יום שלישי, י״ח תשרי תשפ״זTuesday, September 29, 2026
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By Adam Levick
The satirical news website, The Onion, published a story on shocking poll results, showing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who is widely viewed with disdain in the U.S - to be more popular than President Barack Obama among rural whites in the U.S. The Iranian FARS News Agency was quick to republish the obviously fake story. When the agency realized its mistakes they claimed that "if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen."
In the course of his lamentable stopover in New York last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an interview to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius just prior to President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly. One of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments made us think that maybe there is something to his apparent madness.
By dvora
Three thousand years ago, King David reigned over the Jewish state in our eternal capital, Jerusalem. I say that to all those who proclaim that the Jewish state has no roots in our region and that it will soon disappear.
By Elad Benari and Annie Lubin
Iran will not back down on its nuclear program despite the problems caused by Western sanctions, including a dramatic slide in the value of its currency, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.
By Barry Rubin
The first thing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does is send a warm message of congratulations to the reelected president.
Iranian police has used tear gas against demonstrators who burned tires and garbage cans on Wednesday. Many were arrested.
Iran’s currency fell a whopping 16 percent on Monday to a record low of 34,500 rials to the dollar, plummeting from 29,500 rials on Sunday.
Transcript of Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech in the UN on Thursday, September 27, 2012.
"I ask, given this record of Iranian aggression without nuclear weapons, just imagine Iranian aggression with nuclear weapons," Netanyahu said to the assembly.
By Gil Lavie, Tazpit News Agency
Defying historical fact, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad continued his existential verbal attacks on the State of Israel, claiming Israel has no historical basis in the Middle East Region.
As Israel comes closer to a confrontation with Iran, we should note that Iran’s primary strategy is unlikely to be direct conflict with Israel. Iran’s air and missile forces, despite their bragging, are not sufficiently well-developed to support such a conflict. Instead, I expect that they will depend on their main proxy, Hizballah.
The Lebanon-based Islamic organization Hezbollah is one of the most dangerous groups in the world. Recently, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah incited violence against American and European interests over the movie The Innocence of Muslims. And yet, the European Union refuses to follow America's example and classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization – a move that would enable the E.U. to freeze the group's assets in Europe.
California representative Henry Waxman blamed PM Netanyahu for negative press Obama sustained as a result of his refusal to rearrange his schedule to meet with the Israeli leader during the recent UN General Assembly convention in New York. Massachusetts representative Barney Frank said the fallout over the meeting indicates that “Maybe Netanyahu’s for Romney. And he’s making a mistake if he is.”
"Citizens of Israel, Tonight, I am leaving for New York to represent the State of Israel at the United Nations. On the issue of Iran, we are all in agreement on the goal of preventing Iran from achieving nuclear weapons. On the day when we pray to be inscribed in the Book of Life, a […]
By JTA
President Obama told the United Nations that "containment" of a nuclear Iran is not an option and it would pose an existential threat to Israel. "Make no mistake, a nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained," Obama said in his address to the General Assembly in New York on Tuesday morning. "It […]
By Maya Kraidman, Israel Campus Beat
Israel advocates have made it clear that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United Nations will not go unnoticed. In response to Ahmadinejad’s presence at this week’s General Assembly meeting in New York, more than 15 campuses across the country have joined an awareness campaign sponsored by Hasbara Fellowships.
I have to believe that the prime minister has red lines. He knows when they will be crossed. He is not going to wait a moment beyond that to destroy Iranian nuclear reactors. He knows that if he doesn’t act decisively at the right moment - the consequences of a nuclear attack against Israel will rival those of the Holocaust. Only this Holocaust will be nuclear.
In an interview on “60 Minutes” this past Sunday, President Obama was asked about his very public spat with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over the latter’s call for the U.S. to set “red lines” for Iran’s nuclear advance which, if crossed, would trigger an American military response coordinated with Israel and perhaps others.
Every September Ahmadinejad accomplishes the unique feat of calling for a new holocaust while simultaneously denying the original ever took place. And do you know what the Jews do about it? Nothing.
By JTA
The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly endorsed language that sets a red line for Iran "nuclear capability."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for publicizing details of a conversation between the two regarding the Ban’s visit to Tehran in August.
