Published by DPA Face mask requirements are about to end for most indoor settings in Israel thanks to a recent sharp drop in case counts, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced on Wednesday. The new rules take effect on Saturday. Masks will still be needed in places where medical care is […]
Israel Lifting Many Indoor Mask Requirements Read More »
Middle East
By Yaakov Lappin (JNS) The current draft of the Iran nuclear deal should “not be signed under any circumstances,” a former Israeli national security adviser has warned. Brig. Gen. (res.) Professor Jacob Nagel, who served as acting national security adviser to former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and who was the former head of Israel’s National
By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — On the first day of Passover, I left a store and entered my car only to look up and spot two bizarre signs on the wall — one warning of death in “hell-fire” for anyone who kills a son of Islam and the second crediting Muslims for building the
Israeli Police Vs. Circular Logic Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, Opinion
(JNS) For the first time in human-rights history, an international mega-corporation has attempted to coerce a licensee into food apartheid. This unprecedented contractual demand has provoked a turning-point lawsuit that asks whether it is legal to attempt to force a food licensee to discriminate against entire communities, especially ethnic ones. More distilled, the lawsuit asks
Ben & Jerry’s Tries to Force Food Apartheid Read More »
Edwin Black, Middle East, Opinion, USA
By Mike Wagenheim (JNS) Israeli security forces got what they were seeking: quiet. And, to some extent, Arab rioters got what they wanted: a depressed turnout. With Jerusalem on edge and the threat of violence palpable, Monday morning’s Birkat Kohanim prayer service at the Western Wall (Kotel) and activities on the overlooking Temple Mount went
Subdued Holiday Blessing at Western Wall as Tensions Clamped to Keep the Calm Read More »
Middle East
From PJ Library comes two Passover-related books suitable for reading to children. Meet the Matzah is the kind of silly story that children will giggle over. In this case, different kinds of breads and matzah have been anthropomorphized as students in a classroom where they learn about all kinds of holidays and the breads that are served. For example, one might eat naan during the Hindu festival of Diwali and tortillas on the Mexican holiday of Dia de los Muertos. [Donald H. Harrison]
PJ Library Serves Up Stories About Passover and Mimouna Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish Religion, Middle East
By Elior Amar (JNS) On one Tuesday night in February, a small group of Jewish students at UC Santa Cruz, where I serve as a shaliach (Israeli emissary) for the Jewish Agency for Israel, logged into the weekly Zoom meeting of the Student Union Assembly to support the adoption of a working definition of antisemitism. The
Parents: Encourage Your Children to Participate in Student Government Read More »
California, Middle East, Opinion, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
By Yaakov Lappin (JNS) Iran is gradually assembling the building blocks necessary to construct ballistic missiles with very long ranges, an Israeli missile and space expert has said, adding that Islamic Republic’s elite military Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “can reach space.” Iran’s space program uses ballistic-missile technology to launch spy satellites into orbit around
Iran Assembles ‘Building Blocks for Long-Range Ballistic Missiles’ Read More »
International, Middle East, USA
Almost all arguments about Israel revolve around one or more of the following themes: security, collective identity, freedom, and territory. Authors Gringras and Sterne help us to conceptualize these arguments with a series of analogies. They challenge us to argue, in the classic sense of the word, about right and wrong in the hope that we may learn from each other. Arguments are different from fights; they are mental exercises, not physical, and they are laid out methodically, with each side trying to educate the other using such tools as logic and empathy. [Donald H. Harrison]
Reframing the Arguments in Israel and the Palestinian Authority Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education
By Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D JERUSALEM — The Temple Mount is an area a bit less than 40 acres and seen as holy by Muslims, Jews, and Christians. With the confluence this year of Ramadan, Passover, and Easter, it’s the focus of active conflict, especially between extremist Muslims and Jews. Recently there has been conflict, with
The Temple Mount: Small Area, Intense Conflict Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, Opinion
(JNS) More than a thousand people gathered in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates on April 15 to celebrate the Passover seder, the largest one to ever take place in the UAE. “Our community continues to grow and prosper here in the UAE, coupled with the renewed flow of Israelis and Jews
Passover in UAE: 1,000 People Take Part in History-Making Seder Read More »
Middle East
By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — As Passover approaches the word “tradition” assumes increasing prominence in the lives of Jews — and Israelis. Each ethnic group, and each family, has its own traditions regarding the way the festival is celebrated (cue musical interlude “Tradition” from “Fiddler on the Roof”). This was brought home to
By Jacob Kamaras (JNS) Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, while serving as a mediator in the Russia-Ukraine war as well as grappling with a wave of terrorism in Israel and the collapse of his governing coalition, has dealt with anything but “good news” in the weeks leading up to Passover. But just in time for
First Rehabilitation Hospital in Israel’s Negev Poised to Put Region ‘On the Map’ Read More »
Jacob Kamaras, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USABy Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — Terror attacks in Israel are so alarming that the first fatal assault could well have inspired a copycat crime 5,400 miles west — in Lakewood, N.J. Four people, all reportedly Orthodox Jews, were injured when a suspect embarked on a violent crime spree Friday in Lakewood and neighboring Jackson
Tracking the Trail of Terror Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, Opinion, USA