tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-193620812012-01-27T08:56:47.020+02:00Out-of-the-box-thinking on Jewish civilization, politics, and the Arab-Israel conflictElliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.comBlogger5101100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-38872345775841089382012-01-10T12:54:00.003+02:002012-01-20T04:51:51.072+02:00

Two Palestines, CompleteSome saw history in the making. With jubilation and fanfare Fatah and Hamas agreed last spring in Cairo to form an interim technocratic administration, hold parliamentary and presidential elections by May 2012 and, ultimately, to establish a national unity government. What's more, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal announced that his movement intended to adopt the strategy of "

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-56745678048041910642012-01-04T15:25:00.002+02:002012-01-27T08:56:47.028+02:00

Whither the AlawitesAll indications are that time is not on the side of Syria's minority Alawite-led regime. There are reports that President Bashar Assad has been offered asylum in Moscow which has an interest in a smooth transition that will preserve Russian strategic interests. Other stories have Assad and his loyalists preparing mountain strongholds for a last-ditch stand fortified by

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-83431299733926693992011-12-27T14:48:00.004+02:002012-01-10T12:57:42.749+02:00

On a sun-drenched day the week before Christmas, Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre was crowded with pilgrims from Nigeria taking turns kneeling and praying at the marker where sacred history has it that Jesus was crucified, entombed and resurrected. (Other Christians consider the place to be the nearby Garden Tomb.) Back in Nigeria, on Christmas Day a wave of murderous bombings by Muslim

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-75688766234777216772011-12-12T15:51:00.002+02:002012-01-04T15:25:14.642+02:00

Apologia for Ben-Gurion At the yahrzeit ceremony for David Ben-Gurion (1886 -1973) held earlier this month at Sde Boker and with Iran clearly on his mind, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invoked -- no fewer than eight times -- Ben-Gurion's faculty for making hard decisions. It's a theme that also permeates Ben-Gurion: A Political Life, a "conversation" – a "fusion of memory and history and

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-19180362070574599252011-12-06T12:52:00.003+02:002011-12-20T10:57:21.759+02:00

Full Court PressIsrael Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch recently excoriated legislators critical of the judiciary as "robbed Cossacks" who were guilty of "incitement" and waging a "campaign of delegitimation" against the court. An unnamed associate close to the justice told reporters that Israel was heading down the same path as Germany in the 1930s. What accounts for this tirade? Beinisch

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-34348726231371094792011-11-29T05:42:00.002+02:002011-12-06T12:51:59.303+02:00

From Bucharest to JerusalemThe cabinet of Romania headed by Prime Minister Emil Boc came to Jerusalem on November 24 to hold a joint session with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government. Boc spoke eloquently of the two countries' common security concerns and shared views on peace and security. In February 2011 Poland's cabinet held a similar joint meeting in Jerusalem – a further

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-21043783990342338092011-11-21T12:02:00.003+02:002011-12-12T15:54:21.427+02:00

Terror Out of ZionThere is no love lost between the British Foreign Office and Israel. London's consideration for Israel's politico-security interests seems ever more limited. In a report to parliament earlier this month Foreign Minister William Hague condemned Israel for building in Jerusalem, being in the West Bank and for treating Hamas-controlled Gaza like the enemy it is. His only mention of

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-75622986101301327442011-11-14T12:03:00.000+02:002011-11-14T12:04:20.368+02:00

http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/39838

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-3906324318139755052011-11-14T11:56:00.002+02:002011-11-29T05:44:40.718+02:00

In November the Arabs Said 'No'There are no uneventful months in the tortured history of the Arab-Israel conflict. November is no exception. It was on November 2, 1917 that Chaim Weizmann won the backing of the British government for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" famously codified by Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour (1848-1930) in his letter to

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-36368882839698957742011-11-10T11:10:00.003+02:002011-11-21T06:25:10.384+02:00

THE NEW "FORCE" THAT JOEL GREENBERG AT THE WASHINGTON POST DISCOVERED What if a group of youthful Palestinian activists fed up with Hamas and Fatah for leading the Palestinian Arabs -- over and over again -- down bloody, self-defeating dead ends was to emerge as a new political and social force? We might think of them as a sort of Palestinian "Peace Now." Imagine a Palestinian movement revolted

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-87352841520721079542011-10-31T14:39:00.001+02:002011-11-14T11:58:54.025+02:00

One way to think of British Jewry is to focus on its slow and steady decline: 270,000 souls, demographically graying; synagogue affiliation on a downward spiral; out-marriage running at between 30-50 percent. The possibility of anti-Semitism a constant with 283 verified incidents reported in the first six months of 2011. Of these 41 were categorized as "extremely violent" and 11 took place on

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-14177601380872527212011-10-31T14:35:00.003+02:002011-11-10T11:07:43.337+02:00

Ladies in WaitingBeing Tzipi Livni can't be easy. The Kadima Party chair and leader of the opposition knows that were elections held now – instead of 2013 when technically scheduled – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party would once again be positioned to lead a right-of-center coalition with 66 out of 120 Knesset seats. What she might be loath to acknowledge is that as her political

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-25508574607521282972011-10-19T12:07:00.003+02:002011-10-31T14:35:08.796+02:00

Centrist No More?For all the theological, ritualistic and institutional differences separating Orthodoxy, Conservatism and Reform, for all their divergent approaches to revelation, halacha, decision making and politics, what outwardly distinguishes the streams in the minds of many ordinary American Jews comes down to branding: Orthodoxy is on the right; Reform on the left; and in the middle

