יום שני, ז׳ תמוז תשפ״וMonday, June 22, 2026
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By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
Together with American troops IDF paratroopers parachuted down to the ground from aircraft and practiced seizing airfields and other targets.
We examine some of the latest news stories with Rabbi Mendel Kessin.
By Jason Maoz
His voice had the strength of a pipe organ and the gentleness of a violin, but most of all it had the power to make men weep.
MK Avigdor Liberman rocked the political establishment by agreeing to become the defense minister.
By JTA
Former White House official Ron Klain has been tapped to coordinate the government’s response to the Ebola outbreak.
The U.S. releases military aid to Egypt after a year-long freeze; Sec'y John Kerry promises 10 Apache helicopters to fight terror in Sinai.
The United States has announced it possesses evidence the Syrian government is using chemical weapons against its own civilians.
Official statistics on aliyah to Israel from the United States have been corrected to show that there was only a tiny change for the worse in the past year from the number of new immigrants in 2012. The Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption and the Jewish Agency issued a report in late December that […]
It is not an easy fact to swallow, but the real demographic problem for Jews is in the Diaspora and not in Israel.
By Paul Alster
Within hours of Morsi's departure, the streets of Cairo were awash with anti-Qatari banners accompanied by the obligatory anti-US and anti-Israel slogans.
By Shalom Bear
Rumors first emerged in December that Dermer would be appointed Ambassador, this time it appears it might happen.
Israeli technologies, shared with the U.S. industry, have enhanced the U.S. employment, research & development and exports.
'No one ever told me 'Kol HaKavod' for not killing anyone,' my daughter once told me.
Europe has taken the path of multiculturalism and we can see the results.
Finally, what if, say, Venezuela was developing nuclear weapons and every other day one of their officials promised to root out the ‘cancer’ that was the U.S.?
I believe that the massacre in Newton would never have happened if guns were made illegal.
My children go to school behind fences, with an armed guard at the gates.
The 26 murders at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday have triggered yet another nationwide debate over how something so horrific could happen in the United States.
Many Washington officials have long spun the story that convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard did immense harm to this country’s national security by stealing vital American military and intelligence secrets. Thus, the U.S. intelligence community has always opposed Mr. Pollard’s release.
I can’t believe, if the government actually has information to justify the sentence, that it could not be provided in a manner that would be convincing without revealing damaging secrets.
The IRS has been known to impose sanctions against a bank which knowingly permitted customers to violate FACTA rules.
By Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency
According to Freeman, the rabbis and settlers are to blame for Israel's belligerent military actions.
By Barry Rubin
Middle East expert, Barry Rubin discussed the region, prospects for peace and revolutionary Islamism.
Heeb Magazine Publisher is looking to promote his tribute to his late brother and his fight with cancer.
Syrian military is just waiting for the "go" order from the embattled President Bashar Al-Assad.
By JTA
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives elevated Rep. Nita Lowey of New York's 18th congressional district (Westchester and Rockland counties), to their ranking member on the powerful Appropriations Committee. Lowey, a leading pro-Israel lawmaker who is Jewish, had been the top Democrat on the committee's foreign operations subcommittee. She announced her bid for the […]
By Ron Kampeas
WASHINGTON – Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who is widely seen as a leading candidate to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has garnered plaudits from Jewish communal leaders for her work at the world body.
By JTA
A bipartisan slate of U.S. senators urged Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi to crack down on arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu betrayed the Obama administration by announcing a new settlement expansion and the cutoff of tax transfers to the Palestinian Authority, JTA reported. Emanuel, President Obama's chief of staff in his first term, delivered the rebuke over the weekend at the Saban Forum in Washington. Emanuel's […]
The Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), firmly denounced the decision made the United Nations General Assembly to elevate the status of “Palestine” (the Palestine Liberation Organization) to non-member observer state at the UN. In a statement issued on the day of the vote, Nov 29, Cong. Ros-Lehtinen said that […]
Bodies in Afghan police and military uniforms littered the entrance of an airfield outside a major US base in Afghanistan Sunday, killed in an apparent suicide attack by the Taliban.
