Golan’s speech dominated the public discourse, and unfortunately, in some cases, overshadowed the actual meaning of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan walked back his statements linking present- day Israel and pre-war Nazi Germany on Wednesday, but it was too late; the reverberations went too far.

Golan’s speech dominated the public discourse, and unfortunately, in some cases, overshadowed the actual meaning of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

“The Holocaust should bring us to ponder our public lives and, furthermore, it must lead anyone who is capable of taking public responsibility to do so, because if there is one thing that is scary in remembering the Holocaust, it is noticing horrific processes which developed in Europe – particularly in Germany – 70, 80 and 90 years ago, and finding remnants of that here among us in the year 2016,” was the section of Golan’s speech that sparked the controversy.

Golan said he did not mean to compare Israel or the IDF to the Nazis. Yet the Nazis fall into the time frame he discussed. Even accepting his clarification, “Germany 70, 80, 90 years ago” was just too close for comfort to a Nazi comparison for many, especially on Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we’re mourning the six million Jews they murdered. The Holocaust is still an open wound for Jews around the world, and anything close to cheapening its memory is throwing salt in that wound. Continue reading 

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan has good news: The anti-Israel efforts are mostly failing.

Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan is known in Israel for his political acumen.

He’s a keen debater, often taking on Likud opponents on television and radio and, of course, in the Knesset.

The senior cabinet minister, who will be addressing the 5th Annual Jerusalem Post Conference in New York on May 22, also knows how to win in the court of public opinion, capturing first place after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the last Likud primary and second place in the previous two.

As the first designated minister to fight boycotts against Israel, with a NIS 120 million (nearly $32m.) budget for the effort, Erdan is putting his political aptitude – which has put him on the shortlist of potential candidates to eventually replace Netanyahu as Likud leader – to good use in Israel’s efforts to win the hearts and minds of the world.

Erdan’s strategic campaign against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has the trappings of a political campaign: catchphrases, tested arguments, polls, and focus groups conducted by renowned American public opinion expert Frank Luntz. Continue reading

Photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem

Photoshopping politicians into SS uniforms is despicable, but reporting it has become a worrisome trend.

Another week, another nasty photoshop incident.

The latest, involving Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon depicted in crosshairs with the message “politically eliminated,” has remained part of the news cycle for many days. There are many reasons for this, some more substantive (it’s connected to the Hebron soldier shooting, a major news story) than others (the Knesset is in recess and political news has been otherwise slow). But now, the picture that everyone from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to opposition leader Isaac Herzog has labeled dangerous, has been published, broadcast and discussed over and over again.

This is far from the first time this kind of thing has happened.

News stories about doctored photos of Israeli politicians in SS uniforms, often complete with the photos themselves, pop up fairly often. The coverage is, invariably, ominous and foreboding, labeling the pictures as “incitement to violence” against their targets.

However, this response only encourages repeat offenses. Continue reading 

The Knesset wrapped up its winter session this week in what felt like a semi-vegetative state.

There was an uncharacteristic lack of drama in the Knesset on Wednesday, the last day before it goes on Passover recess until May 22.

The last week of any Knesset session is known as “table-cleaning” time, when the MKs try to vote on as many bills as possible before their long break. And yet, on Wednesday, only a dozen bills went to a vote, a decidedly low amount for even the middle of a session, and MKs and Knesset staff started pouring out of the building in the early afternoon, earlier than most Wednesdays. Continue reading

Golden Globe-winning actress and writer Rachel Bloom talked about Jewish identity, diversity on her hit show, and Israel on her first trip to the country.

Between all the countless panicked columns written about young American Jews not caring about Israel anymore, it’s refreshing to meet a Jewish American 28-year-old who says “I’m Jewish; I think there’s somewhat of an assumption that I’m pro-Israel.”

Even more refreshing is hearing that she “hasn’t heard much about the ‘boycott Israel’ movement in the states.”

