Report: Netanyahu promised Kerry to put ‘hold’ on settlement construction

Published on May 7, 2013

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry that he would put a hold on construction in West Bank settlements until mid-June.

Assessing Ariel Sharon

Published on April 10, 2013

On the night of Jan. 24, former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was transported to Soroka University Medical Center in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba. Secured horizontally and face-up, he was passed slowly through an advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, which enabled UCLA psychology professor Martin Monti and a team of Israeli experts to perform an array of tests that lasted 90 minutes.

France’s Hollande ripped Netanyahu, French satirical weekly reports

Published on November 8, 2012

French President Francois Hollande said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “turned a memorial service in Toulouse into an election rally,” a French satirical newspaper reported. The weekly Le Canard Enchaine published an unsigned article that said Hollande made the comment last week while flying to Beirut. The item was referring to a visit that Netanyahu made with Hollande to the Jewish school in Toulouse where Mohammed Merah, a radical French Islamist, killed three children and a rabbi in March.

With pressure mounting, will Bibi go left or right?

Published on March 14, 2011

Israel is staring at a fork in the road, with potential disaster along either path. On the path to the left lies a major Israeli peace initiative that deals with all the core issues under dispute with the Palestinians. On the path to the right lies more waiting, possibly with some kind of offer of an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians, until conditions are right for something more.

Peace in the Mideast remains an illusion

By Arthur Cohn
Published on January 10, 2008

President Bush's historic visit to Israel and the Middle East can only delay the inevitable disappointment.

Why? It follows the enormous anticipation of the Annapolis conference in late 2007 -- a conference the overwhelming majority of Israelis believe failed. Since then, the expectations of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as expressed in Annapolis, that an agreement can be ready in 2008, have proven to be naive and utterly unrealistic.

Letter from France:  An incendiary TV news report’s truthfulness is on trial

By Shirli Sitbon
Published on November 29, 2007

Letter from France highlights three stories; slander trial raises questions over footage of the killing of Mohammad al Dura in 2000, the mayor of Paris shows his support for captive Isreali soldiers, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert visits Paris.

Israel will meet Iran threat, Olmert vows to General Assembly

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 16, 2006

The annual summit meeting of North American Jewish leaders climaxed Tuesday with an affirmation by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel will not shy away from challenging Iran's development of nuclear weapons."

Community Briefs

By Nancy Sokoler Steiner
Published on December 8, 2005

A lively, heartfelt tribute to former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin brought more than 400 people to the University of Judaism to mark the 10th year since an assassin took his life.
When California voters passed a $3 billion stem cell research initiative, they not only opened the door to medical advances but also to a collaboration with scientists from Israel, which is an established leader in the field.

To seed that partnership, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center recently hosted a two-day symposium that attracted more than 300 physicians, scientists, bioethicists and entrepreneurs.

With Us—Always

By Rob Eshman
Published on November 10, 2005

The communitywide memorial rally held in Los Angeles just days after the 1995 assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was heart-wrenching, tearful, agonizing and awful.

But it was also good.

2004 Takes Some Unexpected Turns

By James D. Besser
Published on December 30, 2004

There's nothing as risky as end-of-year predictions, as 2004 so painfully demonstrated.

IDF Could Target Gaza Next

By Naomi Segal
Published on October 10, 2002

A new Israeli military operation has many wondering if the army now has the Gaza Strip in its sights.