Three Days To Commemorate The Holocaust?

Posted on: February 20th, 2008

The observance last month of the UN-sanctioned International Holocaust Memorial Day once again raised the issue of a multiplicity of Holocaust memorial days. Does this add to the stature and significance of Holocaust remembrance, or just the opposite? And what does each of these memorial days signify?

Of Apathy And Multitudes

Posted on: February 20th, 2008

I met a friend several weeks ago at a hastily called grassroots meeting at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills to discuss Israel's difficult predicament.

Music In Our Prayers

Posted on: February 13th, 2008

When the Jewish people crossed the Red Sea, successfully escaping the clutches of the Egyptians, Moses gathered the Israelites together and they sang the famous “Az Yashir.” Miriam, Moses’s sister, also assembled the women as they danced with tambourines and sang “shiru lahashem ki gao gaa sus vrochbo rama bayam” – let us sing to Hashem for he is great, horse and chariot he drowned in the sea.”

UN Perfidy Knows No Bounds

Posted on: February 13th, 2008

That the UN is hostile to Israel hardly comes as a surprise. The perfidy that permeates the house over which Kurt Waldheim once presided can be cut with a knife; Israel bashing has become an integral part of the culture of that body. Such duplicity does not appear from thin air – it must be nurtured and stoked by individuals who, by dint of impressive titles, can command international attention and influence public opinion and thus cause much mischief.

Gaza’s Palestinian Civilians Are Not Israel’s Responsibility

Posted on: February 13th, 2008

If you think one side in a conflict is under no moral or legal obligation to send supplies to the population of the other, you have not heard what The New York Times or Human Rights Watch’s Joel Stork have been saying about Israel’s duties toward Gaza. Both have claimed Israel has been “collectively punishing” Gazans when in, recent days, Israel has not cut electrical power at all and only reduced fuel supplies.

Window Of Opportunity For Hebron

Posted on: February 13th, 2008

The Israeli government’s siege of 20 young families living in Hebron’s Beit HaShalom cracked for the first time recently. Shas minister Eli Yishai, struggling to justify his continued participation in a morally bankrupt government, pressured Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who then gave the Military Appeals Court its marching orders. Shamelessly, the court “suddenly” perceived the drastic humanitarian needs of the residents and allowed them to install windows in the unfinished building.

Confronting A Prominent Writer’s Untruths

Posted on: February 6th, 2008

It is time to finally inter a malicious libel against Jews and Judaism that is getting increasing attention in the media, namely, that Judaism will not allow for the breaking of the Sabbath to save a non-Jewish life.

Why Bush May Yet Shock Everyone And Bomb Iran

Posted on: February 6th, 2008

Given his swaggered walk and ineloquent delivery, George W. Bush is an easy one to underestimate. But pundits and politicians do so at their own peril, cases in point being Al Gore and John Kerry, two gentlemen who like to think of themselves as high cultivated and erudite.

Confronting A Prominent Writer’s Untruths

Posted on: February 6th, 2008

It is time to finally inter a malicious libel against Jews and Judaism that is getting increasing attention in the media, namely, that Judaism will not allow for the breaking of the Sabbath to save a non-Jewish life.

Holding America Over A Barrel … Again

Posted on: February 6th, 2008

When President Bush recently asked the Saudis to increase their production of oil, the media reported that the request was turned down. In fact, the Saudis offered to discuss the issue only if the president would promise a waiver of visas for Saudi students, something that Americans of all political parties would find unacceptable, given the fact that nearly all of the 9/11 terrorist hijackers hailed from the oil kingdom.

Requiem For Rudy

Posted on: February 6th, 2008

It’s a shame that Rudy Giuliani couldn’t have run for president in the fall of 2001. Back then, voters probably wouldn’t have cared if he skipped not just the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries, but all of the Super Tuesday ones, too.

The Campaign That Wasn’t

Posted on: February 6th, 2008

A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution political cartoon depicted Rudy Giuliani attempting to explain his campaign strategy: “The strategy is, lose every primary and become the Republican nominee.” To which his listeners replied: “So far so good.”

New Approaches Needed For Auschwitz Visits

Posted on: January 30th, 2008

In the past two years, the number of visitors to Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp in southern Poland, has nearly tripled to an unprecedented 1 million people annually. These astounding statistics comprise an international phenomenon – one that highlights the continued significance of Auschwitz as a memorial site, a museum and now a growing tour destination.

Why John McCain Is My Choice For President

Posted on: January 30th, 2008

All across the nation over the next two weeks, the American people will be voting in a tightly contested election that will help determine who will be the next president.

Traumatic Brain Injury And The Permanent Intifada

Posted on: January 30th, 2008

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) relentlessly grinds on. The organization and its fellow travelers just held their annual Hate Israel follies, which they dubbed “Israel Apartheid Week.” Rallies outside Israeli consulates and embassies were held in Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Cleveland, Anaheim and Chicago.

Where Have All The Flower Children Gone?

Posted on: January 30th, 2008

The American left clings to the myth that the antiwar movement ended the U.S. war in Vietnam. In fact, the antiwar movement failed to prompt any substantive changes in U.S. war policy.

Obama Should Be Treated Like Any Other Candidate

Posted on: January 30th, 2008

African-Americans and Jews were joined in a relationship long characterized by mutual respect and shared commitment to civil rights. But it was also one that foundered on the sensitivities and resentments that both groups often could not rise above.

A Theory Of The Ten Commandments

Posted on: January 23rd, 2008

In 2003, Alabama Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore attained brief fame when he placed and refused to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments in the State Supreme Court building. Moore’s actions and his subsequent removal from office by a unanimous decision of Alabama’s Court of the Judiciary were just another part of the American debate about the role of religion in the United States.

Why Boots Matter

Posted on: January 23rd, 2008

In 1974, Ronald Reagan made the best purchase of his political career: he bought a ranch. Rancho Del Cielo – the “Ranch in the Sky” – was nestled in the hills near Santa Barbara, California. Reagan said the ranch was “a sanctuary … like no other … at Rancho del Cielo, Nancy and I could put on our boots and old clothes, recharge our batteries, and be reminded of where we had come from.”

When Compassion Kills

Posted on: January 23rd, 2008

Sixty years ago, the Jews of Israel and the world learned one of the harshest lessons in political realism and the ethics of war. It was a tragedy that forced them to abandon their moral naiveté and acknowledge the harshness and brutality of military reality. And it is a lesson that Israeli politicians and the leftist media would have the country forget today.