Middle East

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Israel’s Labour Party seems to be shedding its political Socialist roots. Its newly elected leader Avi Gabbay is a refugee from the right-wing Kulanu Party, founded and headed by Moshe Kahlon, who used to be a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud.  At least three recent news items indicate […]

Israeli Air Force jets attacked an anti-aircraft battery well inside Syria on Monday morning, after the surface-to-air system launched a missile at a different plane over the skies of Lebanon, the army said. A military spokesperson said that “a number” of Israeli planes were flying over Lebanon as part of a “routine reconnaissance mission” on

CAIRO – It’s been a decade since the Palestinian terrorist group turned political party Hamas took over the Gaza Strip. In that time, neither the Hamas nor the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority, whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, and secular Fatah ruling party officially lead the Palestinian strongholds in both Gaza and the West Bank, has made strides

Ben Gurion Airport saw hours-long delays overnight in departures and baggage claims due to an unannounced labor strike by nine seasonal workers slated to be let go as the busy summer and holiday season comes to an end. Departures were delayed when the night shift crew charged with loading luggage on and off of planes,

Israeli pop star Kobi Peretz began his 18-month sentence Sunday for tax evasion after he was convicted last March of concealing NIS 5.2 million [$1.5 million] in income as well as evading 830,000 NIS [$230,500] in taxes. According to Behadrei Haredim, Peretz is housed in the special wing of Ramle’s Ma’asiyahu prison that is reserved

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient Roman theater buried at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, as well as new underground sections of the wall itself. The scientists were digging in the tunnels underneath the Western Wall that run below Jerusalem’s Old City area. Those tunnels cover the full original length of the wall, even though today

Jerusalem’s Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon rejected Israel Police’s request to extend the arrest of a Shiloh resident by four days, ordering the suspect released to house arrest until Sunday. The Jewish resident was arrested in his Samaria home early on Friday morning when the police conducted a raid on his town. The suspect is

The Defense Ministry”s Civil Administration issued 31 building permits Monday for a planned housing project in the Jewish community of Hevron, the first permits for new Israeli construction in the ancient city in decades. The Civil Administration”s licensing subcommittee issued the permits for a planned neighborhood dubbed the “Hezekiah quarter” of Hevron. Despite the issuing

Politicians, activists and social media users from around the world have offered sweeping condemnations of a powerful bomb blast that killed more than 200 people and wounded hundreds of others in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. The powerful explosion on Saturday afternoon struck a busy junction in Hodan, a bustling commercial district in the heart of the

The reconciliation agreement signed on Thursday in Cairo by rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas was leaked by the Hamas-linked website Palinfo. The agreement is meant to end 10 years of Palestinian division and begin a process of forming a unity government. Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition by email and never miss our

Noy Sheetrit’s conversion to Islam on the Temple Mount to accommodate her partner Alla Abu Sajir incensed the Israeli public and sparked an Internet storm. The Lehava anti-assimilation organization entered the picture in vigorous protest and led Noy to return to the fold of Judaism, at least temporarily. Today the two live together, but they

Zionist Union chairman Avi Gabbay declared on Saturday that he would not sit in the same coalition as the Arab Joint List party. “We will not sit with them, unequivocally. I do not see anything that connects us to them,” Gabbay said at a cultural event in Be’er Sheva. He added, however, that his party