalation, with President Mahmoud Abbas calling for an emergency session of the Council of the League of Arab States to discuss what he called Israeli "aggression," the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.
Hamas' military wing warned that Israelis had opened "the gates of hell on themselves."
Palestinian medical sources said nine people died in the air strikes, including a young girl, and 35 others were wounded, with 10 in serious condition. However, the health minister in Gaza, Mufid al-Mukhalalati, put the death toll at seven, including two young girls.
The dead included Ahmed al-Ja'abari, the popular and influential head of the Hamas military wing, and his son, the group said on its website...
More on CNN site. November 14, 2012

Insiders: Israel Will Attack Iran

Two-thirds of National Journal's National Security Insiders believe Israel will attack Iran to try to derail its nuclear program, but they are divided over whether military action would take place in the coming months or at a later date.
Speculation abounds over whether the Jewish state may strike, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently called upon the United Nations General Assembly to draw a clear "red line" to stop Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. While President Obama has insisted that no option is off the table to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, the administration has so far advocated for a strategy of tougher sanctions and diplomatic pressure.
"If the U.S. strategy in 2013 does not produce noticeable changes in Iran's behavior," one Insider said, "then either Israel will convince the U.S. to strike (their preferred option) or they will go it alone (and the U.S. will share in the consequences)."...
More from Yahoo News (October 10, 2012)

Iran on brink of nuclear bomb in 6-7 months: Netanyahu

WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday that Iran was just six to seven months away from the brink of being able to build a nuclear bomb, adding urgency to his demand that President Barack Obama set a "red line" for Tehran in what could deepen the worst U.S.-Israeli rift in decades.
Taking to the television airwaves to make his case directly to the American public, Netanyahu said that by mid-2013 Iran would be "90 percent of the way" toward enough enriched uranium for a weapon. He again urged the United States to spell out limits that Tehran must not cross if it is to avoid military action - something Obama has refused to do.
"You have to place that red line before them now, before it's too late," Netanyahu said on NBC's "Meet the Press" program, adding that such a U.S. move could reduce the chances of having to attack Iran's nuclear sites.
The unusually public dispute between close allies - coupled with Obama's decision not to meet with Netanyahu later this month - has exposed a gaping U.S.-Israeli divide and stepped up pressure on the U.S. leader in the final stretch of a tight presidential election campaign...
More from Yahoo News (September 16, 2012)

Islamists kill 15 Egyptians, Israel strikes attackers

CAIRO (Reuters) - Islamist gunmen killed at least 15 Egyptian police on Sunday and seized two military vehicles to attack a crossing point into Israel, the deadliest incident in Egypt's tense Sinai border region in decades.
Israeli aircraft destroyed one of the armored vehicles and four of the gunmen were killed, Egyptian security sources said. Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for "determined Egyptian action" to "prevent terror in Sinai".
The attack is an early diplomatic test for Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi, an Islamist who assumed office at the end of June after staunch U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year in a popular uprising.
It may also complicate Egypt's relations with Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip that borders Egypt and Israel who are close to Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, if it is shown that Palestinian gunmen were involved.
Israel has accused Palestinian militants in Gaza of involvement in militant activity in Sinai, where insecurity has grown since Mubarak was toppled...
More from Yahoo News (July 26, 2012)

Israel losing international support, says British ambassador

Matthew Gould says Jewish state losing mainstream political support over lack of peace progress and West Bank expansion.
The British ambassador to Israel has said international support for the Jewish state among those in the political mainstream is eroding, driven by settlement expansion in the West Bank and continued restrictions on Gaza.
There is "growing concern" in the UK over lack of progress towards peace with the Palestinians, and Israel was now being seen as Goliath against the Palestinians as David, said Matthew Gould, in reference to the biblical story.
In an unusually forthright interview for Israel's Channel 10 news, Gould said he detected a shift among the middle ground of British members of parliament towards a more critical view of Israel...
More from The Guardian, August, 3, 2012

Israel: The War Within

In Israel, compulsory military service has been the backbone of the beleaguered Jewish State since its founding in 1948. All Israeli's upon reaching the age of 18 must serve a two or three year term in the Tzva Hahagana LeYisra'el — Israel Defense Force. However there is a fierce debate on-going regarding just who will fill these ranks. Currently Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men are allowed exemption from military service on grounds that they will instead be pursuing religious study.
However earlier this month Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began the process of reform that would do away with such exemptions. Netanyahu remarked, "Everyone must bear the burden. We will provide positive incentives to those who serve and negative incentives to draft dodgers." These actions were celebrated by reformers within Israel who argue that the defense of Israel is the duty of all its citizens...
More from Yahoo News (July 26, 2012) plus Christiane Amanpour video report from Jerusalem.

