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Why Ruth Bader Ginsburg had an intimate, yet ambivalent, relationship with Judaism and Israel
Home | U.S. News The late justice took pride in and drew strength from her Jewish heritage, but as a young woman her growing feminist awareness led her to make a decision about religious observance In July 2018, the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with an intricately patterned blue-and-white scarf swathed around her shoulders like a prayer shawl, sat next to a woman who was the closest thing to her local counterpart: former Israeli Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch.
Envelope of deadly poison addressed to White House intercepted, media reports
Home | U.S. News Envelope believed to have come from Canada was intercepted at government mail center before it arrived at the White House, the New York Times, CNN and Wall Street Journal report Published at 23:46 An American flag flies at half-staff over the White House in Washington, Saturday, September 19, 2020Credit: Patrick Semansky,AP Published at 23:46 A envelope addressed to the White House contained a substance identified as ricin, a deadly poison, several media outlets reported on...
Iran's Zarif: World should oppose U.S. sanctions or expect to face them
The world community should oppose the United States' use of sanctions to impose its will as a "bully," or expect to face sanctions itself, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump plans to issue an executive order allowing him to impose U.S. sanctions on anyone who violates a conventional arms embargo against Iran, which is set to expire in October, four sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
Ginsburg was larger than life, but her death could prove more momentous
Diminutive Ruth Bader Ginsburg stood five feet and one inch small but nonetheless belongs to that rare breed of people genuinely worthy of being eulogized as “larger than life”. Her career was remarkable, her achievements formidable, her talents enviable and her discipline, fortitude and ambition all undeniable, but it was the popularity and rock-star status accorded Ginsburg in the twilight of her life that were truly incredible, if not unfathomable.
Fifty trees defaced, uprooted in suspected West Bank hate crime
Fifty olive trees were uprooted and additional 20 vandalized Friday in a suspected hate crime in the West Bank Palestinian village of As-Sawiya, near the settlement of Ariel. Ahmed Nasa'a, a Jaffa resident whose family is from As-Sawiya, told Haaretz that 30 trees had been uprooted from the plot his family owns. "I myself fenced the plot.
Rabbis blast WhatsApp as No. 1 destroyer of Jewish homes
Ultra-Orthodox leaders are targeting a new threat to their community: the smartphone messaging service WhatsApp. Does Your Rabbi Own an iPhone?
Trump to block U.S. downloads of TikTok, WeChat on Sunday, officials say
The U.S. Commerce Department plans to issue an order Friday that will bar people in the United States from downloading Chinese-owned messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok starting on September 20, three officials told Reuters. The officials said the ban on new U.S. downloads of TikTok could be still rescinded by President Donald Trump before it takes effect late Sunday as TikTok owner ByteDance races to clinch an agreement over the fate of its U.S. operations.
U.S. senators warn Poland’s president on rising antisemitism in his country
Two U.S. senators wrote President Andrzej Duda of Poland to express their concern about a rise in what they said was antisemitic discourse, citing one of his own statements. The letter sent Tuesday by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and James Lankford, R-Okla., on several occasions notes the close defense ties of the United States and Poland and suggests a failure to address the antisemitism, and to advance Holocaust restitution, could impede the growth of the relationship.
The saddest thing about Israel's new UN envoy: U.S. Jews will get used to him
My Twitter timeline was awash with sad and exasperated tweets last week when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided in his wisdom to pick Danny "Deportation Now" Danon as the new face of Israel to the world, by appointing him Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. His rejection of the two-state solution and his want to deport all refugees make him the poster boy for the far-right members of Likud.
Netanyahu is bringing the whole center-left camp to its knees
I’ve never deluded myself in thinking that Isaac Herzog is a great ideologue, willing to sacrifice himself for his principles. I remember him talking with disdain about Shimon Peres’s “crawling” to the Sharon government as it carried out the Gaza disengagement, before joining the same government a short while later. I remember him giving dazzling speeches denouncing Ehud Barak’s leadership, only to subsequently support him in the 2007 race for the Labor Party leadership.
Right-wing Israeli group Elad received millions from shadowy private donors
The right-wing organization Elad received donations worth over 450 million shekels ($115 million) between 2006 and 2013, Elad documents filed to Israel’s Registrar of Non-Profit Organizations show.
Former attorney general comes out against Lieberman's 'death to terrorists' bill
In a first public comments since ending his term as attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein called on his successor Avichai Mendelblit to oppose the approval of the death penalty for terrorists, a bill being discussed in coalition Negotiations between Likud and Yisrael Beiteinu.
