Deceptions Of A “Nuclear Weapons Free World”: Why President Obama’s Good Intentions Could Bring...

As we asked last week, why then must Israel remain a nuclear power? We continue with the detailed and complete answer that Prime Minister Netanyahu should prepare to transmit to President Obama.

Po-Lin

Dynow         Cleaning works are underway on the grounds of the Jewish cemetery in Dynow. The works are being carried out by the members of...

Newly Translated Book On The Warsaw Ghetto

Many books have been written about the Warsaw Ghetto in the 66 years since its destruction. There have been reports, memoirs, studies, albums and movies of all kinds that have tried to tell the story of what happened. But to date for the English speaker the story was never complete.

Newly Translated Book On The Warsaw Ghetto

Many books have been written about the Warsaw Ghetto in the 66 years since its destruction. There have been reports, memoirs, studies, albums and movies of all kinds that have tried to tell the story of what happened. But to date for the English speaker the story was never complete.

Deceptions Of A “Nuclear Weapons Free World” Why President Obama’s Good Intentions Could Bring...

In his clearly expressed preference for a world without nuclear weapons, U.S. President Obama means well. Viscerally, at least, his idealized vision of a non-nuclear world certainly seems desirable. But the deeper intellectual and policy issue is not just the enduring and possibly irremediable security problem of strategic uncertainty and verification (why, for example, would any existing nuclear power disarm without being sure of reciprocal nuclear disarmament by all the other nuclear states?), but also that nuclear weapons are not inherently evil or even per se destabilizing. In many critical circumstances, as we should already have learned from basic Soviet-American peace dynamics during the Cold War, nuclear weapons can even be indispensable to the avoidance of catastrophic war.

Solomon’s Judgment On A Hot Summer’s Day

The first summer heat wave is already here, and with it the burning forests. If you have any doubt as to whose land this is, just take a look at the Judgment of Solomon that takes place here every time the desert wind blows in from the East. The Jews say, "The baby is mine" and plant trees. The Arabs say, "The baby is mine, and as long as he is in your hands, we will turn him to ashes."

News From Poland

As the summer gets underway there are many events throughout Poland connected to Jewish history and culture. It usually kicks off with the massive Krakow Jewish Festival and ends with the Singer Festival in Warsaw. Also many Jewish groups come to Poland during the summer to visit their hometowns, work in the cemeteries and look for connections to the pre-Shoah past.

News From Poland

As the summer gets underway there are many events throughout Poland connected to Jewish history and culture. It usually kicks off with the massive Krakow Jewish Festival and ends with the Singer Festival in Warsaw. Also many Jewish groups come to Poland during the summer to visit their hometowns, work in the cemeteries and look for connections to the pre-Shoah past.

Vice President Biden On Israel And Iran U.S. Finally Acknowledging The Limits Of Diplomacy...

Finally, Vice President Biden has acknowledged what has been argued in this column and elsewhere for several years. Speaking for the president, to be sure, Biden asserted that Israel, as a "sovereign nation," has every right to protect itself against a nuclearizing Iran. Understood in terms of international law, the precise preemptive action that Mr. Biden has in mind is called "anticipatory self-defense." Today, however, the real problem is less a matter of law than of operational cost and complexity. Although the vice president is correct about Israel's legal right to stay alive, it is already very late in the game to make preemption work.

Why Isn’t Gilad Shalit Home?

The painful history of soldiers who have fallen into the hands of terror organizations did not begin with Gilad Shalit. The list of soldiers kidnapped by terrorists is long and merciless: Ron Arad; Givati fighters Rachamim Alshich and Yosef Fink; the soldiers kidnapped from Har Dov - Omar Suweid, Benny Avraham and Adi Avitan; Nissim Toledano; Ilan Sa'adon; Avi Sassportas; Yaron Chai; Nachshon Wachsman; Aryeh Frankental; Ehud Goldwasser; and Eldad Regev. With the exception of Wachsman, Israel entered into extended negotiations to bring these soldiers home. But not one of them came back alive. Israel is currently employing the same method on behalf of Gilad Shalit.

Warsaw Museum Construction Begins

After years of planning, and two years after the initial groundbreaking ceremony, construction has begun for the Museum Of The History Of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland.

Looking Back At The Trial Of Saddam Hussein: Implications Of Indifference To Israel’s Earlier...

At a moment when Israel is under new jurisprudential assaults from those world leaders who would pay no attention to pertinent international law (most conspicuously, President Obama's commitment to a still one-sided "Road Map"), it may be a good time to recall previous episodes of more-or-less similar disregard.

Israel’s Moral Stance On Iran

"Israel does not interfere in Iran's internal affairs." That is more or less the reaction of Israeli officialdom to the unrest in Iran. Nobody questions this response. We have become accustomed to the fact that our response is not important. What does the oppression in China have to do with us? Why does the war in Chechnya concern us? Why is the slave trade in Sudan our business? And even more so, what does it matter what we think about Iran?

Polish Prisoners To Help Maintain Jewish Cemeteries

As I have reported many times over the past 12 years that I have been writing this column, one of the major problems in Poland today, even greater then anti-Semitism, is the poor condition of Jewish historical sites. Many of the cemeteries are overgrown and synagogue buildings are in disrepair.

History And Strategy Israel, “Palestine,” And The Samson Option

In 1882, Leo Pinsker, a Jewish physician of Odessa, horrified by the pogroms of 1881, concluded (quite reasonably, to be sure) that anti-Semitism is an incurable psychosis. The remedy, he then adduced, must be for all Jews to accept the imperatives of self-help and self-liberation. Later, Theodore Herzl, having witnessed the spectacle of Alfred Dreyfus in France, wrote The Jewish State.

