By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service TEL AVIV (JTA) — Isaac Herzog paces slowly up and down the stage, one hand in his suit pocket, a slight smile forming through his slender lips. Quietly, his heavy breath audible through the microphone, the center-left candidate for prime minister runs downContinue Reading
(JTA) — In his address to Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the proposed nuclear deal being negotiated with Iran will lead inexorably to a nuclear-armed Iran and war in the Middle East. “This deal has two major concessions: One, leaving Iran with a vast nuclear program, andContinue Reading
By JTA World News Service Full text of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress, March 3, 2015. As delivered: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing a joint meeting of Congress; here is a complete transcript of his remarks. NETANYAHU: Thank you. (APPLA– USE) ThankContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told top Senate Democrats he regretted that his planned address to the U.S. Congress is being perceived as partisan, as President Barack Obama’s top security adviser said the speech was “destructive.” Netanyahu wrote Tuesday to decline anContinue Reading
By Ben Sales, JTA World News Service RAMAT GAN, Israel (JTA) — When Isaac Herzog learned that his Zionist Union party had won the election with 32 percent of the vote, he posted a triumphant status update on Facebook. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had failed, Herzog wrote on Sunday, andContinue Reading
By Julie Wiener, JTA World News Service Commentary magazine called it “flood libel.” HonestReporting.com described it as “dam busted.” And Camera headlined it “Dam Lies.” Agence France Presse’s report earlier this week falsely alleging that Israel intentionally opened a large dam in the South in order to unleash floods upon Gaza’s already beleagueredContinue Reading
By Batya Ungar-Sargon, JTA World News Service Inhale your arms up into warrior one. Exhale and extend your arms into warrior two. I followed the instructor’s soft but firm voice as she led me and five other women through the yoga poses, and the deep breathing helped to calm my nerves. TheContinue Reading
(JTA) — Slightly more Americans favor the establishment of an independent Palestinian state than those opposed, a new poll found. Forty-two percent of the 837 Americans surveyed by Gallup backed a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, while 38 percent were against one, according to the poll releasedContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas and Uriel Heilman, JTA World News Service NEW YORK — Round 2 in the judicial wars between Israel and the PLO went to Israel, and Israel isn’t about to let the Palestinians forget it. A New York jury on Monday ordered the Palestine Liberation Organization and theContinue Reading
By Ron Kampeas, JTA World News Service WASHINGTON (JTA) — As clearly as Jeb Bush has stated that he does not want his foreign policy chops assessed against that of his brother — or his father — his choice in advisers has only made things murkier. Of 21 advisers to theContinue Reading
(JTA) — A threat on “American or Jewish” shopping centers by the terrorist group responsible for the deadly 2013 attack on a Kenya mall has the U.S. security apparatus calling on the public to be vigilant. Al-Shabab, a Somali group affiliated with al-Qaida, posted a video over the weekend about theContinue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service As a longtime promoter of Jewish-Muslim dialogue in Denmark, Naveed Baig is no stranger to Copenhagen’s Great Synagogue. The imam at the capital’s Danish Islamic Center, Baig, 39, has on numerous occasions sat under the structure’s gold-and-white ceiling meeting with people he calls his “JewishContinue Reading
By Suzanne Pollak and Geoffrey W. Melada, JTA/Washington Jewish Week Rabbi Barry Freundel, the former spiritual leader at a prominent Washington synagogue, pleaded guilty to 52 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. The plea Thursday means that Freundel could be sentenced to a maximum penalty of 52 years in prison and orderedContinue Reading
By Abby Sher, Jewniverse via JTA When an animal species is on the edge of extinction, there are plenty of ways to do your part (adopt an African rhino, anyone?). But what do we do when a language in in critical danger of becoming extinct? There are approximately 6,500 distinct languages spokenContinue Reading
(JTA) — Muslims in Norway plan to form what they are calling a “peace ring” around an Oslo synagogue following Sabbath services. More than 800 people have signed up on a Facebook page called Frendens Ring, or Friendship Ring, to participate in the gesture on Saturday. The human ring isContinue Reading
(JTA) — Copenhagen police are holding two men suspected of aiding the gunman in separate deadly shootings in the Dutch capital, including on a synagogue. In a statement Monday, police said that the men are “suspected of aiding and abetting the perpetrator in connection with the shooting attacks” at aContinue Reading
(JTA) — A woman in Boise, Idaho, allegedly harassed and physically attacked her Jewish neighbor in order to convince her to convert to Christianity. Marguerite Haragan, 58, was charged last week with two counts of malicious harassment in the attack, which police have labeled a hate crime, the KTVB televisionContinue Reading
By Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA World News Service (JTA) — From the window of the Jewish Community of Copenhagen’s crisis center, Finn Schwarz can see his country changing before his eyes. Hours after the slaying of a guard outside the Danish capital’s main synagogue early Sunday morning, two police officers toting machineContinue Reading
By Edmon J. Rodman, JTA World News Service LOS ANGELES (JTA) — Who is the Haman in your life? The person, who like the bad guy in the Megillah Esther that we read on Purim, schemes to bring you down. When we get to the place in the Megillah whereContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The remains of an 85-million-year-old reptile — the oldest fossils ever found in Israel — were identified in the Arava Desert. Some 30 fossils belonging to the Elasmosaurus, a large carnivorous reptile, were discovered in the southern Israeli desert. The ancient reptile, a carnivore considered a “cousin”Continue Reading
