West Bank - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is set to head to New York on Monday to seek the UN’s approval for upgrading the PA’s status to non-member observer. PA officials, meanwhile, said they were not taking seriously Israeli and American threats to punish the PA leadership for going to the UN, noting that Arab countries have expressed readiness to compensate the...

Willemstad, Curacao - Headstones are pockmarked, their inscriptions faded. Stone slabs that have covered tombs for centuries are crumbling. White marble has turned grey, likely from the acrid smoke that spews from a nearby oil refinery. One of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the Western Hemisphere, Beth Haim on the island of Curacao, is slowly fading in the Caribbean sun. Beth Haim was...

Gaza - Hamas said on Sunday the cost of damage caused by Operation Pillar of Defense's eight-day bombardment of the Gaza Strip will reach $700 million in indirect damages, and $500 million in direct damages to the city, Palestinian news agency PalToday reported, making total damages of more than $1.2 billion. According to PalToday, Hamas issued a preliminary estimate of damage caused by...

Washington - When the next Congress cranks up in January, there will be more women, many new faces and 11 fewer tea party-backed House Republicans from the class of 2010 who sought a second term. Overriding those changes, though, is a thinning of pragmatic, centrist veterans in both parties. Among those leaving are some of the Senate's most pragmatic lawmakers, nearly half the House's centrist...

Paradise Valley, AZ - Holocaust scholars and educators are mourning the passing of Vladka Meed, a Jewish resistance fighter in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto during World War II and a fierce advocate for national Holocaust education following the war. Meed died on November 21 at the age of 90 in Paradise Valley, Arizona after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Born Feigele Peltel in...

Frankfurt - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday deplored the "high level of anti-Semitism" in her country, speaking after a meeting with the Central Council of Jews. Touching on a heated debate on male religious circumcision, she stressed the importance of religious tolerance, while also reiterating Berlin's support for Israel in the recent Gaza conflict. Guaranteeing the freedom to...

Golan Heights - An Israeli military border patrol vehicle was hit by stray bullets fired from Syria in the Golan Heights on Sunday but there were no casualties, a military spokeswoman said. The incident was the latest apparent stray firing during gunbattles in Syria between the forces of President Bashar al-Assad and insurgents who have been fighting a 20-month-long civil war. "Gunfire hit...

Jerusalem - Israeli spy satellites have reportedly spotted an Iranian ship being stockpiled with weapons that is suspected to be headed toward the volatile Gaza region. The shipment was prepared last week on the day that Israel and Hamas agreed to a cease-fire, according to Haaretz, citing a report from the Sunday Times of London. “We believe that Iranian warships anchored in Eritrea will...

Cairo - A Muslim Brotherhood member was killed and 60 people were injured on Sunday in an attack on the main office of the Brotherhood in the Egyptian Nile Delta town of Damanhour, the website of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said. "Brotherhood member, Islam Fathy Masoud, 15, was killed and 60 were injured after thugs attacked the Muslim Brotherhood's headquarters in Damanhour in...

Far Rockaway, NY - In a moving and emotional tribute, talmidim at Yeshiva Darchei Torah in Far Rockaway this morning turned out in force for a levaya for the innumerable seforim and other kisvei kodesh that were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy last month. One of the three trucks containing shaimos from the greater Far Rockaway away stopped at the yeshiva's Beach 19th Street parking lot at 9:15...

Quebec - A woman identified only as Maria has created an uproar in Quebec’s Jewish community following her phone call to late-night talk show host Jacques Fabi’s radio program on 98.5 FM last week. Maria initially called in to condemn Israel for its military action in Gaza, but then began attacking Jewish people and praising the Holocaust. According to a report by CBC News...

Tel Aviv - A new Israeli air shield against rockets more powerful than those intercepted by Iron Dome in the Gaza conflict passed its first field test last week after being rushed through development, officials said on Sunday. They said that David's Sling, billed as Israel's answer to the longer-range missiles of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas and Syria, shot down a target rocket in a secret...

New York - Parade-goers at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade were shocked to discover that what should have been multi-colored confetti dotting the parade route were actually partially-shredded police documents which contained arrest records, social security numbers, names and phone numbers of police detectives, and even a reference to Mitt Romney’s motorcade. Much of the shredded paper...

San Francisco - Black Friday retail sales online topped $1 billion for the first time this year as more consumers used the Internet do their holiday shopping, comScore Inc said on Sunday. Online sales jumped at least 22 percent on Black Friday, from sales of $816 million on the same day last year, according to comScore data. E-commerce accounts for less than 10 percent of consumer spending...

Dubai - Iran said Turkey's plans to deploy Patriot defensive missiles near its border with Syria would add to the region's problems, as fears grow of the Syrian civil war spilling across frontiers. Turkey asked NATO for the Patriot system, designed to intercept aircraft or missiles, last week after talks about how to shore up security on its 900-km (560-mile) border. "The installation of...