Former U.S. Democratic Senator George McGovern, who lost to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election, is “no longer responsive” and is surrounded by family and friends at a hospice center in South Dakota, his family said on Wednesday. McGovern, 90, was admitted to hospice in Sioux Falls “with a combination of medical conditions, due…
A major Israeli attack on Gaza would not curb growing extremism in the Palestinian enclave, with the ruling Islamist group Hamas itself struggling to quell radicalism, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday. Voicing concern about a recent influx of increasingly potent weaponry into the Gaza Strip, the director of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs…
Jewish groups pulled out of an upcoming meeting with Protestant colleagues over a letter from Christian leaders to congressmen calling for a possible suspension of U.S. aid to Israel. “While we remain committed to continuing our dialogue and our collaboration on the many issues of common concern, the letter represents an escalation in activity that…
Jerusalem police arrested the leader of Women of the Wall for singing at the Western Wall. Anat Hoffman was arrested Tuesday evening for “disturbing public order.” The organization posted on its Facebook page Wednesday afternoon that Hoffman was in court. “She is being accused of singing out loud at the kotel, disturbing peace,” the post…
Israel calculated the number of calories Palestinians would need to avoid malnutrition under its blockade of the Gaza Strip, according to a study which the Supreme Court forced the government to release. “It was part of a research paper that came up in two discussions and that we never made use of,” Defence Ministry official…
More than 1,000 people bid farewell on Tuesday to former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter at a service featuring tributes by family and dignitaries and concluding with Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.” Specter died at his Philadelphia home on Sunday after battling non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was 82. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and former Pennsylvania Governor Ed…
European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has unveiled a model bill designed to set “strict legal terms” on religious freedoms in order to enshrine them in Europe. Kantor, who is also co-chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, or ECTR, presented the model bill on Oct. 15 at the European Parliament. Designed to…
Italy’s prime minister promised Italian Jews he would stand beside them in the fight against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. “We know that anti-Semitism has not been eradicated in Europe,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said at a ceremony Tuesday night marking the 69th anniversary of the World War II round-up and deportation of 1,024 Roman…
President Barack Obama scored a hit on Mitt Romney when the challenger stumbled over the attack in Benghazi, Libya in the second presidential debate, while the GOP candidate tried to use the topic to raise the issue of relations with Israel. Responding to Obama’s pledge to investigate the circumstances of an attack that killed four…
An Egyptian Coptic Christian arrested on suspicion of posting online an anti-Islam film that ignited Muslim protests around the world should be freed immediately, Amnesty International said on Tuesday. Computer science graduate Alber Saber was detained by police in Cairo last month after his neighbours accused him of uploading sections of the film “Innocence of…
The Pakistani teenage girl who was shot in the head for speaking out against the Taliban was honored at an Anti-Defamation League concert. ADL National Director Abraham Foxman dedicated Monday night’s 18th annual Concert Against Hate at the Kennedy Center in Washington to Malala Yousafzai, who spoke out for education for females. Foxman led an…
