News

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… Read more »

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, talking to journalists about the crisis in Gaza, Nov. 21, 2012. Rice, who reportedly is being considered for secretary of state, has earned plaudits from Jewish groups for her U.N. role. (UN photo/Paolo Filgueiras)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The very quality that helped get Susan Rice in hot water with some in Washington is what pro-Israel groups have come to appreciate — she is a vigorous and reliable defender of the Obama administration’s foreign policies. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who… 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 »

Pinny Dembutzer of the Seagate Association, standing on the Brooklyn community’s shore, notes the long road of cleanup that lies ahead for the community, Nov. 18, 2012. (Chavie Lieber)

Kenny Vance’s multimillion-dollar beach house has stood proudly on the Long Island shore and weathered all manner of storms since 1916. Then came Sandy. Vance, a 68-year-old musician who has lived in Belle Harbor, N.Y., for most of his life, was preparing to perform on a cruise ship when… Read more »

In our last issue, we announced that starting with the Dec. 14 issue, the Arizona Jewish Post is changing from mail to carrier delivery. Here’s a reminder — and a few new details. Carriers for the Arizona Daily Star will handle the delivery, but you do not… Read more »

Congregation Anshei Israel has commissioned the creation of a new Torah as part of a yearlong celebration of its 83rd anniversary, or “Second Bar Mitzvah.” A kick-off event, the “Mitzvah 613 Torah Fair” on Sunday, Dec. 16, will allow participants to fulfill the 613th commandment by sharing with others… Read more »

Temple Emanu-El is offering a new program for interfaith families, “Stepping Stones to a Jewish Family.” Stepping Stones is designed to introduce interfaith families to Judaism and Jewish rituals, synagogue life and community participation in a relaxed, informal way. Temple Emanu-El is partnering with the Tucson Hebrew Academy on… Read more »

Screen shot of the board at the United Nations General Assembly showing the 138-9 vote officially upgrading Palestine to nonmember observer state, Nov. 29, 2012. (Fox News)

NEW YORK (JTA) — The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to upgrade Palestine to a non-member observer state. The vote Thursday was 138 to 9, with 41 countries abstaining. The Palestinians had been expected handily to win the vote, which is largely symbolic. Cheers erupted in the General… Read more »

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, right, meets the Hamas Prime Minister Haniyeh in Cairo, July 26, 2012. (Mohammed Al-Ostaz/Flash90/JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Is Morsi morphing into Mubarak? Last week Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi earned U.S. kudos that were quickly followed by expressions of concern — the former for brokering the truce that ended the Israel-Hamas mini-war, the latter for then decreeing himself absolute powers. It’s a sequence of… Read more »

(Washington Jewish Week) — A moment of silence. That’s what Jews worldwide were demanding at last summer’s London Olympics in memory of the 11 Israeli Olympians killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics. The Obama White House wasted little time releasing a statement supporting the gesture. But… 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 »

BRUSSELS (JTA) — Within hours of Israel’s assassination of a top Hamas commander, the situation room sprang into action, anticipating retaliatory attacks and preparing instructions to keep civilians out of harm’s way. No, the room wasn’t deep in a bunker beneath Jerusalem, but thousands of miles away — and… 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 »