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-42850370518147999382011-10-10T12:46:00.004+02:002011-10-19T12:06:54.715+02:00

Political Contrail This month marks the 30th anniversary of an emotionally fraught and bitterly waged political confrontation between the Reagan administration and the organized Jewish community that culminated in the U.S. Senate approving, 52 to 48, an $8.5 billion sale of sophisticated airborne radar planes (AWACS) and F-15s to Saudi Arabia. Now, the Pentagon is overseeing the phased sale --

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-80210248014635149452011-10-03T11:58:00.006+02:002011-10-05T09:24:16.601+02:00

An Officer And A Professional Last month, under the auspices of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies and the Technical Command College, several hundred IDF officers – including scores of freshly minted lieutenants along with a sprinkling of top brass – packed an auditorium on the campus of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan to hear ranking commanders and scholars talk about military life as

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-11688796226794810572011-09-22T14:43:00.002+03:002011-10-03T12:00:12.429+02:00

Diplomatic dogma has it that the lack of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians contributes "dangerously" to regional instability. Still, no matter how much the international community caters to the Arabs on "Palestine" the truth is that the benefits of trading Israeli security for regional stability will prove ephemeral. For the Mideast boils for reasons altogether unconnected to the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-79504439394559726842011-09-16T09:56:00.001+03:002011-09-16T09:59:00.705+03:00

Israeli Radio's morning news anchor Aryeh Golan summed up the feelings of Israelis on Sunday when he said, "In Turkey, the government is against us, in Egypt the mob is against us and at the UN the majority is against us." Israel's international isolation is ever more palpable. Turkey, led by its Islamist Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has frozen diplomatic relations. On the Palestinian

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-45310040485728180812011-09-14T09:25:00.001+03:002011-09-14T09:28:16.091+03:00

Tension along the 150-mile (230-kilometer) Israeli-Egyptian border remains high in light of intelligence information that Gaza-based Palestinian Arab Islamists plan further cross-border attacks from Sinai into the Negev. An August 18 incursion near Eilat claimed eight Israeli lives and has generated recriminations within Israel's defense establishment over why the dispatchers were eliminated only

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-3161819423473856142011-07-27T14:47:00.002+03:002011-09-01T16:22:08.183+03:00

Pappe Makes History Historians writing about Israel's 1948 fight for independence have placed heavy responsibility for the Palestinian Arab refugee problem on the Arab leaders who urged their people to flee Palestine temporarily while the Zionists were to be pushed into the sea. Of course, well before then hundreds of Palestinian Arab moderates who opposed the policies of intransigence,

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-90331446852808217242011-07-25T17:58:00.002+03:002011-09-01T16:21:53.728+03:00

Seeing Barghouti Plain That Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti is culpable in the murder of tens of Israelis -- and a Greek Orthodox monk mistaken for a Jew -- is not in dispute. In collaboration with Palestinian Authority chairman Yasir Arafat, Barghouti provided West Bank terror gangs with cash and guns to stoke the second intifada. Convicted on five counts of murder by a Tel Aviv court, he is now

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-25441809027117386582011-07-20T14:49:00.002+03:002011-09-01T16:21:39.557+03:00

A More Than Peripheral Challenge In a country where the sky is mostly blue and the sun mostly shines the southernmost city of Eilat has nonetheless laid claim – with justification – to being Israel's sun capital. Reliable good weather does not, however, solve all problems. Eilat has been inundated with illegal, mostly Eritrean and Sudanese, immigrants. Its airport is antiquated; there is no

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-78058243461832713802011-07-18T14:13:00.003+03:002011-09-01T16:21:25.018+03:00

As Arabs from the Mashriq to the Maghreb – one end of the Arab world to the other – contemplate where the six month-long upheavals that began with the Arab Spring are fated to deliver them those with longer memories may recall the dramatic summer 50 years ago when an earlier experiment at reshaping the political contours of Arab governance came unraveled: The 1961 breakup of the United Arab

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-34401367825132270462011-07-14T15:31:00.003+03:002011-07-27T14:50:29.638+03:00

The Good FenceJust about anything that makes Israel more secure is opposed by its enemies and their enablers, as well as by its fair-weather friends in the international arena and by dissident elements within the Jewish community. A case in point is Israel's West Bank security barrier. Yet what is most striking is that nine years after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the construction of the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-56073934246868604032011-07-14T15:29:00.001+03:002011-07-18T14:13:15.425+03:00

Unlike the Conservative movement in the United States which broke away from Reform Judaism to pursue a more religiously centrist and Zionist middle course, the British Masorti branch was born as a secession movement from Orthodoxy, inspired by the writings of theologian Louis Jacobs whose fifth yahrzeit is being marked this month [July 1; 8 Tamuz].Jacobs was practically "tenure track" to

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-85348515180127568702011-07-07T13:31:00.002+03:002011-07-14T15:29:18.548+03:00

Enjoy Your WeekendWith July 4th behind them, Americans can look forward to closing out the summer season with Labor Day on September 5th. All told, they will enjoy ten national holidays; New Yorkers get an additional three days off. Across the Atlantic, Britons will have nine "bank holiday" days in 2012; Germans 11; French 10 and Italians 12. And of course, in each of these countries, people have

