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Hartman’s legacy: integrity over popularity

David Bedein — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 23:14:16 +0000

People who encountered Rabbi David Hartman often came away with a seminal experience that touched them for life. Forty years ago, I met Rabbi Hartman at his new home, shortly after his aliyah to Jerusalem when I worked at Hillel in Jerusalem. The purpose of the meeting was to ask him if he would speak [...]

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The moral imperative to refuse an immoral or illegal military order in Israel

David Bedein — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 10:42:42 +0000

The statement of “Jewish home” political leader Naftali Bennet about his refusal to carry out orders to demolish Jewish or Arab communities must be placed in proper perspective. Israel is one of the few nations which mandates that a soldier may refuse an order, if that soldier deems the directive from his commander to run [...]

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Twenty conclusions from Pillar of Defense

David Bedein — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 15:26:01 +0000

Last week, while visiting communities struck by Gaza missiles throughout southern Israel, it was easy to discern the all-pervasive anger that Israeli citizens – from all walks of life – vented against the Israeli government for halting the attack on Gaza after only one week. Civilians under the terror of aerial attacks find it hard [...]

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The renewed Barak-Bibi-Arik retreat map

David Bedein — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 12:58:36 +0000

Israel Hayom, the daily Israeli newspaper often referred to as the newspaper closest to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, published in its pre-Yom Kippur edition that Israeli Defense Ehud Barak is intent on carrying out a retreat from most of Judea and Samaria, only retaining the Jewish communities of Gush Etzion, Maaleh Adumim and Ariel under Israeli [...]

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Yitzhak Shamir’s true legacy

David Bedein — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 07:24:38 +0000

Within hours of the death of Yitzhak Shamir, before Israel’s seventh prime minister was even buried, Yediot Ahronoth ran a front page editorial, written by a former Israeli government official, that said that Shamir’s legacy would be “the restraint that he showed during the Gulf War in 1991… and the resultant respect that he earned [...]

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‘Hudna:’ Neither a truce nor cease fire

David Bedein — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 10:28:11 +0000

As a torrent of Gaza aerial attacks hit southern Israel, the Gaza regime offers an occasional hudna to stop firing, a term which is too often misconstrued to mean a “truce” or a “cease fire.” However, a hudna connotes no more than a temporary respite and does not remotely resemble either a “truce” nor a “cease fire.” Here, [...]

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Facilitate justice for migrant workers

David Bedein — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 13:47:25 +0000

On May 29, 2012, the economics page of the Israel’s leading daily newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, carried a news story which reported that the Israel Hotel Owners Association dispatched a delegation to negotiate with Israeli government officials to allow hotels to keep migrant workers. Yediot quoted the heads of the Israel Hotels Owners Association who pleaded [...]

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Genesis of an anti-Semitic state

David Bedein — Mon, 28 May 2012 13:50:18 +0000

Imagine, if you would, if a nascent nation-state, somewhere in the world, was in formation, and that it had taken on the following features: * Selling land to a Jew would be defined as a capital crime. * Its new constitution would not allow for juridical status for Judaism and Jews would not even be [...]

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At the Knesset tomorrow: How Will British Jewry Cope with UK Protected Hamas in London?

David Bedein — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:33:43 +0000

On Tuesday, the Knesset sub-committee on “Ties with the Jewish World” chaired by MK Einat Wilf will convene at 1PM at the Knesset to discuss the current anti-Israel climate in the UK, in the presence of more than a dozen Jewish groups from the UK. British Jewry have a new challenge on its hands: How [...]

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Four Questions for Fayyad

David Bedein — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:12:39 +0000

Is there any reason for a sigh of relief now that Salman Fayad has been assured his position as the head of the Palestinian Authority, where he has earned an undeserved reputation with the press as a man who leads Palestinian Arabs in a moderate direction. That reputation was earned because reporters hesitate to ask [...]

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Make Representations to Benyamin Netanyahu: Will he follow up with vital issues with the PA?

David Bedein — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:07:36 +0000

This week, talks resumed with the Palestinian Authority, The time has come to ask Israel PM Benyamin Netanyahu to follows through with vital issues with the PA: The more feedback Israel’s PM gets, in individually written letters, the better it is for the country. 1. Will PM Netanyahu demand that the PA reform its education system and [...]

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Feeding the hand that bites you: Reconsidering aid to a Gaza regime at war with Israel

David Bedein — Sun, 13 May 2012 17:59:57 +0000

During the second week of March, 2012, while the Gaza regime launched more than 300 aerial attacks against southern Israel, driving one million people to cower in shelters, Israel announced to the world that it was bolstering that same Gaza regime, dispatching 180 trucks filled with Israeli merchandise crossing into Gaza under fire, with Israel [...]

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Unseen Consequences of a Palestinian Arab State

David Bedein — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:06:12 +0000

On my first night in Israel, August 31, 1970, my 20th birthday, I arrived at the campus of Hebrew University, to participate in a study group that met every Thursday night at the Lauterman building at Hebrew U and every Monday night at the Gillman building at Tel Aviv U, to consider the idea of [...]

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Peres on eve of state visits abroad: Lauds Abbas & Fayad – Ignores their schools- to whom is he accountable?

David Bedein — Sun, 06 May 2012 13:47:09 +0000

This month, Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, travels to Canada and to the United States. Israel’s president is not supposed to make political statements nor engage in diplomatic forays. Israel’s presidency is supposed to be largely a largely ceremonial title, like the current status of current monarchs of of Western Europe. Imagine if Queen Elizabeth addressed [...]

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Why did Breira Implode: Rabbi Arnold Jacob Wolf’s Refusal to Take Funds from a Foreign Government

David Bedein — Fri, 04 May 2012 12:57:21 +0000

For some reason, some bloggers have seen fit of late to attack the integrity of the late Chicago Rabbi, Arnold Jacob Wolf, blaming him for having some kind of unethical and manipulative influence on President Obama and polemicist Peter Beinart, among others. When someone is criticized while that person is alive, he can decide whether [...]

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