By JTA
The U.S. State Department removed a terrorist designation from the Mujahedin-e Khalq, the Iranian anti-regime group that has acquired in recent years the backing of some pro-Israel figures in its quest for legitimacy. Numerous media reported MEK's removal on Sept. 21, although the State Department has yet to formally announce it. MEK, founded during the […]
Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar outlines how weak U.S. policy in the Middle East has encouraged more aggressive behavior on the part of radical Islamic groups.
Griffith said, "I'm a proud Jewish American and I'm concerned that the single biggest entity funding you is J Street. J Street has given you $60,000, and as you know, J Street is funded by an attorney for the Saudi Embassy and has also been funded by the producer of one of the most anti-Semitic films ever made ...," but Griffith was not allowed to finish his question. The Senator's first response was that Griffith's was "clearly a political question."
The current clash between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu over U.S. policy regarding Iran’s efforts to secure a nuclear capacity calls to mind the contretemps between President Lyndon Johnson and Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in 1967.
Reported: Iran Cleric Pummeled by ‘Badly Covered’ Woman After Warning ... An Iranian cleric said he was beaten by a woman in the northern province of Semnan after giving her a warning for being “badly covered,” the state-run Mehr news agency reported. Hojatoleslam Ali Beheshti said he encountered the woman in the street while on his way […]
Ironically, the less credible the threat of military force is, the more likely it is that military force will eventually have to be used.
Iran's Vice President Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, who heads the Iranian delegation taking part in the 56th session of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, told the newspaper Al-Hayat: "We sometimes gave false information to protect our nuclear sites and our interests. This inevitably misled other intelligence agencies." It appears that Iran has been regularly […]
Secure America Now is the organization behind the thirty second ad which shows Netanyahu talking about the over-arching foreign policy issue of our time.
An Iranian cleric who warned a woman to conform to standards of modesty and cover her eyes was subsequently beaten so badly by the offending female that he spent three days in the hospital.
Iran's nuclear chief said the country's nuclear program had been attacked twice by elements related to the U.S. military.
Tensions between the US and Iran increased Tuesday, as Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei order the launch of a Tareq-901 submarine and a Sahand navy destroyer into the Persian Gulf Iran as US and allied navies held drills there to practice keeping shipping lanes open.
Hezbollah now has 60-70,000 rockets, according to Maj.-Gen. (ret) Amos Gilad, a former IDF Spokesperson and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, who delivered a major speech last week at the World Summit of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, Israel, which ended yesterday. "The next war will be aimed against the home front," he said. But Iran, which backs and has been arming Hezbollah may be a greater threat. In a paper from May 2012, Gilad said however that the "the main issue today is how to prevent a nuclear Iran."
Soon after the attacks on American embassies in Egypt and Libya, Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan criticized President Obama for lack a clear and forceful message to the world. Soon after, the administration provided another example of why this was true, with Obama stating that Egypt was neither friend nor foe, while the State Department confirmed that Egypt is indeed an ally.
Publicly, J Street repeatedly states that Halutz is against the drawing of "red lines," that is, the line in the sand beyond which military action against Iran must be taken. There are commentators who crow that Halutz's opposition to red lines reveals a reluctance to use force against Iran, and that it is an explicit criticism of the Israeli prime minister. J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami wrote: "Gen. Halutz has repeatedly said that … there is nothing to be gained from the public calls for deadlines and red lines." But Halutz, who is definitely against red lines, doesn't like them because he thinks they interfere with effective military strategies. Halutz says that Israel may even have to “go it alone.”
Despite the news of Canada's decision and Baird's justification for breaking diplomatic ties with Iran, much more action needs to be taken by Western nations. For example putting Hizbollah on the EU's terror list.
Somehow, the common question in Israel today is whether the prime minister has the right to decide to attack Iran. “He has the chutzpah to think that he can decide,” former Supreme Court justice Eliyahu Winograd more or less pontificated, capturing all of the major news outlets’ headlines.
The Shi'a ethnic-religious tradition of pretending to be Sunni in order to avoid violent attack, even death, has resulted in a culture of deception which continues today, especially in Iran. This is reflected in Iran's dealings with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the West regarding its nuclear program and more recently when it hosted the Non-Aligned Movement conference in its capital. At the conference, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi - a Sunni - attacked Iran's ally Bashir al-Assad and his regime for slaughtering its own citizens in Syria as well as Assad’s unnamed supporters, i.e. Iran. Iran purposefully mistranslated the speech in Farsi to make it seem that Morsi was talking about Bahrain, not Syria.
