Israel News

As voting ended in Israel’s Knesset elections Tuesday night, TV exit polls showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu well placed to retain the premiership, with his Likud party neck and neck with rival Isaac Herzog’s Zionist Union but better positioned to build a coalition. Netanyahu hailed a Likud victory, though Herzog refused to concede, the Times of Israel reported.

World powers must negotiate a better deal with Iran over its nuclear program than they have so far, or else risk prompting regional war, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the US Congress on Tuesday.

Leaked memo dovetails with Netanyahu’s assertion on Tehran’s nuclear program, straying only in describing its progress rate, the Times of Israel reported.

In private talks with European sources, the Saudis have expressed their willingness to cooperate with Israel on Iran, including use of Saudi air space by the IDF for a possible air strike, according to a report by Channel 2.

Hezbollah, Syrian army forces and Iranian officers have drawn close to the border with Israel in the Golan Heights in their fight against Syrian rebels, AFP reported on Wednesday, citing state media reports and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Shin Bet and the Israel Police on Monday closed three NGOs they say were funneling money to activities meant to “inflame tensions on the Temple Mount”, according to a statement put out by the security service.

Defense officials are fighting a three-year-old request under the Freedom of Information Act to release a 1987 report supposedly discussing Israel’s nuclear technology.

Palestine is not a state, and therefore does not qualify for membership in the International Criminal Court according to the U.S. State Department.

It started 15 years ago with plans to expand the Tower of David Museum. But the story took a strange turn when archaeologists started peeling away layers under the floor in an old abandoned building adjacent to the museum in Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Obama administration said Monday it was reviewing its annual $440 million aid package to the Palestinians because of their effort to join the International Criminal Court to pursue war-crimes charges against Israel.

Israel’s intelligence community has determined that Islamic State of Iraq and Levant was operating in the West Bank.

Although Israel faced another war and tensions rose in Jerusalem, 2014 was a record-breaking year in terms of aliyah (immigration) statistics.

The Israeli Cabinet voted in favor of the controversial “Jewish state bill,” with the preceding discussion descended into a shouting match between ministers.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, the military wing of the Palestinian political party Fatah, released a new recruitment video Friday hoping to enlist new soldiers for the “destruction of Israel.”

Senior Hamas official called Sunday to dismantle the Palestinian unity government led by Fatah and Hamas and to set up a new government in its place, citing the Palestinian leadership’s failure to advance the rehabilitation of the Gaza Strip following this year’s summer war between the Islamist group and Israel, the Times of Israel reported.

The US administration is planning to present a proposal to resume the peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians after the mid-term elections for Congress.

IDF officials confirmed Tuesday that Hamas had planned to carry out a massive assault by penetrating Israeli communities via tunnels under the border from the Gaza Strip, and then killing or kidnapping as many people as possible.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is concerned about the direction the world’s negotiations with Iran are going, and warned of the danger of the Islamic Republic becoming a nuclear threshold state.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will call for a revival of the collapsed Israeli-Palestinian peace process on Sunday when he attends an international conference in Cairo on rebuilding Gaza.

The Temple Institute raised $100,000 for modern architectural plans for the Third Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple Institute says the Third Temple will be a “house of prayer for all nations” and will usher in a “new era of universal harmony and peace” as prophesied in the Bible.