Aryeh's Israel Outlook

Published by the Jewish Policy Center May 1, 2017 - Israel's 69th Independence Day [To see the article there, click here .] Aryeh Green is the author of the forthcoming book My Israel Trail: Finding Peace in the Promised Land . In early 2014, I hiked the Israel National Trail, a 600-mile trek through the Negev desert, the mountains of the Galil, the hills of Jerusalem, the beaches along the coast and everything in between. A challenge for a 50+ casual hiker just getting over a painful divorce, the Trail afforded an amazing perspective on the history and people, vistas and nature of the holy land. And over the course of the two months of hiking alone, I reached a number of conclusions which not only helped to face the physical difficulties of the hike, and to move ahead with the emotional process of healing; they suggest a radical new approach to finding peace between Arabs and Jews in this region. My forthcoming book, My Israel Trail: Finding Peace in the Land of Milk ...

The Emergence of the Jews as a People Pesach 5777 By AryehGreen   Published in the Jerusalem Post Pesach Magazine 14 Nissan 5777 (10 April '17) Hiking Shvil Yisrael, the Israel National Trail, a 600-mile trek through the length and breadth of the country, offers a bit of a different perspective on things.  On life, on the challenges facing us in our little country… and on our history as a people. Trudging through the desert on one of the first days of my journey on Shvil Yisrael, the Israel National Trail, a few weeks before Pesach in 2014 (5774), I was struck by the incredibly powerful connection I felt with my people, our history, and our land.  Like the Children of Israel wandering through the desert after the Exodus, I was experiencing an exhilarating sense of freedom, taking control of my destiny after a period of intense personal hardship. Later on, in the North of the country, camping in the forest of Tzipori, where 2000 years ago a vibrant c...

Combating Antisemitism Today with a New Exodus [From the Jewish Speakers Bureau " Musings for Passover Seder ", page 39] One of the wonderful things about our tradition is the focus on our religious beliefs, principles, and practices. Yet as spiritually uplifting as our prayers and ceremonies are, let alone the detail-oriented observance of a festival like Passover, we lose something of the forest for the trees. This year, with anti-Jewish online, verbal and physical attacks at an all-time high, Pesach is the perfect time to remind ourselves of the most basic response to antisemitism, whether expressed by Pharoah in ancient Egypt and Haman in ancient Persia, or by college professors or politicians in America, Europe, and Persia. A decade ago, I accompanied Natan Sharansky, then minister of Diaspora a airs for Israel, to over 60 campuses across the US and Europe; since then, I’ve spoken at hundreds more, and in communities around the...

A friend sent me a disturbing interview with comedian Stephen Fry where he calls God a "monster" for allowing suffering in the world.  My first Video Blog is my informal, off-the-cuff reply - for the friend who sent it to me. https://youtu.be/kBq3fQT-xeU

Myths and Madness in the Middle East InSight Magazine, Jewish Policy Center December 29, 2016 https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2016/12/29/myths-madness-middle-east/ In the aftermath of UNSC Res. 2334, criticism has come from Right and Left, in America and Israel. Defenders of the decision by the U.S. to abstain, and the vote in favor by Israel’s other supposed allies in the free world, France, Britain, New Zealand, Spain and Japan, suggest it’s just another statement opposing Israel’s “settlements.” But this goes far beyond disapproval of Israel building Jewish communities in the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria (the “west bank” of the Jordan River). As many have argued, the labelling of these communities as having “no legal validity”, in spite of treaties and other instruments of international law (such as the UN Charter, UNSCR 242, and the Oslo Accords), and the inclusion of Jerusalem, has altered the political, legal and even moral framework in which efforts to ...

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...