Israel

Here I am, again, skipping over the good news.  My apologies for this, as I know my readers enjoy those good reports (as do I).  But once again, I feel compelled to focus on the not-good news: Some painful circumstances – disease, for example – may be unavoidable.  Others should …

 9,000 Photos from Palestine in 1800’s – with no trace of Muslims or mosques Félix Bonfils (1831-1885) was French photographer and writer who was active in the Middle East. Four years after his arrival he reported 15,000 prints of Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Greece, and 9,000 stereoscopic-views. He traveled to the region several times and we …

“You try to scare us so that we’ll wear down, break, and leave, but it’s all for naught. The sentiments in Otniel are not of fear and exhaustion, but rather of cohesion, resilience and especially a strong desire to move forward. The murderers that imagine eliminating us through bloodshed will …

Hanin Zoabi – Are you going to cry out your rage and horror at the killing of a 13-year-old girl barely past puberty? Ayman Odeh – Are you going to rail against the terrorist and those who sent him, directly or indirectly; sent him to break into her house and …

 Not an easy thing to do – to maintain balance.  We might know where we want to go, yet find the way there exceedingly slippery.  This is what we are dealing with now: the rapids and the uneven stepping stones. ~~~~~~~~~~ I like to sustain my practice of starting with …

The real reason for the rupture of relations with Turkey is not because of anything Israel has (or has not) done. It is a result of what Turkey has become.  Israelis have no conscience, no honor, no pride. Those who condemn Hitler day and night have surpassed Hitler in barbarism. – Turkish …

I am currently in Israel with my young family. My three-year-old son has been refusing to sleep in his own bed. He has been saying, “but mummy, I don’t love my new room, I don’t want to sleep by myself, I’m scared.” For the last two weeks I have attempted …

  A distinctly Palestinian national sense-of-self evolved during the 1920s – not organically, but as a negative reaction to Zionism. And this fact is at the centre of the current conflict. Let’s start with a quiz. Which Jewish leader said the following words? The land over which we have restored …

There is a scene in the movie, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”, in which the Sacha Baron Cohen character finds himself deep inside redneck territory in an American country and western lounge bar.  Borat and his band are introduced as being from Kazakhstan. …

 Rather than an indictment of the ruling coalition, the recent “fire and brimstone” address by Ehud Barak’s was a harsh condemnation of the Israeli electorate for its infuriatingly stubborn refusal to disregard past experience  People who live in glass houses should not throw stones –A proverb on prudence (or the …

“Holding Our Heads High” I actually mean this in two senses.  The first is the traditional sense of being proud, and I will share an example of this in a moment. But then, there is the more metaphorical sense of not drowning in the sea of malice and stupidity that …

Game of Thrones (GoT) is looking more and more like a straightforward yarn compared to the changing alliances inside Israeli politics. And some of those who considered Lieberman’s re-entry to government a potential disaster just a few weeks ago, now GoT like look to him as the potential fixer. Prime …

Acting President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas has long argued that he needed many preconditions satisfied before he would sit down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for peace talks. Those requirements included settlement freezes and releasing Palestinian Arab prisoners from Israeli jails. Netanyahu begrudgingly did both of those …

After my last post (which now requires follow-up), I promised I would return to my regular format, which includes good news.  Would that the good predominated. It does not, of course. But it is real – as you will see in the course of this posting.  And so offers promise …

With changing patterns of Arab enmity, the major challenge to Israel’s existence as the Jewish nation-state is no longer repulsing invasion, but resisting attrition  A comprehensive Israeli policy declaration [a]ccepting, in principle, the Arab Peace Initiative (API), with requisite adjustments to accommodate Israel’s security and demographic needs, as a basis …

I decided to table this posting for a couple of days because of the horrendous terror attack in Florida. For all those who lost dear ones in that obscene assault, or who were wounded, I extend deepest compassion.  May they know healing. What is painfully ironic is that what I …

Tel Aviv’s Mayor Ron Huldai made disparaging remarks concerning Israel’s part in causing the Arabs to kill us. Ilana Dayan interviewed Huldai after the terror attack at a Sarona restaurant that took the lives of 4 and injured over 10 others and Huldai used the air time to cause serious …

 Last time I posted, it was with a spirit uplifted because of Yom Yerushalayim.  I had not intended to post again until next week.  For Shabbat is coming, and immediately after, Shavuot, the harvest festival that celebrates our receiving of the Torah and is marked by study into/or through the …

It was the night of June 1, 2001. Scores of teenagers queued outside the Dolphinarium nightclub on the long stretch of road running along the Mediterranean Sea from the old north of Tel Aviv down to the historic port of Jaffa. After the homely Friday night Sabbath dinners had concluded, …

“Max Brenner, come off it, there’s blood in your hot chocolate”. So the hate-filled chants went outside Max Brenner stores around Australia for a number of years after the chain became one of the main targets of those involved with the BDS campaign. But a Max Brenner café made the news for a …