Israel

Even with the UGH! there are always good things to report in Israel.  And so, today I had hoped to begin with a deeply moving story, to establish a balance in tone before I moved forward. As matters are playing out, however, I thought it best to focus first on …

Israel is one of the most misunderstood, misrepresented and maligned countries on earth.  The question is, why? Jew hate?  Or because our “hasbara” is terrible?  In pro-Israel circles either (or both) of these are go-to explanations however neither are enough to explain the dissonance between Israeli reality and the concepts …

Each year Muslims mourn the Nakba. The 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, al-Nakbah, literally “disaster”, “catastrophe”, or “cataclysm”, observed every year on May 15, occurred when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs — about half of prewar Palestine’s Arab population — fled or were expelled from …

If professors in their classrooms were spewing a doctrine of white supremacy, black inferiority, or inherent Arab villainy, how do you think this would be received?  Would they be ignored because, after all, there is, thankfully, academic freedom in the West? Or would there be an outcry against their points …

But of course they are!  The myriad of problems Israel faces, that is. How delightful Yom Ha’atzmaut was, with its respite – its sense of celebration.  The good things I wrote about are no less important and we should hold on to them.  But it’s time to shift focus. ~~~~~~~~~~ …

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 …

It’s Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, and, as remarked upon by both local and foreign observers, the country swings in a schizophrenic kind of way from the mourning, sorrow and remembrance of Yom Hazikaron to the flag-waving patriotism and general merry-making of Yom Ha’atzmaut. Prayers marking the transition from the …

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 …

While we were sleeping – or at least some of us, those of us who live north of Rechovot and Ashdod – our Israeli compatriots were living through another hell of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s making. The terror groups shot over 300 missiles into Israel over Shabbat, and the shooting …

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 …

Despite possible short term difficulties, Israel should seize on the impending collapse of the Palestinian Authority as an opportunity to extricate itself from the deadly cul-de-sac, into which the Oslo process has lured it The Oslo Agreements, which spawned the Palestinian Authority, were born in sin. Today that is beyond …

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 …

PLO: Mass murder of Christians by Muslims in Sri Lanka is same as Jewish presence on Temple Mount PA daily op-ed: Notre Dame fire is same as “Zionist invasions that desecrate” the Al-Aqsa Mosque The PLO sees Jews visiting the Temple Mount – Judaism’s holiest site – as similar to …

Exactly 220 years ago – on April 20, 1799, which was the first day of Passover that year too – Napoleon Bonaparte issued a proclamation to Diaspora Jews to return to the Land of Israel and re-establish their state there. In 1799 Napoleon marched on Palestine from Egypt, conquering the …

Yes, the spacecraft reached the Moon, but it crash-landed, ending any contact with its handlers and any ability to have it serve experimental purposes from the Moon’s surface. Written by Douglas Altabef It wasn’t supposed to end this way. According to the Hollywood scenario we all tuned in to watch, …

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 …

For many American Jews it is a source of profound discomfort and embarrassment that Jews actually carry weapons and fight. In a deliciously ironic move, the same folks who loathe the president of the United States are beseeching him to restrain his best friend in the Middle East, Israeli Prime …