ISRAEL
HAPPY CHANUKAH? DAMN RIGHT!
After last Sunday’s ISIS-inspired shootings at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, two non-Jewish friends asked if it was okay to wish me “Happy Chanukah.” The title of this post gives you my answer. When the Jewish world lost fifteen souls with dozens more wounded, I was shocked but not surprised. Why? Jews around the world…
Read MoreMY CHANUKAH WISH LIST
Don’t think me greedy, but I have a long wish list for Chanukah presents, and I want everything. Chanukah is the Jewish “Festival of Lights.” The eight-night (and day) holiday begins on the 25th of the month of Kislev which, in the lunar-solar calendar, falls anywhere between late November and the end of December. Chanukah…
Read MoreBIAS VS. BALANCE IN MIDDLE-EAST REPORTING
Just as the Israel-Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran conflict seems perpetually muddled despite ceasefires, so does reporting on the region. Does mainstream journalism adhere to the objectivity it holds dear? On last Saturday’s PBS Weekend News, Leila Molana-Allen presented a televised report from Lebanon on Israeli air strikes in Beirut and its southern suburbs. This, despite Israel reaching a…
Read MoreWHEN ISRAEL SHAMES ME
It pains me to write that an avowed Zionist and practicing Jew can be shamed by a nation he loves. October 7, 2023 focused much of the world’s attention on Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel. The brutality of that day, which claimed 1,200 lives, had nothing to do with finding a political settlement establishing two…
Read MoreTHE NEXT GAZA CONUNDRUM
Last Monday at Israel’s Knesset (parliament) in Jerusalem, President Trump hailed “the historic dawn of a new Middle East.” From his lips to God’s ears. The return of the last 20 living hostages from Hamas captivity offered a joyous moment. The ceasefire is more than welcome. Actual peace? A conundrum. Trump’s 20-point plan offers a…
Read MoreBUNKER BUSTING QUESTIONS
Right after Air Force B-2s dropped “bunker busters” on Fordo and Natanz last Saturday, President Trump announced that those facilities had been “obliterated.” Did he jump the gun? A preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency report—I emphasize “preliminary”— stated that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back by only two to three months. In a few days, more optimistic…
Read MoreAMERICA AND IRAN PLAY CHICKEN
When making decisions, government leaders must evaluate their nation’s pain threshold and their own political risks. Cue Donald Trump and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump gave Khamenei 60 days to agree to processing uranium only for civilian use—and outside Iran. Khamenei refused. The deadline passed. Given the stalemate and American inaction, Israeli prime minister Benjamin…
Read MoreANTISEMITES “PROTECTING” JEWS
The Trump administration boasts about protecting American Jews from antisemitism and anti-Israel attacks. The truth is just the opposite. Jews have been called “the canary in the coal mine.” Attacks on Jews warn that a society is giving way to ethnic autocracy. Other minorities soon will be assaulted. This canary smells the scent emanating from…
Read MorePASSOVER—A TWO-EDGED SWORD
Shabbat ends tomorrow (Saturday) night and Passover begins. The weeklong holiday will bring both joy and distress. Passover commemorates the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt and slavery (though not of the Black American sort). What’s more, Pharaoh ordered the deaths of newborn Israelite boys. The story is familiar to most Americans, though not all. Several years…
Read MoreA PAINFUL ISRAELI U.N. VOTE
Last Monday, the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a United Nations General Assembly resolution condemned Russia 93–18. Sixty-five nations abstained. Conscience forces me to protest Israel’s vote against. According to news.un.org, the resolution “called for a commitment to ‘the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders’ and the…
Read MoreEGYPT’S PHARAOH AND AMERICA’S
The Torah and the Israel-Gaza war offer lessons about denying reality and risking terrible consequences. In Exodus, God strikes Egypt with ten plagues, concluding with the slaying of the firstborn. Pharaoh had continually refused to let Israel go. At first, he hardening his own heart. Then God hardened it. The biblical scholar Richard Elliot Friedman…
Read MoreHOSTAGES AND HOSTAGES
This past week, approximately 1,500 hostages were released, yet only three were transferred from Hamas to Israel. Adds up? Depends on how you define “hostage.” Israelis welcomed home three young women dragged off on October 7, 2023: Romi Gonen, Emily Damari and Doron Steinbrecher. Where does the above number come from? Last Monday, Donald Trump…
Read MoreANOTHER MIDEAST MUDDLE
With Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and the 53-year-old Assad family rule overthrown, an old adage arises in the Middle East: Be careful what you wish for. But wish we must, then take care following up. The Middle East has been a highly unstable region not just in recent decades but throughout history. For centuries, competing caliphs…
Read MoreAFTER SINWAR, WHAT?
IDF troops killed Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ architect of October 7, prompting me to ask, where do we go from here? I wish the shop had repaired my crystal ball, but a text broke the bad news. No more peeks into the future for me. That’s typical for someone at age 80, who learns that the…
Read MoreTHE STEEL THREAD
An economist at Tel Aviv University and an ancient king reveal much about the outcome of the war Israel is waging against Iran’s proxies, and so Iran itself. On Monday, Tom Friedman in The New York Times (“What I’m Thinking About on the First Anniversary of the War”) cited the economist Dan Ben-David of Tel…
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