Middle East

Israel’s Avigdor Lieberman set for first visit to U.S. as defense minister (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Recently appointed Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman will depart Israel on Saturday night for his first visit to the United States as the head of the Israeli defense establishment. While in the U.S., Lieberman will attend the rollout ceremony for

Major General Herzi Halevi, the head of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, spoke on Wednesday at the 2016 Herzliya Conference. The topic of his talk was “Israel in a Turbulent Middle East: Strategic Review & Intelligence Assessment.” “If our enemies knew our military capabilities they would spare themselves additional conflict.” General Halevi warned Israel’s opponents

The leader in exile of the political wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, is to step down by the end of the year, choosing not to run in the next elections, according to Arab media reports. Meshaal, 56, has decided that he will not take part in the leadership elections for the Palestinian

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) married his partner Irina Nevzlin in a small ceremony Tuesday night. The chuppah took place on the roof of Aish Hatorah Yeshiva, in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City, while the reception was conducted in the Kotel tunnels. About 180 guests attended. Rabbi Gideon Perl, the chief rabbi of

The Knesset Ethics Committee has rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s decision to allow MKs to visit the Temple Mount. The committee listen to police assessments of the situation and chose “in the meantime, not to change its earlier decision” banning Knesset members from the site for eight months. “However,” the ruling noted, “when security officials

Obama administration opposes proposed funding boost for Israeli missile defense (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Obama administration on Tuesday announced its opposition to a Congressional proposal for a $455 million increase in funding for Israel’s missile defense program in the 2017 U.S. budget. A statement published on Tuesday by the White House’s Office of Management

Members of Knesset from across the political spectrum have appealed to President Reuven Rivlin to pardon a man incarcerated for murdering his rapist. Yonatan Heilo was initially sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing Yaron Ayalon, who had repeated beat, raped and blackmailed him over the course of several months. When the two met