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-69340360639593686562011-07-04T13:50:00.002+03:002011-09-01T16:21:02.571+03:00

Radio Waves Radio in Israel is as ubiquitous as hummus, falafel and politics. During their morning and evening commutes, motorists as well as bus passengers (captive to the listening tastes of their drivers) are likely to be hearing one of seven Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) affiliated stations or one of two Army Radio outlets. The airwaves are further cluttered (or enriched, depending on

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-14345408671744895572011-06-27T10:58:00.001+03:002011-07-04T13:52:24.902+03:00

Ships, their comings and goings, have lately been a fixation over at Israel's flagship left-wing (sporadically post-Zionist) Haaretz newspaper. Adding a new twist to what it means to be "embedded" with the enemy, one of the paper's stable of advocacy journalists, Amira Hass, has been writing adoringly about hooking-up with a pro-Palestinian flotilla that intends to smash Israel's naval blockade

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-65325857717929752772011-06-21T13:46:00.003+03:002011-06-27T10:58:30.232+03:00

A Druse physician from the Golan Heights, who works at an Israeli hospital, was one of 24 members of his community arrested for pummeling IDF troops with rocks during so-called Naksa Day protests. Just a few miles south in Daliyat El-Carmel, located on the slopes of Mt. Carmel, the Israeli Druse community is planning a memorial museum that will tell the stories of the 400 Druse soldiers who fell

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-2012915280152232532011-06-13T13:27:00.002+03:002011-06-27T10:58:02.917+03:00

Laboring On Whatever became of Israel's Labor Party some five months after its leader Defense Minister Ehud Barak abruptly quit to establish his breakaway Atzmaut (Independence) Knesset faction? Wracked by infighting, fuming over being tethered to the diplomatic policies of the Netanyahu government, and headed by one of the least popular politicians on the scene, the once-dominant Labor Party

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-2081093520860108642011-06-06T15:38:00.002+03:002011-06-21T13:46:23.603+03:00

Liking IsraelThe depth of empathy for the Jewish state among ordinary Americans -- persistently critical media coverage of Israel's West Bank, settlement and security policies notwithstanding – ought to be cause for positive amazement. In stark contrast to strikingly negative European attitudes, a far-reaching CNN poll released May 31 presents an uplifting picture on American public opinion

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-7754712301623262562011-06-06T13:29:00.003+03:002011-06-06T13:39:03.856+03:00

Israeli Soldiers Shoot at Protesters on Syrian Border? At what point do those who, in the words of the article, "crossed a new trench and tried to attack the border fence" become rioters or invaders?It's an interesting question for the headline writers at the Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/06/world/middleeast/06mideast.html?_r=1&hpand at the Washington Posthttp://www.washingtonpost.com/

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-26738438552435236322011-06-03T10:59:00.001+03:002011-06-13T13:30:14.218+03:00

Why are some Jews uncomfortable with capitalism? Not merely the cliché of capitalism as rapacious speculation and exploitative profiteering, but the mere idea of organizing the economy along free-market lines. While Jewish poverty is still with us chances are most Jews are more embarrassed by Jewish wealth. Perhaps the connection between power and money is the problem. Wealth is certainly one

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-13450872211365852782011-05-23T13:51:00.002+03:002011-06-03T10:58:29.556+03:00

The Jewish Way in WarHow can democracies – Israel in particular – acting under the conventions of international law defeat Islamist terrorists operating by their own benighted rules? How when U.N. members states are prepared to enable the terrorists by perverting the rules of war and of human rights? This perennial dilemma was addressed at a symposium last week at Bar-Ilan University.The war

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-34086318508604717822011-05-16T12:30:00.002+03:002011-05-19T11:12:14.419+03:00

The Canadian Exception Geography, history, economics and necessity have made the U.S. and Canada allies, though Americans tend to take their good neighbor to the north for granted. Israel, six-thousand miles away, has every reason not to follow the American example.Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party, Canada's friendship toward Israel has stood in contradistinction to

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-31825888280550582822011-05-16T12:24:00.001+03:002011-05-23T13:50:54.349+03:00

What Would Ben-Gurion Do?Here is a hypothetical being asked around Israel: How would David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Israel's first prime minister and a founding father, handle himself if it were he and not Benjamin Netanyahu who was scheduled to meet President Barack Obama on Friday (May 20), address AIPAC on Monday (May 23) and speak before a joint session of the US Congress on Tuesday (May 24)?

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-85055948939280105612011-05-04T12:54:00.004+03:002011-05-16T12:24:13.533+03:00

New EgyptAs Israelis watched with unease Egypt's revolution unfolding they were told by European and American liberals to stop sulking; that Hosni Mubarak's February 12th departure had not been provoked by "Palestine" or "Allah;" that the chants in Tahrir Square of “Up with Egypt" more than drowned out those of “down with Israel." Now, just short of three months into the new regime a sober

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-83162091791785528942011-04-27T10:29:00.002+03:002011-06-21T13:46:05.795+03:00

'The Road Ahead' Without Ford With little fanfare, the Ford Foundation has declared victory and prepared for a phased withdrawal from its long, largely inconspicuous campaign to influence Israeli politics. News reports have focused mostly on the foundation's 23-year-long patronage of the New Israel Fund which, in addition to some laudable activities, has funded opaque groups that have

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-55554435778017756762011-04-20T08:15:00.002+03:002011-04-27T10:29:15.798+03:00