By JTA
Lieberman's apparent endorsement of Rice on Tuesday is largely symbolic.
Reports in recent days suggest that Republican opposition to the possible nomination of UN Ambassador Susan Rice as secretary of state seems to be softening. Critics such as Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are changing or at least modifying their tune regarding concern over Ms. Rice’s statements in the aftermath of the attack on U. S. diplomats in Benghazi.
We doubt anyone outside of the Palestinian street really believes the stream of Hamas hyperbole that it emerged from Operation Pillar Of Defense in a better position than before. Of course, we have come to expect this sort of fantasy-based spin from much of the Arab world. Indeed, all reports prior to the cease-fire indicated that Hamas’s military capacity had been severely degraded and its ability to shoot rockets at Israel largely neutralized, at least for now. And Hamas lost some of its top military commanders.
The barrages of homemade Grad rockets and Iranian produced Fajr-5s that were fired by Tehran’s proxy Hamas and Islamic Jihad militias at Israeli population centers in southern and central Israel during the recent fighting were reportedly not only meant to kill and maim civilians but also to wreck Israel’s economy. The militias’ goal was to exact revenge on Israel, the U.S. and the EU for the stifling sanctions imposed on the Iranian regime.
By Barry Rubin
Of course, everyone knows that this ceasefire won't last. The key to anything more durable is if the Egyptian government decides that it wants to avoid another war because of its own interests.
We'd like to wish all our U.S. readers a Happy Thanksgiving. Enjoy your turkey.
Unless the U.S. clarifies its position regarding King Abdullah and reiterates its full backing for his regime, the Muslim fundamentalists are likely to step up their efforts to create anarchy and lawlessness in the kingdom.
Getting at the truth of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi is a work in progress and this is certainly a story with legs. Why U.S. personnel were not given adequate protection despite danger signals for weeks prior and why the Obama administration, in the face of intelligence information to the contrary, downplayed any terrorist dimension in the assault, urging instead that the attackers were ordinary Muslims upset about an anti-Muhammad video, is sure to be the focus of intense congressional attention.
By J. E. Dyer
Why are we sending an amphibious readiness group (ARG) with a Marine expeditionary unit (MEU) embarked to sit off the Levantine coast? U.S. officials say it’s to be prepared for any eventuality, including the need to evacuate American citizens, as the conflict between Hamas and Israel heats up.
A security guard, was attacked by an ax wielding mentally unstable Jew from Bat Yam in front of the U.S. embassy on HaYarkon Street in Tel Aviv. Police is on its way. Embassy guards returned fire at the attacker in response, hitting him and later arresting him. A group of about 100 Arabs, calling itself the […]
By Adam Levick
Another ‘anti-Zionist head-exploding’ moment occurred when the U.S. House and Senate overwhelmingly passed non-binding resolutions backing “Israel’s right to self-defense.”
By JTA
Officials of the Simon Wiesenthal Center met with Ecuadorian authorities to seek their support in asking Cuba to release American prisoner Alan Gross. The meetings came on the sidelines of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's Latin American gathering of Jewish communities in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. Sergio Widder, the Wiesenthal Center's Latin American […]
Puerto Rico voted in favor of full U.S. statehood.
By Barry Rubin
Over and over again I’ve written about what President Barack Obama should do. Now the voters have given him a whole new chance. He could take it and change his policy. I don't believe he will do that but let me lay out both what he's been wrong and what he should do, just in case Obama is seeking a different approach.
The Jerusalem Post's Gil Hoffman told this college audience that Iran is the issue Israelis care most about. He also told them that war is the last approach Israel wants to take.
With U.S. politics over for now, Silverman turns her attention to Israeli politics.
Yedioth Aharonoth has just published a story that appears so far to be a last-minute, pre-election leak from the Israeli prime minister's office, regarding the presence in Iran of White House Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett to "assist the U.S. government" in negotiating with a representatives of supreme leader Ali Khamenei. the termination of Iran's nuclear weapons program. […]
It turns out that soon after taking office, President Obama tried to make friends – totally – with the mullahs’ regime in Iran.
