(JNS.org) Syria has deployed advanced missiles carrying 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) warheads with attack coordinates set for Tel Aviv, The Sunday Times reported.

(JNS.org) A recent op-ed in the Palestinian Authority’s official daily publication called Jesus a “virtuous patriotic Palestinian forefather” and claimed Easter is “not a holiday for Christian Palestinians only but a holiday for Palestinian nationalism, because Jesus, may he rest in peace, is a Canaanite Palestinian,” Palestinian Media Watch reported.

(JNS.org) French authorities have detained a 25-year-old on suspicion of helping the gunman who killed three Jewish children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse in southern France in March 2012.

(JNS.org) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Israel “the one stable, democratic ally in this part of the world” and expressed frustration with lack of current support for the Jewish state on a visit to New York City on Thursday. He also criticized the idea of arming Syrian rebels in an effort to help defeat the Assad regime.

(JNS.org) A Palestinian smuggling company is now offering Gazans the taste of Colonel Sanders’s KFC secret recipe.

(JNS.org) U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that another round of Israeli airstrikes could soon target a new Russian transfer of advanced anti-ship missiles. Israeli and Western intelligence services believe the Yakhont missiles, which have been sold by Russia to Syria in recent years, could be transferred to Hezbollah within days, the newspaper reported on its website Friday.

(JNS.org) The Hungarian Reformed Church is attempting to defrock Lorant Hegedus, a Protestant pastor, for participating in a rally of the right-wing Jobbik party during which his wife had given a speech denouncing Jews and Israel.

Real estate magnate and television celebrity Donald Trump has plans to bring his real estate empire to Israel by building a world class golf course in Ashkelon, Globes reported.

(JNS.org) German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem Friday and emphasized that his country “stands alongside Israel.”

(JNS.org) Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip commemorated Nakba (“catastrophe”) Day on Wednesday in a series of rallies, processions, and demonstrations throughout the Palestinian territories. The day marks the Arab defeat to Israel in the 1948 War of Independence.

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A senior Israeli official told the New York Times in a story published on Wednesday that if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad retaliates against Israeli attempts to stem the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah, “he would risk forfeiting his regime.”

(JNS.org) Two mortar shells fired from inside Syria hit Mount Hermon in northern Israel on Wednesday for the first time since the onset of the civil war in Syria, Israel Hayom reported. No one was wounded and there was no damage to property.

​NEW YORK—U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, honored last week with the Distinguished Public Service Award of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), praised her former Israeli counterpart, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev, in an interview with JNS.org.

(JNS.org) Several major Jewish academic institutions have launched an inter-institutional eLearning Faculty Fellowship to promote creative ideas on the use of educational technology in Jewish higher education.

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(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) In honor of the Shavuot holiday this week, when Jews worldwide celebrate God's giving of the Torah to the Jewish people on Mount Sinai, Israeli airline El Al presented a special Torah that will accompany Israel's leaders on their trips with the airline.

Download this week's full package of JNS.org news briefs in Microsoft Word format here.​

(JNS.org) Iran is set to chair the upcoming United Nations Conference on Disarmament, despite the U.N. Security Council sanctions levied against the Islamic Republic for its suspected nuclear weapons program.

(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Tuesday afternoon to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the increasingly unstable situation in the Middle East.

(JNS.org) Advanced Russian missile launchers that Israel was trying to prevent from falling into Syrian hands have been transferred to President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper of London reported.

(JNS.org) Israel issued a formal complaint against Germany for blocking it from serving on the United Nations Security Council in 2018, Israel Hayom reported. Israel has never held a position on the council, although nations such as Syria and Iran have.