Aryeh's Israel Outlook

From an email exchange about the disastrous UNSC resolution promoted by Obama, my statement on it as the ultimate and compelling example of his administration's failed foreign policy of manipulative and appeasing 'abstaining from behind'. I have nothing more to say. Thank goodness there are people out there saying it better and more powerfully than me. Wow, it's been a long weekend. There is objective reality, and then there is wishful thinking and illusions (or delusions of grandeur). There is history and then there is imperfect understanding or willful ignorance or purposeful misrepresentation. There is actual int'l law and then there is the political use (abuse) of the terminology of "law". As in Friday's absurd resolution which makes a mockery of the UN, explicitly contradicting its own charter and previous resolutions. The UN inherited and adopted the one mandating "settlement" by Jews of the Land of Israel, for instance. The UNSC passed...

[This post has nothing to do with Israel but everything to do with me. I figured if Mayim can put herself out there so personally, so can I. :-)] I saw a video the other day posted by Mayim Bialik about how she and her ex-husband are managing to construct a family dynamic filled with love and respect, raising their children together after their divorce, even spending religious holidays together. This got me thinking about my situation after my divorce – and remarriage – and about how the "new normal" in family life poses so many challenges to so many of us these days. According to recent statistics, more marriages end in divorce in America today than last the lifetime they were supposedly intended to.* It's a tragic and disturbing reality – certainly for those of us, married or otherwise, who see the institution of marriage as just that: forever. And the challenges this reality poses are significant. How to spend vacation and religious festivals, and with whom, is only...

March in LA - "Awakening Zionism" - Re-asserting the legitimacy of Israel and Zionism - Co-Sponsored by the Consulate of Israel, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Beverly Hills Synagogue, StandWithUs, and JACLA.

[Published at the Israel Forever site.] By Aryeh Green " Zionism  is nothing more, but also nothing less, than the  Jewish People's  sense of  origin and destination in the land  linked eternally with its name." Abba Eban Israel is increasingly attacked as an imperialist, colonialist, apartheid aggressor and occupier; Zionism is seen as racism even though the nefarious UN resolution was repealed. “Combating the delegitimization” of Israel is a necessary but not sufficient response, focused as it is on specific manifestations – boycotts, divestment resolutions, hostile media outlets, and various political or cultural leaders’ statements. Israel is in desperate need of a coordinated, pro-active, strategic approach to this long-term erosion of its standing even among those who purport to support her. Excellent organizations and individuals – from AIPAC to the ADL, from the AJC and JNF and Hillel to TIP, StandWithUs, BlueStreet PR, HonestReporting, ElNet...