Middle East

Saudi Arabia will allow women to drive from next June, state media said Tuesday, in a historic decision that makes the Gulf kingdom the last country in the world to permit women behind the wheel. The shock announcement comes after a years-long resistance from women’s rights activists, some of whom were jailed for defying the

Several hundred protesters gathered in Tel Aviv on Monday to call for government recognition of the alleged mass kidnappings in the so-called missing Yemenite children affair nearly 70 years ago, in a demonstration attended by several Knesset members. Demonstrators blocked traffic on Kaplan Street in the city, brandishing signs with photos and names of missing

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly instructed ministers in his government to avoid speaking out about the Kurdish independence referendum that took place Monday in the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. The Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry would not confirm or comment on the purported gag order, but top officials, speaking anonymously, acknowledged

Israel continues to build settlements “at a high rate,” the UN envoy for the Middle East said Monday, in defiance of Security Council demands for an end to the expansion of Jewish outposts. Reporting to the council, envoy Nickolay Mladenov accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of using provocative rhetoric to shore up the drive

A Jewish feminist group has raised the stakes in the battle over non-traditional prayer at the Western Wall Plaza, petitioning the Jerusalem Magistrates Court to strip Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall, of his immunity in order to permit legal action against him. According to the Behadrei Haredim news site, the Center

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–One of the many things that President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu seem to have in common is their disdain for, nay hatred of, Barack Obama. The president’s obsession with Obama Care is an apt example as is the prime minister’s fixation on the Iran nuclear deal. Both may have objective

A founder of an Israel volunteer program for Diaspora Jews has vowed the group would keep going after its benefactor, Masa Israel, cut funding over revelations that some of its participants had taken part in a pro-Palestinian protest in the West Bank. Speaking with The Times of Israel on Tuesday, Achvat Amim program director Daniel