Category Archives: Israel and Palestine

An Israeli Reform Rabbi’s Response About Bibi Not Being Interested in a Two-State Solution

15 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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The Reform Rabbinate has a private list-serve on which 2500 rabbis world-wide talk with each other about everything from contemporary religious and ethical challenges within Jewish tradition, Israel and our lives as rabbis in Jewish communities around the world.

I read these postings because I want to know what my colleagues are thinking. I often post remarks myself. One such posting was my blog from earlier this week entitled: “Two Veteran Journalists Raise Alarm Bells about the Direction of the Israeli Government.” (Monday, October 13) Ron Ben Yishai (Yidiot Achronot) and J.J. Goldberg (Jewish Forward) concurred that the Israeli government is no longer pursuing a two-state solution with the Palestinians.

I post below a response by a colleague on our list-serve who holds a very different position from mine on the meaning of the journalist’s revelation. I do so not only because his response is so clear, but it is refreshingly civil which, sadly, is not always the standard in the larger Jewish community.

I continue to receive nasty and personal attacks to my postings from people who first question my motives and my heart as a Jew and Zionist, my understanding of the situation, and then seek to slash and burn the messenger (i.e. me or anyone who holds such positions) because they disagree with the message. I never post their comments because they are insulting and degrading and don’t deserve to be posted.

I end this blog with my own reflection about the consequences of assuming the absolute worst about the Palestinians, which my colleague clearly does. I do not believe, according to polls and discussions I have had with Palestinians, that he is correct, but rather that the Palestinians, though guilty of much, also have reasonable and compassionate people (polls indicate that this is the majority of the Palestinian population) who want a state of their own and to live peacefully along-side Israel in an end-of-conflict two-state solution.

“Morei ve-rabotai,

Unusual for me, I thank John Rosove. He has called our attention to two smart observers – Ron Ben Yishai and J.J. Goldberg, who deserved to be listened to. Because they’re right, and it’s way past time the rest of the world – at least our world – woke up to the reality of what’s happening here.

What is happening here is that it is becoming more and more apparent that what was supposed to be the foundation of our policy vis-a-via the Palestinians, the two states for two people, is a dead idea. It never was alive, actually, and there had never been one shred of evidence that one of the sides ever really believed it. Certainly not Arafat and Abu Mazen or anybody else on the Arab side; they have not for one single moment recognized the legitimacy of our existence. But rather glorified murder, honored suicide bombers, killed more than 1000 Israeli citizens, named streets after martyrs, taught 3 generations of hatred to kindergarten kids, etc.

The Israeli side had one great believer, Shimon Peres, (whose track record has been spectacularly wrong for the past 50 years of his post-Ministry of Defense career) followed by a trail of intellectuals, a Prime Minister who got dragged into signing those dreadful, failed Oslo Accords, and a current Prime Minister who is smart enough to make all the right speeches and the right noises about 2 states because that’s what the world out there (the ones who pay a lot of the bills) require. While he knows as well as anybody that two states, if it was ever a live idea (it wasn’t), is a recipe for disaster. Need that spelled out? In shorthand: the PA on the West Bank means Hamas on the West Bank means rockets on the airport. Anybody having trouble understanding that is invited to write in and I will try to help out.

So it seems that John Rosove and I have the same information but two opposite emotional reactions. He sees the death of the Two-State Solution as a disaster; I see it as the best news I have heard in months!

Though the Palestinian Authority has not recognized the “Jewish state of Israel” (I have written about this before), they have for two decades recognized the existence of the state of Israel. Many informed observers believe that after all the other issues are settled (e.g. borders, refugees, Jerusalem, settlements, security, water, etc.) that this last demand of the current Israeli government that the PA recognize the “Jewish state of Israel” (no Israeli Prime Minister ever demanded this before PM Netanyahu) would be agreed to.

I’m reminded in thinking about the views expressed by my colleague and me of what Nelson Mandela once said:

“Part of being optimistic is keeping one’s head pointed toward the sun, one’s feet moving forward. There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.”

Chag Sameach!

Two Veteran Journalists Raise Alarm Bells about the Direction of the Israeli Government

13 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History

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Over the years I have grown to trust certain journalists who cover Israel and the Middle East conflict for their accuracy and insight. Two of them are JJ Goldberg (Jewish Daily Forward) and the veteran defense reporter for Israel’s largest newspaper Ron Ben-Yishai (Yediot Ahronot).

