Ever since my first child was born, Purim has fascinated me. While the holy days and chagim provide for family interaction, I can think of no other holiday that causes us to interact more with our children than Purim. After all, who among us has not dressed our daughters as Esther and our sons as […]

If Al-Qaeda renounced terrorism, would the U.S. government welcome its running candidates in American elections? Had the Nazis denounced violence, would Hitler have become an acceptable chancellor for Germany? Not likely, because the tactics of Al-Qaeda and the Nazis matter less than their goals. Similarly, Hezbollah and Hamas are unacceptable because of their goals. These […]

Common wisdom has it that until Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah launched Tuesday’s pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut, his terror organization had been more or less on the fence regarding its position on Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. This view is belied, however, by a speech Nasrallah broadcast on Hizbullah’s Al-Manar television on February 17. During the course […]

[IMRA: Under 22(B) of the disengagement law the prime minister may, in consultation with the defense minister and minister of the interior, issue an order limiting access to the areas designated for evacuation at any time (prime minister Sharon already signed the evacuation orders designating the areas to be evacuated). Any Israeli who is not […]

The pressure of maintaining one’s individualism in the face of a growing trend can be enormous. Politically correct views and ideas are repeated so often that they become the accepted norms. And then there are those who defy the convention. Mordechai personified that kind of individual. He opposed a trend among his fellow Jews in […]

IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS, Kuwait has been waging its own war on terror at home. The police have engaged in five fierce and bloody gun battles with extremists since January 10, as reported by the Associated Press. Five policemen have been killed in these encounters, along with four security men and two bystanders; foreign […]

Today the entire Arab Middle East is Judenrein; there are no Jews left in 22 Arab countries and the twenty-third and smallest state remains under constant siege. Photo by David Batt On November 8, 2003, the anniversary of the eve of Kristallnacht, I addressed a woman’s ‘networking’ conference of mainly black and Hispanic-American feminists. The […]

According to Jewish tradition, the day begins at evening, at sundown, continues in the morning and bursts out of the night until the following evening. Therefore, according to Jewish tradition – we are still at the height of the day which began yesterday with the inauguration of the Holocaust Museum, and continued with the conference […]

Israeli pianist Daniel Barenboim compared Theodor Herzl to Richard Wagner and Israeli soldiers to Nazis during a lecture this week on “Wagner, Israel and Palestine” at Columbia University. Going beyond contrasting the taboo on playing Wagner in Israel and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, Barenboim also won new converts to the cause of Columbia students […]

New York – Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority (PA), said yesterday that ‘the Israelis are responsible’ for the recent Tel Aviv suicide bombing that murdered 5 Israelis and injured dozens more. He asserted this in his first English-language interview since taking office in January. It was published in the March 7, 2005 edition […]