International

Israel, U.S. differ over strategy for stopping Iran’s nuclearization

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –The kerfuffle over the postponement of the highly touted “Austere Challenge 12” joint US-Israel military exercise is over. Officials in both countries are now on the same page: it was a “joint decision” having nothing to do with finances, Iran or politics, just “technical issues.” Regardless of the lid they’ve […]

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen

Filner’s ‘Freedom Rides’ a family response to seeing Nazi concentration camps

By Gary Rotto SAN DIEGO –The celebration of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has become a national day of service in many communities.  For Congregation Dor Hadash, a very activist congregation, it’s difficult to pick one cause.  The congregation creates an annual experience in song and action.  In announcing the program, Dr.

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USA

The lessons to be drawn from Middle East interventions

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Hopefully, Iraq and Afghanistan will be the Lebanon War of the United States.   Israel learned from the massive invasion and long occupation of Lebanon (1982-2000) that too much force is frustrating, does not accomplish announced goals, and may be self-defeating. Its second Lebanon war of July-August, 2006 demonstrated the lesson: only

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Niso Shaham is Israel’s version of Eliot Ness

By Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel CHULA VISTA, California —  The 1930s are one of the most famous periods of early 20th century American history. Most of us of the Baby boom era grew up watching The Untouchables television series. Chicago, 1930, is best remembered for Al Capone, America’s most successful gangster, who made organized crime into

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Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East

Anti-Semitism in Diaspora perceived differently in Israel and elsewhere

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Negative campaigning isn’t new in the world. Just look at what the Republican presidential candidates are currently saying about each other in the United States But you can’t diminish an American by accusing him/her of being Jewish. On the contrary. It’s different in, say,Poland where being called a Jew is

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Middle East

As in other Mideast wars, Israel could prevail in cyber-arena

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–When terrorists were killing Israelis on buses, in restaurants and other places where people gathered, the country soon developed a system that put guards almost everywhere. The attacks abated but didn’t stop – there’re still guards around – so a wall was built that isolated the occupied territories, because the attackers

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Middle East

‘Eichmann’s End’ recounts capture and trial of notorious Nazi

By Joel and Arlene Moskowitz LA JOLLA, California–Adolph Eichmann is a name that is likely to be unfamiliar to present generations  of young Jews and even more so to young gentiles. Eichmann’s End, a film about an  evil man who effected the annihilation of the Jews and other peoples despised by the Nazis over six decades ago

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International, Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Negotiations, not anti-Semitic demonstrations, will further peace in the Middle East

By Avi Bell SAN DIEGO — Balboa Park is a jewel in the crown of this city for families to enjoy culture and history. Unfortunately, it was not January 14 for a group of extremist anti-Israel protestors promoting hatred of Israel and the Jewish people for the third year in a row. Their express purpose

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Middle East

Does Netanyahu consider the New York Times and Haaretz enemies of Israel?

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–You may have already read the words spoken by Steve Linde, the new editor of the Jerusalem Post, at the WIZO – the international women’s Zionist organization -conference in Tel Aviv earlier this week, but they’re worth repeating because they highlight a serious problem of credibility. Linde is quoted to have

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Middle East

Jerusalems Above

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Note the plural in  the headline. It is not an error, but the theme of this column.   Designations of Jerusalem above and Jerusalem below have been around for a long time. They have been adopted by Jews, but may have been introduced in their explicit form by the New

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East