Abe Silberstein is the Associate Director, North America, of The Abraham Initiatives, an Israel-based NGO working to achieve equality between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel. He tweets @abesilbe. His views and opinions do not reflect those of his employer.
Abe Silberstein
By Abe Silberstein
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Opinion The Israel-Hamas ceasefire should have come sooner — and could have if Biden had acted
As of this writing, Israel and Hamas appear headed for a ceasefire. For the White House, should the ceasefire take effect as expected at 7 p.m. Eastern time and hold, it may seem like a victory for its favored quiet and “arm around Israel” approach. In fact, though, this episode demonstrated the inadequacy of a…
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Opinion What does it mean to be a liberal Zionist in the era of Sheikh Jarrah?
Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) ended in tragedy as Hamas rockets struck the outskirts of the holy city and Israel responded with airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. This followed several days of violent clashes between Palestinians and police, as well as Jewish extremists. One of the recent flashpoints in Jerusalem involves the impending eviction of Palestinian…
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Opinion Is ousting Netanyahu really worth elevating Naftali Bennett?
Israelis who wish to end the seemingly infinite tenure of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have in recent days pinned their hopes on a new idea: the prospect of a national-unity government led by Naftali Bennett, a former defense minister who heads the right-wing Yamina party. In theory, this Bennett-led government would be non-ideological, and the…
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Opinion The ICC probe of war crimes against Palestinians will deepen rifts between American Jews
Last Wednesday, the International Criminal Court announced it was opening an investigation into alleged crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories. It was a significant development in a process that has seen countries clash over whether those territories even fall within the ICC’s jurisdiction. Fatou Bensouda, the court’s outgoing chief prosecutor, succeeded in convincing the…
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Opinion Why it’s good that Biden’s foreign policy picks are controversial on Israel
Of the many Democratic candidates who sought their party’s nomination for president in 2020, Joe Biden was perhaps the one who least worried pro-Israel stalwarts. Aside from his clash with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, accounts of which are likely embellished, Biden’s long political record is one of friendship and understanding with the Jewish state….
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Opinion Jewish institutions must show courage, and take a hard line on Trump’s enablers
After Wednesday’s disgraceful assault on Capitol Hill, it is clear that there must be severe consequences for those who enabled and encouraged President Donald Trump’s big lie that the 2020 presidential election, which President-elect Joe Biden won, was stolen. Certainly, those who incited and participated in the insurrection must be prosecuted. But ensuring legal accountability…
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Opinion Israel’s fourth elections are a sign of democratic health – and resistance to Bibi
The news of Israel’s upcoming election, its fourth in less than two years, has been cast as a sign of dysfunction and instability in the country’s political system. It is taken for granted in the West that these are necessarily bad things, at least, if the amusing messages of sympathy from Americans to their Israeli…
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Opinion I’m glad Jonathan Pollard is moving to Israel. He doesn’t belong here.
Growing up in the fairly right-wing Orthodox community of Midwood, Brooklyn, during the immediate post-9/11 era, there were a number of active political causes that did not sound quite right to my young self. Through that potent combination of intellectual curiosity and adolescent rebellion, I began to define myself as a liberal, a rather dirty…
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