Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli Border Police officer who shot a Palestinian man in the back with a sponge-tipped bullet has been charged with assault and reckless use of a firearm. The Palestinian victim was walking away from the policewoman at a West Bank checkpoint when he was shot… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu has been charged in three corruption cases, marking the first time a sitting Israeli prime minister has been indicted. The charges, announced on Thursday evening by the Justice Ministry and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, include bribery and breach of public trust. Netanyahu has denied… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem issued a travel warning for visiting Americans in the aftermath of the U.S. announcement that the government does not consider the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank as illegal. The warning issued Monday said the visiting Americans could… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration will no longer regard West Bank Jewish settlement as illegal, another dramatic change that aligns it with Israel’s right-wing government. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in reviewing the history of U.S. policy on settlements said that since 1978, the United States has regarded… Read more »

(JTA) — Time magazine is building on its list of the most influential people of the year by releasing a list of “rising stars,” or what it calls the Time 100 Next. The list features what the publication says is an increasing number of influential people who aren’t establishment… Read more »

(JTA) — Fifty-eight Israelis were injured during the wave of rocket attacks fired by terror groups from Gaza this week. Thirty-four Palestinians, most of them reported to be members of Islamic Jihad and other Gaza terror groups, were killed in retaliatory strikes. The attacks cost the Israeli economy $315… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A cease-fire went into effect between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, as well as other terrorist groups in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that the cease-fire went into effect at 4 a.m. Thursday, and Egyptian negotiators said it would begin at 5:30 a.m. Several rockets… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza struck an assisted-living facility in the southern Israel city of Ashkelon on Wednesday afternoon, injuring a woman in her 70s. The resident was injured in the face and arms by flying glass after the rocket crashed through her… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — U.S. filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and his Israeli wife, actress, and model Daniella Pick, are renting a home in Tel Aviv. The home in an affluent neighborhood in the northern part of the city rents for nearly $23,000 a month, the Israeli business daily Globes reported. It is… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Dozens of rockets were fired on southern and central Israel after the Israeli army killed a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza. The rockets began targeting Israeli civilians at about 5 a.m. Tuesday, an hour after what the Israel Defense Forces called a “surgical strike”… Read more »

Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona Women’s Philanthropy held its fall kickoff event, “Salsa in the Sukkah,” on Wednesday, Oct. 16. Youth On Their Own Development Director Bethany Neumann and Youth Ambassador Hope Sherise spoke about YOTO, Women’s Philanthropy social action beneficiary, which helps homeless or unaccompanied students graduate high… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli businessman will turn over to Yad Vashem a letter written by an 11-year-old Polish girl killed in the Holocaust after its sale by auction was blocked by a Tel Aviv court. Dudi Zilbershlag agreed to give the letter to the Holocaust memorial museum in… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the country’s police commissioner to investigate a murder threat against him on social media, police arrested a suspect. The Israel Police’s Lahav 433 cyber unit launched an investigation on Monday after this Facebook post: “Israel Police, prepare… Read more »

(JTA) — In August, Liad Goldberg visited her sister in a Russian jail. It had been four months since Naama Issachar had been arrested at a Moscow airport while on a layover and accused of drug smuggling, and Goldberg was seeing her sister for the first time since the… Read more »

(JTA) — An umbrella group of more than 50 Jewish organizations from across the ideological spectrum condemned calls by Democratic presidential candidates to condition military aid to Israel on its approach to making peace with the Palestinians. “We are deeply troubled by recent statements that would place conditions, limitations,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — “The state of Israel will never surrender to hatred,” Benny Gantz told tens of thousands of Israelis who gathered to remember murdered prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. “The children of Israel will no longer grow up in a state some of whose leaders sanctify hatred,” Gantz also… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When it comes to pressuring Israel, Elizabeth Warren doesn’t have a specific plan. The senator from Massachusetts, who has caught up in polling with front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination, now faces intensified scrutiny as a newly viable contender. And what has emerged is that Warren… Read more »

(JTA) — Jewish astronaut Jessica Meir posted photos of Israel that she took from space. “My father’s globe spanning journey as a surgeon from the Middle East, to Europe, and eventually to the U.S. was an inspiration to many in my immediate and extended family. #TheJourney,” Meir tweeted on… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hamas is responsible for every attack originating from Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, following rocket attacks from the coastal strip that scored a direct hit on a home in southern Israel. “Immediately after the firing at the area adjacent to the Gaza Strip, I convened… Read more »

Israel’s Sept. 17 elections, its second national elections in less than six months, produced no clear victory for either Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party or his top rival, Benny Gantz, retired commander–in-chief of the Israel Defense Forces who now serves as the head of the Blue… Read more »