Don't rehabilitate the guilty

It is time for the Israeli government and Jewish defense organizations to begin actively combating the dangerous phenomena of Holocaust distortion,
By Efraim Zuroff

Recent events in four different Eastern European countries have once again highlighted the ongoing assault on the accepted Holocaust narrative in the post-communist world. Three attracted considerable attention, while the fourth, which perhaps affords us the best insight into the phenomenon of Eastern European attempts to rewrite World War II history, was virtually ignored, until it aroused a solitary Jewish protest.
In Kiev, Odessa and Lviv, on January 1, hundreds marched to mark the birthday of Ukrainian nationalist hero Stepan Bandera, who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN ), which collaborated with the Nazis and actively participated in the mass murder of Jews following the German occupation of Ukraine in 1941. A few days later, the regional council of the Ukrainian oblast of Ivano-Frankivsk declared 2012 the year of the UPA, the military wing of the OUN...
More from HAARETZ.com, January 13, 2012

Foreign Ministry: Israel's recognition of Armenian genocide could threaten Turkey ties
Knesset holds first discussion on possible recognition of Turkey's Armenian genocide; Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin says Israel has an ethical commitment to recognize other nations' genocides.
By Jonathan Lis

The Foreign Ministry warned that Israel's possible recognition of the Armenian genocide, which was discussed in a Knesset committee on Monday, could lead to the serious deterioration of Israel's ties with Turkey.
A Knesset committee discussed on Monday the possibility of setting a memorial day for the Armenian genocide by the Turkish people nearly 100 years ago, marking a first in Israeli history.
Several MKs expressed support for the move, saying that Israel, as a nation of the Jewish people who have experienced genocide, cannot ignore genocides in other countries.
However, the recognition of the Armenian genocide has long been a sensitive diplomatic issue due to the implications it has on Israel's relationship with Turkey, which denies it...
More from HAARETZ.com, December 26, 2011

Israel announces new 'depth' command for long-range military operations

New command to be headed by former chief of elite special forces squad Sayeret Matakl; unit to supervise operations away from Israel's borders.
The Israel Defense Forces is forming a command to supervise "depth" operations, actions undertaken by the military far from Israel's borders, the army announced on Thursday.
The new authority will be commanded by a military officer at the rank of Major General, and will be headed by the former chief of the elite Sayeret Matkal special forces unit Shai Avital, who will return to military serivce to fill the position.
Onoing concerns with Iran's contentious nuclear program serve as the backdrop for the IDF's annoucement, with both U.S. and Israeli officials noting that, while diplomatic efforts were the preferred tool with attempting to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, no options were "off the table."...
More from HAARETZ.com, December 15, 2011

Israeli, UK media report increased planning for confrontation with Iran

Just as the United States is preparing to further unwind itself from its military entanglements in the wider Middle East--departing Iraq and transferring lead security responsibilities to Afghans by 2014--a new round of tension appears to be surfacing between Iran and Israel that could force the U.S. military back in.
Reports in the Israeli press indicate that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are working to convince other members of Netanyahu's cabinet and Israeli security chiefs that Israel needs to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear program...
More from Yahoo news, Novemeber, 3rd, 2011

As Palestinians Push for Statehood, Israel Finds Itself Isolated

There are links between nations, cordial relations, firm bonds, alliances and strategic partnerships. But what Turkey and Israel had in mind just four years ago was something akin to being joined at the hip. The plan was to snake an extraordinary "infrastructure corridor" from Ceyhan in Turkey's south to Haifa in Israel's north, a thick bundle of pipes carrying crude oil in one, electricity in another, natural gas in yet another and in the fourth, a steady flow of fresh, sweet water, all thrumming along the floor of the Mediterranean Sea. Not only would these pipes serve as ties that bind two nations, but they would also show the world that a Muslim country could tether itself to the Jewish state, to their mutual benefit.
Which makes the events of the past few weeks all the more worrisome for Israel. With dizzying speed, Turkey has gone from offering oil and gas to Israel to threatening to send gunboats to the Gaza Strip to protect activists seeking to break Israel's naval blockade of the Palestinian territory. Enraged by Israel's refusal to apologize for its killing of eight Turks (and one Turkish American) on board a blockade-busting ferry last year, Ankara has ejected Israel's ambassador, downgraded diplomatic relations and imposed military sanctions on its former ally. And that "infrastructure corridor"? It's now a mere pipe dream...
More from TIME site Sept. 26, 2011

Israel should have learned the Holocaust's lessons of nationalism

Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Day, which is being marked today, is above all a day of remembrance. Today is the day on which the Holocaust is to be recalled, and on which the memory of those who perished and the heritage of those who managed to survive is invoked. It is also a day on which to remember those survivors who are still among us and to consider their well-being.

All of this, however, is not enough: Israelis must also devote themselves to studying the lessons of the Holocaust. In addition to the lessons that have been learned well here - such as the need for the existence of a strong and thriving sovereign state, and the duty to combat anti-Semitism - one must not on any account neglect the moral lesson of the Holocaust...
More on HAARETZ site, May 2, 2011