Close to 90 congressional Democrats urge Biden to sanction Israeli ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir

WASHINGTON — Close to 90 Democrats in Congress, including eight Jewish officials, are calling on President Joe Biden to use his lame-duck period to sanction two far-right Israeli ministers. Both ministers have pushed for Israeli annexation of part or all of the West Bank, a policy that the incoming Donald Trump administration may support. The […]

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Amid their return to kibbutzes ravaged by Hamas, 400 Israelis head to NYC for a brief respite

On a sleepy Tuesday evening on the Upper West Side, the basement of Reform synagogue Rodeph Sholom was brimming with noise, energy and approximately 400 Israelis.  The congregation was hosting Thanks4Giving, a pre-Thanksgiving dinner and gala that celebrated its guests: the civilian guards — and their families — of kibbutzes and other agricultural communities on the […]

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‘Wanted’ posters at U of Rochester target Hillel director, Netanyahu’s brother and others with ‘ties’ to Israel

When the director of the local Jewish federation first saw the hundreds of red, white and black posters plastered around the University of Rochester’s campus last weekend, an eerie comparison came to her mind. They “looked a little bit like the ‘Kidnapped’ posters,” recalled Meredith Dragon of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, referring to […]

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CIA official charged with violating Espionage Act for leaking documents revealing Israel’s plans to attack Iran

A CIA official was charged with violating the Espionage Act after the FBI found him responsible for a recent leak of classified documents revealing Israeli plans to attack Iran. The man, Asif W. Rahman, was indicted last week in federal court in Virginia on two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information, […]

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Cornell’s handling of a new course on Gaza could preview campus Israel battles under Trump

Three weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack in Israel, a Jewish professor at Cornell University named Eric Cheyfitz offered a “teach-in” titled “Gaza, Settler Colonialism, and the Global War Against Indigenous People.” Just before the teach-in, the school’s Jewish provost called him and asked if he wanted extra security. Like other scholars of […]

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‘Where are all the Jews at?’ A year after mass rally for Israel, turnout at its followup is sparse

WASHINGTON — When they promoted this Sunday’s pro-Israel rally in Washington D.C., the organizers knew they wouldn’t be able to match the turnout of last November’s March for Israel, which brought hundreds of thousands to Washington just over a month after Oct. 7.   So the marketing and press emails promised a smaller but still substantial […]

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Yechiel Leiter, American-Israeli former settler leader who lost a son in Gaza, to serve as next Israeli ambassador to US

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed Yechiel Leiter, an American-Israeli former settler leader whose son was killed fighting in Gaza, as the next Israeli ambassador to the United States. The prime minister announced the appointment of Leiter, a former Netanyahu aide, in a Friday statement, saying Leiter is “a highly capable diplomat, an eloquent […]

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