Iran’s attack: Observations the morning after
Published in the Waterbury Republican-American on April 17, 2024
I am writing this in Netanya right after Iran launched a massive attack of more than 300 drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles overnight, with additional missiles launched by Iran or its terror proxies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. With assistance from America, Britain, France and Jordan, the attack was almost completely thwarted, with just one serious injury, suffered by a seven-year-old girl asleep in her bed.Growing up and living most of my life in America, I am proud that the United States has been the greatest force for good in the history of the world. Now living much of the year in Israel, I also understand harsh realities about the Middle East which most Westerners, including American leaders, do not.
That lack of understanding led President Jimmy Carter to abandon the Shah of Iran, transforming Iran from a harsh but friendly and relatively progressive dictatorship into a fanatical theocracy that murders young women who allow stray hairs to escape their hijabs and whose leaders chant “Death to America.”
In 1990, that lack of understanding helped give Saddam Hussein the impression he had a green light to occupy Kuwait. During the ensuing war, when Saddam Hussein started launching missiles at Israeli cities, President Bush pressured Israel to not retaliate. It marked the first time Israel was attacked and did not defend itself, dealing a serious blow to Israeli deterrence, an existential necessity in the Middle East.
Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, American pressure forced Israel into a premature ceasefire every time Hamas started another war, inevitably leading to another bloodier and more destructive war.
When Barack Obama was president, we had Iran over a barrel, with its economy in shambles, its foreign currency reserves almost exhausted and barely able to support its terror proxies. Perversely, President Obama negotiated as if Iran was the superpower holding all the cards and we were powerless.
With an estimated $150 billion signing bonus and the elimination of sanctions worth many billions each year, Iran became an evil rags-toriches success, lavishly funding its many terror proxies while never actually adhering to the terms of the nuclear deal. We again had Iran on the ropes after Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement, until President Biden came into office promising to get Iran to agree to a longer and stronger deal and immediately removed the reimposed sanctions. When he couldn’t even get Iran to agree to a much shorter and weaker deal, President Biden kept giving Iran multi-billion-dollar waivers on sanctions.
We inexplicably removed the Houthis from our list of terror organizations.
We perversely declared Qatar — a close friend of Iran, major funder for Hamas, and owner of Al Jazeera — a “major non-NATO ally.”
We barely responded to well over 100 attacks on us and our friends, even when attacks killed American soldiers.
We left billions of dollars worth of sophisticated weapons for the Taliban and abandoned American citizens and allies in Afghanistan.
President Obama stood by helplessly when Russia took Crimea away from Ukraine.
While President Biden coordinated the supply of weapons to help Ukraine when Putin invaded again, responses to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s desperate pleas have often been very slow and the most needed weapons often withheld.
Immediately after Oct. 7, President Biden recognized Israel was fighting an evil enemy that had to be eliminated, and he pledged “rocksolid” and “unwavering” support.
Unfortunately, while Israel and its army proved they deserved that support, Biden’s rock-solid support has turned to jelly. He has even strongly pressured Israel to not enter the last remaining Hamas stronghold, hand Hamas a victory and let them murder the remaining hostages, including several Americans.
Russia’s takeover of Crimea, its recent invasion of Ukraine, the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7 and the recent Iranian attack are all connected to those errors.
Regardless of President Biden’s position, Israel has no alternative but to retaliate against Hamas. Any other response guarantees future attacks.
We need to recognize America is the free world’s indispensable nation and act like it.
We need to reimpose and enforce all the sanctions on Iran. We need to make clear we actually mean it when we say we will never allow Iran to have nuclear weapons.
We need to respond strongly whenever we or any of our friends and allies are attacked, whether or not the attack is successful.
If we don’t, Israel will pay a price, Ukraine will likely lose and China will likely invade Taiwan. America and the entire free world will suffer while Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and their allies of convenience are likely to impose a new Dark Age on this planet.
Alan Stein, Ph.D., was formerly a longtime resident of Waterbury. He and his wife Marsha currently split their time between Netanya in Israel and Natick, Mass. He is president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut (Promoting Responsibility in Middle East Reporting) and the founder of PRIMER-Massachusetts and PRIMER-Israel.
