Jewish History

By Frud Bezhan | (RFE/RL) | — Iran is well-known for its stinging anti-Israeli rhetoric and refusal to recognize what it calls the “Zionist regime.” So, it might have come as a surprise when officials in Tehran unveiled a monument honoring Iranian-Jewish soldiers who died in action during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Iranian […]

Islam

Jerusalem: This Is Why The Temple Mount Matters To one Israeli-American

contributors

AJ+ | — “For Jews, the Temple Mount (known as Haram as-Sharif, or “Noble Sanctuary,” to Muslims) is their religion’s holiest site. The Temple Mount is on the same hilltop as Islam’s third-holiest site: the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Recent pushes by far-right Israeli Jews to pray on the Temple Mount have heightened tensions, especially as the […]

Islam

Amid Jerusalem Clashes, Israeli Housing Minister Claims al-Aqsa Site, Declaring War on 1.5 bn Muslims

contributors

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Dozens of Palestinians suffered tear-gas inhalation and several others were injured by stun grenades, shrapnel and rubber-coated steel bullets during clashes in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound area on Wednesday, an official said. Palestinian Red Crescent official Amin Abu Ghazaleh told Ma’an that Red Crescent ambulances moved nine injured to the Al-Maqased Hospital […]

Islam

Jerusalem tensions over al-Aqsa Mosque turn bloody as Far Right-winger is Shot

contributors

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Right-wing Jewish activist Yehuda Glick was shot and injured at a rally in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, Israeli police and medical sources said. Glick was reportedly shot in his upper body at “close range” at an event outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, where a number of Israeli members of […]

Colonialism

In 1948, Jewish Forces in Palestine outnumbered Palestinian and Arab Fighters

contributors

By William R. Polk The General Assembly had issued its verdict [in late 1947 suggesting a partition of Palestine] but it left open the question of how to actually carry out the resolution when no UN-controlled military or police forces were available. Britain’s 84,000 troops were leaving. And they had proved insufficient to maintain law […]

Climate Change

Can the Kabbalah teach us to Repair Climate Change?

contributors

By Alexandra Piacenza How can Kabbalah, the system of mystical interpretation of Jewish scripture with roots in the 13th century, have a bearing on modern-day environmentalism? In the Kabbalistic view, God’s very act of creation has resulted in placing a sacred obligation on man to make right what is askew in the world. This obligation […]

Colonialism

Gaza and the Palestine Crisis in History: World War II

contributors

By William R. Polk At the outbreak of World War II, both Palestinians and Zionists enlisted in large numbers — 21,000 Jews and 8,000 Palestinians — to help the British in their hour of need. But both kept their long term objectives firmly in mind: both continued to regard British imperialism as the long-term enemy […]

Colonialism

Gaza and the struggle for Palestine: the 1930s

contributors

By William R. Polk Annoyed but not deterred, the British Colonial Office decided in the 1930s, as it was then also doing in India, to crack down hard on the “troublemakers.” It put Palestine under martial law and brought in 20,000 regular soldiers to be quartered on rebel villages, blew up houses of suspected insurgents […]

Israel

Israel can’t Afford to Lose Jews Like Me

contributors

by DAVID H. SCHANZER for ISLAMiCommentary David Schanzer Writing in the New York Times . . . , columnist Shmuel Rosner labeled non-Israeli liberal Jews that are becoming more estranged from modern day Israel, as “fair weather fans” that Israel both can and should ignore. He is dead wrong on both counts. I am far […]