Tagged Middle East

WASHINGTON (JTA) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking at an annual U.S.-Israel confab, said Israel’s government must consider the consequences of evolving toward a single state incorporating the Palestinian areas. “How does Israel possibly maintain its character as a Jewish democratic state?” Kerry said Saturday at the Saban Forum in Washington,… Read more »

NITZAN B, Israel (JTA) — Ask Aviel Eliaz and Itzik Wazana about their evacuation from Gaza 10 years ago this month and both will tell you it’s like a tree. For Eliaz, it’s an olive tree sitting in a large pot in his front yard. He planted the tree… Read more »

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks with Pope Francis during their meeting at the Vatican, Dec. 2, 2013. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

ROME (JTA) – With a rabbi and a Muslim sheik as his travel companions, Pope Francis is heading to the Middle East with what he hopes will be a powerful message of interfaith respect. It will be the first time that leaders of other faiths are part of an… Read more »

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, shown here at the National Tennis Center on Aug. 26, 2013, was named the first winner of the Genesis Prize. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) — In August, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told New York magazine, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get all the Russian billionaires to move here?” Today, the Russian billionaires — or at least some Jewish ones — returned the compliment, naming Bloomberg the first… Read more »

French President Nicholas Sarkozy addressing guests at the CRIF dinner, Feb. 8, 2012. (Erez Lichtfeld courtesy of CRIF)

PARIS (JTA) – Trailing in the polls and with elections just 10 weeks away, French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to one of his most reliable bases of support — French Jews — to drum up enthusiasm. On the morning of Feb. 8, Sarkozy met at Elysees Palace with released… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The link between hatred of Jews and of the only Jewish state often requires little conjecture. This is particularly so in the Arab world, where cultivated popular anti-Semitism has been ignored abroad as an impetus of regional conflict. For evidence that anti-Israel sentiment in the Middle… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In one corner was the Center for American Progress, or CAP, arguably Washington’s leading liberal think tank. In the other was Josh Block, a pugnacious former spokesman for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, who aggressively pushed the notion to reporters that CAP has an Israel… Read more »

The Arab upheavals of 2011 have inspired wildly inconsistent Western responses. How, for example, can one justify abiding the suppression of dissidents in Bahrain while celebrating dissidents in Egypt? Or protect Libyan rebels from government attacks but not their Syrian counterparts? Oppose Islamists taking over in Yemen but not… Read more »

Secular protesters march against Islamism in Tunis ahead of the Oct. 24 elections in Tunisia, Oct. 14, 2011. The placard reads "Free to speak to say nothing." (Houda Trablesi for Maghrebia, via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — It was an orderly, peaceful election — a rarity in the Arab world. And it was won by Islamists. How observers view the Tunisian elections and what they mean for the West, Israel and the North African country’s tiny Jewish community depends in part on which… Read more »

PHILADELPHIA (Jewish Exponent) — By now, the whole world knows the name and face of Joshua Fattal, the 29-year-old Elkins Park, Pa., native who spent 26 months in an Iranian prison before being reunited with his family last week in Oman and arriving back on U.S. soil on Sunday.… Read more »

RAMALLAH, West Bank (JTA) — The delegation of Israelis who traveled last week to the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, the Mukata in Ramallah, consisted mostly of the usual suspects. There were a few newcomers, such as Israeli tycoon Idan Ofer, but for the most part they… Read more »

Stone-throwing Palestinians clash with Israeli troops near the Kalandiya checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on the 63rd anniversary of the Nakba, May 15, 2011. (Nati Shohat/Flash90/JTA)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (JTA) — Clouds of tear gas hovered over hundreds of rioting Palestinian youths on the road to Jerusalem, where demonstrations marking the anniversary of Israel’s founding 63 years ago turned violent. “I want a third intifada,” said Ala Barghouti, a 21-year-old accounting student, his nostrils stuffed… Read more »

Former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Price will speak on “Change in the Arab World: Opportunity or Menace?” at a meeting of the Tucson chapter of Parents of North American Israelis on Sunday, April 10 at 10 a.m. at the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Price, a visiting scholar at the Arizona… Read more »

Jonathan Adelman

Jonathan Adelman, professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, will present “Revolutions in the Middle East: Are They Good for Israel?” at an event for the Northwest Division of the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona later this month. Adelman, who will speak… Read more »

Demonstrator with an anti-Gadhafi sign outside the Libya Embassy in Cairo shows his solidarity for Libyans protesting their leader, Feb. 22, 2011. (Sierragoddess via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — They were the devils they knew. Though Israel lives in a dangerous neighborhood, surrounded by countries whose leaders or people wish its destruction, over the years it had adjusted to the status quo, more or less figuring out how to get by while keeping an eye… Read more »

This is an extraordinary time for the Middle East, an unprecedented one, a glorious one – and it’s passing Israel by. Since Mubarak’s fall, we’re trying to be good sports, good losers, trying to grin and bear it, saying mabruk, congratulations, and all that. This week we’re rooting for… Read more »