The fast of the ninth day of Av

By Yoram Ettinger, The Ettinger Report 1. Faith, Morality, Commemoration and Optimism Underlining National Jewish Fasts: * Jewish fasts commemorate critical historical and value-driven junctions, highlighting moral clarity, which constitutes a prerequisite to operational and existential clarity. Memory is Deliverance; forgetfulness is oblivion. * Fasts highlight the difference between Oblivion (exile) and Deliverance (ingathering of…

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Obama Meets Netanyahu: No Love Fest But As Good As It's Gonna Get

by Barry Rubin, The Rubin Report Why was the meeting this time between President Barack H. Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a success? The answer is simple though not all the reasons are publicly known. So I’ll tell you about them. The president couldn’t have been more effusive. They had an “excellent” discussion, Netanyahu’s…

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Jerusalem Thaws the Freeze, Approves New Housing

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israelnationalnews.com Jerusalem’s planning commission ended the de facto building freeze Monday night by approving building 32 new housing units in Pisgat Ze’ev, where 50,000 Jews live in the northeastern part of the city. The Palestinian Authority claims the areas as part of its proposed new Arab country within Israel’s post-1967 borders.…

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Divine Divestment

by Mark Tooley, Frontpagemag.com Chicago-area United Methodists last month voted to divest from companies doing business with Israel, including Caterpillar and General Electric. A few weeks later, in July, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), whose annual convention was outside Chicago, appreciatively gave the Northern Illinois Conference of United Methodism its Interfaith Unity Award.…

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The Religious Left and Israel

by Mark Tooley, American Spectator The nearly 3 million member Presbyterian Church (USA) is pondering yet one more condemnation of Israel, which ranks along with the U.S. as the world’s nearly only sinful nation, at least according to liberal Mainline Protestant elites. Several years ago, Presbyterians approved an anti-Israel divestment policy that was quickly revoked…

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Fit for 'The New York Times'

by Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post Two important statements this week shed a light on the nature of the Palestinian conflict with Israel. Both were barely noted by the media. On Saturday, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave US mediator George Mitchell a letter detailing a number of concessions that…

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Obama: Israel won't attack Iran without coordinating with U.S.

by Haaretz Service U.S. President Barack Obama told Channel 2 News on Wednesday that he believed Israel would not try to surprise the U.S. with a unilateral attack on Iran. In an interview, to be aired Thursday evening, Obama was asked whether he was concerned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would try to attack Iran without…

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Israel: A normal country

The following statement has been signed by Jose Maria Aznar, David Trimble, John R. Bolton, Alejandro Toledo, Marcello Pera, Andrew Roberts, Fiamma Nirenstein, George Weigel, Robert F. Agostinelli and Carlos Bustelo: Israel is a Western democracy and a normal country. Nonetheless, Israel has faced abnormal circumstances since its inception. In fact, Israel is the only…

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