Still Life with Bombers: Israel in the Age of Terrorism By David Horovitz Alfred A. Knopf, 288 pages, $25. * * *| In the three and a half years since the second intifada was launched, the voice of the mainstream Israeli public has rarely been heard internationally. Television largely seeks out the extremists; terror victims’…
TEL AVIV — Even though he had been targeted for death since last fall, Israeli defense officials say the assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi became an urgent priority only in the last month, after he became the head of Hamas and began upgrading Iranian involvement in the organization. Rantisi, 54, was killed April 17 by…
A court-appointed special master overseeing distribution of money from Holocaust-era Swiss bank accounts has turned down two Israeli proposals for a dramatically increased share of unclaimed funds. In a report released April 16, the special master, Judah Gribetz, rejected Israeli requests that the Brooklyn federal court allocate almost half of any remaining funds from the…
On his 35th yahrzeit, the Forverts devoted its Pearls of Yiddish Poetry section to Mark Shveyd — poet, actor, playwright and translator. One of the poems included is an imaginary song sung by his mother as he is planning to leave his home and his country of birth. The transliteration is by Goldie Gold. The…
In a seemingly different life, Ahmed Subhy Mansour was a scholar at Cairo’s venerated Al-Azhar University. He studied the history of dictatorship in Islam and the place of death and paradise in the Koran. But some aspect of his research did not go over well with the authorities, and in 1987 he was fired from…
On April 12, in one of his rare press conferences, President Bush laid out a road map on America’s approach to Iraq’s future. Just two days later, he agreed to change — really reverse — the route. What happened? Much of Bush’s opening statement at the press conference consisted of what was once famously labeled…
Schumer Speaks: The appearance of New York Senator Charles Schumer at a fundraiser for the All Stars Project, a theater group founded by fringe politician Lenora Fulani, is being criticized by some New Yorkers. “What needs to be asked is, ‘Why, Mr. Schumer, are you addressing a group that only recently staged a show about…
The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage Edited by Loolwa Khazzoom Seal Press, 256 pages, $16.95. * * *| ‘Today,” writes Loolwa Khazzoom in the introduction to her new book of essays by Sephardic and Mizrahi women, “North African and Middle Eastern Jewish women continue to…
As Israel’s 56th Independence Day approaches, stock-taking easily produces negatives. Continuing suicide bombs, unbridled hatred of Israel and Jews throughout much of the Arab world, international condemnation of the Jewish state, and unresolved economic and social issues do not make for a gala celebration. This year, while we give thanks for the existence of the…
The Jewish Book of Fables By Eliezer Shtaynbarg Edited and translated from the Yiddish by Curt Leviant Syracuse University Press, 256 pages, $34.95. * * *| Eliezer Shtaynbarg (1880-1932) taught children Yiddish and Hebrew and wrote and directed plays for them in his native Bessarabia. Learned in biblical and Talmudic literature, he also edited a…
WASHINGTON — After two months on the air, Alhurra, America’s Arabic satellite TV network, has become a favorite punching bag of Arab commentators and religious leaders throughout the Middle East. Cartoonists ridicule it. Columnists dismiss it. One Saudi cleric went so far as to issue an Islamic edict outlawing Muslims from watching the network or…
