NEWS: News Update

Will new Egyptian employment law help its women lean in?
Safiaa Mounir for Al-Monitor

Why Iraqi Christians are against the establishment of their own autonomous region
Mustafa Saadoun for Al-Monitor

The struggle to be king of the Mount Akiva Eldar for Al-Monitor

How to apply the lessons from protecting Hebron to Jerusalem
Daoud Kuttab for Al-Monitor

How Palestinian divisions affect the intifada

Adnan Abu Amer for Al-Monitor

Synopsis from Haarets, the Israeli newspaper

The Execution of Hadeel al-Hashlamoun

Israelis mark the killing of Eitam and Naama Henkin as the beginning of the 'wave of riots' of October 2015. For the Palestinians, the killing of Hashlamoun at an army checkpoint in Hebron was the last straw.

Amira Hass Nov 03, 2015 9:08 PM

The parents of the soldiers who killed Hadeel al-Hashlamoun while she was lying wounded are not worried: No military force will break into their homes in the wee hours of the morning, gather at gunpoint the wife and the scared little children into a small room and measure each room in preparation for blowing up the house. They probably continue to have their relaxed Friday night meals

ISIS Was Not Enough for This U.S.-born Israeli Army Vet So He Went to Fight Iran

Israeli-American trains Kurdish forces on the Iraq-Iran border in urban warfare and counterterrorism - and says he’s not afraid to walk around with a kippah.

Judy Maltz Nov 03, 2015 5:27 PM

After completing his stint in the Israeli army, Corporal Mike, a young American convert to Judaism, was looking for his next big adventure. Joining Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State seemed like a noble enough cause, but when he landed in northern Iraq a few months ago, he decided to change course.

“My prediction is that ISIS will be gone in a year’s time,” the 24-year-old, who asked that his last name not be published, said in a recent interview while on leave in Israel. “The real enemy is Iran. People simply aren’t aware of how much their presence is spreading around the Middle East.”

So instead of hooking up with the Peshmerga battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria, like many other foreign volunteers, Mike opted to join Iranian Kurdish forces in northern Iraq preparing for possible clashes around the border. Their fear, he explains, is that Iran may exploit its improved standing in the world these days to crack down on members of its Kurdish minority located on both sides of the border.

A Palestinian, 19, Knifes an 80-year-old Woman: 5 Lessons

There are questions that, while simple, have much to teach all of us, like 'How does stabbing a 70-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman free Palestine?'

Bradley Burston Nov 03, 2015 3:08 PM

There are times when one simple question is enough to cut through a massive, over-intellectualized, elaborately contextualized, creatively dogmatized, heroically self-righteous thicket of bull.

Israeli Intelligence Agencies: Relations With Palestinian Authority Damaged, Any Quiet Will Be Short-term

Israeli intelligence agencies say situation within Palestinian Authority — the weakened status of President Abbas, the emerging battle for his succession, and the sense of the PA’s diplomatic ineffectiveness — will not allow for the resumption of a long-term calm.

Amos Harel Nov 04, 2015 3:48 AM

Israel’s intelligence branches are seeing a gradual decline in the intensity of the Palestinian terror wave, which despite continual stabbings has failed to ignite the wider public in the West Bank.

Why the BDS Campaign Can’t Tolerate Israeli Moderates

For the BDS campaign’s narrative of Israel as a radically essentialized evil to work, those most amenable to nuance and dialogue – like Israeli academics and my late friend Edward Said - must be the first to be boycotted.

Dan Rabinowitz Nov 03, 2015 1:48 PM

In 2001, Edward Said partnered with Daniel Barenboim to create what Said’s widow since labeled the most important project of his life: the East West Music Diwan, a platform for Palestinian and Israeli young music talents to meet, rehearse and perform together.

IDF Intelligence Chief: Palestinian Despair, Frustration Are Among Reasons for Terror Wave

Major General Herzi Halevi's assessment contradicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's message which blames the attacks on incitement and ingrained hatred.

Barak Ravid 03.11.2015 04:29 Updated: 9:43 AM

The head of Military Intelligence, Maj. General Herzl Halevi, said at Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting that feelings of rage and frustration, especially among younger Palestinians, are part of the reason for the wave of terror attacks in Jerusalem

Israel’s Violent Cowardice Faces Palestinian Protesters' Bravery

Israeli soldiers have gotten used to feeling heroic in their planes, tanks and armored jeeps, but now they’re dying of fear as vengefulness erupts.

Amira Hass Nov 01, 2015 9:56 PM

When it comes to bravery and daring, the young Palestinian demonstrators are defeating the Israeli soldiers and Border Police. They are armed with agility and speed, kaffiyehs covering their faces. They are armed with stones and Molotov cocktails, while the soldiers — behind them military exercises — are armed with and protected by armored vehicles, drones, helmets, deadly weapons

70-year-old Man Stabbed in Netanya; Three People Hurt in Rishon Letzion Attack

Rishon Letzion victims include woman aged 80; The Palestinian assailant in Netanya was shot by police; the Palestinian who stabbed three people in Rishon Letzion is in police custody.

Yaniv Kubovich, Ido Efrati and Gili Cohen Nov 02, 2015 7:53 PM

Four people were wounded in two stabbing attacks in central Israel yesterday. A 70-year-old man was seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in the coastal city of Netanya, while a 31-year-old man and 80-year-old woman were critically injured earlier in the day in an attack in Rishon Letzion. A man in his twenties was slightly injured in the earlier attack. The assailants in both attacks were apprehended by police.

A 22-year-old Palestinian man was shot by police on the scene in Netanya yesterday evening. The assailant, from the Tul Karm area, was in Israel illegally. First responders treated the victim – who sustained serious injuries to the torso – and the assailant on the scene, before rushing them to the city’s Laniado Hospital.

Raz Levi, a senior Magen David Adom medic, described the scene. “A man aged about 71 lay on the sidewalk. He was fully conscious, with a stab wound in his torso. He told us he was standing on the street, when he suddenly felt he was hit in the back.”