The Future belongs to the Optimists
FOR SOME weeks now, I have felt like a boy who has thrown a stone into a pool. Rings of water created by the splash get larger and larger and expand more and more.
Category Archives: Israel
Mideast Briefs
On Aug. 8, saying the media misinterpreted the original statement made on Aug. 5, the Defense Ministry said the reference to the Munich pact - a failed bid by European powers to appease Nazi Germany - "was not intended to make a direct comparison, either historically or personally. We are sorry if it was understood otherwise."
Trump’s gun-rights remark likened to calls for Rabin’s death
Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy said Donald Trump's suggestion that gun rights advocates could "do" something about Hillary Clinton recalled the incitement to violence reported in the months prior to the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel. "I instantly thought about Rabin and Israel," Malloy, a Democrat, said Aug. 9 on MSNBC.
Tearing down the walls | Kids from Mexico greeted with open arms at Jewish camp in Rockies
At a time when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised that, if elected, "We're going to have a big, beautiful wall" dividing Mexico from the United States, a Jewish summer camp in Colorado is building a bridge between itself and a synagogue in Mexico City. This year, after several years of planning, more than 20 Jewish Mexican campers, three counselors and Rabbi Leonel Levy from Comunidad Bet-El de Mxico attended Ramah in the Rockies for two weeks, from July 20 to Aug. 2. Bet-El is a Conservative synagogue in Mexico City's upscale yet diverse Polanco district, and Camp Ramah is a network of Jewish summer camps affiliated with the Conservative movement.
Could Clinton’s VP pick hurt her chances with Israel supporters?
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's recent Vice Presidential pick of Tim Kaine has in many ways been regarded as a "safe choice", nominally aiding her White House bid without the risk some more outspoken running-mates, like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, could potentially have posed. A former governor and current senator for the swing-state of Virginia, Tim Kaine worked as a missionary in Honduras and speaks fluent Spanish, an asset in an election where Hispanic voters could tip the scales in critical battleground states like Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona.
U.S., Israel close many gaps in defense aid talks, hope for deal soon
The United States and Israel have closed many of the remaining gaps in negotiations over a new multibillion-dollar military aid package for Washington's top Middle East ally, and the two sides hope to reach a deal soon, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. Jacob Nagel, acting head of Israel's national security council, wrapped up three days of closed-door discussions in Washington over a new 10-year defense pact, including a meeting with U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice.
Sweden-Finland-Norway Globalization Blues
Olof Palme had just won his fourth term as Prime Minister when we spoke in Stockholm in the fall of 1985. Like Denmark's Anker Joergensen, this stalwart social democrat opposed the "cold, egoistic new liberalism".
Are America’s chickens coming home to roost?
Consider, since 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, an illegal invasion and war crimes in Iraq, beheadings, bombings and forced slavery, terror strikes by drones, cluster and phosphorous bombs, relentless bombing leveling Gaza, Sana'a and Aleppo, lone wolf attacks in Orlando, Dallas and San Bernardino, terror bombings in Baghdad, Beirut, Paris, Brussels, Istanbul, Dhaka and Medina, stabbings in Jerusalem and Hebron, slaughter at Mother Emmanuel, despair in Ferguson, Baltimore, the Ninth Ward and Flint, and Herman Wallace, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, and Philando Castile.
One year later, Iran nuclear deal is holding but fragile
Upcoming elections in the U.S. and Iran could yield new leaders determined to derail the deal. The Mideast's wars pit U.S. and Iranian proxies in conflict, with risks of escalation.
Israel ‘occupation’ amendment rejected by Democratic platform commmittee
The Democratic Party's Platform Committee rejected an amendment that would have called for the end to Israel's "occupation and illegal settlements." The committee vote on Saturday to defeat the amendment was 95-73.
Anti-Israel amendment to Democratic party platform voted down
The US Democratic party's slide toward an increasingly anti-Israel position, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, has been halted, at least temporarily. During a meeting of the Democratic party drafting committee Saturday, supporters of Senator Sanders proposed an amendment to the Democratic party platform which would urge an "end to occupation and illegal settlements," in Judea and Samaria, as part of a general statement in the platform about the promotion of a "two-state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
How Israel Is Losing America
The late American diplomat George Ball once argued that Israel needed to be saved from its own suicidal policies "in spite of herself." In a 1977 Foreign Affairs article, he called for an even-handed push by the United States for an Arab-Israeli peace.
Israel Calls Facebook A ‘Monster’ For Supposedly Fueling Palestinian Attacks
Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Facebook was responsible for a spate of Palestinian attacks on the country's citizens. "Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate" with the West Bank, Erdan said in a television interview Saturday, Reuters reported .
Israelis mourn Elie Wiesel as one of their own
Elie Wiesel never lived in Israel, but on Sunday the country mourned the death of the esteemed author and Nobel peace laureate as though it had lost a national icon. A frequent visitor who was fluent in Hebrew, Wiesel was a confidant of prime ministers and a towering cultural figure so revered that two premiers considered nominating him to be the country's ceremonial president.
Trump tweet evoking anti-Semitic imagery first posted on fringe message board
Donald Trump on Saturday deleted a tweet critical of Hillary Clinton after he came under fire for evoking anti-Semitic stereotypes with a graphic that included dollar bills and a six-pointed star. But 10 days earlier, the same graphic appeared on an Internet message board loaded with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and neo-Nazi ideology.
Reaction to death of Holocaust survivor, author Elie Wiesel
Reaction to the death of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, 87, author of "Night." His death was announced Saturday by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.
Grants provide area VFD’s much needed dollars
Several Texoma area fire departments received grants from the Texas A&M Forest Service's Rural Volunteer Fire Department Assistance Program. The rescue equipment grant worth $15,000 allowed the department to purchase rescue struts, rescue saws, thermal imagers and water rescue equipment.
Trump deletes tweet after complaints of anti-Semitic imagery
Donald Trump today deleted a tweet critical of Hillary Clinton after he came under fire for evoking anti-Semitic stereotypes with a graphic that included dollar bills and a six-pointed star. Before deleting the original tweet, which also contained the words "most corrupt candidate ever," the presumptive Republican nominee tweeted the same graphic with a tweak: a circle instead of a six-pointed star, which evokes the Jewish Star of David.
Kerry to visit Brussels, London for talks on UK’s EU exit
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will rush to Brussels and London on Monday to meet the top British and European Union diplomats, as the world grapples with the implications of Britain's historic vote to leave the European Union. Kerry will bring messages of support.
A Call for Love in the Face of Hatred: Rabbi Lerner’s talk at Muhammad Ali’s Memorial
A transcript of Rabbi Lerner's speech is below. To see him speak and to hear about his experiences, please see our post here .