David Suissa

Opinion: Rebels with a cause

Published on February 8, 2012

“Leon Klinghoffer’s blood cries out from the depth of the ocean,” the 23-year-old law student told the Israeli Supreme Court in 1995. “We will not withdraw our complaint.”

Opinion: Wandering columnist

Published on February 1, 2012

Being a weekly columnist while visiting Israel can be really stressful. Every hour or so, you get hit with a potential subject for a column. After a few days now in the Holy Land, I have no clue how to pick from this embarrassment of riches. So let’s go on a mini-tour of some of those difficult choices.

Opinion: Jews, Arabs, dolphins

Published on January 18, 2012

Negative stereotypes can be numbing. One that has dulled our senses for years is that Jews and Arabs can’t get along. Many of us simply take it for granted. Read haaretz.com regularly, and you might even conclude that Israel’s Arab population is living miserably under an apartheid-like regime.

Opinion: Why I love paper

Published on January 11, 2012

It’s a fight to the death: As the digital revolution marches on, and more and more people do their reading on user-friendly digital devices, the end of paper’s 500-year reign seems to be at hand.

Opinion: Judaism's walking billboards

Published on January 4, 2012

It never occurred to me that I’d have to visit the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail to get a deeper understanding of the Charedi crisis in Israel. I call it a crisis because, in my mind, anything that makes the Jewish religion look really bad is a crisis.

Opinion: On the money

Published on December 22, 2011

What do you do when you run out of money? When you’re about to be evicted from your home, or having trouble feeding your kids, or simply can’t afford the basic necessities of life? What happens, also, when you can’t afford certain things you consider crucial — like sending your children to a Jewish day school?

David Suissa: Newt's bombshell

Published on December 12, 2011

"The Palestinian people does not exist,” exclaimed the politician. The audacity of the statement shocked me, because it came from the mouth of Zahir Muhsein, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization executive committee, in a 1977 interview with a Dutch newspaper.

Opinion: Naming memory

Published on December 7, 2011

Adam Ungar was a happy kid who loved to ski and play the piano. He was a regular at his local synagogue, and he always looked forward to spending the holidays with his grandparents, who lived an hour away by train. Adam and his younger sister, Helen, would often go horseback riding while visiting with their bubbe and zayde.

David Suissa: Arguing Zionism

Published on November 30, 2011

“I came to see a clash!” the man bellowed from the back of the audience. “Instead, all I’m seeing tonight is two people getting along.”

Opinion: Grateful for what?

Published on November 22, 2011

One of the great human virtues is gratitude. In Jewish tradition, we are encouraged to make at least 100 blessings of gratitude a day. The very first words we say every morning are “I give thanks before you, eternal King, for having restored to me my soul.”

Opinion: Success without honor

Published on November 17, 2011

Few stories have shaken me up this year quite like the sexual scandal at Penn State University.

Opinion: Occupy Obama

Published on November 9, 2011

From the start, something has annoyed me about the Occupy Wall Street movement. I’m not sure why it’s taken me so long to put my finger on it. Maybe, like much of the country, I’ve been caught up in the spontaneous fervor and social ideals of the movement. There’s something about people taking to the streets to protest injustice that seduces democracy lovers like myself — especially when you throw in colorful tents, clever slogans and drum circles.

Opinion: My holy peeps

Published on November 2, 2011

Few things in Jewish life get a rabbi more excited than the chance to help Jews marry other Jews. One reason is the difficulty factor: It’s always been a challenge to convince young Jews, especially the unaffiliated, to limit their marriage options to the 2 percent of the population that is Jewish.

Opinion: Following Ted, not Steve

Published on October 26, 2011

With the passing of Apple founder Steve Jobs, master creator of the iPod, iMac, iPhone and iPad, many people are now wondering: Which future brilliant gizmo will be buried with Jobs that we’ll never get to see?

The price for success: Bad PR

Published on October 21, 2011

“Never mind the collapse in confidence in Europe, the Palestinian proposal for United Nations recognition and heightened tensions with neighboring Egypt and longtime ally Turkey. The Israeli economy just keeps growing faster than the rest of the developed world.”

Opinion: Israel is not normal

Published on October 17, 2011

You can say a lot about Israel, but not that it’s a normal country.

