Israel

FACT: Herbert Samuel, a British Jew who served as the first High Commissioner of Palestine, placed restrictions on Jewish immigration “in the ‘interests of the present population’ and the ‘absorptive capacity’ of the country” (Aharon Cohen, Israel and the Arab World, (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1970), p. 172; Howard Sachar, A …

Various segments of western society have become critical about “cultural appropriation” in which the majority group adopts customs of another group without explicitly acknowledging its origins, as to do so would be both stealing and effectively wiping out the essence of the minority culture. The issue is even more concerning …

Even a cursory analysis of the “Commanders for Israel’s Security” plan, perversely titleda “Security First” will reveal that it is not a security plan composed by military experts, but a political manifesto drafted by amateur politicians  It is useless for the sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while …

MK Sami Abou Shahadeh (Joint List’s Balad faction) participated last week in an event celebrating the release of convicted terrorist Anis Saffouri, who was sentenced in 2009 to 14 years in prison for conspiring to murder Israeli air force pilots, scientists and IDF soldiers. Saffouri, a resident of the Israeli-Arab …

FACT: Herbert Samuel, a British Jew who served as the first High Commissioner of Palestine, placed restrictions on Jewish immigration “in the ‘interests of the present population’ and the ‘absorptive capacity’ of the country” (Aharon Cohen, Israel and the Arab World, (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1970), p. 172; Howard Sachar, A …

Why Zionism faces a crisis, what it will mean and what is to be done. When the French playwright Edmond Fleg attended Herzl’s Third Zionist Congress in Basel he marvelled at the scene. “I looked about me.  What Jewish contrasts!  A pale-faced Pole with high cheekbones, a German in spectacles, …

Wednesday night and Thursday are Tisha B’Av – the day that marks many catastrophes that have befallen the Jewish people, most significantly the destruction of our Temples. It is a time of mourning. Tisha B’Av calls for contemplation, and this year is particularly difficult.  Not only for us, as a …

In Israel we currently see two worlds clashing. Perhaps more accurately, running parallel, as if the other did not exist. That is, the real world and the world of the internal machinations of the Israeli government and Knesset politics. In the real world, Israel, initially an international leader and example …

That was the title of a Broadway musical which first made it to the stage almost sixty years ago. This provocative title came into my mind now because of the current state of the world. I don’t really want to get off, my friends. I’m too much of a fighter …

Israel should be a source of pride for all Jews—but particularly for Jews who espouse liberal values of tolerance and pluralism, of individual liberty and of human advancement. The notion that the state created by the sacrifice, blood, guts and brains of millions of courageous Israelis should be trashed because …

What I am referring to – amongst the myriad of matters that might go “bust” – are the plans to apply Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judaea & Samaria now (emphasis added): “Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s plan to apply sovereignty over parts of Judaea and Samaria has been frozen …

Much has been written about the Palestinian refugees, but little attention has been paid to nearly one million Jewish refugees forced to flee their Arab homelands in North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and beyond. Between 1948-1972, approximately 586,000 Jews from Arab countries were resettled in Israel, while 200,000 …

Israel is considering claiming sovereignty of the Jordan Valley in the near-future to establish a secure and natural border with Jordan to the east. The pro-Palestinian press has not surprisingly taken a harsh view of the contemplated action.  It is comical to read how the media describes the physical land …

Finance Minister Israel Katz (Likud) announced on Tuesday evening that organizations that “work against the interests of the state” will not be eligible to receive aid from the state’s new aid fund for civil society organizations. On Tuesday, Israel National News reported that Finance Minister Katz and Labor and Social …

The Jewish homeland as described in the bible is well known to the entire world. Originally the land promised to the first Hebrew, Abraham, was the land west of the Jordan River. When the twelve tribes of Israel returned to the land of their forefathers after being slaves in Egypt, …

So much, so much to deal with! Prime Minister Netanyahu had indicated on July 1 – the first date on which he would have been able to bring decisions about application of sovereignty in Judaea & Samaria to the Cabinet – that there would likely be news next week. But …

FACT: Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and other detractors of Israel have mounted a campaign to discourage American law enforcement and first responders from engaging with their Israeli colleagues. In what they refer to as “deadly exchange,” JVP asserts that the U.S. and Israeli government “exchange methods of state violence …

Today is the day on which Israel was to begin application of sovereignty. That is not going to happen today, and I will get to that below. ~~~~~~~~~~ But I have been tracking more than one unmitigated mess, and I want to first circle back briefly to that other enormous …

When the United Nations considered dividing Israel into an Arab State and a Jewish State in 1947, it sought to remove the contentious religious sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims into a distinct “corpus separatum” which would be under international control. The area of Greater Jerusalem and Greater Bethlehem …

Press release: Israeli-Arabs at Haifa protest call to kidnap soldiers, attack Shin Bet. Dozens of Israeli-Arab residents of Haifa issued calls to kidnap IDF soldiers and attack the Shin Bet during an anti-Israel protest held on Tuesday. The protest was organized in response to the death of Iyad al-Hallak, a …