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  The American Jewish community is steeped in multiple crises. They threaten its present and its future. The crises that receive the most attention – skyrocketing intermarriage rates and communal positions on Israel, particularly in the face of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel – are a product of another, more basic quandary.   Throughout Jewish history,…

    This week we learned that Lebanon is no more. It has been replaced by Hezbollah’s Iranian colony in Lebanon.     Two weeks ago, Saudi Arabia listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and canceled its $3 billion aid package to the Lebanese military. The Gulf Cooperation Council followed suit. Rather than support the move by his sponsors and…

  Monday the Bethlehem Bible College, an Evangelical Christian college in Jesus’s hometown, opened its fourth biennial Christ at the Checkpoint conference. The conference, which is directed specifically toward US Evangelicals, will run through the week.   Today, Evangelical communities in the US number anywhere between 60 and 150 million people, depending on who is counting. They form the backbone…

    The messages from Washington ahead of Vice President Joe Biden’s arrival in Israel next week show President Barack Obama’s hostile policies toward Israel will maintained until he leaves office.   In recent weeks, the administration has warned various government ministers that any construction of housing for Jews in Jerusalem will be viewed with hostility by the administration. In…

    At a certain point, you just have to know when draw a line in the sand.   Sloan and Guy Rachmuth, Jewish parents in Durham, North Carolina, reached that point in 2014 when they opted to walk away from their local Jewish day school and home school their two children.   The Rachmuths pulled their children out of…

  After his smashing back-to-back victories in the New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries and the Nevada caucuses, going into next week’s Super Tuesday contests in 12 states, Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump looks increasingly unbeatable.   What accounts for the billionaire populist’s success? And if Trump does become the next US president, what sort of leader will the former…

  Last Thursday, yet again, we learned that pro-Palestinian activists couldn’t care less about Palestinians. For them, the Palestinians whose rights they claim to champion are nothing more than means to another end.   Our latest lesson came from the University of Chicago.   Last week, Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid was abused and threatened by supposedly pro-Palestinian and pro-peace…

    Recently I found myself in a  chance conversation with a former head of the Mossad’s Directorate of Operations. The former master spy, whom I had never met before, knew that I am a journalist.   He was aware of my political views.   Directing his remarks at a friend of mine, he declared that 99 percent of Mossad and…

  This week Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told government ministers that he may wait for the next US president before signing a new military assistance deal with America. Israel’s current military assistance package is set to expire in 2018 and the new package is supposed to include supplemental aid to compensate Israel for President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.…

  Last week marked the 17th anniversary of Jordan’s King Abdullah’s coronation after the death of his father, King Hussein.   Abdullah’s ascension to the monarchy was unanticipated. His uncle Hassan was his father’s long-serving crown prince and was expected to inherit the throne. Hussein made the change in succession from his deathbed.   Today it is hard to believe…