By Abe Novick
As moviegoers over the weekend flocked to see Marvel’s new superhero ensemble, they would understandably associate the idea of avengers with Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Black Widow.
Half a year after our marriage in 1997, my parents called and said they couldn’t attend the Agudath Israel of America convention and had extra tickets. Would my wife and I want to go in their place? We were newlyweds in every sense of the word and cherished the opportunity of a new experience. “Certainly,” we said and made the trek from Lakewood to Parsippany in the state of New Jersey.
If the Western journalists and donors continue to ignore the reality on the ground, the West Bank could soon fall into the hands of gangsters and armed clans, as has been the case in Jenin -- among the main reasons the Palestinian Authority collapsed in the Gaza Strip in 2007, speeding the rise of Hamas to power.
By Barry Rubin
People don’t want to be told to sacrifice, especially because they suspect that the elite isn’t doing so and that this same elite is responsible for the mess. So they can be—easily?—manipulated into voting for those who tell them to eat, drink and be merry, with a minimal tax on billionaires and millionaires paying off the caterer.
By Soeren Kern
After releasing all but two of the Salafists responsible for the brawl on May 5th, the Interior Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jäger, cast blame on the democratic -- and peaceful -- political party PRO NRW. He ordered police to prevent PRO NRW from displaying anti-Islam any more cartoons during the final phase of the state's regional election campaign, to be held on May 13th.
A unity government, which would give Netanyahu a massive 96 Knesset seats out of 120, would certainly clear the decks for military action against Iran. Early elections in September, on the other hand, carry a burden of uncertainty, even though Netanyahu’s Likud party is leading by a large amount in the polls. In any event, they would be disruptive.
The attempt to serve as an honest broker between Israel and the Palestinians has defied reality and U.S. interests. While Israel has been an unconditional ally of the U.S. and a role model for countering terrorism, the Palestinians have actively and ideologically sided with U.S. enemies and rivals: Nazi Germany, the Soviet Bloc, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, North Korea, Iran, China and Russia.
By Barry Rubin
The 'Islam-is-good school' makes the West defenseless to understand and deal with the threat. The 'Islam-is-bad' school discredits serious critiques of Islamism and honest analysis of Islam, thus letting their opponents win the debates and blind the West to the best strategy and potential allies.
Tied as we are in Martin Luther King's 'single garment of destiny' where 'whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,' courageous soldiers of the US military are forced to engage in war so that the rest of us might live in peace, to stain their hands so that our future might be clear. We do not gloat over the death of evil since its very existence must be mourned.
By J. E. Dyer
The whole world knows the peril Chen and his family are in. The right approach here is not to seek a “solution” that gets the governments of China and the US off the hook; it’s to stand by Chen and demand that he be treated with the respect for his rights as understood in the Helsinki Accords. While China is not a signatory to the Accords, their standard for freedom, travel and emigration, and reunification of families is the touchstone to be invoked in this instance.
The virus of antisemitism persists in haunting Europe. In recent months, antisemitism has been exhibited all too often in European countries, not just in theory but in practice.
By Barry Rubin
The Obama Administration's policy toward Syria is turning into a scandal on both strategic and humanitarian grounds.
Barack Obama and many of his appointees share a New Left sensibility, which includes the ideas that colonialism and imperialism — particularly ‘US imperialism’ is the root of all evil, that it is meaningless to suggest that one culture could be morally superior to another, and that national interests should be subordinated to multilateral cooperation.
With two leading Islamist presidential candidates that are backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, chances are high that Egypt will vote an Islamist into the office of president. This will undoubtedly be followed by an Islamist constitution.
By Barry Rubin
At times we seem to be living in the updated version of Ignazio Silone’s remark, “The final conflict will be between the Communists and the ex-Communists.” All too often, we cannot depend on Western-trained intellectuals in positions of power who either buy into leftist ideology or tremble in fear of being called racists or Islamophobes.
As far as most Palestinians are concerned, the "friend of my enemy is my enemy." Palestinians hate the US because of its continued support for Israel. The Palestinians want the US to endorse all their demands and force Israel to give them everything. As one of the leaders of a recent anti-US demonstration explained, "The US will remain our enemy for as long as it does not fully support the Palestinians."
