This week’s ARZA E-NEWS ALERT focuses on several controversies riling the Jewish waters in Israel and North America. These have overshadowed the seemingly endless coalition negotiations between Prime Minister-designate Netanyahu and parties on the right, left and center.  Late last week, Bibi was granted a two-week deadline extension, which means that the new government will come in at about the same time chumetz goes out. 

Israel has been shaken by soldiers’ testimony of knowingly killing innocent civilians in Gaza. The story, which was initially reported by the Israeli newspapers Ha-Aretz and Ma’ariv, (see brief summary, “We Felt Like We Had Complete License,” by the staff of the Jerusalem Post), was picked up and expanded in sensitive reporting by Ethan Bronner in the New York Times. 

Herb Keinon, in the Jerusalem Post, suggests that the reports are not accurate, and his newspaper blasts those who condemn Israel while ignoring Palestinian atrocities. Rabbi David Forman, a Reform oleh of many years standing and a founder of Rabbis for Human Rights, takes the opposite tack.  And Bradley Burston,writing in Ha-Aretz, analyzes how/why the world’s press sees Israel as it does.

Another controversy is raging over President Obama’s outreach to Iran in the form of a conciliatory greeting on the occasion of Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, which the country’s supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quickly dismissed as a “slogan". Ron Kampeas, blogging for JTA, presents a potpourri of reactions to the president’s initiative.

L’affaire Roger Cohen is still bubbling, with angry debate over the alleged role of the Israel lobby in his downfall.  An interesting sidebar developed when Cohen accepted Rabbi David Wolpe’s invitation to appear at his Los Angeles synagogue, which counts a substantial number of Iranian Jews among its members. Tom Tugend of JTAprovides an account.

Gerald Steinberg, writing in the Jerusalem Post, offers a strategy for nations, like the United States, that have not yet decided whether to send delegates to Durban 2. 

Finally, Rabbi David Gordis addresses the controversy over the captive Gilad Shalit.

A week like any other week, even without sustentative news on the elections front.

“We Felt Like We Had Complete License,” by the staff of the Jerusalem Post
Ethan Bronner
Herb Keinon
Rabbi David Forman
Ron Kampeas
Tom Tugend
Gerald Steinberg
Rabbi David Gordis

Weekly E-News Alerts are a new service ARZA provides.  Their purpose is to convey a selection of news and opinion columns to American Reform Jews who may not have time to read the full spectrum of the Israeli and Anglo-American Jewish press. If you would like to receive a weekly copy, sign up now at arzanewsalerts@arza.org! For an archive of past editions click here.