A group of Israeli citizens sanctioned by the US government under President Joe Biden for alleged “harm to Palestinians” have filed a substantial lawsuit against five Israeli financial institutions. The plaintiffs, represented by attorneys Tzofia Nahon and Ovadia Avizur, argue that the institutions unjustly froze their accounts, canceled credit cards, and restricted access to personal funds, denying them basic financial services. The lawsuit includes Ataret Yardeni, whose husband, Eitan Yardeni, resides in Havat Ma’on, and Reut Ben Haim, co-founder of the Tzav 9 organization. Both c ..read more

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday morning said he hopes the hostages return, but any deal to bring them back must be carefully thought out. Speaking to Kan Reshet Bet, Smotrich explained, "We will not make an irresponsible deal. We will not make a deal to surrender. I supported the previous deal, but I have red lines." "Regarding the end of the war, we need to discuss each scenario separately. I find releasing terrorists repulsive, in every cell of my body. There's a dilemma. Don't be jealous of us, who sit in the Cabinet and make these decisions. We have two goals and we must not a ..read more

An Iraqi militia controlled by Iran has promised to fight alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad’s army and Hezbollah against a resurgent rebellion. This move by the Nujaba Movement was the latest in a shift in the power balance in Syria, Newsweek reported on Saturday. Sunni rebels launched a major offensive there against their Iran-backed enemies, who have been weakened by the protracted war with Israel. Sunni Islamist terrorists from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, or the “Organization for the Liberation of the Levant’), an al-Qaeda splinter faction, and a number of allied rebel milit ..read more

Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have deployed to Syria to back President Bashar Assad’s counteroffensive against Sunni jihadi insurgents who have captured large portions of northwestern Syria, including most of the city of Aleppo. An Iraqi military official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Iraqi militias in Syria have already been deployed to the war effort and that additional forces have crossed the border, the Associated Press reported on Monday. Some 200 Iraqi militants on pickup trucks crossed into Syria overnight on Sunday through the strategic Al-Qa’im border crossi ..read more

An Iranian flight suspected to be ferrying arms to the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon was blocked by the Israeli Air Force over Syria overnight between Saturday and Sunday, The Times of Israel has learned. IAF fighter jets intercepted the Iranian plane over Syria and ordered it to turn around, and it did a short while later, a defense source said. The incident was first reported by Ynet, although the news site showed a screenshot of flight data from an unrelated Iranian Mahan Air plane that landed in Syria’s coastal city of Latakia in the afternoon hours of Saturday. The interception ..read more

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that it was continuing to enforce the ceasefire in Lebanon by striking Hezbollah forces violating its terms, as France was said to charge that Jerusalem, too was repeatedly violating the days-old truce. The IDF is still deployed in much of southern Lebanon, and it has until late January to withdraw under the 60-day ceasefire deal clinched last week that sought to end more than a year of fighting. Early on Sunday, Israeli jets launched an airstrike over a southern Lebanese border village of Yaroun, while troops shelled other border towns and villages ..read more

If the choice is sovereignty in Judea and Samaria or a peace deal with Saudi Arabia, he would choose sovereignty, Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Eli Cohen says.  “It is important for me to say that between the Jordan River and the Sea, there will only be one state,” Cohen told Makor Rishon in an interview on Friday. “The path of the ideological right has proven to be the correct one, and we must take advantage of [U.S. President-elect Donald] Trump’s rule to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he continued. “We are already preparing the ground for annexation in ..read more

The Grand Mufti of “Palestine”, Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, criticized National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir after he instructed senior police officials to enforce the confiscation of loudspeakers in mosques and to increase fines in mixed cities and Arab communities due to complaints about noise from the loudspeakers.  In a statement, Sheikh Hussein claimed that Ben Gvir's decision was made as part of an Israeli policy of "oppression", alleging that the decision interferes in matters of religious worship and attacks religious customs in “Palestine”. He described the decision ..read more

JPOST -  NUMBER ONE "MOST READ" ARTICLE LAST WEEK As the IDF battles to clear southern Lebanon of Hezbollah terrorists, it is worth highlighting an intriguing historical fact, one that many seem to have forgotten. Having grown up with an international boundary between the Jewish state and our neighbors to the north, we take it for granted that this is how it has always been and should be. But the truth is that the current border between Israel and Lebanon is little more than a century old and is entirely artificial, a relic of a time when European colonialists whimsically drew lin ..read more

Foundation for the Defense of Democracies President and founder Clifford D. May was interviewed on Fox News about the war in Ukraine and the recent ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon. "The ceasefire is very controversial within Israel," May stated. "However, I would say it's the best deal Israel could get - not the best deal it get from Hezbollah, the best deal it could get from Biden." Hez explained that this because, among other things, Israel needs "the replenishment of munitions to continue the seven-front war that's going on. Those ..read more