Israel Matters!

Report from Israel: Happy Holidays! On our between-the-semesters trip to Israel, Esther and I divided our time between visiting with our daughter Dafna in Jerusalem and staying in Tel Aviv.To be sure, these are cities of contrast; Jerusalem, steeped in thousands of years of history, sacred to, fought over by, and now in some form of uneasy coexistence between Jews, Muslims and Christians. Surrounded by terraced hills and deep valleys. click Israel Matters! 140 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal.  

Turkey’s Erdogan Bashes Israel and Calls on Muslims to Unite Against the West In a recent speech to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan slammed Israel and called for Islamic unity among the “brothers and sisters” to confront the West and conspiracies against Islamic countries. Turkey’s ruler insinuated that Turkey was a victim of “terrorist attacks” because of its “principled stance” against “oppression in Jerusalem.” click Israel Matters! 139 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal  

Netflix series, “The Spy” – The Story of Eli Cohen Sophie Ben-Dor, the daughter of Israeli spy Eli Cohen said “it hurt” to watch the new Netflix series about her father’s life and execution in Syria, noting some historical inaccuracies in the adaptation but praising Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance. Ben-Dor laments ‘the distance from the truth’ about her legendary agent father, but understands and respects the show. click Israel Matters! 137 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal  

Israelis Test Classified Tunnel Tech To Stymie Terrorists Israel has developed systems that are uncovering a great number of tunnels that cross the Israeli border from Gaza and Lebanon. click Israel Matters! 136 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal  

The New York Times — Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism The New York Times editorial board said in an editorial that the newspaper’s recent pub-lication of “an appalling political cartoon” [right] is “evidence of a profound danger — not only of anti-Semitism but of numbness to its creep.” The newspaper also acknowledged its own historical contributions to the rise of anti-Semitism. “In the 1930s and the 1940s, The Times was largely silent as anti-Semitism rose up and bathed the world in blood,” it wrote. “That failure still haunts this newspaper.” click Israel Matters! 134 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal  

Unit 9900 - The Israeli Army Unit That Recruits Teens With Autism For eight hours a day, E., 21, sits in front of multiple computer screens, scanning high-resolution satellite images for suspicious objects or movements. As a decoder of Israel’s complex and often heavily civilian battlegrounds, he’s been critical in preventing the loss of life of soldiers on the ground in several different situations, his officers say. For many people, combing through each millimeter of the same location from various angles would be tedious work—but E., who is on the autism spectrum, describes the job as relaxing, “like a hobby.” click Israel Matters! 133 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal  

Prominent Democrats Form Pro-Israel Group to Counter Skepticism on the Left Several prominent veteran Democrats, alarmed by the party’s drift from its longstanding alignment with Israel, are starting a new political group that will try to counter the rising skepticism on the left toward the Jewish state by sup-porting lawmakers and candidates in 2020 who stand unwaveringly with the country. click Israel Matters! 132 to read the complete issue. Will open with the free Adobe Reader or equal