Yesterday in this blog (https://rabbijohnrosove.wordpress.com/), I reviewed the key aspects of Ben-Yishai’s 2400-word report on Israel’s new “conflict management strategy” of Gaza and the West Bank. Among other conclusions, Ben-Yishai said that the Israeli government no longer is working towards a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that it now is in a “conflict management mode” that includes economic development of the West Bank, PA control over Gaza, the disarmament of Hamas, the refusal to remove Israeli settlements from the West Bank, and  indefinite Israeli control of the West Bank until Middle East instability ceases and the most radical terrorists (Hamas, Hezbollah, and ISIL) are eliminated.

In his piece in the Jewish Daily Forward, JJ Goldberg (Is Israel Abandoning Push for Two States?) sites Ben-Yishai’s potentially explosive report (Hebrew)/Ynet (English) and pulls the veil off of the current Israeli government’s greatest deception, that it is serious about achieving through negotiations a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Goldberg cites two incorrect translations from the original Hebrew article of Ben-Yishai that indicates that the United States and the European Union are both deeply concerned that the Israeli government’s current policies will make a two-state resolution of this conflict impossible, and that there is growing tension as a result between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Those who continue to say that Israel’s current government actually believes in a two-state solution are fooling themselves, both JJ Goldberg and Ben-Yishai seem to be saying.

As a friend and passionate supporter of Israel as the democratic nation state of the Jewish people, I worry mightily about this Israeli government’s current direction.

JJ Goldberg – http://blogs.forward.com/jj-goldberg/207259/is-israel-abandoning-push-for-two-states/?#ixzz3G2MrnsQI

Ron Ben-Yishai – http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4579502,00.html

 

 

“Easing Gaza Restrictions is the New Two-State Solution” – by Ron Ben-Yishai, YNET

12 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by in American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine

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In an important 2400-word article published Sunday by YNET, journalist Ron Ben-Yishai analyzes the following themes:

  • Current differences between the US and Israel
  • The Israeli government’s new “conflict management” policy vis a vis Gaza and the West Bank
  • Israel’s close security relationship with Egypt
  • Israel’s intent to ease restrictions on the lives of Gaza Palestinians and at the same time gain greater guarantees vis a vis Hamas so that conditions that would ignite a new war can be avoided

Ben-Yishai makes the following points:

  1. Israel has acknowledged that the almost-airtight blockade of Gaza has done more harm than good;
  2. Israel is shifting its focus to ease the lives of Palestinians in Gaza in exchange for greater oversight over Hamas;
  3. There are wide disagreements between PM Netanyahu and President Obama;
  4. Though Israel claims still to be interested in a two-state solution (per US and EU), the US and EU believe that a renewal of peace talks between Israel and the PA will enable the US, EU and moderate Arab nations to fight the ISIL more effectively;
  5. The Israeli government believes that it is in everyone’s interests to join forces against ISIL regardless of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and does not believe that a renewal of negotiations will be productive at this time;
  6. The current Israeli government has no intention during these volatile times of removing large numbers of Jews from West Bank settlements in a two-state solution given the ascendency of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza after Israeli withdrawal;
  7. In place of a two-state solution, Israel is shifting in the short term (until the Middle East stabilizes and the threats of radical forces subside) to a “conflict management” approach of Gaza and the West Bank;
  8. Israel has waived its objections to Palestinian reconciliation in its unity government (PA and Hamas) and is mostly interested now in preventing an uprising on the West Bank;
  9. Israel supports President Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in its efforts to build institutions and regain control over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which means allowing economic benefits to accrue to those areas. Israel will allow more freedom of movement for residents of West Bank and eventually Gaza;
  10. Israel will assist in Gaza reconstruction in order to create the incentive to avoid another war in the near future;
  11. Israel supports all policies to prevent rearmament of Hamas and Islamic Jihad;
  12. Israel and Egypt are experiencing an unprecedented security collaboration as part of Israel’s “conflict management approach” resulting in “full trust” between Egypt’s and Israel’s defense systems;
  13. Hamas has not attempted to renew excavation on its tunnels due to its desperation for money to pay workers and its need for massive financial assistance to rebuild Gaza;
  14. Hamas’ red line is disarmament – it will not do so;
  15. Ben-Yishai spells out in detail what Israel will allow for Gaza reconstruction;
  16. The current Cairo conference is attempting to detail how funding will assist Gaza.

