(JTA) — A draft Palestinian statehood resolution set to be introduced at the United Nations is counterproductive, the U.S. State Department said. “We don’t think this resolution is constructive,” State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters Monday at a regular news briefing. “We think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reachingContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel and the Palestinians held secret back-channel peace negotiations, the New Republic reported. The secret negotiations created substantial progress toward an agreement but collapsed when it became clear the Palestinian negotiator did not have the backing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to the article publishedContinue Reading
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Five Israelis were killed in a terror attack during morning prayers at a Jerusalem synagogue, including one Druze policeman who died hours after being injured in a shootout. Two Palestinian assailants entered the synagogue and rabbinical seminary in the Har Nof neighborhood of western Jerusalem and attacked worshippers onContinue Reading
(JTA) — More than 350 anthropologists from around the world have endorsed a boycott of Israel and its academic institutions.The statement was posted Oct. 1 on the website jadaliyya.com with 231 signatories and a call for others to add their names to the list. By last Friday, the list had reached 360Continue Reading
Shoshana Wineburg’s impassioned plea for “transparency” regarding BDS and other issues germane to the Israel-Palestinian conflict in her open letter to Ari Shavit (June 13) begs an obvious question: Short of unconditional surrender to Mahmoud Abbas and his kleptocratic Palestinian Authority, when might we expect some transparency on the partContinue Reading
By Felice Friedson, The Media Line “Most Palestinians want the [kidnapped Israeli] kids to be alive and to be found,” says Dr. Nabil Kukali, the founder and president of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, in an exclusive interview. “This will help the Palestinian cause.” Dr. Kukali spoke with TheContinue Reading
TORONTO (JTA) — Canadians were evenly split in their support for Israel and the Palestinians, according to a new poll. The survey by the Toronto-based Forum Research found that 17 percent of respondents sided with Israel in the Middle East conflict, while 16 percent favored the Palestinians. Fully 64 percentContinue Reading
By Nurit Asnash, Special to the Jewish Sound I had never heard about BDS (the boycott, divest and sanctions movement against Israel) until about a year ago when I attended an “Israeli Diversity Week” at Antioch University in Seattle. These three-day, 1-1/2-hour sessions were initiated by a courageous Israeli studentContinue Reading
By Abdullah H. Erakat, The Media Line [AL-QUDS UNIVERSITY] — The Palestinian professor who touched off a maelstrom of controversy by taking a group of students to visit the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps in Poland is now at odds with his former employer after the school accepted his resignation. Dr. MohammedContinue Reading
By Abdullah H. Erakat, The Media Line [RAMALLAH] — Dr. Hanan Ashrawi was the first woman elected to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Ashrawi served in Palestinian governments and is a former spokesperson for the Palestinian delegation to the Mideast peace talks, beginning with the MadridContinue Reading
With Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas threatening to dissolve the Palestinian Authority and peace negotiations faltering, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to be giving up hopes for an agreement by April 29. Read the story at the Jerusalem Post.Continue Reading
(JTA) — A meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators ended without an agreement to resume peace talks, a Palestinian official said. The meeting held Thursday in Jerusalem sought a framework that would allow talks to continue for another nine months. It lasted five hours, and the atmosphere was chilly, theContinue Reading
By Dikla Tuchman, Jewish Sound Correspondent “A good divorce is better sometimes than trying to share the same house,” Stanley Wulf told his audience Sunday’s presentation on behalf of J Street’s nationwide “2 Campaign” initiative. Wulf spoke at the Stroum Jewish Community Center on Mercer Island as part of theContinue Reading
