\”Israel is the historical commemoration to the victims of the Holocaust,\” President Shimon Peres said at a Yad Vashem ceremony marking Yom Hashoah.\n
It is very telling that in both of the articles criticizing Paul Ryan’s courageous budget proposal, many words (and much hand wringing) are expended defending existing entitlements that are bankrupting our nation but not one word addresses the unsustainable cost of these programs or how we will pay for their escalating costs (“Obama’s Way: Maintain Support for Social Programs” and “Threat to Food Stamps Lies Hidden in Ryan’s Plan,” April 22).
I had a lively debate with the founder of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, April 11 at Temple Israel of Hollywood, and as much as we disagreed sharply on many issues relative to Israel, there was one item on which we were in complete agreement: The Palestinians’ steady march toward unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September is a disaster-in-waiting for Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly has canceled a meeting with pop star Justin Bieber after the singer refused to meet with children from southern Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will answer questions from people around the world when he appears on YouTube\’s World View. Netanyahu will be the third world leader to appear on the citizen-powered interview program with his live-streamed interview on March 23.
You\’ve got to hand it to Bibi Netanyahu, who somehow managed to turn international outrage over the brutal massacre of a young Jewish family on the Shabbat as they slept in their beds into widespread criticism of his aggressive settlement policy. The most frequent question I get in speaking to Jewish groups around the country is \”Why doesn\’t Israel get better PR advice?\” The answer is simple: the problem isn\’t PR, it\’s policy and the way it\’s announced to the world.
Israel is staring at a fork in the road, with potential disaster along either path. On the path to the left lies a major Israeli peace initiative that deals with all the core issues under dispute with the Palestinians. On the path to the right lies more waiting, possibly with some kind of offer of an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians, until conditions are right for something more.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Neyanyahu wrote President Obama urging clemency for Jonathan Pollard. \”At the time of his arrest, Jonathan Pollard was acting as an agent of the Israeli government,\” Netanyahu wrote in his letter, sent Tuesday. \”Even though Israel was in no way directing its intelligence efforts against the United States, its actions were wrong and wholly unacceptable. Both Mr. Pollard and the Government of Israel have repeatedly expressed remorse for these actions, and Israel will continue to abide by its commitment that such wrongful actions will never be repeated.\” Netanyahu read his letter Tuesday evening to a Knesset plenum discussion. His letter, Israel\’s first formal request for Pollard\’s release, came a day after similar urgings from over 500 clergy in a letter to Obama.
More than 500 clergy signed a letter to President Obama urging clemency for Jonathan Pollard. The letter was delivered a day before Prime Minister Benjanim Netanyahu reportedly sent a letter to Obama issuing a formal clemency request. Netanyahu was scheduled to read his letter Tuesday evening to a Knesset plenum discussion. \”After more than two and a half decades in prison, Mr. Pollard\’s health is declining,\” reads the letter sent Monday from rabbis representing all streams, as well as a number of leading Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy. \”He has repeatedly expressed remorse for his actions, and by all accounts has served as a model inmate. Commuting his sentence to time served would be a wholly appropriate exercise of your power of clemency — as well as a matter of basic fairness and American justice. It would also represent a clear sense of compassion and reconciliation — a sign of hope much needed in today\’s world of tension and turmoil.\”
The optics were perfect, but the meaning was elusive.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.