Hurricane Sandy’s fury created a ripple effect that was felt in Israel, as thousands of tourists, business travelers and ordinary citizens found themselves stranded on both sides of the ocean.
A new exhibit at the Library of Congress is celebrating 100 years of Hebraica with its new exhibit, “Words Like Sapphires”.
On Tuesday, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) welcomed President Obama’s declaration of major disaster for New York in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. The designation will allow for timely allocation of federal funds through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Nadler released the following statement: “Hurricane Sandy hit New York and […]
Ever have a day going along just fine until something comes and floors you? I wasn't feeling well last night and thought of skipping work...but I had to do this, I had to do that...so I came in saying that maybe I'll crash tomorrow. Yesterday morning started sluggish, but I hit my stride and I chugged along happily cleaning things off my desk. I'm tried to watch what is happening with the massive hurricane hitting the U.S.; trying to switch windows, worrying about whether Gaza has decided to fire another rocket at Israel. And then, I saw this message on Twitter and I just stopped and took a deep breath.
By Barry Rubin
There is a debate over the causes of terrorism and anti-Americanism in the world. One possible view is that the principal problem is that of genuine conflict. The adversaries hold certain ideological ideas—say, revolutionary Islamism—to which American society and policies are antithetical. The collision (as with Communism, Nazism, and aggressive Japanese militarism in earlier decades) is inevitable. The United States is inconveniencing the totalitarians both because of what it does (policies) and because of what it represents (freedom, democracy, capitalism).
The U.S. Embassy and other sites connected with the U.S. were allegedly the target of terrorist attacks that were thwarted by the arrest of 11 suspected terrorists in Indonesia over the weekend.
A few months after he had been elected, President Barack Obama attempted to renew on a gradual basis U.S. diplomatic relations with Iran.
By Barry Rubin
One of President Barack Obama’s main themes has been to convince Middle Eastern Islamists and Arabs generally that America is not their enemy. But the reason this strategy never works is that the radicals, be they Islamists or nationalists, know better. They see the United States as their enemy and they are right to do so.
It should come as no surprise to readers that The Jewish Press endorses Governor Mitt Romney in the November 6 presidential election. We’ve regularly expressed serious concerns about Barack Obama’s views on the Middle East in general and the Arab-Israeli situation in particular from the onset of his 2008 presidential campaign through his four years in the White House.
By Jacob Kamaras and Sean Savage
“There are, I think, almost 3,000 Americans in foreign jails. Almost all of them are in there for doing something.” That is the assessment given to JNS.org by U.S. Rep. Bob Turner (R-NY), a leading advocate for the freedom of 53-year-old Brooklyn flooring contractor Jacob Ostreicher – who, according to his supporters, is wrongly imprisoned in Bolivia and therefore falls outside the “almost 3,000 Americans” cited by Turner.
On university campuses, students have for the most part remained stalwart supporters of their original candidate, and the debates have merely informed and educated student voters. Still, it appears that many Zionist students are unforgiving of President Obama’s foreign policies, and demand that immediate action be taken in attending to Iran’s nuclear program.
By Barry Rubin
A full analysis of the foreign policy aspects of the third debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Remember that the idea that someone “won” the debate in terms of an outside observer’s standpoint or even based on a poll is misleading. The only important thing is whether either candidate swayed additional voters to his side.
By Peter Huessy
The major argument against taking preemptive military action against Iran is the fear that Tehran's retaliatory capability will engulf the Middle East and other regions in serious violence and turmoil, throwing the world's already fragile economy into a deep recession or even an economic depression. This mindset is coupled with a peculiar assumption that absent […]
By Barry Rubin
Are supposed negotiations with Iran the “October Surprise” intended to win the election for President Barack Obama, an Iranian trick for buying time, or both? The answer is both. It’s an incredibly transparent ploy though with the cooperation of the mass media such a gimmick might well have some effect.