Message sent to Senator Elizabeth Warren on April 10, 2024
Senator Elizabeth Warren recently promoted the blood libel that Israel is committing genocide. As reported in many articles, including Warren predicts ICJ will find Israel committed genocide in Gaza in The Hill. After initially reasonably saying that she thought the International Court of Justice might find Israel guilty of genocide - after all, that "court" would more accurately call itself the "International (Kangaroo) Court of (In)Justice," she was further pressed on whether Israel is committing genocide and said "if you want to do it as an application of law, I believe that they’ll find that it is genocide, and they have ample evidence to do so."She could have responded with the truth, that the ICJ is an antisemitic travesty, the charge of genocide against Israel is baseless and a blood libel and the ICJ should have peremptorily refused to even consider the case brought by South Africa and castigated South Africa for bringing it to the court.
Instead, she not only repeated her belief the ICJ would find Israel guilty, but added "they have ample evidence to do so," which amounted to saying Israel was indeed committing genocide!
I have personally transmitted the message below, using the contact form on her Senate website. I urge everyone with a moral compass to express their disgust with her, both through her website and by calling her Senate office at (202) 639-5210. Be aware that the form on her website has a 2,000 character limit (she apparently doesn't want to hear too much from her constitutents) and when you call you will not be speaking to a human, will be asked for your name, address, email and phone number and won't have much time before you are cut off.
The following is the written message I sent:
To the best of my knowledge, you are highly intelligent and, as a long time United States Senator, well informed. Therefore, one cannot attribute your recent statements about alleged genocide in Gaza to either ignorance or stupidity and you must be well aware calling the perverse accusations of Israel committing genocide baseless would be whitewashing the intent behind them. I cannot believe you don't recognize they constitute a blood libel.
I thus cannot escape the conclusion that your statement was that of an antisemite and/or demagogue. Either way, you have demonstrated yourself to be a disgrace to the United States Senate.
You also cannot be unaware that your statement is a gift to Hamas and thus to its primary sponsors and financiers, Iran and Qatar, and greatly encourages Iran's other terror proxies, including Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis, all of which are enemies of America. They also serve to incentivize America's other enemies such as Russia, China, North Korea and Venezuela.
Ergo, besides effectively being complicit in the explicitly genocidal campaign of Hamas, your statement effectively allies you with America's enemies.
In contrast, while the presence in Congress of a pathological liar like George Santos was an embarrassment and he deserved to be expelled, he did not really harm America while what you have done is causing great harm to America as well as the rest of the democratic world. You deserve to be expelled from Congress even more than he did.
For shame. I am embarrassed and dismayed that you are one of my Senators.
Open Letter to President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.
The following was sent to President Biden on March 12, 2024. It may be freely published or posted anywhere without restriction.
Dear President Biden:
Americans generally expect our president to be the recipient of the most accurate information of anyone in the world, but your recent statements about the war Hamas started with its October 7 massacre make it clear you are being misinformed.
Examples:
You keep insisting Israel must do more to protect civilians in Gaza. But according to John Spencer, American's most respected expert on urban warfare, "Israel [has] implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties [in Gaza] than any other nation in history."
Obviously more can always be done, but it is a bit over the top to harshly criticize the behavior of an army that has done more in that area than any other in history, including our own American army.
You also keep repeating that too many Palestinians have gotten killed. I would agree that even one innocent civilian getting killed is too many. But it is an unfortunate reality that innocent people always get killed in wars. The behavior of a state should be judged in comparison to that of others, not the impossible ideal of no innocent people getting killed.
In May, 2022, the United Nations Security Council held a meeting devoted to the high level of civilian casualties in modern warfare, with speakers referring to 90% of casualties being civilians. American soldiers have said that when they served in Iraq, our army considered it acceptable if the level of civilian casualties was held down to 90%. Put another way, in wars in general, it's expected and considered acceptable by our American army that the ratio of civilian to combatant casualties will be 9 to 1.
As of a few days ago, Hamas claimed there were 30,000 deaths, while Israel identified killing 13,000 terrorists. That means, assuming Hamas' statistics were relatively accurate even though that terror group is notorious for grossly exaggerating the number of casualties, there were roughly 17,000 civilians killed and 13,000 terrorists killed, translating to a ratio of civilian to combatant casualties of about 1.3 to 1, or less than 1/6 the level generally expected.
This is clear evidence that not only has Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any other army in history, but that it has been amazingly successful.
Obviously, your criticism of Israel for the level of civilian casualties is totally unjustified. The fact that you have been criticizing Israel about the level of civilian casualties makes it appear the information that has been reaching you has been grossly inaccurate.
You are also demanding that Israel act in a manner that would make impossible a result you asserted must be reached.
