Tagged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Netanyahu, with team of rivals, puts together a government

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leading the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, March 10, 2013. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — He’s had to bite a few bullets to get there, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will lead Israel’s next government. Barring a last-minute surprise, Israel’s new governing coalition will be sworn in this week: a center-right grouping of Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud-Beiteinu faction, the centrist… Read more »

Can Natan Sharansky solve the Western Wall dilemma?

Natan Sharansky, head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, is tasked with finding a solution to the growing battle over women’s prayer restrictions at the Western Wall. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)

TEL AVIV (JTA) — He brought unprecedented attention to the plight of Soviet Jewry. He stood up to the KGB. He survived nine years in Siberia. He served in Israel’s fractious government. Now, Natan Sharansky is facing his next challenge: finding a solution to the growing battle over women’s… Read more »

Attacks by radical settlers on Israeli army spark debate

YITZHAR, West Bank (JTA) — Charred tires and boulders pushed to the sides of the road leading to Yitzhar, a West Bank Jewish community near Nablus, were among the signs that residents had made an effort to prevent Israeli soldiers and police from entering the settlement. Patches of grease… Read more »

In U.N. speeches, Abbas, Netanyahu trade charges of ‘ethnic cleansing’

NEW YORK (JTA) — Mahmoud Abbas outlined a vision for an independent Palestine that hewed to the two-state formula but also revived rhetoric that hearkened back to an era of Palestinian belligerence. Shortly after concluding his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Friday, the Palestinian Authority president was… Read more »