TEL AVIV (JTA) — Against a soundtrack of dramatic music, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lists his government’s security accomplishments, declaring over the shouts of opposition lawmakers that his Likud Party has stopped terrorists, stood up to Iran and secured Israel’s borders. Released Wednesday, the video is the latest… Read more »
Israel
Israeli start-up hoping USB drives will bridge digital divide
TEL AVIV (JTA) — In Peter Jairus’ Nairobi neighborhood, almost nobody has a personal computer. Mathare is one of the Kenyan capital’s largest slums. Buildings are constructed from sheets of corrugated metal and Internet access is rare, found only in places like schools or community centers. Even then, the… Read more »
In Israeli elections, Bibi had it right: It’s all about him
TEL AVIV (JTA) — However much they disagree with his policies, opponents of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would surely admit he was right about one thing: These elections are all about him. When he called for new elections in December, Netanyahu said the vote would enable him “to… Read more »
Who’s who in Israel’s election?
TEL AVIV (JTA) – When Israelis head to the polls for the March 17 elections, 26 parties will be vying for the Knesset’s 120 seats — including such fringe groups as the Pirate Party, which supports total government transparency and freedom of information on the Internet, and the Green… Read more »
Under cloud of Iran talk, AIPAC quietly courts progressives
WASHINGTON (JTA) — At the AIPAC conference, a sea of 16,000 Israel supporters spent their time talking Iran policy amid the swirling controversy over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress. To the sidelines fell discussion of the Israeli elections, the peace process and Israeli innovation — as well… Read more »
Did Netanyahu’s speech make new allies or alienate old friends?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, in the end, was about reminding Americans that the enemy of your enemy may still be your enemy. He may have lost some friends in the process. Netanyahu spoke before the U.S. Congress on Tuesday following a six-week buildup that spurred questions about… Read more »
Isaac Herzog hopes to speak softly and carry Israel’s election
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Isaac Herzog paces slowly up and down the stage, one hand in his suit pocket, a slight smile forming through his slender lips. Quietly, his heavy breath audible through the microphone, the center-left candidate for prime minister runs down a detailed a list of policy… Read more »
Transcript of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress, March 3, 2015
The following is a transcript of the address Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered to Congress on March 3, 2015. The text was provided by the Prime Minister’s Office. Speaker of the House John Boehner, President Pro Tem Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, And House Majority… Read more »
Netanyahu to Congress: Deal with Iran paves way to bomb
(JTA) – In his address to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the proposed nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran will lead inexorably to a nuclear-armed Iran and war in the Middle East. “This deal has two major concessions: One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program,… Read more »
Yair Lapid, Israel’s centrist candidate, hopes for staying power
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The key word in Yair Lapid’s political vocabulary might be “but.” His Yesh Atid party is not right-wing, he says, but it isn’t left-wing either. He wants to withdraw from the West Bank, but disavows both a unilateral pullout and bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. He wants… Read more »
Netanyahu speech straining bipartisanship ahead of AIPAC conference
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s congressional address and its biggest-ever annual conference, AIPAC wants to keep the focus squarely on Iran and the traditionally bipartisan nature of American support for Israel. Good luck with that. Tensions between Democrats and the Israeli prime minister are… Read more »
Netanyahu ‘regrets’ partisan perception of speech; Rice calls planned address ‘destructive’
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told top Senate Democrats he regretted that his planned address to the U.S. Congress is being perceived as partisan, as President Barack Obama’s top security adviser said the speech was “destructive.” Netanyahu wrote Tuesday to decline an invitation from Sens. Dick… Read more »
This high school may have predicted Israel’s election results
RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — When Isaac Herzog learned that his Zionist Union party had won the election with 32 percent of the vote, he posted a triumphant status update on Facebook. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had failed, Herzog wrote on Sunday, and vowed that his center-left party would… Read more »
Meet the voters transforming Israel’s political landscape
RAANANA, Israel (JTA) — Chani Lerner-Mor’s political activism began on a street corner here in 1993. The landmark Oslo Accords had been signed recently, ceding parts of the West Bank to Yassir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization. The daughter of a Likud Party activist, Lerner-Mor, then just 9 years old,… Read more »
Despite Speechgate drama, U.S.-Israel defense relations stay solid
WASHINGTON (Washington Jewish Week) — American-Israeli relations may be enduring a challenging period due to the political drama surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming speech to Congress, but you’d never know it from the recent confirmation hearing for defense secretary nominee Ashton Carter. Carter’s appearance on Feb. 4… Read more »
Michael Oren lends foreign policy bona fides to new Israeli party Kulanu
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Michael Oren, New York-born and educated at Columbia and Princeton, begins an interview in Hebrew. Though he quickly switches to English, Oren interrupts himself every so often to translate a word into Hebrew for his assistant. It’s a bilingual bridge he has spanned in one… Read more »
Dems’ confronting of Israelis raises Netanyahu speech stakes
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In tense meetings, top congressional Democrats — including a number of Jewish lawmakers — confronted Israeli officials about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned speech to Congress. Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, met Wednesday with Yuli Edelstein, the Knesset… Read more »
At Aspen, wounded IDF vets learn to ski — and overcome obstacles
(JTA) — After Yinon Cohen lost his legs in an accident involving a rocket-propelled grenade, it wasn’t clear he’d ever be able to walk again, much less ski down a peak in the Rocky Mountains. A fresh-faced soldier in the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Golani brigade, Cohen was in… Read more »
Beyond sanctions and kerfuffles, the Iran deal Netanyahu wants to avoid
WASHINGTON (JTA) – When Benjamin Netanyahu faces the Congress next month, two things are unlikely to come up in his speech: a consideration of diplomatic protocol and an analysis of the efficacy of sanctions. Media attention ahead of the speech has focused on the diplomatic crisis set off by… Read more »
Candidates go head to head on Israel’s future — and in English, too
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Labor Chairman Isaac Herzog won’t be debating each other ahead of Israel’s March election, but English speakers in Tel Aviv who packed an event hall here got the next best thing: Candidates from five parties came out for a panel-style… Read more »