Cabinet members who oppose a strike on Iran said Kadima head Shaul Mofaz might backtrack and align with the more hawkish Benjamin Netanyahu, now that the two are in the same government. Mofaz, who has consistently opposed an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, joined the Netanyahu government on Tuesday despite having called the prime…
At least 40 people have been killed and 170 wounded in twin bomb blasts in the Syrian capital of Damascus. One of the bombs hit a military intelligence building just as many employees were arriving at work, according to reports. The Syrian government, whose violent crackdown against those who oppose President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule has…
The U.S House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation that reaffirms and enhances U.S. policy commitments to Israel’s security. The United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, which was sponsored by House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), passed by a vote of 411-2. The legislation…
Hundreds of Jews gathered on Tunisia’s Djerba Island as part of a pilgrimage to the 2,500-year-old El Ghriba synagogue. Some 500 European Jews and 1,000 Jewish Tunisians made the journey Wednesday to celebrate the yahrzeit, or anniversary of the death, of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, the 2nd-century Torah scholar and author of the Zohar, the…
The editor of a national broadsheet newspaper in Australia apologized to the Jewish community for a headline which accused Israel of “cruel apartheid.” Nick Cater, editor of the Weekend Australian newspaper, admitted this week that the headline to a story in the May 5 newspaper – titled “Living under the cloud of Israel’s cruel apartheid”…
Archaeologists at a controversial site in the Elah Valley Tuesday announced a discovery that should further stir up the scholarly debate over the Bible’s historical veracity. Two small containers, one of clay and one of stone, unearthed at Khirbet Qeiyafa near Beit Shemesh, are believed to be the first-ever archaeological evidence of Judean ritual dating…
Tel Aviv University’s dean of students recently approved a ceremony to commemorate Nakba Day, to take place on campus on Monday, May 14th. Nakba is the Arabic word for catastrophe, and for Israeli Arabs, Nakba day marks the anniversary of the evens of 1948. In January, the High Court of Justice upheld the controversial Nakba…
David Berkowitz, the New York serial killer known as “Son of Sam,” was denied parole for a sixth time. A New York prison parole board made the decision on Tuesday to deny Berkowitz, 58, who has spent 35 years behind bars. He will be eligible for another parole hearing in two years. Berkowitz admitted to…
After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finished celebrating the aftermath of the political bombshell that he had dropped on Israel by bringing in Kadima into the government, he freed up Wednesday to deal with a different bomb. On Wednesday afternoon, the prime minister met with European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Catherine Ashton, who arrived in Israel…
The attorney general will soon decide whether to file charges against Mohammed Bakri, director of the controversial film “Jenin, Jenin,” which implies that Israel Defense Forces soldiers committed war crimes in a 2002 military operation in the Palestinian refugee camp. Yehuda Weinstein called a meeting to discuss the possibility of charging Bakri and whoever assisted…
“The Jewish identity is in danger and you are the gatekeepers,” political newcomer Yair Lapid told audience members Tuesday at the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement in Atlanta. “Judaism shouldn’t be the jailhouse of ideas but a liberator of ideas; not a disintegrator of people but what brings people together,” he added. Speaking on…
