Iran’s new president still Khamenei-approved, Netanyahu says

Published on June 17, 2013

The election of cleric Hassan Rohani as president of Iran does not change anything, since he was shortlisted by the country’s radical Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

Mezzo’s Kibbutz roots

By Tom Tugend
Published on May 14, 2013

It’s a long way from Kibbutz Dalia, where Rachel Frenkel was raised, to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, but the mezzo-soprano is completing that journey this week.

Syrian wake-up

By Rob Eshman
Published on May 8, 2013

Yes, America, we’ve heard: You’re war-weary. It’s at least something our divided country can agree upon: Americans across party lines oppose sending troops, weapons or air support to the rebel fighters in Syria.

Syrians angry at Israel

Published on May 7, 2013

Khalil Sharif wants everyone to stay out of his country’s business.

Leader of the free word

By David Suissa
Published on March 22, 2013

Words matter, especially when spoken by people of power. I once read a book that dissected the 271 words of President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Would that speech have become historic if, instead of phrases like “a new birth of freedom,” he had used phrases like “a reaffirmation of our values”?

The Sham(s) Movement at Harvard

By Orit Arfa
Published on March 15, 2013

What do I think about Zionism as a Turkish Muslim?

Published on March 5, 2013

For the last couple of years - and especially the last couple of days - my Jewish friends all over the world have expressed their concern over whether anti-Semitism is on the rise in Turkey. First of all Turkey has a population over 70 million.

With time running out to form a government, Netanyahu facing tough choices

Published on March 5, 2013

When he emerged bruised but unbeaten following the Jan. 22 elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced some tough choices.

Documents show Venezuela spying on Jewish community

Published on February 5, 2013

The Venezuelan human rights group Espacio Anna Frank says its goal is to promote tolerance by teaching the life story of the teenage diarist murdered by the Nazis.

Israel supporters rally

Published on January 30, 2013

Passers-by in the center of tourist-driven Hollywood were greeted on Jan. 27 by an uncommon scene — ralliers bearing Israeli flags and pro-Zionist signs while singing a rendition of “Am Yisrael Chai.” About 25 people attended the Sunday afternoon Rally Against Anti-Semitism staged by the Creative Zionist Coalition (CZC), a newly formed local group that aims to organize pro-Israel Jews and non-Jews via creative means, such as holding a very public rally at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

Morsi blames ‘certain forces’ controlling media for bad U.S. press

Published on January 23, 2013

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi told U.S. senators that he gets bad U.S. press because "certain forces" control the media.

Are anti-Jewish slogans truly Islamic?

Published on January 23, 2013

Anti-Jewish slogans uttered over the years within certain Muslim circles have given the impression that Islam is absolutely opposed to Jews. Indeed, many in the Muslim world consider hostility toward Jews as a sign of piety.

Abbas claims link between Nazis and Zionists

Published on January 22, 2013

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told a Lebanese television station that the Nazis and Zionists worked in collaboration before World War II.

Morsi called Jews ‘apes and pigs’ in 2010 video

Published on January 4, 2013

In 2010, Mohamed Morsi, now Egypt's president, called Israelis “descendants of apes and pigs” and said peace talks with Zionists were a waste of time.

Hamas forbids local journalists from working with Israeli media

Published on December 26, 2012

The Hamas government in Gaza has forbidden local journalists from working with Israeli media outlets.

Welcome to the zAngel

By Orit Arfa
Published on December 17, 2012

Drawing 1,400, peaceful L.A. pro-Israel rally turns ugly near its end [VIDEO]

By Ryan Torok
Published on November 18, 2012

With an Israeli flag wrapped around him, Rabbi Dov Elkins stood with a crowd outside the Federal building in West Los Angeles on Sunday to participate in a pro-Israel rally.

Rescuing Jewish Musicians

Published on October 24, 2012

When Zubin Mehta takes the stage at the Disney Concert Hall on Oct. 30 to conduct the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), most in the audience will know that they’re hearing a world-class orchestra. Very few will realize, however, that the IPO’s founding was integral to the origins of the modern Jewish state. That beginning not only inaugurated the arts in Israel, but it was coupled with the saving of untold numbers of Jews from the Holocaust. Now that story is being told on the big screen in director Josh Aronson’s “Orchestra of Exiles,” in first-run screenings at selected Laemmle theaters beginning Nov. 2.