By Barry Rubin
The great advantage of the Obama administration and the far left has been concealment and deniability. They deny their extremism and sugar-coat their message, helped by the mass media and other institutions. But the Occupy Wall Street movement isn’t this sophisticated “New New Left” but instead is like the Old Left and 1960s’ New Left in its rhetoric, methods, and symbols. It openly talks about anarchism, Communism, Marxism, and overthrowing capitalism.
A "bolt-from-the-blue" CBN (chemical, biological or even nuclear) attack on Israel launched with the expectation of city-busting reprisals might not necessarily exhibit irrationality or madness. Within such an attacking state's particular ordering of preferences, any presumed religious obligation to annihilate the "Zionist Entity" could represent the overriding value.
Islamist Members of Parliament in Egypt are trying to deprive Egyptian women of their basic rights by introducing several controversial draft laws that, if passed, will bring Egypt back to the Middle Ages.
There is a reason that “the average Israeli” elected the son of Benzion Netanyahu, a man who shares his father’s values — because they too share his view of history. This is precisely why they believe that he would not sell out their interests.
The likelihood of Iran complying with its commitments is minimal. But there would be hundreds if not thousands of hours, days and weeks of new negotiations over whether and how the agreement is holding up. Once a deal is struck, the Western powers will be loath to cancel it, even when they know Iran is cheating.
By now everyone has heard of Deborah Feldman’s Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots. The book received much more attention than it should have.
I have long felt the holiest Jews are members of the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces. At countless rallies I’ve called out from the heart, “Blessed is the nation that has as its army the Israel Defense Forces.”
This is how it works: A minister or MK who steps out of line – opposing the destruction of the Ulpana neighborhood, for example – is immediately accused of “Feiglinism.” It makes no difference if the accuser is Tzipi Livni or Ehud Barak. “This is simply terrible,” Kadima MK Nachman Shai explained on the afternoon news. “Feiglin determines the fate of the Likud MKs.”
The Jewish Press urges readers to sign a circulating petition that calls on Shimon Peres to do all he can, in advance of accepting the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, to persuade Mr. Obama to free Jonathan Pollard, the Israeli spy serving a life sentence in a federal prison. (President Obama announced last month that he would be awarding the Medal to Mr. Peres, the president of Israel, in June.)
We were dismayed by the criticism Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel leveled at Prime Minister Netanyahu following the latter’s speech marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Mr. Wiesel took issue with what he said was the prime minister’s likening of the Holocaust to the threat posed to Israel by Iran. Obviously whatever Mr. Wiesel says about the Holocaust is worth listening to. But we are nonetheless puzzled.
For anyone with historical memory the expulsion of Jews – by the Romans, English, French, Spaniards, Nazis, and Muslims – instantly evokes tragic episodes in Jewish history. Now the state of Israel expels Jews from their homes. Something is amiss in Zion.
Benzion Netanyahu – historian, one-time political activist and father of Israel's prime minister – died Monday in Jerusalem at 102. An accomplished scholar and the patriarch of one of Israel's most important political families, he also played a surprising and little-known role in American political history.
By Barry Rubin
Israel is apparently going to have elections this autumn and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will almost certainly win by a big margin. Understanding why explains a lot about the country that people think they know the most about but in fact comprehend the least.
By J. E. Dyer
President Barack Obama's recent self-congratulatory comments on the killing of Osama bin Laden must be viewed against the backdrop of past presidents, and how they related to the role of the military.
Instead of going after top officials suspected of embezzling public funds and abusing their powers, the Palestinian Authority government has chosen to wage an unprecedented clampdown on those who dare to raise their voices in support of transparency and freedom of speech.
By Barry Rubin
As you know, just about everyone in the world outside of Israel has been claiming that an attack is imminent or that it is only being held back by the U.S. government. My argument has been that this is simply untrue. Most of the Israeli strategic and intelligence leadership oppose an attack, for the same reasons I do. Moreover, these people don’t believe it is going to happen in the near future.
