Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorism hostage-rescue mission carried out by the Israel Defense Force at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on the early morning of July 4, 1976. In the wake of the hijacking of Air France flight 139 and the hijackers' threats to kill the hostages if their prisoner release demands were not met, a plan was drawn up to airlift the hostages to safety.

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After a four-hour meeting in New York, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and U.S. Middle East George Mitchell have reduced the gap over Israeli building in West Bank settlements. Interviewed on Israel Radio, Barak said the main thing was 'to put the settlement question in the wider context of peace between Israel and the Arab world'. In a new twist, Arab religious leaders refused to follow an Iranian delegate's lead and stayed to hear an address by President Shimon Peres at an inter- faith conference in the Islamic state of Kazakhstan.

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The Iranian regime's ruthless suppression of the popular unrest leaves many questions hanging in the air.While the world looks on, the Obama administration appears to be ready for business as usual, while preparing to enter a nuclear dialogue with the Ayatollah's, who have shot and beaten throngs of young protesting Iranians into submission. IsraCast assesses Israeli reaction to the aftermath of the Iranian uprising triggered by a rigged election that will return President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office.

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Where is the Iranian people's uprising now headed? Iran's supreme dictator Ayatollah Khamenei has vowed to suppress the rebellion while accusing the BBC, the VOA and the Voice of Israel's Farsi broadcasts of fomenting the protests. In Israel, analyst Menashe Amir broadcasts almost daily to Iran with an estimated audience in the millions. A frequent guest on IsraCast, Menashe Amir was interviewed by David Essing.

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The Altalena Affair was a violent confrontation that took place in June of 1948, during the War of Independence, between the newly-formed Israel Defense Forces and the Irgun (Etzel), a paramilitary Jewish group. The confrontation involved a cargo ship, Altalena, which carried weapons and fighters for the Irgun.

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While the ayatollahs in Tehran tried to restore quiet after the post election violence, the Mossad, Israel's equivalent of the American CIA, has presented its latest assessment of the situation. Appearing at a closed-door session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, Mossad director Meir Dagan and one of his top aides evaluated Iran in the midst of the bloody controversy over whether incumbent, radical Islamist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or 'reformist' Mir-Hossein Mousavi had won the election.

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Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apparently defused a diplomatic time bomb with U.S. President Barack Obama while the Iranian election reveals how dangerous nuclear weapons would be in the hands of the tyrannical regime of President Ahmadinejad and his ayatollah masters. But Israel's Right-wing Likud prime minister has had to pay the price of accepting a Palestinian state with all that it implies. It appears, as did former Likud leader Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu decided it was in Israel's best interest to ride out the storm of American pressure and in so doing revealed who truly calls the shots in the U.S.-Israeli 'special relationship'.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's response to President Barack Obama's speech in Cairo will not be long in coming. On June 14th, Netanyahu will lay out his foreign policy goals in a 'major address'. Coming against sharp differences between Jerusalem and Washington over the settlements question as well as the two-state solution, Netanyahu will have to steer a tricky course between preserving Israel's vital relations with the U.S. while not abandoning the principles of his Right-wing coalition government.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders have put a brave face on U.S. President Barack Obama's historic speech in Cairo. However, the new American leader has called on Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make the first major concession on the explosive settlement issue in order to restart the stalled Israeli- Palestinian peace effort. In Jerusalem, Obama is perceived as sending a diktat to Israel or else be held responsible for sabotaging America's entire Middle East policy.

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North Korea's nuclear provocations are linked to the Iranian nuclear threat in more ways than one and therefore Israeli political and military leaders will be closely monitoring if the U.S. and the rest of the international community will now take truly effective action. IsraCast assesses the Israeli reaction to the nuclear weapons test by North Korea, a supplier of missile and nuclear technology to Iran.

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Hear the sounds of gunfire, the footsteps of Israeli soldiers as they draw closer and closer and as General Uzi Narkiss instructs them and asks to be shown where the Western Wall stands. Hear a triumphant Brigadier General Shlomo Goren , later to become the Chief Rabbi of Israel, as he recites the memorial prayer and sound the shofar, as Israeli soldiers weep with sorrow over their comrades killed in combat.

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What was achieved at the high-profile meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House? Dr. Dan Schueftan, Director of the National Security Studies Center At Haifa University, assesses various aspects of of Obama's new Middle East policy and the response of Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu. In this wide-ranging interview with David Essing, Dr. Schueftan also discussed future scenarios against the backdrop of the Iranian nuclear threat. 

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Israel marks the anniversary to the unification of Jerusalem. Read about the liberation of the city and the letter sent by Prime Minister Eshkol to Jordan's King Hussein stating that Israel would take no actions against him if he ceased hostile activities.

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After their extended meeting, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not only accentuated their agreement on the need for achieving Middle East peace, but also stressed their differing approaches for achieving the goal. The new American leader has a definite blueprint that includes a Palestinian state, something Netanyahu views as a hostile 'Hamastan' on the West Bank. As for the Iranian nuclear program, Netanyahu's assessment is that Tehran has already crossed the 'technological threshold' for producing the bomb while the U.S. has given until the end of the year before deciding on ' stronger sanctions'. IsraCast assesses the diplomatic parrying between the two leaders at the White house.

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From 1950 to 1952, Operation Ezra and Nehemiah airlifted 120-130,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel via Iran and Cyprus. By 1968 only 2,000 Jews remained in Iraq. The operation is named after Ezra and Nehemiah, who led the Jewish people from exile in Babylonia to return to Israel in the 5th century BC, as recorded in the books of the Hebrew Bible that bear their names.

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