The Jewish Passover Holiday is fast approaching. It’s an 8 day festival known particularly for the requirement that we eat unleavened bread (Matzot). My wife and I are going to spend our holiday with friends and family. For the first nights’ festive meal we will be with our older son and his family at a … More Time for a Holiday Break
The official results of the Israeli elections are now in. Benyamin Netanyahu’s Likud party won the most seats, but only just barely. What did happen is that the smaller parties that can form coalition government with the Likud party won enough seat for Netanyahu to comfortably for a coalition. The various smaller factions that will … More Horsetrader Time
This coming Tuesday is election day in Israel. Its a close contest between the two leading parties. Both are hovering, according to the pollsters, at around 30 seats each. Since they need a majority of the 120 seat Knesset that means a coalition with one or more smaller parties. Most of the smaller parties are … More Ready? Set? Vote!
That statement, as many others that the American President has uttered, resulted in a lot of comment, both pro and con. But it should not be surprising. It is a simple recognition of Israeli rights that ought to have been affirmed long ago. I mentioned this here on my blog back in December. I’m repeating … More Trump says Golan belongs to Israel
In my post 4 days ago I mentioned Palestinian civil unrest and rioting in Gaza that was directed AGAINST Hamas. The demonstrations continued for at least tree days despite major efforts at suppressing them by the Gazan police and military. It has happened before. But this time it lasted longer. Gazans who dare to complain … More Gaza Riots
About an hour ago We were given a dramatic example of how our Israeli news channel can respond to a sudden crisis. The regular evening news was beginning to wind down when we suddenly saw missile attack warnings appear on the screen. The Home Front Command of the Israeli Army has had system for broadcasting … More Rockets in Real Time
In a month Israel will have a general election. It will be unusual in more than one way. The sraeli Knesset (parliament) of 120 members is elected by proportional representation. there are no true individual candidates. We vote for a party (of which there are about 18 running) and based on the percentage of votes … More A Strange Election
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority recently announced that the PA will refuse to accept any part of the money that Israel collects as withholding tax on the salaries of Palestinian workers employed in Israel. Under the original agreement Israel set aside those funds and delivered them to the PA because the PA had … More A Palestinian Temper Tantrum
After 25 years the observer force of 64 members of TIPH will be packing their bags and going home. TIPH stands for Temporary International Presence in Hebron. It was established in 1994 to try to keep down violence between the Arab and Jewish communities in the city.. The current observers come from Italy, Turkey, Norway, … More End of an Era
When one lives in Israel there are still lotd of Holocaust survivors or their descendants that you hear about regularly. So the reports that so many people in the world know so little about the holocaust seems quite strange, Hearing about the rise in worldwide antisemitism from various political leaders adds to feeling that it … More International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Wetherhorn 