Palestinians walking among the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli missile strike, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, July 14, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90) (JTA) — Israel and Hamas are fighting their third major conflict in six years, and while some things have stayed the same, the battle lines have also shifted in a few notable ways. Here are eight things you need to know about the current conflagration: • Iron Dome has… Read more »
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with the central committee of the Fatah movement in Ramallah, West Bank, July 13, 2014. (Thaer Ghanaim/Palestinian Press Office via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Mahmoud Abbas has been sitting on the sidelines of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas, with little influence over its outcome. But it hasn’t stopped U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry from consulting closely with the Palestinian Authority president throughout the crisis. A U.S. official… Read more »
An Iron Dome missile defense battery set up near the southern Israeli town of Ashdod fires an interceptor missile, July 14, 2014. (David Buimovitch/Flash 90)
SDEROT, Israel (JTA) — In the past week, Israel has endured a thousand rockets. Yet not a single Israeli has died so far from a rocket strike during the week-long conflict. In many ways, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge — its third Gaza operation in six years — is much… Read more »
An Iron Dome missile defense battery set up near the southern Israeli town of Ashdod fires an interceptor missile, July 14, 2014. (David Buimovitch/Flash 90)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel is ready to accept an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, multiple media reports said, although it is unclear whether Hamas also has agreed. The cease-fire that would end the eight-day Gaza conflict was first posted Monday on Twitter by Yossi Melman, a veteran Israeli journalist, who cited Palestinian… Read more »
Andrew Goldstein, a member of Israel’s national lacrosse team, says “the landscape has really changed” for gay athletes since he came out in 2005. (Larry Palumbo) BALTIMORE (JTA) — In the years after coming out as gay, lacrosse player Andrew Goldstein recalls being asked on panel discussions whether major American professional sports leagues would include openly gay athletes. It’s a question, Goldstein said, that is no longer relevant with Jason Collins in the National Basketball… Read more »
U.S. citizen Tariq Abu Khdeir being brought to the Magistrate’s Court in Jerusalem after he was beaten by Israeli police amid clashes over the murder of his Palestinian cousin, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, July 6, 2014. (Flash 90) (JTA) – For Israelis, the enduring image of the past few weeks may be the montage of the three Israeli teens murdered last month after being abducted from a hitchhiking post in the West Bank. But another enduring image has emerged in the last few days that is unlikely… Read more »
Birthright participants visiting Masada during a more peaceful time, in summer 2012. (Taglit-Birthright)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the siren rang out in Jerusalem last week, the 41 teenage participants in a five-week summer Israel trip were already asleep, exhausted from a day that had begun with a flight from New York. Within minutes, they were awake, out of their rooms and… Read more »
Michael Savlov, left, an attendant at a Tel Aviv gas station, went back to work not long after a shrapnel from a Gaza rocket landed at the site on July 10, 2014. (Ben Sales / JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Had the shrapnel fallen a foot to the right, gas station attendant Michael Savlov would have been destroyed along with the rest of the Dor Alon gas station in southern Tel Aviv. Savlov was with a customer in the station’s office Thursday morning when a… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon being briefed in the South Front Command on Operation Protective Edge, July 9, 2014. (Ariel Hermoni/Ministry of Defense/Flash90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Get used to conflict. That’s the message Israeli officials and security experts are relaying as the Israel Defense Forces conducts its third operation in six years against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s missile defense capabilities have grown significantly since previous rounds of fighting in… Read more »
Participants in an anti-racism rally in Jerusalem holding signs that say, "Enough violence.Yes to co-existence," July 7, 2014. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash 90) WASHINGTON (JTA) — For many Israelis, eyes are turning south watching yet another conflict unfold with Hamas. Yet thoughts are also turned inward, contemplating the sense of national solidarity occasioned by the abduction and murder of three teenagers and then shattered by the murder of a fourth. The Israeli… Read more »