Yossi Sarid laid to rest in central Israel
"We are taking leave today of a courageous, wise, stubborn and perceptive man," leading Israeli author Amos Oz said in eulogizing writer, broadcaster and former cabinet minister and Knesset member Yossi Sarid, who died on Friday and was laid to rest on Sunday at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha.
Israel dramatically ramping up demolitions of Palestinian homes in West Bank
Since the beginning of this year, especially in early February, Israel’s Civil Administration has significantly increased the pace of Palestinian home demolitions in the West Bank’s Area C under full Israeli control (about 60 percent of the West Bank).
The goal: A Knesset without Arabs
In Israel’s otherwise shaky democracy, the fundamental right to vote and to be elected has until now enjoyed an exalted status. Every Israeli citizen is entitled to vote in the elections and to run for Knesset. That sums up the simplistic understanding many of our elected officials have of the term “democracy” – a system of government in which the majority rules. They don’t simultaneously emphasize human rights.
A plant named occupation has grown into a deep-rooted tree
“The sheikh’s dog is also a sheikh” goes the Arabic saying. If the sheikh’s dog urinated in your salon, you are expected to be amazed at the fragrant aroma that engulfs the room. And if you are tempted, because of all the torture you go through because of him, to throw a stone at him – then the dog’s whole clan and the sheikh’s whole clan and their friends across the sea will rise up against you. Your name will be mud and even Hitler will look like Mother Theresa compared to you and your cruelty.
WATCH: McLaughlin Group debates EU labeling of West Bank products
Transcript: (Starts at 11:00) Issue Two: Israel West Bank Woes? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN KIRBY, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We do not view labeling the origin of products as being from the settlements a boycott of Israel. We also do not believe that labeling the origin of products is equivalent to a boycott. MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): The Obama administration sparked controversy this week when it failed to condemn a European Union, E.U. product labeling policy that Israel fiercely opposes.
How the New Israel Fund made me the leftist I am today
The seasonal Im Tirtzu storm has come and gone like a light snow in Jerusalem. Hooliganism that was spread by their politicians. But make no mistake, Im Tirtzu is a very important organization; its members are saying today what the government will do tomorrow. We really have reached the stage of branding citizens according to their opinions.
A law that shames the protectors of Israel's moral character
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will meet today to discuss a bill that would obligate an Israeli nonprofit to disclose if it is supported by a foreign political entity, for reasons of transparency. The sole aim of the law, proposed by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Habayit Hayehudi), is to label human rights groups and restrict their activities.
Israel says will not negotiate with Palestinian government supported by Hamas
Israel's security cabinet decided during a meeting on Tuesday that Israel will not engage in political negotiations with a Palestinian unity government, if such a government is indeed established following the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah, the Prime Minister's Office said.
New regulations would impede Palestinians seeking to sue Israeli employers
Palestinian laborers who work in Israel will face a new obstacle when they try to fight for their rights in Israeli courts, under new regulations being advanced by MK Shuli Moalem-Refaeli and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked both of Habayit Hayehudi.
In Netanyahu's Israel, only a wacko can think Arabs and Jews have the same rights
In my free time I sometimes go about keeping Chabad emissaries away from the neighborhood high school. One recent Friday, when I asked the emissaries to keep a reasonable distance from the school, according to police instructions, I unwillingly became part of a fascinating encounter with two apparently secular high school girls. They were shocked that I was being hostile to Chabad emissaries.
Muslims in America: The empty chair at the Thanksgiving table
A few days ago, awash in images of terrorism and grief, I got to talking with a Muslim man who runs a hardware store up the street here in Jaffa. He asked me about Thanksgiving. At Ezra Schwartz's Boston Funeral, Hundreds Remember Teen's 'Mischievous Smile' Trump Says Would 'Certainly Implement' National Database of Muslims Why Did President Obama Ignore the Murder of a U.S. Teenager in a Terror Attack? A natural question for an expatriate American. People ask a lot.
We Israelis are all Habayit Hayehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich
Knesset member Bezalel Smotrich proclaimed that “the murder in the village of Duma, with all its gravity, was not a terror attack. Period.” He thus brought on himself heaps of condemnations saying that his statement was unacceptable and disgusting. Ostensibly. Want to Make Sure Israel Doesn't Become a Jewish-fascist State?
