Israel « AZ Jewish Post

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, seen here addressing a regional economic summit in Tehran in May 2011, says he is "optimistic" that nuclear inspectors will not find anything amiss this week during their visit to the country. (Parmida Rahimi via Creative Commons)

On Iranian nuclear issue, mixed signals proliferate

Posted under Israel, Middle East, National, News on January 31st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel, the United States and Iran have all gone deep into mixed-signals territory. Conversations with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left one prominent journalist convinced that Israel will strike Iran by year’s end. Yet two weeks ago, Barak had said that any possible Israeli attack on Iran is “far off.” [...]

Soldiers from the Israeli army's haredi Orthodox unit called the Netzah Yehuda Battalion praying. (Abir Sultan/Flash90/JTA)

Controversy grows in Israel over extension of Tal Law granting haredim army exemptions

Posted under Israel, News on January 31st, 2012. Leave a Comment »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, granted a few hundred haredi Orthodox Jews an exemption from army service, it’s likely he never dreamed that 63 years later, tens of thousands of haredi Israelis would claim the exemption — or that the issue would be among the most contentious in modern Israel. [...]

Vered Otmy

TIPS partnership to bring Israeli artists to Tucson

Posted under Arts and Culture, Israel, Local on January 26th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

Four Israeli artists will spend almost two weeks in Tucson next month, giving workshops and talking about their experiences as artists living in Israel. “This amazing ‘partnership 2gether’ project, sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel, Jewish Federations of North America and our local TIPS (Tucson, Israel, Phoenix, Seattle) committee, helps bring people from Israel [...]

On a JFSA mission in 2006, Deborah Kay visits a Kiryat Malachi program for Ethiopian mothers and children

Locals: Kiryat Malachi discrimination against Ethiopian Israelis overblown

Posted under Israel on January 26th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Jerusalem Jan. 18 against racism and discrimination toward Ethiopians in Israel. Some 5,000 protesters marched in front of the Knesset before proceeding to Zion Square for a rally. They carried signs reading “Blacks and Whites — We’re all Equal,” “Social Justice” and “Stop racism.” One protest organizer, college student Mulet [...]

Israel again going to Oscars gate with a Joseph Cedar entry

Posted under Arts and Culture, Israel on January 26th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Joseph Cedar is on a pretty good run: The Israeli director has made four movies in his 11-year career, and the first three have represented his country at the Academy Awards for best foreign-language film. One made the cut of five finalists, but a Cedar film has yet to capture a [...]

The unhappy medium

Posted under Arts and Culture, Israel on January 24th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Some days, I think back 25 years to my high-school French course, where I first encountered the concept of the juste milieu — the happy medium — and the difficulty of achieving it. Why is it so elusive? Why do I often feel caught betwixt and between or, even among my [...]

Gender trouble

Posted under Israel, News on January 24th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

(Jewish Ideas Daily) — Suddenly, it seems, gender segregation is everywhere in Israel — buses, army bases, Jerusalem sidewalks, Beit Shemesh schoolyards and, above all, the front pages. What is going on here? Let’s start with the buses. In the late 1990s, at the request of some Haredim, the Transportation Ministry created bus lines, serving [...]

Filipinos light Chanukah candles in their home in South Tel Aviv on Nov. 24, 2010 in advance of the Jewish holiday. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA)

Young Filipinos integrating into Israeli society, but not without difficulties

Posted under Israel, News, Religion & Jewish Life on January 23rd, 2012. Leave a Comment »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — With eyes closed, it would have been difficult to guess that the female voice with the amazing range singing a Hebrew classic was a shy-looking, 11-year-old Filipina. But there was Kathleen Eligado performing Miri Aloni’s “Ballad of Hedva and Shlomik” before a prime-time television audience of a million Israelis. Eligado, born [...]

Yair Lapid, alongtime television anchor, is quitting journalism to enter politics. (Yair Lapid's official Facebook page)

In entering Israeli politics, Yair Lapid eyes force of socioeconomic status

Posted under Israel, News on January 18th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — One of the big open questions after Israel’s social protests last summer was whether or not the one-time mass movement would be able to translate its newfound clout into lasting political power. During the weeks of protests and for months afterward, none of Israel’s political parties seemed able to capture the demonstrators’ [...]

Delay of U.S.-Israel anti-missile exercise fuels speculation

Posted under Israel, National, News on January 17th, 2012. Leave a Comment »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The decision by Israel and the United States to delay a massive joint anti-missile exercise set off a frenzy of speculation as to what the move says about relations between the two allies amid mounting tensions with Iran. U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed to JTA over the weekend that they had delayed [...]