Read the entire 2400 word article here – Ynet

 

High Holiday Sermon Themes 5775 — The Meaning of Love – The State of the Jewish World – Soul Hunger – Never Forgetting

06 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Divrei Torah, Ethics, Holidays, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life, Stories

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I have posted the four sermons I delivered on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this season at Temple Israel of Hollywood. For those interested, they may be accessed by clicking the titles below:

Their titles and themes are:

“Love is the Only Road” – Erev Rosh Hashanah – I consider the many kinds of love and the yearning to belong that animates all. I focus on two powerful true stories that evoke what is core to the human condition.

“For Jews Despair is Not An Option” – Shacharit Rosh Hashanah – I consider four themes – Post-Gaza War – The Rise in anti-Semitism in Europe and Scandinavia – The Rise in Extremism, Racism and Hate within Israel and the American Jewish Community – And our Relationship as American Jews to the State of Israel.

“For What Do Our Souls Really Hunger?” – Kol Nidre – Reflections on Judaism’s understanding of what constitutes wisdom, strength, wealth, and honor in contemporary American western culture and thoughts about what the human soul really craves.

“Why I Don’t Want to Die” – Yizkor – Based on a conversation with my 97 year-old mother who is legally blind, nearly deaf and suffering from dementia but at times lucid enough to express her deepest fear in dying.

 

 

 

President Ruvy Rivlin Commits to Fighting Racism, Intolerance and Bullying in Israeli Society

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by in Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Social Justice

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There’s been in Israel an alarming increase of racism over the last few years. Jewish terrorist price tag attacks continue to plague Israeli human rights organizations, Palestinian-Israeli citizens, Palestinians living in the West Bank, their villages and olive groves, and Christian churches in the heart of West Jerusalem. The most horrendous example was the murder by Jewish terrorists of an innocent 16-year old Mohammed abu Khadr in June in revenge following the murder of the three kidnapped Israeli teens by Hamas-related terrorists.

Israeli racism, intolerance of the “other,” and bullying is finally being addressed seriously by Israel’s Ministry of Education in programs to educate children in elementary, junior high and high school about tolerance and human rights. Israel’s new President Reuven Rivlin has devoted himself to this issue and has condemned all expressions of intolerance, racism and bullying including that coming from certain extremist members of the sitting Israeli governing coalition.

I was particularly moved by the following video reported in the Times of Israel that shows the Israeli President sitting in his office with a young boy, George Amire, from Jaffa who has been the victim of bullying in a new campaign in which Ruvy Rivlin has committed himself in promoting tolerance and solidarity.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/president-and-student-make-joint-statement/

“For Jews Despair Is Not An Option” – Rosh Hashanah Sermon 5775

29 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Holidays, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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On Rosh Hashanah morning I spoke to my congregation about the current state of the Jewish people in the aftermath of the Israel-Hamas War, in light of the rise in anti-Semitism in Europe and Scandinavia, the rise in extremism and intolerance in Israel and in the American Jewish community, and how we American Jews are relating to the State of Israel today.

For those interested, the direct link to the sermon

“For Jews Despair is Not An Option” – Shacharit Rosh Hashanah

G’mar chatimah tovah!

“A Wider Bridge” Connects American Jewish LGBTs with Israel’s LGBT Community

28 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity, Women's Rights

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“At Temple Israel of Hollywood, a true Reform congregation, I am blessed to say that a gay, pregnant, female rabbi is no more out of place on the bima than any of my colleagues!”

So declared my colleague, Rabbi Jocee Hudson, on the second day of Rosh Hashanah in a sermon in which she described both the changes that Reform Judaism has undergone that have opened the door to a wider diversity of Jews, and the challenges facing Jewish life anew in the 21st century. Rabbi Hudson noted that going forward the American Jewish community will need to open its doors even wider and be even more inclusive than we have ever been before to welcome Jews and their families, and to continue to rethink how we pray, how we learn and think about Torah, about the meaning of “community”, how we engage with the people and state of Israel, and about how we recommit ourselves to social justice work here and abroad.

Rabbi Hudson was quick to say that despite the need for ongoing change, such “revolutionary challenges” are, truth to tell, nothing really new in Jewish history and tradition.

That being said, our community has, indeed, changed dramatically in the last fifty years of American Jewish history. One of the most significant changes is the leadership role women have taken as rabbis, cantors, scholars, thinkers, and communal leaders. A second significant change involves the ever-emerging presence of LGBT Jews and Jewish leaders in our congregations thus helping us redefine the meaning of “family” in contemporary Jewish life.

