Posts belonging to Category Non-Profits and NGOs

The United Nations: Let Us In!

It’s safe to say that relations between Israel and the United Nations are not exactly warm. Historically, Israel has a tough time gaining traction in that forum. Many countries have hardened their hearts toward Israel’s arguments about human rights; they have bought into Hamas’ propaganda and blame Israel for the suffering of the Palestinian people, [...]

Nefesh B’Nefesh Hosting Mega Events in North America

The official aliyah provider for North America, Nefesh B’Nefesh, is planning to stage eight large mega events in North America this year. The events will take place in New York, Los Angeles, Montreal, Baltimore, Toronto, San Francisco, Chicago and Southern Florida.

Not Enough

Being both liberal and pro-Israel, I sometimes feel like the only Jew on Christmas. The situation between Israel and its neighbors violates the traditional ethical and political boundaries within which I’m accustomed to understanding politics. Israel seems to have an impossible balance to strike. Israelis have the right to be free from fear of rocket [...]

Oren Smiles at J-Street: So?

Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, is making nice with J-Street. Good for him, I guess. Given that Oren snubbed the group’s inaugural conference, this is a big deal for J-Street, but the action indicates that the organization has some severe problems to overcome.
So far, much of J-Street’s rhetoric has been used to set themselves [...]

Goldstone, Oy!

It is, apparently, impossible to follow the news about Israel without encountering the (in)famous Goldstone Report. The news this week has to do with Goldstone’s connections to NGOs which opposed the war in Gaza before Goldstone conducted his “fact-finding” mission. It would be impossible, and relatively useless, to go through the various problems and [...]

Israel Allowed To Talk About Human Rights

Yesterday, Jews all over the world remembered the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auchwitz death camp; this day is now recognized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The repeated message of Holocaust awareness events is that we can never be allowed to forget the inhumane crimes committed by the Nazis during WWII. In remembering [...]

Who Shall Stay? Who Shall Go?

This past week, Israel displayed an incredible amount of kindness in its response to the tragedy in Haiti. It would have been so easy for the embattled state to ignore pleas from the other side of the world, but Israel set itself apart as a shining example of what one small country can do for [...]

Creating the Media

The Internet–particularly the invention of blogging–has irreversibly transformed the way we receive and process information. No longer can mainstream media define the plane of debate; anybody can independently fact-check a source and publish their findings for the world to see. The ongoing debate over the Goldstone Report is evidence of this fact: even primary sources, [...]

A New Blood Libel?

The Italian New Weapons Committee, an NGO whose mission is “understanding effects of new war technologies,” has released a report condemning Israel’s actions in Gaza. They claim that Israel’s bombs poison the soil, thereby dooming the Palestinians to environmental destruction.
Jewish and pro-Israel groups, however, have responded by labeling the accusations a new “blood libel.” Claiming [...]

The Movement for Universal Human Rights

Tonight, we celebrate an end and a beginning. The end of the year allows us to put our mistakes behind us and the lessons we learned in front of us. We are reminded that we constantly have an opportunity to do better, and we make resolutions in the hope that our lives and our characters [...]