May 17th, 20210PALESTINE — As Israel continued its assault on Gaza, with at least 220 Palestinians killed, including 59 children, and more than 1,300 wounded by Monday tallies, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had personally not seen evidence for Israel’s claim that Hamas was present at a building used by international media it...
May 13th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — The latest escalation of Israeli violence against Palestinians has seen mixed reactions in the Washington D.C. political world.
Staunch supporters of Israel on the Republican side made predictable appeals to Israel's security.
"Here in Washington, street protesters screamed — listen to this — 'Israel is a...
May 12th, 20210PALESTINE — Israel’s assault on Gaza continued on Wednesday, leveling a third high rise, the 16-story al-Shorouk tower, which housed local and foreign media outlets as well as shops and apartments.
Israeli authorities said Hamas members were using each of the three buildings it has so far targeted for military purposes, though...
May 12th, 20211There are two separate Sheikh Jarrah stories. One is read about and watched on the news, the other receives little media coverage or due analysis.
The obvious story is that of the nightly raids and violence meted out by Israeli police and Jewish extremists against Palestinians in the devastated East Jerusalem neighborhood. For...
April 27th, 20210NEW YORK — On Tuesday, an international rights watchdog accused Israel of pursuing policies of apartheid and persecution against Palestinians — and against its own Arab minority — that amount to crimes against humanity.
New York-based Human Rights Watch published a 213-page report, which it said was not aimed at comparing...
April 14th, 20210The Israeli government’s position regarding an impending investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of alleged war crimes committed in occupied Palestine has been finally declared by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“It will be made clear that Israel is a country with rule of law that knows how to...
April 13th, 20210DUBAI — A commercial vessel owned by an Israeli firm was attacked off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in Gulf waters, pro-Iran media and an Israeli television channel said on Tuesday.
Israel’s top-rated Channel 12 quoted unnamed Israeli officials as blaming arch-foe Iran for the assault, which it described as a missile...
April 11th, 20210JERUSALEM — Israel’s defense minister pledged on Sunday to cooperate with the U.S. on Iran, voicing hope that Israeli security would be safeguarded under any renewed Iranian nuclear deal that Washington reaches.
“Israel views the United States as a full partner across all operational theatres, not the least Iran,” Benny Gantz...
April 8th, 20210Israel will tell the International Criminal Court (ICC) it does not recognize the authority of the tribunal, which is planning to investigate possible war crimes in the Palestinian territories, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Netanyahu, after meeting with senior ministers and government officials ahead of a Friday...
April 5th, 20210JERUSALEM - An Israeli prosecutor told a court on Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had helped a business couple to clinch deals worth hundred of millions of shekels in exchange for favourable coverage of him on a news website they controlled.
Speaking at the opening of Netanyahu’s corruption trial, state prosecutor Liat...
March 24th, 20210Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prospects for another term looked uncertain on Wednesday after partial results from a national election projected no clear path to victory.
Not even his stewardship of Israel’s world-beating COVID-19 vaccination rollout — a central pillar of his campaign — proved enough for...
March 15th, 20210At a glance, it may appear that the split of Arab political parties in Israel is consistent with a typical pattern of political and ideological divisions which have afflicted the Arab body politic for many years. This time, however, the reasons behind the split are quite different.
As Israel readies for its fourth general elections...
February 16th, 20210TEL AVIV — The Biden administration and Israel seem to have embarked on an uncertain and rocky relationship, in contrast to what the country's right-wing government enjoyed with former President Trump.
More friction arose this week, with Israel throwing cold water on U.S. hopes to engage with the country on the topic of Iran and its...
February 12th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — Though it took former President Trump a mere two days after his inauguration to call Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden is yet to do so.
Biden has called many world leaders in the first three weeks of his presidency, including leaders of Russia, China, France, Japan and more.
Israeli diplomats and...
February 5th, 20210AMSTERDAM - The International Criminal Court ruled on Friday that it has jurisdiction over war crimes or atrocities committed in the Palestinian Territories, paving the way for a criminal investigation, despite Israeli objections.
Judges said their decision was based on jurisdictional rules in the Hague-based court’s founding...
January 11th, 20210JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered construction plans advanced on Monday for some 800 Jewish settler homes in the occupied West Bank, anchoring the projects in the final days of the pro-settlement Trump administration.
Palestinians condemned such construction as illegal. The timing of the move appeared to be...
December 23rd, 20200It is convenient to surmise that Israel’s current political crisis is consistent with the country’s unfailing trajectory of short-lived governments and fractious ruling coalitions. While this view is somewhat defensible, it is also hasty.
Israel is currently at the cusp of a fourth general election in less than two years. Even by...
December 10th, 20200No one seemed as excited about the election of Joe Biden being the next president of the United States as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. When all hope seemed lost, where Abbas found himself desperate for political validation and funds, Biden arrived like a conquering knight on a white horse and swept the Palestinian...
December 4th, 20200TEHRAN — Iran is unlikely to retaliate over the assassination of a prominent nuclear scientist before the inauguration of Joe Biden in case it jeopardizes any future sanctions relief, the top U.S. envoy on Iran told Reuters on Thursday.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who had little public profile in Iran, but had been named by Israel as a prime...
December 2nd, 20200Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has nothing to worry about as Antony J. Blinken, who will directly handle America’s foreign policy in the Middle East is a loyal friend of Israel. Crisis averted.
President-elect Joe Biden’s appointment of Antony J. Blinken as his secretary of state was a master stroke,...
December 1st, 20200In a few words, a close associate of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu summed up the logic behind the ongoing frenzy to expand illegal Jewish settlements in Israel.
“These days are an irreplaceable opportunity to establish our hold on the Land of Israel, and I’m sure that our friend, President (Donald) Trump and Prime...
November 27th, 20200TEHRAN — An Iranian scientist long suspected by the West of masterminding a secret nuclear bomb program was killed in an ambush near Tehran on Friday that could provoke confrontation between Iran and its foes in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency.
The military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei...
November 26th, 20200RIYADH — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman earlier this week, despite a denial of the meeting by Israeli officials.
On the discussion table was a country that has played the role of boogeyman for both Israel and its allies in the U.S. government: Iran. The two leaders talked...
November 17th, 20200WASHINGTON, D.C. — Joe Biden had a “warm conversation” with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu over the phone on Tuesday. Netanyahu referred to Biden as president-elect in a statement after the talk.
Netanyahu had acknowledged and congratulated Biden’s electoral victory early on, but had refrained from calling him president-elect...
October 16th, 20201This Sunday, Michigan's top elected officials will be addressing and attending the virtual event, "An evening of unity", sponsored by Yeshiva Beth Yehuda, the self-described "oldest and largest Jewish educational institution in Michigan."
Governor Whitmer, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Senator Gary Peters, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan...
September 18th, 20200DEARBORN — So-called “peace agreements” between two Arab countries, the UAE and Bahrain, with Israel were signed on Tuesday, in a ceremony at the White House hosted by President Trump.
The normalization efforts between governments of the two Arab countries and Israel carried little consent from the people of those nations and...
August 15th, 20201On August 4, hours before a massive explosion rocked the Lebanese capital, Beirut, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued an ominous warning to Lebanon.
“We hit a cell and now we hit the dispatchers,” Netanyahu said during an official tour of a military facility in central Israel. “I suggest to all of them, including,...
August 13th, 20200
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Israel and the United Arab Emirates reached a "historic" deal on Thursday that will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two nations in an agreement that President Trump helped broker.
Under the agreement, Israel has agreed to suspend applying sovereignty to areas of the West...
