With U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney in Israel this week talking about Iran, the big question was whether President Bush would be willing to use military force in the waning days of his presidency to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program. The answer from most Israeli intelligence analysts: not likely. They say the chances of a… More ▸
Last week’s terrorist attack at a Jerusalem yeshiva and the new Israeli national intelligence assessment presented to the Cabinet on Sunday underscore the acute security problems Israel faces this year and beyond. The terrorist shooting spree in the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, which left eight students dead, raised questions about the vulnerability of Jews in western… More ▸
By sending its top three leaders to the Annapolis peace summit, Israel is hoping to make a statement about the seriousness of its approach to peacemaking with the Palestinians. But a more complex reality lies under the surface of this diplomatic show. The big three — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and… More ▸
Was the Six-Day War a blessing or a curse for Israel’s place in the Middle East and its long-term survival? Forty years on, the jury is still out. In the war’s immediate aftermath, it seemed Israel’s sweeping victory would guarantee the Jewish state’s future and set the stage for a grand regional peace. But the… More ▸
French Jews have made it clear throughout the presidential campaign that candidates’ positions on Israel will be a key factor for Jewish voters. With the second round of voting coming up May 6, it therefore was little surprise that advisers and allies to Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal were out in force at Israel’s glamorous… More ▸
If you want to find the only synagogue in the Arabian Gulf, come to Bahrain — a tiny desert kingdom linked to Saudi Arabia by the 15-mile King Fahd Causeway. But don’t expect to find kosher restaurants, yeshivas or Yiddishkeit in this land of mosques and minarets; just 36 of Bahrain’s 700,000 or so inhabitants… More ▸
Dismay over the American Jewish leadership’s perceived reluctance to press the Bush administration to work toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is behind a series of recent meetings aimed at pressing the case forward. Jewish organizational officials who have participated in the meetings said JTA’s characterization of their aim in a story earlier this… More ▸
As one of the Arab world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries, Jordan is in a tough spot. It shares borders with Iraq, an anarchic state that has become a battlefield for terrorists and Islamic extremists; Syria, an illicit arms trafficker and close ally of Iran; and Israel, the regional pariah whose Palestinian problem is an… More ▸
Near the Shariah Islamic law department at the University of Jordan, there is a blue Star of David spray-painted on a concrete path between the pine trees. The crudely drawn image is there so that students at the university, Jordan’s largest and most prestigious, can trample the symbol of the Jewish state. Just across the… More ▸
Ezra Billinkoff has an easy way about him, with his cropped red hair, funky glasses, wide grin and a T-shirt that boasts, “Everyone loves a Jewish Quaker.” But the 21-year-old president of Hillel: The Foundation for Campus Jewish Life at the University of Pennsylvania becomes serious when asked about his impending return to campus. “We… More ▸
