WASHINGTON — When Yitzhak Shamir was Israel’s prime minister, he liked to point American visitors to a gift he received when he retired as director of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service.It was a depiction of the famed three monkeys: See no...
REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK JERUSALEM (JTA) – What do hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Zionist critic Peter Beinart and Dr. Ruth have in common? If you’re still puzzling over that one, you’re not alone. So are the participants...
WASHINGTON -- When President Bill Clinton chose in January 2001 to unveil his Clinton Parameters for Arab-Israel peacemaking, he chose an Israel Policy Forum gala to do it. Four years later, then-Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought the same...
WASHINGTON -- President Obama is spreading the word, one Jewish constituency at a time: He has Israel's back. Obama defended his record on Israel and on religious freedoms on Tuesday during a White House meeting with Orthodox leaders. Challenged by one...
NEW YORK – If the Talmud were written today, would it look like Facebook? First, the rabbis of the Mishnaic period post a Jewish legal rule. Then, Talmudic sages weigh in with their comments, all pithy and lacking punctuation. Almost immediately, the...
WASHINGTON -- The U.S House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation that reaffirms and enhances U.S. policy commitments to Israel’s security. The United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012, which was sponsored...
WASHINGTON—It takes more than a translator to translate American-style pro-Israel activism for foreign audiences. Nearly a decade after an effort by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to replicate its model overseas collapsed in acrimony,...
BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
• Published March 21, 2012
While the United States and Israel have “converged” their thinking on how to respond to the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, “gaps” remain on how long the “window will be open” for a possible military response if diplomacy fails, according...
WASHINGTON -- The American Israel Public Affairs Committee praised the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication's compliance with sanctions on Iranian banks. SWIFT, which serves as the final entry point for electronic transactions...
WASHINGTON -- Gary Ackerman, one of the veteran Jewish members of the U.S. House of Representatives, announced he would not run again. Ackerman, who has served 29 years as a Democrat from Queens/Long Island, said he was stepping down at a time that his...
WASHINGTON -- The window for Iran to resolve its differences with the West through diplomacy is shrinking, President Obama said. "They should understand that because the international community has applied so many sanctions, because we have employed...
BY ROBERT A. COHN, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus
• Published March 14, 2012
Can we “handle the truth” about the Iran-Israel crisis, or has the debate become so partisan, ideological and acrimonious that it is impossible to agree on even the most basic facts? This piece is an attempt to put into perspective where things...
