UNITED NATIONS — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran on Thursday of keeping a "secret atomic warehouse" just outside its capital, despite the 2015 deal with world powers that was meant to keep it from obtaining nuclear weapons. Holding up a poster-board map of an area near Tehran before...
Trump Backs Two-State Solution for Israel and Palestine
UNITED NATIONS — For the first time since taking office, President Donald Trump endorsed a two-state solution as the best way to resolve the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, as he met Wednesday at the U.N. with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump told reporters that he believes that...
Gaza Protests Escalate After Deal to Ease Blockade Fails
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Palestinians protested Wednesday at a new location along the perimeter fence between Israel and Gaza as Hamas intensified demonstrations at the border after Egyptian-led cease-fire talks stalled. The militant Hamas group was hoping its indirect talks with Israel would result in the lifting of a...
Russia Blames Israel for Plane Shot Down by Syrian Missile
MOSCOW — A Russian reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by a Syrian missile over the Mediterranean Sea, killing all 15 people on board, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday. It blamed Israel for the crash, saying the plane was caught in the crossfire as four Israeli fighters attacked targets in...
25 Years Later, Oslo Accords Fail to Deliver for Palestinians
Twenty-five years ago, the Oslo accords heralded a promising new era in the long quest for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The agreements, signed on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, "culminated in mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, which Israel had long banned as...
More Young American Jews Take Stand Against Israel's Tactics
For young adult American Jews, the Birthright program offers an enticing opportunity. It provides expense-paid educational tours of Israel, lasting a week or longer, to explore Jewish history and learn about contemporary issues in the Jewish state. The organization's website says Birthright Israel "seeks to ensure the future of the Jewish people...
Trump Administration Plans to Shutter Palestinian Office
WASHINGTON — The U.S. plans to close the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington in its latest show of support for the U.S-Israel relationship. National Security Adviser John Bolton was expected to discuss the plans in a speech Monday, saying the Trump administration wouldn't keep the office open "when the...
US Ends Palestinian Refugee Agency Funding
WASHINGTON — The United States is ending its decades of funding for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees, the State Department announced Friday, a week after slashing bilateral U.S. aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza. The U.S. supplies nearly 30 percent of the total budget of...
Palestinians Sort Through 8 Years of Mail Held by Israel
JERICHO, West Bank — Palestinian postal workers in the West Bank are sifting through eight years' worth of undelivered mail held by Israel. In recent days the Palestinian postal staff in Jericho has been sorting through tons of undelivered mail in a room packed with letters, boxes and even a...
Sentence Doubled for Israeli Policeman Who Shot Palestinian
JERUSALEM — Israel's Supreme Court has doubled the sentence of a former border policeman who was convicted in the death of a stone-throwing Palestinian teenager in 2014. The court on Sunday upheld a state appeal for a longer sentence, extending Ben Deri's imprisonment from nine months to 18 months. The...