Because I am Jewish, of course, I love Israel. It is my cultural patrimony, even as America, the land of my birth and that of my parents, is the country I love and to which I owe my allegiance. In fact, after I lived in Israel for two years during my 30s, I came back to America more appreciative than ever for the unique things and values that America has given me. The English language and the puns within it. ...
Continue Reading → ShareOver the past 18 months, Americans have been bombarded with images comparing rock-throwing young Arabs with the Israelite David who confronted Goliath in biblical days. Images of kaffiyeh-bedecked youths hurling rocks and boulders at Israeli soldiers have occupied network television news footage and newspaper telephotos.
On the surface, their actions seem parallel to the ancient David’s. Both threw rocks.
But David did not hijack wagons. And David did not murder children. And David did not endanger bystanders. He specificly attacked Goliath, ...
Turkey has been at the center of the now infamous flotilla incident involving aHamas-connected Turkish “NGO” which attempted to run an Israeli naval blockade off the coast of Gaza. The flotilla was supported financially by Hamas and peopled primarily by their Turkish allies. It was purportedly seeking to transport 10,000 tons of humanitarian supplies to Gaza. But in fact, Israel supplies Gaza with 15,000 tons of food, medicines, and related humanitarian support every week. There seems to be more here ...
Continue Reading → ShareMaybe this is the wake-up call that Israel needs before acquiescing to a “Two-State Solution.”
When mass murder was rampant in Rwanda, did the “International Solidarity Movement” run supply flotillas? What would Kamal Ataturk have done if a civilian flotilla were sent to Armenia while the Turks were committing genocide there? When President John F. Kennedy blockaded Cuba, would anyone have tried running a flotilla through to Havana? If they had, what would the U.S. Navy have done if they refused to stop? Has anyone tried running a parade of boats to Guantanamo Bay ...
Continue Reading → ShareWith all the talk about peripheral issues arising from the War in Iraq, it is useful to remember that, one day comparatively soon, America will depart from that jungle. By contrast, Israel has no such option. Americabrought down the Taliban and Saddam, and we all are grateful to see them gone. But America also encountered more than she planned for in post-Saddam Iraq.
Regardless of how one views the War, virtually all Americans are agreed that we are glad the Taliban and Saddam are out of ...
In approximately eighteen months, Barack Obama may well be a lame duck limping to January.
During the same period, more thousands of Jews will continue being added to the population of Judea and Samaria. Since 1967, several powerful world leaders who worked to oust Israel from Judea and Samaria have passed away. During that same period, the Jewish population of Judea and Samaria, including the areas of East Jerusalem liberated in June 1967, has grown to 558,000 — 230,000 in Greater ...
Continue Reading → ShareNot all Jews, even the Torah-observant Jews among us, even Chassidic Jews, count themselves as Chabad Jews. There are doctrinal differences, sometimes very significant, that individuate Chabad from the larger normative Orthodox community. Particularly, there are real issues of profound halakhic significance concerning the place of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in the constellation of great Torah leaders of the past generation. For an overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews, particularly in communities where yeshivas proliferate and Torah learning dominates Orthodoxy, the roles of ...
George Shultz was right when he barred PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat from entering the United States to address the U.N. General Assembly, and he is equally on target now that he has opened a dialogue with the same PLO. The Israelis, who lauded the first decision but are lamenting the second, can blame only themselves for recent developments.
Israel has militarily occupied Judea, Samaria and Gaza since 1967, yet has taken no steps to assert its claim to the territories. ...
No one in my family was directly touched by the Nazi Holocaust. Nor did any of my friends lose any relatives to Hitler. While that unspeakable tragedy has deeply affected the psyche of every Jew born in the past half century, not many of us directly experienced what it was like to be a Jew in that era.
Until now.
Since Thursday night, when the first Iraqi Scud missiles landed in Tel Aviv and Haifa, I have been emotionally spent. Although I ...