News

News Digest — 9/28/23

Israeli security forces busted a weapons production facility and seized weapons during raids throughout the West Bank overnight…

Israel Joins U.S. Visa Waiver Program

Israel joined the U.S. Visa Waiver Program on Wednesday, a decision that reflects the strength of Israel’s relations with the United States…

News Digest — 9/27/23

Israel delivered a message to Hamas on Tuesday (26th) via UN envoy Tor Wennesland, who entered the Gaza Strip through the Erez Crossing in an effort to…

News Digest — 9/26/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended the 50th-anniversary state memorial service for Israel’s fallen soldiers in the Yom Kippur War at…

“Fifty Years Later”

Adding to the solemnity of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur in Israel is the memory of the fateful Yom Kippur War in 1973 when Arab forces attacked Israel on the holiest day of the year…

News Digest — 9/25/23

Police remain stationed throughout Jerusalem to prevent vehicular traffic from disrupting the holy day of Yom Kippur, currently being…

News Digest — 9/22/23

IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi penned a letter addressed to IDF service members in which he commemorates the 50th anniversary of the…

A House Divided

As Prime Minister Netanyahu left Israel for the United States he was greeted by protestors opposing his overhaul of the Supreme Court…

News Digest — 9/21/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Wednesday (20th) with the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during the…

News Digest — 9/20/23

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan waved a photo of Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish Iranian woman, 22, killed in the…

News Digest — 9/19/23

NEW YORK – Iran’s President on Monday (18th) warned against normalization with Israel, denied his country had sent drones to Russia for use in the…

News Digest — 9/18/23

A terrorist attack was foiled in Jerusalem Monday morning (18th), hours after the end of…

News Digest — 9/15/23

On the eve of the Jewish New Year, the number of Jews worldwide stands at approximately 15.7 million compared to…

News Digest — 9/14/23

About 9.8 million people are living in Israel ahead of Rosh Hashanah, with the country’s population expected to reach…

News Digest — 9/13/23

Sinkholes opened on Eliezer Hoofien St. in Holon and Shirat Geulim St. in Herzliya on Wednesday (13th) as unseasonable…

News Digest — 9/12/23

Monday (11th) marked the 22nd anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks when terrorists flew hijacked planes into the…

A Shelter from Harm

I want to introduce you to a good friend of The Friends of Israel, Rabbi Shmuel Bowman, Executive Director of Operation Lifeshield in Israel…

New Digest — 9/11/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday (10th) urged religious Jews to avoid traveling on the annual pilgrimage to Uman, amid the risks posed by…

News Digest — 9/8/23

Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant held a situational assessment on Thursday (7th) to discuss the defense establishment preparations ahead of the Jewish…

News Digest — 9/7/23

Qatari envoy Mohammed al-Emadi traveled to the Gaza Strip this week, according to several reports in Palestinian…

News Digest — 9/6/23

Papua New Guinea opened its embassy to Israel in Jerusalem on Tuesday (5th), becoming the fifth country with a full diplomatic…

News Digest — 9/5/23

On Tuesday (5th), following engineering guidance and ISA intelligence, IDF and Israeli Border Police forces targeted a building that contained…

News Digest—9/1/23

August 2023 has been a deadly month of terror attacks in Israel, and between August 5 to August 31, five people have been killed…

News Digest — 8/31/23

One person is dead and five young Israelis, three of them soldiers, were injured in a vehicular truck-ramming attack…

News Digest — 8/30/23

The Israeli and American militaries will hold a series of pre-planned joint military drills in the coming…

FIRED!

