Israel has authorized the construction of 1,200 new homes and 18 schools in the southern Gaza Strip. It will be one of the largest building projects in Gaza in years. Israel’s Civil Administration made the announcement Tuesday, the AP reported.
Rabbi Daniel Gordis, I’m told, is perhaps the single most popular speaker on Israel to American Jewish audiences. He moved to Israel in 1998, after serving as founding dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, and in Jerusalem he serves as Senior vice president of the Shalem Center, a think tank. Gordis is thought to be a man of considerable distinction, but I fear we have here a case of a whole that is smaller than the sum of its parts, as a consideration of three of his recent essays will show.
Israel and America are at a dangerous crossroads in which the survival of Israel and the safety of the United States both hang in the balance. Year after year, the forces of terrorism become stronger, and the claims of terrorists become more acceptable to our European allies and more powerful in the United Nations. Year after year the Iranian dictatorship, with its openly stated desire to annihilate Israel and defeat the United States, moves closer to having nuclear means to do so. Year after year, Hamas grows stronger in Gaza and Hezbollah grows stronger in Lebanon.
It’s becoming a D.C. perennial: Every two years, a new Congress is ushered in and lawmakers from Florida herald a bill that once and for all will bring insurance companies to account for swindling Holocaust survivors. And every two years, congressional staffers and Jewish community professionals who negotiate Holocaust restitution say the bill\’s chances of passage are nil.
When it comes to passing a gay marriage bill in New York State, even many supporters acknowledge that wide-reaching religious exemptions are crucial. After all, this is the state with the nation’s second-largest number of Catholics and largest number of religiously observant Jews, and many say including exemptions is a legitimate way to address concerns of the religiously observant.
Among the issues the U.S. Supreme Court will consider when it reconvenes next October is whether an American born in Jerusalem may list his birthplace as Israel in his passport. That case probably will garner the most Jewish attention in a fall docket that includes several cases of interest to the Jewish community, court watchers say.
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