Author Alison Weir remembers supporting Israel as a young person growing up in a military family. "I was sympathetic to Israel," she said. "I had seen (the movie) 'Exodus' with Paul Newman and was aware of the Nazi atrocities." At the time, Weir paid little attention to the country's spiraling...
Tensions Rise as Iran Speeds Up Enrichment, US Sends Troops
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will surpass the uranium-stockpile limit set by its nuclear deal in the next 10 days, an official said Monday, raising pressure on Europeans trying to save the accord a year after the U.S. withdrawal lit the fuse for the heightened tensions now between Tehran and...
Israel Moves to Name Golan Settlement After Trump
RAMAT TRUMP, Golan Heights — The Trump name graces apartment towers, hotels and golf courses. Now it is the namesake of a tiny Israeli settlement in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Cabinet convened in this hamlet Sunday to inaugurate a new settlement named after President Donald...
Israel Faces Repeat 2019 Election After Parliament Dissolves
JERUSALEM — Israel embarked Thursday on an unprecedented snap election campaign — the second this year — after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition and instead dissolved parliament. In what seemed an improbable scenario just days ago, Israel's newly elected Knesset dissolved itself in an early...
Protesters in Iran, Iraq Burn Israel, US Flags on ‘Quds Day’
TEHRAN, Iran — Iranians in the capital Tehran set fire to effigies of U.S. President Donald Trump, while in the Iraqi capital, Iran-backed militiamen marched over a large Israeli flag as part of rallies Friday marking Quds, or Jerusalem Day. The annual protests come as the Trump administration tries to...
Israel Heads to Election as Netanyahu Fails to Form Government
JERUSALEM —  Israel's parliament voted to dissolve itself early Thursday, sending the country to an unprecedented second snap election this year as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to form a governing coalition before a midnight deadline. The dramatic vote, less than two months after parliamentary elections, marked a dramatic downturn...
City Council Candidate Garcia Touts Business, Veteran Background
With six candidates in the Aug. 13 special election for the vacant northwest Fresno city council seat, the campaign season is on. Lawrence Garcia welcomed about 50 guests to his fundraiser Thursday at the Elbow Room. I heard more than one attendee, all veterans of such functions, mention they saw...
Qatar to Send Money for West Bank, Gaza After Israel Truce
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Qatar on Tuesday said it is sending $480 million to Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after a cease-fire deal ended the deadliest fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants since a 2014 war. Qatar's Foreign Ministry said $300 million would support health...
Israel’s Gaza Blockade Under Scrutiny After Latest Violence
JERUSALEM — For 12 years, Israel has maintained a blockade over the Gaza Strip, seeking to weaken the territory's militant Hamas rulers. And for 12 years, Hamas has remained firmly in power, developing a thriving homegrown weapons industry along the way. This weekend's violence, the worst in a string of...
Israel Preserves Holocaust Survivors’ Memorabilia for Future
RAMAT GAN, Israel — Under a fluorescent light, an archivist from Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial snaps photos and scans into her mobile database the last remnant that a pair of elderly siblings have of their long-lost father — a 1943 postcard Samuel Akerman tossed in desperation out of the...