The Bible consists of 613 commandments, one of which is for a man to marry and have children, and the other is for a man to avoid gay sex with another man. That leaves 611 commandments for gay men to observe. That should keep them pretty busy. Homosexuality should be treated like lighting fire on the Sabbath or eating non-kosher foods, both Biblical prohibitions
Perhaps an artist should be judged without regard to his/her political affiliations or actions, but the Metropolitan Museum's exhibit on the collection of Gertrude Stein and her family purports to present the story of the collection and of Gertrude's life in France. It ends with a misleading description of her activities during the war years, suppressing the fact that she collaborated with Nazism during the German occupation of France.
We have to believe in the superiority of our Western values. If we do not, we will not be prepared to defend them. That is why we have to end the biggest disease in the world today, the cultural relativism which posits that all cultures are equal. Our Judeo-Chrisitian, humanist civilization is more free, more democratic, more tolerant than any civilization the world has ever seen. We should not be afraid to say so.
Contrary to the statement in the NY Times obituary for Benzion Netanyahu that "ultimately, Israel was created as a result of the partition the revisionists opposed," Zionist Jews in the Land of Israel created the state, and not any UN resolution.
By Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency
Nir Barkat: "Google Street View is an important tool to increase the number of tourists to Jerusalem," which received a record amount of more than 3 million tourists in 2010. Still, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) has in the past indicated that it made use of Google Earth technology to fire rockets into Israel.
Whatever the different formulations of Zionism, all proponents share the view that the area is the birthplace and the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people, linked by historical ties and by religious and cultural traditions.
By Barry Rubin
The result may well be an Islamist versus Islamist run-off. In any event, it is likely that by the end of the year Egypt will have an Islamist president, parliament, and Constitution. Laws will be drastically altered, women’s rights will disappear, and Hamas will be backed up if it attacked Israel.
In the time that I spent with Professor Benzion Netanyahu, I discerned a Jewish nationalist of phenomenal determination. Zionism was in his DNA and I have rarely met a more passionate Jewish patriot or a prouder Jew. He had a sweeping view of history and could clearly argue the precarious state of the Jewish people throughout time.
By Soeren Kern
Geert Wilders, the controversial Dutch lawmaker, has authored a new book about Islam, Marked for Death: Islam's War against the West and Me. In it he offers a detailed criticism of Islam and its incompatibility with the West: "To preserve our freedom from the encroachments of Islam, we must do four things: defend freedom of speech, reject cultural relativism, counter Islamization and cherish our national identity."
By J. E. Dyer
President Obama recently unveiled the Atrocities Prevention Board, and appointed Samantha Power as its head; the same Samantha Power that has called Israel a "major human rights abuser." This is only one of the many troubling aspects of this new initiative.
The failure thirty-two years ago of Operation Eagle Claw convinced U.S. military leaders to rethink how they would conduct special operations in the future: formulating plans that were simpler, carrying them out under unified command, and managing the risk. While our military has learned the lessons of the failed Iranian hostage rescue mission, however, our political leaders have not.
Unless new elections are called, this year's Summer Session will last less than three months, ending on July 25, 2012.
By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency
Boycotts on products from Judea and Samaria harm Palestinian livelihood. The simple truth is that industry in Judea and Samaria are imperative for Palestinian livelihood.
Anti-Israel messages and campaigns serve only the radicals in this region who do not want either peace or coexistence. The time has come for the emergence of a genuine pro-Palestinian camp in the West that would focus less on Israel and more on helping the Palestinians.
Recent warnings by President Obama to Israel against an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities are reminiscent of the period prior to the 1967 Six-Day War. Then, as now, Israel was faced with an existential threat. Then, as now, the U.S. pressured Israel not to take action.
Over the years, in several of my columns in The Jewish Press, I have examined the critical bases of Israeli nuclear deterrence. Recently, in consequence of the growing threat of Iranian nuclearization, increasing attention has been directed toward pertinent issues of enemy rationality. With this in mind, the following three-part column will seek to explain the impact of "irrationality" on Israel's deterrence posture, and also the vital differences between prospective Iranian irrationality and "madness."