“The Flat” uncovers a relationship between a Nazi and a Jew

By Tom Tugend
Published on October 17, 2012

The Israeli documentary “The Flat” begins in a Tel Aviv apartment, where half a dozen people are clearing out 70 years of clutter left behind by their grandmother, who has died recently at 98.

Marin bookstore, UCLA cancel talks by Free Gaza activist

Published on October 17, 2012

Greta Berlin, the co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement —who has come under fire for tweeting that Zionists created and ran the Nazi concentration camps — has had her upcoming book talks canceled by at least two California venues.

Late news: Zionists corrupted Napoleon

By Tom Tugend
Published on September 20, 2012

Iran’s supreme leader blames ‘evil Zionists’ for anti-Islam film

Published on September 14, 2012

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blamed “evil Zionists” and the U.S. government for the anti-Islam film that has sparked violent protests in Muslim countries.

Ahmadinejad: World goal must be to ‘annihilate’ Israel

Published on August 3, 2012

Many thousands of Iranians shouted "Death to America, death to Israel" during state-organized protests on Friday and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told them there was no place for the Jewish state in a future Middle East.

Iran’s parliament speaker Larijani calls for end to West, Israel

Published on July 6, 2012

An Iranian official said the West and Israel should disappear.

Iranian VP blames ‘Zionists’ for illicilt drug trade

Published on June 27, 2012

An Iranian vice president blamed "Zionists" for the global drug trade and said the Talmud encourages promoting addiction in non-Jewish communities.

Arrests made in Israeli Holocaust memorial vandalism

Published on June 26, 2012

Israeli police said on Tuesday they had arrested three ultra-Orthodox Jews on suspicion of having spray-painted anti-Zionist slogans at the national Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial two weeks ago.

Peter Beinart and David Suissa debate Zionism’s ‘Crisis’

By Jonah Lowenfeld
Published on May 17, 2012

When Peter Beinart's new book, "The Crisis of Zionism," was published earlier this year, it was met with a tsunami of responses -- from reviews, to op-ed pieces and a fury of blogging.

Time to expand dialogue and partnership with Israel

Published on May 15, 2012

This week, I traveled from Israel to engage in discussions with Jewish community leaders and activists in Southern California. As a proud Israeli Zionist, I work to promote the flourishing ties between Israel and Diaspora Jewry. I came here as an Israeli who celebrates the link between our proud history and a present filled with unmatched innovation and growth, the Israel of the City of David, King Solomon’s Mines and the “Start-Up Nation.” A state of pioneers and the warriors.

Iran says it has arrested ‘Zionist regime-backed terrorist team’

Published on April 10, 2012

Iran said on Tuesday it had identified a "major terrorist group" it said was affiliated to its arch-foe Israel and had arrested some of its members, the official IRNA news agency reported, citing an Intelligence Ministry report.

March 20, 2012

By Shmuel Rosner
Published on March 20, 2012

Gun is only way to fight Israel, Hamas head says

Published on February 13, 2012

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said in Iran that armed resistance is the only way to fight against Israel. The "gun is our only response to the Zionist regime," Haniyeh said Monday in Tehran, according to the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency.

Barak: No strike on Iran anytime soon

Published on December 1, 2011

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday an Israeli attack on Iran is not imminent but all options remain open to stop what Israel sees as an Iranian bid to develop nuclear weapons.

Books: The J Street Zionist

By Jonathan Kirsch
Published on November 17, 2011

“Israel’s existence is in fact threatened by a progressive, terminal illness,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, founder of J Street, writes in “A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation” (Palgrave Macmillan: $26). According to his diagnosis, the illness is a kind of willful blindness that prevents both Israeli and American leaders from seeing a way out of the dire predicament that the Jewish state now faces.

