Israel

RAANANA, Israel (JTA) — From the outside, it looks like any other warehouse: imposing, gray and rectangular, with trucks idling outside and hundreds of crates stacked in the driveway. Inside, the largely empty main room, however, is a vegetable sorting machine and several large boxes of produce: carrots, pomelos… Read more »

Cranes at the Hula Valley in late autumn. (Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency)

Some of the lesser known ‘tourists’ that visit Israel by the millions each year, are the 300 species of birds, which use Israel as a rest-stop as they migrate en route from Africa, Asia and Europe. For international bird watchers attending the Second International Hula Valley Bird Festival in… Read more »

Sen. Chuck Hagel introduces Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin E. Dempsey at the Forum on the Law of the Sea Convention in Washington, D.C., May 9, 2012. (Glenn Fawcett/DoD Photo)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The expected nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as the next defense secretary has sparked an outcry from segments of the pro-Israel community. Media reports in recent days have said that Hagel, a Republican who represented Nebraska from 1997-2009 in the U.S. Senate, is President Obama’s… Read more »

The Israeli police station in E!, the only Israeli structure in the area. (Ben Sales)

MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (JTA) — From the terrace of the mall in Maale Adumim, a West Bank settlement eight miles from Jerusalem that serves as a bedroom community for Israel’s capital city, customers get a panoramic view of the Judean Desert to the east. Arab and Jewish towns… Read more »

Left to Right, some key players in the Israeli elections coming up on Jan. 22: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud, Tzipi Livni of the New Movement Party and Shelly Yachimovich of Labor. (Yossi Zamir/Miriam Alster/Flash 90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Two months ago, the strategy for victory was clear: To unseat Benjamin Netanyahu in elections on Jan. 22, Israel’s handful of center-left parties had to unite under one banner and choose a leader who could challenge the Israeli prime minister on issues of diplomacy and security.… Read more »

People waiting in line for food packages at a distribution center for needy in Lod, near Tel Aviv, September 2012. (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The numbers tell a consistent storyline: Nearly one in four Israelis lives in poverty. A report last week by Israel’s National Insurance Institute showed that 1.8 million of Israel’s 8 million people live below the poverty line. In 2011, the year for which the report… Read more »

Palestinians celebrate in the West Bank city of Ramallah after the U.N. General Assembly voted to recognize Palestine as a nonmember state, Nov. 29, 2012. (Issam Rimawi/Flash90/JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — How the United States treats the Palestinians’ new status as a non-member state at the United Nations depends on how Palestinians plan to use it — as cudgel or outstretched hand. Beneath the outcries of disappointment at the lopsided U.N. vote, both the United States and… Read more »

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak announcing his retirement from politics at a news conference at the Defesne Ministry office in Tel Aviv, Nov. 26, 2012. (Roni Schutzer/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Is Ehud Barak a calculating political survivor or a military man who, in his own words, “never had any special desire” for political life? Will he be remembered as a warrior or as a seeker of peace? And what will he do next? Barak’s announcement… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — When the first two sirens went off, Shoshana Leshaw ran from her second-floor bedroom down to the bomb shelter in the basement. By the time the third and fourth sirens wailed, she went no farther than the stairwell. “It’s almost like you’re sick of the… Read more »

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, sitting, with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announce a cease-fire with Hamas at a news conference in Jerusalem, Nov. 21, 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)

(JTA) – As Israel and Hamas mostly stilled their guns Wednesday night after reaching a cease-fire agreement, ending eight days of intense bombardment, both sides took home some new lessons about their foes. By firing longer-range rockets capable of reaching Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Hamas demonstrated for the first… Read more »

Moshe Bahta, director of the Ibim Absorption Center, briefing his staff, Nov. 18, 2012. (Adam Soclof)

IBIM, Israel (JTA) – The explosion occurred close enough to Stesyahu Alema to shake his apartment, where he sat with his wife and two of his five children. But he didn’t flinch. None of them did. “There are a lot of people with me, so I don’t need to… Read more »

Israeli soldier praying next to a tank along the Israel-Gaza border, Nov. 18, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA)

KFAR AZA, Israel (JTA) — In some ways, Israel’s latest confrontation with Hamas looks like past conflicts in the Gaza Strip. Operation Pillar of Defense has left some key Hamas leaders dead, depleted weapons supplies and hit more than 1,000 targets in Gaza. “We are exacting a heavy price… Read more »

Kiryat Malachi residents crying at the funeral of Itzik Amsalem on Nov. 16, 2012. Amsalem was killed in a missile attack the day before. (Ben Sales)

KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel (JTA) — They pick through the tangled foliage, Orthodox men with long beards and black kipahs, wearing white gloves and bright yellow vests, searching for body parts. A few yards over and four stories up, construction workers drive drills into a bombed apartment building. They speak… Read more »

Memorial candles lit for Kiryat Malachi casualties in the apartment building where they were killed by a Gaza rocket. (Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency)

It’s Thursday evening in Kiryat Malachi and the city of nearly 21,000 residents is strangely quiet. The usually busy city center is empty of people—most of the stores and restaurants have been shut down. There are no high school students loitering around, and no elderly folks smoking hooka or… Read more »

Lone soldier Stephen Segal (in purple beret)

The firing of missiles from Gaza into Israel and Israel’s Nov. 14 killing of Ahmed Jabari, the chief of Hamas’ military wing, initiated the call-up of Israel Defense Forces’ reserves. The situation escalated over the following week, and since Nov. 21, a precarious cease-fire has taken hold. For members… Read more »

The Iron Dome defense system firing missiles to intercept incoming rockets from Gaza in the port town of Ashdod, Nov. 15, 2012. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90/JTA)

SDEROT, Israel (JTA) — Wage war to make peace. That’s the idea behind Israel’s strikes this week against Hamas targets in Gaza, including Wednesday’s attack that killed Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. What’s not clear is how far Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense will go, what price Israeli civilians… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hours after three Israelis in southern Israel were killed by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, a rocket struck the outskirts of Tel Aviv, bringing the conflict between Israel and Hamas to a new intensity. On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces reportedly sent ground trips to the… Read more »

Ever since terrorists based in Gaza started firing missiles into Israel several years ago, the residents of Kiryat Malachi have been worried.  Over the years, missiles have fallen around the town but have landed in open areas just outside of the municipal borders.  All of that changed this morning… Read more »

Smoke rising following an Israeli airstrike on a house in Gaza City, Nov. 14, 2012. (Edi Israel/Flash90/JTA)

JERUSALEM (JTA) – The Israeli army began moving infantry units to the south and calling up reservists in preparation for a further escalation of hostilities with Hamas after an Israeli airstrike killed Hamas’ military chief in the strip. Ahmed Jabari and a passenger were killed by an Israeli missile… Read more »

Haredi Orthodox Jews watching the victory speech of President Obama at the American Center in Jerusalem, Nov. 7, 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) – Most Israelis were asleep as the polls closed in America and voters waited for the results, but on one rooftop in central Tel Aviv a party with loud classic rock music and flashing lights was going strong. It was the pro-Obama election-watching party of Israel’s… Read more »