In the aftermath of the Simchat Torah Massacre, you correctly insisted Hamas must be eliminated. Clearly, in order to eliminate Hamas, Israel must root Hamas out of Rafah and take control of the Philadelphi Corridor. Yet you are now saying Israel going into Rafah would be a red line and are effectively threatening to cut off the necessary resupply of ammunition and other arms if Israel acts to eliminate Hamas' presence in Rafah.
President Biden, it's critically important that you receive accurate information and also that you not undercut America's only reliable friend and ally in the Middle East. This is critical not just for the security of Israel but for the credibility of the United States, for the security of America and its fellow Western democracies, and to retain any chance to save the lives of the hostages kidnapped by Palestinian terror groups and still held by them, including at least a half dozen Americans.
Sincerely,
Alan Stein
This was sent using the White House Contact Form. Because of the 2,000 character limit for messages there, it was sent in two parts and a portion of the last sentence was omitted in order to not have to break it into three separate parts.
My troubling interaction with Americans United With Israel
I had a troubling experience with Americans United With Israel - not to be confused with the wonderful Israeli organization United With Israel.The following is a synopsis; for a detailed chronology, CLICK HERE This was originally posted here in September, 2023. Since the Simchat Toarh massacre perpetrated by Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, other terror groups and thousands of ordinary Gaza civlians on October 7, 2023, I have not felt comfortable following up on it with AUWI, but there has been no contact made by AUWI and it has still neither forwarded the donation to its intended recipient nor returned it to the charitable gift fund.
In September of 2022, my wife and I sent a donation of several hundred dollars for the Good News Israel project of United With Israel. As we had successfully done previously, we sent it, through our charitable gift fund, to Americans United With Israel with the stipulation that it be used for the Good News Israel project of United With Israel. (Since direct donations to foreign non-profits are not deductible in the United States, we did not send it directly but through Americans United With Israel.)
This time, while Americans United With Israel accepted the donation, it never transferred the funds to United With Israel. It stonewalled United With Israel for months and the donation was never forwarded to United With Israel and Michael Ordman's Good News Israel. I finally got involved in March, 2023 and our charitable gift fund sent Americans United With Israel a return request. Americans United With Israel claims it never received the request. It has since several times promised to return the funds to our charitable gift fund, but never did.
It last promised to return most but not all of the inappropriately accepted funds on July 21 but has not communicated any further, nor responded to email requests for information sent August 14 and August 22, nor has it returned any of the funds.
I encourage people to support United With Israel
People should be very wary of having anything to do with Americans United With Israel.
More details of this unhappy saga, including emails back and forth, albeit mostly forth, with the president of Americans United With Israel, can be read by CLICKING HERE.
The unreasonableness surrounding the reasonableness doctrine
The absolute craziness surrounding the issue of judicial reform in Israel has been causing terrible damage. This led me to compose a opinion piece, which thus far has not been published anywhere, so I'm posting it here and have also posted to the The PRIMER Blog and my Facebook page and am including here. I encourage you to share it. Let's all start acting reasonably and responsibly and end the damage.
Now that reasonableness has passed, let's get reasonable
Alan Stein
Spoiler alert: The implementation of the new Basic Law limiting the use of the reasonableness standard needs to be delayed to give the next government, chosen after the next election (hopefully, we'll just need one election next time), a chance to have its say.
As a dual citizen living in both Israel and the United States, while not being an attorney I believe I have an understanding about the judicial reform controversy that escapes most Israelis and most Americans, including American Jews.Had the initial protests actually been purely about the initial judicial reform proposals, I might have joined them. Although judicial reform is clearly needed, as has been recognized in the past by most of those now leading the increasingly hysterical opposition to the current efforts, the original proposals contained some provisions I felt unwise. However, it was clear from the beginning that the protests had more to do with trying to undo the results of the election than the proposals. The protests were and remain, in effect, Israel's version of the massive anti-Trump demonstrations in the United States in 2016 and 2017 surrounding Donald Trump's election and inauguration and the pro-Trump rally in the Capitol on January 6, 2021 trying to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. Unfortunately, the Israeli protests have been far more sustained, far more disruptive, have already done tremendous damage and threaten to do far more. They have already done far more damage than any provisions of the original proposals could have done.
Many have said that Netanyahu and only Netanyahu could have ended the unrest. Others have said that about Lapid, Saar, Barak and Olmert. They're all both right and wrong.
Netanyahu might have been able prevent the disaster at the start, had he not been constrained by the attorney general from getting involved. (This, itself, provides a good case for the need for reform!) Or if he had shown more courage and ignored the attorney general before things got totally out of hand.
