Why Arafat Went to War: The Wrong Lessons from Lebanon and Kosovo
When Yasser Arafat unleashed terrorist violence against Israel in September 2000, he was applying mistaken lessons from the conflicts in Lebanon and Kosovo, according to Brig. Gen. Eival Gilady, speaking at the inaugural lecture of the Institute for Contemporary Affairs at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs on May 27, 2002.
The Islamic Arab Minority in the Jewish State
A summit of religious leaders on the Middle East was held in Alexandria, Egypt, on 20-22 January 2002. The summit was held at the initiative of Dr. George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, and more than a dozen senior Muslim, Jewish, and Christian leaders from the Middle East attended, among them rabbis from Israel and sheikhs from Egypt and the Palestinian Authority who had received approval from their governments.
The Perverse Logic of French Politics
No. 479 June 2002 Delegitimizing Jewish Citizenship in France Today the Jewish community in France finds itself in a completely new social and political situation, which could represent a turning point in its history. There are a number of external factors that have contributed to the creation of a public image that does […]
ISRAELI ARABS: EXPECTATIONS AND REALITIES
No. 478 May 2002 Israeli Arabs — A Growing Time Bomb The riots by Israeli Arabs in October 2000, which took place in conjunction with the outbreak of a renewed wave of Palestinian violence against Israeli Jews, resulted in the deaths of 12 Israeli Arabs (and one from the West Bank) in confrontations […]
Washington Misled: Saudi Arabia’s Financial Backing of Terrorism
Vol. 1, No. 23 6 May 2002 As a result of Israel’s Operation “Defensive Shield,” new documents have been uncovered from Palestinian offices that directly link the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with financial backing of terrorist attacks against Israel. The Saudis have repeatedly denied such connections. Last month, for example, Saudi state […]
What Really Happened in Jenin?
The Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank was the scene of some of the harshest fighting during Israel’s “Defensive Shield” operation. It contained an extensive military infrastructure for terrorist operations against Israel that involved all of the main Palestinian terrorist groups: Islamic Jihad, Fatah, and Hamas. Since October 2000, Jenin-based terrorist networks were responsible for 28 attempted suicide attacks against Israel, of which 23 were actually executed. It is no wonder that in a captured Fatah document (https://www.idf.il/english/news/jenin.stm) the Palestinians themselves call Jenin “the martyrs’ (meaning suicide bombers) capital” — as-simat al-istashidin.
The Broken Promise of the Democratic Peace: Israel and the Palestinian Authority
The idea of the democratic peace, although not explicitly named, was an essential element of the Oslo Accords. The term "democratic peace" is generally understood to have two components: the assertion that democracies are inherently peaceful, and that they do not, as a rule, wage war against other democracies.
Principles of Teaching Hebrew and Jewish Subjects to Russian Speakers in the FSU and Israel
Spiritual Potential of the Communal Revival: Yiddish Culture and Post-Soviet Jewry
Even though Yiddish as a spoken language will most likely disappear in the former Soviet Union, it will still be needed as a symbol of Jewish identity – one that is not overtly Zionist or religious. Yiddish, with its rich culture and literature, can be utilized to help Jews reconnect with their roots. In Israel, older immigrants, whose knowledge of Yiddish is not fluent, and who are unable to master Hebrew, employ Yiddish in order to communicate. Zionist Yiddishism has become one of the ideological components in the identity of immigrants from the former USSR, and enables them to link up with some form of Jewish culture as they integrate into the life of Israel.
Welfare Policy and Social Security in Post-Communist Jewish Communities: The Case of Ukraine
The development and functioning of the welfare system in Ukraine is an important condition for Jewish communal survival in post-Soviet countries. Social welfare must be based on demographics and the needs of local communities. The Joint as well as local Jewish communities must work together in order to solve current problems, especially in the area of financing the various projects. This essay outlines the problems currently facing the Jewish social welfare organizations in Ukraine and offers some solutions.
The Phoenix Revisited – The Jewish Community of Russia Since Perestroika: a View from Jerusalem
This essay examines the roots of Jewish revival in Russia from the late Brezhnev period to the present. The development of the various institutions existing in today’s Jewish community in Russia is surveyed and their strengths and weaknesses are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of a stable indigenous community leadership. The essay looks at the internal social and political relations within the Jewish community as well as the relations of the community with the changing post-Soviet Russian regimes.
Organized National Life of Russian Jews in the Late Soviet and Post-Soviet Era: a View from Moscow
The reestablishment of organized Jewish life in the Russian Federation involved four steps: The period of informal, mostly underground and dispersed Jewish movements of the late Soviet era (from the late 1970s until 1989); the period of the first legal umbrella organizations, which dominated organized Jewish life during 1989-1996; the second half of the 1990s, featuring the leading role of the Russian Jewish Congress and affiliated organizations; and the period of the regrouping of political and organizational structures, which began in 2000.
Institutionalization of the Post-Communist Jewish Movement: Organizational Structures, Ruling Elites, and Political Conflicts
espite the two recent waves of mass migration of Jews from the USSR and post-Soviet states, as well as negative demographic processes among them, the CIS and Baltic states still contain the second largest concentration of Russian-speaking Jewry (after Israel) in the world. According to various estimates, between 600,000 and 1.3 million Jews and members of their families still live in the former Soviet Union.
Poison: The Use of Blood Libel in the War Against Israel
On the morning of March 21, 1983, one week before Pesach, in a high school in the town of Arrabeh in the Jenin area of the West Bank, Palestinian girls (between the ages of 15 and 17) were sitting in several classrooms when they suddenly began to faint, one after the other. They were taken to hospital and checked, but no medical reason was found for their fainting. Yet they had fainted, so a search began in order to find the reason.
Judaism’s Approach to Environmental Quality
Those of us who are concerned about the slow destruction of our environment tend to turn to the legislative approach.
