Jewish & World News

An event in New York City’s Waldorf Astoria hotel Tuesday night raised $27 million (roughly 100 million shekels) for the IDF. The event was attended by 1,400 guests from the United States, Panama and Israel. Among them were influential American businessmen and top IDF staff. More than 30 soldiers and commanders from various IDF units took part as well. This year’s event focused on intelligence units and special forces. Former IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi attended the event as well. He thanked the donors for their contribution to the IDF and to Israeli society. Attendees honored Captain Ziv Shilon, who was badly wounded in a Hamas attack near Gaza in October 2012. After losing an arm and suffering significant injury to his other arm in the initial attack, Shilon charged the terrorists who had attacked him, using his mouth and nose to help operate the gun. Shilon inspired Israel with his positive attitude and determination in wake of the attack. During the...

A new IDF campaign strives to warn Israeli teenagers living in the West Bank against the perils of hitchhiking due to a disconcerting rise in the threat level in the area. Schools and youth movements are screening the video, which shows a boy boarding an unfamiliar car and then kidnapped at knife-point.

A group of IDF workers has spent a large part of the last several weeks in the desert in southern Israel, setting off bombs. Their goal: to find the safest windows in the world. Major Benny Brosh, head of the research and development unit, explained the process to Arutz Sheva.

For years, the treatment of hareidi-religious soldiers in the Israeli army has been based on oral agreements and yet-to-be-signed orders, orders which were subject to abuse in certain divisions. But on Sunday, IDF officials finally signed a written order outlining in full the mandatory procedures for accommodating hareidi-religious soldiers. Special conditions have been extended to soldiers from religious units such as Nahal and Shachar, in which high standards of kashrut are maintained, Shabbat is strictly observed and there is complete separation between male and female soldiers.

An IDF force operating near Nablus has been disturbing the peace of the residents of the Palestinian village of Nurif, which is adjacent to the city, by using the public address system mounted on its vehicles, Ynet learned Thursday. The force, which patrolled the villages area in December, would enter the village in all hours of the day and night, and sound the PA system's sirens and horns, as well as use stun grenades and light flares – for no reason.

A pro-Palestinian website likely based in California posted 100 photos of what it claims are high ranking Israeli Air Force pilots suspected of war crimes. The website also noted each pilot's rank, date of birth and ID number. Among the 100 was the photo of one female pilot said to be a 24-year-old colonel. The website's managers claimed they received the information from an anonymous source. The disclosure of the information is meant to assist in the prosecution of the pilots when they leave Israel.

A refueling drill involving an F-16 fighter jet and an Air Force Boeing 707 tanker failed and caused a fuel pipe to hit the aircraft's head-up display (HUD) on Friday, Ynet learned. The two aircraft were forced to perform an emergency landing. The incident, which fortunately did not leave any injuries, took place during a drill at the Ovda base in southern Israel. The IAF launched an inquiry.

A senior officer in the Paratroopers Brigade celebrated the end of his term as deputy commander of the 202nd Battalion by hurling a tear gas grenade into a closed room full of fellow officers, according to eyewitness accounts. At this point it appears that the officer will not be discharged from the army, but the IDF Spokesperson's Unit called the incident "serious and unusual," adding that "it is being dealt with by the commanding officers with the necessary severity."

B. (21) was born with cerebral palsy and has partial paralysis in all four limbs. Just before he turned 18, B. got a letter from the IDF, stating that he was officially exempt from military service. However, the physical hindrance did not stop B. from insisting on forgoing his exemption and joining the IDF. "I felt obligated to my country," B. explains, I decided that there was no reason for dodging the draft and giving up. Nothing justified not being like everyone else."

Most combat soldiers see little front-line action with the enemy and their training usually – and hopefully – is their toughest army experience. An IDF video gives a rare glimpse into tough training by crack “Egoz” combat soldiers, lugging and firing the Israeli-made “Tabor” rifle.     The live-fire training exercise was held n the Golan Heights and marked the conclusion of four months of intensive counterterrorist training. All combat units serve at least one three to six-month stint at Gaza and other postings at the Lebanese border and in Judea and Samaria.

Gazans fired a few rockets at Israel on Friday, but none on Saturday as of press time. IDF sources said that Islamic Jihad was severely beaten in the recent round of violence and that it would need time to rebuild its capabilities. The air force bombed more than 40 targets throughout the Gaza Strip over the past week, including nearly 20 rocket squads, and several weapons storage centers and underground long-range rocket launchers. On Friday, one of the Kassam rockets hit in the Eshkol regional. No one was wounded.

The Friends of the IDF (FIDF) organization raised $26 million (NIS 98 million) Tuesday at its annual tribute dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Proceeds will be donated to the IDF for investment in social and educational programming, economic support for soldiers, aid for bereaved families, subsidies for lone soldiers, and more. The event, attended by over 1,300 guests, featured video feeds from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz, and freed IDF soldier Gilad Schalit, all of whom thanked the guests for their support.

Dozens of IDF soldiers were honored on Shabbat by the Chabad Israel Center of the Upper East Side and the Chabad Terror Victims Project. The soldiers, most of whom fought and badly wounded in Operation Cast Lead or in the Second Lebanon War, are visiting the U.S., making stops in New York City, Washington, D.C., Long Island, and Niagara Falls. 

Israel - The Israel Defense Force Spokesperson's Unit released a clarification on Saturday regarding an audio recording on which passengers of a Gaza aid flotilla ship can be heard telling IDF soldiers to " Go back to Auschwitz " and that they are "helping Arabs go against the U.S., don't forget 9/11."

Israel - The IDF boosted the security arrangements around Navy Commander Eliezer Marom, following Monday's raid on the international aid flotilla to Gaza.

Israel - Facing dwindling draft numbers and a shortage of 10,000 soldiers, the IDF Manpower Division has drawn up a plan to significantly increase the number of ultra-Orthodox soldiers, to more than 50 percent of the haredi boys who turn 18 in 2020. The revolutionary plan, formulated by OC Manpower Division Maj.-Gen. Avi Zamir and approved by IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, was presented early this month to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The first stage of the plan will be to double the number of haredim serving in the military by 2012. Currently, approximately 1,000 haredim serve in the Nahal Haredi Battalion, also called Netzah Yehuda, as well as in technical positions in the air force and Military Intelligence. The second phase of the plan calls for recruiting close to 60% of 18-year-old haredim each year from 2020. The haredim will have the option of serving in a national service position instead of the military. Haredim have been exempt from milit...

Israel - The battle over drafting Haredi men has begun again, eight years after the Tal Law exempted them from army service for as long as they study at yeshivas.

Israel - In the wake of the heavy criticism leveled at the IDF following Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip last winter, the military has written, for the first time, an operational doctrine for how forces should operate when fighting within a civilian-populated area, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

Soldiers belonging to the IDF's Kfir Unit were beaten up by Palestinian residents in Hebron after taking a wrong turn in the West Bank city. The troops were engaged in a physical training session when they lost their way inside the city and ended up in the Palestinian section of town, after getting the wrong directions from a local Palestinian resident.

Jerusalem Post Corrected The previews Report (IDF foils kidnap attempt near Hebron) A Palestinian man who tried to stab an IDF soldier on Friday afternoon died on the way to an Israeli hospital, the army said in a statement. Soldiers opened fire on the man after he weilded a knife and lunged at a soldier who was on patrol near a mosque in Hebron. No soldiers were wounded in the incident, which took place as soldiers were scouring the area for Palestinian who hurled rocks at Jewish houses in the West Bank city. The 41-year-old Palestinian man's family in Hebron confirmed that he had died, but denied that he attempted to attack a soldier. J-Post