By Mike Cohen
We Jews are an extremely tight knit family. Families fight and argue, yell and scream, rant and rave – especially when things are stable. But push a family into the corner, or provide it with reason for celebration – and, usually, family members they will come together in profound and extreme ways.
The government's decision this week to grant zoning permits to Rechelim Beruchin is nothing more then repairing a wrong. After seven years in limbo, once again the residents of these communities can fulfill their dreams and the corporate dream of their nation – they can finally build their homes in Eretz Yisrael.
We would never presume to second-guess the IDF’s judgment concerning the actions of one of its officers while on duty. But several observations need to be made about the worldwide reaction to that video of IDF Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner’s striking a demonstrator with a rifle butt.
By Dov Gilor
On Sunday morning, after breakfast at the Elite Café, we loaded the van, filled the gas tank and travelled the famous Route #1 from Los Angeles toward San Francisco, along the Pacific Ocean coast. It was the 4th of July weekend and the narrow route was crowded with miles of RV’s, campers and fellow travelers. Traffic was a bit slow along the way.
By Dov Shurin
I’d like to offer the following question: At the Pesach Seder we read about the four sons – the wise, the wicked, the simple and the one who does not know how to ask – but where is the righteous son, the tzaddik?
By Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein / KeepJerusalem.org
A brief review of Jerusalem's police blotter for recent days looks like this: * April 2: Haredi man, 55, is axed by Arab terrorist near Shaar Shechem (Damascus Gate); lightly wounded. * April 15: Seven Molotov cocktails are hurled at Jewish homes in Maaleh Zeitim, causing a fire in one of them. * April 19: Young worshipper on his way from Shimon HaTzaddik to Meah She'arim is stabbed by two Palestinian terrorists (moderate wound).
The comparatively small Jewish population of India – after the census of 1921 there were hardly 20,000 out of a general population of 352 million – fell into four groups: the Cochin Jews of the Malabar Coast, the Bene Israel, the fore-Asian Jews, mostly of Sephardic ancestry, and immigrants from various regions of Europe.
On recent occasions we have noted that several of President Obama’s public actions reflect a disdain for the traditional American view of the governmental process. Most stunning perhaps was his threat to the Supreme Court that it had better come out his way on Obamacare, or else. Having steamrolled the legislation through Congress (urging, it will be recalled, violations of longstanding procedures if necessary) he issued his challenge to the Supreme Court despite its constitutional duties to pass on the law’s constitutionality.
For me, Israel is personal. I was born as Israel’s War of Independence raged, just weeks after the state’s miraculous birth. As I lay in the hospital room with my mother, the windows shattered with the relentless attacks of those who sought, once again, to destroy us – this time not on their bloodstained soil but on our own sacred land. Once again, by God’s hand, we prevailed. The few against the many. The weak against the so-called strong.
By Steven Plaut
It was a few days before Passover when I first heard the horrific cackling. “What,” I asked family members, is that? It sounded just like the longtime leftist agitator Shulamit Aloni. But it wasn’t.
Many supporters of Israel are bedeviled by a glaring contradiction in Israeli political life. How can it be that, regardless of which party wins an election, leftist policies are invariably implemented?
By dvora
BEIT EL, ISRAEL – “Gush Katif number two.” “Another Amona.” “It will topple the government, split the nation, and drive an irrevocable wedge between the people and the leadership.”
By Zev Golan
Chanukah and Purim have passed but they are not past, because Jewish history is not only ancient. The message of Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, is that Jewish history is now. Indeed, some of the Maccabees are still alive.
From the outset of the revolts in other Arab countries King Abdullah was very concerned that a similar revolt could threaten his regime. He was therefore quick to announce reforms. He has also been trying to divert the attention towards Israel by blaming the Jewish state for the shortcomings and failures of the Jordanian government, just like other Arab leaders have been doing for years.
By OneFamily
Oran, who lost five family members as well as his eyesight in the suicide bombing of Maxim restaurant in Haifa on October 4, 2003, has become an accomplished sailor, and a candidate for Israel’s disabled sailing team in international competitions. Addressing a packed crowd at the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah games in 2005, he said: “After what I have gone through, I know that even if they hurt you, they can’t defeat you."
