PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010Jerusalem - An American citizen, Karen Abu Zayd, retired last week as the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which services Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948 and their descendants. Ms. Abu Zayd has been succeeded by a Spanish citizen, Filippo Grandi, who had been her lieutenant. Mr. Grandi’s inaugural letter to the UNRWA staff, dated Jan. 26, provides insight into his attitude toward Israel: ...

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010Jerusalem - On Monday, Israel Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon participated in a press conference with the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a London-based advocacy group, to highlight how international donor funds provided to the Palestinian Authority are being directly used for incitement and hate education. The TaxPayers’ Alliance report that was submitted to the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority provided detailed documentation which showed how...

Published: Sunday, January 31, 2010Saturday will be the observation of Tu Bshvat on the Hebrew calendar, the 15th of Shvat, the Jewish arbor day, a day when the Jewish people bid a “happy birthday to the land of Israel.” One rabbi, known as “the Ari of Tzfat,” declared in the 16th Century that Tu Bshvat should be celebrated as the real Jewish New Year. In the modern era, Tu Bshvat combines a heavenly commitment of love for the land of Israel with the Zionist...

Jerusalem - The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) medical and rescue team sent to Haiti concluded its operations Wednesday. The delegation’s 236 members, including 218 IDF soldiers and officers and 18 civilians, left Haiti on board an airplane chartered from El-Al and landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport Thursday morning. On board the airplane is a five-year old-child from Haiti who is scheduled to go through a heart surgery in order to correct a heart deficiency. The delegation...

SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2010Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that his consent to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state depended on an Israeli presence on its eastern border, such as in the Jordan Valley. This was due to the concern of rocket smuggling from the Jordanian border. Mr. Netanyahu added, “We are surrounded by an ever-growing arsenal of rockets in Iranian pockets from north and south.” In his annual address to the...

SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 2010 Jerusalem - This week, a delegation of seven Israeli government cabinet ministers, headed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, held a joint cabinet meeting with their counterparts in Berlin, Germany. The reported subject under discussion: Israel’s intention to station new German-made submarines in the Persian Gulf on a permanent basis. This was reported on Sunday by the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. The German newspaper reported that Israel...

Jerusalem - Sheikh Raed Salah, the leader of the Israel Islamic Movement’s northern chapter, did not stop smiling yesterday, even when he heard the sentence sending him to nine months imprisonment. Mr. Salah stood trial in the Jerusalem Magistrates Court and was convicted of assaulting a police officer and taking part in a riot. In the indictment, it was argued that, in February 2007, Mr. Salah led a riot near the Temple Mount to protest the renovation work on the Mughrabi Gate bridge...

PUBLISHED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2010Iranian Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said Wednesday that Tehran will take revenge on the U.S. for its involvement in recent events, including the assassination of a renowned nuclear scientist and university professor, according to Iranian government news agencies. “People are angry at those who staged the scene of recent events and terror attacks, but revenge should be taken from the U.S. itself for these crimes and, God willing, this...

PUBLISHED: SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2010Jerusalem - For the first time since the genesis of Middle East peace negotiations, more than 30 years ago, the government of Israel has placed the cessation of official Arab incitement to murder Jews as a condition for the continuation of Middle East peace negotiations. As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared after last week’s government weekly cabinet meeting, “It is not only missiles and rockets that endanger security and push...