Author: David Leibermann

TEL AVIV and JERUSALEM (JTA) — It was the day before Israel’s Nov. 1 election. In a classroom in downtown Jerusalem, Avi Rose was teaching  about Jewish identity through art to a group of Jewish students from abroad spending a gap year in Israel. Suddenly, movement outside caught his eye. Rose stopped his lecture and approached […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel will not cooperate with an FBI investigation into the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American journalist who died in May in an exchange of fire between Palestinian and Israeli troops, Israel’s defense minister said. “The American Justice Department’s decision to investigate the regrettable death of Shireen Abu Akleh is […]

TEL AVIV (JTA) — Taking aim at claims made by Israel’s opposition leaders, including opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, America’s top diplomatic representative to Israel shot down claims that the U.S.-brokered deal on gas and maritime borders between Israel and Lebanon was a surrender to Hezbollah. “That is ridiculous,” Ambassador Tom Nides told the Jewish Telegraphic […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — In 2019, when then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in talks with an extremist party to coordinate election tactics, the message from the U.S. Jewish community was clear: Don’t. That’s no longer the case now that the former prime minister is once again working with Otzma Yehudit and its leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to […]

(JTA) — For the first time, players currently on Major League Baseball rosters are joining Team Israel in next year’s World Baseball Classic — and there could be a lot of them. As many as 12 current Major Leaguers could be playing for Israel in the event, set for Miami in March. They include Baltimore […]

(JTA) — Two weeks ahead of an Israeli election in which he is campaigning to allow security forces to shoot stone-throwers, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the extremist Otzma Yehudit party, drew his pistol during a confrontation in eastern Jerusalem. The incident took place after several days of clashes in Jerusalem sparked by the killing […]

(JTA) — Concerned that progressive values widely held by American Jews were fueling growing skepticism about the Jewish state, the Israeli government launched an unprecedented plan to counter the trend, according to internal documents obtained by the Israeli watchdog newsroom Shomrim. The documents reveal a $2.3 million partnership between Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and the […]

(JTA) — Australia’s new left-leaning government is reversing the decision made nearly four years ago under a conservative administration to move the country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in December 2018 that Australia would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The move put him in line with then-U.S. President Donald Trump, […]

(JTA) — Intelligence officials say Russia has removed troops and an air defense system from Syria, removing a factor that until now has inhibited Israel from assisting Ukraine in defending itself from Russia’s war against the country. Israel has delivered substantial humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the war’s launch but has resisted calls from the […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration rejected comparisons between Russia’s annexation of parts of Ukraine and Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. “We categorically reject the blanket comparison between [Israel’s occupation and] the actions of the Kremlin – Russia in this case – that has launched and waged a brutal war of aggression against another […]