RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian Senator Marcelo Crivella, who is also a prominent Evangelical leader of millions, declared that rejecting the appointed Israeli ambassador conveys a pro-boycott message. “Rejecting the ambassador can convey a message that Brazil supports BDS. Leaving Israel without an ambassador won’t help anyone,” he wrote in an article published earlier this…
A Hamas terror cell whose members were from Jerusalem and Hebron planned to kidnap and murder Israelis, the Shin Bet security service said. The cell of six people was uncovered and arrested last month, the Shin Bet announced on Thursday. The Hamas operatives had planned to use the bodies of their kidnapped Israeli victims as…
WASHINGTON — For the first time since the passage of a law targeting money flowing to Hezbollah, a financier of the terrorist organization and his company have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department. All U.S.-based assets of Ali Youssef Charara and Spectrum Investment Group Holding SAL, a telecommunications company Charara chairs, were frozen as…
CAIRO — Gunmen opened fire on Israeli tourists as they boarded a bus in Cairo on Thursday but there were no casualties, security sources said, while the Interior Ministry said the attack was directed at security forces. Egypt declared it would step up security at major tourist attractions last year after Islamist militants carried out…
PRAGUE — Two far-right Czech politicians have been charged with incitement to hatred and defamation over a note they wrote supporting a 19th century blood libel. The police launched criminal proceedings against the men on December 20, and the charges were confirmed to JTA on Tuesday. Adam Bartos, chairman of National Democracy, a far-right Czech…
Greece’s Aegean Airlines apologized to Palestinian leaders for urging two Arab travelers to leave a plane after Jewish-Israeli passengers on an Athens-Tel Aviv flight staged a protest. In an open letter to Saeb Erekat, the PLO’s secretary general, dated Wednesday, Aegean CEO Dimitris Gerogiannis said he “[rejected] any possibility of discrimination,” which he said was…
YISHUV HADAAT, West Bank – The caves around this windy settler outpost, whose name is Hebrew for “Of Sound Mind,” have served as places of meditation and prayer – and, according to Israel – staging ground for the worst Jewish militant attack on Palestinians in years. It was from Yishuv Hadaat, prosecutors say, that 21-year-old…
A Jewish tech entrepreneur who lived out of rental cars was shot and killed in a Las Vegas parking lot. Neil Gandler, 42, was shot by two burglars on Dec. 29 while sleeping in a rented car in a gym lot during a failed robbery attempt, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. A man and woman…
In a budget-cutting move, Israel is closing five of its diplomatic offices around the world. The affected consulates are in Philadelphia, Belarus, El Salvador and Marseilles, France, along with a “roving ambassador” to the Caribbean, The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the saved money will go toward existing…
The Hadassah Medical Organization hid its illegal 2014 deficit from the public, government agencies and its creditors, an investigation has found. Separately, Israeli Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein has been asked to look at irregularities dating back decades. On the deficit front, Army Radio in an investigative report put the shortfall at $370 million — an…
JERUSALEM — The Palestinian Authority is not going to collapse, despite reports to the contrary, PA President Mahmoud Abbas said. “The Palestinian Authority exists and it is here. It will be followed by a Palestinian state. The Palestinian Authority is one of our achievements and we won’t give it up,” Abbas said Wednesday night from…
