During Andorra’s annual carnival yesterday, a mannequin representing Israel, marked with a blue Star of David, was hanged, shot, and burned while the crowd applauded.This crosses every line and must stop before they replace the mannequin with a real person. pic.twitter.com/Sip1ptHlR4— Combat Antisemitism Movement (@CombatASemitism) February 17, 2026 What unfolded … [Read more...] about A Carnival That Crossed the Line
Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía Falls to Antisemitism
Jewish Identity Is Not a Provocation The expulsion of three elderly Israeli visitors, including a Holocaust survivor, from Madrid’s Reina Sofía museum after they were insulted as “child killers” and targeted for displaying Jewish symbols is deeply troubling and unacceptable.The women were reportedly asked to leave… pic.twitter.com/KA9UixCYvz— European Jewish Congress … [Read more...] about Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía Falls to Antisemitism
At the Center of the Storm: ZIM, Haifa, and the Politics of Ownership
The image freezes a moment that suddenly feels heavier than it did when the shutter clicked. In the foreground, a massive ZIM container vessel sits docked at Haifa Port, its hull dark and dense, stacked high with containers arranged like a rigid urban grid at sea. Above it, a line of towering red-and-white gantry cranes stretches horizontally across the frame, their angled arms … [Read more...] about At the Center of the Storm: ZIM, Haifa, and the Politics of Ownership
When the Air Turned Unbreathable: Israel Tops the Global Pollution Charts
A heavy, suffocating blanket of smog settled over Israel, and for a few surreal hours it pushed the country into an uncomfortable global spotlight. Real-time data from the IQAir index showed Tel Aviv and Jerusalem ranked first and second in the world for air pollution levels, overtaking cities that usually dominate these grim charts. According to figures cited by Ynet, Tel … [Read more...] about When the Air Turned Unbreathable: Israel Tops the Global Pollution Charts
Year Zero, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Year Zero unfolds like a quiet reckoning with the moment just before everything broke, when culture still believed in continuity and institutions still assumed tomorrow would resemble today. At the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the exhibition looks back to the eve of World War II and reconstructs the fragile chain of decisions, memories, and acts of persistence that allowed modern … [Read more...] about Year Zero, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
IMTM 2026: Recovery Is Still Missing, and the Gaps Are Getting Harder to Ignore
Minister of Tourism, Haim Katz launches the international travel fair IMTM 2026 (International Mediterranean Tourism Market) with the message "The Recovery is Already Here". Well, it's not. The first image shows the trade show floor of IMTM in February 2023 before the war in Gaza, we are not there yet, either by the number of IMTM visitors, or by tourism recovery. The … [Read more...] about IMTM 2026: Recovery Is Still Missing, and the Gaps Are Getting Harder to Ignore
Milk Reform Standoff in Israel: Why Farmers Are Blocking Supply and Supermarkets Are Rationing
The current disruption around milk in Israel sits on top of a long-standing, very Israeli tension between state regulation, cost-of-living politics, and the survival of small agricultural sectors. Milk in Israel is not a free market product in the classic sense. Prices, production quotas, and import protections have historically been tightly regulated by the state in order to … [Read more...] about Milk Reform Standoff in Israel: Why Farmers Are Blocking Supply and Supermarkets Are Rationing
Moody’s Shifts Israel’s Outlook to Stable: A Signal of Resilience, Not Yet a Rebound
Moody’s Investors Service has decided to raise Israel’s rating outlook from negative to stable, and while that sentence sounds like a clear win, it’s actually a more nuanced moment than the headlines suggest. The sovereign credit rating itself remains unchanged; what has improved is the agency’s view of the direction of risk. In rating language, that distinction matters. … [Read more...] about Moody’s Shifts Israel’s Outlook to Stable: A Signal of Resilience, Not Yet a Rebound
Cybertech 2026: Resilience at the Core as Tel Aviv Conference Unfolds Amid National Closure and Endurance
Cybertech 2026 closed in Tel Aviv with an atmosphere that no amount of planning or programming could have produced, shaped instead by a convergence of technology, national grief, and collective resilience that quietly redefined the entire event. This year’s conference unfolded at a moment when Israel itself was holding its breath, and that tension moved through the halls as … [Read more...] about Cybertech 2026: Resilience at the Core as Tel Aviv Conference Unfolds Amid National Closure and Endurance
Karma, Haifa — A Strange Experience Before You Even Sit Down
A funny detail keeps repeating itself on my walks through Merkaz HaCarmel. Karma Restaurant sits there glowing in bright turquoise signage, tables neatly arranged, plants lined up like a polite barrier, and yet… always empty. Not quiet-because-it’s-late empty, but the kind of empty that makes you wonder if you missed a review, a scandal, or maybe a local … [Read more...] about Karma, Haifa — A Strange Experience Before You Even Sit Down
