Opinion

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu grandiloquently proclaimed recently that, “If the world is on fire, Turkey is the firefighter. Turkey is assuming the leading role for stability in the Middle East.” Such ambition is new for Ankara. In the 1990s, it contentedly fulfilled its NATO obligations and followed Washington’s… Read more »

Unless Israel acts fast, when the Arab Spring comes to full bloom, the Jewish state will be left out in the cold. That was the essence of the dire warnings issued earlier this month by the high-profile backers of a new Israeli peace push who say they seek to… Read more »

Philadelphia’s Olney High School will hold its 60th anniversary reunion on Sunday, June 5, 2001 at Bala Country Club. For information, call 215-663-1743. —Irv Segal… Read more »

I suppose there may be ways to harmonize Larry Gellman’s two statements at the conclusion of Sheila Wilensky’s March 24 article reporting on Hadar Susskind’s recent visit to Tucson (“On visit to Tucson, J Street policy director explains group’s mission”). Mr. Gellman “find Jewish Voice for Peace despicable” while… Read more »

I was very pleased to see the article on J Street Policy Director Hadar Susskind’s visit to the Tucson Jewish Community Center. Acknowledgment of different voices within the Jewish community in regards to our relationship with Israel and Israel’s current policies is a breath of fresh air. Moreover, the… Read more »

With the turmoil rocking the Middle East now threatening the regime in Syria, Israel faces potentially grave dangers and huge opportunities. The dangers are clear: The emergence of a more radical regime in Syria could mean a stronger Iran-Syria-Hezbollah axis. Iran could get direct access to its allies in… Read more »

Like many Tucsonans, staff at Community Partnership of Southern Arizona were shocked and saddened by the shooting rampage on Jan. 8. Many of us knew someone who was killed or injured in the shooting. We also were given the opportunity to help the community take its first steps toward… Read more »

WALTHAM, Mass. (JTA) — The relationship between American and Israeli Jews is changing. For most of Israel’s history, the American Jewish community was larger, wealthier and more powerful than its “poor cousin” in the Middle East, but now the differences between the two communities have greatly narrowed. More Jews… Read more »

The topic of the day-long conference was torture, and Palestinians were describing the horrific methods the Shin Bet used in prison to get information out of them. Photos and illustrations of these practices were shown on a screen. Human rights activists, Palestinian and Israeli, spoke at length and in… Read more »

Israel is staring at a fork in the road, with potential disaster along either path. On the path to the left lies a major Israeli peace initiative that deals with all the core issues under dispute with the Palestinians. On the path to the right lies more waiting, possibly… Read more »

WEST CALDWELL, N.J. (JTA) — Conservative Judaism is dying, I hear — or at least according to the media. Not so. Please don’t tell me that because North America’s United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism has had its problems, that means Conservative/Masorti Judaism is declining around the Jewish world. Yes,… Read more »

Some of the 146 victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire lay on the streets of New york's Lower East Side, March 25, 1911. (International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (JTA) — Late on the afternoon of Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire erupted at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company on the top floors of a modern, fire-proof building at the corner of Manhattan’s Washington Place and Greene Street, near Washington Square Park. In the bedlam precipitated by… Read more »

Although the 10-month moratorium on building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank was lifted last September, settler leaders complain that no construction is being allowed in the large urban areas and warn that a de facto freeze on all Jewish building in the West Bank is looming. The… Read more »

The favorite word of Navi Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, appears to be “accountability.” Yet with her own agency tainted by its longtime disregard of Libyan human rights violations — and by apologists for Libyan strongman Muammar Gadhafi occupying key U.N. positions — it’s high time… Read more »

Demonstrator with an anti-Gadhafi sign outside the Libya Embassy in Cairo shows his solidarity for Libyans protesting their leader, Feb. 22, 2011. (Sierragoddess via Creative Commons)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — They were the devils they knew. Though Israel lives in a dangerous neighborhood, surrounded by countries whose leaders or people wish its destruction, over the years it had adjusted to the status quo, more or less figuring out how to get by while keeping an eye… Read more »

The rapid changes in the Middle East are leading many in the American Jewish community to suffer from “analysis paralysis.” We have become so mesmerized by events in Cairo that we have stopped doing vitally important work to advance American interests and stability in the Middle East, as well… Read more »

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (JTA) — The day after Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak was ousted by a widespread public uprising, I found myself presenting a lecture about Solidarity, the mass trade union movement that convulsed Poland 30 years ago and paved the way for the collapse of the Iron Curtain… Read more »

This is an extraordinary time for the Middle East, an unprecedented one, a glorious one – and it’s passing Israel by. Since Mubarak’s fall, we’re trying to be good sports, good losers, trying to grin and bear it, saying mabruk, congratulations, and all that. This week we’re rooting for… Read more »

WASHINGTON (JTA) – One guy we know, and we’re pretty sure he’s not in charge. The other guy we don’t know so well, and it looks like he might be in charge. The other three guys — who knows? The five figures comprising Egypt’s Supreme Military Council are commanding… Read more »

\NEW YORK (JTA) — Hosni Mubarak’s resignation Feb. 11 from Egypt’s presidency following three weeks of intense street demonstrations raises a host of questions not just for the future of Egypt and its peace treaty with Israel, but for the entire Middle East. The most remarkable feature of the… Read more »