My son and unindicted co-conspirator Haviv Rettig Gur has written an important essay on contemporary Jewish peoplehood for the Times of Israel. Six million Jews died in the Holocaust. That fact, the millions of Jews shot and incinerated at the hands of European insanity, will go down in history as the single greatest calamity in Jewish
“Nearly seventy years after the Shoah, the encounter between Israeli and American Jews can be heartwarming but also full of friction and even alienation.” READ MORE on Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, May 2013
As Netanyahu ponders the government he is likely to set up after the election, the new power of the Jewish Home could make him consider the advantages of a broad national unity coalition, particularly in the face of the threat from Iran. READ MORE The Times of Israel, January 2, 2013;
Public announcement of a joint Israeli-Chinese plan to construct a rail link between Eilat and Ashdod ports carefully avoided mentioning Egypt, but the connection is inescapable. The Egyptian economy is in distress and unlikely to prosper anytime soon. The central government already struggles to maintain security in Sinai and the large portion of Egypt South
The Israeli and American non-Orthodox movements took a victory lap following the decision by Israel’s Attorney Generalrequiring rural municipalities to fund the salaries of non-Orthodox rabbis of congregations with more than 50 member families. But though understandable, the joy is tragically misplaced. There are a number of reasons to be wary of the Attorney General’s decision.
Last week’s anti-migrant riot in South Tel Aviv was a wakeup call to begin a serious public discussion of Israel’s handling of the influx of illicit migrants. For the better part of the last decade, NGOs involved in migrant affairs have urged adoption of a constructive, well-planned policy, to no avail. The recent violence may accomplish what
Too often, the urgent overwhelms the important. Israeli media have recently focused on the Iranian nuclear program, primaries in the Kadima party, the American presidential campaign, and the fiasco of the “Global March to Jerusalem,” worthy topics all. Yet all the attention paid to these urgent matters has crowded out the critically important issue of
Israelis took satisfaction in the appointment of Belaynesh Zevadia, their first female ambassador to Ethiopia, who is herself of Ethiopian-Jewish origin. “It is a great honor to be appointed ambassador, and especially the first ambassador from the Ethiopian community,” said Zevadia. “I made aliya as a youth and am returning to Ethiopia as an ambassador.” AJC
However, as Cyprus and Israel reach out to build that relationship, the change in policy will require a deeper change in orientation toward each other and perhaps toward the region. This is a difficult process that needs to take place not only in the political echelon and public opinion (where strong anecdotal evidence suggests it
On the surface, things are going well for Hamas, the Palestinian affiliate of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. Unless Israel decides on a full-blown invasion of Gaza, Hamas faces no real threat to its rule over its small Islamic republic there Read more:The Hamas drama | Ed Rettig | Ops & Blogs | The Times of Israelhttp://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-hamas-drama/#ixzz354IY4BmJ
Another Israeli advantage lies in community-building. Jews through the ages have excelled in setting up communities. In Israel, the challenges of development led to the creation of a nationwide network of community centers. The IsraAID/Tevel B’tzedek team in the Leogane organized such a network on a smaller scale. In Port au Prince a small, dedicated
Al Jazeera (Reuters): “Panetta: Israel must ‘get to the damn table’”New York Times: “Defense Chief Says Israel Must Mend Arab Ties”Fox News: “Panetta Scolds Israel on Peace Talks” Sometimes media can make a public event into a Rorschach test, reporting what they are predisposed to want us to see. Coverage of Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s speech to the Saban
Soccer players live in dread of the “own goal,” where a player inadvertently kicks the ball into his own team’s goal, giving the other side the point. As I write, Israel appears poised to provide the world with a rare example of two “own goals,” and in the process harming Israeli democracy. The Israeli cabinet set
Road 443 is an east-west highway that connects Israel’s coastal “Center” with its largest city and capital, Jerusalem. For about thirty kilometers, 443 cuts through a section of the West Bank northwest of Jerusalem, connecting the major town of Modi’in, and also major Palestinian population centers Ramallah and El Bira, to the national highway grid.
The 10th of Tevet: Taking the Long ViewGoing over old clippings of news items from the beginning of the decade, I found a pessimistic evaluation by someone who was a government minister at the time. It claimed that Arafat had a “strategic advantage” in that he did not need to “win” the terror war launched
It has been hard of late to be a supporter of dialogue in this fractured Holy Land. The recent trend toward unilateralism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in large part an expression of disillusionment with dialogue. The “disengagement” or “convergence” plans and the electoral (and military) victories of the rejectionists such as Hamas are part of
