JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, once one of Israel’s leading hawks, is leaving office an outspoken dove. Forced out by corruption charges, Olmert is saying something that used to be fringe opinion among Israelis – that to make peace with the Palestinians, Israel must make sweeping territorial concessions, including Arab parts of Jerusalem. “We must relinquish … parts of … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — It took time, but Israeli police detectives have finally cracked one of the country’s greatest crimes — the legendary heist of a priceless clock collection from a Jerusalem museum a quarter century ago. The 1983 theft, the costliest in Israel’s history, saw 106 timepieces worth millions of dollars disappear from the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic Art. … Read More
ASHKELON, Israel (AP) — Bettina Goering ran away from home at 13, lived on a promiscuous commune in India and later fled to the U.S. and had herself sterilized. It was all part of an attempt to escape the legacy of her last name. Her great-uncle was the infamous Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command, he headed the vaunted … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel — Melissa Schwab is no Zionist zealot. She’s not an Orthodox Jew seeking to be nearer to God. She didn’t flee anti-Semitism. So why move nearly 9,000 miles from her home in Hawaii and settle in life-on-the-edge Israel? Because, she says, she likes a lifestyle that is “secular and normal” while offering something “a bit more meaningful.” … Read More
GONDAR, Ethiopia — Sitting in a leaky, flyblown hut, a few dozen Ethiopian villagers are anxiously waiting to be transported to another world. They have just been given word that their years of waiting are over, and that soon they will make a 2,000-mile journey by land and air with what is probably the last wave of Ethiopian immigrants to … Read More
Published in the Jerusalem Post. When it comes to hi-tech startups, Nobel laureates and computer innovation, Israel has few equals. It attracts more venture capital that any country outside the United States. The world’s top technology giants, including Microsoft, Intel and Google, have set up key research facilities here. And it boasts the most foreign companies traded on the tech-heavy … Read More
NAHARIYA, Israel — Moshe Sasson felt the gun pressed against his head, a Lebanese assailant poised to shoot, when the lights in the hall of his apartment building suddenly went out, allowing him to escape and take cover under a car. The gunman, Samir Kantar, went on to kill three other people in one of the most notorious attacks in … Read More
JERUSALEM – The yellow construction vehicle rumbled down Jerusalem’s central thoroughfare, steamrolling everything in its path, plucking cars off the street, swinging them into the air and crushing them to the ground with people trapped inside. “I was shocked, I saw a guy going crazy, I saw him pick it up like a toy,” said Yosef Spielman, who witnessed the … Read More
TEL AVIV — In Zohan Dvir, Israelis have a Hollywood hero — no matter that the soldier-turned-hairstylist played by Adam Sandler represents some of their country’s worst stereotypes. “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” looks to be a big hit in the Holy Land. Billboards bearing the leading man’s split-legged, blow-dryer-wielding image are plastered across city walls, and numerous stories … Read More
HADERA, Israel (AP) When Ayele Seteng arrived in Israel in 1991 with thousands of other frail Ethiopian immigrants, he was looking to flee famine and make a better life for his family. Now, he is an unlikely Olympic athlete. After some strange twists of fate that began with an unexpected weight gain, Seteng is heading to the Beijing Games as … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) – They used to paint swastika graffiti, get into street fights with immigrants and distribute anti-Semitic propaganda. But after studying the cases of a few of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II, some former Swedish neo-Nazi teenagers came to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial with new attitudes. The teens, some of whom were … Read More
JERUSALEM — A rivalry between two of Israel’s most famous cantors has spilled over from the exalted world of prayer into allegations of a sexual entrapment plot that includes hidden cameras, a police inquiry and a female private detective hired by one of the men to seduce his adversary. The saga pits Naftali Herstik, a revered and influential cantor, against … Read More
JERUSALEM — American televangelist John Hagee led several hundred flag-waving followers across Jerusalem on Monday, a colorful display of the growing alliance between Christian evangelicals and Israel. Hagee, who calls himself a Christian Zionist, pledged his unconditional backing for the Jewish state. He also vehemently denied he is anti-Catholic, telling reporters that comments attributed to him were either false or … Read More
JERUSALEM — A mathematical mystery that has baffled the top minds in the esoteric field of symbolic dynamics for nearly four decades has recently been cracked — by a 63-year-old former security guard. Avraham Trakhtman, a mathematician who worked as a laborer after immigrating to Israel from Russia, has succeeded where dozens have failed, solving the elusive “Road Coloring Problem.” … Read More
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinians say they know when an Israeli drone is in the air: Cell phones stop working, TV reception falters and they can hear a distant buzzing. They also know what’s likely to come next—a devastating explosion on the ground. Palestinians say Israel’s pilotless planes have been a major weapon in its latest offensive in Gaza, … Read More