TEL AVIV, Israel — Pounding his piano in blue-tinted sunglasses before nearly 50,000 screaming fans, Elton John took center stage in a battle over Israel’s image. The legendary British rocker’s concert on Thursday night followed a string of cancellations by artists like Elvis Costello and the Pixies. Resisting a growing wave of calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the Jewish … Read More
JERUSALEM — An Israeli-Arab lawmaker’s decision to join hundreds of activists on a pro-Palestinian flotilla has elevated her from relative political obscurity, transforming her into the poster child for the growing rift between Israel’s Jewish majority and its Arab minority. Unapologetic for defying Israel’s Gaza blockade and being on board the boat where activists clashed with Israeli commandos during last week’s … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — As a 9-year-old girl, Shoshana Neuman was forced by Nazi collaborators to march across what is now Ukraine in a brutal six-week trek that her father and sister did not survive. The only image she has of her dead family is a painting she drew 40 years later of an exhausted, bearded man, his eyes closed, hoisting a … Read More
PARDES HANNA, Israel (AP) — Some patients refuse to shower because it reminds them of the gas chambers. Others hoard meat in pillow cases because they fear going hungry. At the Shaar Menashe Mental Health Center in northern Israel, it’s as though the Holocaust never ended. As Israel on Sunday night begins its annual 24 hours of remembrance of the … Read More
JERUSALEM – Israel lifted months of censorship on a military espionage case Thursday, confirming the house arrest of a former female soldier charged with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper. Anat Kamm, 23, has been under house arrest since December, but the case was kept under wraps by a court-imposed gag order. The restrictions were eased Thursday … Read More
JERUSALEM — Israel is launching a potentially trailblazing experiment in organ donation: Sign a donor card, and you and your family move up in line for a transplant if one is needed. The new law is the first of its kind in the world, and international medical authorities are eager to see if it boosts organ supply. But it has … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) —Shahar Peer’s stirring run to the semifinals last week at the Dubai Championships was significant in more ways than one: The challenges the Israeli athlete faced off the court were as formidable as the dominating play of Venus Williams on it that ultimately sent her packing. Because of security concerns, Peer was largely confined to her hotel room … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — The neat lines and red rectangular sketches look like any typical architectural design. But the handwritten initials H.H. – belonging to the infamous Nazi SS chief Heinrich Himmler – indicate what the drawings represent: wooden barracks, gas chambers and crematoria. Just ahead of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Israel’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem is … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — When Tel Aviv marked its centennial last year, part of the festivities honoring 100 years since the founding of the first modern Hebrew city included restoration of its oldest buildings. Now, thanks to a chance archaeological find, the residents of Tel Aviv have discovered that their city dates back millennia earlier. Two weeks ago, Israeli … Read More
NAHAL OZ, Israel (AP) — Until less than a year ago, Nahal Oz was a place to stay away from or risk being hit by rockets from neighboring Gaza. Since then, 10 new families have moved in. The village’s sudden population spike to 320 inhabitants epitomizes a renaissance in southern Israel, driven largely by the cease-fire that followed Israel’s war on … Read More
JERUSALEM — Open crates from a cargo ship seized Wednesday by Israel revealed dark green missiles inside. Containers from the vessel bore writing in English that said “I.R. Iranian Shipping Lines Group.” Israel alleged that the shipment of hundreds of tons of rockets, missiles, mortars, grenades and anti-tank weapons – the largest it ever seized – was headed for Hezbollah … Read More
JERUSALEM — When the popular former manager of Israel’s most famous basketball team killed himself last week, it seemed like a sad tale of a heartbroken man who couldn’t adjust to life after sports. Now it appears there’s more to the story. Authorities suspect Moni Fanan was running a multimillion dollar investment scheme for some of Israel’s top sports figures, … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel — Shimon Peres has been a prime minister and a peacemaker. Now he’s a poet. To mark the 86th birthday of Israel’s elder statesman and ceremonial president, Israeli artists launched an album featuring songs adapted from the largely unknown poems he penned over a political career spanning nearly seven decades – including some scribbled during meetings of … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) – After surviving the Holocaust as a child, Israel Meir Lau — a former Israeli chief rabbi — spent decades searching for the man who saved his life. That journey ended with an Associated Press report about a recently discovered Nazi document confirming the identity of the teenager who shielded him from German gunfire when his concentration camp … Read More
SDEROT, Israel — Six months after Israel ended its bruising offensive against Gaza Strip militants, the people of this rocket-scarred border town are enjoying their calmest stretch in recent memory. The rocket attacks that made life unbearable have all but stopped. Playgrounds are filled with children on summer vacation, stores are bustling and the town’s public swimming pool is open for … Read More