Egypt’s Islamist president has given the army temporary power to arrest civilians to help secure a constitutional referendum seen by the Muslim Brotherhood as a triumph for democracy and by its liberal foes as a religious straitjacket. President Mohamed Mursi, bruised by the political uproar in which protesters have besieged his graffiti-besmirched palace to demand…
The European Union will look at ways on Monday to press Israel to ditch a plan to build settlements in a highly sensitive area of the occupied West Bank, but hold off on tough action soon despite international outrage over the decision. Some officials say that options for robust steps against Israel are limited due…
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is weighing up whether to make a bid for The Financial Times Group, which includes the namesake paper and a half interest in The Economist magazine, the New York Times reported, citing three people close to the mayor. Pearson Plc, the publisher of FT, is about to lose two…
Two members of Congress met in Bolivia with an American-Jewish businessman who has been jailed there without charges for 18 months. Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) arrived late last week to seek the release of Jacob Ostreicher, a haredi Orthodox father of five and grandfather of 11 from Brooklyn, N.Y., who has…
Bar Refaeli is getting heat again — this time for a picture showing the Israeli model in a Santa suit. Refaeli posted the photo last week on her Instagram account with the caption “Good Morning Santa,” according to Shalom Life. The hat is drawn over her eyes; Shalom Life said “it’s safe to assume that…
Arab states agreed to provide the Palestinian Authority with a $100 million monthly “financial safety net” to help President Mahmoud Abbas’s government cope with an economic crisis after the United Nations granted de facto statehood to Palestine. Israel has responded to the Nov. 29 U.N. vote by ordering 3,000 Jewish settler homes be built in…
The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces fundraiser that singer Stevie Wonder pulled out of raised more than $14 million. More than 1,400 people attended the event in Los Angeles to aid Israeli soldiers. Entertainment mogul Haim Saban and his wife, Cheryl chaired the gala. Saban is a national board member of the Friends of…
Israel’s Cabinet approved a temporary exemption for haredi Orthodox yeshiva students from the military draft. The exemption, passed Sunday in the wake of the expiration of the Tal Law that had allowed haredi men to defer army service, provides a framework for the yeshiva students to join the National Service program in place of being…
Leaders of the feuding Palestinian factions, the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza and the secular Fatah government in the West Bank, urged reconciliation between the two former foes on Sunday despite diverging policies on Israel. Fatah and Hamas have been at loggerheads since the latter pulled off a surprise win in 2006 parliamentary polls. A…
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told an Israeli television news magazine that he decided not to run in the upcoming elections due to rifts in the Center-Left political camp. Olmert, former head of the Kadima Party, also threw his support behind current Kadima Party leader Shaul Mofaz, during an interview Saturday night on Israel…
Several Middle Eastern media reported that Sudan captured a vulture which the country’s officials say Israel fitted with spy equipment. According to the online edition of the Egyptian daily El Balad, the vulture was captured in the town of Kereinek in the Darfur region in Sudan’s west and that the finding prompted Sudanese authorities to…