By Yoel Meltzer
For anyone who is sick of the lies and hypocrisy - be it in Israel or the world - and really wants to work for change, it's not enough to simply stand on the street corner and shout the truth. How something is said or how someone looks while performing an act frequently has more impact than anything else in the eyes and ears of the viewer.
Seeing the dire necessity on the ground, a few young men have gotten together and established "Ha'Shomer Ha'Chadash," -"The New Guardian" - with the same objectives as the original. Maintaining a continuous physical presence, 700 volunteers at 21 locations help farmers secure their lands and property. Areas patrolled by the volunteers have experienced a significant drop in violent actions against farmers.
The general secretary of Switzerland’s Jewish community has reprimanded the Swiss government for failing to enact sanctions against Iran, despite full implementation by the EU and US.
By Barry Rubin
Egypt will hold its presidential election May 23-24 with a possible run-off June 16-17. It is impossible at this point to predict what’s going to happen but I can make a good guess. Eight weeks from now Egypt will be led by either a radical anti-American Islamist who wants to wipe Israel off the map or by a radical anti-American nationalist who just hates Israel passionately.
I would like to see the vandals who desecrated Ammunition Hill and thereby spat on Jewish sovereignty banished to a place where it doesn’t exist. They have made their statement, let them live by it.
The track passes though and stops in both Jewish and Arab neighborhoods. I have taken the train and noticed that both Jews and Arabs are regular commuters. All of the train’s signs, tickets, ticket machines, and public announcements are made very clearly in both Hebrew and Arabic. Signs of station names are posted in both Hebrew and Arabic.
By Barry Rubin
Moynihan was one of the first people to try to deal with the lurch leftward of the liberal and Democratic streams that is now so dangerously dominant in America.
By Soeren Kern
Lars Hedegaard, the president of the Danish Free Press Society, has been acquitted by the Danish Supreme Court on charges of "hate speech" for critical comments he made about Islam. But the acquittal was based on a legal technicality; in its ruling, the Supreme Court stressed that the substance of the charges against Hedegaard -- public criticism of Islam -- is still a crime punishable by imprisonment.
There exists in the world, and even in Israel here and there, the desperate notion that if only the Palestinians can get their state, they will accept Israel's legitimacy and respect its right to exist in peace and security. But no one is willing to address the question: What will the world do when the Palestinian state, with territorial contiguity in Judea and Samaria, turns into a Hamas state?
In yet another sign of how the Palestinian Authority is radicalizing Palestinians and eventually dragging them toward another confrontation with Israel, the Palestinian Authority issued an order banning Palestinians from making direct contact with Israeli authorities in the West Bank on the same day that two Palestinian officials met in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,
The failure of Mid-East Muslim regimes to adhere to intra-Muslim agreements attests to the provisional and fragile nature of agreements signed with “infidel” entities, such as the Jewish State. The critical issue then, is when and how – not whether – agreements will be shattered.
By Arielle Heffez, Israel Campus Beat
As college seniors approach graduation and questions about their "next step," they are faced with the difficult reality of a tight job market and a slow economic recovery. These facts have prompted a small but significant number of students to explore the professional benefits, as well as the Zionist fulfillment, that might flow from life in Israel.
Whoever wants to bring Iran down must support those rebelling against Asad. The leaders in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan understand this, and their support for the rebels may save them and the Gulf from the Iranian octopus. The question is how much time will it take for the sleeping Europeans and the dreamers in the White House to understand the complicated Middle East reality, and when will they begin to take action in order to bring Iran down?
By Soeren Kern
A survey of recent events in Britain suggests that religious accommodation has given way to cultural submission. Before we know it, the 2012 London Olympics will be rescheduled because it clashes with Ramadan.
By Barry Rubin
How to respond to the misinformation and fear that makes a potential Romney voter a soft-core Obama supporter.