Unwilling to issue an ultimatum, the U.S.will go no further than to repeat that “we will not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon,” but it will not say — publicly or to Israel — how far it will allow Iran to go.
JERUSALEM – Barring any scheduling changes during the forthcoming UN General Assembly gathering, President Obama will not formally meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York. This follows Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s rejection of Netanyahu’s demand that the U.S. and its Western allies deliver a red line ultimatum to the Iranian regime regarding their escalating nuclear weapons program.
By JTA
Iran has moved further along in its ability to build nuclear weapons, according to some diplomats.
The U.S. reiterated its rejection of Israel's call for "clear red lines." Today, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded, saying those "who refuse to put red lines in front of Iran, don't have a moral right to put a red light in front of Israel." Here is the Prime Minister in his own words - responding to a reporter's question about the State Department's position:
Haim Saban, a proud Jew, staunch supporter of Israel, and noted philanthropist, nevertheless parses President Obama’s record on Israel in The New York Times to deliver a sanitized rendition of a President whose relationship with the Jewish state is unreliable at best and troubling at worst, writes Congressional candidate Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave an interview stating that the U.S. would not be setting any deadlines for Iran.
By Barry Rubin
The basic grand strategy for the Middle East should be to form and lead a very broad and very loose—not institutionalized—alignment of forces opposing Islamism.
Iran is involved in hectic attempts to lower the insurance costs for its oil shipments, and, apparently these attempts are working. The U.S. and European countries are aware of the latest developments, and have begun to demand penalties for Asian countries attempting to avoid the sanctions. Many analysts predict, however, that the U.S. is not planning to enforce the sanctions with real, tough measures against countries like Japan or China.
A growing rumble of protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s upcoming welcome in New York has led activist groups to take aim at the New York hotel the leader regularly inhabits during his US stays. The Warwick New York is set to provide a luxury suite to Ahmadinejad when he arrives to address the United […]
Canada suspended diplomatic relations with Iran, closing down its embassy in Iran and giving Iranian diplomats in Canada five days to leave Canadian soil.
Mark 2012, however, as the year the Obama administration took its most overt steps yet to tell the Arab and Muslim World the the U.S. was severable from Israel. How much of what the US and Israel developed over the years was shared with countries overtly hostile to Israel?
By JTA
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu erupted in anger at the U.S. ambassador to Israel over what Israel's government regards as unclear signals from the United States on Iran. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, described an encounter he wtinessed last month when he was visiting Israel for […]
By Barry Rubin
When I read the platform I am shocked and disappointed. I can pick at the issues of popularity, Afghanistan and Iraq. But the failure to deal with revolutionary Islamism is ridiculously glaring (they didn’t use the tiniest fig leaf to cover themselves), making a mockery about the democracy and human rights’ pretensions. The treatment of Middle East allies is shockingly insulting. The issues of Syria and Egypt are simply dodged. There is not a single mention of the opposition in Iran. All terrorists not involved directly in the September 11, 2001, attacks are ignored. There is not the slightest hint that any regional strategy exists at all.
By Moshe Herman
Yishai is joined by Dr. Mordechai Kedar, expert on Israel's Arab population to discuss Israel's relationship with its neighbors.
A strategy of stopping Iran by getting the US to promise to enforce red lines is only a promise; and nations — the US is not alone in this — do not keep promises when doing so is not determined to be in their interest.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi this afternoon, reiterating his call on the international community to “set a clear redline for Iran” as well as for economic sanctions “to be intensified.”
JERUSALEM – White House and Israeli government officials criticized Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper for publishing what they described as two patently false stories during the past week.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled the second meeting of the security cabinet due to leaks from the meeting held yesterday about discussions onIran’s nuclear program.
A more important and stronger phenomenon than Islamization is the escape of the factional genie from the bottle in which it was confined while dictators controlled the region.recognized the "factional genie" well , whether in the Shi'ite version or the Sunni version. The dictators took every means at their disposal, principally torture chambers, in order to deal with the factional jihadism which has no boundaries of law or ethics. Today, dictators are taken down one by one, and jihadism is flourishing.
Reason #1. Iran's regime is outspokenly dedicated to the goal of destroying the State of Israel. Iranian political, religious, and military leaders have expressed their desire to annihilate Israel at every opportunity they have received....
By Moshe Herman
Yishai and Baruch Widen discuss the beginning of the school year in Israel along with the relationship between Israel and Turkey.
