Norweigian white supremacist Anders Behring Breivik was ruled sane and sentenced to 21 years in prison, the longest possible term, for killing 77 people in a rampage on an scenic island camp. Smiling and giving a Nazi salute, the anti-Muslim activists looked pleased when a five-judge panel announced the decision, 13 months after his rampage…
Egypt’s Defense Minister reportedly told his Israeli counterpart that Egypt is committed to its peace accord with Israel. The call between by Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Israel’s Ehud Barak was initiated by el-Sissi, according to Al-Hayat, a London-based newspaper. The conversation between the two defense ministers is the highest-level direct contact between the neighboring…
A Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem complained to the Justice Ministry department that investigates police misconduct on Thursday after a police officer shocked him five times with an electric stun gun in front of his five children on Tuesday. The Palestinian, 42-year-old Talal Siad of the A-Tur neighborhood, was shot while out with his family…
The UN Economic and Social Council has named an Israeli NGO as a “special consultant” on assisting disabled children. The inclusion will allow Beit Issie Shapiro to “provide Israeli expertise in the field of disability rights and represent the innovations coming out of Israel,” according to the organization’s website. The Council has 54 member states,…
An advisory governmental institution in an Australian state is recommending that it ban non-medical circumcision on boys “except for religious reasons.” The Tasmania Law Reform Institute – whose task is to modernize state laws – recommended “the enactment of a new and separate offence generally prohibiting the circumcision of incapable minors in Tasmania.” The state…
Gabi Ashkenazi, the former Israeli military chief of staff, said that the threat to Israel from a nuclear Iran was not imminent. Ashkenazi, who was chief of staff from 2007 until February 2011, was filmed saying at a recent lecture: “Anyone who thinks that there’ll be an Iranian nuclear weapon when we wake up tomorrow…
Two conservative groups called on the Obama campaign to sever ties with a “radical” on its newly-released list of more than 600 rabbis who support the president’s reelection. The campaign rejected the demand. The Republican Jewish Coalition on Thursday “expressed profound outrage” that Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, a Renewal rabbi from California that the RJC described…
More than 150,000 applications have been submitted for restitution of Jewish owned property lost during the Holocaust. The number was reported by Project HEART – the Holocaust Era Asset Restitution Taskforce, which seeks to help individuals with restitution for property that was confiscated, looted, or forcibly sold during the Holocaust. It is a nonprofit initiative…
Israel’s President Shimon Peres urged his German counterpart Joachim Guack on Thursday to allow Jews to continue circumcising their children, in a letter calling on Germany to allow Jews to practice the ancient ritual. With the letter, Peres became the third Israeli leader who has tried pressure Germany over this issue, after a Cologne court…
Jewish community leaders in Australia are angry that the government is sending delegates to a summit in Iran, though they have been instructed to walk out at the first sign of “anti-Semitic rhetoric.” Dr. Danny Lamm, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the attendance of two Australian officials at the Non-Aligned Movement’s…
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will attend a meeting of the Non Aligned Movement countries next week in Tehran. The decision, announced Wednesday, comes despite calls from Israel, the United States and others for the UN head to skip the meeting as the world community works to convince to make its nuclear program more…
