Israeli President Reuven Rivlin opens the Herzliya Conference June 14.
Jerusalem (TPS) – Israeli President Reuven Rivlin hosted a discussion of shared national identity and citizenship between Israeli Arabs and Jews during the opening of the annual Herzliya Conference at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Rivlin rebutted critics who claimed he is a “post-Zionist” for inclusive remarks… Read more »
Tel Aviv (TPS) – Two Palestinian gunmen in suits opened fire on a crowd of shoppers and diners in Tel Aviv’s central Sarona Market shortly after 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, killing at least four victims. “What we know so far is that two terrorists arrived at the Sarona compound while shooting at… Read more »
The Golan Heights Distillery is the first whiskey to be bottled and sold in Israel. (Courtesy of the Golan Heights Distillery)
KATZRIN, Israel (JTA) — David Zibell is busy testing the alcohol level of the liquid flowing out of his outdoor copper still. Then, touching his head to ensure his kippah is in place, he heads inside to carefully place labels on the whiskey bottles lined up inside his distillery.… Read more »
Shaul Ladany, who represented Israel in the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, practices his race walking on March 21. (Photo: Dani Machlis/Ben Gurion University)
Israeli race-walking champion, academic and Holocaust survivor Shaul Ladany celebrated his 80th birthday on April 1 by walking nonstop for 80 kilometers, one kilometer for every year of his life — almost 50 miles. Ladany walked a circular track on the streets of his home community of Omer, near… Read more »
President Barack Obama sits next to Alan Solow at a meeting with Jewish leaders at the White House, March 1, 2011. (Pete Souza/White House)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a rare and sharp split with Israeli government policy, a group of Jewish community leaders want to get a proposal for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the next president’s desk. Two complementary U.S. and Israeli working papers to be launched next week propose… Read more »
Young Israelis living on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv in protest of high housing prices, Aug. 10, 2011. (Liron Almog/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — On one hand, most Israelis say their financial situation is good and getting better. On the other hand, they’re worried they won’t be able to provide for their children. On one hand, they want significantly more government spending in a wide range of public services.… Read more »
On a tour of the Temple Mount, Yehuda Glick shows religious Jews a diagram of the Jewish temple that once stood where the golden Dome of the Rock stands today in Jerusalem, Sept. 17, 2013. (Christa Case Bryant/The Christian Science Monitor/Getty Images)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — A year and a half ago he was a fringe Temple Mount activist expected to die, the victim of a point-blank assassination attempt. This week he will enter the Knesset, the ruling Likud party’s replacement legislator for outgoing Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon. Yehuda Glick’s journey —… Read more »
Egyptian Ambassador to Israel Hazem Khairat receives ancient Egyptian relics
After journeying from the Western Desert tombs of Egypt, through Dubai, Europe and Israel, two 3,000 year-old stolen artifacts are making their way home on Sunday. The two wood and plaster sarcophagi lids, painted and carved with hieroglyphics, were given to Egyptian Ambassador Hazem Khairat on Sunday by Dore… Read more »
Jerusalem (TPS) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday night that the Arab nations in the region can help facilitate a “real deal with the Palestinians,” adding that he has been discussing the issue with regional leaders “over the last few hours.” “The initiatives I’m referring to are regional initiatives… Read more »
Avigdor Liberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, speaking at a news conference at the Knesset, May 18, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — He was an outspoken politician with little military experience, appointed by a rival and promising to bring a new approach. Current and former officials at the Defense Ministry called his appointment an “enigma,” fretting that “it will take some time until he understands how things work”… Read more »
(JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sissi to discuss how to revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, along with other shared concerns. Meeting in Cairo Wednesday, Kerry “expressed his appreciation for recent statement of strong support for advancing Arab-Israeli peace,” State Department spokesman… Read more »
Avigdor Liberman speaking at a news conference in the Israeli parliament, May 18, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The unity government was about to form: Likud and Labor, right and left, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog. Then, according to media reports, Netanyahu swung to the right and instead embraced an old partner: Avigdor Liberman, head of the hard-line… Read more »
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, shaking hands with Deputy IDF Chief of Staff Yair Golan, and standing with President Reuven Rivlin, at an Israeli Independence Day ceremony honoring soldiers, May 12, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — For a leader often accused of not wanting to talk peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sure does a lot of talking about wanting to talk to the Palestinians. In a series of three statements this month, Netanyahu repeatedly stressed the need… Read more »
Hillel Kuttler, right, and Avraham Rechtshafer meeting at a Jerusalem pizza shop for the first time since the mid-1980s. (Hillel Kuttler)
The “Seeking Kin” column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. JERUSALEM (JTA) – On a pleasant evening in this capital city, through the near darkness, I caught his wave from a half-block away. Soon we were standing together, smiling and clasping hands, two men who hadn’t seen… Read more »
Merav Michaeli, shown in the Knesset, came to the United States with the message that Israel is still improving. (Michal Fattal)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When a pro-Israel U.S. lawmaker greeted a member of Israel’s Knesset here last week, the former may not have anticipated the candor of the latter. “Give me good news,” Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., told Merav Michaeli on April 13, a typical request when the ranking Democrat on the… Read more »
MK Isaac Herzog (Hillel Maeir/TPS)
Israeli Opposition and Zionist Union Chairman MK Isaac Herzog has been at the center of political outrage in Israel after being filmed saying at a meeting with Zionist Union party activists in Ashkelon on Tuesday about his own party that “we need to stop giving the impression that we… Read more »
The European Union released a statement earlier today in which it condemned the military courts in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip for sentencing to death five convicts accused of collaborating with Israel. “The EU Missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah condemn the five death sentences issued by military courts in the… Read more »
Egyptian amulet found in Temple Mount soil April 19, 2016 (Zachi Dvira)
Jerusalem (TPS) – Neshama Spielman, a 12-year-old Israeli girl, made a rare archaeological discovery while sifting earth illegally discarded from the Temple Mount. She found an ancient amulet, more than 3,200 years old, bearing the name of the Egyptian ruler Thutmose III, Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty who reigned from… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an unprecedented weekly Cabinet meeting held on the Golan Heights, April 17, 2016. (Effi Sharir/Pool/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — During the five-plus years of Syria’s civil war, Israel has striven to stay neutral — supporting neither the government of President Bashar Assad nor the rebels, and certainly not the Islamic State. But on one issue, senior Israeli politicians have gladly taken sides: Israel keeping the… Read more »
Firefighters and rescue personnel at the scene of a bus bombing in the Talpiot neighborhood of Jerusalem, April 18, 2016. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — At least 21 people were injured in a bus bombing in Jerusalem, police said, in the first such attack in Israel in years. A city bus exploded and went up in flames Monday evening on a major thoroughfare in the southern end of the capital. The blast… Read more »
