By David Brin ENCINITAS, California –Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is truly on a roll. Feeling his oats, he has been laying down a hardcore line. And if this one week is any sample, we are in for one heckuva ride. He started by impugning President Ombama’s religious faith as “phony theology.” This is red [...]
JERUSALEM (WJC)–The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that a law that exempts Jewish religious students from the mandatory military service is unconstitutional and can therefore not be extended after it expires next August. With six justices in favor and three against, the controversial law, called ‘Deferral of Service for Yeshiva Students for whom Torah is [...]
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — The current uncertainty is profound, but presents opportunities as well as threats. Most of the attention is on Iran, widely assumed to be moving toward nuclear weapons, against the background of its leaders’ obsession with the destruction of Israel, raising the possibility of an Israel attack meant to avoid [...]
By Yaakov Lappin WASHINGTON, D.C. — Senior officials from the Obama administration have begun descending on Israel once again to ensure that Jerusalem holds off on an attack on Iran. That, at least, is the message the White House is seeking to generate. “The national security advisor [Tom Donilon] and the American intelligence head [James [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–When the founders of modern Zionism hoped that having a country of their own would make Jews like all other nations, they didn’t think that the Jews would adopt any of the despicable traits of the anti-Semites among whom they lived in dispersion. The aim of Zionism was not only to [...]
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — President John F. Kennedy rarely spoke publicly about his personal faith, though he brilliantly and effectively defused the issue of his being the first viable Catholic nominee for the White House. It was an ignominious issue in 1960 (hard to fathom nowadays) and he mitigated it head-on at [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –The more the pundits write and talk aboutIran, the less do we seem to know what’s really going on. Perhaps this is because the experts are as ignorant as the public, just more articulate. Here’re a few of the many possible scenarios I’ve gleaned of late: 1. A strike onIran’s [...]
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — An internet friend sent me a video screed from an Atlanta television station that presents, in the most inflammable language, the old saw about too much foreign aid while Americans suffer. Even worse, some of that aid goes to refurbish mosques in unfriendly Cairo and elsewhere. The images tweaked [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –Not being one of them, I find it often quite uncomfortable to walk in ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods inIsrael, e.g., Meah Shearim in Jerusalem, especially in the company of women. And when I read the notices and the graffiti on the walls, I become depressed by their often hysterical anti-Israel tone. It’s [...]
Posted February 18, 2012 Compiled by Garry Fabian Fate of eruv in the hands of the court SYDNEY, 15 February – A final decision on the fate of the North Shore Eruv is expected within weeks. The NSW Land and Environment Court began hearing an appeal by Northern Eruv Inc last week against the Ku-ring-gai [...]
