Ben Sales Twitter Email RSS

Latest

• Fearful for economic future, Israelis want Scandinavian-style government, survey shows

  May 22, 2016 5:00pm

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — On one hand, most Israelis say their financial situation is good and getting better. On the other hand, they’re worried they won’t be able to provide for their children. On one hand, they want significantly more government spending in a wide range of public services. On the other hand, they say…

• What Avigdor Liberman could learn from the last non-general to be Israel’s defense chief

  May 19, 2016 12:45pm

  He was an outspoken politician with little military experience, appointed by a rival and promising to bring a new approach. Current and former officials at the Defense Ministry called his appointment an “enigma,” fretting that “it will take some time until he understands how things work” and that “he’ll have to undergo basic training.” The subject of…

• New hard-line defense minister said to join Israeli government, marking surprise turn to right

  May 18, 2016 2:31pm

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — The unity government was about to form: Likud and Labor, right and left, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader Isaac Herzog. Then, according to media reports, Netanyahu swung to the right and instead embraced an old partner: Avigdor Liberman, head of the hard-line nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Liberman, formerly…

• Kids’ soccer leagues aim to bridge Israel’s religious divide

  May 17, 2016 3:29pm

  PARDES HANNA, Israel (JTA) — When Yoel decided, at age 8, to begin observing Shabbat, there was one problem: It meant he couldn’t join most of Israel’s youth soccer teams, which played games on Saturday. Yoel, now 12, has always lived in the increasingly large gray area between Israel’s starkly divided religious and secular Jewish…

• Netanyahu’s office denies Abbas offered direct talks

  May 17, 2016 5:28am

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has denied a claim that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas offered to begin secret, direct talks with Netanyahu three times but was rejected. In a statement to JTA Tuesday, Netanyahu spokesman David Keyes flatly denied the assertion made a day earlier by Gershon Baskin,…

• Netanyahu keeps calling for talks with Abbas. Is he serious?

  May 16, 2016 12:16pm

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — For a leader often accused of not wanting to talk peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sure does a lot of talking about wanting to talk to the Palestinians. In a series of three statements this month, Netanyahu repeatedly stressed the need for peace with the Palestinians. He…

• Philadelphia to expand Holocaust memorial

  May 12, 2016 12:27pm

  (JTA) — The city of Philadelphia revealed plans for the expansion of a Holocaust memorial. The plan includes an addition to “The Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs,” a statue placed at a Philadelphia intersection in 1964, according to the Philly Voice. The design calls for six pillars to be placed next to the statue to…

• 100 politicians, justice officials sign letter backing Sholom Rubashkin

  May 12, 2016 12:10pm

  (JTA) — More than 100 former judges, attorneys general and prominent politicians have signed a letter supporting Sholom Rubashkin, the Iowa kosher slaughterhouse executive sentenced to 27 years in prison for fraud and money laundering. The letter supports the claim by Rubashkin’s attorneys that prosecutors used improper tactics in securing the lengthy sentence for Rubashkin,…

• Federal agents raid New York Hasidic town of Kiryas Joel

  May 12, 2016 11:58am

  READ: FBI raids of Hasidic Kiryas Joel reportedly part of sex abuse probe UPDATE: This article was last updated at 2:50 p.m. EDT Thursday to include more details about the investigation. For more up-to-date coverage, click here. (JTA) — Federal agents searched the New York Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel for the second time in…

• French film starring Israeli-born actor to satirize anti-Semitism in France

  May 12, 2016 10:41am

  (JTA) — The French film “They are everywhere,” premiering in the fall, will satirize rising anti-Semitism in France. The film will star Yvan Attal, an Israeli-born actor who starred in “Munich,” Steven Spielberg’s 2005 film about the massacre of Israeli Olympians at the 1972 Munich Games and the Israeli response, according to AFP. The French…