This is the Forward’s coverage of Israel, the Jewish state in the Middle East founded in 1948.
Israel
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Fast Forward Palestinian Hunger Striker Released to Gaza Exile
A hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner was exiled by Israel to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said. The deal involving Ayman Sharawneh, whose case had helped fuel Palestinian protests, could reduce friction ahead of Wednesday’s two-day visit by U.S. President Barack Obama to Israel and Palestinian territory. Sharawneh, 37, from the Hebron area in…
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Life ‘Voice’ Contestant Heads to Finals Despite Controversy
It appears that Ophir Ben-Shetreet’s suspension from her religious girls high school for singing in public on Israel’s “The Voice” has had no effect on her performance. Ben-Shetreet has beat out 11 other competitors on mentor Aviv Geffen’s team to reach the show’s second season final round, which will be broadcast live next Saturday from…
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Fast Forward Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon May Be Voice of Moderation on Iran
Although Benjamin Netanyahu’s next defence minister shares his deep distrust of the Palestinians, the two could yet clash about when – and whether – Israel should go to war with Iran. Ex-general Moshe Yaalon is a loyalist of Netanyahu’s Likud party who, as a senior if sometimes sidelined member of the outgoing coalition government, routinely…
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Fast Forward Moshe Yaalon Picked as Israel Defense Minister
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday chose Moshe Yaalon, an ex-general and vice premier from his right-wing Likud party, to be Israel’s next defence minister, a government official said. Yaalon, 62, spent the past four years in Netanyahu’s inner circle of ministers, routinely boosting the rightist prime minister and his strategic outlook. He shares the…
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Culture Palestine Might Still Be A Better Name Than Israel
‘He’s not going to give up one inch of Eretz Israel,” New York Times columnist Roger Cohen quotes Israeli political scientist Shlomo Avineri as saying of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 15. And Cohen adds, by way of explanation, “Eretz Israel is a biblical term widely used to refer to the area between the…
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Opinion Is Israel a Special Case?
As the blunt ax of sequestration begins its crude work, chopping federal expenditures with no purpose or sense of priority, it’s no wonder that those who work to secure and protect American aid to Israel are worried. That $3.1 billion pays for more than a military shopping list every year. It’s an outward representation of…
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Opinion The Messages in Obama’s Israel Itinerary
President Obama’s itinerary for his upcoming visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank contains messages both direct and subtle. And one of the subtler messages seems to be embedded in his decision to visit the Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit in Jerusalem. In case the intended message passes you by: When President Obama spoke to…
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Fast Forward Barack Obama’s Israeli Classmates Don’t Remember Him From Columbia
Among those Israelis vying for the attention of Barack Obama as he prepares for his visit here next week, one fairly large, yet little-known group can claim a special long-standing connection to the U.S. president: We were his classmates in the Columbia University undergraduate class of 1983. As of the latest count, there are close…
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Culture Why do Jews eat Chinese food on Christmas?
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Culture We tried to fix Hallmark’s Hanukkah problem. Here’s the movie we made instead
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Fast Forward Vance says ‘religious liberty is a Christian concept.’ Where does that leave Jews?
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News Ben Shapiro is mounting a last stand against right-wing antisemitism. It’s not going well.
In Case You Missed It
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Opinion What if Donald Trump puts his name on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum?
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Fast Forward Israel becomes first country to recognize Somaliland, drawing condemnation from Egypt, Turkey and Somalia
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Opinion ‘Jesus is a Palestinian,’ claims a Times Square billboard. Um, not quite
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Fast Forward 82 years after his plane was shot down in China, Jewish WWII pilot Morton Sher is laid to rest at home
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