Israel

Palestinian militants of the Al-Nasser Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Resistance Committees, display their skills at their graduation ceremony in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Sept. 27, 2013. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — After four weeks of a punishing Israel air and ground campaign that left nearly 2,000 dead and much of Gaza in ruins, Hamas has lived to see another day. For Israel, that might not be the worst thing. That’s because for all of Hamas’ violent… Read more »

Bonnie Golden at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem with Robert Indiana’s “Ahava” (Love) sculpture

Jews of a certain age might share similar early impressions of Israel. In Chicago, where I grew up, the young congregants at Lawn Manor Hebrew Congregation were inculcated with a firm commitment to the Jewish state. We saved our dime tokens to plant our trees, circle danced Israeli style… Read more »

Tucsonan Shoham Ozeri, left, and a fellow IDF lone soldier in May 2014, more than a month before Israel launched Operation Protective Edge.

The intense fighting between Israel and Gaza has evoked mixed emotions for the parents of two local lone soldiers. Max Gan, 23, made aliyah in 2010 and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces that November. He served as a paratrooper and is now in the army reserves. He… Read more »

An Iron Dome missile defense battery near the southern Israeli town of Ashdod. Each interceptor missile cost Israel $50,000. (David Buimovitch/Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — After the missiles have stopped, after the troops have come home, even after most of the wounded are out of the hospital, Israelis will still be feeling the burden of Operation Protective Edge — this time in their pockets. With the recent expiration of a… Read more »

The relationship between President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seen here after Obama's arrival in Israel on March 20, 2013, has been marked by reports of tensions. (Pete Souza/White House)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are not the best of friends — that seems pretty clear by now. But following reports during the Gaza conflict of cut-off phone calls, tough talk of “demands” and eavesdropping, it may be time for them to figure… Read more »

Oshrat Barel, director of the Weintraub Israel Center, and Rabbi Samuel M. Cohon of Temple Emanu-El at a Prayers for Peace in the Middle East multi-faith service on July 31, 2014.

As the latest Israel-Hamas conflict raged on, Tucsonans of many faiths gathered Thursday, July 31 at Temple Emanu-El to share prayers for peace in the Middle East. More than 200 people attended the multi-faith service, organized by Temple Emanu-El and the Weintraub Israel Center. The mood of the evening… Read more »

Israeli soldiers leaving the Gaza Strip seen near the border between Israel and the Hamas-controlled coastal area, Aug. 4, 2014. (Flash90)

(JTA) – Now that the latest Gaza conflict appears to be over — or nearly so — it’s time to take stock of the winners and losers. Who won the war? Perhaps more than the other two Gaza conflicts in the last six years, Israel is the clear winner… Read more »

Lisa Silverman with her chiildren (L-R), Yael, Jonah, Talia and Ruth Levin, in Modi'in, Israel (Ingrid Muller)

“Some days will be hard, but hope will prevail” were the words to a song on the radio as I headed home to Modi’in on July 17. So many thoughts, feelings, associations have been cascading through me ...… Read more »

A Palestinian man kissing a baby killed in an attack on a United Nations school in the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun, July 24, 2014. (Emad Nassar/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Shortly after dawn on July 30, a bomb hit a United Nations school sheltering thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting in Gaza, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The attack on the Jabalia Elementary Girls School was the fifth attack on U.N.… Read more »

These weapons were found in a Hamas-built tunnel under the Israel-Gaza border, July 24, 2014. (Israel Defense Forces)

(JTA) — There’s no shortage of images from the Gaza conflict. We’ve seen rubble, dead Palestinian children, Israelis cowering during rocket attacks, Israeli military maneuvers and Israeli army footage of Hamas militants emerging from tunnels to attack Israeli soldiers. What we haven’t seen are practically any images of Hamas… Read more »

A multifaith service, “Prayers for Peace in the Middle East,” cosponsored by Temple Emanu-El and the Weintraub Israel Center will be held Thursday, Juy 31 at 7 p.m. at Temple Emanu-El. Cosponsors include the Tucson Board of Rabbis. Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and other denominational pryaers and songs will… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel and Hamas agreed to a 72-hour unconditional cease-fire. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry jointly announced the cease-fire Thursday evening and said it will be effective at 8 a.m. local time Friday morning. “During this time the forces on… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel will destroy all of the tunnels that lead from Gaza to southern Israel, with or without a cease-fire, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Israeli troops have destroyed dozens of tunnel branches so far during the 24-day operation in Gaza, Netanyahu said Thursday at the… Read more »

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer addresses Jewish leaders at the National Press Club in Washington, July 28, 2014. (Ron Sachs)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The dramatic developments in the war between Hamas and Israel have been accompanied by sharp ups and downs in U.S.-Israel relations. On Monday, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, made nice with the U.S. national security adviser, Susan Rice, before an audience of… Read more »

Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Haim Divon, right, with Christian volunteers Timo Erkelens and Eveline Hagoort in the pro-Israel situation room near Amsterdam, July 24, 2014. (Canaan Liphshiz)

(JTA) — Israeli Ambassador to the Netherlands Haim Divon nodded approvingly as he surveyed the small army of 50 men and women fighting for Israel. Around a conference table in an office in the Amsterdam suburb of Buitenveldert, 30 volunteers were writing and collecting pro-Israel materials and transferring them… Read more »

Palestinian man seen in front of a fire raging at Gaza's main power plant following an overnight Israeli airstrike, south of Gaza City, July 29, 2014. (Emad Nassar/Flash90)

RAMLE, Israel (JTA) — In her living room in the Israeli town of Ramle, Sarah says she wants a peaceful life. At 79, she deserves one. A Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, Sarah was sent to a Nazi concentration camp in Serbia as a child, arriving in Israel at age 17.… Read more »

Outgoing Israel President Shimon Peres speaks at the swearing in ceremony for his successor, Reuven Rivlin, July 24, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

JERUSALEM (JTA) — In the midst of a grinding war in Gaza, a sometimes near-empty Knesset gallery was packed last week for an uplifting moment: what probably was the final political act of Israel’s elder statesman. Shimon Peres — former Israeli prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister and now… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Behind the feud between John Kerry and Israel over the secretary of state’s efforts to broker a Gaza cease-fire is a larger tension concerning the role of Turkey and Qatar in Palestinian affairs. Israeli officials rejected the proposal for a cease-fire advanced by Kerry in part… Read more »

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — A few hours before he departed Amsterdam for Australia on July 17, Ithamar Avnon was praying for peace with his parents at their home in the Netherlands. That evening, pro-Russian separatists shot down Avnon’s flight, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 passengers… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel rejected U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s cease-fire proposal. “We are not announcing that it has been achieved tonight,” Kerry said in Cairo on Friday night. “The world is watching tragic moment after tragic moment unfold and wondering when both sides are going to come… Read more »