JERUSALEM (JTA) — Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators leading to full peace talks have ended with no progress, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said.
Abbas, following a fifth meeting between the sides, met Wednesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah before announcing that the exploratory talks were concluded.
He said he would discuss Feb. 4 with the Arab [...]

The story of an eight-year-old Israeli girl, afraid to walk to school for fear of violence from ultra-Orthodox men, spurs rallies and riots in Jerusalem suburb
By MARCY OSTER
JERUSALEM (JTA) — For several years now, the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh has been the site of on-again, off-again religious violence.
But it wasn’t until the [...]

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel’s U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren said New York Times columnist Tom Friedman “strengthened a dangerous myth” when he said Congress was “bought and paid for by the Israel lobby.”
“This allegation is profoundly disturbing,” Oren told JTA. “The term ‘Israel lobby’ implies the existence of a Zionist cabal wielding inordinate economic and political [...]

Growing gender segregation among Israeli haredim seen as repressing women
By DINA KRAFT
JERUSALEM (JTA) — On the No. 3 bus line in Jerusalem, women passengers pay their fare and walk directly to the back to find a seat.
Men, most of them haredi Orthodox with long sidecurls that brush the shoulders of their black wool suits, sit [...]

Meir Shalev will discuss his new memoir and his novels on Nov. 9 at the Sabes JCC
By MORDECAI SPECKTOR

Celebrated Israeli author Meir Shalev is on the phone, speaking from his home in a small town in the Jezreel Valley — near Nahalal, the village where he was raised.
“I run away from Jerusalem from [...]

This video from Israel’s Channel 10 TV conveys some of the emotion around Gilad Shalit’s return from captivity. The narration is in Hebrew, but the images convey the unfolding events and some of the nuances of feeling in Israel yesterday.
(If video loads slowly, press pause and wait for a minute):

By LINDA GRADSTEIN
JERUSALEM (JTA) — It seemed that all of Israel breathed a sigh of relief when Gilad Shalit returned to Israel after being transferred from Hamas captivity in Gaza into Egyptian custody.
After more than five years of campaigning for Shalit’s release, and seeing little of him other than the same images [...]

Gilad Shalit is reunited with his father, Noam Shalit (right), at the Tel Nof air base in central Israel. Also welcoming the young soldier back to Israel are Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak (left) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)
Gilad Shalit, the 25-year-old Israeli army sergeant held incommunicado by Hamas for the past [...]

Some Israelis say the price — the release of Palestinian prisoners who murdered Israeli soldiers and helped suicide bombers — was too high
By LINDA GRADSTEIN
JERUSALEM (JTA) – There was a festive mood among the shoppers running around Emek Refaim Street in Jerusalem’s German Colony doing their last-minute shopping Wednesday before Sukkot, but the mood was [...]

Minnesota politicos learn firsthand about complexities of Arab-Israeli conflict
By MORDECAI SPECKTOR
Toward the end of a conversation in his Minneapolis City Council office last week, Gary Schiff, who represents the city’s Ninth Ward, recalled one of his favorite moments during his first-ever visit to Israel.
On Sept. 20, Schiff and a number of other [...]