Two Killed in Jerusalem Drive-by Shooting

Shimon Peres' Funeral Attended by World Leaders

More than 70 world leaders and dignitaries attend the funeral at Mount Herzl cemetery in Jerusalem of Shimon Peres, the former Israeli president, prime minister and Nobel laureate. Mourners include Barack Obama; former US president Bill Clinton; the Prince of Wales; the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson; and the French president, François Hollande

Netanyahu Rebuffs Philip Hammond over Iran Deal

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond holds a press
conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
at the latter's office in Jerusalem

THE TELEGRAPH: Israeli premier takes Foreign Secretary to task for remarks doubting whether Jewish State would have accepted any deal over Tehran's nuclear programme

Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a sharp rebuff to Philip Hammond over the Iran nuclear deal on Thursday, publicly dismissing the Foreign Secretary's assertion that Israel would have been unhappy with any agreement.

In a tense face-to-face exchange that reflected the gulf between Israel and the six world powers who negotiated with Tehran, Mr Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, rejected the visiting British statesman's efforts to sell the pact signed this week in Vienna. At the same time, he tackled head-on criticisms Mr Hammond had voiced on the eve of his trip.

“Israelis know better than anyone else the cost of permanent conflict with Iran and it is wrong to suggest that Israel wants such an outcome. We [sic] seek a genuine and effective diplomatic solution," Mr Netanyahu told Mr Hammond in Jerusalem.

"The alternative to this deal is not war. The alternative is a better deal that would roll back Iran’s military nuclear program and tie the easing of restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program to changes in Iran’s behaviour. That’s the kind of deal that would be welcomed in Tel Aviv and here in Israel’s capital Jerusalem."

The Israeli leader's comments were aimed directly at Mr Hammond's remarks on Wednesday when he told the House of Commons that Israel opposed any accord with Tehran and would prefer permanent conflict. » | Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Thursday, July 16, 2015

Fear of Deadly ‘Religious War’ between Jews and Muslims Raised after Synagogue Attack

THE WASHINGTON POST: JERUSALEM — Israelis and Palestinians expressed fear Wednesday that their decades-old conflict was moving beyond the traditional nationalist struggle between two peoples fighting for their homelands and spiraling into a raw and far-reaching religious confrontation between Jews and Muslims.

The threat — perhaps more accurately the dread — of an incipient but deadly “religious war” was expressed by Muslim clerics, Christian leaders and Jewish Israelis one day after a pair of Palestinian assailants, wielding meat cleavers and a gun, killed five Israelis, including a prominent American Israeli rabbi, in a Jerusalem synagogue.

“All of us are scared that there will be a religious war, that extremists from both sides will start fighting each other,” said Oded Wiener, an Israeli Jew from the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land. » | William Booth and Ruth Eglash | Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Israeli MP Proposes Banning Islamic Prayer Call

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: New legislation by coalition partner could silence the muezzin's call to prayer from mosques on the grounds of "noise pollution"

Israeli Right-wingers have revived highly contentious plans that could effectively silence the Muslim call to prayer, known as the adhan.

In a move that risks stoking already simmering tensions in Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition is tabling legislation that could put strict limits on Islamic prayer calls from mosques in the city and across Israel.

Robert Ilatov, a parliamentarian with the ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, is sponsoring the bill with the support of Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli foreign minister who is also the party's leader.

While the legislation is being justified on the grounds that prayer calls often produce "intolerable noise" that disturbs many citizens' sleep, it is bound to prompt accusations of religious intolerance and prejudice against Israel's Muslim minority. » | Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Who, What, Why: What Language Would Jesus Have Spoken?

BBC: Israel's prime minister has verbally sparred with the Pope over which language Christ might have spoken. Several languages were used in the places where Jesus lived - so which would he have known, asks Tom de Castella.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Pope Francis appeared to have a momentary disagreement. "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke Hebrew," Netanyahu told the Pope at a public meeting in Jerusalem. "Aramaic," interjected the Pope. "He spoke Aramaic, but he knew Hebrew," Netanyahu shot back.