Between Idealism and PragmatismThe Likud Party faithful who gathered in Tel Aviv on April 14 for a pre-Passover holiday toast heard party chairman Benjamin Netanyahu announce that he would amplify Israel’s security and peace principles for negotiations with the Palestinian Arabs before a joint session of the U.S. Congress next month. As he surveyed the crowd from the podium Prime Minister

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-91229018539439673122011-04-12T13:44:00.003+03:002011-04-20T08:15:46.110+03:00

The news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman were in Germany last week was overshadowed in Israel by coverage of Hamas's anti-tank missile attack on a lumbering yellow school bus that left one Israeli youngster fighting for his life.At the de rigueur joint news conference in Berlin with Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netanyahu described Germany as a "great

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-45732063196217692722011-04-04T11:53:00.002+03:002011-04-08T13:09:09.236+03:00

A Saint for 'Palestine'A new book about Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) by Joseph Lelyveld, a former executive editor of the New York Times, has set off stormy protests in India because it implies that the country's iconic founding father was bisexual. In “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India,” Lelyveld recalls Gandhi's relationship with a well-to-do German-Jewish architect,

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-15306965756986333992011-03-28T13:44:00.002+02:002011-04-01T18:00:08.921+03:00

Gaza EndgameThe weekend meeting in Ramallah between Palestinian Authority chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas and an unofficial delegation of West Bank Hamas "parliamentarians" was not just about reconciling the two factions. Abbas told his visitors that long months of Palestinian diplomacy were being jeopardized by Hamas's bellicosity. Fatah is on the cusp of gaining United Nations backing

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-78217667311984151702011-03-21T09:27:00.002+02:002011-03-28T13:48:40.199+02:00

One best case scenario to the current upheaval in the Arab world foresees the emergence of Turkish-style political systems in places like Egypt and Tunisia in the event Islamic parties come to power by democratic means. In Egypt, a plebiscite over the weekend approved amending the constitution in a way that strengthens the prospects of the Moslem Brotherhood in forthcoming parliamentary elections

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-30616880479789637922011-03-14T09:29:00.003+02:002011-03-18T14:22:01.610+02:00

Earthquakes, tsunamis and a nuclear meltdown in Japan top the news pushing aside mad Muammar Gaddafi, upheaval throughout the Arab world, and the butchery of five members of a Jewish family in their sleep by Palestinian Arabs at Itamar. Rest assured, however, that in short order Israel's wobbly friends in Europe and the U.S. will be back to press Jerusalem to "do something" about what Washington

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-55749748676872593952011-03-13T11:34:00.004+02:002011-03-13T11:37:34.602+02:00

I see that the Arab League called on the United Nations Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya. Once it does, how about if Arab air-forces enforce the no-fly zone?There are some 21 Arab air-forces represented in the League. Many have the latest US equipment including F-15s. Why should NATO have to carry this burden?Why should all eyes be turning to Washington and Europe?

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-43550242225059669372011-03-07T11:12:00.004+02:002011-04-05T10:39:54.636+03:00

WHERE HAVE ALL THE ARAB MODERATES GONE?Juliano Mer, a prominent Israeli actor of mixed Jewish-Christian Arab parentage, was shot dead yesterday afternoon in Jenin. -- News Report, April 5, 2011What made Shahbaz Bhatti the moderate Pakistani minister assassinated by Islamist "militants" for campaigning against the country's blasphemy law unique was that he was – a Christian. Muslim extremists

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-10446093263561567032011-02-28T11:27:00.003+02:002011-03-07T11:11:12.878+02:00

On the face of it, J-Street appears to be a success story. In a little over three years, the lobby has either supplanted or co-opted Americans for Peace Now, Israel Policy Forum, New Israel Fund and other likeminded outfits to emerge as the preeminent Jewish force committed to pushing Israel back to the 1949 Armistice Lines irrespective of what the Palestinians do. This remarkable achievement by

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-74311104540296206192011-02-24T11:27:00.001+02:002011-02-28T10:18:33.730+02:00

Add bilateral relations between Teheran and Cairo in the post-Mubarak era to the already boiling Mideast cauldron. The request of two Iranian warships bound for Syria to transit the Suez Canal for the first time since the 1979 Iranian Revolution has met with telling indecisiveness on the part of Egypt's ruling military council. One barometer of where Sunni Arab Egypt is heading will be the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-22298891903118199352011-02-15T15:06:00.003+02:002011-02-15T15:13:12.544+02:00

Listen to David Parsons of the Christian Embassy in Jerusalem and I discuss the implications of events in Egypt on Christian radio, "FrontPage Jerusalem," broadcast throughout the US and online at:http://www.frontpagejerusalem.com/site/index.phpFebruary 14 (web broadcast date)(Our discussion is five minutes into the program...)The show is co-hosted in the US by one of Israel's most selfless

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-80507598462586897302011-02-14T11:55:00.001+02:002011-02-24T11:26:12.492+02:00

After more than six-months of squabbling, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beitenu) have, at last, agreed to dispatch veteran diplomat Ron Prosor as Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. Meron Reuben had been saddled with the unenviable task of holding down the fort while the politicians bickered. But what, realistically, can any

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-6280329553870338382011-02-07T12:16:00.001+02:002011-02-09T11:44:05.715+02:00