In "liberal-speak", pundits say that countries don't have allies, they have interests. That's incorrect; political leaders have interests...countries still have allies.
In March, President Obama said "when the chips are down, I have Israel’s back," but U.S. actions since have shown otherwise.
By J. E. Dyer
The U.S. is being made to look weak in Egypt, and is actually acting weak with allies and foes alike.
Russian worries about Israel gas potential may be causing it to lesson support for Iran; More U.S. companies are investing in Israel; Will Congress pass the US-Israel Water Cooperation Act?
By JTA
Iran has doubled its production of uranium enrichment centrifuges at one of its underground facilities. The expansion, reported by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency, comes amidst mounting pressure from the West and increased talk of a preemptive attack by Israel, which believes Iran has a clandestine nuclear weapons program. The number of enrichment centrifuges […]
By JTA
President Obama’s approach to Iran has made Americans “less secure,” Mitt Romney said in his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination. “Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden,” Romney said Thursday evening at the Republican National Convention. “On another front, every American […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to speak at the U.N. General Assembly next month in order to speak “the truth about Iran’s regime of terror,” which he said “constitutes the greatest threat to world peace.”
Honestly, that message could have been delivered from New York.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran a “disgrace” to humanity, during a meeting with the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Germany, David McAllister.
Alan Dershowitz writes that President Obama must make it clear that he has rejected the view of those who are prepared to contain a nuclear Iran and that he will indeed employ military action if that is the only option other than a nuclear Iran.
On January 30, 1968, in the midst of the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnamese soldiers launched a coordinated attack on 100 cities across South Vietnam against the forces of the United States, South Vietnam and their allies.
JERUSALEM – According to Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Israel’s Military Intelligence head, the Jewish state will face a more unstable and Islamist environment than in previous times. This is being fueled by the unchecked rise of radical Islam, and could force Israel into unwanted conflicts.
By JTA
Republican senators plan to introduce a non-binding resolution pledging military, economic and diplomatic backing for Israel should it strike Iran.
“They do not think it’s possible. They do not think it’s in the cards. I think that is one of the reasons diplomacy has failed – and it has failed,” he said.
By effectively making their nuclear program appear to be primarily a threat against Israel, Iran sends a message to the Europeans and the US that they are safe.
Rav Ovadia Yosef said on Saturday night that we should focus specifically on Iran, and say, "May the good Lord obliterate them, destroy them…"
Eventually, it became the story of the boy who cried wolf.
The liberal West has its illusions about the enemy. Israel has little room for those illusions. It will act when Washington is too busy fighting itself to focus on restraining it. It will act because it is alone as few other countries on earth are. It will act because it has no real choice but to act. It will act because for it this is not a set of talking points, a diplomatic program or a regional agenda, it is life or death. It will act, because for all its flaws, its survival is on the line.
In an interview with former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk on Galei Tzahal radio Thursday morning, Indyk stated that the US was expecting an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities this past spring.
White House spokesman Jay Carney recently reiterated the administration’s mantra about Iran, saying there was still “time and space” for a diplomatic solution to be found to resolve the impasse over its nuclear threat.
JERUSALEM – In a column appearing in the Israeli daily Yisrael Hayom, David Wurmser, who served as senior Middle East adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney, warned the Israeli government that President Obama would not assist the Jewish state if it launched a preemptive strike against Iranian nuclear and military installations.
We would have three minutes if an attack came from Lebanon. Three minutes to get to shelter - and worry about where everyone else is and if they got to shelter in time. That's if the missiles come from Lebanon. I don't know how much time we'd have if the attack came from Syria or Iran...more, less, who knows.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi told Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Sunday that "Egypt and Palestine are one entity." Morsi, calling to convey holiday greetings in honor of Eid al-Fitr, also told Haniyeh that Egypt will stand by the Palestinians, and stressed the importance of security cooperation between the two countries.
From time immemorial, the Jewish People has faced powerful adversities in asserting its sovereignty over the Land of Israel, and by undertaking unilateral national security actions. Conviction-driven defiance of adversity has earned the Jewish People deep respect.
J Street should get out of the business of telling Israel how to balance existential risks regarding the security of its citizens. It should stop undercutting American policy with regard to Iran. And as an organization that claims it is both pro-Israel and pro-peace, it should recognize that its superficial approach to this complex problem is bad for peace, bad for Israel and bad for American efforts to prevent a nuclear Iran without the need for a military attack.
