By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — The problem is not what we know; it’s what we feel. We do not really know what happened: for the vast majority of us, it happened somewhere else (in the previously unknown town of Sanford, Fla.). We are relying entirely on the media with its pundits and professional […]
In absence of facts, emotions are fanned in Trayvon Martin case Read More »
USAby Roz Rothstein and Roberta Seid LOS ANGELES — Over the past 10 years, we have repeatedly witnessed efforts to shut down guest speakers who present an Israeli perspective on college campuses and in communities. Typically, when sponsors publicize their upcoming Israel-related program, anti-Israel groups mobilize to plot to hijack the event and effectively silence
Advice for dealing with anti-Israel disruptions Read More »
USABy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — In order to avoid a bloody showdown with the settlers, the Government of Israel tried to work out something that looked like a compromise, even though it wasn’t. It sort-of abided by the decision of Israel’s Supreme Court that had ordered the dismantling of the illegal settlement of Migron by
Settlement giving Israel a big ‘migron headache’ Read More »
Middle East
By Dan Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. When one of the modern world’s most brutal and fascist nations — Communist China, run like a brazen bully by the Chinese Communist Party — equates the revered and freedom-loving Dalai Lama with the German Nazis of the Hitler regime
Communist China maligns Dalai Lama with Nazi analogy Read More »
International
By David Brin ENCINITAS, California — A deep irony, underlying our political season, is that the U.S. middle class…the biggest victims of the first decade of this century, are also being slandered relentlessly. The ongoing campaign of propaganda that democracy can’t work and we should turn to oligarchy has many threads. May I take
The calumny against America’s middle class Read More »
USA
By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — What we’ve surmised for a long time is now official: though the monies collected in the United States for Israel have doubled in the last 20 years (now about $2.1 billion annually), the traditional recipients (the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund, the World Zionist Organization, etc.) have decreased
Americans increasingly picking their own charities in Israel Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — There are some among my readers who will view my ‘modest proposal’ as the same kind of ungodly satire as an earlier effort by that name. Almost 400 years ago Jonathan Swift published his Modest Proposal to deal with the problem of overcrowding and starvation among the Irish according to
Present lines, not those of 1967, should be basis of negotiations Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Chava Sandler JERUSALEM — My heart is broken. I am unable to speak. There are no ways for me to be able to express the great and all-consuming pain resulting from the murder of my dear husband Rabbi Jonathan and our sons, Aryeh and Gavriel, and of Miriam Monsonego, daughter of the dedicated principal
Widow and mother of Toulouse victims speaks out Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — The tragedy inToulouse has received much attention throughout the world. As carefully as thoughtful observers may read the expressions of sympathy and support, especially by French politicians, they’re also aware that what’s being said and written must be understood in the context of the forthcoming presidential elections inFrance. That’s
Murders in Toulouse prompts debate over safety in Diaspora Read More »
Middle East
By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — It was, it appears, a Muslim radical behind the massacre in Toulouse — a French-born petty thief who traveled in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was already under surveillance by French authorities. It was not, as first thought, French neo-Nazis. To which the question arises, “Does it matter which?” Yes,
“Yes, but’ seems to be French reaction to killing of Jews Read More »
International, Shoshana BryenBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– In the profound lack of certainty and the possibility of dire consequences concerned with Iran’s nuclear program, it is possible to conceive of a scenario that is less than perfect, but way short of catastrophic. Let’s start with some basics. In politics, it is generally impossible to achieve ideal solutions for
Constraints on North Korea may be model for Iran Read More »
International, Ira SharkanskyBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–It’s being said that Facebook and its siblings are changing the world by giving vox populi a new meaning. The Arab Spring, the calls for social reforms in Israel last year, the Occupy Movement soon thereafter are cited as examples. The latest is an initiative by an Israeli couple that put
Facebook diplomacy seeks Israel-Iran friendship Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Witnesses said the 24-year old man on the scooter pulled up to the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, France. It was just before 8 a.m.—a new morning in the rustic community. Students were arriving for class, chatting, joking, and thinking of their sunrise prayers. Suddenly, the man began
Gunman turned a school into a house of carnage Read More »
International
By Judy Lash Balint JERUSALEM — The funerals in Jerusalem on Wednesday for the four latest Jewish victims of Muslim terror were heart-wrenching. The unbridled pain of Miriam Monsonego’s brother; the wailing of the friends and relatives and the sobbing eulogy of Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar were hard to take, but tragically, not a
Funeral for French school victims heart-wrenching Read More »
Middle East