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Canadian law professor William Schabas, who was appointed to head the UN committee tasked with probing Israel’s alleged “war crimes” during last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, announced on Monday evening he was stepping down. According to the Reuters news agency, Schabas cited Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the reason for his resignation. In a letter to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) which appointed him to head the inquiry, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Schabas said he would step down immediately to...

The Likud party intends to hold a press conference in Tel Aviv Sunday in which it will expose details about “V15 – Victory in 2015,” a campaign it says is using foreign money, and lots of it, to boost Labor and Meretz in the elections. Likud has filed a motion to the Elections Committee, according to which V15 is carrying out an illegal indirect campaign with a connection to Labor and Meretz. V15 is “making criminal use of foreign sources of funding,” adding that the sums involved were “very high” and their sources unknown. Likud's press conference will include MK...

A visibly upset Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to "never forgive terrorists" after the Islamic State (ISIS) released a video purportedly showing the beheading of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. "I am extremely angry about these heinous and despicable terrorist acts. We will never forgive terrorists," Abe told reporters in Tokyo on Sunday morning (local time), according to the AFP news agency. "We will cooperate with the international community to make them atone for their crimes," he declared. The ISIS claim was made in a video released online that included no mention of a Jordanian pilot also being held...

Hank Sheinkopf, former adviser to ex-US President Bill Clinton during his election campaign from 1995 to 1996, spoke with Arutz Sheva about the complicated political relations between Israeli and American leaders. Video Hank Sheinkopf, former adviser to ex-US President Bill Clinton during his election campaign from 1995 to 1996, spoke with Arutz Sheva about the complicated political relations between Israeli and American leaders. Speaking about the tense relations between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama, Sheinkopf remarked that how the world feels about Netanyahu is not important to Israelis, whereas it is very important to American Jews...

Shots were fired Saturday night outside the unoccupied home of Vice President Joe Biden in Delaware. Biden was not at home when the incident occurred, the Secret Service told reporters. Speaking to CNN, Secret Service spokesman Robert Hoback said “a vehicle drove by the vice president's residence at a high rate of speed and fired multiple gun shots. This occurred on a public road outside the established security perimeter. The shots were heard by Secret Service personnel posted at the residence and a vehicle was observed by an agent leaving the scene at a high rate of speed.” Biden and...

..... ...Today, they are all happy that the Caliphate is about to return, as if the days of the Caliphate were good. Who are you kidding? The days of the Caliphate were all dark times, from day one to the Ottoman Caliphate... .....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijDbfm28hkk

A full 185 Arab residents of Gaza were given rare permission by Israel to hold prayers last Friday on the Temple Mount, where they promptly waved banners of the Hamas terrorist organization and burned French flags, protesting satire magazine Charlie Hebdo's recent cartoon of Mohammed. The magazine's Paris headquarters were targeted in an Islamist terror attack two weeks ago, with 12 people including senior staff brutally murdered over its depictions of the founder of Islam. Defiantly the paper last week released a new edition with Mohammed on the cover, which has sold out in record time. The nearly 200 Gaza...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening released a strong statement of condemnation on the International Criminal Court (ICC) decision last Friday, in which it chose to launch a preliminary probe into charges of Israeli "war crimes." “Israel rejects the absurd decision of the ICC prosecutor," said Netanyahu. "It’s absurd for the ICC to ignore international law and agreements, under which the Palestinians don't have a state and can only get one through direct negotiations with Israel." Reportedly Netanyahu spoke with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday night, requesting American support in preventing the ICC action against Israel....

A Lebanese newspaper reported that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas told Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi that the Palestinian Authority would not file a case against Israel in the International Criminal Court if negotiations between Israel and the PA resumed “in the coming weeks.” According to the report in the Al-Ahabar newspaper, Abbas made the comments to Sisi during their meeting in Cairo Wednesday. The PA several weeks ago formally requested membership in the ICC. Approval of the PA's membership is expected within two months. Last week, the PA recognized the ICC's jurisdiction to investigate what it said were Israeli war...

