Confused about Iran? So is everyone else! Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the new leader of this outlaw state, has threatened to wipe Israel off the map in one big nuclear “storm.” Should we take him seriously? What are the chances that this most existential threat yet to Israel’s existence could actually come to pass?
Israeli Politics
In 1996, Binyamin Netanyahu won the election for prime minister of Israel. At the time, he was thought to be an up-and-coming leader of the future. Now, two prime ministerial campaigns later, 1996 looks more and more like an aberration.
When we first arrived here, the Arabs told us that we were crazy,” recalls Rivka Goldmintz, a former resident of Gush Katif. “‘Nothing will grow on this soil,” they said, “and assured us that we would go back to our cities in a year or two.
On February 1, 2006, the government of Israel evacuated the “outpost” of Amona. This evacuation, that involved violent clashes between police and protesters, was the end of a protracted legal process started by the left wing group, Peace Now.
Four months after the Disengagement, many of the uprooted families, even those who approached the Disengagement Authority months in advance seeking a solution, are still living in flea-bitten hotels.
It’s been 10 years since the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. On that fateful Saturday night, my wife and I were visiting our friends, Howie and Judy. Their son, who had been watching television upstairs, came running downstairs. “Abba, Rosh Hamemshala (the Prime Minister) has been shot.
After Binyamin Netanyahu resigned as Israel’s finance minister a few weeks ago, the New York Times wrote a mocking editorial about him. The editorial stated, “In resigning from his post, Mr. Netanyahu is making the political calculation that he can cordon off the far-right wing of Likud from Mr. Sharon, and then manage to look prescient if the Gaza pullout is a disaster.
This week, all Jewish residents of the Gaza strip have been removed from their homes. Over the next weeks their houses will be razed, and the memory of their residence there will be eradicated. This is being done in the name of peace.
However upsetting it was to see people removed from their homes, there was a positive element in what we saw.
I want to start this article by apologizing. I would really love to write a cheerful article on just about any subject. That is not to be so. But one thing I can promise you is that it is a story with a happy ending, because I am writing about the Jewish nation and we all know that those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.