Tag Archives: Zionism

“Zionist is the code word. Jew is the actual word.”   Diana Fersko, Tablet, November 4, 2022 Since the November 1, 2022 elections in Israel and the victory of the Israeli right at the polls, there has been an avalanche of anti-Israel rhetoric by media experts and commentators foreshadowing the …

Years of living in Israel has made one ole focus on what is really important ahead of the upcoming election season here in Israel. Every so often, I realize that even after 13 years of living full-time in Israel, I still have the sensibilities of an American. One way this …

While here in Israel there is always much to contend with, at the moment, we are confronting a preponderance of problems of considerable proportions.  They require vigilance and determined responses.  It is imperative, however, that we not become discouraged by the scope of our challenges. ~~~~~~~~~~ Many of the problems …

In my last posting, I described the hard-nosed position taken by the IDF on the orders of Defense Minister Benny Gantz (head of Blue & White) with regard to the Nachala Movement’s effort to promote the establishment of six new yeshuvim (settlements) in Judaea, Binyamin and Samaria.  The Nachala program …

The first step is the most difficult, my friends.  That’s the first message I want to carry today. Had I written immediately after Nachala took action last Wednesday, July 20, my tone would have been heavier.  For in the immediate aftermath of what transpired it was difficult to sense an …

Israel has stopped the Western clock that was ticking during the 1950’s. We continue to embody the key values that drove an optimistic post-WWII West, particularly in the United States. BARS AND restaurants do a brisk business at Mahaneh Yehuda in Jerusalem. Israel regularly ranks as one of the happiest …

What ensued has been one of the greatest failures and embarrassments of the state of Israel: the willing severance of the connection of the Jewish people from its holiest site. For centuries, indeed millennia, our ancestors have reaffirmed the centrality of Jerusalem to their understanding of what it means to …

In the secular world, New Year’s Day bears striking similarities to Rosh Hashanah in that both are times of new resolutions, of a determination to make beneficial changes in our lives. In that spirit, let me offer a much-needed resolution for us as a society: we need to rediscover, reconnect, …

One of the major attributes of the woke sensibilities is the one-size-fits-all moral view of things. Historically, borders have been a major facet of Israeli life. On the level of international law, borders, still indeterminate, are passionately debated. More practically, borders have been important in terms of the effort to …

It is absolutely wrong to say that Arab residents of Mandated Palestine did not suffer a NAKBA (catastrophe) in 1948. History shows that from their perspective, whatever the truth of the conflict itself, the end result was a catastrophe for them. But is accepting they suffered a catastrophe the same …

The Zionist Achievement When the French essayist and playwright Edmond Fleg attended Herzl’s Third Zionist Congress in Basel in 1899, he marvelled at the scene. It wasn’t merely the dynamism of the convenor that moved Fleg but the diversity of the delegates. ‘I looked about me. What Jewish contrasts! 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, …

As a marketer the incongruence of the way Israel’s media presents Naftali Bennett stands out like an enormous red flag. There is a deliberate pattern that is impossible to ignore – and it crosses over from the news to entertainment shows. Either they ignore him or they mock him mercilessly. …

For two days now, there have been a stream of articles calling Trumps ‘peace plan’ everything from a conspiracy to Apartheid.  Quite a few of the ‘predictable’ politicians from the UK and US have bitterly attacked the initiative.  Judging by Emily Thornberry’s comments in parliament it seems that many of …

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 …

The Oslo process that resulted in the signature of the “Declaration of Principles” on the White House Lawns on September 13, 1993, was in many ways a point of singularity in the history of Zionism, after which everything was qualitatively different from that which it was before.  It was a …

Maligned, misunderstood, and derided, provocative, emotive and polarizing.  Often condemned, just the mention of the word Zionism is enough to raise the blood pressure of many. This often results in both pro and anti-Israel activists engaging in a battle of words. Frighteningly, this battlefield has expanded way beyond the Social …

The Arab-Israeli conflict traverses decades, manifests in regular wars, terrorism and endless political skirmishes in international forums.  It is also a battle to establish narratives – victims and aggressors, Davids and Goliaths, oppressors and oppressed.  Language and the meaning given to basic concepts form a key part of this battle.  …

In their zeal to avoid accepting any kind of Zionism ever, anywhere, any time or any place, the anti-Zionists (yeah, lets call them antisemites for short) are turning themselves inside out and devouring their own in their desperate attempt to not only deny any legitimacy to Zionism, but to avoid …

Antisemitism spread through the left like a tsunami through city streets. It may have entered via radical minority groups on the fringes, but as it hit the shore, there were no defences in place. Nothing to stop anti-Jewish sentiment moving from constituency to constituency. For decades, the mainstream has flirted …