The recent close election of a Socialist President in France was significantly influenced by the large majority of Muslims who voted for Hollande, and against Sarkozy.
An article here by Soeren Kern explains the beneficial links between the French Muslims and the Socialist party. There are now sufficiently large numbers of Muslims in France to influence [...]
Nitsana Darshan-Leitner is about to receive the Moskowitz Prize for her legal efforts to protect Israel - and deservedly so. Read an interview with her here.
I was fortunate to recently attend a conference in Netanya, at which she spoke. Nistan shows the major impact that private committed citizens can have in the defence of Israel.
When [...]
“Six years you shall sow your field but the seventh year the land shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land” Leviticus 25-3. “The land is mine for ye are strangers and settlers as far as I am concerned”. Leviticus 25-23.
The association of the Jewish people with the land began with Hashem’s [...]
Modi’in is a very impressive city midway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Not having been there for 20 years or so, it was remarkable to see what the area has become, with over 150,000 people in the area.
Then today we read that an ancient olive press has been found on the outskirts of Modi’in here. Modi’in [...]
It is reassuring to read the arguments made by defenders of Israel, be they well known like Alan Dershowitz here which point out the emptiness of the haters, writers like Tom Rob Smith who reject pressures from the BDS crowd here or those like Jiulio Meotti, who are able to stand up and state facts here and here, [...]
The Cohanim were obliged to play a special role in the days of the Temple. Apart from limitations on activities which made them ineligible for Temple service, as described in the Sedra Emor, their other roles are listed in the Haftara of the day from Ezekiel. They had to be teachers of what was kasher [...]
The sedra Kedoshim lists fifty one commandments, included amongst which is the well known “thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself,” (verse 18, chapter 19), probably more accurately translated from the Hebrew as “you shall behave in a loving way to your neighbour (as you behave to) yourself.”
As Rabbi Shlomo Riskin points out. the list of commandments [...]
The father of Benjamin Netanyahu, Benzion , has just died at the advanced age of 102. He was working on his memoirs until just 1 year ago. The PM eulogized his father at the funeral and the speech was replayed in its entirety on the radio. An account of the funeral and speech is here.
Discussion about [...]
Went to visit friends in Efrat today - a very different and quicker route on the Jerusalem Gush Etzion highway than the one many years ago - through a couple of tunnels and there we were.
Views of Efrat are here and here.
A drive to Kfar Etzion, and a reminder of the massacre of 1948, the day before Yom [...]
Peter Beinart’s new book The Crisis of Zionism has brought about some excellent articles of response.
These include Jonathan Rosenblum’s Peter’s navel gazing and Daniel Gordis’ Peter Beinart’s mis-identity crisis.
Rosenblum’s article brings up the question about whether there is a pseudo choice between liberalism and support for Israel; that Beinart has a preference for moral absolutism. Rosenblum makes the [...]