5773 in Review: The most popular stories of the year
Some of our most popular stories covered the serious news, some were feel-good and some were just weird. We take a look back.
By THE JERUSALEM POST STAFFKiryat Malachi building hit by rocket 370(photo credit: Ben Hartman)IDF fires warning shot into Syria after shellingLong before the current furor over Syria, Israel was clear it would not tolerate any overspill of the conflict from its northern neighbor. In the first incident of its kind since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, IDF ground troops fired a warning shot at the Syrian military on November 2012, after a stray Syrian shell hit the Golan Heights for the second time in days.Gaza terrorists fire two rockets at Tel AvivOperation Pillar of Defense in November 2012 saw the Israeli army return to Gaza, in a bid to halt rocket strikes on Israel’s southern communities. On November 15, a real siren sounded in Tel Aviv for the first time since the Gulf War in the early 1990s, as two rockets were fired at the city. The Iron Dome anti-missile defense swung into action, taking out at least one of the rockets. BBC reporter: Blasts heard near Tehran arms plantAn overeager BBC reporter tweeted what turned out to be a false alarm back in May, and our readers were quick to spread the word!IAF strike kills Hamas military chief JabariOperation Pillar of Defense in November got off to a powerful and controversial start with an IAF strike on Ahmed Jabari, the commander of the Hamas armed wing, in central Gaza. Iran: President Ahmadinejad unveils new fighter jetBack in February, outgoing Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced with great flourish that the Islamic republic had built a warplane produced solely within its borders. But given the increasingly tight sanctions faced by the country, and their subsequent struggle for military parts, it is unclear how “revolutionary” this plane really is.Kenyan lawyer takes State of Israel, Jews to Hague over Jesus' deathIn one of the more bizarre stories of what is known in Israel as “cucumber season”, a Kenyan lawyer announced in July that he wanted a new trial over the death of Jesus. Suffice to say, The Hague was not interested in pursuing his claims.'Satellites show Iran moving quickly to rearm Hamas'It didn’t take long for Iran to intervene in the woes of its Gaza proxy, Hamas. According to British paper the Sunday Times, days after the IDF ended Operation Pillar of Defense in the strip in November, Tehran rushed to rearm the Islamist group, sending rockets via Sudan to be smuggled into Gaza.PM hits back at Obama: I know what's best for IsraelBinyamin Netanyahu took President Obama to task in January, after a report by Jeffrey Goldberg quoted the president as saying that Bibi was leading Israel down a path of international isolation due to the ongoing policy of settlement construction. A stung PM shot back at the president, amid what was already a crisis in relations between the two leaders.Archeologists dig up King David's palaceA joint excavation some 30km from Jerusalem by the Hebrew University and the Israel Antiquities Authorities yielded a most exciting and unexpected find in July – the palace of King David. The site, on the summit of a hill in the West Bank that borders the Elah Valley, is a key strategic location in the biblical Kingdom of Judah, on the main road from Philistia and the Coastal Plain to Jerusalem and Hebron. New Muslim Brotherhood political leader in Egypt calls for Sharia lawBack in October, long before the Egyptian military’s move to oust the Muslim Brotherhood from power, the leader of the organization’s political party was not shy about his intentions for the future of his country. Such pronouncements no doubt played a part in the mass demonstrations that led to General al-Sisi’s decision to intervene in the political process.