In a sermon excerpt posted on the Internet on January 10, 2015, Tunisian cleric Bechir Ben Hassen declared that anyone cursing the Prophet Muhammad should be punished by death. Sheikh Ben Hassen recently posted online a video message recorded opposite the International Criminal Court in the Hague, in which he praised European democracy, tolerance, and freedom of speech. Following is an excerpt: Bechir Ben Hassen: Even blind people, who lost their sight, avenged [the honor] of their Prophet. Therefore, the punishment for anyone who curses the Prophet Muhammad is to be killed. He should be punished by execution. His killing...

Poll fever continues ahead of March 17 elections, and while results have shown Likud and Labor neck and neck, the latest survey by Channel 10 gives Labor a full four mandate gap over Likud. According to the poll, conducted by the Dialog Institute under the supervision of Prof. Camil Fuchs, Labor - which erased the word "Zionism" from its Arabic ad campaign - would get 24 mandates, while Likud would only receive 20. Coming in at third Jewish Home stays at 16 seats, followed by a joint Arab list that would receive 12 mandates. Such a joint list - formed...

Meretz Chairman MK Zahava Gal-On intends to petition the Attorney General to stop plans from Minister of Construction Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) to house immigrants from France in Judea and Samaria. Ariel sent a letter asking the Yesha Council where the flow of immigrants from France could settle, as France reels from a string of anti-Semitic attacks. France led the list of countries from which Jews made aliyah to Israel in 2014, with almost 7,000 new French immigrants, more than double the 3,400 who came last year. Aliyah is only expected to increase after the latest spate of anti-Semitic attacks....

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday hailed the unprecedented rally against terror in Paris as a strong message to the world, but added he would expect a similar reaction to attacks on Muslims and “Islamophobia”, according to AFP. Davutoglu joined dozens of other world leaders at the march in Paris to mourn the victims of the three days of terror by Islamists that began with the slaughter of 12 people at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. “It is a message to the whole world that everyone must confront the threat of terror,” Davutoglu was quoted as having...

Three videos of Binyamin Netanyahu in Paris Sunday capture the emotions of the Jewish community there – and those of Netanyahu himself – better than a million words would. ..... Vide Text Video Text Video .....

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Saturday evening that he spoke by phone with Celine Charki, who was one of the histages held at the kosher supermarket in Paris Friday. “Celine told me about the terrorist's unfathomable cruelty and the heroism of a Jewish youth who tried to take his gun and shoot him,” he said. The heroic action was apparently taken by hostage Johan Cohen, who was killed. .....

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has led calls in Israel for French Jews to "come home to Israel" Saturday, after 17 people were killed in France during three days of Islamist attacks. "To all the Jews of France, all the Jews of Europe, I would like to say that Israel is not just the place in whose direction you pray, the state of Israel is your home," he said in a televised statement, referring to the Jewish practice of facing Jerusalem during prayer. "Unless the world comes to its senses, terror will continue to strike in other places," he added...

The Danish newspaper Berlingske has republished cartoons on Islamic themes from the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, as part of its coverage of the attack which killed 12 people in Paris on Wednesday, reports Reuters. The Thursday print edition of Berlingske, available online on Wednesday night, showed several past front pages from the French magazine. Among them was one depicting the Prophet Mohammad and another about Sharia law. Such images provoked angry reactions from some Muslims when originally published by Charlie Hebdo, and footage of the Wednesday killings at the magazine's offices showed gunmen shouting "we have avenged the Prophet...

MK Tzipi Livni (Hatnua) fired back at Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett on Wednesday, after Bennett mocked her and suggested, following the terrorist attack in France, that she “get on a plane to Paris to solve the problems there” and “offer the French to 'end the occupation'”. "On this day we stand together with the French people against terrorism and against Islamist extremism," said Livni. “Unlike Bennett, who is not ashamed to dance on the blood of innocent people to achieve political gain, thus deepening the hostility and isolation of Israel in the world, I spoke today with the French...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has isolated Israel diplomatically – but she, said Tzipi Livni, will fix that. Speaking to several hundred students in Tel Aviv Wednesday, Livni said that what she called “Israel's increasing isolation internationally” was a “plague of Netanyahu.” Netanyahu, she said, only had half the formula needed for diplomatic success. “It's not enough to speak loudly and confidently. You have to know how to get the world on your side, to accept Israel's ideas o security and defending its interests. Netanyahu does not know how to do this. “Our good relations with the United States and the...