Israel

The Chevra Kadisha Forum, in a letter to Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, challenged the Interior Ministry's plan, which mandates temporary burial in coffins at temporary cemeteries as well as the option of transferring bodies to cooling facilities until they can be identified and final resting places can be arranged.

Professor Benzion Netanyahu will be laid to rest at 5pm on Monday at the Har HaMenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem's Givat Shaul neighborhood.

The Supreme Court on Sunday ruled that the buildings of Givat HaUlpana in Beit El targeted for destruction because of an ownership dispute would receive a 60 day reprieve.

Benzion Netanyahu, father of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Entebbe hero Yoni Netanyahu, died Monday at his Jerusalem home at the age of 102.

A major faux pas involving non-kosher hen's meat is rocking the Presidential Residence in Jerusalem. According to Ma'ariv, the event's caterer purchase a large quantity of meat on Thursday morning to replace meat that had been spoiled. The new meat came from a non-kosher butcher shop in the Arab village of Abu Gosh, which stays open on Shabbat and sells sea food.

In the wake of comments made yesterday by FM Avigdor Liberman, in which he suggested that Yisrael Beytenu may withdraw from the government if it fails to implement an alternative to the Tal Law, PM Binyamin Netanyahu said he refused to be "a victim of extortion by coalition partners."

The mayor Tel Aviv told Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Friday that having an “ultra-Orthodox” majority in Israel would turn it “into a fundamentalist state like Saudi Arabia”.

The Supermarket chain Co-Operative Group, Britain's fifth-largest food retailer, is the first major European retailer to stop buying from companies that export produce from Israeli settlements east of the Green Line. The largest Israeli agricultural export companies affected by this move are Agrexco, Arava Export Growers, Adafresh and Mehadrin.

Yuval Diskin, who last year retired as head of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, on Friday used exceptionally strong language to criticize his former boss, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing him of being caught up in a messianic fervor about the Iranian nuclear program, a fervor which he implied was more befitting the Iranian leadership.

An Israeli teenager won the International Bible Contest in Jerusalem, with a New York teen finishing second. Elhanan Bloch was the best among the 56...

Egypt's decision to halt its already erratic natural gas supply to Israel was not, as the Egyptians claimed, due only to financial disagreements. Shareholders in East Mediterranean Gas Co have stated: "Any attempts to characterize this dispute as a mere commercial one is misleading." The supply of natural gas, its absence, has become a worrisome measure of the very future of Israel's peace treaty with Egypt.

Israel Hayom poll: 70% of respondents described themselves as "very proud" to be Israeli...65% view themselves as Jews first, and then Israelis..."Those groups most satisfied with life in Israel are people over the age of 55, religious people, and residents of Jerusalem."

In the neighborhood of Meah She'arim, stronghold of the vehemently anti-Zionist sect of Neturei Karta, Israel's Independence Day is traditionally kept as the inverse of the country's national celebrations.

President Shimon Peres: "Our mutual unwavering commitment to each other is crucial. The young generation's commitment to our state is essential as our shared tomorrow will be defined by innovation. As partners of our nation, your ability to secure a future defined by scientific development and discoveries is vital to our shared mission."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is facing the grim prospect of witnessing the 33-year-old Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement unravel as the rise of radical Islamic political parties in Cairo and unchecked Bedouin terrorist activities across the Sinai Peninsula – which have included sabotaging a gas pipeline to Israel – threaten to create a new political and military crisis between the two countries and throughout the Middle East.

Last Sunday night, a Palestinian woman arrived with her 12-day-old baby girl at an IDF post in the Benjamin region of Judea and Samaria. The infant was having trouble breathing and needed immediate first aid. Commanders from the Benjamin Regional Brigade explained that Palestinians in the region know that if they have a life-threatening emergency, they can come to the IDF post for assistance.

Born and raised in LA, Natalie says she had everything she wanted ever since she was a little girl. "All of a sudden, my big sister, who is also my best friend, who's been taking care of me, told me she was joining this military force, to protect an entire country," she says emphatically. "It sounded completely absurd, so I came with her."

When his enlistment order had come in, his mother begged him not to go into a combat unit, and he promised to pick a different direction – even though he had been admitted into the paratroopers unit. His recruiting officer understood, and together they figured a new tract. "I've always had a dream to work on combat planes," he says.

Israel's victims of terror attacks are OneFamily. They are the premier national organization that rehabilitates, reintegrates and rebuilds the lives of Israel's thousands of victims of terror attacks. OneFamily is a unique family of professionals, volunteers, supporters and victims - bereaved, maimed and traumatized - young and old - Jews and non-Jews.

Seven men – including 4 rabbis - happened upon by an Israeli paratrooper in a closed military zone on the Hermon mountains on Monday, were on a mission of their own – to safeguard the sanctity of the Jews of the city of Metulla.

Today, with 37 professionals and nearly 750 volunteers working from four centers around Israel, OneFamily operates in close cooperation with representatives of government, municipal, and community agencies to assure that every terror victim in need of support is known to the organization.

Israel marked twenty years of diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan on Sunday, with a visit to the 95% Muslim country by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who also visited the capital city’s Chabad house, according to a report by Lubavitch.com.

In a letter to IDF soldiers and commanders, the Chief of the General Staff Lt. Gen. Gantz wrote, "Another year passed, another year of standing guard, of relentless, exuberant, hard work ensuring the security of Israeli citizens. A year passed and again we stand at Memorial Day ceremonies, by graves of fallen brothers, facing monuments with a endless and unfathomable rows of names of the fallen."

Israeli Ambassador to UN uses the opportunity to address myths that have become a "permanent hindrance" to the progress in the Middle East; myths that "in the barren deserts of the Middle East...find fertile ground to grow wild...and can surprisingly find their way" into the halls of the UN.

In order to provide a proper response to the extreme left wing and anti-Israel ambushes staged against the security forces in Judea and Samaria, Tazpit News Agency is establishing a team of photographers who will have a presence at all flashpoints in Israel.

The US Congress is expected to pass legislation giving $680 million to Israel to pay for more Iron Dome anti-missile systems.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has legalized three Jewish outpost communities which were erected in the 1990s.

Turkey will block Israel from participating in a NATO summit next month because the Jewish state has not responded for the killing of Turks who attacked Israeli naval officers boarding the illegal flotilla Mavi Marmara in May 2010.

Israel’s RedHill Biopharma announced success last week in a major clinical trial of a new drug to prevent nausea in cancer patients.

The community of Maale HaZeitim in Jerusalem was again targeted with Molotov cocktails in the early hours of Tuesday morning.