Black smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza International Airport in Rafah, July 7, 2014. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash 90) WASHINGTON (JTA) — Escalations between Hamas and Israel are nothing new. What’s missing this time, analysts say, is the alignment of outside interests that has resolved such fights in the past.Egypt’s government lacks the influence over Hamas of its predecessors and the United States is in hand-washing… Read more »
Rachel Fraenkel, mother of Naftali Fraenkel, cries over the body of her son, during the joint funeral for three murdered Jewish teens in the Modiin cemetery, on July 1, 2014. (Flash 90) MODIIN, Israel (JTA) — They were their mothers’ sons. They were all of our sons. They were dear boys. They were martyrs for Israel. They were funny, clever, creative. They are the messengers of the Jewish people in heaven. The joint funeral Tuesday of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaar and… Read more »
At the hitchhiking spot in the West Bank where teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Fraenkel and Gilad Shaar were abducted, Israelis light memorial candles after the discovery of their bodies, June 30, 2014. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90) TEL AVIV (JTA) — A national ordeal here ended in tragedy as three Israeli teenagers kidnapped earlier this month were found dead near Hebron. The discovery of their bodies Monday night by the Israeli army and volunteer searchers brings to an unhappy conclusion the intensive effort to find the… Read more »
Israeli soldiers guard near where Jewish settlers hitchhike at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank, June 16, 2014/ (Flash 90) EFRAT, West Bank (JTA) — At a shopping center in the middle of Efrat, families eat pizza, a deliveryman unloads a cart and a barista serves coffee. On a passing bus, a banner reads “Gush Etzion — an Israeli home.” In many respects it’s a normal, quiet Monday in… Read more »
Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, addressing the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church (U.S.A.) to urge the denomination to reject divestment, June 19, 2014. (Courtesy of Union for Reform Judaism) WASHINGTON (JTA) – There were amendments and amendments to amendments in a debate lasting for more than four hours. There were dueling T-shirts. There was a last-minute appeal for a joint pilgrimage to speak hard truths to Benjamin Netanyahu. And there was a plea to emulate Jesus and speak… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — At 3:30 Shavuot morning, more than 100 people are seated on folding chairs singing in Yiddish as men walk around with shots of vodka and cups of coffee. Up front, a man in a black frock coat and black hat is belting out the notes,… Read more »
People gather for a vigil for three kidnapped Israeli teens outside the Israeli consulate in New York City on June 16. According to the Israeli defense Forces (IDF), Gilad Shaar (16) Naftali Frenkel, (16) and Eyal Yifrach (19) have been missing since late Thursday or Friday and were last seen around Gush Etzion. Israeli soldiers have detained over 150 Palestinian suspects in the search for the three teens. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Since the three teenagers were abducted last week, Israel’s goals have been simple: Find them and punish their kidnappers. Realizing those goals, though, is far from a simple task. The international community has condemned the kidnappings, and Israel has spread its forces across the West Bank to search for… Read more »
In response to the kidnapping of three boys last week, some Israelis have prayed. Some have voiced support on social media. And some have done what they do best: they made an app. Prompted by the kidnapping and set to launch in the near future, the SOS Israel app… Read more »
Demonstrators rally outside the Israeli consulate in Manhattan to express solidarity with three Israeli teens who were abducted in the West Bank, June 16, 2014. (Miriam Moster/JTA) NEW YORK (JTA) – The Reform movement posted a prayer. Chabad asked followers to pledge to do a mitzvah. The Jewish Federations of North America set up a Web page to express solidarity. The disappearance of three Israeli teens in the West Bank last week is being taken as… Read more »
Racheli Frenkel, center, mother of kidnapped teenager Naftali Frenkel, stands with the mothers of the other abducted teens, Eyal Yifrah and Gilad Shaar, outside her home in Nof Ayalon in central Israel, June 17, 2014. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash 90) KARNEI SHOMRON, West Bank (JTA) — Four days into the search for three kidnapped Israeli teens, I attended a group prayer session dedicated to their safe return. Dozens of women gathered together to read responsively psalms seeking God’s mercy and intervention before the start of our morning Jewish studies… Read more »