By Rotem Sella
Prominent Americans like David Petraeus have been saying non-stop that Israel does not have the capability to destroy Iranian Nuclear capacities, and surely not Iran's ambition to go nuclear. But if Israel can indeed delay the project while in the meantime having taken out of the picture one of Iran's most important allies, then things might look very different from the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The Israeli site NRG reports that Muslim Brotherhood's Egyptian President Morsi will be making a visit to Iran at the end of the month. This is the first time an Egyptian president will be visiting Iran in more than 30 years, since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Morsi will be participating in a conference in the […]
Recently there has been an increase in the warnings within the security system about possible attacks against civilian and foreign flights by terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda and other groups, who are working on such an attack. These efforts correspond to a promise made last year by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, on his plan to avenge Israel's assassination of the head of his organization's military wing, Imad Mughniyah, and Israel's elimination of nuclear scientists in Iran.
The Israeli media portrays Israeli brass and ex-brass who oppose Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak on the Iran issue as a group whose assessment is based solely on a cold hard analysis of the situation. Unfortunately, there is a reasonable possibility that the Israeli brass and ex-brass themselves have piggy-backed their agenda to the Iranian debate.
Over the course of the past week, the Israeli media have been consumed by reports of an impending decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to launch a military strike against Iranian nuclear installations.
By J. E. Dyer
Iran’s relative situation has deteriorated. To regain a sense of leadership and invulnerability – as well as to vindicate Shia Islam over the recent Sunni triumphs in the region – Iran needs a big strategic win. She needs a trump card over the emerging Sunni centers of gravity in Cairo and Ankara.
By JTA
Three U.S. lawmakers urged the Obama administration to take action against two ship registry companies that they claim have violated Iran sanctions. Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) sent a letter Tuesday to President Obama asking him to designate the United Arab Emirates-based Tanzania Zanzibar International Register of Shipping and the Singapore-based Tuvalu […]
Right now the Obama administration is being very, very careful about saying what it thinks about Israel, not wanting to upset the electoral applecart. But the New York Times isn’t afraid to let it all hang out, as it did in today’s editorial on Israel and Iran. The Times is important because its positions are so closely correlated with those of the administration. At least on foreign affairs, the Times is Obama’s Pravda.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said at the Pentagon news conference on Tuesday that he doesn't believe that Israel has made a decision to attack Iran's nuclear sites, adding that international sanctions are increasing pressure on Iran to make concessions, the Pentagon has announced. Negotiations with Iran have stalled, with the latter still refusing to give the global powers access to all its nuclear facilities.
Focusing on the relations between Israel and the Palestinians turns the conflict inside out. In fact it is driven by the absolute rejection of a Jewish state in the Middle East by all the Muslim nations in the region, which dates back to the beginning of Zionism, before the founding of the state of Israel, before the development of specifically Palestinian nationalism, and long before the 1967 war.
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday began a week-long drill of a text-message warning system that sends alerts to cellphones about imminent missile attacks in particular areas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "All of the threats that are currently being directed against the Israeli home front pale against a particular threat, different in scope, different in substance, and therefore I reiterate that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons."
By Rotem Sella
When four of out four newspapers in Israel deal with any single subject one can count on the fact that there is a deliberate effort by some personnel to set the headlines on fire.
Two strong earthquakes struck northwest Iran on Saturday, killing 153 people and injuring more than 1,300, with many buildings being reduced to rubble, according to Iranian officials. Thousands are fleeing their homes and staying outdoors, fearing more damage from aftershocks – at least 20 of which have hit the region.
By JTA
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu berated U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for agreeing to attend a Non-Aligned Movement summit in Iran. "Even if it is not your intention, your visit will grant legitimacy to a regime that is the greatest threat to world peace and security," Netanyahu's office quoted the prime minister as saying Friday in […]
A reporter mentioned to White House Spokesman Jay Carney yesterday's scoop in Ha'aretz, which cited Western diplomats and high level Israeli officials about the special National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran's nuclear program submitted recently to President Obama, which is almost a word for word copy of the Israeli intelligence assessment. But State Dept. Spokesman Patrick Ventrell confirmed that the U.S. is concerned with the possibility of Iran attacking its Gulf neighbors.
There is one great truth that all Israelis know; that all Jews have accepted. Today's modern Jew, at least in Israel, is different than the Jew of yesteryear.
September 25, 2026 
