Bibi was just trying to be cool. When congratulating Israeli contestant Netta Barzilai for her Eurovision song, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent her a tweet. It worked in Hebrew. “Netta, Kapara alayich” he wrote.
Natalie Portman made a political statement: You, Mr. Netanyahu, she said, are not the state.
It’s been a roller-coaster two weeks for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—from the triumph of AIPAC to the discontent and rancor at home in Jerusalem.
The year 2017 was another rocky one in the relationship between Israel and many American Jews, punctuated by conflict over matters once considered common ground. Some controversies—including a backlash over comments about American Jews’ military service by Israeli deputy foreign minister Tzipi Hotovely—suggest a level of misunderstanding that could end up harming both sides.
First-Time Knesset member Aida Touma-Sliman is a Palestinian, an Arab, a communist and a feminist who fights for the rights of all Israeli women.
I was at that peace rally in Tel Aviv, 22 years ago, when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. And for most years since, I have marked that date by attending memorial rallies in that same square. But this year, I won’t go to the annual rally in the square.
I’m not surprised that it took Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a full three days until he said anything about the events in Charlottesville. Or that, after three full days, he said, basically, nothing.
Once again, our city has been taken over by jealousy. Once again, it has been reduced to little more than a humiliated pawn in the hands of politicians who, in their attempts to own this city, are willing, quite literally, to let her die.
North American Jewish leaders say they are shocked that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has canceled the Kotel compromise and agreed to promote the Orthodox conversion bill. They shouldn’t be.
After nearly 70 years of statehood, most Jews don’t know the most basic information about the holiday that our neighbors celebrate. Is this the best we can do?
I want to celebrate that day when the walls that had cut the city in two came down, and we thought that East and West could merge. But it’s hard to celebrate in Jerusalem when right-wing, nationalistic politicians are putting up new walls.
“To this day, most Israeli Jews think of Arab food as cheap ‘hummus-chips (french fries)-salad-kebab’—all said as a single word. But it isn’t really Arab food at all.”