By Barry Rubin
Perhaps you remember an incredibly sensational story from back in October 2011 that after a brief period in the headlines disappeared completely. The U.S. government arrested an Iranian-American citizen in Texas and charged him with being an agent of the Iranian government who planned at Tehran’s behest to hire a Mexican drug gang to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in a fiery terrorist attack in Washington D.C. It would have been another September 11, albeit on a far smaller scale. Knowing about such an operation should have been a real game-changer for U.S. Middle East policy.
By Abraham Cooper and Yitzchok Adlerstein
Sometimes, only a period of separation will save a troubled marriage. That is why the Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish groups are pulling out of the Christian-Jewish Roundtable. Fifteen liberal Protestant leaders, including those of the Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist denominations, chose the Jewish High Holiday season to urge Congress to curtail U.S. aid to Israel.
Since the debate there's been a lot of analysis as to whether the President designated the attack on the U.S. embassy in Bengahzi, Libya, an act of terrorism. The President indeed used the term "act of terror" the next day but it wasn't clear if he was talking about that attack or 9-11. For the next week administration officials described the attacks as part of a protest-riot against the the U.S. over the "Innocence of Muslims" video which got out of hand.
In 1948, Menachem Begin visit the U.S. and appeared on Meet the Press, telling its host that not only was partition illegal but so was severing today's Jordan from the Jewish National Home.
By Ron Kampeas
WASHINGTON – During his 30 years in the clubby confines of the U.S. Senate, Arlen Specter never lost his acerbic prosecutorial zeal, friends and associates say.
By Ron Kampeas
WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made headlines last month with this question: What are the U.S. red lines when it comes to Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program?
By Barry Rubin
One argument we will be increasingly hearing is that President Barack Obama couldn’t have done anything to change events in the Middle East. This is ironic of course because when things were going well he wanted to take credit as the inspiration for the "Arab Spring."
Building U.S.-Canada relations is more urgent than ever, both economically and in foreign affairs. If America intends to keep its advantage as a superpower, it will greatly help to ally with its neighbor, Canada. While Canada has depended upon the U.S. historically as the stronger military might, it has, under a Conservative Government, demonstrated global leadership in economic policy and foreign affairs. Given the rise of economic superpowers such as China and India, and the challenges from our enemies, such as Islamists, a strong foreign policy and a functional economy are key.
Arlen Specter, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania 1961 - 2011, has died. Specter was 82 years old. Specter is survived by his wife, Joan, his son Stephen, his son Shanin, daughter-in-law Tracey, and 5 granddaughters. Specter was Jewish and over his lifetime belonged to several different synagogues. His granddaughters all attended a Conservative Jewish day school in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently warned that, “The results of an American or Israeli military strike on Iran could, in my view, prove catastrophic, haunting us for generations in that part of the world.” During Thursday's Vice Presidential debate the statement was read to Vice President Joe Biden and Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan at the start of segment on Iran. What exactly Gates meant by “catastrophic” I’m not sure (Muslim/Middle East resentment towards the U.S.? Lack of access to oil? Increase in global terrorism?), but during the debate, both Biden and debate moderator Martha Raddatz seemed to argue that it meant going to war with Iran.
By JTA
Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan clashed over Iran’s nuclear program during their televised debate. Ryan assailed President Obama’s approach to the issue in Thursday night's vice presidential debate at Centre College in Danville, Ky. The Wisconsin congressman accused administration officials of sending "mixed signals" to Iran about U.S. […]
There was no demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11/12. There was no demonstration against the film that insulted Mohammad, or any other kind of demonstration. There was an assault on our country. And our government officials knew that, yet repeatedly attempted to spin it away from that conclusion.
Even before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced it would begin hearings on last month’s terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, it was clear to many that important questions needed to be answered.
We have long been dismayed by the trust some prominent Jewish groups place in the established non-evangelical Protestant Christian denominations. Aside from some occasional and perfunctory conciliatory statements on minor matters offered by the denominational leaders, the relationship has never become a true dialogue but rather an embarrassing, self-conscious cry for acceptance from insecure Jews.