Opinion: A day for the soul

Published on October 12, 2011

Trust the Jews to begin the holiest moment of the year on Yom Kippur not with a prayer, but with an ambiguous declaration. The Kol Nidre is not a prayer; it is a text that

Opinion: Touching death

Published on October 5, 2011

For many of us, the Days of Awe are a time of personal accounting, a time to “clear our debts” with God and others we may have hurt over the past year. For Rabbi Alan

Opinion: Repenting with our eyes

Published on September 28, 2011

Is the mind more powerful than the heart? This question was hovering in the air during an insightful Torah class last week given by Rabbi Yosef Kanefsky, spiritual leader of B’nai David-Judea Congregation. Kanefsky presented two distinct views of the concept of teshuvah, which is commonly referred to as “repentance” but means, more precisely, “to return.”

Opinion: Breaking through

Published on September 21, 2011

I often wonder what would happen if political leaders were replaced by creative directors of advertising agencies. You see, in the ad business there’s a law against boredom.

Opinion: How can we be better humans?

Published on September 14, 2011

I spent the long Sunday of 9/11 at events that had nothing to do with 9/11, but there was no way to avoid that day’s ominous shadow.

Opinion: Opening Israel

Published on September 7, 2011

The buzzword these days for those in charge of improving Israel’s image is “beyond the conflict.”

‘We-come-to-you’ Judaism

Published on August 31, 2011

The American Jewish community spends a fortune every year trying to keep Jews connected to their Judaism.

Salon nation: Israel’s struggle for renewal

Published on August 24, 2011

The big question in Israel right now is: Will the terror bombs of Gaza destroy the protest tents of Rothschild? Normally, you would think they would — this is a place where the drama of security has a way of trumping everything.

Opinion: Homeward bound

Published on August 17, 2011

I come to a land that calls me home Pulled in by the suns of August. On each visit, the eyes utter the same words: Electric. Messy. Miracle.

David Suissa: A woman’s edge

Published on August 10, 2011

It’s not politically correct to talk about differences between men and women. In a society that values equality, this is understandable.

David Suissa: Fair-weather Zionists

Published on August 2, 2011

What do you do if an annoying and exasperating friend gets in trouble and really needs your help? And what do you do if that friend is also a blood relative, like Israel? I often ask myself that question about progressive, pro-Israel Jews who are furious at the direction in which their beloved Israel is going.

David Suissa: The Monzur revolution

Published on July 26, 2011

It’s a little too soon for Time magazine to name its Person of the Year, but I want to put in an early vote for Rumana Monzur, who on June 5 was brutalized by her husband in their Bangladesh home and has decided to speak out on behalf of all abused women.

David Suissa: Peoplehood is history

Published on July 19, 2011

The latest buzzword in the Jewish world is “peoplehood.” In a recent article in The Jewish Daily Forward titled “Funding Peoplehood,” Misha Galperin, a top official with the Jewish Agency, writes that for the past few years “the organized Jewish community worldwide has recognized that the next major task facing us is strengthening Jewish identity, which we’ve come to call ‘the price of peoplehood.’ ”

The meaning of death

Published on July 5, 2011

“I hope you die and never come back!” the woman screamed at her husband as he left for work. Although the couple loved each other, it didn’t stop them from having the occasional quarrel. That morning’s quarrel, however, was worse than usual.

David Suissa: Generation Duh

Published on June 28, 2011

I’m always amused when I hear American Jews complain that they’re being “shut out,” that they don’t feel comfortable “criticizing” Israel, and that many young Jews are becoming alienated from Israel because they don’t feel free to criticize the Jewish state.

Obama’s nightmare

Published on June 21, 2011

Apparently, President Barack Obama believes that whenever the Israelis and the Palestinians sit down for peace talks, the holiest site in Judaism — the Western Wall — will be with the Palestinians. I didn’t realize this either, until I listened to some knowledgeable commentators. It comes down to a careful reading of Obama’s suggested formulation for restarting peace talks: “1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps.” As Jennifer Rubin writes in The Washington Post, “This formulation is a recipe for undermining the Israeli bargaining position.”

People of the jargon

Published on June 15, 2011

For those of you who live in the real world and not in professional Jewish circles, consider yourselves blessed that you don’t have to attend one of those all-day conferences on “The Future of Judaism.” I’ve attended my fair share, and what I remember most is constantly being on the hunt for another cup of coffee. It’s not that I don’t love the mission of these gatherings; it’s just that professional lingo has a way of putting me to sleep.

Cheap blood

Published on June 8, 2011

As I was doing research last week for a column on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I stumbled on a story in The New Republic titled “Darfur Is Getting Worse: Why Aren’t the U.N. and U.S. Pressuring Khartoum to Reverse This Horrific Trend?”

