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The man who stabbed and lightly wounded an Israeli soldier Sunday morning in the southern coastal city of Ashkelon has been identified as a Sudanese national. The attacker was shot and seriously injured after fleeing the scene of the stabbing; he later died of his wounds at the hospital. Police initially believed the stabbing near the city's central bus station was part of an ongoing wave of Arab terror attacks across Israel. Now, however, the motive for the stabbing is unclear. The Sudanese national, said to be in his 20s, arrived at Ben Gurion Boulevard in Ashkelon shortly before 8:30...

The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies. A new directive’s theme: The U.S. Armed Forces must show “resilience” and beat back the threat based on “actionable science.” It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed. It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy — a wide array of “climate change boards, councils and working groups” to infuse climate change into “programs, plans and policies.” The Pentagon defines

Israelis who posted Facebook statuses in Tel Aviv during the weekend were surprised to find that according to Facebook, they were not in Tel Aviv - but rather in "Al Mas'Udiya." The name refers to a town abandoned by Arab residents during the 1948 War of Independence, when the surrounding Arab nations tried and failed to destroy the nascent modern Jewish state. The location of the village, which has not existed for around 68 years, currently would be between the streets of Ibn Gabirol and Arlozorov in Tel Aviv, right near Hameah Tower. Facebook took things even further by listing...

Holding hands and singing Kumbaya in Gaza. Sure. Maybe you're right to keep the rest of us away from Israel, might confuse us. Dear Mr Fooley (or may I call you Luke?*) Just got back from my Labor Parliamentary Excursion, dividing my time equally between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as you requested. What a trip! My feet hardly touched the ground! Monday: Arrived at Lod Airport, after circling around to avoid being blasted out of the sky by IS, Hamas, Hezbollah, and a bunch of other peace-loving friends of the Palestinian Arab People's Struggle to Wipe The Perfidious Jew...

Israel's intelligence community has found that the Hamas terrorist organization and Islamic State (ISIS) intensified their mutual cooperation in the year 2015 - so reports Middle East Newsline (MENL). According to the Israeli intelligence sources, the two terrorist movements share intelligence, weapons shipments, logistics and medical services. For instance, ISIS frequently works with Bedouin smugglers to facilitate shipments of missiles and weapons to the Hamas-ruled Gaza via Egypt's Sinai Desert. ISIS then takes 10-20% of the weapons ordered by Hamas. However, when the Egyptian offensive against the smuggling tunnel network hampers their joint efforts, ISIS sends raw materials, enabling Hamas...

Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief. A source at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters that Iran will charge in euros for its recently signed oil contracts with firms including French oil and gas major Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil. "In our invoices we mention a clause that buyers of our oil...

The North Koreans appear to have successfully detonated a hydrogen bomb in January 2016 and promise more excitement to come. Immediately after the bang the government news agency bragged that the nation was now "capable of wiping out the whole territory of the U.S. all at once."This only slightly distracted mainstream politicos in other nations. North Korea might have gotten a bigger, badder reaction had it elected instead to drive steamrollers over groups of homosexuals or Muslims or women. At least Bernie Sanders, though closer in kinship to the North Korean brand of monarchical socialism than to, say, Ronald Reagan, noticed the bomb. World leaders only pause long...

European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says she is preparing to visit Iran following the implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran with world powers. Mogherini said Saturday there was no set date had been set, but that preparations with Tehran were well underway. She insisted all 28 EU nations were backing the opening with Iran. ...

The European Union on Saturday called on Israel to halt the demolition of illegal Palestinian buildings, some of which are EU-funded, and reiterated its opposition to building Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria. "In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EU diplomatic service said in a statement. It referred to Israel's decision on January 25 to declare 154 hectares (380 acres) of land near Jericho in Judea as state land, with...

...U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv The U.S. Embassy in Israel is currently in Tel Aviv. Cruz wants to move it to Jerusalem, Israel's "once and eternal" capital.Commerce DepartmentIn a piece for the National Review, Cruz said shuttering the department would "close the congressional cookie jar" and promote free trade.Education DepartmentAnother standard line from Cruz: "U.S. Department of Education, which should be abolished." Cruz is a states' rights guy -- he wrote his college thesis on the 10th Amendment -- and wants to give control of schools to states or localities....Energy DepartmentCruz has said the country needs an "energy renaissance." .......

