Opinion

It’s so confusing … You’ve heard the arguments. All the spin, the ads, the furious blogs and heated discussions about a possible U.N. vote to acclaim an “Independent, Unified Palestinian State.” What lofty language. Independent. Unified. Words and concepts dear to our hearts. But would such a state, merely… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — After the mutual accusations of ethnic cleansing and the sarcastic posturing, the ball is back in the Palestinians’ court. The upshot of last week’s Lollapalooza of speechmaking at the United Nations is that the Obama administration has succeeded in persuading the international community to back the… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — Will the Jewish vote, normally overwhelmingly Democratic, be up for grabs in 2012? That question became a subject of intense debate when a Republican was elected recently to the House of Representatives from New York’s 9th Congressional District for the first time in 90 years.… Read more »

Jason Epstein, in the Besiktas municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, in 2010.

WASHINGTON (JTA) — When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the United Nations this week, he likely will repeat his demand that the world body “raise the Palestinian flag” without acknowledging that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas refuses to negotiate with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leaders… Read more »

Last month I had the privilege of being invited to a Ramadan “break fast” at the Tucson chapter of the Foundation for Intercultural Dialogue, a moderate Muslim Turkish organization. Ramadan is the Muslim month of fasting between sunrise and sunset, during which Muslims focus on introspection and study. FID’s… Read more »

In Netanya, Israel on Aug. 18 in an events hall, I felt I was living a quintessential Israeli moment. Friends and family were celebrating a Bar Mitzvah with food, music, dance and high spirits. Not exclusively Israeli, one might say. However, the Bar Mitzvah’s uncle, in between bites, kept… Read more »

In July, my husband and I attended the Christians United for Israel Washington Summit. As supporters of interfaith Israel advocacy, we have worked with students from the University of Arizona CUFI on Campus club for two years. CUFI is a non-conversionary, non-proselytizing national organization that seeks to be the… Read more »

Daniel S. Mariaschin

Which nation doesn’t let women drive? Jails dissenters by the thousands? Beheads minors? Attacks civilians living peacefully in a neighboring nation? Persecutes homosexuals? Executes children? Encourages “honor killings”? Unfortunately, quite a few nations can be plugged in as correct answers. But not Israel. Yet Israel was the sole focus… Read more »

Mervyn Danker

To establish its independence, Israel had to win a war against the combined might of the Arab nations in 1948. The Arab failure to destroy the nascent Jewish state became known, in Orwellian Arab vernacular, as “Nakba,” a catastrophe. For the next 20 years, neither Jordan nor any of… Read more »

Michael J. Weil

Israelis and Jews around the world are awaiting the Palestinians’ push at the United Nations for statehood with trepidation. The official response of the government of Israel and American Jewish groups has been to do everything possible to prevent any action at the U.N. and to line up votes… Read more »

TEANECK, N.J. (JTA) — What is the legacy of 9/11? The 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, give us a chance as a nation to reflect on more than just our own stories of what happened that day. One theme that has emerged is “Remember Sept.… Read more »

Last month’s multifront Palestinian terrorist attack along the Egyptian-Israeli border highlighted two major new challenges to Israel’s national security. First is the breakdown of Egyptian central authority in the Sinai Peninsula, which has created fertile ground for terrorism against Israel. Complicating matters further is a heightened sensitivity in post-Mubarak… Read more »

On July 14, 2011, a severely malnourished baby lies in the pediatric unit of a hospital in Lodwar, Kenya, west of Somalia. The famine in the Horn of Africa is getting worse, human rights group say.

A tragedy is unfolding in the Horn of Africa, where hundreds of thousands of children are at immediate risk of death. The disastrous combination of the worst drought in 60 years, high food prices and regional conflict has left 12 million people, including more than 2 million malnourished children,… Read more »

Tifereth Israel Congregation in New Bedford, Mass., is looking for former members and their descendants for its 90th anniversary celebration in November 2011. Please email Milton Goodman, executive director, at [email protected] or contact the congregation through its Facebook page.… Read more »

(JTA) – He was the Arab world’s most quixotic leader. During the Reagan era, he was Public Enemy No. 1 in the United States. Later, after his apparent cooperation in dismantling nonconventional weapons, he became an ally to President George W. Bush’s administration in the war on terror. He… Read more »

Marc Stanely

I was amused by Adam Serwer’s recent blog post titled “Is Bibi anti-Israel?” in which he pointed out that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conditionally offered this month to negotiate with the Palestinians using the pre-1967 borders as a framework. Amazingly, there was no outcry by American Jews that… Read more »

Morton A. Klein

It’s high time to face an unpleasant fact: President Obama and Israel are not on the same page. This has been true ever since Obama took office in January 2009, but it was most recently apparent this May when the president ambushed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an… Read more »

It has been interesting to read the spate of letters in the last issue of the Arizona Jewish Post, mostly responding to letters in the previous issue disagreeing with Guy Gelbart’s opinions on the Steadfast Hope series. I always prefer for there to be open airing of issues, and… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) — After many decades of being excluded from most history books and Holocaust museums, the 1940s’ rescue activists known as the Bergson Group are finally receiving the recognition they deserve. That’s important to ensure historical accuracy, to promote Jewish unity and, most of all, to help inspire… Read more »

NEW YORK (JTA) — The threat of the infiltration of Sharia, or Islamic law, into the American court system is one of the more pernicious conspiracy theories to gain traction in our country in recent years. The notion that Islam is insidiously making inroads in the United States through… Read more »