Yale University made collegiate history this week, electing the university’s first Israeli student body president. Daniel Avraham is a 24-year-old Jerusalem native and second year student at Yale, enrolled in the ethics and economics program. He will serve as head of YCC, the university’s student union. Avraham is a graduate of the Gymnasia Herzliya high school in Tel Aviv and a past IDF intelligence officer. When Avraham graduates, he’ll join the esteemed ranks of alumni like Bill Clinton, …More

Mitt Romney made headlines over the weekend, when he declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel during a visit to the Jewish state. The GOP candidate spoke in contrast to the official US line, which maintains that Israel’s capital will be determined through negotiations with Palestine. Likewise, the US, as well as many other nations, keeps its embassy in Tel Aviv. During his visit to the Holy City on Sunday, Romney stated publicly: “It is a deeply moving experience to be in Jerusalem, the capital …More

President Obama extended a waiver for an additional six months that delays moving the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Obama's waiver, issued June 1, follows in the footsteps of predecessors Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who also extended the waiver every six months since a law was passed in 1995 mandating moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Presidents are permitted to delay the move on national security grounds. Some Jewish groups have pushed for the United States to move the …More

Over at Tablet, Yair Rosenberg has a piece that challenges the "Obama is the worst president for Israel, ever" meme. What's notable is that he does not have to plumb the fraught Eisenhower years--he digs just as far back as Ronald Reagan, an icon of today's Republican Party. "Under Reagan, the United States had withheld promised warplanes from Israel to punish it for destroying Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981 and voted to condemn the action in the United Nations Security Council. It had publicly …More

Former US Secretary of State James A. Baker thinks America is the key to stopping Iran. In a recent sit-down with Charlie Rose, Baker said Israel has the means to delay Iran, while the US has the ability to stop it all together. That’s not to say the ex-head is advocating quick military action. Baker gave a measured response when probed by Rose on how the US should get involved, saying, “We still have time.” “We are better equipped for the job,” said Baker, who served under …More

A NASA scientist will serve 13 years in prison after offering to sell secret intelligence to the state of Israel. Stewart Nozette tried to sell space and defense information to the Israeli government, in what turned out to be a sting operation by the FBI. Nozette was found guilty to the crime and his defense team accepted the 13-year deal yesterday in court. He will receive two years credit for the time he has already spent behind bars since his 2009 arrest. “I accept full responsibility,” he told …More

Former President George W. Bush’s niece Lauren Bush married Ralph Lauren’s son David in Colorado on Sunday. The fashion model wore a Victorian-style bridal gown designed by her new father-in-law in a ceremony on a ranch overlooking the Rocky Mountains. The event blended the stylistic sense of the groom with the Southern charm of the bride. We can ask nothing more from a Bush wedding than a western theme, hundreds of hangers-on and the really awkward married name of Lauren Bush Lauren. The elder …More