Following the release of a report delayed by two years, Israelis are angered by governmental censorship with respect to the Israeli prison system. Benjamin Zygier, previously identified as Prisoner X, was found hanging by a makeshift noose on the night…
Fatah squanders opportunity to encourage Palestinian rapprochement
Last night, the Jerusalem Post reported on Fatah officials’ “furious” reaction to news of the indirect negotiations currently taking place between Israel and Hamas in Egypt. Officials of the State of Israel and Hamas (the dominant Palestinian political party in…
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: a movement fueled by hate
In general, people who are misinformed about the facts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tend to assume that peace is entirely in the hands of the Israelis, and that Israel is maliciously preventing a peaceful agreement by refusing to surrender a…
The SodaStream controversy: should we boycott settlements?
Israel has long prided itself on being an environmentally conscious, technologically advanced nation. SodaStream is therefore exactly the kind of product Israel wants to promote: a machine which carbonates tap water, relegating fizzy drinks in a can as unnecessarily expensive…
Departure of Israel’s economic wizard creates uncertainty
Of all the terms readily associated with the Middle East, “resilient” and “stable” are refrains mostly designated for other regions. However, largely to the credit of the governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, the Israeli economy has managed…
Gershon Baskin speaks about Gilad Shalit release
When the news broke that kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit had been released, we celebrated, all of us. My friends and I called and e-mailed home, exclaiming at the news, and joined in the bittersweet jubilation from our Jerusalem apartments,…
How Israel can change a Jew’s life
America is a melting pot of cultures, and it is undeniable that the distinctions setting apart each culture are slowly deteriorating. According to the Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus, Jews make up approximately 10% of the UCLA population. Surrounded by…
Hussein Ibish offers post-election analysis of Israeli-Palestinian stalemate at UCLA
This past Thursday afternoon, Professor David Myers — chair of UCLA’s Department of History and scholar of modern Jewish intellectual history — hosted an informal discussion with Dr. Hussein Ibish, bringing together a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students…
Is new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel anti-Israel?
By now, thousands of articles have been written about newly-nominated Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Many of them thrust one of two extremes at the reader: either that Chuck Hagel is a rabid anti-Semite and Israel-hater, or that Chuck Hagel is…
Haphazard accusations of genocide hinder humanitarian cause
Since the escalation in violence between Israel and Hamas earlier this month, it has been nearly impossible to sign on to Facebook or Twitter without seeing an exchange of rhetoric between supporters and opponents of Israel’s latest military campaign against…