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His tragic saga was all too familiar. His mesmerizing talent rapidly captured the world's attention. His impeccable image of integrity gained him the respect and affection of multitudes. His solid control of the media was remarkable.

Islamist extremists have a problem. Traditional Islam explicitly acknowledges that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people. The Koran itself is extraordinarily clear about the status of the Land of Israel in Islam. While criticizing Jews for their supposed sinfulness, the Koran relatesin Sura 5:21, that Moses (a revered teacher in Islam) tells the Jews to "enter into the Holy Land that Allah has assigned to you."

In separate incidents on the same night two weeks ago, two children in Israel were murdered by adults.

Dear President Carter: We at CAMERA have been outspoken in our criticism of the many factual errors and distortions about Israel in your book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, as well as in various op-eds and media appearances. We've been greatly concerned that false allegations you've made damage Israel, promoting misunderstanding, enmity and prejudice against that nation and its people.

● Had President Obama only given a speech in Cairo to the Arab world in "de-Nile" of the actual history of the region - dayenu.

Ten years ago, the Catholic-Jewish Historical Commission, established to investigate Pope Pius XII's response to the Holocaust, met for the first time to discuss its future work. I was the only Israeli historian among the six scholars (three Catholics and three Jews) designated by the Vatican and leading Jewish organizations to study this hotly contested issue.

Doesn't it make you sad? Every year, when we finish Sefer Bereishis, I feel like crying. There is nothing like being in the presence of our Fathers Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov and our Mothers Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah.

Christmas came early for Israel’s enemies this holiday season. On December 1 a draft statement from the European Union calling for the immediate restart of negotiations leading to a “viable state of Palestine ... with East Jerusalem as its capital” made worldwide news.

We are told that “a soldier must have a commander, and it isn’t a rabbi.” The defense minister of Israel accuses us – this writer and other Hesder rabbis – of “destabilizing the foundations of Israeli democracy, inciting toward insubordination, damaging the spirit of the Israel Defense Forces,” adding, “there is no room for such things in a civilized state.”

The arrival of the new millennium proved to be a false alarm for computer users. But, it turned out, the switchover from the ‘90s to the ‘00s did unleash the J2K virus.

A British court recently issued a subpoena for the arrest and indictment of Israel's former foreign minister in response to a petition by Hamas and its supporters in Britain. The court claimed historic precedent for its attempt to indict Tzipi Livni.

Collectors have long recognized that Israel uses archaeology on stamps, coins and currency to advance its political and nationalist goals. Actually, while archaeology in recent years has declined as a mechanism that helps shape Israeli national identity, it has, at the same time, grown both as a discipline and in the way it is practiced in Israel.

As Israel braces for the next round of pummeling courtesy of the Goldstone report, its security and standing in the international community are impaired not only by terrorists and hostile regimes, but also by two different sets of highly motivated Jews prepared to endanger Israel in the name of “Jewish values.”

David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of the State of Israel, was often quoted in the early years of the state as remarking, “it is not so important what the Gentiles say as what the Jews do.”

My late husband and I were very close to the Bostoner Rebbe, zt”l, and many memories came flooding back when he passed away earlier this in Yerushalayim.

An outrageous assault by Israeli authorities against academic freedom of speech took place in recent days in what is becoming known as the Bukay Affair. The affair combines leftist undermining of democracy, the attempt at thought control by governmental officials and the police, harassment of a university lecturer by an over-zealous prosecutor, and an attempt to create in Israel a political Inquisition against incorrect thinking.

Michael H. Steinhardt, Jewish philanthropist and co-founder of Birthright Israel, spoke recently at the 92nd Street Y about the state of world Jewry.

What is Chanukah? Here is how Rabbi Eliyahu Kitov puts it:

It’s not easy to counter images of Arab families purportedly being evicted from their homes – such as the pictures of residents of the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah that were published last week in The New York Times and elsewhere. But Israel must at least try.

Our rabbis have traditionally assigned Chanukah “minor festival” status in our liturgical year. However, by closely examining a number of Talmudic and halachic statements that address the legal details of the lighting of the menorah, we will find a deeper meaning, one that elevates Chanukah from the narrative accessible to the youngest Jew to one worthy of the most serious study.

The well known story of Chana and her seven sons takes on new meaning these days in light of the tragic murder of David Hatuel’s family – his wife, Tali, and their four daughters.

Seldom do I use the term "life transforming" because very few things in life are. Change is something that requires diligence, effort and even monotonous repetition. It doesn't come cheaply.

It is time to take back the term “children at risk.” Educators and mental health professionals popularized the term about ten years ago and we need to withdraw it. Labels can be helpful on clothing and shoes but not on children.

Jerusalem, as it has so many times in the past, is today occupying center stage in the world theater. Once again the City of David is under siege. Not by an invading army, but by pressure exerted by nations to relinquish Israeli sovereignty over Jewry’s eternal capital.

Dear Mr. President,In recent days you have called for a freeze on all construction activities in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. It is your opinion that this is "occupied territory" because it lies outside the 1949 ceasefire lines that separated Israel from the Kingdom of Jordan while the latter illegally held East Jerusalem until 1967.

According to reports circulating in the media and on the Internet, the recent tragic passing of yet another young person in our community may have stemmed at least in part from the trauma of childhood abuse.

It’s no secret these days that the Obama administration leans left. On every crucial issue, from dealing with al Qaeda and the threat of terrorism, to the environment, to health care, to the administration’s handling of our overseas adversaries, the president and his advisers have come down hard on the left side of the political divide.

Officials in the Obama administration have decided they will be cutting the guest list in half for this year’s White House Chanukah party.

On the 25th day of Kislev we will celebrate Chanukah. On the 4th day of Kislev Jonathan Pollard celebrated the start of his 25th year in prison.

Campus radicalism, support for totalitarianism, and general political extremism are not new on Western campuses. Indeed some of the worst political extremism in academic history took the form of enthusiastic support on American campuses for Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.