Two Recommended Reads
First, the OU has issued an open letter to PM Ehud Olmert concerning the police brutality at Amona (Hat Tip: Hayom). It’s a worthwhile letter, but it merely makes what seems to me a...
The Next Fundraising Innovation
Not long ago, a well-respected yeshiva launched a “Chinese auction” to raise money. In order to innovate beyond the typical Trip-to-Israel prize, the auction featured home furnishings instead. But the auction came under criticism,...
Disclaimer: I don’t think police should treat ANYONE with unnecessary brutality
Had to put that disclaimer up there to forestall what will otherwise be the inevitable wrong-headed deduction some people will make after they read this post. OK, now that I got that out of...
Lack of Empathy?
Steve Brizel has commented twice recently that he sees a lack of empathy between Charedim and the Religious Zionist circles on incidents like the autopsy on the one hand, and the evacuation of Amona...
Outrage at Amona
Tzemach Atlas sent me a link last Thursday to his post, The Horses of Amona. This refers, of course, to the horses and other police brutality towards non-violent demonstrators attempting to prevent the dismantling...
Charles Krauthammer on Hamas
Interesting — he wrote basically what I did a week earlier, plus a call for all funding to be cut off. He agrees with me; I agree with him. Recommended reading.
Is the haredi option, an option?
7 bShvat In the wake of the Amona confrontation, the predicatment of the National Religious (NR) community was described on Friday in Haaretz when Meron Rapoport, in an article titled “Religious Zionism, without Zionism”...
Cross-Currents on the Ropes
Like Hollywood, the blogosphere can be a place where no good deed goes unpunished. When I wrote my original piece about Jack Abramoff’s hat, I thought I was being generous to him by speculating...
What’s the Solution?
On Tuesday night, I spoke at Yeshivat Shala’avim to the American students on the level of Jewish identity in Israel today. After concluding a fairly depressing survey, I then inquired as to the potential...
The Advantages of Clarity
Hamas surprise victory in last week’s elections for the Palestinian Authority parliament has sent policy makers in Jerusalem, Brussels, and Washington D.C. into a tizzy. Diplomats prefer dealing with a known quantity, however noxious,...