Middle East

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–When terrorists were killing Israelis on buses, in restaurants and other places where people gathered, the country soon developed a system that put guards almost everywhere. The attacks abated but didn’t stop – there’re still guards around – so a wall was built that isolated the occupied territories, because the attackers […]

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–You may have already read the words spoken by Steve Linde, the new editor of the Jerusalem Post, at the WIZO – the international women’s Zionist organization -conference in Tel Aviv earlier this week, but they’re worth repeating because they highlight a serious problem of credibility. Linde is quoted to have

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM — I’m happy to be able to say something (almost) good about Avigdor Lieberman: he’s opposed to the extension ofIsrael’s so-called Tal Law. The law is named after a retired Israeli judge who headed a commission some years ago that recommended that haredim continue to be exempt from military service.

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–If you’re an optimist you may decide to interpret the comings and goings of the US and Israeli generals as yet another way to intimidate Iran and prevent it from manufacturing nuclear arms. If, on the other hand, you’re a pessimist, you may conclude that the frequent contacts between Israeli and

By Rabbi Dow Marmur JERUSALEM–The good news:Israelis like all other countries and its Jewish citizens are like all other nations. Thanks to our sovereignty, we Jews have been able to excel in ways that weren’t possible before – and may not have been possible in the diaspora today, had there been no Israel.  The bad