Category: Israel

(JTA) — In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett addressed the twin threats of Iran and the coronavirus, in keeping with his quest for a relationship with the international community that is less confrontational than his predecessor’s. Bennett launched his speech Monday morning with a plea to […]

(JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces killed at least four Palestinians during an operation to arrest terrorist operatives in the West Bank. Two Israelis were seriously wounded by friendly fire in the operation overnight between Saturday and Sunday, though their condition is improving, according to the Israeli publication Ynet. Four of the Palestinians killed were […]

(JTA) — Hundreds of Iraqi civic leaders and activists attended a conference calling for the country to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. But Iraq’s government rejected the call, saying in a statement that the demand for normalization of ties with Israel “was not representative of the population’s [opinion] and that of residents in Iraqi […]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive congresswoman from New York, said she changed her vote from “no” to “present” on a bill for special funding for Israel’s anti-missile Iron Dome defense system because of the “panic and horror” that seized the moment. Ocasio-Cortez could be seen weeping on the floor of Congress Thursday after […]

(JTA) — More than 30 countries sat out the United Nations commemoration of the 2001 Durban conference, notorious among Jewish groups for devolving into antisemitism and virulent anti-Israel activism. “Thank you for your withdrawal from the 20th anniversary event of the UN’s Durban Conference,” Israel’s foreign ministry tweeted on Wednesday as country delegations, already in […]

(JTA) — An officer from the Israel Defense Forces will be reprimanded after he was filmed injuring and teargassing left-wing activists in the West Bank, with one video showing him kneeling on an activist’s neck. Multiple Israeli politicians condemned the officer’s conduct, with one defending it. The activists were attempting to bring water to a […]

(JTA) — Israel captured the remaining two Palestinian prisoners of the six who riveted the country with their escape from a maximum facility two weeks ago. Israeli police and army troops surrounded a building in Jenin in the West Bank on Saturday night. The two remaining prisoners emerged and surrendered. They were Iham Kamamji, 35, […]

(JTA) — Israel will not oppose the Biden administration’s efforts to reenter the Iran nuclear deal but wants to see a credible “Plan B” to rally international support for Iran’s isolation, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said. “The current U.S. approach of putting the Iran nuclear program back in a box, I’d accept that,” Gantz […]