BBC, Gaza, and the Selective Morality Israelis Know Too Well
For an Israeli audience, the BBC’s Gaza obsession doesn’t feel like a media anomaly anymore. It feels like a ritual, repeated so often that it has become background noise. But when you attach numbers to that feeling, the hypocrisy stops being abstract and becomes measurable. In the nine months following October 7, BBC News published more than 7,500 Gaza-related items across its … [Read more...] about BBC, Gaza, and the Selective Morality Israelis Know Too Well
The Strong Shekel Paradox: Why Israel’s Currency Rises While the Country Is Under Strain
At first glance the strengthening of the Israeli shekel against the US dollar looks almost offensive to common sense. Two years of war, a swollen budget deficit, visible poverty, mounting transfers to the ultra-Orthodox sector, and a political environment that scares off headlines if not always capital — and yet the currency firms up. It feels like double accounting, like … [Read more...] about The Strong Shekel Paradox: Why Israel’s Currency Rises While the Country Is Under Strain
Third Place, Hard Earned: Israel’s Economy Seen From Above
The photo says more than a chart ever could. From above, Tel Aviv stretches outward in layers—old low-rise blocks pressed tightly together, sudden vertical jumps of glass and concrete, cranes frozen mid-task, and beyond it all the Mediterranean sitting flat and indifferent. It’s a city that looks permanently unfinished, always building, always adjusting, never quite pausing. … [Read more...] about Third Place, Hard Earned: Israel’s Economy Seen From Above
Prolonged Power Outage and Huge Column of Smoke Reported in Haifa
The entire Ramat Hadar is reportedly under power outage since about 9am till now 13.00. The huge column of smoke is rising over the Haifa industrial zone, spreading all over Haifa Bay. … [Read more...] about Prolonged Power Outage and Huge Column of Smoke Reported in Haifa
Europe’s Boycott Theatre: When Antisemitism, Populism, and Petrodollar Posturing Masquerade as Principle
Watching yet another European government step forward to “boycott” Eurovision 2026 feels like listening to a badly tuned violin: all noise, no music, and the intent painfully off-key. Iceland now folds itself into the little procession of Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and the Netherlands, and the whole thing has slipped past any pretense of moral positioning. It’s not principled … [Read more...] about Europe’s Boycott Theatre: When Antisemitism, Populism, and Petrodollar Posturing Masquerade as Principle
Byron Arrives, and the Streets Start Telling the Story
Funny how a storm announces itself long before the real thunder arrives. Sometimes it’s not the sky you notice first but the small casualties scattered at your feet. This crumpled blue umbrella—splayed out like a defeated bird against the concrete—pretty much sums up the mood as Byron sweeps across the coastal plain. The fabric is slick with fresh rain, puddled in odd folds, … [Read more...] about Byron Arrives, and the Streets Start Telling the Story
Netanyahu Government Engineers a Quiet Collapse of the Social Contract
Something in the tone of recent political statements feels like watching a crack spread across a windowpane — slow, deliberate, and pretending not to be the product of force. The government keeps insisting that nothing fundamental is changing, yet every move telegraphs the opposite. The draft-exemption bill now advancing under coalition pressure isn’t some minor tweak to … [Read more...] about Netanyahu Government Engineers a Quiet Collapse of the Social Contract
The Vanishing Middle: How a Government Chose One Community Over an Entire Country
Latet’s latest Alternative Poverty Report opens with a stark headline number: a 10% spike in Israel’s cost of living in just one year. The findings go further, painting a bleak picture where 22.3% of families and 28.7% of the population fall into multidimensional poverty, and where severe food insecurity affects roughly one in ten households. A typical middle-class lifestyle … [Read more...] about The Vanishing Middle: How a Government Chose One Community Over an Entire Country
Rain-Washed Week Ahead Across Israel
Raindrops scattered on the window already hint at what’s coming — a week wrapped in soft greys and quiet greens, the kind of weather where everything outside looks slightly blurred, as if the whole landscape has taken a deep breath and relaxed its edges. Israel is stepping into a stretch of days that feel almost indecisive, half-winter, half-late-autumn, drifting between calm … [Read more...] about Rain-Washed Week Ahead Across Israel
Frank Gehry’s Legacy Touches Israel More Quietly Than People Realize
Frank Gehry’s passing sends out a kind of hush before the tributes begin — the sort of silence that follows the fall of a giant whose influence was always slightly larger than the places he built in. And here in Israel, the news lands with a surprisingly intimate resonance. Gehry, born Ephraim Owen Goldberg, never foregrounded his Jewish identity as public narrative, yet it … [Read more...] about Frank Gehry’s Legacy Touches Israel More Quietly Than People Realize