More in ‘Israel’

Justin Bieber is a pop star who looks like he’s about 11—don’t worry, though, he’s 16. If a celebrity is someone famous for being famous, Bieber is a celebrity who is famous for perennially being a trending topic on Twitter. For his upcoming world tour, Bieber’s fans are having a contest to see which country ...

• We learn a fair bit about Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky’s forthcoming wedding, like that it will take place within three hours’ drive from New York City and have 400 guests. No word, however, on the religious character of the ceremony. [NY Mag]
• As the Turkish-Israeli pissing match (and worse) continues, what is the ...

Arizona’s controversial Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act takes effect in July. Last month, Republican State Senator Russell Pearce, a staunch conservative, announced plans to promote legislation that would strip U.S. citizenship from the children of illegal immigrants. Speaking to Reuters, Pearce referred to the kids as “jackpot” or “anchor babies.” These children, ...

For those unfamiliar, The Ethicist is a column in The New York Times Magazine in which Randy Cohen plays nondenominational rabbi to a flock of Times readers facing ethical dilemmas. This week, it took on an especially Jewish, and very au courant, cast. “Eddy” from Berkeley, California, told Cohen that his daughter had applied to ...

I can’t write a column this week. I tried. I took long walks by the river. I typed out 10 different drafts. I turned to bourbon in search of inspiration. But all I could think about was the “Freedom Flotilla.”
Just a few days before the disastrous flotilla affair, I’d written a column about the prophet ...

• Israel has begun deporting the 600-odd flotilla activists captured on Monday. The country’s interior ministry said that about 400 Turkish nationals were being placed on flights back to Turkey, and a Jordanian news agency reports that another 126, among them citizens of several Muslim countries, had been sent by bus to Jordan. [NYT]
• The ...

So, my week was kinda crazy; how was yours?
I knew that my column last week about my ambivalence toward Israel would generate a lot of debate. I did not know I would be called a “vapid ignoramus,” a terrible mother, a “spoilt” consumerist, a “knucklehead,” and a “hypocrite” whose passivity helped cause the Holocaust. There ...

Might the Obama administration’s calls for stricter nonproliferation efforts find Israel in its crosshairs? Probably not, but it’s still an issue worth watching.
Israel practices “nuclear ambiguity”: It has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty …but has pledged not to become “a nuclear power” … but is basically known for certain to possess nuclear warheads, though it ...

Unlike some other denominations, we Jews save Satan for special occasions. The hoofed and horned dude appears only when the story calls for a touch of absolute evil, a black slate against which virtue shines all the brighter.
There he is, for example, in this week’s haftorah, casting aspersions on the high priest Joshua, who, we’re ...

The Obama administration’s first National Security Strategy—the bedrock executive branch statement of principles, intentions, and methods for ensuring American security—has leaked. It is the first NSS since the Bush administration released one in March 2006, and if it has a single constant theme, running through the pages of diplomatic boilerplate and dry technocratic discussion on ...