Worldcrunch
THE UK VOTES Britons are voting today in what The Guardian describes as the United Kingdom’s most unpredictable general elections in decades, as Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party and opponent Ed Miliband’s Labour Party remained even in the latest opinion polls, which has been the case for months. Neither party is expected to win […]
Ultra-Orthodox parties in coalition with Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have obtained bonus welfare benefits for their religious schools and families. How the government is undermining the country’s future generations.
FUEL SHORTAGES HIT AID AGENCIES IN YEMEN Aid agencies working amid airstrikes in Yemen have warned that they might have to halt their efforts due to fuel shortages, thus preventing them from helping hospitals and carrying humanitarian aid to millions of people, Reuters reports. Airstrikes from the Saudi-led coalition meanwhile continue to hit Houthi rebels’ […]
In southern Tel Aviv, some 50,000 refugees amass on the margins of society. Too many in Israel, once the refuge for European Jews, have turned their back on these migrants.
The West’s accord with Iran was not just about a nuclear threat. The U.S. has bigger plans to recalibrate the region’s balance of power among Saudi Arabia, Israel, Egypt and beyond.
-OpEd- PARIS — Some say that television shows are to our time what serials were to 19th century literature, an inexhaustible source of entertainment and conversations. During “urbane dinners,” it has become obligatory to demonstrate knowledge of this new cultural front. “Tell me which shows you watch and I’ll tell you who you are.” Besides […]
YEMEN MOSQUES ATTACKEDTwo suicide bombers attacked two separate mosques in Yemen’s capital of Sanaa during Friday prayers, killing at least 35 worshipers and wounding dozens more, according to early reports from Al-Arabiya. This story is developing. U.S. “RETHINKS” ISRAELI APPROACHU.S. President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to congratulate him on Tuesday’s […]
ISRAEL VOTESPhoto: Omer Messinger/ZUMAMillions of Israelis are voting today to elect a new parliament and potentially a new prime minister in a tightly fought election that has become a referendum on incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running for a fourth term. Late polls show center-left opponent Isaac Herzog, leader of the Zionist Union, with a […]
A final survey by Calcalist focused not on the candidates, but on the issues. It doesn’t sound good for incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu.
ISIS CALIPHATE CRUMBLINGAs Iraqi armed forces close in on the ISIS-held Tikrit, The Washington Post reports that the terrorist group that holds vast parts of Iraq and Syria appears to be “starting to fray from within.” The newspaper cites dissent, defections, battlefield defeats and growing tensions between foreign and local fighters as signs that the […]
AT LEAST 32 KILLED IN EASTERN UKRAINE MINE BLASTAn explosion believed to be gas-related at the Zasyadko coal mine in rebel-held Donetsk, Ukraine, has killed at least 32 people, local officials said Wednesday. Reuters reported some 70 miners were working in the mine at the time of the blast, and that dozens more people are […]
Even as the U.S. and world media mark every step of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s U.S. visit, the Israeli press is keeping even closer eye on his reelection bid later this month. The Israeli leader is set to address the U.S. Congress Tuesday in a speech that has already increased friction with President Barack […]
OBAMA’S IRAN ULTIMATUMIran should agree to a verifiable freeze of its nuclear program for at least a decade if the country wants to strike a deal with the U.S., President Barack Obama told Reuters in an exclusive interview. Obama explained his goal was to make sure “there’s at least a year between us seeing them […]
WAR AGAINST UKRAINE “UNLIKELY,” PUTIN SAYSPhoto above: Mikhail Metzel/TASS/ZUMARussian President Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with Russian television that war against its neighbor Ukraine was “unlikely,” expressing his hope that this “apocalyptic scenario” would “never happen.” Asked about the Minsk agreement, he said that if fully implemented it would see the situation in […]
ISRAEL-LEBANON-SYRIA SKIRMISHES INTENSIFYAn anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli military vehicle near the Lebanon border Wednesday, wounding four soldiers, Reuters quoted a military source as saying. The incident came several hours after Israel launched an air strike in Syria amid tensions that have escalated in the frontier area over the past 10 days. According […]
SAUDI KING ABDULLAH DIES“The Good King Leaves, Salman Becomes Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques,” London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat writes on its front page after Saudi Arabia King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud died early Friday at age 90, three weeks after being hospitalized for pneumonia. Abdullah is succeeded by his 79-year-old half-brother Salman […]
TEL AVIV — After Israel announced plans to freeze the transfer of $126 million in taxes it collected for the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah attended a round of meetings in Saudi Arabia to nurture solidarity for his government. And they obliged. The Arab States promised that if Israel wouldn’t transfer the money, […]
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done great harm to Israel’s reputation, and the early elections he’s called for March are a perfect chance to end his hold on the nation.
In Jabel Mukaber, in East Jerusalem, relatives of Oday and Ghassan, the two Palestinians who attacked a synagogue this week, are ready to continue their fight.