On the Middle East map, the peninsula state bordering Saudi Arabia, jutting into the Persian Gulf opposite Iran, is easy to overlook. Yet Qatar is one of the world's wealthiest countries, the dominant exporter of liquefied natural gas, and through its sponsorship of Al Jazeera, punches considerably above its weight.On the face of it Qatar is not easy to pigeonhole. In 2022, it will host the World

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-55691647088496787152011-02-03T11:10:00.004+02:002011-02-03T11:18:11.491+02:00

Am I the only one in Israel who wonders who at Israel's Army Radio is so infatuated with Tom Friedman of the NYTimes that they keep referencing his op-eds as if... they were something significant that we should all care about.It seems that Old Tom has compared PM Netanyahu to Hosni Mubarak calling Netanyahu the "Mubarak of the peace process." Standard Tom. Yawn.Old Tom has been wrong about Israel

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-11297755789812186202011-02-01T12:18:00.002+02:002011-02-07T12:15:11.841+02:00

Observing Egypt's current upheaval, reporter Ariel Kahane writing in the Hebrew daily Mekor Rishon opines: "Regardless of whether Mubarak falls or survives, whether the Islamists or the liberals take power, whether the riots die out or continue to rage, the lesson for Israel is clear: Arab regimes cannot be trusted." Kahane concludes that it is futile to pursue a modus vivendi with the Arabs

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-6215423415997554042011-01-31T12:29:00.003+02:002011-01-31T12:32:54.276+02:00

A true freedom fighter for Israel. We did not always agree, yet I never questioned his sincerity, commitment and loyalty to Eretz Israel.May his memory be for a blessing. See:http://shmuelkatz.com/wordpress/?p=558#comment-4701http://www.afsi.org/index.shtml

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-80397768438267853062011-01-27T14:23:00.003+02:002011-01-27T14:40:39.222+02:00

1. The theoretical concessions made – and none are real since the deal was/is that "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" – by the Palestinians led by Mahmoud Abbas, fall far short of any deal acceptable to the Israeli mainstream. Yet the liberal media paints any semblance of negotiating reasonableness as if Abbas gave away the store.2. Though Israelis tended to yawn at Palestinian/

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-36524472605071149772011-01-27T14:12:00.001+02:002011-02-14T11:57:21.666+02:00

On Jan. 14 the panicked strongman of Tunisia, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fled to Saudi Arabia after the astonishingly spontaneous Facebook-driven crumbling of his corrupt regime. History will record that the incredible impetus was the December 17 self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a harassed and despondent 26-year-old fruit vendor, in the rough interior of the country. With copycat suicides in

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-76860088328910608982011-01-27T14:09:00.001+02:002011-01-27T14:11:15.905+02:00

The singular inconvenient truth that advocates of unilateral Palestinian statehood and an imposed solution to the Arab-Israel conflict labor intensively to play down is the spoiler role of Hamas and the crippling divisions within the Palestinian polity. To focus attention elsewhere they industriously campaign to delegitimize Israel's presence beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines and to "expose" the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-76127781141858209152011-01-09T13:30:00.001+02:002011-01-27T14:07:18.040+02:00

If as Walter Lippmann wrote the newspaper is the bible of democracy, what are we to make of Israel's Hebrew-language dailies? For a start, they have little in common with American broadsheets or tabloids and are more in the British mold in that the demarcation between news and views is difficult to discern. Also, Israeli papers are less driven by a coherent set of views about politics then by the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-65641247789195664942011-01-09T13:29:00.001+02:002011-01-27T14:06:16.335+02:00

The headline beseeches: "Please, Not Again: The Threat of War in the Middle East." The magazine's cover shows a worried looking President Barack Obama, an Israeli tank rumbling by in the background. Welcome to the Economist's first issue of 2011 devoted to Israel and to America's role in the Mideast. Its theme, in effect, is how to rein-in the Jewish state and preserve the peace. Published in

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-82910134281070928372011-01-09T13:24:00.001+02:002011-01-09T13:26:24.336+02:00

Amram Mitzna is the Benny Begin of the Zionist left: upright, abstentious and unlikely to ever lead his ideological camp to political victory. The kibbutz-born Mitzna is a dovish ex-general who once clashed with defense minister Ariel Sharon over his reaction to the Lebanese Christian massacre of Palestinians during the 1982 Lebanon War. In 1987, Mitzna found himself the IDF's commanding officer

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-69911404643114383132010-12-28T17:43:00.003+02:002010-12-28T17:50:12.075+02:00

The JTA is reporting that even larger numbers of Israelis are living in America than previously thought: Some 140,323 Israelis reside in the US, though many observers believe the true figure is much, much higher.Meanwhile, the Jewish Agency has just released figures that show 3,980 U.S. Jews have made aliya in 2010.There are no simple explanations for this ratio. It is what it is...

