President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy has spent the week shuttling between Jerusalem, Ramallah and the Jordanian capital Amman on his first official visit to the region, pursuing quiet diplomacy and avoiding controversy. A real estate lawyer who has worked for Trump for 20 years, Jason Greenblatt has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu, Palestinian…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Air Force targeted two Hamas positions in the northern Gaza Strip in response to a rocket fired from Gaza at southern Israel. The Hamas targets were hit overnight Thursday after a rocket fired from Gaza struck in an open area of the Sdot Negev Regional Council, located in southern Israel near…
Dutch center-right Prime Minister Mark Rutte fought off the challenge of anti-Islam and anti-EU rival Geert Wilders to score an election victory that was hailed across Europe on Thursday by governments facing a rising wave of nationalism. The euro gained as the results of Wednesday’s vote showed a clear win for Rutte, albeit with fewer…
Israeli startup Barkid has created a bracelet for parents to track their youngsters. The so-called “smart bracelet” connects to an app on the parents’ phone, which sends out an alert if the child ventures beyond a predetermined distance range. The bracelet is waterproof, dust proof and its battery lasts a year. Though it might seem…
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — The Guatemalan government partnered with the local Jewish community to launch an educational project to study the Holocaust. Another aim of the project is to promote the values of tolerance and respect, reported La Hora newspaper on Tuesday. “Studying the Holocaust allows young people to see the tragic consequences of currents and movements….
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured the residents of the evacuated outpost of Amona that he would honor his commitment to them to “build a new community,” hours before a meeting with an envoy of the Trump administration. Netanyahu was scheduled to meet Thursday, for the second time this week, with Jason…
(JTA) — A crowdsourcing campaign by a Jewish federation in Michigan is raising money for a local mosque damaged in an arson attack. The Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor has raised more than $3,000 since the campaign launched Monday on the Crowdrise website. Most of the donations are between $18 and $100, many of…
WASHINGTON (JTA) – An AIPAC affiliate paid $60,000 during its campaign to thwart the Iran nuclear deal to a group that engages in anti-Muslim extremism. Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, which was launched in the summer of 2015 to rally opposition to the Iran deal, paid the money to the Center for Security Policy,…
An Israel “cyber consultant” has reportedly been circulating fake documents that purport to show a shady deal between President Trump and Exxon Mobil to appoint the company’s former chief executive Rex Tillerson as secretary of state. According to BuzzFeed News, which obtained the false papers, the trove claims the Trump Organization real estate firm was…
(JTA) — President Donald Trump reportedly overruled a decision by National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster in order to keep a Jewish National Security Council aide in his current position. McMaster had told Ezra Cohen-Watnick, senior director for intelligence programs at the NSC, that he would be moved to a different position at the NSC after CIA…
I was in the waiting room at my doctor’s office when I struck up a conversation with two Hasidic women. They were only in their thirties, but between the two of them, they had 17 children. They braced themselves when I said I needed to pick their brains on something. “How do I get those…
