I celebrate Israel on Yom Ha’atzmaut – Israel Independence Day. And I invite each of you, my friends, to join with me. Israel is 71 years young today. How far she has traveled in the course of those years!  When we consider the obstacles that have been overcome, it is …

This evening at 8:00, a siren will sound across the land, ushering in Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day).  And once again the nation will stand in respectful silence, honoring the memory of those soldiers who have given their lives to protect Israel.  Without a doubt, it is the saddest, most somber …

Not the most dignified of titles, but one that best captures my mood – and the mood, I will note, of a whole lot of other people here in Israel. This will be a short posting, very directly to the point. When I wrote yesterday about the rocket attacks from …

Israelis have had a belly full of attacks from Gaza and yet here we go again. But this time it is going to be different. We saw it coming just a week ago, when a rocket was fired towards Ashdod but missed its mark and landed in the sea.  At …

Today – Thursday – is Yom Hashoah, or as it is referred to, Holocaust Remembrance Day for the Martyrs and the Heroes.  The heroes should never be forgotten. In Israel, the Holocaust is commemorated on a different day on the calendar than elsewhere in the world, and it imparts a …

Today I begin with a piece – “No, it’s not about ‘race’” – by Vic Rosenthal, writing as Abu Yehuda, because I think this marvellously forthright post should be seen by all and shared broadly (all emphasis added): “Americans need to take a vacation from using the word ‘racist,’ at …

For many – myself included – the now-concluded week of Pesach provided a healing interlude: A time of coming together of family and friends. As well as a time of contemplation and ritual that ties us to our deepest sense of ourselves as a people. This past Monday, at the …

This will be my last posting before Pesach begins on Friday night. This year, the Pesach themes of redemption and evil resonate for me with special power.  The Almighty redeemed us when he took us from Egypt but that redemption was not complete:  it is an on-going process. In the …

It’s only a thought, or a rumor, at this point. I want to call your attention to a new, expanded (and highly informative) page I have put on my website about Israel’s rights to the Golan Heights: https://www.arlenefromisrael.info/israels-legal-rights-to-the-golan-heights/ As time allows, I will be updating my site in other ways …

When the polls in Israel closed at 10 PM on Tuesday, the air was fraught with tensions.  Various exit polls, notoriously unreliable in any event, were providing such disparate results that there was little clarity on what the outcome would be. The count was announced early in the morning on …

Thirty-seven years ago, during the First Lebanon war, Israeli troops engaged in a fierce and bloody battle with Syrian and affiliated PLO units at Sultan Yacoub near the Syrian border. Tank Commander Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel (pictured) went missing, along with Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz. The three were …

If we care about what’s going on around us, in the end there is no choice but to open our eyes and look hard. The situation is difficult. I did my good news posting and was very glad for it. ~~~~~~~~~~ By the end of last week, I was giving …

My sanity, certainly, and perhaps yours too. Yesterday was April Fool’s Day.  I don’t do April Fools shtick, but I found someone who does: US astronaut Scott Kelly, partnering with SodaStream. https://www.israel21c.org/us-astronaut-partners-with-sodastream-to-turn-burps-into-fizzy-water/ For myself, I decided that it’s a really appropriate day for a good news posting.  Do we need …

I begin this posting with a caution about how “current” it will be when you read it. This may seem to be a strange statement. But it is an honest and necessary one, in light of the current situation, which is so very, very fluid. That instability, that shifting dynamic, …

In my last posting I discussed Israel’s failure to be tough enough – to create an environment of deterrence – with regard to terrorists residing in Judaea and Samaria, and inside of Israel. I noted to myself then that I needed to follow up with a similar discussion with regard …

Purim is over, and we are back to “normal,” whatever that actually is. Last Tuesday, the terrorist who murdered Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan and Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger at the Ariel Junction a week ago, was caught and eliminated.  Security forces had tracked him to the Arab village of Abwein, near …

Perhaps it should not be unexpected, for there is frequently an increase in attacks before Purim, which comes later this week. But one can hope.  And one still feels punched in the stomach at the news of yet another attack. I begin with what is most important: a request for …

The air in Israel is heavy with tensions, but in many instances, for the wrong reasons. We are subject to so much nonsense: unfortunate sparring between persons in the political sphere; undue attention to the trivial. Perhaps what is currently happening is inevitable during a campaign, but I would prefer …

“We”? I am speaking of Jews:  The Jews here in Israel, certainly.  And some percentage of American Jews. I’ve been tracking the growing antisemitism in the US – including in the halls of Congress — with alarm and anger.  But, focused on events here, I have not written about it …

The danger is Benny Gantz as prime minister, in a very literal sense.  And so I lead off with “Elephant in the room – highlighting Gantz’s military record,” written by Dr. Aaron Lerner, co-founder and director of IMRA (emphasis added): “Bennie Gantz’s military career was torn to shreds in a feature …