Israel

Dancing Soldiers In Hebron

Submitted by Adam Dickter on Thu, 07/08/2010 - 11:07

The strange and amusing tale of six IDF soldiers featured on YouTube dancing to a cheesy pop song while on patrol in Hebron seems to have played itself out, now that an spokesman for the army has said they will not investigate the matter further. But it says a lot about the uniqueness of Israel's army.

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Hitchens On Jewishness, Israel And Zionism

06/10/2010
Eric Herschthal
Staff Writer

People seem to love author and cultural critic Christopher Hitchens for precisely the reason other people seem to hate him: he has an opinion, and a strong one, about almost everything. His new memoir, “Hitch-22,” is chock full of them, too. And when he appeared at at the 92nd Street Y on Tuesday night, in a chat with his close friend Salman Rushdie, that fact was not glossed over.

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Helen Thomas Quits in Wake of Israel Controversy

06/07/2010
Ron Kampeas
JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Helen Thomas quit her job with Hearst in the wake of mounting outrage over her assertion that Israeli Jews should "return" to Poland, Germany and the United States.

"Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately," said a statement issued Monday by the Hearst Corp. "Her decision came after her controversial comments about Israel and the Palestinians were captured on videotape and widely disseminated on the Internet."

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Gaza Flotilla Deaths Spur Concerns, Condemnation

05/31/2010

(JTA) -- The Vatican expressed "pain" and "great concern" at the deaths of activists on a convoy bringing aid to Gaza, while French leaders criticized the Israeli Navy's use of force in turning back the flotilla.

Chief Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Monday that the raid by Israeli Navy commandos, in which dozens of protesters were killed or injured, was "a very painful thing, in particular for the useless loss of human lives."

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Beinart Pleasantly Surprised He Hasn’t Been Marginalized

Submitted by Gary Rosenblatt on Thu, 05/27/2010 - 09:36

Peter Beinart, the former New Republic editor whose strong critique of the American Jewish establishment in a New York Review of Books essay continues to reverberate in the community, says he has been pleasantly surprised by the responses he has received from pro-Israel critics

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Who Was – And, More Disturbingly, Wasn’t – At The Israel Day Parade

Submitted by Gary Rosenblatt on Mon, 05/24/2010 - 10:39

Walking along the route of the Israel Day Parade yesterday, from 72nd Street down to 59th Street along Fifth Avenue, I was reminded once again, and in dramatic fashion, how the expression of Zionism in American has become increasingly the purview of the Modern Orthodox community.

The crowd appeared to be made up primarily of relatives and friends of the marchers – many of the large contingents were day school children – and other observant Jews.

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Students Across U.S. Invite Israel Ambassador Oren to Speak

05/21/2010
JTA

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Dozens of presidents of university student bodies invited the Israeli ambassador to speak in the wake of his controversial appearances on two campuses.

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Rabbi David Forman - Baruch Dayan Emet

Submitted by Jonathan Mark on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 10:40

David Forman, 65, a Reform rabbi and founder of Rabbis for Human Rights -- a far-left organization that increasingly acted contrary to Forman's own priority of defending the human rights of Jews before (or at least alongside) everyone else's -- died May 3 in Dallas while awaiting a liver-transplant. He made aliyah in 1972. Rare is the leftist or the Reform rabbi who challenged his own as profoundly as did Forman, or who so profoundly challenged the rest of us. Steve Lipman has an appreciation of Forman in our upcoming issue.

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Oren says Netanyahu not humiliated at White House, readers don't believe it

Submitted by James Besser on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 09:02

So Amb. Michael Oren, Israel's eloquent ambassador in Washington, says it didn't happen; Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wasn't dissed when he came to the White House on March 23, according to this JTA  story  and numerous other reports.

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Israel As History, Reality And Family

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In the end, Cohen and I have our differences, but this is the kind of book that can engage younger Jews curious about their heritage, force them to think about the remarkable saga of Jewish survival, and it welcomes the reader to debate and counter the author’s theories.

11/04/2009
Gary Rosenblatt
Editor and Publisher

I told Rich Cohen the other night that his latest book, “Israel Is Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and its History,” should be a must-read for a young generation of American Jews, many of whom, unfortunately, have little interest in learning about the history of Israel.

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