The government withdrew its annual budget bill from the Knesset agenda Tuesday because of a dispute among the religious parties in the coalition that could lead to its collapse and early elections. Officials said the move seriously impaired the parliament’s ability to prepare the budget for its second and third readings in the plenum, originally… More ▸
Egyptian authorities seemed anxious to cooperate as Israel prepared to lodge a formal protest with Cairo over the infiltration of four heavily armed men across the Sinai border into the Negev early Monday morning. The intruders were killed in a brief gun battle with an Israel Defense Force patrol several miles inside Israel. There were… More ▸
The mysterious ruins of Petra have once again lured Israeli youths to make the dangerous trip to Jordan. A Jewish youth and his Arab buddy, missing for a week, were handed over to Israeli authorities Tuesday by Jordanian military police at the Allen-by Bridge after their adventure. Eran Koran, 19, of Tiberias and Ali Mubarak… More ▸
Jacob Luitjens has become the first person in Canada to have his citizenship revoked for having lied about his wartime past. Luitjens, who in 1948 was sentenced to prison by a special Dutch tribunal for being a Nazi collaborator, was formally stripped of his Canadian citizenship Nov. 7. The move clears the way for Immigration… More ▸
Recent expressions of anti-Semitism in Romania are confined to a few extremists groups and individuals, the Romanian ambassador to the United States told a Jewish audience here Tuesday. The majority of “decent normal Romanians” not only ignore anti-Semitic outbursts but condemn them, Ambassador Virgil Constantinescu asserted. Speaking at luncheon in the American Jewish Committee’s Ambassador… More ▸
Yugoslavia’s 5,500 Jews, deeply attached to their native country, are becoming more amenable to aliyah as the civil war between Serbs and Croats escalates and economic hardships grow. But despite the heavy fighting in Croatia, “no emergency airlift is planned, like Operation, Solomon,” which brought more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel over a 36-hour… More ▸
When Earvin (Magic) Johnson announced last week that he is infected with the virus that causes AIDS, the shock felt by his fans reverberated around the world. Kids were especially hard-hit by the news. Johnson, star of the Los Angeles Lakers and ubiquitous promoter of products from Pepsi-Cola to Converse sneakers, is beloved by children… More ▸
A theoretical question debated in yeshivot for years was how would an observant Jew traveling in space fulfill religious obligations governed by the earthly progressions of dawn and dusk. A practical answer was recently sought from Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, Mordechai Eliahu, by an American astronaut who is Orthodox. Scheduled for an upcoming NASA space… More ▸
President Bush sought Tuesday to make peace with the American Jewish community, which has been upset for months over his tough stand on an Israeli request for U.S. guarantees covering $10 billion in loans needed for immigrant resettlement. At a late-afternoon meeting here with a delegation of American Jewish leaders, the president gave what was… More ▸
