Nikolai Blinov, photo: collection  S. Levitsky In the early Twentieth Century, the throne of the Czar – all-powerful,  repressive ruler of Russia – started to shake, especially after he embarked on a war against Japan which ended in a humiliating defeat. The revolutionary movement grew stronger. Read More »

Stay out of my bedroom   National Suicide (1) Many towers are concentrated in a single corner, on the eastern side of the Kirya  area of Tel Aviv. High in the civil government tower sit the Interior Ministry officials, who at their discretion decide fates, a residence permit to the one and a deportation order to the other. Read More »

If the tall cedar tree is aflame, what can the lichen on the wall do? (Fifth Century Talmudic saying attributed to Bar Kipok) Chapter One For the past two and a half years, the Foreign Minister representing the State of Israel towards the rest of the Read More »

Several months ago, the social protest in Israel was at its peak. The crowds took to the streets and called for Social Justice. The Israeli National Union of Students was prominent among the protest leadership – the union as such, and most especially its chair Itzik Shmueli. Read More »

Yehudah Halevi was one of the prominent figures in Jewish history, a Rabbi, poet, philosopher and physician who lived more than nine hundred years in Christian Spain and Muslim Spain and at the end of his life in Egypt. Read More »

We have come to expel the darkness We carry light and fire Each of us is a little light Together our light is a power Away, darkness! Begone, blackness! Turn back, back from the light! Last week Uri Elitzur, a founder and leader of the settler Read More »

Why didn’t we think of it before? Launching a frontal assault on the Europeans. We will teach them a lesson, once and for all, as we have already taught the Turks. “Israel vs. Europe” proclaimed banner headlines in yesterday’s newspapers. Read More »

“The law breakers at the Ephraim Brigade base camp are just like the law breakers at the Fence demonstrations in Bil’in, and should be treated the same” said the Prime Minister of Israel yesterday. Read More »

December 10, 1948. Sixty-three years ago, the nations of the world gathered in Paris to adopt the Declaration of Human Rights, which states that all human beings everywhere have inalienable rights, which were set down and enumerated in great detail, and that every state and every government is bound to maintain and preserve them. Read More »

A week ago the extreme right paper “Makor Rishon” published  an article praising the efforts of Justice Minister Ya’akov Neeman to introduce significant changes in composition and orientation of the Supreme Court. Read More »

In a public opinion poll conducted in Israel several years ago, about sixty percent of the respondents supported the idea of Israel ​​joining the European Union. So far, this has not happened, but Israelis are very pleased that our soccer and basketball teams participate in European championships. Read More »

In a month or so, after the American diplomatic steamroller blocks recognition of the State of Palestine at the UN Security Council, the debate will move to the UN General Assembly, where the American have no veto power. Read More »

In 2005 the State of Israel carried out a large political and military operation called “Disengagement from Gaza”, following which the state formally informed the Supreme Court that it no longer controls Gaza and is not responsible for what is happening there. Read More »

Last week there passed quietly the date of November 2. It is exactly 94 years since that day in 1917 when Arthur James Balfour, Foreign Minister of Britain, signed a document known in Zionist history as “The Balfour Declaration”. Read More »

And again, for the thousandth time, escalation on the Gaza border. They fired missiles at us and we bombed and killed five of them, and they fired more missiles and this night the Air Force will return to Gaza and bomb again. Read More »

Several months ago, a reconciliation agreement was signed between the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and the Hamas leadership in Gaza. Read More »

Congratulations, first of all, to Gilad Shalit, who will at long last come out of captivity, from darkness into light, from total isolation into the maelstrom of politicians and the media. Read More »

Observations on Yom Kippur 2011 (1)   Again, like every year since 1973, Yom Kippur provided an opportunity to once more remember that war and the way it took the State of Israel by surprise, and for again finding soldiers and officers whose stories Read More »

Observations on Yom Kippur 2011 (2) The had never been a better time for consumer boycotts in Israel. The boycott against the dairy giant “Tnuva” resulted in a significant lowering in the price s of its products. Read More »

Observations on Yom Kippur 2011 (3) This week Professor Dan Shechtman received the phone call which all scientists dream of, a call from Sweden announcing his winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Read More »