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen defended his disclosure of private meetings with Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush, who for this meeting has been…

News Digest — 8/29/23

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the UN Headquarters in…

News Digest — 8/28/23

An Israeli air aggression put Aleppo International Airport out of service, the Syrian Defense Ministry said on…

News Digest — 8/25/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Rabbi Slomo Koves and Rabbi Shmuel Oirechman on Thursday (24th) ahead of a discussion on…

News Digest — 8/24/23

A five-year-old boy was killed and at least 8 others injured in a rockslide at Nahal David near the…

News Digest — 8/23/23

The year 2023 is shaping up to be one of the deadliest in terms of terror casualties for Israel in decades, with an average of one terror victim each…

News Digest — 8/22/23

The IDF, Shin Bet and the Border Police arrested two Palestinians Tuesday morning (22nd) suspected of carrying out the shooting attack in which…

Over the Weekend

The nearly two thousand year old aqueduct, built in the days of Herod, had a major collapse early Friday morning. The section of the aqueduct that collapsed was from…

News Digest — 8/21/23

An Israeli woman was murdered in a terror shooting attack on Route 60, near Hebron, in Judea and Samaria on…

News Digest — 8/18/23

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian took advantage of his official visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday (17th) to reiterate the…

News Digest — 8/17/23

The United States has approved Israel’s sale of the Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany, the Israeli Defense Ministry announced…

High Hopes

Ryan Turell has set his hopes high: to become the first Jewish player in the NBA. Currently on the roster for the G League Detroit Cruise…

News Digest — 8/16/23

Some five years after Paraguay closed its embassy in Jerusalem, its new President , Santiago Pena announced Tuesday (15th) that the South American country will…

News Digest — 8/15/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented Monday afternoon (14th) about  the Fitch Rating’s affirmation of Israel’s…

News Digest — 8/14/23

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to not “lend his hand” to any harm caused to the Israeli military in a visit to…

News Digest — 8/11/23

More than 200 Israeli and Ethiopian Jews were rescued from war-torn northern Ethiopia on Thursday afternoon (10th) amid ongoing…

News Digest — 8/10/23

A Palestinian gunman was killed by Israeli forces near the northern West Bank city of Nablus before…

News Digest — 8/9/23

Defense Ministry personnel on Wednesday (9th) thwarted an attempt to smuggle into Gaza 10 reconnaissance drones concealed within a blackbag inside a…

News Digest — 8/8/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is confident that Israel and Saudi Arabia will sign a peace agreement and that the ties between…

Baby Steps

With the success of the Abraham Accords, the hope that a major piece of the program would be peace with Saudi Arabia…

News Digest—8/7/23

Four Syrian soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in alleged Israeli air strikes near Damascus early Monday morning (7th)…

News Digest — 8/4/23

The head of the Palestinian Authority’s “Colonization and Wall Resistance Committee,” Minister Moayad Shaaban, and other committee members were filmed…

News Digest — 8/3/23

President Isaac Herzog visited a military post on the Lebanese border on Wednesday (2nd) delivering a stern message to Hezbollah amid increased…

News Digest — 8/2/23

Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah warned that armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the Palestinian territories would “prevent attacks” on…

The Violence Continues

In three instances in Israel last week Israelis dealt with violent attacks from Palestinians. One of those occurred in a town near Nablus in…

News Digest — 8/1/23

Recent days have seen several security-related incidents along the Israel-Jordan border, as seven people illegally crossed into the country, sparking…

News Digest — 7/31/23

The IDF operated overnight in the Jenin “refugee” camp for the first time since its major counterterrorism operation in June and arrested…

News Digest — 7/28/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene a discussion on Sunday (30th) that will focus on the…

News Digest — 7/27/23

Thousands of Jews are expected to visit the Temple Mount on Thursday (27th), Tisha B’Av, which is one of the prime days for…

News Digest — 7/26/23

Jews around the world are set to mark, remember and mourn on Tisha B’Av (the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av) Wednesday night (26th) and…

Reaction to Overhaul

On July 24 the Knesset passed ‘the reasonableness’ bill, the first part of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s overhaul of the judiciary…

News Digest — 7/25/23

Three Palestinian gunmen were killed by Israeli forces while attempting an attack at a small Samaritan community in the northern…

News Digest — 7/24/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was discharged from Sheba Medical Center on Monday morning (24th) after two days of recovery in the…

News Digest — 7/21/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there are ongoing efforts to reach consensus ahead of the crucial Knesset vote on a bill aimed at…

News Digest — 7/20/23

Palestinian gunmen attacked Jewish worshipers at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus late Wednesday night (19th) according to a Thursday morning (20th) Israeli Defense…

News Digest — 7/19/23

Two Syrian soldiers were injured after alleged Israeli airstrikes targeted sites in the Damascus area on Tuesday night (18th) according to…

