Israel Featured Item

Ayelet Shaked’s rising star in Israeli politics

Aug 08, 2019 Go comment!

It’s been 45 years since Israel’s fourth prime minister, Golda Meir, resigned from the country’s top job. Often described as the “iron lady” of Israeli politics, she was strong-willed and straight-talking.
Full story
What does it mean if Israel bombs an Iranian warehouse in Iraq?

Aug 01, 2019 Go comment!

For 38 years, there’s been no mention of Israeli strikes in Iraq. All that changed this week, when the London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Israeli Air Force (IAF) F-35 jets bombed Iranian warehouses storing arms and missiles near Baghdad.
Full story
Boris Johnson – is he good for the Jews?

Jul 25, 2019 Go comment!

My grandmother had a very particular world view. For the 25 plus years I’ve been a journalist, regardless of what was happening in the world, she’d ask me, “Is it good for the Jews?”
Full story
Israel warns soldiers of fake friends on social media

Jul 18, 2019 Go comment!

Israel is stronger than Hamas on the ground. But in the digital sphere, the Gaza militant organisation is fast developing cyber capabilities that if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is not vigilant, could seriously compromise its troops.
Full story
Ehud Barak – the comeback leader

Jul 11, 2019 1 Comment

“The state of Israel is facing the total dissolution of its democracy,” says former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. “This is a strategic threat no less than the Iranian threat.” This is the alarming opinion of the man who occupied the country’s top seat from 1999 to 2001.
Full story
Ethiopian Israelis take to the streets following another death

Jul 04, 2019 Go comment!

The rallying call, “Black lives matter!” was heard again this week. But it didn’t emanate from American cities like Ferguson, Baltimore, and New York – or even Africa. Instead, it came from Tel Aviv, Netanya, and Haifa. And the protestors weren’t African Americans, but Ethiopian Israelis.
Full story
The reason for Lieberman upending Netanyahu’s government

Jun 06, 2019 Go comment!

Israelis are going to the polls again over an issue that is as divisive as it is seemingly unsolvable. Should ultra-Orthodox (haredi) men serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), or not?
Full story
Netanyahu loses election he has already won

May 30, 2019 Go comment!

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lost an election he had already won. For the first time in the country’s history, a party (in this case Netanyahu’s Likud) was unable to form a majority coalition after parliamentary elections.
Full story
Benjamin Netanyahu re-elected as voters swing to the right

Apr 18, 2019 Go comment!

As expected, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has named incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the best person to put together the next Israeli government.
Full story
Jews out in space

Apr 18, 2019 Go comment!

“We’re Jews out in space, zooming along protecting the Hebrew race.” This was sung by a bunch of tallit-wearing Jews depicted at the end of Mel Brookes’ 1981 comic classic, History of the World Part 1. Flying a magen david (star of david) shaped spacecraft, the Jews dance a hora each time they destroy an enemy spacecraft while singing, “When goyim attack us, we give them a smack and slap them right back in the face.”
Full story
King Bibi here to stay

Apr 11, 2019 Go comment!

“This is an unimaginable achievement,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told exuberant supporters in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Full story
Israeli election day dishes up some hard choices

Apr 11, 2019 Go comment!

(JTA) Even by Israeli standards, the country’s latest general elections have been exceptionally dirty, rife with personal attacks between candidates, and fake news.
Full story
Israelis watch the rising star of Gantz

Feb 07, 2019 Go comment!

There’s a popular weekly satirical show in Israel called Eretz Nehederet. In a recent episode, an actor playing Benny Gantz, the former Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and newcomer to Israeli politics, is asked how he’s feeling.
Full story
Israel among top five most innovative countries on the globe

Jan 24, 2019 Go comment!

Israel – commonly dubbed the “Start-up Nation” – has jumped to fifth place in the 2019 Bloomberg Innovation Index, skipping five places since last year. It is officially the fifth most innovative country in the world, according to Bloomberg, an international business news network that calls itself “the central nerve system of global finance”.
Full story
Israeli elections down to two men

Jan 17, 2019 Go comment!

Israeli elections are still three months away, which is a lifetime in Israel. So much can happen between now and then that when election day arrives on 9 April, much of what is written here could be obsolete.
Full story
Israel story based on a fake narrative

Dec 06, 2018 Go comment!

The Israel story is “malfunctioning or getting warped in translation”, says Canadian-born Israeli Matti Friedman, who is a senior journalist and author based in Jerusalem.
Full story
Rockets, mortars, retaliation, repeat – welcome to the Gaza belt

Nov 19, 2018 Go comment!

Fifteen hours. That’s all it took for Hamas to shoot 460 rockets and mortars at southern Israel.
Full story
Former deputy Israeli ambassador to SA drawn into Gaza rocket anguish

Nov 15, 2018 Go comment!

On Monday evening, the skirmish raging between Israel and Hamas became very real for former Deputy Israeli Ambassador to South Africa, Michael Freeman, and his wife, Sigalit. They learned that the home of Sigalit’s mother had been hit by rocket fire, and neither of them was in a position to do anything.
Full story
Ex-South Africans under fire near Gaza border

Nov 15, 2018 Go comment!

South African olah, Nava Uner, has lived through two previous Gaza attacks, but this past week was undoubtedly the worst.
Full story
Taking you through some of Israel’s firsts

Apr 19, 2018 Go comment!

1952 High-school dropout Stef Wertheimer sets up a small metal shop and tool-making company in the backyard of his home in Nahariya. His company, ISCAR, is today one of the world’s largest manufacturers of carbide industrial cutting tools used by carmakers like Ford and General Motors, employing 6 000 people in branches in 50 countries.
Full story