Israel

Reporter’s Notebook: 1 million expected to pay tribute to Peres

The casket of Shimon Peres was brought from Tel Aviv to be presented at the Knesset Plaza with a military cavalcade, so mourners can pay their respects, Sept. 29. (The casket of Shimon Peres was brought from Tel Aviv to be presented at the Knesset Plaza with a military cavalcade, so mourners can pay their respects. (Hillel Maier/TPS)
September 29, 2016 / Andrew Friedman/TPS

Jerusalem (TPS) – A military cavalcade delivered the coffin of former President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres to the Knesset early Thursday, where the deceased will lie in state in the parliament courtyard until his funeral procession tomorrow. Jerusalem police and Knesset security officials said they expect up to 1 million Israelis… Read more »

OP-ED We need dialogue, not demagoguery, when it comes to Israel

A protester against Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip speaking into a megaphone as pro-Israel counterprotesters wave Israeli flags in Los Angeles, Aug. 2, 2014. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)
September 26, 2016 / Jon A. Levisohn and Miriam Heller Stern, JTA

(JTA) — A Jewish educator who works on behalf of the Jewish people every single day recently received a letter that began with harsh words about her support for the anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence. Before long it took a startling turn. “I regretfully must express my utmost hope,” the author wrote,… Read more »

Even Israel doesn’t do ethnic profiling the way Donald Trump thinks it does

Members of the New York City Police Department stand guard in Manhattan's Herald Square, near where a bomb was set off the previous evening, Sept. 18, 2016. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
September 20, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – Donald Trump wants to profile likely terrorists the way Israel does it. The problem is, Israel and the United States already profile in similar ways – and neither in the way Trump prefers. The Republican presidential nominee’s proposal to blanket-profile entire communities would be unwieldy and… Read more »

How all sides view Netanyahu’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ remarks

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arriving at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Sept. 11, 2016. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool/Flash90) áéáé
September 18, 2016 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

  JERUSALEM (JTA) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued earlier this month that the Palestinian leadership is supporting “ethnic cleansing” by refusing to accept Israeli settlers in its future state. “Yet the Palestinian leadership actually demands a Palestinian state with one precondition: No Jews. There’s a phrase for that: It’s called ethnic… Read more »

Obama’s $38B aid package to Israel comes with caveats: It’s generous, but on his terms

Jacob Nagel, left, Israel's acting national security adviser, signing a Memorandum of Understanding for $38 billion of U.S. defense assistance over 10 years with Undersecretary of State Tom Shannon, Sept. 14, 2016. (Embassy of Israel)
September 15, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Barack Obama’s near parting gift to Israel, a guarantee of $38 billion in defense assistance over a decade, distills into a single document what he’s been saying throughout eight fraught years: I have your back, but on my terms. The agreement signed Wednesday in the State Department’s… Read more »

Medical condition of former Israeli President Shimon Peres improves
September 14, 2016 / Jonathan Benedek/TPS

Ramat Gan (TPS) – The medical condition of former Israeli President Shimon Peres has improved to the level where he is stable and responsive, according to the most recent update from Sheba Medical Center where he is receiving care. “After 24 hours of evaluating the ninth president, Mr. Peres,… Read more »

Bennet: Israel is world’s ‘front post’ against global terrorism

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Tsachi Miri/TPS)
September 13, 2016 / Jonathan Benedek/TPS

Herzliya (TPS) – Education Minister and Chairman of the Jewish Home Party Naftali Bennett told a counter-terrorism conference Monday that Israel is the world’s “front post” in the battle against terror. “No nation is as threatened by terror as we are,” Bennett told the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism annual… Read more »

Shimon Peres suffers stroke; sedated and on respirator for medical treatment

Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv, Nov. 30, 2015 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
September 13, 2016 /

Updated 9/13/16 at 1:18 p.m. MST. JERUSALEM (JTA) — Former Israeli President Shimon Peres was hospitalized after having a stroke. Peres’ office said in a statement Tuesday evening that the 93-year-old statesman “is stable and fully conscious.” The office later announced that Peres’ doctors decided to sedate him and… Read more »

Poll: Israeli Jews favor Hillary, but say Trump is better for Israel ‘policy’

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton celebrating their respective victories in the New York primaries in New York City, April 19, 2016. (Spencer Platt and John Moore/Getty Images)
September 8, 2016 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Most Israeli Jews would prefer Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump as the next president of the United States — even though more of them think Trump would be better for the “Israeli government’s policy.” According to a poll released Wednesday, 43 percent of Israeli Jews prefer Clinton as president, compared to 34 percent who… Read more »