It's broadly accepted that Jesus existed, although the historicity of the events of his life is still hotly debated. But language historians can shed light on what language a carpenter's son from Galilee who became a spiritual leader would have spoken. » | Who, What, Why, BBC News Magazine | Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Ariel Scharon: Israel trauert um ehemaligen Regierungschef

Mit einer Trauerfeier haben Staatsgäste aus aller Welt in Jerusalem Abschied von Ariel Scharon genomment. Auf seinem Landsitz wurde er beigesetzt.

Ariel Sharon's Body Lies in State in Jerusalem

BBC: Ariel Sharon death: Israelis pay respects at Knesset: Israelis are filing past the body of ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who has died aged 85 of heart failure after eight years in a coma. » | Sunday, January 12, 2014

Netanyahu: Israel Will Hit Hard If Syrian Threat Detected

THE TIMES OF ISRAEL: Following second security cabinet meeting in two days, prime minister parries Syrian warning that it’ll strike Israel if US attacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday warned Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel would respond forcefully if any attempt to harm the country is detected.

“The State of Israel is ready for any scenario. We are not part of the civil war in Syria but if we identify any attempt whatsoever to harm us, we will respond and we will respond in strength,” Netanyahu said after a meeting with his security advisers, his second in as many days.

The prime minister’s pointed remarks were the latest in a string of saber-rattling statements issued by Jerusalem and Damascus, with both sides threatening military action if they were struck.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said in a press conference earlier on Tuesday that Syria would fight back in case of a US strike, and Khalaf Muftah, a senior Baath Party official, said Monday that Damascus would consider Israel “behind the [Western] aggression and [it] will therefore come under fire.”

“We have strategic weapons and we’re capable of responding,” Muftah said. “Normally the strategic weapons are aimed at Israel.” » | Times of Israel Staff | Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A Caliphate Is Coming: Glenn Beck | GBTV
Glenn explains why it's not a conspiracy theory with the latest news on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Tunisian Salafist Kamel Zarouq Talks about Future Conquest of Andalusia, Rome, and Jerusalem | The Internet - April 30, 2013

Pilgrims Re-enact Passion of Christ in Jerusalem on Good Friday
A Christian pilgrim reenacts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ along the path where Jesus walked, now known as the "Via Dolorosa", or the "Way of Suffering", on Good Friday in Jerusalem's Old City.

Read the Daily Telegraph article here | Source: APTN | Good Friday | Friday, March 29, 2013

Jerusalem's Christian Population Dwindles
As Christians mark Easter this weekend, in Jerusalem, the city where Jesus died, the number of his followers has fallen below ten thousand.

Judge Rules Nearly Finished Tennessee Mosque Doesn't Have Permit
REUTERS.COM: A judge ruled on Tuesday that a local Tennessee government failed to follow proper procedures in granting a permit for the construction of a mosque, casting doubt on the future of the Islamic place of worship which is nearly complete.

Judge Robert Corlew ruled that the Rutherford County planning commission had not given enough public notice prior to a 2010 meeting when the mosque plans were approved, effectively nullifying the building permit.

A civil rights group on Tuesday called on the U.S. Justice Department to step in if the planning commission does not act "immediately" to reissue permits for construction of the 52,000-plus-square-foot (4,830-plus-square-meter) mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, about 34 miles south of Nashville.

