Middle East

By Marissa Newman It was supposed to be an upbeat and apolitical celebration of Jewish immigrants to Israel, lauding their accomplishments and numerous contributions. But the Knesset’s second-ever commemoration Tuesday of a new national holiday — Aliyah Day — devolved at times into a fracas, as coalition and opposition lawmakers criticized the government over its

By TOI staff Israeli lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow the country’s rabbinical courts to impose sanctions on non-Israeli Jewish men who refuse to grant their wives a divorce. The bill enjoys support across the political spectrum, from the centrist, secular-leaning Yesh Atid party’s MK Aliza Lavie, who has championed a version of

By Raoul Wootliff Speaking at the opening of the Knesset winter session, President Reuven Rivlin launched Monday a passionate defense of the judicial system and the media, saying government attempts to undermine them amount to a “coup” against the pillars of Israeli democracy. “The Knesset is the representative of the sovereign, the people of Israel,

Naomi Chazan This week, three seemingly separate and yet so integrally interconnected events converged: the beginning of the annual olive harvest, yet another sweeping Israeli dismissal of the possibility of a durable peace with its Palestinian neighbors, and the recounting of the story of Noah in the weekly Torah portion throughout the Jewish world. This

Saudi Arabia on Sunday denied that any of its officials had visited Israel, several weeks after Israeli media reported that a senior prince had made a secret diplomatic trip to the Jewish state. Public radio station Kan Bet reported several weeks ago that a senior member of the Saudi royal family held high-level talks with

By Judah Ari Gross and TOI staff Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday said four rockets fired from Syria that landed in the Golan Heights over the weekend were intentionally fired at Israel by the Hezbollah terror group and were not spillover from the fighting in Syria. “We are not talking about spillover. This is