Professor Asher Tishler has long been a highly respected researcher in both Israeli military and business domains. It’s high time for him to dish on those in the highest positions of power.
GAZA CITY — It’s easy to imagine his frustration, that of a professional whose fate doesn’t depend on the quality of his work or his willingness to work hard but on political contingencies. Salaheddin Abu Hassira, 50, is an entrepreneur in Gaza’s building sector. It’s a pursuit that, in this Palestinian territory, seems condemned to […]
The quotes making news, and the news making quotes…
From Golda Meir to Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli leaders have too often put off decisions on key questions for the country’s future. The cost of “conflict management” is no longer sustainable.
The emirate of Qatar is tiny, but it wields disproportionate power in the world, where it maintains complicated and often troubling relationships. Just ask Israel.
If you’re ever in Gaza and have the time for a museum visit, pop by the Al-Mathaf Hotel. Here in dusty glass showcases you’ll find treasures on display dating back to the days when this coastal area was still one of the ancient world’s major trade centers. Tempora mutantur (times change) — the wealth of the Philistines is well in the past: Gaza today is about misery, war and death. The Palestinian strip of coastland has become a cipher for an apparently unsolvable conflict. For decades this small scrap of land has been thrown back and forth between powers, administered […]
Military defeat can still be a strategic victory for the Islamist militants of Gaza.
Quit or double down? The risks for Israel rise in step with the number killed on both sides of the conflict in Gaza.
JERUSALEM — Nobody wanted to believe it. Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet had of course called up reservists and warned the 100,000 inhabitants of Gaza who lived near the border not to stay long. But for most Israeli political analysts, this had appeared to be mainly an exercise in communications. And everything pointed to their being right […]
As air strikes and missile attacks intensify following the deaths of both Israeli and Palestinian teens, neither the region’s leadership nor rank and file hold much hope for a peaceful way out.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had high hopes of bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together, but fell into the same traps as other would-be saviors of the Middle East of the past.
TEL AVIV — Over the past few weeks, we have heard many members of Parliament calling on the government to block the sale of Israeli dairy company Tnuva to China’s Bright Food. Such a ban would be very bad news for Israel. We must first remember the basic principal that business decisions should be taken […]
JERUSALEM — Three hundred kilometers by high-speed rail between the cities of Eilat and Ashdod, connecting the Red Sea coast to the Mediterranean: They call it the “Red-Med” Project. Financed by Beijing and launched from Jerusalem, China has revealed its strategy for “West Asia” — the term that the China Shipping Container Lines company uses […]
TEL AVIV — Just last week at the Davos summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was publicly praising the hi-tech industry in Israel. Now it seems his compliments may have been a bit premature. A new report says that Palestinian hackers from Gaza have recently launched a cyber-attack on Israel that has successfully targeted government […]
The deadline of John Kerry’s diplomacy efforts are coming. What is going to happen if he returns to Washington humiliated? Calcalist founder Yoel Esteron’s pessimistic outlook for Mideast peace.
December 19, 2014 KURDS BEAT ISIS ON MOUNT SINJARKurdish forces have broken a months-long ISIS siege on Mount Sinjar after a two-day offensive backed by U.S. airstrikes. The BBC describes it as the Kurds’ “biggest victory yet” against the terrorist group. Thousands of displaced people had been trapped on the mountain in northwestern Iraq since […]
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 DID IRAN STRIKE ISIS IN IRAQ? Iran denied claims made by Al Jazeera and confirmed by the Pentagon that Tehran’s warplanes had launched strikes against ISIS in eastern Iran. Reuters reports that the unnamed senior Iranian official also said that “any cooperation in such strikes with America is also out of […]
Wednesday, November 19, 2014 NORTH KOREA COULD FACE HUMAN RIGHTS PROBE The United Nations’ human rights committee has called on the Security Council to refer North Korean leaders to the International Criminal Court over allegations of crimes against humanity, the BBC reports. The resolution approved late Tuesday was based on a report published earlier this […]
Wednesday, October 29, 2014 ANTI-ISIS TROOPS JOINING FORCES IN KOBANI Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have arrived in Kobani to fight alongside Syrian Kurds in the besieged border city, more than a week after Turkey announced it would let them cross into Syria, The New York Times reports. The 150-strong group were reportedly to be joined […]
Monday, October 27, 2014 ELECTION RESULTS GALORE It was “election weekend” around the world, with notable ballots held in five countries, though not always without problems. In Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko’s bloc and the party of his Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk were holding talks Monday to create a coalition after the two led in preliminary […]
TEL AVIV — It has been a while since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has pulled out some impromptu economic graph or catchy slogan. You can say he matured. Netanyahu of the third term is not the same man he was during his first or second, where he’d been drunk on victory from decimating the left […]