A Historic Yes on Wye

By Eric Silver
Published on November 19, 1998

Israel's ratification of the Wye agreement, calling for another 13-percent West Bank withdrawal in return for Palestinian security measures, was completed on Tuesday night when the Knesset endorsed the American-brokered deal by a vote of 75 to 19, with nine abstentions.

Dance With Them That Brung You

Published on November 5, 1998

Abe Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, says that he's opening up a new front in his organization's 85-year campaign to protect Jews from defamation. This new fight is a little different from battles past, though, because its target is other Jews.
Foxman wants Jews to watch their language when they talk about fellow Jews. Otherwise somebody could get hurt. Another Israeli prime minister, for example.

Israel’s Mystery Man

By Eric Silver
Published on October 8, 1998

The most talked-about, perhaps the most feared, figure in Israeli politics this holiday season is neither a statesman nor a rabble-rouser. He is Yitzhak Kedouri, a frail, mystical Iraqi-born rabbi, barely able to speak or to walk unaided, whose widely distributed kabbalistic amulets are credited with swaying thousands of underprivileged Sephardic Jewish voters.

Mideast

By Larry Derfner
Published on August 7, 1998

When Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that not only he, but all of Israel, was praying for Jordanian King Hussein's recovery from lymph cancer, Netanyahu might have been exaggerating for effect -- but not by much.

Politics, Israeli Style

Published on May 28, 1998

Some of you may have caught last week's New Yorker (May 25) with journalist David Remnick's profile of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. If not, I urge you to call the magazine's offices in New York and order a back copy, or simply visit your local library.

At the United Nations

Published on December 11, 1997

In the last four years the people of Israel witnessed two contrasting realities in their pursuit of peace with the Palestinians. True, there had been a stunning series of diplomatic breakthroughs between Israel and the PLO, that was followed by apeace treaty with Jordan and a web of new relationships with a half dozen Arab states. Israelis were filled with hope that at long last their state of siege had ended and they could look forward to an era of normalcy and safety.

‘A Split Is Hovering Over Likud’

By Eric Silver
Published on November 13, 1997

On the eve of his most testing American visit since he becamePrime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu was humiliated, live on prime-timetelevision, last Monday by the least likely of dissidents -- theblue-collar ward party bosses of the Likud central committeeconvention.

Oh, What a Tangled Web…

By Eric Silver
Published on October 9, 1997

The botched assassination attempt on a Hamas official in Amman onSept. 25 has turned into a security, as well as a diplomatic,disaster for Israel. Commentators are calling for the resignations ofboth Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and chief of the Mossadexternal security service, Gen. Danny Yatom.