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-6257184135599025832010-12-28T14:40:00.001+02:002010-12-30T14:52:24.696+02:00

What's behind the rush of South American countries to recognize "Palestine?" A myriad of disheartening factors – outlined below – combine to provide perspective. Overriding them all, though, is the pervasive left-wing Latin American political culture that sees the Palestinians, particularly those led by Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, through rose-tinted glasses – as progressive underdogs ready to

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-58297965061379038132010-12-21T13:34:00.001+02:002010-12-21T13:37:01.764+02:00

A Baghdad-born, British-educated Islamist suicide bomber holding Swedish citizenship killed only himself after apparently stumbling on an icy patch and accidentally detonating two of the three explosive devices he had brought to a bustling Stockholm shopping district. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt leader of the Moderate Party reacted placidly to the attempted mass murder saying that Taimour

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-68831052250900300672010-12-14T09:51:00.003+02:002010-12-14T12:37:39.387+02:00

According to the 8 AM news on Reshet Bet, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned that without an agreement with the Palestinians, Israel’s position in the international community would deteriorate and that efforts to de-legitimize Israel’s existence will intensify. This is news? Barak is the grand chest master from Chelm.He always manages to outmaneuver himself – tripping up even before he sets

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-86502031189380976592010-12-12T13:03:00.002+02:002010-12-17T06:57:20.920+02:00

Short English-language histories of Israel are few and far between, and good ones even fewer and farther. For that reason the publication of Martin Van Creveld's The Land of Blood and Honey: The Rise of Modern Israel (St. Martin'; 320 pages) raised hopes that here at last, is the book to recommend to the person seeking a definitive, concise, sensibly compassionate and elegantly-written account of

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-41261002147113275342010-12-12T13:01:00.001+02:002010-12-12T13:02:29.105+02:00

The damaging drip-by-drip disclosures of sensitive American diplomatic communications by WikiLeaks have been receiving saturation media coverage. Too few are asking why Julian Assange's website is preoccupied with confidential American cables while displaying no interest in, say, Iranian secrets. Still, there is no denying that reading other peoples clandestine communications offers heretofore

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-8136398571146557732010-12-09T08:47:00.000+02:002010-12-09T08:48:05.240+02:00

Don't Apologize to Turkey!Word that Israel and Turkey are working out the nitty-gritty of an Israeli apology for having lawfully intercepted the Turkish ship bound for Hamas-controlled Gaza has many Israelis – me included -- befuddled. Why would the Netanyahu government apologize for something the Turks need to apologize for? Moreover, Israel has nothing to "regret" except that Turkey has shifted

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-46276194000379314892010-12-01T17:41:00.002+02:002010-12-01T17:55:29.146+02:00

Political DemographyThe newly-released North American Jewish Data Bank's 2010 World Jewish Population Report, edited by professors Sergio DellaPergola, Arnold Dashefsky and Ira Sheskin has been making waves. Critics on the right are charging that in claiming a non-Jewish majority exists between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, the report is slanted and unduly pessimistic. Critics on

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-85774854280790124102010-11-08T10:43:00.005+02:002010-11-08T11:02:27.626+02:00

I see that Oxfam which, I believe, was once a non-partisan charity and somehow evolved into another British/Euro-Left battering ram against Israel now accepts that it has a problem with the Jewish community.Oxfam has now gone into collaboration with the Reform Movement in Israel on a joint anti-poverty project in the Jewish state. Personally, I would not let Oxfam off the hook so easily, and it

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-37945794527640173922010-11-08T10:41:00.000+02:002010-11-08T10:42:27.720+02:00

Israelis are not alone in rolling their eyes at the mere mention of the United Nations. Thanks to blocs of like-minded nations with interlocking leaderships and overlapping interests—the 53-member African Union, the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, the 118-member "non-aligned" movement—an anti-Western and anti-Zionist tyranny of the majority has long been assured.That's in the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-71743705321427169912010-10-31T15:44:00.000+02:002010-10-31T15:45:21.213+02:00

Why should the Netanyahu government place any faith in the incentives offered by President Barack Obama in return for an extension of the moratorium on settlement construction? So grumble some Israelis, pointing for added emphasis to Obama's refusal to honor an earlier, Bush-administration pledge to Ariel Sharon. For these Israelis, such backtracking is another indication that Obama has broken

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-38893444279963106362010-10-19T13:58:00.000+02:002010-10-19T14:00:00.414+02:00

A plot by Arab men holding European citizenship to carry out Mumbai-like shooting attacks in France, Germany and Britain has been uncovered by Western intelligence services. The United States has apparently thwarted the planned attacks with an intensified targeted killing campaign, using drone aircraft, of suspected Taliban and al-Qaida-backed terrorists along the Pakistan-Afghan border. However,

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-43931718972062262862010-10-11T12:54:00.002+02:002010-10-31T15:44:00.042+02:00

The October 6th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War was accompanied this year by the unexpected release of war cabinet minutes by Israel's State Archives covering the opening days of the fighting. There were no startling revelations; certainly no references to Israel's purported nuclear capabilities; or confirmation that defense minister Moshe Dayan told prime minister Golda Meir that "the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-19006948821916454972010-10-04T17:44:00.002+02:002010-10-17T17:09:08.719+02:00

Avigdor Lieberman's September 28th speech at the UN General Assembly – delivered in English and broadcast live by Al-Jazeera – was not well received. The doyen of Israeli left-wing columnists, Yediot Aharonot's Nahum Barnea, dismissed his country's foreign minister as a "clown." Haaretz editorialized for Lieberman's resignation. Britain's Daily Telegraph characterized the address as "inflammatory

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-49741052755273576462010-10-04T17:43:00.001+02:002010-10-31T15:42:59.868+02:00

The newly elected leader of the British Labor Party, 40-year-old Ed Miliband, pledged during his campaign to visit Gaza, the West Bank and Israel to see first-hand "what is happening on the ground." But Labor's first Jewish leader is expected to make Britain's budget and debt burden – not foreign affairs – his top priority. Though union support gave Ed Miliband his narrow margin of victory over

