By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — It would be an extreme rejection of what is politically correct to claim that the Palestinians are not a people. Palestinian intellectuals expressed a sense of nationhood about a century ago. Most governments of the world are willing to grant them statehood. Doubters may point to the incomplete process of […]
Palestinians just don’t get the essence of politics Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — One is hesitant to even remotely capitalize on someone else’s grief. This is hardly the intent here; rather, a desire to share something that informs my life. Beyond that, it haunts me and I sense that it is just at the cusp of a deeper, national impulse of
Navy Seal’s grandmother is angered by his death Read More »
USA
By Isaac Yetiv LA JOLLA, California– The month-old painful spectacle of Washington partners-in-government fighting each other on “raising the debt limit,”something that should have never occurred in the first place, has strengthened my belief, expressed in a previous column, that the system as presently constituted is broke and, as a result, we have a dysfunctional
Why the financial community repudiates American politicians Read More »
USA
By Shoshana Bryen Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Having written that “the mission” is what counts when sending American soldiers to protect, to fight and sometimes to die on our behalf, readers challenged us to define the mission in Afghanistan. We tried. Going back to the beginning of the Obama administration, we looked at what the
U.S. purposes in Afghanistan remain muddled Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USAWASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)—The Jewish Federations of North America lauded the introduction of a Congressional bill to provide support for agencies serving Holocaust survivors as they age in place in communities across the country. This bill is a result of meetings and discussions that Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Iliana Ros-Lehtinen conducted with Holocaust survivors and social
Jewish Federations laud bill to aid aging Holocaust survivors Read More »
USABy Lillian Faderman SAN DIEGO — Americans have every reason to envy Israel’s enlightened policies toward their LGBT citizens. So it puzzles me deeply when I hear of LGBT groups lending their sympathy to opponents of Israel. The rights we have been fighting for and still have not fully achieved in the United States, LGBT
LGBT community should be natural ally for Israel Read More »
Middle East
By Dan Bloom Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — Propaganda comes in all sizes, and communist China wants a piece of Times Square in New York City now. Xinhua, the state-controlled propaganda agency of the Chinese Communist Party, has leased a longterm advertising logo space in Manhattan’s iconic Times Square, renting a huge LED sign called
Xinhua sign in Times Square is an affront Read More »
International
By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal SAN DIEGO — Toward the beginning of the book of D’varim, Deuteronomy, Moses says to the people: “I cannot bear the burden of you by myself….How can I bear unaided the trouble of you, and the burden, and the bickering!” (Deut. 1:9-12) For the last couple of weeks all of us
As Moses was tired of bickering, so too are the American people Read More »
USABy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — It is not as dramatic a phenomenon in Israel as, say, the bold, treacherous discord ongoing in the Arab world. And certainly the thousands upon thousands of Israeli youth (and many older citizens) already have the freedom of assembly that their counterparts in Syria, Libya, Egypt and
By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –There is no doubting the success of those who organized demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and elsewhere in behalf of social justice. Activists and their friends in the media are reporting that more than 300,000 participated. Police estimates are 200,000. Whatever the accuracy of one or another, the pictures were impressive.
Israeli demonstrations a media success, but will they change anything? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –They are all special forces; every American killed in service to our country is a special force. There have been 1,725 Americans killed in Afghanistan and 11,541 wounded (3,649 not returning to duty within 72 hours) before Saturday. But actual Special Operations forces are something else. One website that works
General questions about special forces casualties Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. –Raising the debt limit would not ordinarily be fodder for JINSA Reports but the deal will necessarily impact upon American defense policy and our ability to plan for the defense of ourselves, our interests and our allies, so a quick review is in order. The Numbers.Total defense-related spending in
A look at the post-deal Defense budget Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Israel’s summer of discontent is maturing. Last week we reached the peak of romantic anticipation of upheaval from below. Young reporters on the popular news and commentary programs were ecstatic in reporting the daily expansion of tents, marches, and proclamations. Older commentators expressed their own sense of the injustices involved in high prices
Protests impressive but are they effective? Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — It should be hard to pick on Norwegians and their government this week, but it is impossible to overlook Svein Sevje, Norway’s ambassador to Israel. Trying to “outline the similarity and the difference in the two cases” (mass murder of Norwegians by a Norwegian and mass murder of