JERUSALEM (AP) — A decade ago, Ehud Barak was a popular Israeli prime minister and war hero on the historic verge of making peace with Syria and the Palestinians. Today, he is widely reviled as the country’s most despised leader. In his current post of defense minister, Barak has created enemies everywhere. Following a series of high-profile blunders, he is … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) _ Israel’s prime minister said Monday his country’s primary concern in Egypt is that the current crisis could create a void in which Islamic militants step in and endanger decades of peaceful relations between the two countries. Speaking at a joint news conference with visiting German chancellor Angela Merkel, Benjamin Netanyahu gave his most detailed assessment yet of … Read More
The leaders of Germany and Israeli on Monday expressed concern about the deteriorating situation in Egypt. The AP’s Aron Heller reports from Jerusalem. [url href=”http://aronheller.com/articles/israel-worried-about-islamic-takeover-in-egypt/”]Watch the Video[/url] [url href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlNln8Qb9f0t” content=”Watch the Video” target=external]
JERUSALEM (AP) —Fifty years after Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann was brought to justice, the men who captured, investigated and prosecuted the Holocaust mastermind held a rare reunion Thursday in the Jerusalem hall where his famous trial took place. The gathering, marking the U.N.’s annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, revisited the landmark trial that brought to light in vivid detail the horrors … Read More
JERUSALEM — In a shocking move that instantly shook up Israel’s political scene, Defense Minister Ehud Barak defected from his Labor Party Monday, leaving in shambles the iconic movement that founded the country and ruled it invincibly for decades. The move appeared to shore up Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition by leading to the resignation of the other Labor … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — After a successful run of high-tech and computer-related innovation, Israel is focusing its ambitions on the next big thing — preparing the world for life without coal and oil. Israel is driving to become a world leader in alternative energy, with the government throwing its support behind cutting-edge technologies. The number of private entrepreneurs entering the so-called … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Former President Moshe Katsav was convicted Thursday of raping an employee when he was a Cabinet minister, the most serious criminal charges ever brought against a high-ranking official in Israel and a case that shocked the nation. Katsav, 65, faces from four to 16 years in prison for the crimes, which included two counts of raping an employee in … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — For more than a century, planting trees in this mostly desert land has been an act of almost spiritual importance, starting with those who helped create the state of Israel. So, the emotional response to the worst wildfire in the country’s history, which tore through one of its few natural forests over the weekend and killed 42 … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Ismail Abdul-Rasul and his family escaped war in Darfur, languished in squalid conditions in Egypt for five years and nearly suffocated in a harrowing journey across the Sinai desert before they were finally smuggled into Israel. “I was dancing with joy when I arrived,” said the 47-year-old father or four, who reached Israel in July 2007. … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) —With his dark suit, black skullcap and graying beard, Rabbi Haim Amsalem hardly looks the part of a revolutionary. But the soft-spoken lawmaker is causing an uproar in the influential and tight-knit ultra-Orthodox world in Israel with a simple message: It’s time for people to go to work. It is a stunning call to upend a tradition ingrained … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — The perpetually sleep-deprived scholar sits slouched in a large chair, a pipe to his lips, his long white beard curled into knots, strands of hair poking out from beneath his black skullcap. Lacking a rabbi’s traditional booming voice, he speaks so softly one often has to lean in closer to hear his insights. But Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz’s … Read More
JERUSALEM – The rapper Shyne is singing a new tune: After serving eight years in prison for a nightclub shooting, the former protege of Sean “Diddy” Combs has converted to Orthodox Judaism, come to Jerusalem, and is devoting his days to the study of Torah while plotting a musical comeback. His arrival in the Holy Land caps an unorthodox journey … Read More
KOCHAV YAIR, Israel (AP) — Alex Werber calmly strode toward a patch of black stones, pulled up his sleeves and opened a plastic bag to dump out its contents. “Goodbye, mom,” he said, scattering her ashes at the former site of the Treblinka death camp in Poland, where the Nazis murdered 875,000 Jews during World War II. It was Lucy Werber’s … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — When Hillary Rubin immigrated from the U.S. to Israel, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors and descendant of a famed Zionist visionary felt that she had finally arrived in her true home. But now that religious authorities are questioning the 29-year-old Michigan native’s Jewish pedigree and refusing to recognize her marriage, she’s having second thoughts. Rubin is at … Read More
BAT YAM, Israel — They are believed to be the last two survivors of the most chillingly efficient killing machine of the Nazi Holocaust: the Treblinka extermination camp in occupied Poland. Samuel Willenberg and Kalman Taigman, 87-year-old Israelis, are devoting their final years to trying to preserve the memory of the 875,000 people systematically murdered in a one-year killing spree … Read More