BY JPOST STAFF— Israel has reached its lowest poverty levels since 2003, according to the 2010 Israeli Poverty Report released on Thursday, but still faces significant problems in wealth disparity and impoverished children. According to the report, 20 percent of Israeli families – some 1.7 million people – live in poverty. Among them are 873,000…
BY THE DAILY BEAST— For much of the last decade, as Iran methodically built its nuclear program, Israel has been assembling a multibillion-dollar array of high-tech weapons that would allow it to jam, blind, and deafen Tehran’s defenses in the case of a pre-emptive aerial strike. A U.S. intelligence assessment this summer, described to The…
BY REUTERS— An Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear sites may become likelier in 2012 if Israel calculates it has more room to act alone in a U.S. presidential election year, a former U.S. official and nuclear diplomacy expert said. Mark Fitzpatrick, an Iran watcher at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, told Reuters the latest…
BY DEBKAFILE— A short statement was read out to the Knesset by cabinet member Michael Eitan Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 16. It read: “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu informed the full Knesset plenum that all options are on the table when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program. The prime minister and the authorized bodies are acting to…
BY P. DAVID HORNICK, FRONTPAGEMAG— Adrian Blomfield, Jerusalem correspondent for Britain’s Telegraph, reports that “Israel has refused to reassure President Barack Obama that it would warn him in advance of any pre-emptive strike on Iran’s nuclear capabilities,” and that Obama “was rebuffed last month when he demanded” such a guarantee. Blomfield says he has this…
Torah: Genesis 23:1–25:18 “Chayei Sarah” (Sarah lived …) Haftorah: I Kings 1:1–31 New Testament: I Corinthians 15:50–57 Gospel: Matthew 1:1–17, “Hayeuchamin shel Yeshua Hamashiak” (The Geneology of Jesus the Messiah)
BY ADI MINTZ, YNET— In recent days we were told about the expected departure of Dennis Ross, President Barack Obama’s senior advisor on Mideastern affairs. Ross’ retirement, which will follow George Mitchell’s resignation from his role as Mideast envoy in May, creates an opportunity to change direction. Dennis Ross was Bill Clinton’s senior aide and…
BY AKIVA ELDAR, HAARETZ— Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed to hold elections next May and are due to establish a caretaker government in the coming weeks which will exclude Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Palestinian sources said Tuesday. According to Palestinian sources, a breakthrough in Egyptian mediation efforts occurred in recent days, ahead of…
BY ABRAHAM COOPER AND YITZCHOK ADLERSTEIN, JPOST — In announcing the push for recognition of a unilaterally declared Palestinian state, Palestinian Authority President Abbas told the UN General Assembly in September: “I come before you today from the Holy Land, the land of Palestine, the land of divine messages, and ascension of the Prophet Muhammad,…
BY REUTERS— French President Nicolas Sarkozy has written to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to reaffirm friendship despite what he refers to as their “differing views on the Middle East,” Israeli officials said on Monday. Sarkozy’s comments, in a condolence message to Netanyahu for the death of his father-in-law, seemed an effort to try to clear…