Middle East

By Noam Bedein SDEROT, Israel –On my recent visit to Canada, I was confronted by the growing strength and public acceptance of the Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) and came back to Israel with new friends who take a courageous stance for Israel – The First Nations communities. Background: From January 25th to 31st  I traveled

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Israel’s Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz may be right when he claims that the agreement signed on Sunday between his ministry and the labour federation resulting in somewhat improved conditions for contract workers, particularly in the unskilled sector, is due toIsrael’s robust economy. But there’s more to it. The four-day

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM –In 2002 Meir Dagan succeeded Efraim Halevy as the Head of the Mossad. He retired eight years later and – like virtually all Israeli public figures once they leave civil or military public service – he has taken to expressing strong opinions for all to hear and read on a

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Recently, Ruth Lapidot, retired professor of international law who had participated in formulating the 1979 peace agreement with Egypt, gave this year’s David Elazar Memorial Lecture under the auspices of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs that the late professor Elazar founded.  Her lucid and comprehensive presentation was reassuring.

 By Bruce S. Ticker PHILADELPHIA — Who really broke the deal? Granted, Israel’s conditions for a peace settlement appear to be a sure deal-breaker. Israeli negotiators notified their Arab counterparts on Wednesday, Jan. 25, that as a guiding principle existing settlement blocs must become part of Israel in a two-state solution, The New York Times

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–I think of Ofer Eini, the Head ofIsrael’s Histadrut Labour Federation, as one of the most seasoned and balanced public figures inIsrael.  I was, therefore, at first surprised by his recent display of seeming uncompromising militancy on behalf of employees of contractors to whom government and other work is often outsourced.

By Rabbi Dow Marmur  JERUSALEM–On the face of it, the latest agreement between Hamas and Fatah, signed in Qatar by Khaled Mashaal (who left Damascus presumably because of what’s going on in Syria and announced his impending retirement as the leader of Hamas) and Mahmoud Abbas (the President of the Palestinian Authority) could be a

 By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — Members of the Knesset are discovering America, Jewish America to be precise. Prompted by Jay Ruderman of the Ruderman Family Foundation a dozen or so Israeli parliamentarians came together recently to form the Israel-American Jewish Knesset Caucus. The visit was preceded by a comprehensive US visit by six MKs

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–The website of the British tabloid the Daily Mirror shows a detailed diagram of how Israel would attack Iran using sophisticated fighter planes, drones and missiles from its five ultra-modern submarines. It also predicts when: not later than April. The why is there, too:Iran could make four nuclear bombs within a

By Rabbi Ben Kamin   SAN DIEGO — I was born in Israel just a few years after its inception in 1948. My father and mother were there, however, as the British withdrew on May 14 of that year, lowering the Union Jack over the port of Haifa, and raising the stakes considerably for the

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–The staunchly pro-Israel statements that Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird made during his recent visit to Israel is a wholesome reminder that the Jewish state has many friends in the world and that such friendship at its best doesn’t have ulterior motives but is founded on the new understanding for,