With impeccable timing, a broadly representative group of Israeli Knesset members sent a joint letter to Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday and asked him to work to free confessed spy Jonathan Pollard from federal prison in honor of the Passover holiday and “as an expression of the good relations and friendship between our two…
So, it’s a year since the general election that resulted in the current Israeli government. Are Israelis happy with the outcome? How would they vote today? If you cast your mind back a year, the now-ruling Likud didn’t actually “win” the election — a fact the whole world seems to have forgotten. The largest party…
The threatened Knesset investigation of the New Israel Fund by the Israeli right has been halted, for now, following several angry phone calls to Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin from irate American Jewish communal leaders, warning that an Israeli investigation could backfire on other Jewish organizations involved in Israel. Abe Foxman of ADL is quoted telling…
So they say that an army marches on its stomach. Is the success of the Israeli cabinet also based on its nourishment? There are clear similarities between feeding an army and feeding the Israeli cabinet, most obviously the sheer quantity of food required. In Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s panic to pull together a coalition, he…
While the attention of world Jewry was riveted on the United Nations, Israel’s Knesset quietly gave initial approval on September 22 to legislation that’s intended to ease the process of conversion to Judaism in Israel. The bill authorizes local rabbis to perform conversions at the request of would-be converts, permitting converts to seek out friendly…
You may have heard about the White House fly. But have you heard about the Knesset cockroach? Shas secretary Tzvika Yakobson discovered the roach in his meal on Tuesday. The unkosher bug caused the Knesset management to close the two kosher meat cafeterias immediately for inspection and kashering. One Shas official reportedly called the incident…
It’s just days after the general election, and Likud and Kadima are at it again — arguing over the issue of territory. But if you’re getting the impression that the two parties have stopped bickering over who won the election and started talking about Israel’s peacemaking policy, you are mistaken. Instead, think teen movies and…
One Member of the Knesset issued an ethics claim against himself after he got into a drunken argument with nightclub security guards; another MK attempted to diagnose a “sexual perversion”; still another was arrested for smuggling 25,000 Ecstasy tablets into Israel. And a fellow parliamentarian delivered a moving eulogy for a colleague who was still…
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