News

As chapter closes, Shimon Peres hailed by normally divided Knesset

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 »

Israeli concerns about Turkey and Qatar fuel dispute with Kerry

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 »

European anti-Semitism is focus as Jewish leaders, Democratic senators meet

(Sean Hayford O’Leary via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Talk at the annual meeting between Democratic senators and Jewish groups kept coming back to anti-Semitism in Europe. The recurring theme, which the 24 senators who attended and the Jewish leaders both raised, was a measure of the anxiety aroused by recent reports of attacks on… Read more »

Israel reject’s Kerry’s proposed cease-fire

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 »

U.S. intervenes in Europe’s circumcision wars

Ira Forman, the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, speaks at the Hungarian parliament in Budapest, October 2013. (Tom Lantos Institute)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Obama administration’s anti-Semitism monitor has added an issue to his office’s portfolio: defending circumcision in Europe. Circumcision has become a top focus for Ira Forman, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. He has been using the pulpit his office provides to… Read more »

At Crimean Holocaust event, a chance to burnish Russia’s image as defender of minorities

Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar putting teffilin on 102-year old David Barulya, a World War II veteran and Crimean Holocaust survivor, at a Holocaust commemoration ceremony in Sevastopol, July 10, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

SEVASTOPOL, Crimea (JTA) — Until recently, Holocaust commemorations in this port city were generally low-key gatherings of a few dozen people reciting the Kaddish prayer for victims of the near-annihilation of Crimean Jewry in 1942. But on July 10, a memorial service at the Sevastopol Holocaust monument attracted hundreds of visitors, including a delegation of… Read more »

FAA, reviewing Israeli measures, lifts flight ban

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Federal Aviation Administration lifted its ban on flights to Israel after reviewing Israeli measures to keep flights safe from rockets. “Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new… Read more »

After flight cancellations, a waiting game at Ben Gurion Airport

caption: A sign pointing to a bomb shelter on the runway at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. Air France was among the many carriers that canceled flights to and from Israel after a rocket fired from Gaza struck near the airport on July 22, 2014. (Tsahi Ben Ami / Flash90 / JTA)

LOD, Israel (JTA) — Natali Cohen and Snir Shahar discovered via email around midnight that their flight from Tel Aviv to Barcelona was canceled. They’d been looking forward to two weeks exploring the Catalan city and getting a break from the conflict in Israel. Shahar, 23, had just taken… Read more »

NEWS ANALYSIS: Why the Tel Aviv flight cancellations are such a blow to Israel

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, left, is greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu upon arriving at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on July 23, 2014, a day when many foreign carriers still had flight bans to Tel Aviv. (Haim Zach/GPO)

(JTA) — When the Federal Aviation Administration announced a ban Tuesday on U.S. carriers flying to Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, prompting a slew of similar decisions by European carriers, the flight cancellations were more than just a major inconvenience to thousands of passengers on 160-plus canceled flights. They were a… Read more »

Reporter’s notebook: Kaddish for a Texan who gave his life in Gaza

Israelis attend the funeral of Israeli soldier and Texas native Sean Carmeli, who was killed in Gaza, at a military cemetery in Haifa, July 21, 2014. (Flash 90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The soldiers walk past us, two single-file lines between the gravestones, their blank, sunken faces barely visible in the darkness. The coffin appears, hoisted on their arms and wrapped in an Israeli flag. We follow in its wake. Within minutes, some 20,000 people have massed… Read more »

Massive terror tunnel discovered in Tucson’s partnership region

On July 23, the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona reported, the IDF discovered a massive terror tunnel extending from Gaza into the Israeli town of Netiv HaAsara. Netiv HaAsara is part of Tucson’s Partnership2Gether region of Kiryat Malachi/Hof Ashkelon. Tucson and the region have a longstanding relationship, and several families… Read more »

Iran talks extended, but uranium enrichment remains stumbling block

Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif, attends a panel discussion during the 50th Munich Security Conference in Germany, Feb. 2, 2014. (Joerg Koch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The issue of Iranian uranium enrichment remains as stubborn an obstacle to a nuclear deal as it was at the launch of the talks six months ago. Iran and the major powers, led by the United States, agreed July 18 to extend the talks another four… Read more »

As rockets fly, poor towns in southern Israel cry out for better protection

Fares Alhozael, 55, says the Israeli government has failed to provide a bomb shelter near his home on the outskirts of the Bedouin city of Rahat. (Ben Sales)

RAHAT, Israel (JTA) — Fares Alhozael doesn’t want much from the Israeli government. The roads in his neighborhood aren’t paved, and earlier this year Israel destroyed his cousin’s house for having been built illegally. Slumped on a faded bed in the bare, beige, tin-roofed house he shares with his six children… Read more »

For two Americans, service to Israel ends in tragedy

BALTIMORE (JTA) — Sean Carmeli, a sergeant in the Israeli army, was stationed in Israel’s South awaiting possible orders to enter Gaza. He was exchanging Facebook messages with his friend Ian Benisti, a U.S. Marine reservist who was visiting Israel from California. The two had planned to get together,… Read more »

Amid France synagogue attacks, support for Jewish self-defense group on the rise

In the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, pro-Palestinian rioters broke shop windows and set fires on July 20, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

SARCELLES, France (JTA) – Shortly before their synagogue became shrouded by tear gas and smoke, 100 Jews wielding baseball bats and clubs were singing the French national anthem in front of the synagogue’s heavy metal gate. They had gathered outside the main synagogue in this Paris suburb Sunday to defend it against a… Read more »

Cease-fire or reoccupy? Israeli leaders split on Gaza endgame

The wife and young daughter of Sergeant Major Bayhesain Kshaun cry at his gravesite during the funeral ceremony at the Netivot military cemetery, July 22, 2014. Kshaun, 39, was killed by an anti-tank missile fired at the force responding to a terrorist infiltration incident on July 21. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — The air war has become a ground war. The Israeli population, always on edge, has become a nation in mourning. And a military operation that nearly ended after eight days has become a bloody invasion of Gaza that could last weeks and has Israeli officials divided over how it ought to end.… Read more »

FAA suspends U.S. airlines’ flights to Israel

NEW YORK (JTA) — The Federal Aviation Administration prohibited all U.S. airlines from flying to Israel for at least 24 hours. All three U.S. carriers with nonstop flights to Israel – United, U.S. Airways and Delta Airlines — canceled their flights to Tel Aviv on Tuesday. El Al, which is not bound by the FAA… Read more »