Why Tel Aviv is so crazy about dogs

Mira Marcus, the city of Tel Aviv's director of international press, with her dog Shani at the Kelaviv dog festival in Tel Aviv, Aug. 26, 2016. (Andrew Tobin)
August 31, 2016 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

It’s not every day you see a dog getting a massage. But in this Israeli city, somehow it seems expected. At Tel Aviv’s first official dog festival, hundreds of dogs took over Yehoshua Park and its dog park on Friday afternoon. As canine customers wandered among vendors selling dog-related products… Read more »

Cable car tourist project in Jerusalem sparks controversies

Sunset over the Old City of Jerusalem, as seen from the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem. ( Andrew McIntire/TPS)
August 31, 2016 / Michael Bachner/TPS

Jerusalem (TPS) – The Jerusalem Municipality has been promoting a unique initiative to build a cable car that would connect the city’s western neighborhoods with the Old City and Mount of Olives in its east. While the city intends for the project to serve its residents as well as… Read more »

Archaelogical evidence of the kingdom of David to be displayed in Jerusalem

The Khirbet Qeiyafa Archaeological Site. (Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem Spokesperson)
August 30, 2016 / Anna Rudnitsky/TPS

Biblical archaeology was revolutionized several years ago when evidence of the existence of the alleged kingdom of David was brought to light in the form of a fortified Iron Age town excavated in the Elah Valley by Hebrew University Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Israeli Antiquities Authority archaeologist Saar Ganor.… Read more »

SEEKING KIN Calling all Israeli sailors from ’76 NY celebration: It’s reunion time

Israeli sailors marching in Manhattan during the 1976 festivities for the bicentennial and Operation Sail. (Courtesy of Hadar Shalev)
August 29, 2016 / Hillel Kuttler, JTA

The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. (JTA) – The Israeli missile boat Tarshish had just returned home in June 1976 when crew members learned near midnight that they would be heading back to sea two days later for another couple of months. They… Read more »

Hamas, natural gas and other good reasons Israel and Turkey should stick together

The Turkish government ship Lady Leyla in Mersin before being sent to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza following the completion of the reconciliation deal between Turkey and Israel, July 1, 2016. (Sezgin Pancar/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
August 29, 2016 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel and Turkey ought to be friends, geopolitically speaking. As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan put it in January: “Israel needs a country like Turkey in this region. We, too, should admit that we need a country like Israel.” But the regional powers often can’t seem to make… Read more »

Israeli forces raid West Bank weapons factories as part of crackdown

Israeli soldiers seizing dozens of illegal weapons in the West Bank, Aug. 23, 2016. (Courtesy of IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)
August 25, 2016 / Andrew Tobin, JTA

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli security forces shut down six illegal weapons manufacturing factories in the West Bank in what the army said was the biggest such operation of an ongoing crackdown. The raids conducted jointly by the Israel Defense Forces, Shin Bet security service and Israel Police took place Monday night in Bethlehem and Hebron.… Read more »

In linking Black Lives Matter with Palestinian cause, Miami lawmaker riles pro-Israel activists

Florida State Sen. Dwight Bullard, wearing a Palestinian kaffiyeh, or headscarf, at the Democratic National Convention, July 2016. (Ben Sales)
August 21, 2016 / Ron Kampeas, JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pro-Israel activists in the Miami area plan to protest a Florida state senator active in the Black Lives Matter movement who visited the West Bank as the guest of a group that backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Organizers of the protest against Dwight Bullard said… Read more »

At 80, a Munich Olympics and Holocaust survivor is still the sportsman

Shaul Ladany in his suburban Beersheba home with a prized piece of his Theodor Herzl collection, left. (Hillel Kuttler)
August 19, 2016 / Hillel Kutler, JTA

  OMER, Israel (JTA) – Shaul Ladany, a two-time Olympian, acknowledged that he was “very happy” that the International Olympic Committee finally held an official memorial for the 11 Israelis who were killed in a terrorist raid at the 1972 Munich games. But Ladany, an Israeli racewalker who still… Read more »

From LA to Israel: One swimmer’s journey to the Rio Olympics

Andrea Murez recalls Israelis telling her at the 2013 Maccabiah Games that she should swim for Israel -- and now she is. (Hillel Kuttler)
August 6, 2016 / Hillel Kuttler, JTA

NETANYA, Israel (JTA) – Andrea Murez steps on the diving board, adjusts her goggles, swings her long arms and propels herself into the water at the Wingate Institute athletic complex here. Murez is training with a dozen other swimmers. She is the one preparing for the Summer Olympics a… Read more »