The Jerusalem Post

Last week, a student warned in the Forward : “Israel will lose my entire generation if it goes ahead with annexation.” Normally, I’d scoff. I’m an optimist. I’ve seen the thrill in the most alienated of Jews’ eyes when they land at Ben-Gurion airport with their …

Good leadership is like oxygen – you just take it for granted; bad leadership is like pollution – you keep choking on it, as the poison accumulates. In Israel, the poisonous prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu flails about, bashing the courts, rousing thugs who threaten judges. …

Anguished articles about African-American antisemitism and Jewish oversensitivity keep detailing most Jews’ support for the Black Lives Matter moment despite the #BlackLivesMatter movement’s harsh anti-Zionism. This triggers other articles wondering why even this issue became a Jewish issue. Don’t blame us – entirely. Blame the …

The Israel-Diaspora conference circuit keeps booming – despite Corona. Especially since June 2017, when Benjamin Netanyahu sabotaged his own Kotel compromise, temper tantrums and doomsday scenarios keep generating more lovely gabfests and bridging initiatives. It often feels like an endless loop. Refreshingly, on Sunday, at …

Sending love from Jerusalem.  We Israelis are emerging from Corona-quarantine, step-by-step. Many older folks fear another breakout. Some of us are trying to save our businesses or our jobs, while a few others are recuperating from this disease or mourning 285 Israeli Corona-deaths. But most …

America’s Conservative and Reform denominations might merge. Beyond consolidating redundant, increasingly-under-utilized schools and shuls amid this Corona-contraction, Conservative rabbis crossed a Halachic redline by allowing Shabbat services to be streamed live. The Reformers won. Reasoning backward from results you want trumped Conservatism’s modernizing-from-within-the-tradition-forward approach. Once …

What seems like a million years ago – last May – Steve Greenberg of S-Curve Records flew into Israel for the Eurovision contest. Before plunging into his Tel Avivi music world, he visited us in old-fashioned, delightedly-unfashionable, Jerusalem. Steve lived in Israel for two years …

Many of us are wondering, “does Benny Gantz have the spine and the savvy to handle Bibi Netanyahu – or will he become yet another Bibi-patsy?” Warning, Sunday’s headlines – “LIKUD LAUNCHES ASSAULT ON PROSECUTION AHEAD OF BENJAMIN NETANYAHU TRIAL” put the moral and political …

Thirty-five years ago, on May 5, 1985, President Ronald Reagan visited the German war cemetery in Bitburg, hoping “to heal once and for all many of the lingering wounds” of World War II. Millions denounced Reagan’s insensitivity — because 49 Nazi Storm Troopers were buried among …

For months, a terrible dilemma vexed four principled patriots. To Bibi or Not to Bibi, that was the question. When two decided to Bibi, and two decided not, their uneasy alliance blew up. Yair Lapid and Boogie Ya’alon could not stomach working with Bibi, justifiably.  …