The opposition could also have prevented the disaster by addressing their followers and speaking honestly, putting the good of the country ahead of their hatred of Netanyahu, who has been prime minister for so long and has such a talent for alienating people, including close associates, and ahead of their goal of forcing the collapse of the coalition.
They could have. Netanyahu could have. The coalition members really pushing the judicial overhaul could have.
None of them did. They all acted irresponsibly. They all acted unreasonably. They all share responsible for the damage that has been done.
Now, we have one small portion of the package enacted into law. From the reports I've read, it's not much different from what was almost agreed upon in the negotiations under the auspices of the president.
The protests have gotten more disruptive and more damaging and coalition members are saying they will be pushing ahead with more of the changes.
If either side wins a complete victory, it will be a total disaster for Israel.
I have some recommendations.
First and most important, immediately pass a slight modification to the legislation just enacted, specifying that it will not go into effect until month (or some other "reasonable" period) after the next election is held and a new government is formed. A similar provision should be included with any additional modifications of Basic Laws.No longer could any claim they were fighting the reforms to preserve democracy. They would not affect either the current coalition or Netanyahu's legal cases and whatever government is elected next time could quickly put an end to any changes it opposed on principle rather than as part of a strategy to bring down the coalition.
With the atmosphere, if not the summer heat, hopefully cooler, resume the talks hosted by President Herzog, but this time participate in good faith, honestly try to reach agreement so that we can move forward, concentrate on healing the schisms that have been exacerbated the last few months and deal with the basic problems we all share.
And then, we need to deal with one of the basic (pun intended) problems that has emerged in both Israel and the United States: governments implementing fundamental changes opposed by large portions or even majorities of the population.
For example:
In Israel, the Oslo Accords were approved over the opposition of roughly half the country, as was the Gaza disengagement. Basic Laws have been swiftly amended for purely political convenience and now a Basic Law has been enacted not just without a consensus, but over bitter opposition.Many have said the current events demonstrate our need for an Israeli Constitution. I agree, but I doubt we'd be able to get an agreement now without further tearing the country apart. However, we can work towards one by making Basic Laws really basic in the following way:
Start with something like the following Basic Law: A Basic Law shall be enacted upon the approval of a 2/3 vote of the entire Knesset.
Given that we have a unicameral legislature, perhaps it would be better to require the approval of two consecutive Knessets, or a second vote a reasonable period, perhaps a year, after the first vote. But a Basic Law should require overwhelming approval and should not be able to be enacted without giving people time to consider it.
As for existing Basic Laws, let them retain that status for a reasonable (there's that word again) period, say five years. If they are reapproved using the new conditions during that period, they would retain the status of Basic Laws; if they are not reapproved, they could still be laws but not Basic Laws.
After another five years or so, we could compile those now meaningful Basic Laws together and approve them as a Constitution.
In the meantime, let's have some courage and statesmanship from our political leaders rather than cowardice and partisanship.
Alan Stein is a dual citizen of Israel, living in Netanya, and the United States, living in Massachusetts. He is an active advocate for Israel, founder of PRIMER-Israel and PRIMER-Massachusetts and president emeritus of PRIMER-Connecticut and was CAMERA's Letter Writer of the Year in 2015. In 2009, his op-ed giving advice to Barack Obama was published on the day of Obama's inauguration. Upon making aliyah in 2014, his op-ed giving advice to Benjamin Netanyahu was published. Stein believes it is unfortunate that neither Obama nor Bibi was wise enough to take his advice. He hopes history does not repeat with the advice he's giving in this op-ed.
Blowin' in Her Tweets: The Ballad of Ilhan Omar
The repeated expressions of antisemitism spewing from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar inspired me to put together a music video. Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."Divrei Torah
Each summer at my American synagogue, Temple Israel of Natick, the divrei Torah are offered by members of the congregation. In 2014, I made the suggestion that at least one of the divrei Torah be presented by someone from the Israel Action Committee and focus on Israel. I've somehow turned out to be that person several times. Here is the start of my d'var Torah each time, with links to the full divrei Torah.D'Var Torah — Shoftim
August 18, 2018
In Shoftim, Moshe instructs the Children of Israel to appoint judges, to “judge the people with righteous judgement.” As Rabbi Liben mentions, he says
צדק צדק תרדף
Justice, justice you must pursue
It actually continues
למען תחיה ויָרַשתָ את הארץ אשר ה׳ אלהיך נֹתֵן לָך
that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Does that mean the people of Israel will not live if we do not pursue justice? Does Moses mean we wouldn’t inherit the Land of Israel, or our children wouldn’t inherit the Land, if we didn’t pursue justice? Does it mean it doesn’t really matter whether we pursue justice outside Eretz Yisrael?
