Category
May 16, 2002
Likud Vote May Help Sharon
It\’s no secret that former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to challenge Ariel Sharon for leadership of the Likud Party and, he hopes, succeed Sharon as prime minister of Israel. So when Netanyahu moved to have Likud\’s Central Committee vote May 12 against the establishment of a Palestinian state, it seemed he had found the perfect weapon to accelerate Sharon\’s political demise
Differing Views on European Anti-Semitism
The talk here in Los Angeles — about anti-Semitism and Europe — is by turns angry and cynical. And not just from the proverbial \”Jewish man on the street,\” so quick to respond both to real and imagined slights. It is almost as though the suspicion that Europeans could not be trusted, that they were fundamentally bred to the bone as anti-Semites, had finally been confirmed. A Jewish leader here, with considerable professional experience working with European organizations, is bitter: The Europeans need oil, he tells me, and the Arabs have it. The rest is conversation.
IDF Refuseniks
It was Yuval Lotam\’s first time in many years at a rally. \”I always mean to go, but somehow I never get moving in time,\” he said sheepishly.
Thinking Ahead
Even hypothetically, it\’s not so simple. How do I feel about life-sustaining technology? At what point, if ever, would food and water be a form of futile prolonging of life?
Kids Page
On Shavuot, we read special sections from the Torah. One of those is the Ten Commandments. The first five are engraved on the right tablet. The second five on the left. The first five, according to the rabbis, fall into the category of commandments \”between humans and God\” — like: Do not make idols or worship other gods. The second five fall into the category of \”between human and human.\” But the commandment \”Honor thy father and mother\” is on the second tablet. Is this a commandment between humans and God?
Back to Basics
Marlena Spieler\’s latest, \”The Jewish Heritage Cookbook\” (Lorenz Books, $36), subtitled \”a fascinating journey through the rich and diverse history of the Jewish cuisine\” is so leap-off-the-page lusciously photographed you can practically taste the food.
Tangier’s Casualty
Most of my background — childhood in Santa Monica, high school at Harvard-Westlake, classics degree from Harvard University — reinforced certain principles: tolerance, the equal value of all cultures, the idea that sympathy, discussion and negotiation can solve most grievances and that force should rarely be used.
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