David Graizbord Editor’s note: This event has been postponed until November due the spread of COVID-19. The Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona have canceled all public events through April 16 out of an abundance of caution. Israeli politics, water scarcity, and medical advances will highlight “Israel… Read more »
As I go around the community in Tucson, many people ask me what I think about Israeli politics. Who is going to “win,” what will the future look like, plus questions about how our political system with its many parties works and how it relates to the world and… Read more »
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at a conference of his Likud party in Ramat Gan, March 4, 2019. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
(JTA) — Israel held a national election seven weeks ago. It will hold another one in September. If that sounds weird to you, you’re right: Israel has a famously raucous political system, but it’s never held national elections twice in one year. Until now. Just to be clear, no… Read more »
Ron Dermer, the senior advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at a convention for Jewish bloggers in Jerusalem, 2009. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Like many Israeli politicians, Ron Dermer is an unapologetic defender of Israel’s actions, even if it might mean being undiplomatic. But like a seasoned diplomat, Dermer — senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — knows his way through Washington’s backchannels and has cultivated… Read more »
(Jewish Ideas Daily) — About Menachem Begin the thing that I remember most was the way he talked. Begin wouldn’t say that he was born on the eve of the First World War; he’d say, as he did when a group of us from the Wall Street Journal interviewed him in 1981, that… Read more »
Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, of Likud and Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman of Yisrael Beiteinu holding a joint news conference announcing that their two parties are joining forces ahead of the upcoming Israeli general elections, Oct. 25, 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA) TEL AVIV (JTA) — Political pundits have long debated who is the real Benjamin Netanyahu. Is he a pragmatist handcuffed by his right-wing support base and fealty to his late father’s nationalist vision? Is he a true right-wing ideologue whose apparent concessions to Israeli-Palestinian peace are but feints? Or… Read more »
Israeli President Shimon Peres, center, meets with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, right, and former Major Leaguer Brad Ausmus, who will manage Israel's team in the World Baseball Classic, in Jerusalem, May 24, 2012. (Kobi Gideon/ GPO/FLASH90/JTA) WASHINGTON (JTA) — For decades, the joke in Israel went: How do you know when Shimon Peres is headed for defeat? When he announces that he is running. Peres — today Israel’s extremely popular president and on Wednesday a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom — always seemed doomed to… Read more »
When I’ve had enough coffee in the morning, I choose to listen to the Israeli news on my drive to work instead of the latest self help guru I am following. Truth is, I am not fluent in Hebrew enough yet to understand exactly what the newscaster reports, but… Read more »
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Tzipi Livni’s resounding fall in the leadership vote for Kadima, Israel’s largest political party, was as dramatic as her rise to political power. Ahead of last week’s vote, most polls were predicting that Livni would defeat Shaul Mofaz, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff.… Read more »
Hundreds of Israelis protesting against the country's soaring cost of living in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem, Aug. 2, 2011. (Yossi Zamir/Flash 90/JTA) JERUSALEM (JTA) – “It’s the economy stupid” was how American political strategist James Carville once summed up the defining issue in U.S. presidential elections. But in Israel, besieged by enemy nations and locked into an ongoing conflict with the Palestinians, security has traditionally trumped all other political agendas. Until… Read more »
