Middle East

Arabs contribute much to Israel. It’s time to attend to their political needs

The Joint List had supported Benny Gantz, the leader of the now broken-up Blue and White Party, when he hoped to become the next prime minister of Israel. After the election on March 2 he seemed to be able to muster 61 Members of Knesset and was, therefore, given the mandate by Israel’s president to form the next government. The Joint List wouldn’t be part of it, but it expected measures to benefit Israel’s Arab citizens whom previous governments are said to have neglected. [Rabbi Dow Marmur]

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Middle East

Campaigns shape up against 3 anti-Israel Congress members

We have been living with the glaring presence of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar in Congress for 15 months. Finally, we have some idea of the forces that could decide Tlaib’s political future. Likewise for a Republican congressman who is perceived as anti-Israel. The other week, Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones announced that she will challenge Tlaib in the Democratic primary next August to represent part of Detroit and some of the city’s suburbs, according to the website Jewish Insider. [Bruce S. Ticker]

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Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA

Contemplating life after the coronavirus

What lies ahead? How long will we remain cooped up in our houses (some of us less ‘cooped’ than others)? And what will the world look like when all ‘this’ is finally over? I don’t share the view of some people, namely, that things will go back to being just as they were before. In fact, that’s hardly likely to happen given the economic upheaval that most countries – Israel included – have undergone, and the heavy financial burden that governments and individuals are having to bear. [Dorothea Shefer-Vanson]

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Lifestyles, Middle East

Is Israel on its way to a 4th election?

Deafened under the constant drumbeat of the virus crisis has been the ongoing efforts to form a new Israeli unity government. What was perceived over a week ago as a quick solution between the Bibi-led Likud and the Gantz-led remnant of the Blue & White Party, cruelly named the Black & Blue Party by some members of the political right in Israel, has become bogged down in a tactical Game of Thrones, as the horse-trading for government ministries leads to friction and division. [Barry Shaw]

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Barry Shaw, Middle East

Pandemic and politics produce Israeli turmoil

Unemployment has gone from less than 4 percent to above 20 percent. Restaurants and bars are closed, as are virtually all shops except for food markets and drug stores. Individuals are advised to stay at home, except for buying food, medicines, medical emergencies, and if they work in what are defined as crucial jobs. We’re allowed to be within 100 meters of our homes for personal exercise. Police are stopping and questioning, and issuing fines to those considered violators. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

The tapestries that bind us

The watercolor has been in my family seemingly forever. It used to hang in my parents’ apartment in Tel Aviv, but it has been in my different homes in California for decades. In it a young girl of five or six years faces the painter with a slight pout and a high forehead crowned by a white ribbon. The sadness along her lip line is unmistakable. One can imagine small pools of tears about to gather in her big dark eyes. She is wearing a summer dress, but the painter chose to focus on her face and in quick brush strokes drew two blue straps over small shoulders that are colored a distinctive pink. [Varda Levy]

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International, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, San Diego County, USA

Sanctions in a time of pandemic

The Islamic Republic of Iran is fighting the coronavirus (a.k.a. Wuhan virus) with its usual obfuscation, lies, denials, and accusations. Calling the virus a concerted effort by the U.S. and Israel to infect Iran, the government has demanded an end to Western sanctions – and money, lots of money — because, it says, American sanctions are preventing medical supplies from entering the country.
The first claim is nonsense and the second claim is nonsense. [Shoshana Bryen]

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International, Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USA

Weaponizing the coronavirus

At a time when the world ought to be banding together for the common good, there is another segment of the human population that is contemplating new ways of weaponizing the coronavirus. In Gaza, Hamas came up with a new way harming Israelis. By raining missiles on Israel from Gaza, they are well-aware that Israelis will crowd themselves into bomb-shelters, an environment that would make it very easy to spread the pandemic among Israelis. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East

Israel needs economic stimulus in wake of coronavirus

As the coronavirus sweep its destructive path around the world, including in Israel, leaving health and medical experts advising governments and authorities to take radical measures to “flatten the curve,” healthy populations have had their lives totally disrupted potentially to the point of personal and familial ruin. The virus and stringent government imposed steps have inflicted an unbearable economic toll on the nation. [Barry Shaw]

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Barry Shaw, Middle East

The Mezuzah and the Coronavirus

One of the fascinating aspects of the coronavirus and its impact upon our society is the impact it is having on the religious lives of people across the world. In Israel, the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi asked Jews to stop kissing mezuzahs because of the coronavirus, while a major European rabbinical group published its own directives how to contain the spread of the illness. For those who are unfamiliar with what a mezuzah is, a mezuzah is a small parchment that contains some of the most sacred Jewish prayers, most notably, the Shema. Some Jews are instructed not to touch the mezuzah, or a Torah scroll with their hands. [Rabbi Dr. Michael Leo Samuel]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Michael Leo Samuel-Rabbi, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

The odd couple: Bibi and Benny

Did Benny Gantz betray those who voted for the Blue and White party by joining Netanyahu to form a government in which he will play second fiddle to the sitting prime minister? Many people seem to think so, among them Yair Lapid and Boogie Yaalon who have left Gantz and chosen to remain in opposition together with many of their followers. Both had served in Netanyahu governments in the past, which may account for their distrust of him and their refusal to join him again. [Rabbi Dow Marmur]

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Middle East

Yuli Edelstein and Israel’s Supreme Court

“Democracy or anarchy?” was a front-page headline in yesterday’s The Marker, the business section of Ha’aretz. The issue was the conflict between the Speaker of the Knesset (former prisoner of Zion in his native Soviet Union Yuli Edelstein) and Israel’s Supreme Court. The court decreed that he isn’t allowed to delay a plenary session of the new Knesset, as is the law, to elect a Speaker.

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Middle East