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How Not To Protect the Jewish State

By Eric Yoffie

During his recent visit to the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his demand that Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state should be a precondition for talks aimed at achieving a peace settlement. While such a request might seem reasonable — after all, Israel is a Jewish state — it is actually a serious mistake.Read More

Confronting Our Demagogue

By Eric Yoffie

The apologists and the excuse-makers in the American Jewish community have begun their work. No need for concern, they say. Avigdor Lieberman, leader of Israel’s Yisrael Beiteinu party, is not really an extremist. He may have some unconventional ideas and have said some unfortunate things, but he is basically a mainstream politician who poses no threat to U.S.-Israel relations or to relations between Israel and American Jews. But the apologists are wrong.Read More

On Gaza, Sense and Centrism

By Eric Yoffie

Wars sicken me, even wars that I support. I support Israel’s offensive in Gaza, but watching it on TV — the images of bombed-out buildings, crying women and, inevitably, the bodies of innocent bystanders — is a painful experience.Read More

Orthodoxy’s Kosher Crisis

By Eric Yoffie

Over the course of the past five months, the American Jewish community has observed with dismay the gradual unfolding of the Agriprocessors scandal. Agriprocessors may be a private corporation, but as the nation’s leading producer of kosher meat, it is one that operates under the Jewish communal banner. Its actions have been followed closely, not only by Jews such as myself who observe kashrut, but by all Jews — not to mention many in the broader American public.Read More

Let the Spirit of Bill Gates Be Brought to the Pews

By Eric Yoffie

As one of about two dozen religious leaders invited to attend the World Economic Forum last month in Davos, Switzerland, I spent four of the most fascinating days of my life engaged in high-level interfaith dialogue with representatives of the Muslim and Christian world. Where else could I sit with a member of the Saudi royal family to inquire about his views on interfaith relations?Read More


 

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