RSS
Jewish poet Louise Glück, who won Nobel literature prize, dies at 80

(JTA) — Louise Glück, a Jewish-American poet who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2020, died Friday. She was 80.
Acclaimed since the 1970s for poetry that filtered personal and feminist themes though classical mythological, nature and religious imagery, Glück was also the United States poet laureate in 2003 and received a National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2015.
A product of what she once called a “rudimentary” Jewish upbringing, Glück wrote poems that sometimes reflected that distance. But she often returned for inspiration to the Western canon, including the Hebrew Bible — in books like “Ararat” (1990) — and Greek myth. In one poem, “Vespers,” she directly addresses God in talking about her lack of belief: “Perhaps/they see your face in Sicily; here we barely see/the hem of your garment,” an image taken from the Book of Samuel.
One critic, Daniel Morris, said her engagement with the Old Testament shows how “Glück’s ‘Jewishness’ is bound up with how she interprets canons both secular and sacred as multiple networks of identity construction.”
Another critic, Dara Barnat, said Glück’s poems incorporating Biblical stories were a type of “midrash” (alternative tellings of traditional Jewish text) and compared her in this regard to several other Jewish American women poets, including Shirley Kaufman, Alicia Ostriker and Jacqueline Osherow.
The Nobel Committee said Glück earned the literature prize — the first for an American and Jew since Bob Dylan’s in 2016 — “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”
Glück (pronounced Glick) was born in New York in 1943 and grew up in the Long Island suburb of Cedarhurst. Her paternal Jewish grandparents owned a grocery after settling in New York City. Her father helped invent the X-Acto knife.
She attended Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University.
She published 14 books of poetry, including “The Wild Iris” (1992) which won the Pulitzer Prize. Glück won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2014, for “Faithful and Virtuous Night.” Her book of essays “Proofs and Theories” (1994) was awarded the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for Nonfiction. She taught at at Goddard College, Williams College, Yale University and, most recently, Stanford University.
—
The post Jewish poet Louise Glück, who won Nobel literature prize, dies at 80 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Israel Receives Shipment of Heavy Bombs Cleared by Trump

US President Donald Trump looks on as he signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, US, Jan. 31, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Israel has received a shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs from the United States, after US President Donald Trump lifted a block imposed on the export of the munitions by the administration of predecessor Joe Biden, the defense ministry said on Sunday.
The MK-84 is an unguided 2,000 pound bomb, which can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius.
The Biden administration declined to clear them for export to Israel out of concern about the impact on densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip.
The Biden administration sent thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian Hamas terrorists from Gaza but later held up one of the shipments. The hold was lifted by Trump last month.
“The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel tonight, released by the Trump Administration, represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said late on Saturday.
The shipment arrived after days of concern about whether a fragile ceasefire in Gaza agreed last month would hold, after both sides accused each other of violating the terms of the deal to halt fighting to allow the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.
Washington has announced assistance for Israel worth billions of dollars since the war began.
The post Israel Receives Shipment of Heavy Bombs Cleared by Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Mideast Envoy Says Phase Two Gaza Talks to Continue This Week

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that talks on phase two of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian terrorists Hamas would continue this week “at a location to be determined” to figure out how to reach a successful conclusion.
He told Fox News that he had “very productive and constructive” calls on Sunday with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt’s director of intelligence.
Witkoff said they spoke about “the sequencing of phase two, setting forth positions on both sides, so we can understand… where we are today, and then continuing talks this week at a location to be determined so that we can figure out how we get to the end of phase two successfully.”
The post US Mideast Envoy Says Phase Two Gaza Talks to Continue This Week first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Arab States to Reveal 5-Year Plan to Rebuild Gaza: No Hamas or Relocation

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends the Arab summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, May 31, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad l Mohammed/File Photo.
i24 News – Arab countries will unveil their plan for the reconstruction of Gaza on February 27 in Cairo. This initiative, developed by the Palestinians and handed over to the Egyptians for implementation, will be presented to the leaders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar. The plan provides for reconstruction over three to five years, without the displacement of the Palestinian population and without Hamas control. The funding, estimated at several hundred million dollars, will come from Gulf countries. The work will be carried out by Egyptian companies, representing a significant source of income for Egypt, which is strongly opposed to any migration of Palestinians out of Gaza. The workforce will consist mainly of local Palestinians.
“The goal is to marginalize Hamas so that it understands that it has lost control of Gaza, and to completely eliminate the terrorist organization’s grip on the population and the territory within 5 years from the start of reconstruction,” a source involved in the plan said.
An independent “Palestinian administration,” separate from the Palestinian Authority but relying on it, will oversee the reconstruction. This power structure is designed to get the approval of Israel and the United States, who refuse direct management by the Palestinian Authority.
Arab countries fear a resurgence of fighting by Israel, which could, in their view, favor US President Donald Trump’s plan to move Palestinians to neighboring countries. The former US president said he wanted to see Jordan, Egypt, and other Arab countries welcome more displaced people from Gaza, so that the war-torn area can be “cleaned up.”
According to analyzed satellite images, approximately 65% of the buildings in Gaza have been destroyed during the war. Experts estimate that reconstruction could take more than a decade and cost several hundred billion dollars.
The post Arab States to Reveal 5-Year Plan to Rebuild Gaza: No Hamas or Relocation first appeared on Algemeiner.com.