Author: David Leibermann

(JTA) — Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s new far-right security minister, visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Tuesday, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly urged him to delay the visit because of security concerns. The visit to the site, considered the holiest in Judaism and the third-holiest in Islam, was treated as a provocation by […]

(JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu completed his stunning return to power by swearing into office a historically right-wing government coalition and beginning an unprecedented sixth stint as Israeli prime minister on Thursday. After winning a decisive mandate in November elections, Netanyahu spent several weeks negotiating with figures once relegated to the far-right fringes of Israeli politics […]

(JTA) — Former MLB All-Stars Brad Ausmus and Kevin Youkilis have joined Team Israel as coaches ahead of the 2023 World Baseball Classic. The team’s manager, Ian Kinsler, a former Jewish MLB All-Star himself — and a former Team Israel player — announced the news Tuesday on the Flippin’ Bats baseball podcast hosted by Ben […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The op-ed was typical of the Wall Street Journal’s conservative editorial page, extolling the virtues of moderation in all things. The difference was that the author of the piece published Wednesday, Bezalel Smotrich, has a reputation for extremism, and the political landscape he was imagining is in Israel, not America. Experts who […]

(JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu has signed agreements with the leaders of three far-right political parties that, together with his own Likud party, will form the next Israeli coalition government. On Twitter, Netanyahu, the incoming prime minister, also released his own list of principles for the next government, including among them indications of the governing partners’ […]

(JTA) — Rabbi Chaim Druckman, whose mission was to unite the people of Israel, was father to a movement now poised to sow some of its deepest divisions in decades. Druckman, who died Sunday at 90 after contracting COVID-19, was a giant in the religious Zionism movement, which sought to integrate the two preeminent philosophies […]

KIBBUTZ HAZOREA, Israel — Throughout high school, Ben rarely did his homework, struggled to complete school assignments and used marijuana on a daily basis. Frustrated with his situation, Ben, 18, decided in early September to leave his U.S. home and enroll in Free Spirit Experience — an in-residence therapy program in Israel’s Carmel Mountains. Three […]

(JTA) – Late into the fourth night of Hanukkah in Israel on Wednesday, incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had successfully formed a new government coalition after more than five weeks of negotiations. There are some asterisks: Netanyahu hasn’t officially signed any coalition deals yet with other parties (he has until 48 hours […]

JERUSALEM (JTA) — With only a short time before he is expected to leave office when a new Israeli government forms, the man responsible for building ties between the world’s Jews and the state of Israel did not hold back Monday night about how hard that task could soon become. Nachman Shai, Israel’s outgoing minister of […]

KIBBUTZ GEZER, Israel (JTA) — Bill James, the influential baseball writer, historian and statistician, once described the great Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly in only four words: “100% ballplayer, 0% bulls—.” The same can be said of Alon Leichman, the first athlete born in Israel to make it to the major leagues, having just been named […]