A power struggle is tearing apart a right-wing vigilante group that once served as the stander bearer of Jewish militancy in America. The Jewish Defense League, founded in 1968 by late militant rabbi Meir Kahane, has been in a virtual tailspin since 2001, according to experts who monitor extremist groups. It was then that Irv…
Every year, just about now, the public is dutifully informed that Passover is around the corner. Advertisements tout the virtues of this or that brand of gefilte fish, while supermarket shelves fill up with boxes of matzo, Pesachdik cookies and foodstuffs from Israel, all of which is destined straight for the Seder table. Wine merchants,…
On the cover of the latest issue of Pat Buchanan’s magazine, The American Conservative, the face of Israeli Cabinet minister Natan Sharansky peers out from what appears to be a vintage wanted poster. “Who Is This Man?” the headline screams. “Why Are His Ideas Guiding U.S. Policy?” The dramatic cover and searing critique inside represented…
A satellite question-and-answer session with Israel’s Prime Minister Sharon was a highlight of the March 15 Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Gala Dinner, attended by more than 1200 Israeli army supporters from around the country. I had quick chats with Malcolm Hoenlein, Raphael (Rafi) Rothstein, Joshua Matza, Fanya Heller, Sam Bloch, Gabriel Erem, Marc…
GULU, Uganda — It is much harder, Nelson Oyet explains in a monotone, to hack a child with a machete than to shoot him with a gun. He is 16. Jennifer Atira recounts in a halting voice how she was given as a “wife,” at 13, to a commander twice her age who would beat…
On his 50th yahrzeit, Yosef Rolnick was featured in the Forverts on the pages of Pearls of Yiddish Poetry. He was known in his time (1879-1955) as one of the Di Junge poets. But in one major respect he was different from most of the others who focused on social, economic and political subjects. Rolnick…
WASHINGTON — Last week the Bush administration’s point man on the peace process, Elliott Abrams, came to Jerusalem to demand a halt to Israel’s expansion of West Bank settlements. The directive reflected three decades of American opposition to settlement expansion, but marked a radical transformation on Abrams’s part. Just four years ago, as an out-of-government…
WASHINGTON — As they prepare for separate meetings with President Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas are battling to secure White House endorsements of their conflicting positions on West Bank settlements. Sharon, who will travel to Crawford, Texas, on April 11 for his first meeting at Bush’s private ranch, wants…
TEL AVIV — Tensions between the religious settler community and the political mainstream reached into the army’s General Staff and boiled over this week, in an unusual confrontation that could be a sign of things to come as the July date nears for disengagement from Gaza. The eruption came at a meeting of senior officers…
Urged on by conservative provocateur David Horowitz, lawmakers in several states are pushing legislation requiring unprecedented government oversight of teaching on college campuses. In Florida last week, a key legislative committee approved the so-called “Academic Bill of Rights” in an 8-2 vote. The decision came after the bill’s Republican sponsor inveighed against “leftist totalitarianism” among…
Schiavo Set-to: Some Connecticut liberals are seizing on Senator Joseph Lieberman’s stance approving of congressional intervention in the Terri Schiavo matter to press their case that Lieberman is out of touch with Nutmeg State voters. Lieberman, one of only a few Jewish lawmakers to approve of Congress’s bid to override the Florida courts and restore…
די „שלום־עליכם לעקציע“ וועט מען קענען הערן אויפֿן אָרט אָדער דורך דער אינטערנעץ.
