Posted on: November 1st, 2006

There are ill winds of change hovering on the horizon. Washington is signaling its intention to distance itself from Israel. Pressures are being imposed on Israel to make further unilateral concessions to Mahmoud Abbas, most of which would directly impact on its security.

Posted on: November 1st, 2006

I'm hooked. Truly hooked. Not on drugs, thank goodness, or cigarettes or alcohol. But hooked I most definitely am, and that makes me dependent after a wonderful life of carefree indifference. Fate's ultimate payback. So what am I hooked on? What addiction is this?

Posted on: November 1st, 2006

Dear Mr. President, I am writing to you because I am afraid. I have been closely following the rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the past few months, and I want you to know that I am gripped with a sense of fear.

Posted on: November 1st, 2006

The Monitor never quite understood the good feelings Condoleezza Rice managed to inspire among so many conservatives for what seemed like the longest time. The woman never uttered a single word on foreign policy – her alleged area of expertise – that could even remotely be described as original, inspiring, or just plain memorable.

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

Muslims And Double Standards    When an obscure Danish newspaper published a caricature mocking Muhammed, the Muslim world erupted in violent protest and effigies of anything Danish were burned.    When Pope Benedict cited a critique of jihadism from the 14th century, Muslim fundamentalists called for his head and churches across the Middle East were torched.    Last […]

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

We Jews have experienced so much pain in our long and arduous history that the pain of Islamic terrorism seems to be just another episode of indescribable suffering. To an extent, this is certainly true. For the moment, we must endure, and - in the end - we shall prevail. So it has been before; so it will be again.

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

An exhibit commemorating the Jewish community of Czestochowa, which has been traveling the world for the past two years, culminated in the gathering of more than 200 people who went there for a special reunion during Sukkot. These remnants and descendants of a community of more than 30,000 came from the U.S., Israel, South America, Australia and Europe.

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

His voice had the strength of a pipe organ and the gentleness of a violin, but most of all it had the power to make men weep.

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

Ben is sensitive and tries hard to please Miriam, but when there's a problem that needs to be dealt with, he seems oblivious. When she asks for input on a decision, he says, "It's up to you." He wants to be nice but he doesn't realize he's frustrating her.

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

In March 2004 Al Qaeda won its first parliamentary election in Europe. It installed the trailing candidate José Luis Zapatero as prime minister of Spain. It clinched this victory just three days before the election by exploding 10 bombs causing the death of 191 people and the wounding of 1,700 others.

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

In April 2001, I visited my daughter Ali, then a fifteen-year-old student at Phillips Academy in Andover, near Boston. We went to the Holocaust Memorial near Quincy Market in downtown Boston, and I was taken aback by a seemingly innocuous but in fact outrageous statement engraved in stone: "By late 1942, the United States and its Allies were aware of the death camps but did nothing to destroy them."

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

The warning signs are everywhere, yet no one wishes to see them. Israel's foes are gearing up for war, and it's time we opened our eyes to the danger that confronts us.

Posted on: October 25th, 2006

If most of the public opinion polls are to be believed, the Republican Party is careening toward a shellacking of historic proportions in next month’s midterm elections. Given the state of the Iraq war, a series of scandals involving Republicans, and the general mood of discontent that seems to have settled over the country, few will be surprised if the polls prove accurate.

Posted on: October 18th, 2006

Helping Jews    We now know that some of the money raised by the UJC (Federation) to aid Israel in the wake of the recent war with Hizbullah has actually gone to help Arabs. Although the estimates as to percentage vary widely, there seems to be no doubt that huge amounts of money were given to […]

Posted on: October 18th, 2006

There is no easy answer to the question of ongoing Iranian nuclearization. All options are unappealing, and all will have very substantial costs. For the moment, diplomacy still seems to be the preferred path to crisis remediation, but only because polite conversation and empty threats protect all parties from taking easily identifiable risks.

Posted on: October 18th, 2006

During Chol Hamoed Sukkot the sound of singing in a sukkah was heard in Czestochowa for the first time since the Shoah.

Posted on: October 18th, 2006

The American Orthodox Jewish community of today is drastically different from the community that existed in America 75 years ago.

Posted on: October 18th, 2006

The loudest debate going on in the American Jewish world the last couple of months seems to revolve, believe it or not, around ads in Jewish weekly newspapers.

Posted on: October 18th, 2006

Thanks to Fred Lebow, founder of the New York City Marathon, some 500,000 Americans will run in marathons this year. In my book Anything for a T-Shirt: Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World's Greatest Footrace (Syracuse University Press, 2004), I show how Lebow, a Holocaust survivor, changed the notion of this 26.2 mile race, which this year will be held on Sunday, Nov. 5, from a grueling, sweaty showcase for elite runners into a people's competition.

Posted on: October 18th, 2006

Professor Rashid Khalidi, who directs the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, is currently on a multi-city book tour for his new book The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Beacon Press) - aided by a favorable New York Times review from an unlikely book reviewer.