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-2208550584222715962010-09-29T14:50:00.001+02:002010-09-29T15:21:04.533+02:00

Castro's ConversionI suppose for an entire generation, Fidel Castro is a harmless old baseball fan, and maybe a former principled Latin American revolutionary.Forgotten is the fact that he tried to instigate a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States that would have cost millions of people their lives – though he's apologized for that, kind of. And put aside that Castro deprived

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-66820416011664185912010-09-27T13:52:00.003+02:002010-10-17T17:08:46.012+02:00

How should Jews think of Poland? As Israel's best friend in the European Union, according to the Israel Council on Foreign Relations and the Polish Institute for International Affairs, organizers of a recent [September 19-20] Jerusalem conference which marked the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries twenty years ago.It is time, they emphatically say, to take a more nuanced

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-19125434630092739562010-09-27T12:15:00.002+02:002010-09-27T12:41:28.308+02:00

The next time you are in London, make it a point to visit the Jewish Museum .I was there over the Rosh Hashana holidays. The museum is located near two Northern Line tube stations in Camden Town. It is new, open, sunny and not overwhelming.I started out on the top floor which is showing a temporary exhibit of illuminated Hebrew manuscripts some of which were on loan from the Vatican -- which I

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-1190040636593034182010-09-27T09:04:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:08:26.566+02:00

Prime Minister Gordon Brown went to Buckingham Palace yesterday to ask Queen Elizabeth to dissolve parliament on April 12. New elections will take place on May 6. At the moment, the Conservative party under David Cameron is leading Brown's Labor party in the polls; the Liberal Democrats, headed by Nick Clegg, are in a strong third position.The sun may have set on the British Empire, but the U.K.

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-32173783394020136052010-09-27T09:02:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:08:07.612+02:00

Celebrating its Independence Day on August 15, the nation of India marked 63 years since the end of British rule in the sub-continent. In light of the two countries' more or less contemporaneous struggle for self-determination in the immediate aftermath of World War II, one might have thought that India would establish close ties with the newly born state of Israel straightaway. It did not

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-17170523627390544502010-09-24T09:23:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:07:42.101+02:00

I understand that you are related to your subject Moses Montefiore? Yes. He was my great great great great great uncle.Tell us a bit about your own background. I was born and bred in London, and since my father isn't Jewish and my mother's family have been here for 200 years that makes me a very English Jew. My mother was brought up in the Sephardi congregation, but she didn't feel she could stay

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-52564480498236737652010-09-24T09:16:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:07:28.204+02:00

Time and again troubles in the Arab world have increased the chances of violence against Israel. Case in point: Hezbollah's assassination of Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, the country's chief Sunni figure, on February 14, 2005, resulted in a period of severe political pressure on the Shi'ite movement. Its Syrian ally, presumed complicit in the murder, was compelled to withdraw its forces from the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-30948460049863914262010-09-24T09:13:00.002+02:002010-10-17T17:07:11.073+02:00

Israelis are not scheduled to go to the polls until October 2013 though no one would be astonished if some political upheaval forced new elections to be held earlier. Several high profile contenders are already letting it be known that they could be enticed to provide the political deliverance Israelis habitually crave – either by starting new parties or taking leadership roles in existing ones.

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-24356086931462700232010-09-24T09:11:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:06:31.238+02:00

Israel's successful deployment last week of its fourth orbiting spy satellite, Ofek 9, is being lauded by the country's intelligence community for delivering better than expected surveillance images of "areas of interest." At the same time, Israel's human intelligence apparatus, as essential as ever to the Jewish state's survival, has come under mounting criticism for the blow-back of two of its

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-39881919778184314002010-09-24T09:07:00.002+02:002010-10-17T17:06:57.633+02:00

On Monday, European Foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg heard Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign policy czar, argue that Gaza's "dangerous isolation" had to end. The 27-nation union agreed that Israel's blockade of the Hamas-governed enclave was "unsustainable" and "politically counterproductive." In the aftermath of the failed May 31st attempt by a Turkish flotilla to defy Israel's maritime

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-64859427959186994902010-09-24T09:05:00.002+02:002010-10-17T17:06:18.733+02:00

Incident foretold - The developing diplomatic and media reaction to Israel's interdiction Monday of a pro-Palestinian flotilla steaming toward the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip speaks volumes: about Israel's deepening isolation in the world and the perverted moral priorities of the international community. Even before Defense Minister Ehud Barak presented Israel's preliminary report at a 1 p.m. Tel

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-80950315596019966772010-09-24T09:03:00.002+02:002010-10-17T17:05:14.063+02:00

Speaking before throngs of supporters in a Prague square on April 5, 2009, President Barack Obama declared America's commitment to a world without nuclear weapons, while acknowledging that the goal might not be reached in his lifetime. With this as an apparent impetus, the Arab world has pressed for greater international attention on Israel's nuclear activities. It did so at a Washington

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-46547863344287332452010-09-24T09:01:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:06:03.172+02:00

Shalom Japan Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is in Tokyo this week for meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. Lieberman wants more robust Japanese pressure on Tehran to halt its quest for nuclear weapons. His arrival follows a visit only last month by deputy premier Dan Meridor, who is responsible for intelligence matters. Japan

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-27751825070744214202010-09-24T09:00:00.003+02:002010-10-17T17:05:42.383+02:00