You won’t get an answer from me.
What about the last verse in Chapter 19?
ולא תָחוֹם אֵינֶך נפש בנפש עין בעין שֵן בשֵן יד ביד רגל ברגל
And thine eye shall not pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
That verse is often used to malign what the people who do so usually call the “Old Testament.” A former rabbi of Temple Israel, Arnold Miller, gave a different interpretation.
D'Var Torah — Matot-Massei
July 22, 2017
Today's double-parshah brings us to the end of Bemidbar, as the Israelites were ending their 40 years in the desert and preparing to finally enter the land of Canaan. Moshe distributes the portions of the land to the different tribes.
After being attacked by the nations that lived on the east bank, the Israelites were already in possession of a vast tract of land outside their originally intended borders. Shades of the yet-to-come Six-Day War.
The tribes of Reuvain and Gad had large numbers of sheep, found the land was good for grazing and decided to settle on the east bank, angering Moshe, who feared the other tribes would believe those tribes were afraid to continue into Eretz Yisrael. To alleviate the problem, Moshe made a deal with them: the tribes of Reuvain and Gad would lead the charge into the land of Canaan, but after the land was conquered they could return to their land on the east bank.
Moshe also gave half the tribe of Manashe territory east of the Jordan River. There are several explanations given; I'm partial to the explanation that Moshe was concerned the separation of the tribes would create a sense of alienation, but by having half of the tribe of Manashe on either side of the Jordan it would serve as a bridge, between the Jews living in Eretz Yisrael on the west bank and those in the Diaspora on the east bank.
Sometimes it feels as if Marsha and I, splitting our time between Israel and America, also serve as a bridge.
D'Var Torah - Pinchas
July 30, 2016
Shabbat shalom.
Today's parshah, Pinchas, serves as a reminder that, as important as our sacred texts are, we need to interpret them using our own knowledge, understanding and morality.
God explains to Moses how he rewarded Pinchas, the son of Elazar and grandson of Aaron, for slaying Zimri, and his Midianite consort and thus halting a lethal plague.
Is the Torah really telling us that licentious behavior causes plagues? Is it really telling us we should slay people engaging in such behavior?
The parshah discusses a census of the people, including 601,730 males between the ages of twenty and sixty, used in conjunction with the allocation of the land of Israel among the tribes and families.
Is that figure reasonable?
... read the entire text ...
D'Var Torah — Pinchas
July 12, 2014
Shabbat shalom.
One thing I've learned from life in Israel is that you always have to be ready to change plans and improvise.
After I'd prepared a rough draft on Pinchas, the bodies of Eyal, Naftali and Gilad were found, a handful of Israelis did some abhorrent things, Hamas increased its bombardment of Israeli towns, Israel finally responded, and I ripped up my draft.
Last week, Rabbi Liben noted the midrash that when Balaam observed the encampment of the Israelites, he noticed the openings of their tents did not face one another. From this he inferred the Israelites were a modest people.
This modesty apparently didn't last even through the entire parshah.
PRIMER-Massachusetts
After almost two years in Massachusetts, I reluctantly concluded that not only wasn't the organized Jewish community here doing anything significant to deal with the anti-Israel bias of The Boston Globe and other Massachusetts newspapers, but no action was visible on the horizon.The last straw was when The Boston Globe published an anti-Israel op-ed on Yom Hazikaron and I realized that nobody in the Jewish community was publishing op-eds on that or any other Jewish holidays.
Out of that frustration comes PRIMER-Massachusetts, an effort to informally organize pro-Israel activists to monitor newspapers and alert each other when action is needed. I hope it will eventually become as effective as PRIMER-Connecticut has been.
Please visit the PRIMER-Massachusetts website; if you're in the area and want to get involved, send me an email or fill out the form on the PRIMER-Massachusetts website.
The Grey Lady
The New York Times doesn't seem to like publishing my letters, so I decided to make them available here. This is one of my latest:The article "The War in Gaza is Making Thousands of Orphans" is just one of a constant drumbeat of articles, in The New York Times and other newspapers, highlighting suffering in Gaza. Like almost all those articles, it omits even hinting at crucial context and information one should be able to expect, such as the war being started with a barbaric massacre executed by Hamas with the participation of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, other Gaza terror groups and thousands of ordinary Gaza "civilians," the proportion of civilian casualties being far below the norm for modern urban warfare, and the way Hamas deliberately uses civilians as human shields and considers each civilian casualty a strategic asset. Never reported is whether the families involved contain terrorists belonging to Hamas or one of the other terror groups, participated in October 7, or are among the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs supporting Hamas and proud of October 7.
