Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured another reprieve in a long-running Israeli dispute over exemptions of ultra-Orthodox Jews from military service, with the Supreme Court on Thursday deferring the deadline for a new conscription plan to May 16. Netanyahu's coalition includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that regard the exemptions as key to keeping their constituents in religious seminaries and away from a melting-pot military that might test their conservative values. The latest extension is shorter than that requested by the government, but may still spare Netanyahu a public reckoning over the combustible issue ahead of Israel's day of commemoration for fallen soldiers on May 13, and Independence Day on May 14.
In the midst of one of the deadliest days in decades in the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict, a Jacksonville man currently in Israel has shared his perspective on the violence.