Israel must say 'No' to torture
The testimony of the suspects in last summer’s murder of the Dawabsheh family in Duma reveals the continued use of practices in Shin Bet security service interrogations that could amount to torture. Netanyahu Defends Shin Bet Amid Torture Allegations Torture Allegations Pit Shin Bet Against the Settler Community We Israelis Are All Habayit Hayehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich In 1999, the High Court of Justice ruled that the Shin Bet’s use of violent interrogation techniques was unacceptable.
Without a Palestinian state, Israel can never be Jewish or democratic
Casino tycoon and right-wing political patron Sheldon Adelson has finally spoken to the existential issue of Israeli democracy absent a Palestinian state.
The myth that Jews are always victims of persecution, occupiers or not
Because there is no official death sentence in Israel, 18 relatives of 17 Israelis who were murdered by Palestinians in 13 separate attacks are demanding that the families of the attackers be punished by “permanent” expulsion. “The real punishment that the murderers deserve is death,” explain the relatives in a letter sent to government ministers and published on news websites.
Netanyahu’s never-ending excuse for opposing a two-state solution
In case you missed it, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains deeply committed to the two-state solution. Sure, he said in the final days of his reelection campaign that “anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state and evacuate territory gives territory away to radical Islamist attacks against Israel." But that doesn’t mean he opposes a Palestinian state. He’s just reluctantly deferring the dream of one because of circumstances outside of his control.
Vandals deface car of Acre imam, who called for tolerance after J'lem attack
Vandals defaced the car of Sheikh Samir Assi, the imam of the Al-Jazaar mosque in Acre, overnight Thursday, in what the city's mayor called an unfortunate incident. Five Killed in Jerusalem Synagogue Terror Attack Police suspect the vandals poured acid on the car, which was parked outside the religious leader's home. Acre Mayor Shimon Lankri denounced the crime and said he hoped its perpetrators would be apprehended and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Who pays for Israel's settlements? It could be you
In a country as tightly knit and loquacious as Israel, it's long been axiomatic that even where state secrets are concerned, everyone knows everything. The nuclear program, military deployments, air strikes on a Syrian reactor, cyber wars, Mossad hit teams - you name it, to a one, they've become schoolyard-level public knowledge.
Gaza’s refugees have always haunted Israel. Now they’re on the march | Opinion
The Marches of Return are already sending chills down Israel's spine. The marches will commence on March 30, Land Day, through May 15, Nakba Day, as thousands of Palestinians will gather in Gaza and the West Bank, pitch refugee tents, and march along the Israeli border in peaceful demonstrations. They embody what Israel has always feared since its creation seven decades ago: The marching of uprooted Palestinian refugees on Israel.
What would Netanyahu tell a commission of inquiry?
Even if a commission of inquiry were set up to investigate the processes which brought about the current “wave of terror," what would it conclude regarding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? That he was warned that if he didn’t initiate diplomatic moves there would be a third intifada and that Israel would become a shunned state?
Obama’s 'malice' toward Israel is useful scapegoat for Netanyahu’s failures
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro’s request to publicly dissociate himself from Michael Oren’s harsh attacks on Barack Obama. Netanyahu reportedly said that that Oren wrote his book ALLY in a private capacity and was not a member of his Likud party. The real reason for the prime minister’s demurral, however, is probably much more straightforward: He concurs with Oren’s diagnosis of Obama’s inherent malevolence towards Israel.
Turkey and Israel, sister states in eroding democracy
Knesset members erred in rushing to pass antidemocratic legislation such as the so-called Suspension Bill and laws meant to bypass the High Court of Justice. Had they simply hung tight, they could have copied the improved Turkish version, which surely would have fulfilled their yearnings to repair Israeli democracy.
Fight the right-wingers rewriting history: Rabin wanted a Palestinian state
It was 22 years ago that a bullet from a far-right religious assassin put an end to Yitzhak Rabin’s life.
IDF transferred private Palestinian land to settlement, state reveals
The Israeli government revealed Tuesday that the Israel Defense Forces' Civil Administration transferred hundreds of meters of private land belonging to a Palestinian family to the West Bank settlement of Shim'a. The revelation emerged in the state's response to a High Court petition filed against the settlement's expansion.