By Moshe Herman
Yishai Fleisher comments on a recent interview from the Charlie Rose television show featuring Peter Beinart, a well-known author, political pundit, and associate professor. Rose and Beinart discuss the current state of the “two-state solution” concept and factors, such as continued Jewish settlement, that affect potential implementation. Beinart presents his opinions on Middle East topics such […]
PM Netanyahu explained that lowering taxes means shrinking the government, and, this time, cutting taxes means cutting public sector jobs. He emphasized that no one needs to be fired if enough workers embrace early retirement or quit, but conceded that this means the ministries will not be hiring for a long time.
By Barry Rubin
It is astonishing to note how much the Obama Administration, supposedly so sensitive to the views of Arabs and Muslims, has ignored the concerns of America’s own Arab allies.
It is time to look behind the news. Operation Iraqi Freedom is officially concluded; U.S. operations in Afghanistan are reportedly moving in a similar direction. More generically, however, debate about combat operations, strategy and tactics remains ongoing.
Vaknin has been a Knesset member representing the ultra-orthodox Shas party since the beginning of Prime Minister Netanyahu's first term in 1996. Considered a maverick, he distinguished himself in his party by holding that the thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who don't learn in Yeshiva but are registered as such should be forced to serve in the military.
MK Aryeh Eldad held a meeting with dozens of activists and supporters of the Hatikva Party at its Tel Aviv headquarters on Monday night. MK Eldad represents Hatikva in the National Union Faction.
The National Union went on the road this week, despite the Knesset's recess. Faction members visited Naot Kedumim and pledged to increase awareness of the Biblical landscape reserve. They also visited Ateret, where they were shocked to see a new access road being built by Arabs in Area C, an area under Israeli civilian and military control.
It was thirty years ago, in April 1982, that uniformed soldiers pledged to defend Israel and its citizens were given the order to uproot and destroy the Jewish community of Yamit in northern Sinai. And while it may have brought us three decades of a cold peace with Egypt, conceding the Sinai will likely prove to have been a colossal mistake.
At the end of his column, “The Feiglin Bang” (published in Makor Rishon on March 23), editor Amnon Lord predicts one of two possibilities: Either I will lead the Likud with approximately 35 mandates or I will turn into the Uri Avnery (the radical leftist writer and media figure) of the Right.
The recent shooting of four police officers in the normally tranquil Sheepshead Bay neighborhood of Brooklyn (bringing the total to eight cops shot so far this year) has confirmed a dangerous double standard that threatens the safety of police officers and all New Yorkers throughout New York. It must be confronted.
This year, Holocaust Remembrance Day is the anniversary of two starkly contrasting events of April 19, 1943 – the first day of the gallant but doomed Warsaw Ghetto uprising and of the ignominious Anglo-American Bermuda Conference on the Refugee Problem, which State Department diplomats organized to deflect pressure to rescue Jews from the Nazi death machine.
By dvora
In recent months, I’ve been contacted repeatedly regarding news reports that Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical response and national blood service, is removing its logo from ambulances in Judea and Samaria, or ending all operations there entirely. It’s been a frustrating time because the reports haven’t been accurate, and the misrepresentations have created a backlash that’s bad for Israel – and for all Israelis. As an Israeli living in the Judean mountain region of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, I want to set the record straight.
By Ed Koch
In his April 4th New York Times column, Thomas Friedman endorsed what he designated to be “non-violent resistance by Palestinians” against Israel. He added that Palestinians need to “accompany every boycott, hunger strike or rock they throw at Israel with a detailed map” delineating their territorial demands.
The highly publicized IDF expulsion from Hebron’s Beit Hamachpela of Jews who purchased and were residing in it was an extraordinary event. And it does not bode well for what we can expect from the Israeli government regarding historical Jewish sites.
For several days the media seized on the furor unleashed by comments made by Hilary Rosen – described rather vaguely in news accounts as a Democratic Party strategist and White House adviser, though she has visited with the president on at least 35 occasions, more frequently than the heads of key government agencies – about Ann Romney, wife of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
By Aaron Klein
Dershowitz Not Done With Media Matters Action Network...The Congressional Progressive Caucus is a shill for the Democratic Socialists of America
By Jason Maoz
Mike Wallace died earlier this month at age 93, and while some may find it preferable to focus on the positive when speaking or writing about an individual on the occasion his passing, the Monitor had little good to say about Wallace while he was living, so why start now?