Late last week former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated that Washington must make it clear to Israeli leaders that the U.S. must not permit Israel to harm American interests. Previously, Gates had called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an “ungrateful ally.” It would be a serious mistake to slough off these most recent statements as the idle rantings of a retired civil servant.
“Americans who support Israel should take the president at his word.” So wrote Haim Saban recently in The New York Times, claiming President Obama was fully committed to the Jewish state. But is that true? Should we take Obama at his word? No, not when Israel confronts the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Danon, 41, deputy speaker of Israel’s Knesset and chairman of World Likud, published his first book last month, Israel: The Will to Prevail (published by Palgrave Macmillan). In it, he outlines his vision for Israel’s future while also reviewing historical, religious, political, legal, and contemporary factors crucial for understanding modern-day Israel.
By Shlomo Cesana and Mati Tuchfeld
JERUSALEM – Now it’s official: Israel is going to the polls. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday that the elections for the 19th Knesset will be held early next year.
The US State Department has created an award program for "female Palestinian scientists." Candidates are required to "be a citizen and resident of West Bank, Gaza, or Jerusalem." What does it mean by "citizen"? Is the US State Department creating, again, a Palestinian state, when there is none existing?
By Barry Rubin
Mitt Romney gave a speech at the Virginia Military Institute today which focuses on U.S. Middle East policy. There are some good points in this speech that are definite steps forward. Romney sounded like a president should, someone who grasps power politics, deterrence, credibility, supporting allies and opposing enemies, and all the basic principles that have been largely vanished by the Obama Administration in exchange for unworkable and dangerous concepts. (Watch video)
By JTA
The United States is imposing financial penalties on two Lebanese charities that raise money for Hamas.
By J. E. Dyer
Instead of sticking with our commitment to a new Libya, one in which Americans have friendship and influence – one in which we can walk free, and so can Libyans – we have closed our post in Benghazi and drawn down our embassy staff in Tripoli to “essential” personnel only. It will be of some interest to see how long it takes al Qaeda or other terrorist savages to attack us in Tripoli.
Israel’s credit rating has been reaffirmed at A+ by “Standard and Poor,” at a time when S&P lowers the credit rating of an increasing number of Western countries. While exports to Europe dropped due to the global meltdown, Israeli exports to the U.S. surged.
In the course of his lamentable stopover in New York last week, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave an interview to Washington Post columnist David Ignatius just prior to President Obama’s speech to the UN General Assembly. One of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s comments made us think that maybe there is something to his apparent madness.
By JTA
The United States reportedly warned European governments in a memorandum not to support a Palestinian bid for increased status at the United Nations. The memorandum, which was exposed by the Guardian, called giving the Palestinians enhanced non-member state status "extremely counterproductive" and threatened "significant negative consequences" for the Palestinian Authority, including financial sanctions. The memorandum, […]
By JTA
Jailed Jewish-American contractor Alan Gross may have a cancerous tumor that needs to be treated, his lawyer said. Gross has an unidentified mass behind his right shoulder, according to reports. Cuban doctors declared the mass to be a hematoma that would reabsorb over time. CT and ultrasound scans of the mass conducted by the Cuban […]
By Barry Rubin
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has written an op-ed piece about what’s wrong with President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy and what he would do if he is elected president. There aren’t many surprises but it reminds us how far Romney has to go before he can be said to have articulated a clear foreign policy of his own.
He is not a scholar. He has been involved with the Muslim Public Affairs Council since its founding in 1986. He blamed Israel for 9/11.
By Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency
A small group of Israelis, many university students, gathered outside the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv on Monday evening in a show of support and friendship with America. The rally, organized by the pro-Israel student movement, Im Tirzu, came in response to the recent attacks on U.S. embassies across the Middle East.
By Ron Kampeas
WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney’s less than optimistic take on Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects drew some media attention but not much noise from centrist Jewish groups.
