With Israel fighting a two-front war in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox partners are demanding draft exemptions for yeshiva students and other members of the haredi community. This impudent demand was presented by United Torah Judaism and Shas, two ultra-Orthodox parties in his coalition government. They have a total of […]
I did not discover hummus until my first trip to Israel in the summer of 1967, shortly after the end of the Six Day War. Having been raised in a home where Polish-style food was king, I was oblivious to hummus and the rich assortment of Middle Eastern appetizers I have since come to love. […]
The Israeli government is elated with Donald Trump’s reelection as president of the United States. The reasons are crystal clear. During his first term in office, Trump compiled a strong pro-Israel record. And in the past few days, he has nominated pro-Israel figures as ambassador to Israel and to key foreign policy, defence and intelligence […]
Yesterday, a month after the United States warned Israel it faced a cutoff of military assistance unless it allowed a substantial increase of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip within 30 days, the issue was essentially settled in Israel’s favor. The United States, having announced that Israel had fulfilled some of the conditions it had […]
German scholar Matthias Kuntzel provides readers with a ground-breaking theory about Arab/Muslim hostility to Israel and Jews in his penetratingly incisive book, Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism And The Middle East: The 1948 Arab War Against Israel And The Aftershocks Of World War II (Routledge). A political scientist and historian, he argues that antisemitism in the Arab […]
With Jews in Europe poised to mark the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht on November 9, mobs attacked Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam following a match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax the night before. The violence immediately brought to mind an ugly incident that occurred in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, late last October. Shortly […]
As he toured Israel’s northern border on November 3, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would restore security there “with or without” an agreement with Lebanon. What he meant is clear. Israel is determined to facilitate the return of some 60,000 displaced Israelis through either diplomacy or military means. Ordered to evacuate their homes […]
It was, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed in a message to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on November 6, “history’s greatest comeback.” Netanyahu, the first world leader to congratulate Trump, may have been indulging in hyperbole, but he was not too far off the mark. Trump’s triumph over Vice President Kamala Harris in yesterday’s […]
A little more than a year ago, Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old war veteran of Ukrainian extraction, received two standing ovations in the House of Commons after its Speaker, Anthony Rota, singled him out for recognition. The visiting president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, were among those who honored […]
Amid a landscape of despair and death, Bulgaria was seen as a shining example of humanity during the Holocaust. Alone among European countries that were occupied by or aligned with Germany, Bulgaria saved its Jewish citizens from the clutch of the Nazis. Its wily monarch, King Boris III, was supposedly their chief protector and savior. […]