The chair of Peace Now in France, David Chelma, is helping coordinate a European effort to dissent from Israeli policies by means of a nascent initiative dubbed JCall – to evoke Washington-based J Street – and featuring a web-based petition entitled "European Call for Reason" demanding "pressure on both parties" in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. More than 3,500 people have signed including

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-4175596158435761162010-09-24T08:58:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:04:51.585+02:00

Jordan's King Abdullah II returned home from Washington earlier this month having ostensibly urged President Barack Obama to offer his own peace plan to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli "tinderbox." The king's interests in a settlement are doubtlessly sincere yet by no means straightforward. Abdullah was in the US to attend a two-day Nuclear Security Summit. He had a private lunch with the

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-8432138709094607632010-09-24T08:57:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:04:25.708+02:00

Civil liberties - In their classic introduction to American politics, The Irony of Democracy, Thomas Dye and Harmon Zeigler show how popular commitment to civil liberties -- understood as the rights individuals have against unwarranted governmental intrusion -- can fall by the wayside when abstract principles need to be translated into practice. After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-78970023542694283962010-09-24T08:56:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:04:03.022+02:00

Loose Nukes - Were terrorists to detonate a 10-kiloton nuclear device near New York City's Empire State Building, everything within a third-mile radius would be utterly destroyed; anyone within 3/4 of a mile would almost certainly be exposed to fatal radiation levels; damage to buildings would be extensive; a large swath of Manhattan from river-to-river would be ravaged. Obviously, if terrorists

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-19808404039569035682010-09-24T08:46:00.001+02:002010-10-17T17:03:00.473+02:00

Unlike Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not have to take a stroll on the Temple Mount to provoke Palestinian Arab leaders into threatening mayhem. Instead, Netanyahu simply announced a comprehensive plan to strengthen Israel's national heritage by rehabilitating and preserving archaeological and historic sites, developing historic trails, and conserving photographs, films,

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-16212593635220075752010-09-24T08:41:00.002+02:002010-10-17T17:02:21.605+02:00

Israel Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levi – himself an Orthodox Jew – issued an implied challenge when he told a packed chamber: “It cannot be that rabbis’ rulings will take precedence over the Supreme Court.” A hundred thousand ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi Jews poured into the streets of Jerusalem last Thursday to answer in the affirmative. Levi had just ordered dozens of ultra-Orthodox (or haredi)

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-46452819504891840432010-09-24T08:39:00.001+02:002010-10-17T16:59:17.149+02:00

POLLING JEWS – What do predominantly liberal Asian-Americans think of President Barack Obama's policies on Tibet? Where do America's 2.35 million Muslims stand on Washington's conduct of the war in Afghanistan-Pakistan? It's hard to say. Yet minute shifts in American Jewish public opinion are carefully tracked. Why do the views of US Jews, who comprise at most 3% of the population, seem to

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-12267435207649853082010-09-24T08:38:00.003+02:002010-10-17T16:56:16.079+02:00

Marking his eighty-seventh birthday this week, Israel's president flew to Cairo for a two-hour meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, captured headlines in Britain for his frank talk about British attitudes toward Jews and Zionism, visited bereaved military families, and welcomed new North American immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport. Perceived not so long ago as among Israel's most

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-20666439767934228502010-09-24T08:36:00.001+02:002010-10-17T16:55:50.886+02:00

Today marks four years since Palestinian infiltrators tunneled their way from Gaza into Israel, opening fire on an open-hatched tank, killing two IDF soldiers, and taking the third, Gilad Shalit, prisoner. Before long, Hamas announced it was prepared to exchange Shalit for 1,000 Palestinian security prisoners held by Israel. Then-premier Ehud Olmert declared that Jerusalem would not give in to

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-68583683124469136412010-09-24T08:35:00.001+02:002010-10-17T16:55:21.351+02:00

An Umbrella for British JewryThe Board of Deputies of British Jews is almost certainly the oldest continuously functioning representative body of Jewry in the world. Its first meeting, held at London's Bevis Marks Synagogue in 1760, was recorded in Portuguese, the language of its Sephardi founders. A new book by Raphael Langham, the first complete history of the Board, has been published to

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-26966741477418744722010-09-24T08:33:00.001+02:002010-10-17T16:53:42.286+02:00

During Vice President Joseph Biden's visit to Israel last week, a routine bureaucratic approval of additional dwellings for ultra-Orthodox Jews was leaked to the media, thereby setting off a crisis in relations between the two countries. The neighborhood in question, Ramat Shlomo, is said to stand in Arab East Jerusalem. But what and where is East Jerusalem?The term is an artificial construct,

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-47976735547909026902010-09-24T08:32:00.001+02:002010-10-17T16:53:20.690+02:00

The barrier built a decade ago to protect the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo from Fatah fire is being dismantled.Some residents are worried: today's tranquility is welcome, said one, but why tempt fate when there is still no peace agreement with the Palestinians, and not even direct negotiations?Actually, direct negotiations, or a semblance of them, may be in the offing. Under intense

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19362081.post-82593418139061941222010-09-24T08:31:00.004+02:002010-10-17T16:52:55.974+02:00

A bare majority of Americans know that David Petraeus commands U.S. forces in Afghanistan. It's anyone's guess how many can name Navy Adm. Mike Mullen as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In contrast, the IDF chief of staff is a household name in Israel, has operational control over the armed services and is an ex-officio cabinet member.That is why the current friction between Defense

Elliot Jagerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17400297130750571159noreply@blogger.com0