By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C –U.S. policy toward the Middle East swings substantially depending upon the occupant of the Oval Office, but some hoary myths persist year after year. One concerns the legal status of the territories. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told The New York Times that, “Under certain circumstances, I think Israel […]
‘Illegal occupation’ by Israel is a myth Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Israel is not a typical country. Its prominence includes a rise in population over its 70 years of history, from less than 800,000 to more than 9,000,000. There have been wars in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1969, 1973, 1982, and 2006, several prominent military operations in response to West Bank intifadas
Politics, religion, geography make Israel atypical Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Nitsana Darshan-Leitner RAMAT GAN, Israel –Shurat HaDin is continuing its battle against the racist BDS movement. This past week, we filed an amicus curiae or “friend of the court” brief with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the State of Arkansas’ Anti-BDS law, exposing the insidious discriminatory origins and tactics of
Shurat HaDin battles BDS in Arkansas case Read More »
Middle East, USA
By David Cumin, PhD AUCKLAND, New Zealand — In the second century, the Romans renamed Judea as “Palaestina” in an attempt to minimize the Jewish indigenous ties to the land of Israel. The New Zealand government recently published a similar insult, labeling a map of the State of Israel as “Palestine” in an official Immigration
New Zealand briefly replaces Israel with ‘Palestine’ Read More »
International, Middle EastBy H. Applebaum SAN DIEGO — It was June, 27, 1976, forty three years ago. The Palestine Liberation Organization and radical left-wing Germans hijacked an Air France flight in Athens, refueled in Libya, and landed at Entebbe airport in Uganda. There, the syphilitic president, Idi Amin,
The legacy of Entebbe Read More »
International, Jewish History, Middle East, USABy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — One of the Facebook groups I belong to is called ‘Brits Whingeing in Israel’ (motto: ‘Lose some, whinge some’), having split off from ‘Brits Laughing in Israel,’ which in turn split off from ‘Brits Living in Israel.’ The politics behind the various groups and sub-groups is not clear
Cell phones cause whingeing at concert venues Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual ArtsBy Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Rabea Ali, president of the Muslim Students Association at Manhattan College, wasted no time challenging U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel’s advocacy in a campus speech for Israel when she asked, “And how do you find it in your humanity to support Israel when it is actively committing human rights
Abrasive questions on Israel asked of Engel Read More »
Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education, USABy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — This is an early and partial (i.e. neither complete nor impartial) attempt to comment on the second election in Israel this year, due next September. The immediate inspiration comes from a cartoon in Ha’aretz that shows the quartet that leads the main opposition Blue and White Party. Three of
Is Blue and White doing nothing on purpose? Read More »
Middle East
By Zev Bar-Lev SAN DIEGO – A student, let’s call her Ida, says: “I find the Hebrew language completely opaque, as if hidden from me by a thick curtain. I’ve memorized the whole alphabet, all the shapes & their sounds, but I can’t make much out of words, much less sentences—even with a bunch of
The hidden meanings of the Hebrew alphabet Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & EducationBy Lawrence Krause ENCINITAS, California — As regrettable as it may be, the plan for two states to co-exist in peace on the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea is truly dead. Events on the ground have proclaimed its death. Failure to recognize its demise only strengthens the forces that killed it.
Time for Israel to create EPZs for 5 Arab cities Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin BOCA RATON, Florida — Most people are convinced that there are comparatively few Jews in the world, only about 13.3 million in 2001, about 1.4 percent of the world population. Of these 4.9 million lived in Israel and 8.3 million outside the Holy Land. Logic would dictate that the actual
Those of Jewish blood quite populous Read More »
International, Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Nahama, the wife of President Reuven Rivlin, died after a protracted illness. She was a great person, well educated and involved in numerous social welfare activities. There was several days of hearing good things about her, and at least one comment that it should have been Sara. And the parties
Quarrels seem endemic to the Jewish State Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle East
By Navras J. Aafreedi. Ph.D KOLKATA, India –The Diary of Anne Frank has been translated into seventy languages, including a few South Asian ones. These include Hindi, the official link language of India and the fourth most widely spoken language with 341 million speakers; Bengali, the national language of Bangladesh and the fifth most widely
‘Anne Frank’ may be presented to Muslims in Urdu Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Theatre, Film & BroadcastBy Barry Shaw NETANYA, Israel — Zionism is Jewish intersectionality and genuine progressivism. It is the diversity of the incoming, the answer to three millennium of Jewish victimhood. It is where left and right, black, white and brown, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, religious and secular, intersect, come together in defense of our self preservation, to celebrate
A Zionist defines Zionism Read More »
Barry Shaw, Jewish History, Middle East