Immediately following the Six-Day War I doubt anyone thought the West Bank, seized in the fighting with Jordan, which occupied it at the time, would still be largely held by Israel nearly 50 years later. (I am not referring to people whose religious beliefs regard the conquering of Judea and Samaria, the historical birthplace of…
Aliyah rates from the United States to Israel are soaring and Israelis living in the states are at an all-time high. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, 140,488 North American Jews moved to Israel from 1948 to 2013. After a surge in aliyah numbers following the Yom Kippur war in 1968, numbers decreased…
In the aftermath of the San Bernardino and Paris terror attacks, perhaps the world will begin to understand that Israelis cope with a local version of this same wave of terror. Americans fear additional acts of Islamic “lone-wolf” terror on American soil. And Europe begins to fathom that the threat of ISIS is not limited…
Our Israel columnist Mylan Tanzer was in the states for a trade show, and a few days after the Israeli elections he stopped by our office to share some of his initial thoughts on the surprising election results. In our May issue, his column will take an in-depth look at the results and the (hopefully…
Whether we like it or not, every now and then we get a serious reminder of where we live and how our very normal daily routine of work, school, family, stating our opinion and going wherever we want whenever we want is anything but normal in this neighborhood. Israelis’ normalcy is actually an astonishing accomplishment….
Although it has been less than a month since what appears to be the end of Operation Protective Edge, it seems like a distant memory to many Israelis. (The one-month window in which the sides agreed to begin negotiations in Cairo ended just as I finished writing this and with no signs discussions will begin;…
Dear Editor: I’m Jason Levin and I’m the Green Party candidate for Governor. We’re a diverse group, united by a worldview that is both optimistic and pragmatic. We’ve never been “mainstream.” Our outsider vantage point often helps us to recognize problems (and solutions) that oth- ers miss. I’m not talking about the Green Party, I’m…
When I enrolled my sons in Portland Jewish Academy, I had no idea of the myriad benefits I would reap from that involvement. As both a woman and a journalist working in the Jewish press, the connections and experi- ences proved invaluable. Two of those benefits relate directly to the special sections in this edition…
When Anwar Sadat made his dramatic and historic trip to Israel in late 1977, I was a sophomore at Tel Aviv University on hiatus from the University of Washington. At that time, there was only one Israeli television channel, the state-owned Israel Broadcast Authority, and it broadcasted only a few hours each evening. But the…
I am an optimist by nature, but 33 years in Israel have taught me not to be when it comes to subjects like politics or the short-term prospects for the Middle East. Unfortunately for my family, myself and my country, this pessimism proves me right most of the time. April 29 was the end of…
