By RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) – The sentence came at the end of a list of White House talking points regarding the surprising departure of Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trump’s former top Middle East peace negotiator: “Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook will take on an increased role on the team.” Clues to Policy For Middle East tea-leaf readers, Hook was […]

(JNS) – In a major announcement less than a week before Israel’s general elections on Sept. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to annex all settlements if re-elected, starting immediately with the Jordan Valley. “One place that can have sovereignty immediately applied to it after the elections is the Jordan Valley. The next government will apply Israeli sovereignty to […]

By JOSEFIN DOLSTEN NEW YORK CITY (JTA) – For “Borat,” his 2006 film, Sacha Baron Cohen went undercover as a made-up Kazakh journalist who travels America and gets unwitting targets to share his boorish and sometimes bigoted opinions. In “Who Is America,” the Jewish actor creates a variety of characters who manage to get prominent Americans to say shockingly offensive […]

By RON KAMPEAS WASHINGTON (JTA) – Benjamin Netanyahu had quite a Tuesday, Sept. 10. One week before Israelis go to the polls in their country’s second election this year, the Israeli prime minister went on live television with a promise that if re-elected, he is prepared to annex sensitive areas of the West Bank in “maximum coordination” with President Donald […]

By MARCY OSTER JERUSALEM (JTA) — Was it the most amazing shawarma platter ever? At $2,800, one would hope so. That’s what one tourist was charged for the plate by a Jerusalem restaurant located near the Jaffa Gate. In a recent post  to the Secret Jerusalem Facebook page, Laura Ziff asked for assistance in locating information about the restaurant in […]

By MARCY OSTER JERUSALEM (JTA) – Recent explosions at two Hamas police checkpoints in Gaza City left three policemen dead. But it wasn’t Israel that planted the explosives, as many might have suspected. Hamas says it was Islamic State suicide bombers. A day after the deadly attacks, Hamas began mass arrests of supporters of Islamic State and other Salafist organizations […]

By YAAKOV LAPPIN (JNS) – A succession of security incidents on the Gazan-Israeli border in recent days has once again shattered a period of calm, casting fresh doubts on the ability of the ceasefire to hold up. The incidents serve Hamas’s goal of putting pressure on Israel to agree to a longer-term arrangement, despite the fact that the attackers’ organizational […]

DC Report By Douglas Bloomfield When I started to write this column a couple weeks ago it appeared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would resist Donald Trump’s pressure to ban two Muslim members of Congress from visiting Israel, knowing it would make martyrs of them and damage Israel’s relations with the Democrats, so I began with the question “How stupid does […]

(JNS) – Israel and South Korea have concluded three years of negotiations on a free trade agreement, officials have announced, paving the way for a major boost in bilateral trade. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the agreement—the first with an Asian country—calling South Korea a “global leader.” “Israel is a vibrant, advanced economy, and I think our partnership will […]

By EDWIN BLACK Jerusalem Post editor Yaakov Katz probably had no way of knowing that this would be a perfect time to release his Shadow Strike—Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power (St. Martin’s Press). Or did he? An Imperative Read The world’s attention is once again and inevitably riveted to the nuclear threat from Iran, generating kaleidoscopic […]