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 Conference of Presidents’ capitulation to ZOA against HIAS is shameful
Yesterday, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the umbrella group that purports to convene mainstream Jewish organizations, decided to delay the ascension of Dianne Lob as chair for one year. The ostensible reason was a complaint by the Zionist Organization of America which, among other things, alleged that Lob was “virtually unknown” and…
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Opinion The left and the right are both wrong: Biden and Sanders agree on Israel
Senator Bernie Sanders’ departure from the presidential election two weeks ago set off a predictable deluge of heartfelt political obituaries and visions of what could have been. Most of these pronouncements on social media and in left-leaning press outfits have focused on the candidate’s domestic agenda — Medicare for All, student loan forgiveness, a Green…
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Opinion The silver lining of Benny Gantz’s astonishing betrayal
Israeli politicians, with their famous lack of principles and shifting priorities, often make fools of prognosticators trying to discern the direction in which the country is headed. Along the way, they also tend to make fools of their own supporters, or anyone who placed a cautious amount of faith in them. Still, opposition leader Benny…
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Opinion Arab-Israelis are saving Israel’s democracy, one election at a time
This Sunday, for only the second time in Israel’s history, Arab-Israeli parliamentarians played a decisive role in providing a majority for the designated candidate for prime minister, which for now is former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. The gambit was historic for the very same reason its success appears so unlikely: A broad coalition…
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Opinion Netanyahu quarantined all arrivals to placate Trump. US-Israel relations are diseased.
It appears Israel’s rash decision to mandate a 14-day quarantine for everyone entering the country — effectively barring anyone who can’t guarantee they have a place to hunker down for two weeks — was not based entirely on public health considerations related to the global outbreak of coronavirus. According to reports in the Israeli press,…
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Opinion Bernie and Biden on Israel? It’s not as simple as you think.
For those watching where presidential candidates stand on Israel, it is hard to think of a more striking contrast than that between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, the two remaining viable Democratic hopefuls. The former Vice President, a distinguished U.S. Senator for nearly four decades who at one point chaired the Foreign Relations committee, is…
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Opinion Israelis just voted against the two state solution
Exit polls and early results from Monday’s Israeli election predicted a reprise of the first of three elections that began last April: a victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his bloc of right-wing, nationalist, and religious parties. Unlike in September’s vote, when Netanyahu finished a disappointing second and was not close to reaching the…
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Opinion Bernie is right: Netanyahu is a racist. But he should stop saying it.
During Tuesday night’s Democratic primary debate, Senator Bernie Sanders said Israel was led by “a reactionary racist,” a clear reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his long history of bigoted remarks and actions towards Arabs. For many of us long frustrated by the favorable double standard to which Israeli leaders are often held in…
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