News

Ron Nachman, the mayor of one of Israel’s largest settlements in the West Bank, has died. He was 70.His brother Dan said Nachman succumbed to cancer on Friday.

The IDF discovered a tunnel along the Gaza Strip border on Monday, apparently to be used to carry out an attack inside Israel. This tunnel is one of the longest uncovered in recent years and is similar to the one used for kidnapping Gilad Schalit.

Israel’s national museum in Jerusalem is preparing an exhibition on King Herod, the Jewish ruler under Roman occupation two millennia ago.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged on Sunday to move ahead with construction of a new Jewish settlement in the West Bank, just hours after Israeli forces dragged dozens of Palestinian Arab activists from the area.

The United States objected on Friday to a French court’s planned release of a Lebanese leftist terrorist, saying he may still be a threat after he was convicted of killing an American and an Israeli diplomat back in 1982.
A French appeals court on Thursday granted conditional release to George Ibrahim Abdallah, eho was imprisoned since 1984 and is currently  in custody at the moment , contingent on his being deported to Lebanon, a step in the hands of the French Foreign Ministry.

For the first time in 7 years, the  Kinneret (Sea of Galilee ) has risen by 13 centimeters, slightly more than 5 inches, since Thursday, when rain and snow stopped falling – as water from last week's precipitation continues to flow into the sea. The fresh-water lake is currently at 211.07 meters below sea level. But despite the encouraging figure, the Kinneret is still three meters short of being full.

The Egyptian court recently accepted an appeal by former president Hosni Mubarak and his former interior minister on Sunday, allowing him to be retried over the massacre of protesters during  the 2011 uprising.

An explosion went off in a car near a bus in Tel Aviv on Thursday in what police said was a criminally motivated assassination attempt. Four people were slightly injured. In a country with a long history of bus bombings by Palestinian militants, such explosions immediately cause jitters and assumptions about terrorism. And the explosion went off close to the site of a bus bombing in November.

A recent archaeological unearthing in Samaria has shed light on the incomplete story of the destruction of Shiloh, the ancient capital of Israel. An uncovered broken clay pitcher embedded in a layer of reddish ashes completes the story of the devastation of Shiloh, where the Mishkan, the Tabernacle, was placed during the period of the Judges, and essentially served as Israel’s capital during the early part of the First Israelite commonwealth.

Israelis often pray for a rainy winter season. In recent years, there hasn’t nearly been enough precipitation and the Sea of Galilee’s water levels have been dropping. But who would expect a heavy snow downfall?  Only this time, Israel is getting more snow and driving rain than it has in two decades. It’s come so fast and furious that the Israel isn’t quite prepared to deal with this circumstance. As a result, malls are being flooded. Roads are being shut down. Schools and government offices are being closed. The IDF and Navy have even been deployed repeatedly in the last few days to rescue Israelis in danger.