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...
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...
Israeli Troops Accused of Shooting Handcuffed Palestinian
BEIT JALA, West Bank — A hospitalized Palestinian teen said Monday he was shot in his thighs by Israeli soldiers while he was handcuffed and blindfolded — the latest in what a leading rights group portrayed as a series of unjustified shootings of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. The military said...
Pro-Equality Group: Israel Questions US Activist at Airport
JERUSALEM — Israeli authorities extensively interrogated a Jewish American activist leaving the country about her work with a non-profit organization, the group said Tuesday. Israel has come under scrutiny in the past for detaining and interrogating pro-Palestinian activists and prominent critics at its borders, but the Abraham Initiatives called this...
Netanyahu Poised to Become Israeli PM for 5th Time
JERUSALEM — Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to be headed toward a historic fifth term as Israel's prime minister on Wednesday, with close-to-complete unofficial election results giving his right-wing Likud and other nationalist and religious parties a solid majority in parliament. The outcome affirmed Israel's continued tilt to the right and further...
Israel Bombs Targets in Gaza as Rocket Fire Resumes
JERUSALEM — The Israeli army on Tuesday bombed several targets in the Gaza Strip and bolstered its forces along the volatile frontier as a truce with the territory's Hamas rulers showed signs of unraveling. Palestinian militants responded with a new barrage of late-night rocket fire, setting the stage for a...
King's Speech Inspires Writer to Break Silence on Palestine
One year before his assassination in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King took a strong, public stand against the Vietnam war. NY Times opinion writer Michelle Alexander says most of King's closest advisors advised him to stay silent on the topic or soften his criticism. "They knew that if he told...
NYT Shines Bright Light on Killing of Palestinian Medic
Are you trying to make sense of the deadly, seemingly neverending violence between Israel and the Palestinians? David M. Halbfinger, who is the Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, points to the killing last June of 20-year-old Rouzan al-Najjar, a volunteer Palestinian medic in the Gaza Strip, as an...
How Democrats Help the Right Stifle Debate on Israel
As Congress tries to push through a budget to keep the government open, some members are concerned that the gravest threat facing the country, one that simply must be addressed immediately, is that some Americans might choose not to buy Israeli products. In the process, the perfectly legitimate idea of...