JERUSALEM — A drop in the percentage of Israelis serving in the military has Israel’s leaders warning that the Jewish state is losing touch with its most admired institution. “From the army of the people, the Israel Defense Forces are gradually becoming the army of half the people,” Defense Minister Ehud Barak said at an academic conference at Tel Aviv University … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) – Israel’s official Holocaust memorial and museum has unveiled the private archives of one of the most contentious Jewish figures from the Holocaust era in an attempt to exonerate the man’s tarnished legacy. Yad Vashem officials said the material released Sunday should finally put an end to what it said was an unjustified smear campaign against Rudolf (Israel) … Read More
JERUSALEM — When an explosion goes off on a busy Israeli street these days, it seems as likely to be a mob hit as a Palestinian attack. Rival underworld gangs are waging bloody battles for control of gambling and protection rackets, targeting each other with bullets, bombs and anti-tank missiles. Organized crime, long overshadowed by the Arab-Israeli conflict, has become … Read More
JERUSALEM — Shimon Peres helped build the Israeli army, repeatedly served as prime minister in difficult times and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts at ending the conflict with the Palestinians. At 83, the elder statesman was chosen as Israel’s ninth president Wednesday — shattering an embarrassing record of electoral defeats — and pledged he will work to … Read More
HEBRON, West Bank — When 14 Jewish families moved into a Palestinian house in Hebron _ a sacred West Bank city and traditional burial site of biblical patriarch Abraham _ Israel vowed to kick them out. But three months later, they’re still there _ children huddling on a single mattress, mothers cooking in a makeshift kitchen, and soldiers patrolling the … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — The diary of a 14-year-old Jewish girl, dubbed the “Polish Anne Frank,” was unveiled Monday by Israel’s Holocaust museum more than 60 years after the teenager vividly described the world crumbling around her as she came of age in a Jewish ghetto. “The rope around us is getting tighter and tighter,” Rutka Laskier wrote in 1943, shortly … Read More
SDEROT, Israel — Schools closed and residents huddled in bomb shelters or fled in buses Wednesday as another barrage of rockets struck this Israeli border town, the target of thousands of Palestinian attacks since 2001. Late in the day, a homemade rocket hit an electrical transformer in southern Israel, the army said, knocking out power to the 24,000 resident of Sderot. … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) _ Ivri Lider is Israel’s newest freelance ambassador. The openly gay musician is one of a new breed of unofficial envoys trying to improve Israel’s international image — a battle the government has been waging for decades. Lider recently returned from a trip to the U.S., funded by a pro-Israel nonprofit group, where he performed concerts and spoke … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — An 86-year-old former teacher who risked her life to save more than 300 Jewish children from the Nazis in Belgium was granted honorary Israeli citizenship Wednesday at an emotional ceremony in which she was reunited with dozens of the people she rescued. “What I did was merely my duty. Disobeying the laws of the time was just the … Read More
PALMACHIM AIR FORCE BASE, Israel — The Israeli air force unveiled its newest unmanned aircraft Wednesday, saying the plane can fly longer, faster and higher than any other surveillance aircraft. The drone, called the Heron, already saw combat during last summer’s war in Lebanon, where Israeli officials said a prototype performed well, seeking out Hezbollah arms and directing airstrikes. The … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) – Toto Tamuz wants to be an Israeli citizen and he’s going to withhold his soccer talents from the country’s national team until he becomes one. Tamuz, who was raised in Israel and speaks fluent Hebrew, is the son of illegal Nigerian immigrants. But he has become famous for his soccer skills, which have made him the top … Read More
RAMLE, Israel (AP) -Plenette Pierson of the WNBA champion Detroit Shock is used to playing in front of thousands of fans back home in the U.S. This winter, the 6-foot-3 forward is showing off her skills in front of nearly empty stands in small-town Israel – and loving it. Pierson is among the growing number of WNBA stars who moonlight … Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) _ Late on a Friday night, inside a dark, trendy club, a crowd of young men and women gaze at Ivri Lider and sing along as he performs his hit love song, “Zachiti Le’ehov – I Was Blessed To Have Loved,” an ode to the end of his romance with a longtime boyfriend. Outside, Jerusalem stands still, as … Read More
TEL AVIV, Israel — An Israeli court convicted former Justice Minister Haim Ramon on Wednesday of forcibly kissing a young female soldier, a stunning censure of a top official that could reshape the Israeli Cabinet. Ramon, who faces up to three years in prison, joined a growing list of politicians who have fallen from grace — including Israel’s president, who … Read More
TZEELIM MILITARY BASE, Israel — Under the cover of thick smoke, a Muslim call to prayer sounding in the background, the masked Israeli commandos stormed a concrete building and “killed” two soldiers posing as Hezbollah guerrillas. Monday’s drill was accompanied by simulated helicopter, tank and rocket fire, but it was the setting that really made it realistic — a mock … Read More