Monday Night with Yossi Klein Halevi: The Crisis of Israel’s Delegitimization

Published on June 2, 2011

Sitting shivah for peace

Published on June 1, 2011

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in his speech to the U.S. Congress on May 24, was like a battered fighter entering the final round of a championship bout. He knows his only chance to win is by a knockout. With nothing to lose, Bibi got up, and with the “Rocky” music blazing in his ears, fought the fight of his life.

Is Obama good or bad for Israel?

Published on May 23, 2011

During this latest episode of the long-running Israel-America reality show – which began Thursday with President Obama’s infamous “1967 lines” speech, followed by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s defiant response at the White House the next day, and, finally, Obama’s more conciliatory address at the AIPAC convention on Sunday-- I vacillated between my emotional “Sephardi hothead” side and my calmer “Ashkenazi tachlis” side.

Nakba Is in the Eye of the Beholder

Published on May 17, 2011

While the world media was buzzing on May 15 about the Arab demonstrations marking the “Nakba” (catastrophe) of 1948, I was listening to a commencement address by Secretary of Energy Steven Chu at Pomona College in which he lamented, among other things, America’s inability to reduce its addiction to oil. At one point, Chu spoke eloquently about a future in which electric cars would be mass-produced, and how this might ignite an environmental revolution that could “save the planet.”

Yoya’s promise

Published on May 10, 2011

“You must promise me that you will tell this story, what happened here,” the rabbi said to the bar mitzvah boy, Joachim “Yoya” Joseph. They had just finished the ceremony in a small barrack in Bergen-Belsen, where they covered the windows so the Nazi guards would not see them. The rabbi, Simon Dasberg, a community rabbi from Holland, pressed a little Torah scroll in the young boy’s hands as he spoke to him.

There’s something about winning

Published on May 3, 2011

I’ll never forget sitting with a group of intellectuals several years ago, at the height of the messy war in Iraq, and discussing why President Bush and America had fallen so low in the esteem of the world. One great mind after another offered sophisticated analyses. My head was spinning.

Bringing Shalit home

Published on April 26, 2011

One of the most ironic obstacles to peace in the Middle East is what I call the Jewish disease of “ifonlyitis.” This is the school of thought that says “if only” Israel would do this, or “if only” Israel would do that, then we finally might resolve the conflict. I suffer from the syndrome myself, and for that I blame my mother. She convinced me from a very young age that “if only” I put my mind to something, there’s nothing I can’t do.

Bibi needs a plan, fast

Published on April 12, 2011

I had a lively debate with the founder of J Street, Jeremy Ben-Ami, April 11 at Temple Israel of Hollywood, and as much as we disagreed sharply on many issues relative to Israel, there was one item on which we were in complete agreement: The Palestinians’ steady march toward unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September is a disaster-in-waiting for Israel.

Dear Mr. Goldstone: Six months until Kol Nidre

Published on April 4, 2011

You really screwed up. You screwed up so badly that Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic says you contributed, more than any other individual, to the delegitimization and demonization of the Jewish state.

Obama planted seeds of failure

Published on March 30, 2011

A couple of years ago, I wrote a public letter to President Obama applauding his commitment to peace in the Middle East, but warning that he should be prepared to fail. My reasoning was that he was following Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and hoping for a different result. In critiquing his approach, I used the metaphor of trying to plant a flower into desert sand. No matter how hard you try to force it, if the earth isn’t right, nothing will grow.

Murdering Israel’s name

Published on March 23, 2011

While five Israeli Jews were being murdered in Itamar last week, something else was being murdered on college campuses across America: Israel’s name.

Behind the Itamar Murders

Published on March 13, 2011

It is fashionable when talking about the “peace process” to focus on hope—to try to nurture the moderate elements among our “peace partners” and constantly inject good faith and good will to keep the process moving “forward.”

A UN resolution against hypocrisy

Published on March 9, 2011

Writing a column protesting the hypocrisy of the United Nations is not really fair. It’s like a turkey shoot. The evidence is so overwhelming that the U.N. is viciously biased against Israel — and ridiculously biased in favor of the Palestinians — that you’re tempted to just move on to a less depressing subject.

J Street needs another lane

Published on March 1, 2011

I was watching the J Street convention on its Web site, and it reminded me a little of those underground meetings among religious settlers in the West Bank. That is, a constant flow of red meat served to the fervent and the like-minded. In the case of J Street, this red meat can be boiled down to this: It is really, really, really, really important that Israel reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

A King’s Speech

Published on February 22, 2011

If I were advising the president or prime minister of Israel, I would suggest he go on Al Jazeera this week and deliver this message to the people of the Middle East:

Thursday night with Rhoda

Published on February 22, 2011