JERUSALEM — On the day before Israel’s Oct. 27 election, Nat Zitomer, a retired licensed tour guide, still hadn’t decided which party to vote for. “I lean center-right, and during the last two elections I voted for Likud and before that, HaBayit HaYehudi,” said Zitomer, referring to the right-wing religious Zionist party founded in 2008. […]
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JERUSALEM – He’s been called a “political Houdini,” the man with “9 political lives,” and a “political genius,” but could Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s more-than-19-year stint at the helm of Israeli politics be coming to an end? After the Oct. 7 attacks and wars in Gaza, Lebanon and with Iran, and after four years of […]
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JERUSALEM — On Oct. 27, Yael Chernyvsky, 18, from Ramat Hasharon in central Israel, plans to cast her ballot for the first time. “I’m voting so we can change the future of this country,” the teen told Jewish Telegraphic Agency earlier this month. She was entering a Tel Aviv auditorium where some of Israel’s top […]
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JERUSALEM – Over the past few months, Israeli media has been full of reports of Israeli holidaymakers in Europe, Asia and the Americas being harassed or physically attacked after being identified as Israeli. In July, a group of Israeli tourists visiting Montenegro were reportedly confronted by a man and a woman, apparently locals, who asked, […]
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The Israeli army is planning a large-scale military operation against Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after Palestinian gunmen killed two soldiers and wounded three others outside of Hebron on Friday morning. Netanyahu visited the site of the attack along with Defense Minister Israel Katz, pledging that the IDF would […]
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Whether to extend military conscription to haredi men, a longstanding question fueling political tensions in Israel, has boiled over since Hamas launched the current war with Israel with its deadly raids on Oct. 7, 2023. Hundreds of thousands of Israeli soldiers and reservists battled on Israel’s southern and northern fronts and the manpower needs, especially […]
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JERUSALEM – Yehoshua Pfeffer is a popular British-born haredi rabbi in Jerusalem. He is unusual among the religious leaders in the ultra-Orthodox world because he believes that haredim can and should integrate into and contribute more to the wider Israeli society even as they uphold their Torah observance. Arguably the most fraught implication of this […]
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JERUSALEM – There’s a short video clip that’s been circulating on Israeli social media channels in recent days showing a massive crowd of jubilant young Israelis at a music festival singing along on repeat to “The Song of Peace.” The scene, using an anthem forever associated with assassinated prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and the peace […]
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BUDAPEST, Hungary — Israeli President Isaac Herzog is backing senior Israel Defense Forces commanders in taking decisive action against violent settler attacks in the West Bank, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. His comments came a day before Israeli forces detained New York Democratic congressional candidate Brad Lander along with 90 rabbis and activists accompanying […]
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Democrat Brad Lander, a U.S. House nominee from New York City, was detained, along with dozens of rabbis and activists, by the Israel Defense Forces during an olive harvesting trip in the West Bank on Wednesday. Lander, who was participating in an initiative to protect Palestinian olive growers from settler violence, posted about the detention […]
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