Monthly Archives: August 2020

Thoughts at Zero Dark Thirty

It’s very, very early, when a person should be asleep, lest melancholy thoughts intrude on the familiar, but totally irrational, optimism that keeps one functioning in the face of the absolute certainty that every human life will sooner or later … Continue reading

Posted in Terrorism, The Jewish people | 2 Comments

Israel’s PM and Government Should Resign Today

I’m not looking forward to writing this, or to reading the responses that I will surely get from various quarters. But here it is. The Breslov Hasidim venerate Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810), a kabbalist, scholar, and founder of a … Continue reading

Posted in Israeli Politics | 3 Comments

Anti-Zionism isn’t Antisemitism – but it Doesn’t Matter

There has rarely been a more pointless dispute than the one over whether anti-Zionism is antisemitism. The answer is easy, and it has two parts: a) no, they are not the same, and b) it doesn’t matter. What is anti-Zionism? … Continue reading

Posted in Jew Hatred | Comments Off on Anti-Zionism isn’t Antisemitism – but it Doesn’t Matter

A Page a Day

Since January, I’ve been participating in a daf yomi program. That means that every day, 7 days a week, I study a page (actually, two facing pages), of Talmud. The fact that someone like me, who grew up in a … Continue reading

Posted in The Jewish people | 3 Comments

The Downside of the UAE Deal

The announcement that Israel and the United Arab Emirates would be negotiating an agreement to normalize relations was greeted with cheers from most friends of the Jewish state, and boos from the Palestinians, Turkey, Iran and its satellites, and the … Continue reading

Posted in Middle East politics | 2 Comments

After Five years, the Duma Saga Approaches Conclusion

On the night of 31 July 2015, someone firebombed two homes in the Palestinian village of Duma, in the northern part of Judea, about 55 km. east of Tel Aviv. One of the buildings was empty, but sleeping in the … Continue reading

Posted in Duma arson-murder | Comments Off on After Five years, the Duma Saga Approaches Conclusion

The Coming Political Crisis in the USA

I think the USA today is facing a crisis matched only by those that took place at the time of the Civil War and the period of the Great Depression and WWII. Those events led to big changes in the … Continue reading

Posted in American politics, American society, The Future | 3 Comments

Who on Earth is Dana Ron, and the Beirut Explosion

The longer I live here, the more I understand how different Israel is from my former home, the USA. There are elements of Middle East culture, unsurprising since about half of all Jewish Israelis are descended from immigrants from the … Continue reading

Posted in Israeli Politics, Israeli Society | 1 Comment