Positively Israel! Changing the world for the better. This was the title of Consul General of Israel in New York, Ambassador Ido Aharoni’s address to the students and community members assembled at UCLA Hillel on Tuesday night, December 4. Elderly…
“Pharaoh” Morsi and Israeli foreign relations: is the broker for peace broke?
What do false goatees, megalomania, and President Mohamed Morsi have in common? Pharaonic rulership, according to a number of disgruntled Egyptians, quoted by The Guardian as believing their country to have acquired a “Mubarak with a beard” after Morsi declared presidential “immunity” from judicial oversight and the ability to pass laws as he pleases. The engineer-come-dark-horse-politician has…
War on campus: Gaza rocket disaster brought to UCLA
Free free Palestine. Long live the intifada. Intifada. Intifada. Thursday, November 15 witnessed these slogans ring forth from the mouths of students on the lawn in front of Kerckhoff Hall. About 30 students gathered with signs declaring “Free Palestine,” “Stop…
Israel on the backburner: is Obama too busy for the Jewish state?
This article is in response to an op-ed piece by Thomas Friedman published in the New York Times on November 10th, 2012. I would like to express my utmost respect for Mr. Friedman as a renowned journalist and state that…
Eco-pollution: Israel’s silent threat
Israel is advertised as one of the most environmentally conscious countries in the world. Perhaps most well known is the Israeli irrigation drip system, which involves a hose that slowly drips water directly to the root of the plant, strategically…
Israel and apartheid: a lesson in the risks of media bias
For Israel, a country trapped under the brutally judgmental microscope of global scrutiny, public image is everything. A recent poll published on October 23, 2012 by Haaretz (a leading Israeli news source), and its accompanying piece by Israeli journalist Gideon…
Blurring democracy: the Orthodox vision of respecting women
It was my first time at the Western Wall. It should have been a beautiful and emotional moment, one that allowed me to connect to the history of the Jewish people. And yet, something irked me. Perhaps it was the…
Ultra-Orthodox Jews, unemployment rates, and the Israeli economy
As Americans and inevitable participants in this country’s financial infrastructure, we are all acutely aware of the unforgiving crisis engulfing the economy of the United States and spreading to the rest of the world. In the wake of the ailing…
The Jewish Casualties of Adler’s Assassination Comments
The Atlanta Jewish Times is looking for a new owner. The reason? Its founder and original publisher, Andrew Adler, is facing investigation by the FBI and United States Secret Service. In a piece dated January 13th, 2012, Adler decried the…
J Street Director Comes to UCLA
On Monday, J Street U at UCLA kicked off the quarter with a discussion with Jeremy Ben-Ami — former presidential adviser and president of J Street. The presentation consisted of a summary of J Street’s policies and a Q&A session with students,…