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• Bitcoin fraud could be the next big thing for swindlers in Israel

  December 21, 2017 5:01pm

  TEL AVIV (JTA) — Israelis lined up Tuesday afternoon at the newly opened bitcoin exchange in this city to purchase the coveted cryptocurrency. Amid the store’s yellow signage, the customers one by one inserted bank cards into a towering ATM-like machine. Sharply dressed young employees helped them make the necessary online maneuvers to claim their…

• Federal judge Alex Kozinski retires amid investigation of sexual harassment allegations

  December 19, 2017 3:52pm

  (JTA) — Alex Kozinski, a federal appeals court judge, has retired following a flurry of sexual misconduct allegations. Kozinski, 67, announced his retirement Monday, effective immediately, from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In a statement released by his attorney, the judge partially apologized for his behavior, but also suggested he was misunderstood. “I’ve always had a broad…

• UN deems Israeli probe of Palestinian amputee protester’s death ‘insufficient’

  December 19, 2017 1:49pm

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — The U.N. human rights chief said an Israeli military probe that cleared troops of any wrongdoing in the death of a paraplegic Palestinian protester was “insufficient.” Zeid Raad al-Hussein, the world body’s high commissioner for human rights, said “facts” gathered by his staffers strongly suggest that excessive force was used against Ibrahim…

• Trump thanks Israeli mayor for naming new park after him

  December 19, 2017 1:40pm

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — President Donald Trump thanked the mayor of an Israeli city who named a new park after him. In a letter dated Dec. 13, Trump expressed gratitude for the gesture and satisfaction that Israelis welcomed his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of their country — which apparently earned him the honor. A…

• Sinking Sea of Galilee to get infusion of desalinated water

  December 19, 2017 9:27am

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel is preparing to pump desalinated water into the Sea of Galilee. The state’s Water Authority recently started work on the $300 million project, which will take about two years to complete, Israel’s Hadashot TV news reported Monday. With Israel apparently approaching a fifth consecutive dry year, the Sea of Galilee has…

• Palestinian girl filmed trying to provoke soldiers is arrested

  December 19, 2017 9:07am

  JERUSALEM (JTA) —  A Palestinian teenager who was filmed slapping and harassing Israeli soldiers in the West Bank was arrested. Israeli security forces made the arrest overnight Monday. The girl, identified by Hebrew media as 17-year-old Ahed Tamimi, and two other girls were caught on camera Friday slapping and harassing the soldiers in an apparent…

• Israel’s first Arab Rhodes scholar has the chutzpah to love her country, and to try to change it

  December 14, 2017 12:51pm

  TEL AVIV (JTA) – Lian Najami, Israel’s first Arab Rhodes scholar, is the kind of person who can be optimistic about just about anything — including having a needle stuck in her spine. As she waited in a Haifa hospital Wednesday morning for a lumbar puncture, Najami expressed hope that the procedure would finally put…

• What the Israelis and Palestinians make of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem

  December 12, 2017 3:30pm

  JERUSALEM (JTA) – To be sure, President Donald Trump’s recognition last week of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was not a major concession. Israel was always expected to get a recognized capital in the city under any Middle East peace deal, and the president did not reject Palestinian claims to have their capital there, too. However, the…

• After recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Trump delays moving embassy

  December 7, 2017 8:50am

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Hours after ordering preparations for a U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, President Donald Trump delayed moving the diplomatic mission to the city by another six months. Trump signed a proclamation at the White House Wednesday saying the United States sees Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and directing the State Department to start planning an…

• Amid global outcry over US recognition of Jerusalem, Israel sees other countries coming around

  December 7, 2017 6:26am

  JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel said it expects other countries to follow America’s example and recognize Jerusalem as its capital, even as much of the world decried the U.S. decision to move toward relocating its embassy to the city. Speaking at a diplomatic conference Thursday, a day after the historic shift in U.S. policy, which he…