Waving the Zionist flag at Santa Cruz

By Ben Harris
Published on November 16, 2011

On the third floor of the Baskin Engineering building at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin is going over points of Hebrew grammar.

Federation plan a blow to Jewish Agency for Israel

Published on November 8, 2011

After a decades-long partnership that saw the Jewish Agency for Israel serve as the official, exclusive Zionist arm of North America’s Jewish community federations, the federation system is getting ready to date other partners.

Norman Corwin, Bard of Broadcasting, dies at 101

By Tom Tugend
Published on October 20, 2011

‘Irvine 11’ verdict keeps debate going

Published on September 27, 2011

When all is said and done, there has been no final resolution in the “Irvine 11” case, which for more than a year has divided Jews and Muslims as well as the Jewish community itself.

Letters to the Editor: Fair-weather Zionists, Spry Centenarian

Published on August 10, 2011

I read with dismay David Suissa’s Aug. 5 column (“Fair-weather Zionist”) characterizing me as a fair-weather Zionist — a judgment based not on my 10 years of writing, public speaking or activism on Israel, but upon a lone Tweet. Had Suissa bothered to speak with me, he would have learned that it is not I who have written off Israel so much as it Israel that has written off me.

A new home for historic labor zionist youth camp

By Ryan Torok
Published on July 26, 2011

Pine trees and hiking trails surround more than a dozen wooden cabins on a lakeside campground in the San Bernardino National Forest. Located near Big Bear, the 40-acre site also includes a large dining hall, amphitheater, swimming pool, sports field and archery range — as well as a memorable bucolic view.

Norway killer espoused right-wing philosophy

Published on July 24, 2011

The confessed perpetrator in the attack in Norway that killed at least 76 people espoused a right-wing philosophy against Islam that also purports to be pro-Zionist.

Young Judaea to become independent Zionist youth movement

Published on June 16, 2011

Young Judaea will spin off from its parent body, Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, to become an independent youth organization. The move was announced Thursday by Hadassah’s leadership.

Pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian students at Calif. campus join to blast activist

Published on May 26, 2011

Pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups at the University of California, Santa Barbara issued a joint letter condemning a conservative activist’s attacks on the school’s Muslim student group.

Reform rift over Zionist credentials of incoming chief Rick Jacobs

Published on April 29, 2011

Ads questioning the Zionist credentials of the leader-designate of the Reform movement are a distortion, Reform leaders said. The ad attacking Rabbi Richard Jacobs for not being sufficiently pro-Israel appeared in a number of Jewish newspapers this week. It was placed by a group of Reform Jews calling themselves Jews Against Divisive Leadership.

Ahmadinejad: Arab world conflicts will lead to collapse of Zionist regime

Published on April 4, 2011

The latest conflicts in the Arab world would eventually lead to the collapse of Israel, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday.

Groups clash over public discussion of Olive Tree Initiative

Published on March 23, 2011

The Orange County chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), after being denied a venue at two local synagogues, is claiming Jewish community leaders have sought to prevent ZOA from generating public discussion critical of a controversial student program.

Is Obama’s J-Dar off? Probing, once again, the ‘kishkes question’

Published on March 22, 2011

Does President Obama need a “Shalom Chaver” moment a la Bill Clinton? More fraught back-and-forth between the organized Jewish community and the Obama administration again has brought to the fore the question of what the president feels in his gut toward Israel and the Jewish people.

Petition raps rabbis who support Katsav

Published on March 9, 2011

Hundreds of rabbis and Jewish leaders have signed on to an online petition by Rabbis for Human Rights denouncing rabbinical defenders of former Israeli President Moshe Katsav. Late last month, dozens of religious Zionist rabbis sent a letter of support to Katsav, who was convicted in December by a three-judge panel of “rape, sexual harassment, committing an indecent act while using force, harassing a witness and obstruction of justice.”

