Retired Maj. Gen. Oren Shachor, former Israel Defense Forces chiefintelligence officer, held a field briefing for his subordinateofficers and field operatives last week at Cava restaurant on westThird Street.
Regarding the domestic political pressures thatBinyamin Netanyahu faces in his decision-making on the peace process,the prime minister himself probably summed it up best in the \”Israelat 50\” interview he gave to Newsweek: \”I am a coalition ofone.\”
It was a moment that almost perfectly defined thisweek\’s United Jewish Appeal young leadership conference inWashington. In one section of the vast Washington Hilton ballroom,hundreds of young Jews were intently listening as special U.S. peaceenvoy Dennis Ross and Israeli Ambassador Eliahu Ben-Elissar gavesharply differing views of the current Israeli-Palestinianstalemate.
The young Lithuanian woman in the prison libraryhas the narrow chest, hunched shoulders and wary eyes of someone whohas known poverty and is not sure where the next blow is coming from.
After 50 years of evasion, soft sell andhalf-truths, Israelis are coming to terms with the darker side oftheir own history.
Last weekend, I was at a gathering of maybe 80 people, brought together to listen to a prominent Israeli intellectual who proceeded to dazzle us with his accounts of political, military and religious life in the Mideast. Actually, it was more than dazzling. He was informative; he was insightful; he was witty.
An estimated 400 people packed the auditorium atthe Westside Jewish Community Center Tuesday night, prepared to chidethe leaders of the Jewish Community Centers of Los Angeles forseriously considering an Orthodox Jewish high school\’s offer to buythe center.
For the next five Tuesdays, Sephardic TempleTifereth Israel will commemorate Israel\’s 50 years of independence,with free screenings of films produced in the nation or celebratingmoments in its history.
One of my pet peeves is people who make generalconclusions from rather sketchy specific facts.
