Tag Archives: Israel

There are many misconceptions about the Temple Mount, the Kotel and the Al Aqsa mosque. Confusion and even much conflict can be dispelled when the facts are made clear! 1. What is the holiest site on earth for Jews? Did you answer, “the Kotel”? If you did, that’s a mistake …

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced the appointment of Philippe Lazzarini of Switzerland to be the new head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Upon hearing that the head was going to be from Switzerland and not England which …

Senator Bernie Sanders, Democratic Socialist and candidate for United States president, has been vocally against the Israeli government which he has called “racist,” and against Israel’s “military occupation” of Palestinian land which denies the Palestinians “dignity.” Whether one agrees or disagrees with the notions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu …

Following publication by the United Nations Human Rights Council of a “blacklist” of businesses operating in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) is calling on the Australian Government to maintain its principled stance towards fairness at the UN and condemn the list. The …

Some observations: – There has been a consistent pattern to the “peace process” for 100 years from when the Palestine Arab Executive Committee met in 1921 and declared – “Either us or the Zionists.  There is no room for both” Some form of partition is proposed, the Jewish people go with …

The latest US proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been predictably rejected by the Palestinian side. In fact, it was rejected before it was even tabled.  Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced the day before the plan was released, ‘We reject it and we demand the international community …

It’s cold outside. The rain beats on the windows and thunder rumbles in the distance. Night is approaching and the warm bed beckons with the promise of a cozy embrace. The closeness of comfort seems so utterly wrong, knowing that he is outside, alone, in the dark, setting off for …

I have written before about the importance of semantics in the discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how frustrated many people are about losing various battles over nomenclature, such as references to the disputed territories as “occupied,” and “Judaea and Samaria” as the West Bank.  An arguably more important semantic …

There are many debates being waged around the world about whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism, how it is possible that some Jews may be against Israel, and why some Jews who do not believe in either God or religion are still considered Jews. This article will not tackle all of those …

It’s the shortest Shabbat of the year and time is running short, but there is just time for a few items for Good News Weekend. My first item is the discovery of a rare 3rd century synagogue in the Golan Heights which has a beautiful mosaic floor (via DavidinPT): Fragments …

Indictments, political logjams, intensifying drum beats of potential conflicts on multiple borders: we are awash in confusion, uncertainty and the potential for paralysis. It is exactly because we are in unprecedented, uncharted and therefore frightening waters that we need to take a collective deep breath, step back and employ the …

Our PM has not only helped restore Jews to geopolitical history, he has placed Israel not just in the corridors of power, but increasingly, at the table of power. For those whose middle-of-the-night dreams include the vanquishing of the Royal Family – the turning away of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu …

I have made no secret of it: the current election campaign has not exactly been an enlightening period for Israel. For many of us, this has been a source of great sadness. Our nation is capable of better – of a more elevated campaign. There has been too much back-biting, …

FACT: For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated, and widely neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts, and malarial marshes.  This was Mark Twain’s description when he visited in 1867: A desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent mournful …

Racism is a form of hatred which believes that all members of a particular group are inferior and/or evil.  In itself, it is ugly but not dangerous, a localized noxious belief system based on bigotry.  Racism becomes toxic when it spreads and obtains power. Such is the state of Palestineism, …

It is difficult not to savour the irony of two United States congresswomen who advocate boycotts of Israel crying foul at being denied entry into the very country they seek to erase.  Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, two members of the Democratic Party’s “Squad” of neophyte congresswomen from the Party’s …

As writer of this letter I am not someone who makes it her life’s mission to bring others down.  In fact quite the opposite.  I look for positives wherever I can and try not to be critical. I have read with interest the different opinions on all sides of the …

The Palestinians have only themselves to blame for unifying the bulk of the Israeli public and for not being a hot issue of division in the forthcoming Israeli elections. A century of unbroken Palestinian intransigence is best expressed by the Palestine Arab Executive Committee’s statement in 1921, “Either us or …

My North African Jewish-Amazigh* grandparents came from Djerba, Tunisia, to Israel in the early 1950s. Around the same time that my father’s parents arrived in Israel from North Africa, my mother’s parents came to Israel from Baghdad, Iraq.  They were also forced out of their country.  They had been part …

The Jewish connection to the Land of Israel did not begin in the wake of the Holocaust or with Zionism in the late 19th century. The Jewish people have lived in the Land of Israel for 3,000 years.  If one does not want to accept the Bible as a source …