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From the category archives:

Jewish identity

Why fewer young American Jews share their parents’ view of Israel

by News Source 09.29.2011

Dana Goldstein writes:
“I’m trembling,” my mother says, when I tell her I’m working on an article about how younger and older American Jews are reacting differently to the Palestinians’ bid for statehood at the United Nations. I understand the frustrations of the Palestinians dealing with ongoing settlements construction and sympathize with their decision to approach [...]

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The romance of Birthright Israel

by News Source 06.20.2011

Kiera Feldman writes:
The seekers are young, just beginning to face the disappointments of adulthood. Their journey is often marked by tears. They may weep while praying at the Western Wall, their heads pressed against the weathered stone, or at the Holocaust Museum, as they pass the piles of shoes of the dead. Others tear up [...]

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Most American Jews have starry-eyed view of Israel, poll finds

by News Source 06.01.2011

JTA reports:
American Jews strongly believe in Israel’s commitmitment to peace, and largely think the Palestinian leadership and people are opposed to it, according to a new poll.
Eighty-four percent of respondents in the survey released last week said the Israeli government is committed to a lasting peace, compared to just 20 percent who said the same [...]

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‘AIPAC activists beat me’

by Paul Woodward 05.25.2011

Only a few months after Rae Abileah was among a group of young Jewish activists who found themselves the target of Jewish mob violence, she was attacked again yesterday, this time while exercising her right to free speech inside the US Congress.
Ynet reports:
Rae Abileah, a woman of Israeli descent who interrupted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s [...]

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Can Israel survive without anti-Semitism?

by News Source 04.02.2011

Avraham Burg writes:
In a very short time we will no longer be able to evade the real questions: Are we capable of apprehending our existence without the hatred of others? Do we really need external anti-Semitism as a means to define our inner identity? Think for a moment about a world in which Jews are [...]

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The racist entity that is taking over Israel must be toppled

by News Source 02.27.2011

Sefi Rachlevsky writes:
The wretchedness of the law in the face of Rabbi Dov Lior has many meanings, and Lior’s refusal to be interrogated over his support for “The King’s Torah – The Laws for Killing Gentiles” – only marginally gets at the heart of the matter.
Thirty years ago, the terrorist organization known as the “Jewish [...]

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Ashamed to be an Israeli

by News Source 01.13.2011

Amnon Danker, former editor of Israel’s popular Hebrew newspaper, Maariv, writes:
… I have felt lately that it has become shameful to be an Israeli, and a decent person must feel this shame and blush deeply and clear his throat and whisper to himself the question, what should we do, what should we do, for heaven’s [...]

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Never again? Elderly Palestinian women called ‘whores’ on Yad Vashem tour, while racism explodes across Israel

by Paul Woodward 12.31.2010

Max Blumenthal writes:
This week, a group of elderly Palestinian women were escorted to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance musuem to learn about the Jewish genocide in Europe. At the entrance of the museum, they were surrounded by a group of Jewish Israeli youth who recognized them as Arabs. “Sharmouta!” the young Israelis [...]

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What are the guardians of Israeli Jewish racial purity so afraid of?

by Paul Woodward 12.31.2010

Sayed Kashua makes fun of the Israelis who are afraid of their daughters being seduced by irresistible Arab men.
You know, until now I was certain that the role of preserving the honor of women and shackling them with male bonds was something you had designated for us Arabs. What has happened that you enlightened types [...]

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The legitimacy of the delegitimizers

by News Source 11.13.2010

Matthew Taylor writes:
When North American Jews gathered in New Orleans for their annual General Assembly earlier this week, the mainstream Jewish establishment unveiled a new initiative to counteract the growing international condemnation of Israel’s policies of occupation and land theft. The big plan: delegitimize the delegitimizers.
The Jewish Federations of North America announced at the conference [...]

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The fight has broken out inside the Jewish family

by News Source 11.10.2010

Philip Weiss writes:
The news from the Jewish Federations’ General Assembly in New Orleans is important. I announce landmarks every 100 yards, but this is a big one. The significance of the event is that several young Jews calling themselves proud Jews took Palestinian solidarity into the Jewish family and made trouble with an explosive disruption [...]

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Police step in to protect young Jewish protesters from Jewish mob violence — in New Orleans

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2010

For more details on the protest during Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Jewish Federation’s General Assembly in New Orleans yesterday, see the post below.
One of the protesters has now provided her own first hand account of what happened. Although sheriffs were in attendance to provide security for the event, in the end the police needed [...]

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Tribal loyalty versus the integrity of the individual

by Paul Woodward 11.09.2010

(Young Jews disrupt Netanyahu at Jewish General Assembly from stefanie fox on Vimeo.)
Human beings are animals, but the aspects of our nature that can most fittingly be called animalistic, most often express themselves collectively. They require the abandonment of a sense of self, a loss of the awareness of individual autonomy and personal integrity as [...]

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The Israeli consensus: Palestinians are inferior

by Paul Woodward 08.31.2010

Update below
Israelis might argue about whether the settlements are going to destroy Zionism or help it survive; they differ much less when it comes to their views about Palestinians.
Gadi Taub is ringing the now familiar alarm bell that without a swift end to the occupation, Zionism itself will be in jeopardy. Salvation depends on partition.
The [...]

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100,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews rally in Jerusalem in support of segregation

by Paul Woodward 06.17.2010

“It’s like putting Americans and Africans together. They can’t study together with such huge mental differences,” an ultra-Orthodox Jewish parent said when explaining why he cannot allow his daughters to share a classroom with Sephardi Jewish girls.
It’s hard to countenance the concept of a “demographic threat” and treat it as socially acceptable without also opening [...]

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Palestine: A great moral and political cause of our time that unites people across the world

by Paul Woodward 06.08.2010

“Palestine has become a great moral and political cause of our time that unites people across the world,” said Seamus Milne, addressing marchers in London on Saturday.

Drowning in their narcissistic self-obsession, this is a reality that completely escapes the comprehension of most Jewish Israelis, most Jews, and most Americans: the issue of Palestine has become [...]

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The fate of Israel

by Paul Woodward 05.19.2010

The fate of Israel will be decided in New York — at least that’s what quite a few people in New York seem to think.
From this vantage point, the American Jewish community is the umbilical chord that keeps baby Zionism alive. And for Peter Beinart, this life-support system appears in jeopardy of raising a monster.
Among [...]

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What Israel means to me

by Guest Contributor 04.30.2010

By David Shasha*, April 30, 2010
Over the years there has been a constant spate of books containing the testimonials of American Jews proclaiming their teary-eyed and deeply emotional love of the state of Israel. These books are part of the larger program of Israeli Hasbarah, the form of advocacy that seeks to assert the total [...]

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Israel’s indispensable enemies

by Paul Woodward 04.25.2010

The brutality with which the Iranian authorities have suppressed political dissent since last June’s disputed presidential election has been widely reported. The Washington Post now reveals that the political turmoil has had another effect: it has resulted in a new supply of intelligence as disaffected officials leak information about Iran’s nuclear program.
As a result, a [...]

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Five Israelis had their identities stolen – apparently by Mossad!

by Paul Woodward 02.17.2010

Anyone who is Jewish but doesn’t have a Jewish sounding name and who has been considering emigrating to Israel might soon be having second thoughts.
To the extent that Israel provides a safe haven to Jews, it turns out your religious identity might count for less than your name.
The Israeli government has yet to acknowledge that [...]

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