Israel

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli butter lovers, give your finance minister a pat on the back. Moshe Kahlon signed an order on Wednesday to lift duties and quotas on imported butter in an effort to alleviate a prolonged shortage in Israel, the business daily Globes reported. The order is limited… Read more »

(JTA) — The owner of a toy shop near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport infected his wife with the coronavirus, bringing the number of known cases in that country to three. The man, who was not named, spent about 30 hours at the Red Pirate costume shop at the height… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Five years ago this week, Amos Geva took an EasyJet flight from Berlin to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport for a very short visit home. On his agenda: dinner with his family, a trip to the ballot box and media interviews about his efforts to encourage Israeli… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that same-sex couples and single men should be eligible for surrogacy in the country, saying its surrogacy law now is discriminatory. The court gave the government one year to change the law, Ynet reported. The laws “disproportionately harm the right to… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — As the coronovirus spread worldwide, Israel’s Health Ministry called on Israelis to refrain from unnecessary travel abroad and said that any Israeli returning from Italy must self-quarantine for two weeks. On Thursday, the Health Ministry announced that an Israeli man who returned from Italy earlier this… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Instead of trying to bring peace to the Middle East, former Trump administration envoy Jason Greenblatt will now try to bring investments. Greenblatt will join the global venture investments platform OurCrowd as a partner with responsibility for building ties in the region, the company announced Wednesday.… Read more »

(JTA) — Full disclosure: This is the third time in the past year that we have published this article. With only minor changes. That’s because on Monday, March 2, for the third time in the past 12 months, Israelis will be voting in a national election. The first election,… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — More than 40 new immigrants arrived in Israel on Tuesday from Ethiopia, less than a week before national elections. The new immigrants are from nine families and are being reunited with relatives who live in Israel. They are part of the Falash Mura community, which claim… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel confirmed its second case of coronavirus, diagnosed in another Israeli who returned after spending two weeks quarantined on a cruise ship docked in Japan’s Tokyo Bay. The case was confirmed on Sunday at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, where the cruise passenger has been… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rockets fired from Gaza rained down on southern Israel, causing some damage to homes and other property on Monday. At least one rocket landed on a playground in the city of Sderot, causing damage. The previous evening, the Israeli army struck military targets belonging to the… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Special voting booths will be set up for Israelis who are under quarantine for possible coronavirus infection will get special voting booths for Israel’s national elections that will be held on March 2. The decision was announced on Monday by Israel’s Central Elections Committee, following a… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Amazon has been accused of bias for offering free shipping to Jewish settlements in the West Bank and not to Palestinian villages. The online retail giant began selling its international products in Israel late last year and offers free shipping on orders of $49 or more.… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli fighter jets and helicopters attacked several Hamas terror targets in the Gaza Strip early Sunday morning after two rockets were fired the previous evening into southern Israel from Gaza. A military compound was among the Israeli targets in central Gaza, according to the Israel Defense… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hundreds of Israelis gathered at the Western Wall on Sunday evening after a prominent rabbi in Israel called for a mass prayer for those infected by the coronavirus. Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed, and the Association of Communitiy Rabbis, organized the service in… Read more »

A symbol of pinched fingers — ubiquitous among Israelis saying “wait a minute” or “have patience” — has been included in the 2020 list of approved emojis. But the nonprofit Unicode Consortium, the organization that approves new emojis, is calling the emoji showing all fingers and thumb held together… Read more »

(JTA) — An Israeli woman is suing the national railway after an attendant asked her to change seats because men were praying in her railcar. In Orthodox Judaism, prayer is traditionally gender segregated, generally by a physical barrier, or a mechitza. The plaintiff, Maya Melitz, says that she was… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s foreign minister asked his Japanese counterpart to allow Israeli passengers on a cruise liner docked in Tokyo Bay in quarantine due to the deadly coronavirus to leave the ship. Israel Katz said he promised to quarantine the passengers in Israel, if necessary. There are 15… Read more »

(JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s peace plan “or any part of this plan should not be considered as an international reference for negotiations.” “It leaves Palestine fragmented. It will end all basis for a peace plan,”… Read more »

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Vered Noam of Tel Aviv University has been awarded the Israel Prize in Talmudic Studies — the first time that a woman has received the award. Noam, current chair of the university’s Chaim Rosenberg School of Jewish Studies and Archaeology and a full professor in the… Read more »

TEL AVIV (JTA) — President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan will probably not achieve its stated goal of bringing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, but it might just bring about peace between Israel and more of its Arab neighbors. Here’s why. Over the past several years, Israel… Read more »