Journalists’ group considers dropping Helen Thomas award

Published on January 4, 2011

Helen Thomas’ decision to take her disparagement of Zionists from off the cuff (last May) to on the record (last month) has led a journalists' group to consider dropping her name from a lifetime achievement award. The Society of Professional Journalists is revisiting its decision last summer not to change the name of its Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award after Thomas, 90, told an Arab-American group in Dearborn, Mich., last month that Congress, the White House, Hollywood and Wall Street “are owned by the Zionists.” Thomas, a 67-year-veteran of Washington reporting, resigned from her job as a columnist at Hearst last June after remarking to a video blogger that Jews “should get the hell out of Palestine” and “go home” to Poland, Germany and the United States. She later apologized, but her remarks in Michigan on Dec. 2 have raised fresh concerns about the sincerity of the apology.

Carter continues to stigmatize Israel, ADL charges

Published on November 1, 2010

Former President Jimmy Carter continues to make biased remarks about Israel, despite a public apology via JTA late last year, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

U.S. was behind 9/11 attacks, Ahmadinejad tells U.N.

Published on September 24, 2010

The United States arranged the 9/11 attacks "to save the Zionist regime," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the U.N. General Assembly.

UC-San Diego Hillel director reflects on divestment battle

Published on August 17, 2010

Last April, Keri Copans, Hillel's campus director at the University of California, San Diego, learned that a measure was about to come before her student government asking the university to divest from companies that do business with "occupying" powers.

Hillel students and professionals gear up to face anti-Israel campus activism

Published on August 17, 2010

Amanda Boris is nervous about what she’ll face when classes resume at the University of Wisconsin later this month.

Zionist Nightmare Gives Him That Shrinking Sensation

By Uri Dromi
Published on April 20, 2010

I have never in my life been to a shrink. The reason is that I want to leave my money to my kids, not to other people’s kids. Also, I consider myself to be absolutely normal. Nevertheless, recently I felt the urge to lie down on a couch, stop pretending that I’m in control and that I have a clue about what’s going on, and just surrender to an all-knowing, wise man, who will fix everything. I guess that the session would run as follows.

Jewish Studies Pioneer Honored

By Tom Tugend
Published on September 2, 2009

“I have a fantasy,” professor Zev Garber says, “that if there is a second coming of Jesus, he will have a concentration camp number on his forearm and he will ask one question, ‘What have you done to my people?’”

IRANIAN ELECTION ANALYSIS: All Iran candidates will bolster Hamas, Hezbollah ties

Published on June 12, 2009

One winner has already been declared in the Iranian elections: The Internet, used by more than 23 million Iranians, or 34 percent of the population. But that figure alone cannot be used to determine which of the four candidates will win. At the very most, one can assume most Web users will vote for reformist candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi or Mehdi Karroubi, rather than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Mohsen Rezeai.

Denounce Muslim group, UC Irvine chancellor urged

Published on May 12, 2009

Nearly 2,700 people have signed an online petition encouraging a California university chancellor to publicly condemn an annual Muslim student event.

Diplomats Make End Run With Early Ratification of Final Durban Document

Published on April 21, 2009

A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tirade against Israel triggered a walkout by the European delegation and generated headlines around the world, diplomats at the U.N. forum scrambled to ratify the conference’s final document on Tuesday -- three days before the parley’s close, when the document was scheduled to be adopted.

A long time ago, in a kibbutz far away . . .

Published on November 19, 2008

Yoav was my kibbutz brother, secular and an ardent Zionist. He had an encyclopedic mind that could recite in detail kibbutz history, lore and socialist ideology. Today, Yoav is an equally intense, knowledgeable and ideological Charedi guy living in the Midwest. He recently offered to pay me money for introducing him to the woman he married more than 25 years ago.

Can new pro-Israel group J Street generate political clout?

Published on November 13, 2008

Can fundraising success translate into Capitol Hill clout? That's the question facing J Street, the new liberal pro-Israel political action committee, which raised nearly $570,000 for 41 U.S. House and Senate candidates.

Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s pick for Chief of Staff, is tough, direct and wedded to his Jewish roots

Published on November 6, 2008

President-elect Barack Obama’s pick of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) will put a tough, proven political operator at the center of a new Administration. It also raises the profile of a Chicago Jewish family firmly rooted in the worlds of Hollywood, medicine, politics . . . and Judaism.