Jerusalem is bracing for a series of Palestinian statehood initiatives in various international forums, including resolutions at the United Nations Security Council, Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Thursday. "The Palestinians are increasing their involvement and activity in the international arena in a bid to internationalize the conflict," he told The Times of Israel. There are several initiatives calling for the creation of a Palestinian state circulating among UN diplomats, and while they recently received less exposure due to the world's focus on fighting the Islamic State terror group, these resolutions are anything but forgotten, he indicated. ...

By covering up and supporting Palestinian deadly aims they have the blood of innocent Israelis on their hands as they aid and abet a malevolent and murderous Palestinian agenda When people of sound minds display clear signs of deviation from reality it demands of us to examine the symptom and expose the defect. For quite some time, Israelis and others that have clear-eyed views of the world have been increasingly troubled by leading influence and opinion makers who seem to have wandered off into some unvirtuous virtual world of their own. From an Israeli perspective, it is a world where...

Saudi Arabia's fresh public willingness to send ground troops into Syria is drawing ridicule from the kingdom's chief regional rival. The commander of Iran's revolutionary guard on Saturday mocked Saudi Arabia's declaration that it is prepared to commit ground troops to fight ISIS in war-torn Syria. "They claim they will send troops (to Syria), but I don't think they will dare do so," Maj. Gen. Ali Jafari told reporters in Tehran, according to Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency. "They have a classic army and history tells us such armies stand no chance in fighting irregular resistance forces." "This will be...

TEHRAN - Only weeks into what was widely anticipated to be a helter-skelter, post-sanctions rush of Western money and expertise into Iran, limits to the country's opening are beginning to emerge as the conservative leadership seeks to limit the reach of Western influences. Behind the headlines announcing big business contracts with European companies it is becoming increasingly clear that, so far, the only deals being struck have been with the state-backed conglomerates. These are the groups that dominate major industrial and commercial sectors of the Iranian economy like the Revolutionary Guards. As a result, little or nothing is trickling down...

Iran will continue to develop its missile program and it should not be considered a threat to neighboring and friendly countries, the semi-official Fars news agency quoted the head of the army as saying on Thursday. Under a deal reached between Iran and six major powers in 2015, most international sanctions imposed on Iran due to its nuclear program were lifted last month. However, sanctions imposed on its missile program were not lifted. According to a July 20 United Nations Security Council resolution endorsing the deal, Iran is still "called upon" to refrain from work on ballistic missiles designed to...

On February 2, the Syrian army and its allies succeeded in cutting the northern road between Aleppo city and Turkey, known as the Azaz corridor. Although the battle was a local affair involving a relatively small number of fighters, it may prove to be a turning point in the war. In addition to threatening the rebel presence in Aleppo province, the development could put the entire Turkey-Syria border under the control of pro-Assad forces within a matter of months, or spur Kurdish forces there to choose coexistence with Assad. The offensive against the corridor was launched from Bashkuy (on the...

Three Republican lawmakers have asked Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to facilitate their visa applications to visit Iran, where they want to observe "Iranian democracy in action," meet with imprisoned Americans, and visit nuclear facilities. Reps. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.), Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), and Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.) say they also want to use the visit to get an update on Iran's ballistic missile developments, and to discuss with the IRGC its detention last month of 10 U.S. Navy sailors in the Persian Gulf. "If Iran is truly a partner in peace,...

The most trusted and powerful broadcasting organization in this world is the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). In the 1930s, it had a shameful history with Winston Churchill. Mr. Churchill was doing everything possible to warn and SAVE his country and the world from Adolf Hitler. Britain almost lost World War II. The world came dangerously close to being slaughtered and enslaved by Nazi Germany. A Churchill biographer, Henry Pelling, wrote that the BBC had kept him off the air on controversial questions in the 1930s. Those controversial questions included his strongest warnings about the dangers of Nazi Germany! The BBC...

On Thursday we brought you the latest from Syria, where Hezbollah and the IRGC have encircled Aleppo and cut off rebel supply lines to Turkey. It was months in the making, but it now appears that the city - Syria's second largest - will soon be retaken by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. As we've explained in the past, that would effectively restore the President's grip on power as he would effectively control most of the country’s urban centers - even if that "control" is tenuous. Eastern Syria is of course a different story entirely, as ISIS is dug in...

Powell aides go public on rift with Bush Chief of staff says secretary of state is fed up with apologising for the administration and is disdainful of 'ideological' hawks Gary Younge in New York Thursday May 6, 2004 The Guardian Colin Powell's key aide has described US sanctions policy against countries such as Pakistan and Cuba as "the dumbest policy on the face of the Earth". In an article in GQ magazine Larry Wilkerson, chief of staff of the United States secretary of state, bemoans Mr Powell's firefighting role in President George Bush's cabinet. "He has spent as much time...