Free Republic

The United States was founded by deeply religious Christians, and its tradition is rooted in what’s known as Judeo-Christian values. Other countries also are founded on, and embrace, Biblical values as well. It should go without saying that Israel, as the Jewish state, was re-established on Biblical Jewish tradition which is played out in almost every aspect of Israeli society. When soldiers are inducted into the IDF they are given a Bible. Shabbat, the Sabbath, is not just the cornerstone of the weekend, it’s a weekly affirmation of God’s creation and the need, indeed the gift and obligation, to rest....

If there was ever proof that Israel is not an apartheid state actively discriminating against its Arab minority, all one needs to do is look at the recent statement of Israeli Arab Knesset member Ayman Odeh. Not only does this reflect the reality that Israeli Arabs are equal parts of Israel’s democracy, that he can make statements that go against the interest and security of the state shows what a hyper-democracy Israel in fact is. As all this has unfolded, the thought I cannot shake is how much Israel’s Arabs deserve better. Odeh used the occasion of a recent Ramadan...

This past week, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made headlines in the Jewish world with a sincere expression of his awareness of the “hardship” that’s been faced by Jewish communities throughout the diaspora. Countless Jews are frustrated by the on-again, off-again closure of Israel’s borders to non-Israelis. Israel has faced criticism from Jews and Jewish communities due to the prohibition of most being able to come visit, tour, and see relatives. In fact, the reality of many diaspora Jews being left out, literally, and prevented from coming to visit their relatives in Israel has been the source of some of...

Source: Eli Kay/FacebookOn Sunday morning, a terrorist attack took place in Jerusalem leaving one Israeli dead and three injured. Attacks like this are always sad and cause a range of emotions, from anger to despair, that no matter what, Palestinian Arabs are always trying to kill us, just because we are Jews living in the Land. The man who was murdered was Eliyahu (Eli) Kay, 26. Eliyahu was a new immigrant from South Africa. He came to Israel to serve in the IDF as a lone soldier, joining the elite paratroopers. When I saw his picture in uniform with the...

Two seemingly parallel and completely unrelated things happened this week with an astonishing response. Running a non-profit, I look at the end of the year as an opportunity to tie up loose ends and be sure that in the last weeks of the year, the level of financial support is at least maintained. While planning some traditional year-end appeals on behalf of the Genesis 123 Foundation, I realized that Israel was in a bit of a crisis, with my organization and many others facing a financial deficit. In parallel, I received requests from people who read my articles to write...

Netanyahu has ended his tenure in a less than respectable way on many levels. I've written about that a lot as one who voted Likud/Netanyahu every election the past 20 years except for two, most notably the last one. He's got so many truly great achievements for which he deservingly can take credit. But he made it way too clear that his politics was about him, not the country. The last number of days leading up to the vote this week, he tried every trick in the book, and then made up some more, to do anything to stay in...

With most of the votes counted and no decisive outcome as far as who the next Prime Minister will be, or if Israel will be headed to an unprecedented fifth national election in less than three years, one thing is clear, the big winners in Israel’s national election this week were Israeli Arabs. One might have said that a year ago, after Israel’s third national election in (what was then) a year. Then, the “Joint Arab List,” a faction made up of four Arab political parties running together, won a striking 15 seats in Israel’s Knesset (parliament). This made the...

Like most Israelis, I was glued to the TV listening to the speeches and watching the ceremony of the signing of declarations of peace between Israel and both the UAE and Bahrain. Historic is an understatement. It brought me back to the day in March 1979 when Israel signed the Camp David Accords with Egypt, ending decades of hostility. Since then, Israel making peace with its Arab neighbors has been more or less a once-a-generation occurrence. Indications are that one or more of as many as five other Arab countries may also be on the verge of making peace with...

Juliette famously said of her beloved Romeo, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  She wasn’t just talking about her love for him, but the inherent conflict between her Capulet and his Montague families, among whom there was a generations-old blood feud.   Today, in place of a rose, whether called sovereignty, annexation, applying Israeli law, or by any other name, it is a cornerstone of a different inherent conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs, among whom there has also been a blood feud.In recent weeks, I have answered a multitude of questions about the possibility...