News Digest — 7/18/23

US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening (17th) for the first time in four months and extended an invitation to…

News Digest — 7/17/23

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen landed in Kenya on Sunday (16th) for a short visit at the invitation of the African…

New Digest — 7/14/23

The Wall Street Journal on Friday morning (14th) published an op-ed harshly criticizing the Biden administration for its treatment of the Israeli…

News Digest — 7/13/23

Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia on Wednesday morning (12th) in what was the first…

News Digest — 7/12/23

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant will leave for an official visit to Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku on Wednesday evening (12th), the Defense Ministry…

News Digest — 7/11/23

The Knesset overnight passed along partisan lines a bill to restrict the use of the “reasonableness” standard by the Supreme Court. The bill was advanced by a vote of 64-56…

It’s On…Again!

Over the past few weeks Israeli Defense forces have engaged terrorists in Jenin in combat. Following serious terror attacks, including the deaths of…

News Digest — 7/10/23

Israel’s security cabinet, by a majority of eight to one, with one abstention, voted Sunday evening (9th) to prevent the collapse of the Palestinian Authority…

News Digest — 7/7/23

The two terrorists that carried out Thursday’s (6th) shooting attack on a police car in the Samaritan neighborhood of Har Bracha were…

News Digest — 7/6/23

Two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel on Thursday (6th), one of them landing in Lebanese territory and…

News Digest — 7/5/23

The IDF struck the Gaza Strip early Wednesday morning (5th) after five rockets were fired from the Strip toward the Sderot area in southern Israel…

News Digest — 7/3/23

The IDF on Sunday night (2nd) launched its largest operation in Jenin since the Second Intifada with a series of more than…

News Digest — 6/30/23

The Mossad Thursday evening (29th) revealed additional details about the planned Iranian terrorist attack against Jewish and Israeli targets in Cyprus which was thwarted…

News Digest — 6/29/23

Israeli police arrested 15 suspects for hanging a sign with photos of terrorists and waving flags of terror organizations after the Muslim Eid al-Adha…

EU Called Upon to Prosecute Israel

The European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee petitioned the European Union “to help the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israel for war crimes” on Tuesday…

News Digest — 6/28/23

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to visit China next month in a move that is seen as undermining Jerusalem’s relationship with…

News Digest — 6/27/23

The Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Council on Monday (26th) approved the construction of approximately 5,700 units throughout Judea and Samaria…

News Digest — 6/26/23

Israel on Sunday evening (25th) confirmed Cypriot media reports that an Iranian terrorist attack against Israeli and Jewish targets in the Island nation of Cyprus was thwarted…

News Digest — 6/23/23

Nearly half of Israelis support the launch of a large-scale military operation in Judea and Samaria following recent deadly terror attacks, according to a new poll…

News Digest — 6/22/23

The IDF on Wednesday night (21st) killed a terror cell in the West Bank using a drone, an unusual move generally reserved for targeting major terrorists or…

Hezbollah Infiltrates Israel

Lebanese terror group Hezbollah set up a terrorist outpost in Israel sometime in the past few weeks. Hezbollah stationed eight armed terrorists in…

News Digest — 6/21/23

Hours after two Hamas terrorists massacred Israelis at a gas station in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a stern warning to…

News Digest — 6/20/23

Israel’s Jewish population will number close to 12 million by the country’s 100th Birthday, according to a projection released by the Central Bureau of statistics…

Answering Israel’s Critics

Detractors of Israel accuse Israel of being ‘an Apartheid State’, racist, colonialist, and other pejoratives. However, the population of Israel’s ethnic and…

News Digest — 6/19/23

Multiple Israeli troops sustained injuries Monday (19th) after coming under fire while concluding an arrest in the West Bank city of Jenin. The fighters are said to have…

News Digest — 6/16/23

Five years after the U.S. dedicated its new embassy in Jerusalem, Russia is set to follow suit, Israel Hayom revealed. According to the newspaper, in a secret agreement…

News Digest — 6/15/23

Iran’s President arrived in Cuba early Thursday (15th) morning, according to Trabajadores, Cuban pro-government newspaper.  He was met at the airport by…