From a military perspective, there can be absolutely no doubt as to the results of Hezbollah and Iran\’s offensive against Israel. It was a defeat. Every part of their war plan, except the manipulation of the media, failed.
Olmert\’s perceived blunders have given the Israeli right a new lease on life. They believe the war has dealt a lethal blow to Olmert\’s plans for a major unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank.
The former army intelligence officer with an easy smile was busy as the face of Israel\’s foreign media outreach, giving more than 80 interviews to international media networks and newspapers during the war.
It\’s been two years this week since my mother, Betty Switkes, died, and we still haven\’t had the unveiling. Jewish custom dictates that you unveil the headstone a year after the person dies, but my father has not found the right stone or the right words to inscribe on that stone, so she rests in this unmarked grave. People who pass by this spot might suspect the person buried here is a forgotten soul, but nothing could be further from the truth. She is the focus of his obsession.
It was July 12, 1984, my first day on the Ketziot basic training base, my new \”home\” as an IDF soldier in the Givati Infantry Brigade. One by one, we were issued what was then the standard IDF infantry weapon, the Israeli-made Galil rifle.
Like most camps, Hess Kramer, has a staff of Israelis who work as counselors and educators. This summer, 1,400 Israelis, most of them between the ages of 19 and 22, are staffing 200 Jewish day and sleep-away camps, according the Jewish Agency, which coordinates the stays.
The attacks on Israel by Hezbollah and Hamas represent nothing less than the latest step in radical Islam\’s quest for world domination, said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Standing up to the threat, whether on the frontlines of Israel or the streets of Los Angeles, is a needed challenge to the forces of darkness.
Leaving Gaza also made sense morally, said Daniel Sokatch, executive director of the Progressive Jewish Alliance.
\”For Israel to remain a democratic and Jewish state, it cannot occupy and control millions of Palestinians indefinitely,\” he said.
\”I have been told not to touch the Torah and to go back to my own religion\” she relayed to me matter-of-factly.
\”Wasn\’t there anyone you could confide in?\” I asked.
\”I could confide in some more than others, but when it came down to it, no one really cared whether I converted or not.\”
Kodlawsky said her goal was to tell Thiranagama\’s story vividly; in a way, it reminded her of those late-night discussions over cigarettes and coffee. Her mother\’s friends often spoke of how Kodlawsky\’s mother risked death to smuggle food to others at Bergen-Belsen.
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