There are (still) Judges in Jerusalem (And in Lod also)
This week the Israeli justice system showed that despite unrelenting attacks by right wing politicians, including Prime Minister Netanyahu, the courts still are independent, and have the power and the courage, to hand out justice where justice is due. The Jewish terrorist Amiram Ben-Uliel, was handed three life sentences and an additional twenty years, by […]
Hell on Earth: The Moria refugee Camp on Lesbos
It already was for many, Hell on Earth. But without the flames. That changed this week, when the refugee camp Moria on the Greek island of Lesbos, erupted in fire and was destroyed. The makeshift tents (often made from supermarket plastic bags), with the belongings of the refugees, the infrastructure (if you can call the […]
Corona in Israel: Time to Step Up
The corona virus crisis in Israel is reaching new heights, with increasing numbers of identified patients almost every day, the hospitals filling up and IC units being overwhelmed. But there still doesn’t seem to be a consensus among the people who are supposed to lead us, that it is time to let the professionals do […]
Jew or Israeli, or Both?
This week, the depth to which Israeli parliamentarians can sink was explored by MK Bezalel Smotrich, and he may well have set a new record, which is an impressive feat all by itself. This ultra-right religious MK presented to the plenum an amendment to a law that was originally passed by the Knesset in 1950 […]
The Slippery Slope towards a Dictatorship
A couple of days ago, during a rather routine interview on Radio 103FM, the Israeli minister of Strategic affairs, Eli Cohen, was asked about the problems surrounding the appointments of senior public servants that are due, the Police Commissioner, the State Attorney and the Attorney General. In and by itself legitimate and urgent questions since […]
Elections, Yes or No?
Tomorrow night at midnight, the Knesset will disband itself unless a budget is passed or a law extending the grace period during which the government needs to present a budget is passed. The bookmakers in London and elsewhere are probably trying to decide if to allow betting on this, but calculating the odds is nigh […]
The Price of Peace: an Update
The news of the impending peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, is only a couple of days old but there have been major changes to both the perception of the deal and the reality of this U.S.-brokered deal. It turns out that everybody has its own interpretation of the agreement (that hasn’t […]
The Price of Peace
The news of last Thursday, that Israel and the UAE have reached a peace agreement, is exciting and important, but more exciting and important is the price Israel will be paying for this agreement. The annexation of parts of the occupied territories is “off the table”. However, as with most “exciting and important” news coming […]
Politics?
Israelis have had the privilege to go to the polls to elect a parliament three times in the past 15 months and apparently this was not enough for at least some, because the talk about a fourth round of elections is getting louder by the day. Israel is dealing with a second wave of Corona […]
Rabbis can say anything
The freedom to practice a religion, to believe what you want, is a basic human right and people have gone to war and died for it. In modern Western countries, many people are religious and these countries very carefully preserve their right to be. At the same time though, these countries, being democratic, need to […]
