By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–Israel is currently greatly benefiting from not having a foreign minister. Avigdor Lieberman, who helped Prime Minister Netanyahu to do badly in the last general election by joining forces with him, is currently otherwise engaged as a defendant in a criminal case. Netanyahu seemingly bound to keep the job open for [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM – Pretense seems to be an important factor in Israeli-Palestinian relations. It’s particularly acute in and around the issue of Jerusalem. Thus many Israeli politicians and their supporters never tire of speaking of the city as “Israel’s united and eternal capital” thereby implying that no peace deal will persuade Israelis to [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM– Aaron, the brother of Moses, received the news of the sudden and inexplicable death of his two sons – as told in last week’s Torah portion – in silence. In our days, many of those who state that silence is also the most appropriate reaction to the Holocaust – the annual [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — While the United States, not least the State Department, is trying to deal with the crisis caused by the renewed belligerence of North Korea, the US Secretary of State John Kerry is again in the Middle East in his continued effort to help bring peace to the region by [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–Pesach is one of those occasions in the Jewish calendar when Hallel (Psalms 113-118) is recited. One of the verses that often are, alas, very topical in Israel reads “All the nations surround me…” While life in Israel seems almost idyllic during this holy/holiday season, life across Israel’s borders is anything [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM– Here’s a crop of articles that arrived in my Inbox in the last week: The Jewish Chronicle of London (March 21) has an article about Lord Ahmed, Britain’s first Muslim peer, who has been suspended by the country’s Labour Party because of a statement he made in his native Pakistan that [...]
By Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–Apparently lists of VIPs attract a lot of readers; that’s why they’re so common in publications and blogs. No country, no walk of life and no profession remain unrated. Even rabbis: in the last few days alone I’ve read two lists telling me who’re the most influential and/or “spiritual” of my professional [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Turkey’s response to Israel’s apology over the Mavi Marmara incident some three years ago was swift and remarkably enthusiastic. Israel is likely to be less pleased, but apparently Prime Minister Netanyahu realized that President Obama deserved a parting gift, and so he made the call to Prime Minister Erdogan. [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — What would be the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian Authority today, had Obama made the speech he now made in Jerusalem at the beginning of his first four-year term as president rather than at the beginning of the second? Not only would much of the allegedly toxic atmosphere [...]
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–The day after the swearing in of Israel’s new government and the day before the arrival of President Obama, a symposium was held in Jerusalem under the title, “Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Where to?” on the occasion of the publication of The Routledge Handbook on the Israeli Palestinian Conflict, edited by Joel [...]