"If you read the judge's ruling, it is clear he sought a heightened standard of public notice for an issue that involves Muslims," Ibrahim Hooper, national communications director for The Council on American-Islamic Relations. » | Tim Ghianni | NASHVILLE, Tennessee | Tuesday, May 29, 2012

REUTERS – BLOGS: Thousands of Muslims pray for Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia to be a mosque again: Thousands of devout Muslimshave prayed outside Turkey’s historic Hagia Sophia museum to protest a 1934 law that bars religious services at the former church and mosque. » | Ayla Jean Yackley | Tuesday, May 29, 2012

REUTERS – BLOGS: Netanyahu says ceding control of Jerusalem’s sacred sites would be fatal mistake: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday it would be a “fatal mistake” ever to give up control over Jerusalem’s holy sites. His remarks, in a parliamentary speech, went a little further than Israel’s longtime policy of viewing Jerusalem, a city at the heart of Middle East conflict, as its “indivisible capital”. » | Allyn Fisher-Ilan | Monday, May 21, 2012

Egypt's 'Brotherhood' Calls for Islamic Rule
CBN NEWS: CAIRO -- At a campaign rally for the Muslim Brotherhood's candidate for president, a hardline cleric and TV preacher sang Mohammed Morsi's praises before thousands massed in the stadium of an industrial city in Egypt's Nile Delta.

"We are seeing the dream of the Islamic Caliphate coming true at the hands of Mohammed Morsi," the cleric, Safwat Hegazy, blared from his podium.

"The capital of the Caliphate and the United Arab States is Jerusalem, God [Allah] willing," he added, as thousands cheered and waved the Brotherhood's green flag, chanting, "The people want to implement God's law."

On the campaign trail for the presidential election, now only nine days away, the Muslim Brotherhood has taken a sharp turn rightward, becoming bolder in saying it wants to bring a state where religion and Islamic law play a major role -- and insisting that it has the right to rule.

As a result, it has moved away from the more moderate face that it promoted since even before the fall of Hosni Mubarak 15 months ago. During campaigning for parliament elections late last year, the Brotherhood insisted that implementing Islamic law was not its immediate priority, instead speaking vaguely of an "Islamic background" to government. It also sought to assuage fears that it seeks to take over the country by promising to work with other, liberal factions. » | Maggie Michael | Associated Press | Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Egypt’s Islamic Grand Mufti Makes Rare Visit to Jerusalem after Decades of Opposition
THE REPUBLIC: CAIRO — A top Egyptian Islamic cleric paid a rare visit to Jerusalem Wednesday, breaking with decades of opposition by Muslim leaders on traveling to areas under Israeli control.

The Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa wrote on his Twitter account that the symbolic visit was in solidarity with the Palestinians' claim to east Jerusalem, under Israel's control since it was captured in the 1967 Mideast war. He prayed in the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site, during his two-hour visit.

Gomaa called the trip an unofficial visit, clearly an attempt to defuse criticism he is already facing for breaking an unofficial ban by Muslim clerics and most Egyptian professional and private associations on visiting Israel or Israeli-controlled Palestinian territories. The Egyptian Coptic Church, and most Muslim clerics around the region generally uphold the ban as well. » | Sarah El Deeb | Associated Press | Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Opfer von Toulouse in Jerusalem beigesetzt
Die 4 Todesopfer des Mordanschlags von Toulouse wurden auf einem Friedhof in Jerusalem beerdigt. Rund 2000 Trauergäste verabschiedeten die getöteten 3 Kinder und den Vater von zwei der Kinder. Israelische Regierungsvertreter beschrieben den Anschlag als weiteres Beispiel für den Terror gegen Juden in aller Welt.

Verwandt »

Clashes at Jerusalem Shrine
In another flashpoint at Jerusalem's holiest site, Israeli police and Muslim worshippers continue running battle near Temple Mount and al-Aqsa. The third such battle in a week, saw the arrest of four Palestinians. Al Jazeera's Hazem Sika reports.

Jerusalem SOS
In Jerusalem, Jewish and Arab paramedics cross psychological and geographical divisions between the city's residents.

Heiliges Feuer in Jerusalem
Die orthodoxen Christen in Jerusalem haben sich in der Grabeskirche versammelt, um das Heilige Feuer zu sehen, welches jedes Jahr an Karsamstag entzündet wird