By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Politics is not for nice people. Sure, there are required smiles, and even hugs for those current with the fashions. Hand shakes and back slaps have been around for a long time. But the demonstrations of warmth are not likely to be genuine. The work is too hard, and most […]
Politics is a nasty business Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — Training Syrian rebels to conquer the Golan Heights and shoot down Israeli aircraft? No, they don’t say it quite like that. But after years of hypocrisy, the Obama administration has admitted that while it declined to arm Syrian rebels directly for fear that weapons would end up in the
Is U.S. aiding Syrian rebel plans to fight Israel? Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Dorothea Shefer-Vanson GIVAT CHAYIM IHUD, Israel — The Theresienstadt Memorial Museum is situated in Israel’s verdant Jezreel Valley, in premises attached to this kibbutz. Once or twice a year I receive the museum newsletter, continuing the subscription taken out by my late father. For many years it appeared in stencil form on plain
Theresienstadt memory kept alive on Israeli kibbutz Read More »
Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — As I begin to write this column the latest news is that coalition negotiations are stuck on the highly nonprincipled issue of which party will get to name the Ministers of Education and Interior. That may be solved by the time I’ve done my final editing and clicked on Send.
Revolt of the Likud youngsters troubles Bibi Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Nervous Jews are worrying if Barack Obama is intent on forcing Israel into a peace process. Leaving aside the issue that being nervous is a chronic condition of being Jewish, an appropriate response to Obama and all the others who think that Israel is not doing enough to make peace
Comparing Israel’s peace-making with other nations’ Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Money is not everything, but it buys most of the things that are. Values are also important in politics, but the important ones have something to do with money. For that reason, whoever controls the purse is somewhere near the top of the heap. In the United States system of
Lapid considered as probable finance minister Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C.–Shared values and democratic systems count for a lot in the political world — and they can advance military cooperation — but national security interests can evolve without them. No one would mistake Saudi Arabia or Bahrain for a country that shares American values, yet the U.S. Central Command works closely
U.S. reduces Israel to a military client, not a partner Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana BryenBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Though the news, leaks, speculations and spins about the efforts to cobble together a coalition before time runs out in another week or so dominate the public discourse in Israel, the volatile situation on its borders isn’t being ignored either. As so often in Israel, professors are frequently
Arab Spring devolves into tribal anarchy Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–The fighters who seized a patrol of UN Peacekeepers across the border on the Golan Heights explained their actions by the assertion that the UN as well as Bashar al-Assad and his soldiers are agents of Israel. In the eyes of some, made important at least momentarily by their weapons and putting
Seizure of U.N. peacekeepers demonstrates Mideast perils Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Two separate issues are telling us something about the status of Israel in international perspective. One is the visit of President Barack Obama, which has triggered hopes and fears of what he will do when he gets here, up to and including a timetable for the withdrawal of a half
International images at odds with Israeli reality Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that Sheli Yachimovitch isn’t taking my advice that Labor should join the Netanyahu government. But can she survive as party leader having turned down the Shas guru, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who is said to have even been prepared to call on her
Better a government with Haredim than with settlers Read More »
Middle EastBy Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — In the course of the election campaign last January, Yair Lapid, the leader of the new party Yesh Atid, declared that he very much wanted to be part of the next Netanyahu government. Naftali Bennet, the head of the Zionist, settler-nationalist, largely Orthodox party Habayit Hayehudi had election posters
A brief for Labour joining Bibi’s government Read More »
Middle EastBy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Bibi has finished the four weeks provided by the President to create a government, and has received the two-week extension allowed by law to the President’s discretion. Prospects are not good, with the two contentious camps of the Haredim and anti-Haredim cursing and threatening one another. Bibi says that he
Pros and cons of Haredim in Israel’s government Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, Middle EastBy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Obama’s plans in the Middle East include three and a half hours in Ramallah to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The president’s hope is to find a mechanism for advancing Israeli-Palestinian “peace.” The appearance of the President of the United States in “Palestine” is calculated to provide
Obama’s upcoming visit to Ramallah Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen