We interrupt this thoughtful column to share with you the above image, which I just received by email from my wife (and which you, I’m sure, have first seen back in 2006, because the media are always behind with these things). “For the first time, women are now being allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.” [...]

Some 25,000 Belz chassidim packed the wedding ceremony of Rabbi Shalom Rokeach, Grandson of the Belzer Rebbe, and Chana Batya Pener, May 22, 2013, in Jerusalem. Pretty amazing images. It says something about these people’s comfort with one another in close quarters. I find it very difficult to be standing or sitting so close to [...]

Let everyone know of the shelter at Chabad

The US considers a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria an international issue, so much so that a US official attending a hearing on an anti-outpost Peace Now petition.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY-10) on Wednesday responded to the withholding of the Leahy Amendment to protect LGBT families in immigration reform legislation: “As the House sponsor of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), I am extremely disappointed that an amendment to ensure equal treatment for same-sex, bi-national couples was withheld, without a vote, during the [...]

Two New Jersey men, indicted in March for arson and attempted murder and terrorism, pleaded not guilt in a New Jersey court this week. Anthony Graziano of Lodi and Aakash Dalal of New Brunswick, both 21, were arrested after the northern New Jersey’s Bergen County bombings, one of which injured Beth El Congregation Rabbi Nosson [...]

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has a busy day Thursday and is scheduled to talk with two foreign ministers and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy in a four-hour time span. His office announced he will welcome U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at 10:15, and the American efforts to bring Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority [...]

Iran will be able top produce 30 nuclear bombs a year and 100 within the decade, Minister of Strategy, Intelligence and International Relations Affairs Yuval Steinitz told a defense conference this week. He told the IsraelDefense C5I Conference that Iran could reach the capability of operating 54,000 centrifuges. “Iran is not North Korea or Pakistan [...]

Israeli soldiers on Tuesday arrested three Palestinian Authority security officers who murdered 24-year-old Ben-Yosef Livnat at Joseph’s Tomb two years ago but spent only one year in a PA jail before being freed. An IDF investigation of the incident confirmed Palestinian Authority claims that Livnat and other Jews tried to enter the holy Jewish site [...]

The shekel-dollar rate has soared 4 percent in the past two weeks, with the latest jump today (Wednesday) prompted by expectations that the Bank of Israel will lower the interest rate again in June. The rate crossed the level of 3.69 shekels to the dollar on Wednesday after having dropped under 3.55 shekels to the [...]

The annual Home Front Drill is quite routine. This year there are more reasons for Israelis to take it more seriously, such as Assad, Hezbollah and chemical weapons, for starters. Hope for the best.

JERUSALEM – As Shiite Hizbullah and Sunni anti-Syrian government rebels battle across Syria and Lebanon, and Egyptian and Jordanian forces confront al Qaeda terrorists in the Sinai and southern Jordan, the emir of Qatar blamed Israel for the chaos that threatens to plunge the entire region into war.