In sharp contrast, we rarely see articles about the innocent people in Gaza who are suffering the most, the hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, subject to horrendous conditions (itself a gross understatement) and not infrequently murdered. We see almost no articles about the large number of Israeli families driven from their homes by the constant bombardment of rockets, artillery, RPGs and other projectiles launched not just by Hamas, but from Lebanon by Hezbollah and from Yemen by the Houthis.
Nor do we read much about the starvation and suffering in Darfur or Yemen or Myanmar or any one of the several other places where the suffering is comparable to or greater than that in Gaza.
One cannot help but wonder whether this imbalance has anything to do with the fact that the enemy Hamas is determined to destroy is the world's only Jewish state and the people targeted for genocide in the Hamas charter are the world's Jews.
Sincerely,
Alan Stein
Flash: The New York Times actually published one of my letters, on August 10, 2017. This was the first time in more than half a century. Here it is:
Capturing Adolf Eichmannn
To the Editor:
Re “A Most-Wanted Nazi in His Glass Cage,” by Jason Farago (Exhibition Review, Aug. 4):
I had to read it twice to believe it. Argentina harbored Adolf Eichmann, the criminal who ran the most outrageous genocide in history, and The New York Times publishes an article in which an art critic questions the morality and legality of Israel’s capturing him and bringing him to trial?
Talk about a missing moral compass!
ALAN STEIN, NATICK, MASS.
Read more of my letters to The New York Times by clicking here.
The hypocrisy of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, hit a new low in Februrary, 2014, when just two weeks after ignoring the suffering of the Jews in a statement issued on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, she had the chutzpah to criticize Israel for not being complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Jews from their own homeland. I responded with an open letter to Ashton.
Read My Letter
The PRIMER Blog
PRIMER-Connecticut has its own blog. It's worth checking out.Hannah and Sol Stein
My parents, who lived long – although not long enough – and fulfilling lives.The Only Holocaust Memorial
Robert Arbetman expresses some brilliant thoughts about Holocaust memorials.
Crash Course on the Arab-Israeli Conflict
A collection of facts about the Arab-Israeli conflict often ignored in the media.
Anatomy of a Violin
When I absconded with one of my father's violins, I had some repairs made and had the very accomodating String Doctor take some photographs of the inside of the violin when it was taken apart. You may find them fascinating.
Resources for Pro-Israel Peace Advocates
A fairly concise collection of online resources available for those interested in peace in the Middle East. A new addition is a selection of letters sent to newspapers.
Mitchell Bard has put one of the most valuable guides to the Arab Israeli conflict online.
Myths and Facts has 22 chapters covering everything from Israel's roots to each of the wars to the current uprising. Because it is online we can now respond rapidly to new myths with accurate facts. All of the information is hyperlinked to the Jewish Virtual Library, the world's most comprehensive online encyclopedia of Jewish history and culture.
This is a work in progress and Dr. Bard welcomes comments and suggestions.
The Anti-Defamation League has created a tremendous resource for advocates of Arab-Israeli peace in the Middle East. A printable version may be downloaded and published copies may be obtained from the ADL.
HonestReporting is a fast-action website dedicated to ensuring that Israel receives fair media coverage. It scrutinizes the media for anti-Israel bias and then mobilizes subscribers to complain directly to the news agency concerned.
My Mideast Peace Plan -- Early in 1995, in response to a question on an Internet discussion list, I put together an outline for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace plan. Not much has changed since then-other than it becoming obvious to everyone that Yassir Arafat never had any intention of agreeing to a peaceful settlement-and the plan is almost as appropriate today as it was then.
In October, 1995, I had the dubious pleasure of hearing Yassir Arafat
speak at a meeting with Jewish leaders. It's interesting to look back and
compare my observations then with today's reality.
Click
to read my observations.
Not long after that came the string of terrorist bombings in Israel. My daughter was in Israel during that period and I wrote some observations at that time. Click here to read my observations about the bombings.
American Family Immigration History Center -- Includes passenger records from the ships which carried over 22 million immigrants to Ellis Island between 1892 and 1924.
My challah recipe. It's a variation of an excellent recipe from The Jewish Catalog.