The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Netherlands rose last year by 71 percent, and some police officers are unwilling to intervene, the Jewish community’s watchdog on anti-Semitism said. The Hague-based Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, recorded 171 incidents in 2014 compared to 100 in 2013, CIDI wrote in a statement…
Seventy-nine Democratic members of Congress told President Barack Obama that he should “persevere” in his efforts for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In a letter sent to Obama on Tuesday, the lawmakers wrote that they were concerned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pre-election comments “dismissing the possibility of a two-state solution” and appreciated…
A new Israeli air defense system being developed in partnership with the United States has passed advanced tests, the Israeli Defense Ministry said on Wednesday, putting it on course for possible deployment by next year. Defense sources said tests for David’s Sling took place last week and on Tuesday, the last day before a deadline…
(Reuters) — The Hungarian far-right leader Gabor Vona, founder of a since disbanded paramilitary group who made a career vilifying the Roma and Jews, has cleaned up his previously hardline image. Donning smart suits, he has softened his rhetoric and is wooing the mainstream voter, rather than any marginal groups. His personal makeover reflects his…
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin reversed his earlier comparison of President Obama to the biblical villain Haman, saying that Iran — not the president — is comparable to the ancient enemy of the Jews. In an interview Wednesday, Riskin, the American-born chief rabbi of the West Bank settlement of Efrat and the founder of New York City’s…
The Palestinian government would allow the International Criminal Court ample time to conduct an inquiry into possible war crimes during last year’s Gaza conflict, but would make a formal referral if it took too long, its foreign minister said. Speaking to Reuters after the Palestinian Authority became the ICC’s 123rd member on Wednesday, Riyad al-Maliki…
The Ukrainian Jewish billionaire Igor Kolomoisky resigned as governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region amid a dispute with President Petro Poroshenko over control of two state-owned firms. Kolomoisky, who has poured millions of his own wealth into preparing Ukraine’s army to fight against Russia, sent Poroshenko his resignation letter late last week, the news website evreiskiy.kiev.ua…
(Reuters) — A Palestinian man was lamenting his misfortune on Wednesday after selling his bombed-out doorway to a local artist without realizing that the image painted on it was by Banksy and could be worth a small fortune. Rabea Darduna, a father of six from northern Gaza, said he sold the iron-and-brick doorway of his…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday it was not too late for world powers locked in nuclear negotiations with Iran to demand a “better deal.” He made the comments before meeting in Jerusalem with the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner, a leading Republican and strong critic of the White…
Six world powers and Iran met again on Wednesday in a bid to reach a preliminary accord on reining in Tehran’s nuclear program, after failing to agree crucial details such as the lifting of U.N. sanctions by a midnight deadline. The negotiators ended talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne in the early morning hours….
A Tel Aviv-based NGO filed a war crimes complaint in the United States against Hamas leaders over the group’s firing of rockets at Ben Gurion Airport last summer. The Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center filed the complaint with the Department of Justice on Tuesday on behalf of 26 U.S. citizens who were at the airport near…