Bibi’s First Big Mistake: Why A Palestinian State Can Never Be Made Contingent On...

Everyone who reads The Jewish Press fully understands that Judea and Samaria are the very heartland of the Jewish People. We also know that no Israeli government has the right to surrender this sacred land to any other sovereign body, least of all to an Arab/Islamic authority that openly seeks Israel's total destruction. Significantly, as I have indicated many times in previous columns in The Jewish Press, Israel's biblical claims to Judea/Samaria are fully and unambiguously supported by pertinent international law.

Virtual Shtetl Portal

The Museum Of The History Of Polish Jews is proud to announce the launching of the Virtual Shtetl website, which is devoted to the local history of Jews. Although at the moment of its launch the portal is primarily a source of information, its future is based on the interaction of web surfers using Web 2.0 technology. The medium created will constitute a bridge between the history of Polish Jewish towns and the contemporary, multicultural world.

Virtual Shtetl Portal

The Museum Of The History Of Polish Jews is proud to announce the launching of the Virtual Shtetl website, which is devoted to the local history of Jews. Although at the moment of its launch the portal is primarily a source of information, its future is based on the interaction of web surfers using Web 2.0 technology. The medium created will constitute a bridge between the history of Polish Jewish towns and the contemporary, multicultural world.

Jewish Cultural Festival In Krakow

The 19th Jewish Cultural Festival in Krakow will be held between June 27 and July 5. As always Janusz Makuch, director of the festival has organized an exciting program with all the usual performers and many exciting new exhibits, lectures, tours and musical artists.

Jewish Cultural Festival In Krakow

The 19th Jewish Cultural Festival in Krakow will be held between June 27 and July 5. As always Janusz Makuch, director of the festival has organized an exciting program with all the usual performers and many exciting new exhibits, lectures, tours and musical artists.

After The Failure To Preempt Israel, Iran And Nuclear War

Some things never change. Even (or especially) more-or-less apocalyptic threats recur. "It is in the thick of a calamity," says Albert Camus in The Plague, "that one gets hardened to the truth, in other words, to silence." As my faithful readers here in The Jewish Press already know, "silence" is what we shall soon become hardened to in Iran.

News From Poland

Przemysl               On June 22, 2009 a tablet commemorating the former Scheinbach Synagogue building (today the town library) will be unveiled in Przemysl. The ceremony...

Religious Bases Of Jihadist Terror Points Of Importance

Faced with staggering and largely unprecedented geopolitical threats, President Obama already understands the limits of military action against terrorism. At the same time, it is unlikely that he also fully appreciates the stark and absolutely determinative role of religion and ritual in shaping America's principal terrorist adversaries. It is imperative, therefore, that the president begin to understand that all Arab/Islamic terrorism, including Palestinian terrorism, is authentically driven by deeply theological notions of sacrifice.

Life Or Death For Israel In The Time Of “Apocalypse”

How desperately I would like to be more "positive" in these columns. Like my ever-faithful readers here at The Jewish Press, I would dearly welcome an opportunity - any opportunity - to discover some real evidence of genuine progress toward peace in the Middle East. But, as always, we Jews are especially obligated to look squarely at things the way they are. Recalling our history as a people, we simply should not expect that our most optimistic inclinations will somehow be wished into truth.

Ostroleka Jewish Cemetery Exposed During Roadwork

The Jewish community in Ostroleka Poland was first established in the 17th century and like all other communities in Poland saw good times and bad. At the beginning of the 20th century the community numbered 6,219. During WWI the Russian Army destroyed the town while retreating and many Jews left for other cities, especially Warsaw. But after the war, Jews returned to Ostrolekaand by 1921 they numbered 3,352, more then a third of the total population.

Ostroleka Jewish Cemetery Exposed During Roadwork

The Jewish community in Ostroleka Poland was first established in the 17th century and like all other communities in Poland saw good times and bad. At the beginning of the 20th century the community numbered 6,219. During WWI the Russian Army destroyed the town while retreating and many Jews left for other cities, especially Warsaw. But after the war, Jews returned to Ostrolekaand by 1921 they numbered 3,352, more then a third of the total population.

Israel On Trial – Wrongfully

Not surprisingly, with regard to Israel, The New York Times continues to publish essentially only the Arab side of the story. In this connection, an especially egregious April 4 article by Professor George Bisharat ("Israel On Trial") was decidedly more of a visceral attack upon Israel's recent Gaza operation than it was a sober jurisprudential assessment.

The Problem Of Palestinian ‘Demilitarization’ An International Law Perspective

When I first wrote in The Jewish Press about the problems of Palestinian demilitarization in February 1998, Benjamin Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister. Today, he has again assumed the same position, and is still on record against full statehood for "Palestine." He continues to speak more or less obliquely of Palestinian "self-rule," "autonomy," or "attributes of restricted sovereignty."

Justice And Jewish Slavery: Daimler-Chrysler’s Final And Inevitable Collapse

On its face, it would surely be foolish to blame Daimler-Chrysler's extraordinary woes on the very dark history of Daimler-Benz. On its face, the combined company's deep decline is manifestly a function of bad economic judgments. After all, from the very start, the 1998 decision by Germany's Daimler-Benz to merge with Chrysler simply made no financial sense.

Torah Dedication In Historic Krakow Fulfills Late Rabbi’s Wish

Among the missions left unfinished after the passing of Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Yossie Raichik was the completion of a Torah Scroll for a synagogue bearing his ancestor's name. That changed last week as his widow, Dina Raichik, joined a procession of hundreds of singing celebrants through the streets of Krakow, Poland's historic Jewish quarter, to finally welcome the Holy Scroll in the centuries-old Rema Synagogue.

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