Orly Halpern
By Orly Halpern
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News Israel Defends Boycott of Unity Government
Jerusalem – Just days after Palestinians formed a new unity government between the moderate Fatah and militant Hamas parties, Israel this week found itself struggling to defend an international boycott of the Palestinians that was rapidly crumbling. Last Sunday, March 18, one day after the new Palestinian government was sworn in, Israel’s Cabinet voted to…
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News House of Saud Mulls Building Hotel on Tel Aviv Beachfront
Jerusalem – It is unclear how the elaborate courtship between Israeli and Saudi government officials will play out in advance of the upcoming Arab League Summit in Riyadh. But some Jewish and Arab businessmen are already looking to tie the knot on a deal that could lead to the development of a Saudi-financed hotel in…
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News Jerusalem Takes a Fresh Look at Maligned Vision for Arab Equality
Jerusalem – After an initial barrage of hostile comments from a broad spectrum of Israeli Jews, the so-called Future Vision document on Arab-Jewish relations in Israel — prepared by a group of top Israeli-Arab public figures — is quietly getting a closer look from some of the Jewish state’s leading institutions. A senior official in…
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News Scandal-weary Israeli Public Enraged by Tainted Top Cop Pick
Jerusalem – Israel saw the resignation this week of its police commissioner following the thunderous release a report on the investigation into the worst law-enforcement scandal in the history of the Jewish state. Most Israelis saw the departure of Moshe Karadi — as well as the head of the Tax Authority in a separate scandal…
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News Pluralist Body Blames Rabbis for Reopening ‘Who Is a Jew?’ Crisis
Jerusalem – Israel’s ongoing clash over conversion to Judaism, the so-called “Who is a Jew?” debate, flared into crisis again last month when a state-funded religious academy, created to ease the would-be convert’s path, declared that it was freezing referrals of candidates to state-run rabbinical courts for conversion until the chief rabbinate appoints new and…
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News Israeli Society Split By A Kiss
Jerusalem – The latest faux-form letter making the rounds here is called “The Kissing Contract As Per the Ramon Rule,” and men and women across Israel are passing it around by e-mail with a chuckle — and in some cases, bitterness. The four-point contract permits a man to kiss a woman on the “mouth/cheek/forehead/other* (herein:…
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News Experts Question Wisdom of Boycotting Hamas
Jerusalem – As Palestinian leaders set off for Mecca this week in the latest effort at Hamas-Fatah peace talks, well-placed sources in Jerusalem were speaking of growing doubts within Israeli officialdom over the current policy of boycotting Hamas. “People in different government agencies are well aware of the problematic nature of the present policy and…
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News Israeli Leaders Push for Diplomacy With Sunni Arabs
Herzliya, Israel – Israel’s most prestigious annual gathering of national security strategists, meeting here under the shadow of Iranian threats and Palestinian violence, heard a succession of Israel’s highest-ranking officials call for renewed diplomacy as the best way to keep Israel safe. Defying a rash of international speculation that either Israel or America is planning…
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