From May 13 to 14, Israel celebrated the 76th anniversary of its independence. Today, on May 15, Palestinians remember the Nakba.
The Nakba, which means “catastrophe” in Arabic, refers to the mass displacement of Palestinians that occurred during the creation of the state of Israel from 1947 to 1949.
Throughout history, fringe religious Zionist parties have had limited success in achieving the kind of electoral victories that would allow them an actual share in the country’s political decision-making.
The impressive number of 17 seats won by Israel’s extremist religious party, Shas, in the 1999 elections, was a watershed moment in the history of these parties, whose ideological roots go back to Avraham Itzhak Kook and his son Zvi Yehuda Hacohen.
For many people, the question is inflammatory. The crimes of the German Nazis were of such magnitude that comparison with any other historical violence is invidious. The genocide of the Jews was deliberate and methodical and intended to eliminate every last one. The goal was the same with the Romani and Sinti people. By comparison, the Israelis – currently accused of genocide — are rank amateurs. They have so far killed some 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza out of a population of 2.3 million.
The Israel Defense Force’s move last week into the southern Gaza city of Rafah has exploded in Egypt like a 2,000-pound bomb. Cairo has long been playing a double game, holding Hamas terrorists near while simultaneously trying to appear helpful to the United States and Israel.
Hamas said it had “no ties to any acts targeting Jordan” and that it only sought to target Israel
Amman said Wednesday that it foiled a weapons smuggling attempt by a militia supported by an unnamed country in late March. An official Jordanian source added that there had been several attempts to smuggle weapons into Jordan recently including Kalshnikovs and 107mm Katyusha rockets, the Jordanian News Agency reported.
Latest Developments
Israel conducted a precise strike on a Hamas war room and weapons depot hidden inside of a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school located in Nuseirat in Gaza, Jerusalem announced on May 14. Israeli intelligence believes that Hamas recently used the war room to organize attacks against Israeli troops operating in central Gaza. Ten of the 15 terrorists eliminated in the strike were members of Hamas’s elite Nukhba Force who likely participated in Hamas’s October 7 massacre in southern Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
This past week Hezbollah claimed responsibility for 46 attacks on military and civilian targets in northern Israel. In two of the attacks, three IDF soldiers were killed. Following the beginning of the IDF operation in Rafah, Hezbollah escalated its attacks, including the use of heavy Burkan rockets (whose warheads weigh up to 500 kgs, or 1,100 pounds), and the first use of a suicide attack drone was detected. In response, Israeli Air Force aircraft attacked the organization’s military infrastructure in south Lebanon and Hezbollah field commanders were eliminated in targeted attacks.
Means of return: “Our weapons are the means of our return/And (they are) our constant companions until the liberation of Palestine”, Arab Liberation Front (circa 1975). Artist: Hassib al-Jassem
Israel has reached its zenith and is slowly sinking under the weight of its hubris and vicious greed and that of its enabler, the United States. We are recognizing now how vulnerable Israel is and how responsible we all are for challenging it.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s initial issuance of a fatwa against nuclear weapons coincided with damning revelations in 2002: Iran was exposed clandestinely engaging in nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment, at covert facilities in Natanz and Arak.
Turkish forces have killed 17 militants of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) across various regions of northern Iraq and northern Syria, the defence ministry said on Friday.
In a post on social media platform X, the ministry said its forces had “neutralised” 10 PKK insurgents found in the Gara and Hakurk regions of northern Iraq, and in an area where the Turkish military frequently mounts cross-border raids under its “Claw-Lock Operation”.