‘Storm over ultra-Orthodox recruitment won’t topple Netanyahu’

The issue of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) army enlistment reached a boiling point this week as the Netanyahu government failed, despite feverish efforts, to draft legislation to address the issue before a High Court-mandated Wednesday deadline. Read more

Barak: Hold elections by June to adopt two-state solution

Israel must hold elections by June if Israel is to have a chance to accept the Biden administration’s plan for a post-war Gaza Strip, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak argued on Tuesday in Twitter Space, a forum for live conversations on X. Read more

Herzog: South African case a ‘blood libel’ against the Jews

One of Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s chief concerns for Israel and the civilised world is the corruption of the international legal system, which “has begun to ignore reality and truth.” Read more

Hamas man wanted to sell IDF soldier’s head for $10,000

A Hamas terrorist admitted to Israeli interrogators that he tried to sell the decapitated head of an IDF soldier for $10,000. That soldier was the son of David Tahar of Jerusalem. Read more

Meet the controversial judge representing Israel at the International Court of Justice

Israel has chosen Aharon Barak, 87, a former president of the Israeli Supreme Court, to sit as its representative on the judges’ panel at the International Court of Justice in the Hague to hear proceedings brought by South Africa against Israel. Read more

Red Cross finds little sympathy among Israelis amid accusations of ineptitude, bias

“Humanitarianism,” “compassion,” “neutrality”—these are the words the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would like linked to its name. Read more

Jerusalem: ‘No UN chief has done more to secure the survival of a terrorist organization’

Israel’s government sharply criticized U.N. chief António Guterres on Monday, with a Prime Minister’s Office spokesman telling the press, “I don’t think any U.N. secretary-general in history has gone so far to secure the survival of a terrorist organization.” Read more

Jerusalem won’t confirm US put time limit on Israeli combat in Gaza

An Israeli Prime Minister’s Office spokesman refused to confirm to the Tazpit Press Service on Sunday the report of a tense exchange last week between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and members of Israel’s War Cabinet. Read more

Israeli orthodox Jews take up arms, form civil defence groups

The Oct. 7 Hamas massacre has led to a societal shift in thinking when it comes to personal defence in Israel. Read more

Acts of courage: Amid horror, Israelis rise to occasion

For some, it was their final act. Kibbutz Be’eri’s 22-year-old paramedic insisted on staying and helping the wounded, then hid for six hours in the clinic’s kitchenette, grasping a knife, waiting (like so many) for help that never came. Read more

Israelis desperately search for missing loved ones feared abducted

Families and friends of people caught in the Hamas offensive in Israel’s South have posted pictures and phone numbers online in a bid to get in touch with loved ones. Read more

Israel in the dock (again): UN court sits in judgment on Israeli ‘occupation’

Two pro-Israel NGOs are defending Israel against the United Nation’s latest attack as the world body’s International Court of Justice considers a case that could have serious ramifications for the Jewish state, the groups say. Read more

Meet Israel’s only female ultra-Orthodox Border Police officer

Sgt. Maj. Avishag Shiran Malka, 38, is the only female ultra-Orthodox member of the Israel Border Police. Read more

The Knesset gets back to work

The Knesset’s summer session began on Sunday after a month-long recess and will run until July 30. Topping the agenda are passing a state budget, judicial reform, an updated ultra-Orthodox, or haredi, conscription bill and the establishment of a National Guard. Read more

35th March of the Living honours Jewish heroism in the Holocaust

This year’s March of the Living, the annual tribute to the 6 million held at the site of the former German death camp Auschwitz in Poland, is being conducted under the theme of “Honoring Jewish heroism in the Holocaust.” Read more

Anti-reform protests reveal police double standards

What began as Saturday evening mass protests against the government’s judicial reform program have morphed into “days of disruption” and increasingly extreme behaviour as demonstrators block highways, clash with police, blockade Knesset members in their homes, refuse to show up for reserve duty, and, in one instance, barricade the prime minister’s wife in a hair salon. Read more

Dershowitz: ‘Judicial reform will not undercut democracy’

U.S. attorney Alan Dershowitz said the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform program does not endanger Israel’s democracy and might even enhance it, speaking on Wednesday during an online debate with Professor Eugene Kontorovich. Read more

Herzog pitches ‘people’s plan’ to resolve growing societal rift

Israeli President Isaac Herzog presented what he termed the “people’s plan,” referring to a compromise judicial-reform proposal that he developed, in a national address on Wednesday night. Read more

‘Why do we need judicial reform?’ An architect behind the proposal explains

Professor Moshe Koppel, one of the architects of the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform program, spoke to JNS last week about why the reform is needed and what it’s really about. Read more

Netanyahu: ‘Freedom of protest is not a license to drag the country into anarchy’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a televised address on Wednesday evening, spoke out against the violent protests that roiled the country throughout the day, in some cases leading to clashes with police. Read more

Law to strip terrorists of Israeli citizenship advances in Knesset

A special joint Knesset committee approved the preliminary reading of a proposed law that would revoke Israeli citizenship, or residency, from terrorists who receive payments from the Palestinian Authority for their violent deeds, in a practice commonly known as pay-for-slay. Read more

Netanyahu government breaks sharply with predecessor in dealings with PA

On Jan. 5, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a series of retaliatory measures against the Palestinian Authority. Read more

‘Imam of Peace’ committed to fight against Islamist extremism

Former Adelaide resident Imam Mohammad Tawhidi, an Islamic scholar and thinker, has dedicated his life to fighting Islamic extremism. Read more

Netanyahu has his sights set on peace with Riyadh – but is it feasible?

Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that he hopes to bring about “a full, formal peace” with Saudi Arabia, as Israel has done with other Gulf states. Read more

Tortured logic: Analysts dismiss Ukraine’s attempt to blame Israel for Russia-Iran alliance

Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday accused Israel of bringing about an alliance between Russia and Iran, a claim experts JNS spoke with termed “bizarre.” Read more

Israeli elections 2022: A rundown of Israeli parties and their leaders

Meet the Israeli elections candidates. Read more

Polls split: It’s either more deadlock or Netanyahu victory

Two surveys this week—a Wednesday Mako/Knesset Channel poll and Tuesday’s Channel 11 iteration—give Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led coalition 60 Knesset seats, one short of what it needs to form a government, forecasting yet another deadlock following the Nov. 1 election. Read more

‘Treat Iran like pariah:’ Haley hits Biden team for relentless pursuit of nuclear deal

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley sharply criticised the Biden administration for its failure to confront the Iranian regime during a special press conference held Wednesday in New York City on the sidelines of the 77th U.N. General Assembly. Read more

Does the IRGC terror designation matter if Iran sanctions are lifted?

After months of stalled talks, it seemed as though the Iran nuclear deal was dead, with Israeli diplomats in April putting the odds of a new deal at “slim to none.” Then, last week, White House officials reported movement in the talks, attributing it to Iran’s dropping its demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be removed from the U.S. terror list. Read more

The Palestinian Authority’s stealth attempt to take over Judea and Samaria

Diligently following a master plan worked out over 10 years ago, the Palestinian Authority is laying claim to large tracts of Israeli state land through illegal building. Read more

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