Considering that the woman in question is Rachel Bloom, the co-creator, writer, executive producer and star of American musical comedy TV show “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” who won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy and promptly announced that she is going to Israel, much in the way football players talk about Disney World, that seems like a pretty big #BDSfail, as Israel supporters say on social media. Continue reading

Plus, a blog post on why the show resonates with young Jewish women and more quotes from Bloom here

Tovah Feldshuh (L) and Rachel Boom. Credit: Courtesy

Gamliel speaks about helping females in today’s workforce, with focus on Arab women.

This year is the first in which Israel is celebrating International Women’s Day with a designated minister to work on women’s issues: Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel.

Gamliel is not only responsible for helping women; her ministry includes gender and minority equality and the advancement of youth and pensioners. Often her efforts benefit a cross-section of those groups.

The Likud politician plans to give a speech about projects her ministry has undertaken at the United Nations’ International Women’s Day event next week – her second speech at the UN in her current job, after speaking at the Security Council about women involved in peace and security issues in late 2015.
“We have a lot to be proud of. I will present our successes,” Gamliel told The Jerusalem Post in her office in the Knesset last month. Much of Gamliel’s efforts in helping women are focused on the gender-based wage gap, saying that she has set a strategic goal to reduce, or even close that gap in the public sector.  Continue reading 

Sanders’s Jewishness won’t sway voters from casting ballot for Clinton.

Thirteen US states go to the primary polls on Super Tuesday, but they won’t be the only ones choosing their parties’ candidates for president; Tuesday is also the first day of the Global Presidential Primary of Democrats Abroad.

Expatriate Americans who are members of the Democratic Party may vote either in their home state’s primary or the Democrats Abroad primary, which begins Tuesday and lasts until March 8. US citizens abroad can vote by email, fax, mail or in person at voting centers in 40 countries – although there is no voting center in Israel. Continue reading

Likud MK Ohana says giving more trained Israelis guns would be a “force multiplier” for IDF and police, while MK Zandberg worries that once more guns are out there “we don’t know where they’ll go.”

Gun control isn’t usually a major issue here, but it has come up in a big way in recent months, after several terrorists in the current wave of terrorism were subdued by civilians.

The debate on gun control came to a head in Monday’s inaugural meeting of the Knesset Caucus on Firearms Policy – perhaps the closet Israel has ever gotten to a US-style “gun lobby” – but even those in favor of easing regulations have made it clear that they’re not gunning for Israel to adopt the Second Amendment.

“I’m not looking for people to be able to buy a gun at Wal-Mart,” MK Amir Ohana (Likud), who founded the caucus, quipped to The Jerusalem Post in his Knesset office this week. Continue reading

News from the Knesset in the last week raises myriad questions about democracy, and Israel Democracy Institute president Yohanan Plesner tries to provide answers.

This has been a thought-provoking week for Israeli democracy.

Last Thursday, JPost.com was the first non-Arabic news site to report, based on information from Palestinian Media Watch, that lawmakers from Balad, one of the parties making up the Joint (Arab) List, met with families of 10 terrorists – whose bodies are being held by the Israel Police because the families refuse to hold modest funerals to avoid incitement to violence – and stood in a moment of silence in memory of the “shaheeds” (martyrs in Arabic), while the party’s Facebook page referred to a particular terrorist, who killed three Israelis, as a shaheed.

This, like many other controversies involving Balad’s MKs Haneen Zoabi, Basel Ghattas and Jamal Zahalka, led to Knesset members and commentators wondering about the limits of democracy, particularly of freedom of expression. Continue reading

Credit: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem Post

Former ambassador to the US MK Michael Oren looks at this week’s agreement to build an egalitarian section of the Western Wall with satisfaction.

“The kotel is supposed to unite the Jewish people,” MK Michael Oren (Kulanu) told The Jerusalem Post this week.

Speaking three days after Sunday’s historic cabinet vote to significantly expand the egalitarian prayer space at Robinson’s Arch, on the southern end of the Western Wall, Oren looked back on years of debate over the issue, in which he was deeply immersed. Continue reading

Photo credit: Michael Alvarez-Pereyre