After Jerzy heard about frequent vandalism at an old Jewish cemetery in his home city of Gdansk, Poland, he decided to visit the graveyard. It had fallen into such disrepair that \”people would go there to drink beer,\” said Jerzy, who gave only his middle name due to fears of anti-Semitism.
A popular candidate for the Irish presidency dropped out in the wake of revelations that he had sought clemency for an Israeli lover convicted of statutory rape.
Israel’s ambassador to Greece, Arye Mekel, was on the phone with a journalist earlier this month when the call came in that Israel’s Carmel region was up in flames. The Israeli prime minister needed to speak urgently with his Greek counterpart. Mekel quickly located Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in Poland, where he was meeting with the Polish president. But a Papandreou aide told Mekel the meeting could not be interrupted. “Tell him Bibi Netanyahu wants to speak with him urgently,” Mekel pressed, using the Israeli prime minister’s nickname.
The Labor Party voted to join the Likud-led coalition government, virtually guaranteeing that Benjamin Netanyahu will be Israel\’s next prime minister.\n\nLabor chief Ehud Barak\’s bid to join Netanyahu\’s coalition came down to a contentious vote Tuesday night by the party\’s central committee, with 680 in favor of joining and 570 against.
Students at the Hand in Hand Max Rayne Bilingual School in Jerusalem didn\’t know they were meeting a celebrity. They weren\’t born when the films \”Officer and a Gentleman\” and \”Terms of Endearment\” garnered Debra Winger her Oscar nominations.
The Jewish community is now openly discussing whether Jerusalem should be on the negotiating table for a Palestinian-Israel peace agreement.
With a mix of concern for their future and amusement at the marching bands and baby-kissing style of U.S. electoral politics, Israelis are tuning in to see who might be the next U.S. president.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is bringing a hawkish party into his coalition, guaranteeing him the support of 78 members of the 120-seat Knesset and possibly one of the most stable governments in Israeli history.
The election of Amir Peretz, a 53-year-old underdog, as leader of the Labor Party is almost certain to change the face of Israeli politics.
To avoid being branded as a collaborator, most Palestinians would not admit to accepting aid from Israel. Samera bravely told her story to A-Sinara, the largest Arabic-language newspaper in the region. Her experience \”was diametrically opposed to everything she\’d been told,\” Larry Rich said.
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