What Abbas should have said in his UN address
Here’s what Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should have said in his address to the UN General Assembly on Friday: Israel’s Criticism of Abbas’ Speech Is the Rhetoric of Despair U.S. State Department Condemns Abbas' 'Provocative' UNGA Speech Senior Netanyahu Aides: Abbas Speech Full of Lies, Incitement It’s All a Daydream Palestinians Ask UN: Set 2016 as Deadline for Ending Israeli Occupation A Mutation of the Hannibal Procedure Has Made Its Way to Jerusalem “I stand here before you, at...
The lies you were told about AIPAC's invitation to Trump
The 2016 AIPAC Policy Conference is over, but the damage it caused is far from done. As Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post wrote, “In the aftermath of the 2016 election, there will be plenty of people to blame for the Trump phenomenon.
Netanyahu is campaigning, and the hell with the state
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s narrative can be summed up as follows: The Palestinians and Iran are threatening Israel’s Jewish citizens with a second Holocaust; Western countries are tainted with anti-Semitism and are increasing the likelihood of Israel’s annihilation by their support for a Palestinian state and their desire for an agreement with Iran; the proper Israeli response is to accelerate settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem; opponents of the settlements are...
Lieberman bars senior Palestinian official from Israel due to 'subversive activity'
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has revoked a senior Fatah official's entry permit to Israel. Mohammed al-Madani, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, is considered close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. He also the chairman of the Committee for Interaction with Israeli Society.
Fact-checking Bill Maher: Are Europeans 'assholes to Israel?'
Last week’s terror attacks in Brussels that claimed the lives of 32 innocents were followed by deplorable gloating from several prominent Israeli right-wing politicians, saying they hope now Europeans will stop criticizing Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. Israel’s Transport Minister Yisrael Katz even made international headlines by accusing the Belgians of eating chocolate rather than fighting terrorism.
Israel is in national denial regarding its oppression of Palestinians
In the long and fascinating list of indignities that can befall the human spirit (such as crippling anxiety and depression, addiction, sadism), the most bewildering is also the one that seems the most harmless: denial. Are we willing to take risks for peace?
Netanyahu tells Knesset panel: We have defeated the BDS movement
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed Israel has defeated the BDS movement and said he would not hold on the foreign minister portfolio forever, adding that there is no current Palestinian partner for peace.
In historic address, Kerry tells Israelis they're committing suicide
As soon as John Kerry started talking it was clear that this would be a historic speech. In simple words and plain logic, he laid out the systematic way Israel is turning itself into an apartheid binational state. He provided data and described the reality: In the West Bank an Israeli occupation deprives Palestinians of basic human rights, expropriates their land and sentences them to a life of misery and poverty.
Look who wants to divide Jerusalem now
I thought I was confused, that I didn’t hear correctly. The great patriots, Benjamin Netanyahu, Ze’ev Elkin and Gilad Erdan, who don’t go to bed at night before praying for a unified, undivided, greater Jerusalem, are now proposing to dissect it, divide it and return it 48 years back in time, by means of 180 concrete blocks and checkpoints set up at the Arab neighborhoods’ entrances. Netanyahu is dividing Jerusalem.
Dear Oscar star, say yes to that free Israel trip. Then do this.
Dear major Academy Award nominee or presenter, Israel Looks to Address Funding Gaps for Arab Community With $3.9 Billion Plan Why Breaking the Silence Became the Most Hated Group in Israel The Israeli City Where Coexistence Is Alive and Kicking By now you've doubtless gotten wind of that blue card in the swag bag. The trip to Israel, all expenses paid. By now, also, people will have given you all manner of reasons not to go.
Rivlin-Obama meeting: The strange sensation of diplomatic normality
President Reuven Rivlin’s meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office on Wednesday felt oddly strange. There was no tension in the air, no edginess before the cameras. Compliments and pleasantries flowed easily, the body language of the leaders conveyed warmth and closeness.
What Netanyahu can learn from Erdogan
“This isn’t the first time that we’re dealing with a situation like this. Since 1948, every day, every month, and particularly during the holy month of Ramadan, we are witness to a systematic attempt by Israel to commit genocide.” What’s this – more words of incitement by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas? Perhaps a venomous declaration by Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshal?
American millionaire Irving Moskowitz behind purchase of West Bank church compound
A non-profit organization controlled by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz is the owner of the church compound near the Aroub refugee camp between Hebron and Bethlehem on the West Bank, which the buyers intend to turn into a new Jewish settlement, Haaretz has discovered.
Benjamin Netanyahu is a danger to Israel
Instead of worrying about a nuclear bomb that may or may not threaten us in 15 years, it would be better if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to stop the explosion threatening us from within. And now, not at the end of days.
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