InDepth

A “sticker song” which rolls campaign clichés and slogans into a dirge on our political jam. Here is the refrain: How much bile can one swallow? Only Bibi. Anybody but Bibi. I vote, therefore I am. Father, have mercy, Father, have mercy. We all scream for ice cream. Gevalt.

Tonight I installed an Internet filter. I have always disliked filters as they slow down my computer and have been an annoyance. But the asifa at Citi Field focused my attention and an extra safeguard is worth infinitely more than the discomfort it engenders.

EU regulations state that member states can make exceptions for religious rituals, but such exemption are not required as a matter of religious freedom.

What is Kushner's plan? He has avoided the term "two-state solution" and the plan is believed to be more focused on economics than political issues, like where to draw borders or the "right of return." Those two items stalled previous talks.

Of course I want to do teshuvah. Of course I want the road back to Hashem to be smooth and unblemished, easy to traverse. But it’s difficult. And messy.

With all the missiles and rockets being fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip by Hamas and the retaliatory bombing of Hamas targets by Israel there has been a very large rise in anti-Israel demonstrations around the world.

It has been indisputably clear from day one who the guilty parties are.

The WHO knows that "a lie gets half way around the world before truth has a chance to get its pants on."

The overt American support for the Iranian involvement in Iraq will also serve to rally Sunnis to an anti-American position, while actually exacerbating the main problem -- the sectarian divide.

The current clash between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu over U.S. policy regarding Iran’s efforts to secure a nuclear capacity calls to mind the contretemps between President Lyndon Johnson and Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in 1967.

Abbas is fortunate to have Israel sitting with him in the West Bank. Otherwise, Hamas would have succeeded in its effort to topple his regime and "transfer" its weapons to the West Bank.

My Dear Brothers and Sisters: There is nothing more pitiful than a condemned man asking his executioner for the sword so that he may do his work for him.

Are Bush's policies the right ones for the country and is Bush the man for the job?

Thirty years ago next week - shortly after 5:30 p.m. on June 7, 1981 - Israeli fighter jets flew undetected through hundreds of miles of Arab air space and rained fire from the skies over Baghdad, laying waste an atomic reactor and depriving a brutish dictator the potential for mass destruction.

Nikki Haley may be a tough act to follow, but those who know Kelly Craft say she works hard, doesn’t seek personal glory and has the president’s back.

Young Jews desperately need to experience both the serious and lighter sides of Judaism.

While in years past Ahlam Tamimi was supremely confident of her position in Jordan, she shows signs of being just a bit uneasy

The Israeli government is living in denial about the growing violent anarchy in the Negev, the Galilee, and in certain cities. Putting a stop to this phenomenon, which is developing into an existential threat, requires an all-out effort to enhance the power of the military and the police alongside appropriate preparations by the State Attorney’s Office and the legal system to restore sovereignty and governance.

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During his visit to China last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled that the city of Shanghai was “one of the few places that opened its gates” to Jews fleeing Hitler. Officials of the Chinese Communist government, standing nearby, beamed with pleasure at the expectation that people all over the world would read how their regime rescued Jews.

Rav Ginsburgh, dean of Od Yosef Chai, has come out publicly against any form of price tag vandalism

The most dramatic and important political change in Israel over the past 20 years has been the transformation of the Israeli Left from a movement of political naivet? to one of, in an increasing number of instances, political sedition.

There are even those that are simply on the lookout for anything that will make a dogmatic point and will seize on anything to make that point – however good or bad the fit.

Open Orthodoxy has taken the Jewish world by "storm" but are "storms" necessarily good?

Lebanon was founded to serve as a home for Christians and other minority groups in the region. Over the years, however, it gave up its national character and symbols and began to fall apart from within. If Israel does not learn from the Lebanese case, it could find itself in a situation no less serious.

Both law enforcement, the media and elected officials are reluctant to give out information about the attackers' religion, much less their motives.

Instead of integration, "parallel societies are forming that continuously distance themselves from each other."

While these hoary tales circulate even in respectable Arab and Persian circles, what is overlooked is the role Jews have played in the eradication of some of the most deadly diseases that afflict Jews and non-Jews alike.

On October 23, the US, Israel, and Sudan issued a joint statement on the normalization of relations between Khartoum and Jerusalem. This step follows the peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain and helps cement the nascent regional axis that features Israel as a highly prized ally rather than a vilified enemy. Time will tell to what extent this step will help the provisional Sudanese government overcome its internal differences and reach the 2022 elections as a functioning and effective body.

For Jews, free will must always be oriented toward life, to the blessing, not to the curse. Our binding charge is to strive in this obligatory direction of individual and collective self-preservation by using our intelligence and by exercising our essentially disciplined acts of will. In circumstances where such striving is consciously rejected, the outcome - however catastrophic - can never rise to the dignified level of tragedy.