BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Thousands of people joined by marching bands, clergymen in magenta skullcaps and children dressed as Santa Claus celebrated Christmas Eve in the center of Bethlehem Sunday, doing their best to dispel the gloom hovering over Jesus’ traditional birthplace. Most were local residents or Christian Arabs from neighboring Israel with a sprinkling of foreign tourists. “It hasn’t … Read More
JERUSALEM — Like moviegoing masses around the world, Israelis have crowded theaters to watch the hit spoof Borat. But they are laughing for another reason: They actually understand what the anti-Semitic, misogynist Kazakh journalist is saying. Few realize that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen’s wacky comedic creation, Borat Sagdiyev, is not speaking Kazakh or even gibberish, but rather Hebrew, the biblical … Read More
PETAH TIKVA, Israel (AP)_Dan Duquette, the former general manager of the Boston Red Sox, took one look at me, nodded, and with a somewhat puzzled look said: “Try not to hurt yourself out there, OK?” Talk about a reality check. Who was I kidding? I’m 30 years old, mildly out of shape, asthmatic, and I’m trying to become a professional … Read More
AWARTA, West Bank — Standing in an olive grove, the 61-year-old Palestinian farmer smiled as red, green and black olives rained down from trees shaken by field hands. For six years, West Bank farmers have had little to be happy about: Jewish settlers often attacked them during the harvest. But spurred by a Supreme Court ruling, the Israeli army is … Read More
JERUSALEM — Nearly eight decades after their tragic deaths, two of Theodor Herzl’s children were buried Wednesday in Jerusalem in an official ceremony that fulfilled the founder of modern Zionism’s century-old will. The funeral, in the national cemetery that bears Herzl’s name, followed years of bureaucratic battles and a religious controversy about whether Herzl’s son – who converted to Christianity … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Hilda Shlick thought she lost nearly all her family in the Holocaust — until her Internet-savvy grandsons located her brother in Canada. “After 65 years, I have found the sister who I love,” Simon Glasberg, 81, said Monday in heavily accented English, his eyes filling with tears. “I can’t stop kissing her.” Using the database of Holocaust … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) _ When I arrived in Israel one year ago, Ariel Sharon was the prime minister, Hamas was a radical Palestinian opposition group, and Israeli troops were just leaving Gaza — and long gone from Lebanon. Its become a cliché to say there is never a dull moment in the Middle East. Even so, it’s hard to recall a … Read More
JERUSALEM — Israel’s shadowy security service is looking for a few good geeks. Normally shrouded in secrecy, the Shin Bet launched its first-ever public recruitment drive last week, unveiling a slick Web site and buying online ads in Israel and abroad in a campaign aimed at attracting topflight computer programmers to its cutting-edge tech division. The campaign is aimed at … Read More
KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel (AP) — Life slowly returned to the battered Israeli town of Kiryat Shemona on Tuesday, as residents emerged from grimy bomb shelters and began cleaning up the wreckage caused by more than a month of Hezbollah rocket attacks. The streets in this border town, empty for weeks, filled up with cars. Long-closed stores opened their doors. Buses … Read More
Tuesday, Aug. 15, 7 p.m. local METULLA, Israel – The route from Kiryat Shemona to Metulla is a 5-mile stretch of winding, uphill road. I’ve driven it dozens of times in the past three weeks. Today, for the first time, I drove it without fear. This war ended just as suddenly as it began, and at no place is the … Read More
KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel — Some residents emerged warily from their bunkers in this border town Monday as a cease-fire with Hezbollah brought an eery silence to the surrounding hills. A few cars returned to the roads and traffic lights began working again, but life was far from normal. Unlike in Lebanon, where war refugees were flooding back to their homes, … Read More
KIRYAT SHEMONA, Israel (AP) — Shimon Almakayiss, a 25-year-old cerebral palsy patient, is curled in a ball, his feet twitching as he sucks his thumb and rests his head on his mother’s lap. After four weeks in bomb shelters, his medication has run out, and his mother is in despair. “When I call the welfare services no one answers,” said … Read More
KFAR GILADI,Israel (AP) — A defiant Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with rockets Sunday after rejecting a U.S.-French truce proposal, killing at least 15 people. Israel also struck hard, killing 14 in Lebanon as both sides tried to take advantage of the days before a U.N. resolution is put to a vote. In the deadliest attack on Israelis in this war, a … Read More
MAALOT-TARSHIHA, Israel (AP) — A siren wailed Saturday afternoon and Yousef Yaroni sprinted toward a bomb shelter. It’s a drill the grocer repeats several times a day. He knows that, as a Christian Arab, he is not the target of the Hezbollah attacks, but it makes no difference to him. “I feel like every Jewish citizen in Israel,” he said. … Read More
MOUNT NAFTALI FOREST, Israel (AP) — Huge swaths of forests and fields across northern Israel have been scorched by thousands of Hezbollah rocket strikes over the past three weeks, and experts said it would take nature at least 50 years to recover. Charred branches stuck out of the ground like grave markers at the Mount Naftali Forest overlooking Kiryat Shemona, … Read More