Yup, it can. This is the first posting of the year 2021, and it will focus on good news. There hasn’t been much of late. But I rejoice that there actually seem to be a number of upbeat items worthy of attention. Let’s set a positive tone while that is …
Read More »From Israel: “Dangerous?? Promising??”
We here in Israel are dealing with shifting international scenarios that are a bit unsettling; For there is no certainty as to how they will play out. I allude, of course, to the evolving détente with various nations – primarily Aran and Muslims nations that Israel has long been accustomed …
Read More »From Israel: Madness, Disaster and Promise!!
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 …
Read More »A civil uprising in Iran.
It looks like a civil revolution is taking place in Iran, where the people are rising up against the regime of the Mad Mullahs. The courage, the sheer bravery of the Iranian citizens is awe-inspiring. They face arrest, torture and death and yet are not giving up. It is clear …
Read More »From Israel: Standing Strong on the Tough Stuff!!
I begin with a report on the Likud primary that took place last Thursday: As expected, Binyamin Netanyahu defeated his challenger Gideon Sa’ar. And he did so in a landslide, with 72.5% of the vote. Out of 106 Likud polling stations across the country, Netanyahu won 99 and Sa’ar seven. …
Read More »Do New Zealand officials take terror seriously?
Our Prime Minister has been outspoken about the need for social media companies to stop the spread of violent and inciting material. Particularly in the wake of a terror attack on New Zealand soil, this would seem to be an indication that our government takes terror seriously. However, some actions …
Read More »Good News Weekend – Israel.
I have a crazy, very difficult week this week (family illness again) but I still want to post a Good News weekend instalment, if only for the sake of my sanity. It’s going to be a bit of a mix this week because I missed a fair bit of the …
Read More »From Israel: “On the Cusp of War”
For some time now, Israel has been at the edge of war. Or, to put it another way, Israel has been and continues to be engaged in an ongoing, low level, multi-faceted shadow war that has potential to erupt into something major. The post that follows is filled with …
Read More »Hezbollah, Iran’s Proxy, poses a threat that needs to be taken seriously.
The world’s attention is once again turned towards the fraught relationship between Iran and the U.S. and the growing threat of a military confrontation – a situation given much coverage in the media, both here in New Zealand and abroad. What has been less well-covered, particularly in the New Zealand …
Read More »‘Liquid cement’ -The IDF’s latest weapon in Operation Northern Shield!
The IDF began its Operation Northern Shield at the beginning of December when it revealed Hezbollah attack tunnels leading from within Lebanon into Israeli territory. Since then five tunnels have been exposed and the IDF has begun destroying them. One of the more innovative ways has been to pour liquid …
Read More »The UN’s immorality and UNIFIL’s counter-productivity.
I have written countless times about the UN and its various institutions and their depraved, insufferable bias against Israel. Last week we saw it all in action once again as the UN found it impossible to condemn Hezbollah – Hezbollah! One of the world’s most violent and vicious terrorist organizations …
Read More »From Israel: In the North: Threats and Deception!
First order of concern: I have learned from Chaim Silberstein, father of Shira Ish-Ran, that she has had extensive surgery on the site where the bullet entered her abdomen during the terror attack outside Ofra. She is in a lot of pain and facing a long recovery and rehabilitation. He …
Read More »Baroness Tonge implies discussing persecution of Jews is antisemitic.
In a Facebook post yesterday, Baroness Jenny Tonge stated “…We would all like a safe haven to run to when the going gets tough, but we stay on and ask why it is getting tough. Why have the Jewish people been persecuted over and over again throughout history. Why? I …
Read More »The dark clouds continue to gather for British Jews.
Yesterday things took a darker turn for British Jews. Let us go back to Tuesday 26 April 2016, 7:53am. A Facebook post by Naz Shah emerges on the Guido Fawkes website. It is a post from 2014 suggesting that Israel should be “relocated” to America and praising the “transportation costs”. Within …
Read More »Stop explaining Israel’s right to self defense.
I am sick and tired. More than anything, I am mad. I am sick and tired of seeing cute stories of Israeli kids having kite and balloon festivals sending messages of peace and candy for Gazans. On one hand, I love my people for their strength of spirit and eternal …
Read More »Don’t tell me to “stay safe”
Don’t. Just don’t. Sometimes kindly meant words are the worst. On May 8th Trump pulled out of the disastrous Iran Deal. Almost immediately afterward Israeli citizens were warned that there would likely be an attack from Iranians based in Syria and communities in the Golan were instructed to make sure …
Read More »INTO THE FRAY: But for the grace of God- Iran in Syria & the lessons for Israel.
Only by resisting territorial concessions on the Golan, Israel prevented deployment of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards on the fringes of the Galilee; only by resisting territorial concessions in the “West Bank” can Israel prevent them from deploying on the fringes of Greater Tel Aviv. Israel has a strategic interest in …
Read More »From Israel: Shifting Sands.
We begin with more information regarding the lead story in my last posting, about Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotovely, who was uninvited at Hillel House in Princeton. It was Rabbi Eitan Webb, director of the Princeton Chabad House, who had stepped in. He greeted the overflow audience with these words: “We …
Read More »INTO THE FRAY: “Conflict management”: The collapse of a concept.
While Israel has been “managing the conflict”, its non-state adversaries have been enhancing their capabilities so dramatically that they now a grave strategic threat. …to remain at peace when you should be going to war may be often very dangerous. .. –Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BCE …
Read More »From Israel: The World about Us.
In my last posting I shared several ways in which Israel’s shifting relationships with other nations are yielding positive results. We return to that theme here, to look at other ways in which Israel has developed more self-confident, self-assertive policies. Previously, my focus was on Africa, but Asia also deserves …
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