European Union states struggled to agree on Tuesday on a common response to Israel’s plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, highlighting the divisions within the bloc over how to tackle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. At a meeting in Brussels, ambassadors responsible for security issues discussed the possibility of all 27 EU states writing to…
The sign for a Jewish center at Duke University was vandalized, the campus student newspaper reported. The Freeman Center for Jewish Life reported the graffiti to Duke Police on Sunday afternoon, the Duke Chronicle reported. The words Jewish in Freeman Center for Jewish Life and Rubinstein in Rubenstein-Silvers Hillel were crossed out with blue spray-paint….
Israel’s leading basketball team Maccabi Tel Aviv has suspended its captain for calling a rival player a Nazi. Guy Pnini, who was caught on video unleashing a string of insults at an Israeli opponent during a game earlier this week, was ousted from his position as captain until the end of the season, suspended until…
An Israeli court has awarded the country’s first divorce to a gay couple, which experts called an ironic milestone since same-sex marriages cannot be legally conducted in the Jewish state. A decision this week by a family court in the Tel Aviv area “determined that the marriage should be ended” between former Israeli lawmaker Uzi…
Israel’s President Shimon Peres welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Twitter with a tweet extolling Israel-Vatican ties. “Your holiness, welcome to Twitter. Our relations with the Vatican are at their best and can form a basis to further peace everywhere,” Peres tweeted Tuesday. Peres’ tweet to the pope came a day after the Vatican announced the…
French authorities reportedly have arrested a man and a woman in the Toulouse area on suspicion that they helped Mohammed Merah “commit crimes” that may have included the murder of four Jews. According to L’Express, a French daily, the two were arrested Tuesday morning. The French news service AFP named one of the suspects as…
For Benjamin Netanyahu, plans to expand Israeli settlements may risk a diplomatic crisis with Europe but could prove a good bet at the ballot box. With a Jan. 22 election looming, the Israeli leader has defied long-standing international opposition to settlements and announced plans to build at least 3,000 more homes in the occupied West…
Missing college student Lauren Spierer’s parents have slammed their daughter’s friends for “stonewalling” about key details from the night their daughter disappeared. In a new interview with ABC’s Katie Couric, Robert and Charlene Spierer, of suburban Greenburgh, N.Y. blasted their daughter’s friends at Indiana University for supposedly maintaining a code of silence about what happened…
Australia summoned the Israeli ambassador on Tuesday to protest against Israel’s decision to expand Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and withhold tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority. Australia’s move followed similar actions in Europe including Spain, France, Britain, Sweden and Denmark in the wake of the Palestinians winning de facto U.N….
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a landmark law that bars therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality in minors, but he applied the ruling to just three people. Two licensed therapists and one aspiring therapist filed a suit against the law, which is due to go into effect on Jan. 1. U.S….
Leaders of South Africa and the country’s Jewish community mourned the death of jurist and anti-apartheid activist Arthur Chaskalson. Chaskalson, who became the first president of South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitutional Court and the country’s chief justice, died Dec. 1 in Johannesburg at the age of 81. The cause of his death was reported to be…
