Foreign volunteers flocked to kibbutzim before and after the 1967 Six Day War. Hailing primarily from Europe, the United States, Canada and South Africa, they were eager to experience the novelty of collective living. By one estimate, 6,000 foreigners arrived in Israel within a six-week period following the end of hostilities. I was one of […]
Donald Trump, in a geopolitical betrayal of seismic proportions, appears to have switched sides in the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine war. Until Trump’s return as president on January 20, the United States backed Ukraine unequivocally. Joe Biden, Trump’s predecessor, condemned Russia’s brazen invasion of Ukraine in the winter of 2022. He provided Ukraine with economic and political […]
Benjamin Netanyahu’s attempt to fire Ronen Bar, the director of the Shin Bet internal intelligence agency, discredits the Israeli prime minister, leaving him open to legitimate concerns that he values political survival more than democracy and the rule of law. At the behest of Netanyahu, the cabinet voted on March 20 to dismiss Bar, a […]
Israel’s longest war since its creation drags on interminably, with no end in sight. Speaking of the 18-month-long conflict in the Gaza Strip a few days ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he has no intention of finishing it any time soon. Acknowledging that indirect talks with Hamas on ending the war and freeing the […]
After two rounds of mostly indirect talks in Muscat and Rome over Iran’s controversial nuclear program, the United States and Iran have expressed optimism that progress is being made. The “constructive” atmosphere is such that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi sounded upbeat following the last session on April 19. He told reporters that negotiations were […]
Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939 and of the Soviet Union in 1941 set off mass migrations of Polish Jews eastward. Precise figures are hard to come by, but hundreds of thousands of Polish citizens participated in this desperate flight for survival. This topic was the subject of a conference at the Polin Museum of […]
Donald Trump’s ideologically-driven administration has taken aim at elite American universities in what is shaping up to be a concerted campaign to transform higher education in the United States. The ramifications of his policy may be felt for decades if he succeeds. He and his supporters in the “Make America Great Again” wing of the […]
Donald Trump is trying to fix what he broke. In 2018, during his first term as U.S. president, Trump unilaterally pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, denouncing it as a terrible deal and imposing crippling sanctions on Iran’s economy. Last week, in an about-face,Trump dispatched a delegation to Oman to lay the ground […]
McGill University has finally cracked down on Palestinian students and their supporters who create chaos on campus. Earlier this month, the Montreal university terminated its contractual relationship with the Students’ Society of McGill (SSMU) following a three-day anti-Israel strike that led to vandalism and a disruption of classes. On April 11, McGill went one step […]
Israel and Turkey have taken the first concrete step to reduce tensions over their respective interests in Syria. Yesterday, Israeli and Turkish delegations conferred in Azerbaijan for talks to head off incidents that could degenerate into full-blown clashes between Israel and Turkey. “Under the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a political-security delegation led by […]