By ISRAEL HAYOM— Israel will mark Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism over the next 24 hours, with a series of services that are scheduled to begin on Sunday afternoon. The first state ceremony honoring Israel’s 23,169 fallen soldiers is scheduled to be held at 4 p.m. at Jerusalem’s…
By YOAV ZITUN, YNET— Bracing for an outbreak of violence should peace talks with the Palestinians collapse, the IDF on Wednesday morning held an impromptu military exercise by the Central Command to practice possible scenarios of escalation in the West Bank. Details of the exercise were released by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit just one hour…
By ISRAEL TODAY— The Israeli defense establishment this week decided to begin actively recruiting local Christians into the Israeli army. The move comes after years of encouragement by the Nazareth-based Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum for young Arabic-speaking Christians to voluntarily join the IDF so as to better integrate into Israeli society. Israel Today has repeatedly…
By ELAD BENARI, ARUTZ 7— A lawmaker from Hamas recently called for a “massacre” of Jews, explaining that the Koran indicates that this must be done. In a televised address the lawmaker, Yunis Al-Astal, also said that Jews must be forced to pay the “jizya” tax, which under the strict Islamic Sharia doctrine, non-Muslims living…
By MICHAEL FREUND, JPOST— What a wasted opportunity. Sunday’s prayer rally, which brought hundreds of thousands of haredim into the streets of Jerusalem, had all the makings of an historic event. To begin with, it was one of the largest Jewish prayer services to take place since the Second Temple once stood nearly two millennia…
By ARI SOFFER, ARUTZ 7— Former CIA Director James Woolsey has reiterated his call to release Jonathan Pollard, who is now in his 29th year behind bars in the US on charges of spying for Israel. Speaking exclusively to Arutz Sheva, Woolsey noted that the time Pollard has served already is unprecedented for the crimes…
By ARI YASHAR, ARUTZ 7— Brigadier General (Res.) Amatzia (“Patzi”) Chen, who was a member of Ariel Sharon’s legendary 101st Unit, praised Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon’s criticism of US Secretary of State John Kerry, in which Yaalon slammed Kerry for operating “based upon an unfathomable obsession and a messianic feeling.” “Yaalon said clear things; there…
By CAROLINE GLICK, JPOST— The so-called Arab Spring unleashed forces that have been dormant for a century. Like their counterparts throughout the region, Israel’s Arabic-speaking minorities are changing in profound ways. But our leaders fail to grasp the implications of what is happening. Consider the Christian community. Father Gabriel Nadaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from…
By MICHAEL FREUND— On Wednesday morning of last week, just hours before the start of Succot, hundreds of young men in drab green uniforms mulled about at the foot of the Nahal Brigade memorial in Pardes Hanna. A mixture of exhaustion and enthusiasm was evident on their boyish faces as they prepared for the start…
By RYAN JONES, ISRAEL TODAY— Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has officially put his weight behind growing efforts to encourage young Israeli Arab Christians to join the Israeli army and fully integrate with Israeli society. The government has tried to initiate such programs in the past, only to create rifts in the Christian community and more…