Chemi Shalev
By Chemi Shalev
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Israel News Netanyahu, Gantz sign coalition deal to form government
Let’s start with the good news, for a change. If the coalition agreement signed by Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz on Monday night, a few minutes before the onset of Holocaust Remembrance Day, is ever implemented, Israel’s new government could theoretically be a vast improvement over its immediate predecessors. Replacing the xenophobic, nationalist, Netanyahu-dominated ultra-right…
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Opinion Did Barack Obama Snatch Victory From Jaws of Victory in U.N. ‘Palestine’ Vote?
(Haaretz) — American Jewish organizations utilized a rare opportunity to lavish praise on Tuesday night on the Obama administration, in general, and on John Kerry and Samantha Power, in particular, for their “leadership” in thwarting the Palestinian proposal to the United Nations Security Council. Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents extolled Kerry’s “tireless diplomacy” while…
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Israel News Mitt Romney Slams ‘Naive’ Barack Obama at Israeli-American Council Launch
(Haaretz) — The inaugural conference of the Israeli-American Council served as a platform for a blistering attack on President Barack Obama on Friday night, launched by his defeated rival in the 2012 elections, Republican Mitt Romney. The “naive” president, Romney said, “is weakening our military, distancing ourselves from allies, and being divisive and demeaning towards our…
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Opinion Praying for Kidnapped Teens — and Israel’s Sanity
Getty Images (Haaretz) — Like (almost) everyone else, I hope against hope for the safe return of the three kidnapped yeshiva students. One can only imagine their nightmarish ordeal as well as the agony and anguish of the father or mother whose child has disappeared under such bone-chilling circumstances. But it is not only the…
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Fast Forward Ultra-Orthodox Jews Protest Israeli Draft Bill in New York
(Haaretz) — The scene was completely surreal: A crying cantor beseeching the Lord in Yiddish-accented Hebrew to hear his prayers; high-octane loudspeakers amplifying the cry throughout lower Manhattan; tens of thousands of black-coated ultra-Orthodox Jews earnestly repeating the Psalms in the freezing cold; some of New York’s finest, duly exasperated; and the looks of astonishment on…
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Culture Arik Einstein, Voice of Good Old Israel, Dies at 74
(Haaretz) — A part of Israel passed away on Tuesday night. A slice of its soul has departed. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis, possibly millions, have lost a close personal friend, an intimate lifelong companion. A voice of Israel – the voice of Israel, for many – will sing no more. His name is Arik…
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News Israel Stuck Between a Rocket and a Hard Place
Jerusalem – The only thing separating Israel from an invasion of Gaza — a full-scale assault that its political leadership does not want to launch and its military commanders are reluctant to wage — is the notorious inaccuracy of the makeshift Qassam rocket. “If a Qassam falls on a kindergarten, a school or even a…
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Culture They Love Him, They Love Him Not
The Path to Geneva By Yossi Beilin RDV Books/Akashic Books, 297 pages, $22.95 — Yossi Beilin commented recently on the ongoing turmoil in Gaza, saying that a strong Palestinian Authority was in Israel’s best interest. It was a relatively benign and quite anticipated remark, but nonetheless one that drew a torrent of insults and abuse…
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