By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Israel and the United States are at another hiccup, or maybe something more. Catherine Ashton, serving as the European Union’s foreign minister and the chair of a meeting in Istanbul between Iran and representatives of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the United States and China, is upbeat after the first […]
Tension increases between U.S. and Israel over Iran Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USADear Chancellor Reed, Over two months ago, 1,800 members and supporters of the California Jewish community — including hundreds of CSU students, parents, alumni, and donors — signed a letter to you expressing their outrage over the University-hosted web pages of CSU Northridge Mathematics professor David Klein, which include anti-Semitic material promoting the economic, cultural and academic boycott of the Jewish
AMCHA’s open letter to CSU Chancellor Reed Read More »
USABy Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — A lick of historicism would serve the Obama administration well in its much-too-friendly relationship with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and other manifestations of the Arab uprising. There is a political space between going to war with countries that do not share our democratic norms and principles, and embracing them
U.S. should oppose Islamic dictatorships as it did Soviet ones Read More »
Shoshana Bryen, USA
By Isaac Yetiv LA JOLLA, California–Years ago we were regaled with a “wardrobe incident” on TV : a female performer “inadvertently” uncovered her breast. Days ago, a similar kind of incident occurred. It was a “mike incident” (microphone kept on while speakers thought it was off) , showing the president of the United States whispering to the president
Obama made cynical anti-missile promise to Medvedev Read More »
USA
By David Brin ENCINITAS, California–The brilliance of Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Prince Waleed and their clade really impresses me. Twenty years ago, they were subsidizing Rush Limbaugh and the neoconservatives to spread what’s become the core notion of today’s right. (Though it also crops up on the far-left!) The notion that assertions can trump facts.
Right-wing assertions drive you bonkers? Offer to bet! Read More »
USA
By Danny Bloom CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan– As everyone knows, Mike Wallace, son of Friedan Wallik, he of the Old Country, was a mensch. He was also a tough-talking TV reporter and an investigative sleuth who never gave up until he found what he wanted. The Brookline, Massachusetts boy who made good in America, died recently
No proof Coors uttered famous quote about Mike Wallace Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –My column on Jonathan Pollard has produced a larger number and more varied responses than is usual. Most support his release. Several accuse me of being hard hearted and distorting the record. One doubts the wisdom of relying on Wikipedia. One from a Jewish friend of long standing reports that there had
Pollard column produces flurry of letters pro and con Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA
By Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — As George Zimmerman disappears now into the legal wilderness of white complicity and police reticence, and good people in Tulsa lay down their dead into the crypt of black marginality, this white man wonders how frightful it must still be to a black male in America. Friends
Notwithstanding its black President, U.S. society is still racist Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM — Jonathan Pollard has returned to Israeli headlines, first with his hospitalization, then the appearance of Esther (who he married after being incarcerated) before President Peres, Peres’ appeal to President Obama to release him due to his long imprisonment and ill health, and an announcement from Washington that the President does
The pros and cons for Jonathan Pollard’s release from prison Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM– There are some disturbing elements and some that are optimistic in a Washington Post article about expanded US intelligence activities with respect to Iran. As is the nature of reports about these most secret of things, the optimism may come from some of the fluff added by unattributable sources, or by
U.S. apparently believes Iran can but won’t make N-bomb Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USABy Jarrod Bernstein WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)–Starting tonight, the Jewish community in the United States, Israel, and throughout the world will come together to celebrate the holiday of Passover. President and Mrs. Obama will join them, continuing their tradition of hosting a small Seder at the White House. By now, the story of how that
President Obama extends Passover greetings Read More »
USABy Rabbi Ben Kamin SAN DIEGO — Passover is the best gift we ever gave to the world; nobody who was ever a human being could turn down its message of freedom, its transformation of the taste of tears into the wine of hope, its view of the leaves of parsley as the springtime of
Passover is also a modern American story Read More »
USABy Steven L. Pomerantz WASHINGTON, D.C. — Within a few weeks of becoming Chief of Counter Terrorism at the FBI, I was presented with the draft of a speech I was to deliver before a national meeting of a major Jewish Organization in Florida. My attention was drawn to a sentence that asserted, in essence,
Iran may have terror cells in the U.S. Read More »
USABy Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Among the things I remember from my history lessons in Fall River is that the British forces employed Hessian mercenaries against the American patriots. Both “mercenary” and “Hessian” had a nasty tone in the textbooks and class discussions. I wonder if those lessons remain in place, and if they are coupled
A cautionary note about government subcontractors Read More »
Ira Sharkansky, USA