Israel started construction on the new fence separating the Golan Heights from Syria, seen in front of the old one, in response to possible consequences from the Syrian civil war. (Ben Sales/JTA) ALONEI HABASHAN, Israel (JTA) — A fence made of chain links and rusted barbed wire once was enough to separate the Golan Heights from Syria. That’s no longer the case. A few feet away from what one area resident called a “cattle fence” — one easy to jump if not… Read more »
(L-R) Hebrew University students Bar, Yael and Amit comment on the Jan. 22 Israeli election during a night out on Ben Yehuda Street. (Sheila Wilensky/AJP) Sheila Wilensky was in Israel recently with the American Jewish Press Association After spending a week in Israel one thing is certain: discussion about politics is a national sport – and with more than 30 political parties running in the Jan. 22 election, it’s not surprising. I arrived in… Read more »
BERGENFIELD, N.J. (JTA) — Some years ago I was discussing David Hartman’s work with the renowned Israeli philosopher Aviezer Ravitsky. “Hartman is not a scholar,” Ravitsky said about his colleague in Department of Jewish Thought at The Hebrew University. “He is more than a scholar.” Indeed he was. Rabbi… Read more »
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (JTA) — Next to the Modern Orthodox Orot Banot girls school in Beit Shemesh, fresh mounds of dirt and a huge hole in the ground indicate the spot where a community center is being built. Orot Banot was at the center of conflict between local haredi… Read more »
Israeli schoolchildren studying at Tel Aviv elementary school, 2010. (Moshe Shai/Flash90/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) – An in-depth comparative study of Palestinian and Israeli school textbooks is offering some conclusions that already are making some Israeli government officials very unhappy: Palestinian textbooks do not have as much anti-Israel incitement as often portrayed. While this finding might appear to be welcome news for… Read more »
Israeli women who immigrated from Ethiopia attending an event markin the Sigd holiday of Ethiopian Jewry in Mevaseret Zion, November 2012. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) – Following a TV report alleging that Ethiopian Israeli women were being given contraceptive shots against their will, Israel’s Health Ministry has ordered physicians to put a stop to the practice. The report, broadcast Dec. 8 on the “Vacuum” investigative news program on Israeli Educational Television,… Read more »
SYDNEY (JTA) — More information has begun to trickle out about the mysterious man known as Prisoner X who hanged himself in Israel’s Ayalon Prison in 2010. The Australian Broadcasting Corp.’s “Foreign Correspondent” program made headlines worldwide when it reported this week that the prisoner, whose identity was so… Read more »
Arik Lubovsky Before I left for Israel, friends and family asked if I was afraid. “Not really,” I replied. It wasn’t until I was actually there, relaxing on the patio of the Mizpe Hayamim health farm … Read more »
President Obama, shown visiting the Western Wall in July 2008, when he was a presidential candidate. (Photo: Avi Hayon/Flash 90/JTA) Is President Obama’s plan to visit Israel a sign that he’s ready to take another shot at Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking? The White House announced Tuesday that Obama would visit Israel in the spring, his first trip there as president. He did visit in 2008, when he was a candidate for… Read more »
Israeli postal workers distribute gas masks to Jerusalem residents amid warnings of chemical weapons used by both sides in the Syrian civil war, Jan. 30, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israeli planes reportedly struck a Syrian weapons transport on the Lebanese border amid increasing fears that the country’s chemical weapons stockpile could fall into the hands of Hezbollah. The strikes, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning, were reported to Reuters by a… Read more »
Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid addressing party supporters in Tel Aviv following the release of exit poll results from the Israeli elections, Jan. 22, 2013. (Avishag Shaar Yashuv/Flash 90/JTA) (JTA) — This week’s election in Israel was a watershed — but not in the ways one might think. In almost every election cycle, the campaign has been about one thing. To adapt James Carville’s famous adage: It’s about security, stupid. Except this time, it wasn’t. The reason is… Read more »
The American-born Rabbi Dov Lipman of the Yesh Atid party says there is no contradiction between working, serving the country and being haredi Orthodox. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) – Last week’s Israeli election saw a major shakeup in the country’s government, with 53 new members elected to its parliament, the Knesset. Some already have received wide attention, including Yair Lapid, the middle class-focused chairman of Yesh Atid; Naftali Bennett, the high-tech entrepreneur who chairs… Read more »
Omri Boneh, the Jewish National Fund’s northern Israel regional director, in the area destroyed by the 2010 Carmel Fire, January 2013. (Ben Sales/JTA) The rabbi’s yarmulke fluttered in the wind, his hand holding it to his head, as he recited El Malei Rachamim, the traditional prayer for the deceased. In front of him were 50 guards from a nearby prison. Behind him, a wall displayed the names of 44 prison service cadets,… Read more »
TEL AVIV (JTA) — One day after the election, all of the Israeli news sites show an even pie chart: 60 Knesset seats for the left and 60 for the right. But the Knesset isn’t actually divided 60-60. It’s split four ways — 42 for the right, 48 for… Read more »
President Obama speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following their meetings on May 20, 2011. (White House /Pete Souza) WASHINGTON (JTA) — With the Israeli election results split evenly between the right-wing bloc and everyone else, no one in Washington is ready to stake their reputation on what the outcome means for the U.S.-Israel relationship and the Middle East. Except for this: The next Israeli government likely will… Read more »
Likud-Beitenu supporters cheer after hearing the results of exit polls on the Israeli elections, Jan. 22, 2013. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) – His party shrunk, his opponents grew and his challengers multiplied. But with the results in, it seems Benjamin Netanyahu survived the Knesset elections on Jan. 22 to serve another term as prime minister. Netanyahu faces a bumpy road ahead. His Likud party, together with the… Read more »
(JTA) — A few observations about the Israeli election results: Right-left split changes, but not a game changer: From an outsider’s perspective, Israel would seem to a very politically unstable place. The biggest party in the previous Knesset, Kadima, crashed from 28 seats to two. The No. 3 party, Yisrael… Read more »
An Israeli man casts his vote at a polling station in Jerusalem, Jan. 22, 2013. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA) JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israelis are rarely shy about offering their opinions, especially on politics. This year, however, a good number of them aren’t sure what their opinions are. As Election Day approached, a large proportion of voters — 15 percent — were still undecided, according to polls. Some remained… Read more »
Yair Shamir, son of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, is second on the hardline Yisrael Beiteinu's Knesset list. (Courtesy Yair Shamir) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Yair Shamir says he doesn’t discuss hypotheticals. For the Israeli Air Force commander turned technocrat turned politician, these topics include how to respond to settlement evacuations or achieve Palestinian statehood, a fracture in the U.S.-Israel relationship or Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Liberman’s departure from politics.… Read more »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poised to win re-election later this month, some critics of Israel’s peace and security policies worry out loud that Israel’s political cycle — its pattern of cycling alternately between the political left and right — is stuck on the right. “This… Read more »