Before Rosh Hashanah, I had the privilege to meet with Tyler (Tye) Gregory, a member of the national staff of “A Wider Bridge,” a relatively new pro-Israel organization that builds bridges between LGBT Israelis and LGBT North American Jews. Arthur Slepian, the organization’s founder has written:

“I am a gay man, an American, and a Jew. I am passionate about Israel, devoted to its well-being, and I want to see a resolution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians that will enable both to live in peace and security. My love for Israel and my commitment to LGBT equality led me to create ‘A Wider Bridge,’ an organization dedicated to strengthening the bonds between the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities in Israel and America. I believe LGBT Jews have been a transformative force for good in the Jewish world and that LGBT Israelis have been and will continue to be a vital force in creating a stronger and better Israel.”

“A Wider Bridge” is a non-political movement based in San Francisco with offices forming in other major American cities. It includes Jews of all political positions relative to American and Israeli political life.

Israel is arguably the most open Middle Eastern nation to homosexual men and women. Recent LGBT pride parades in Jerusalem (2000 participants) and Tel Aviv (100,000 participants) were organized by Israeli LGBT organizations such as Jerusalem’s “Open House for Pride and Tolerance,” “The Aguda: The Israeli National LGBT Task Force,” “Israel Gay Youth,” “Havruta Religious Homosexuals in Israel” and “Bat Kol,” among others.

Mr. Slepian also writes:

“Israel is the most important project of the Jewish people. And we believe in K’lal Yisrael …[but] We are struck by how little the American Jewish and LGBT communities know about Israel’s LGBT communities (and vice versa), and we aim to change that….we believe that Israel is a country worthy of more engagement, more dialogue, more exchange of culture and travel, and should not be the object of boycotts and sanctions. Israel has [not] become some kind of gay paradise: no country in the world qualifies for that title. It is still very hard to be gay in many parts of Israel, there are still many rights battles to be fought and won, and there have been some tragic incidents of anti-gay violence….Our aim was to enable Israeli LGBT activists to meet with and exchange ideas with organizations in the United States facing similar challenges. …Among these are the efforts to enact civil marriage, including same-sex marriage, and the recent initiative in the Knesset to bolster protections against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender. And we support those who are working to persuade the government to develop more compassionate policies regarding gay Palestinians who flee the West Bank and seek refuge in Israel because their lives are in imminent danger either from their families or the Palestinian police.”

“A Wider Bridge” has grown dramatically since its founding. Currently, 25,000 people visit regularly its Face Book Page with 1000 daily views. This movement is a great contribution to contemporary American Jewish and Israeli life, and I support them with a full heart.

For more information, visit http://www.awiderbridge.org. Rabbi Hudson’s sermon will be posted in the next two weeks on our synagogue’s website – http://www.tioh.org.

My Brother – The Universe – Henry Miller – And New Year Hopes

22 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, Beauty in Nature, Ethics, Health and Well-Being, Holidays, Inuyim - Prayer reflections and ruminations, Israel and Palestine, Jewish Identity, Jewish-Christian Relations, Jewish-Islamic Relations, Musings about God/Faith/Religious life

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My brother, Michael, is a scientist (i.e. hematologist-oncologist on faculty at UCLA Medical Center). He accepts truth when empirical evidence is clear. However, he also knows that no matter how much we may think we know, we never have all the information necessary to make categorical statements about objective truth.

He recently wrote the following to me:

“I often marvel at how improbable we all are as humans. There had to be the creation of the universe, then the stars and planets. There had to be an Earth with perfect conditions ripe for life, then enough time for natural selection to create the diversity of life we know. As humankind, we are merely one invention of this process. And as individuals, who are so dependent on both nature and nurture for who we are, each of us is the improbable union of one particular egg and one particular sperm raised in a particular environment by two particular parents. How improbable and unique can you get? Mind boggling!”

Henry Miller wrote the following relative to the truth my brother articulated above:

“Let each one turn his gaze inward and regard himself with awe and wonder, with mystery and reverence; let each one work her own influence, her own havoc, her own miracles.”

This is the nature of this High Holiday season. We are dynamic beings, just as the natural world is dynamic, and we are capable of changing and climbing out of and moving from the holes into which we’ve fallen and become stuck, if only we have the will and the clarity of mind, heart, and spirit to do so.

May it be such for each of us in this New Year 5775.

May Israel and the Palestinians strive to find a better way to live side by side in mutual respect, in peace and in security.

May the forces for good destroy ISIS and defeat all those who would destroy innocent human life and thereby save human lives (I pray specifically in these days for the well-being of Kurdish Muslims of Syria).

These are my most fervent New Year’s hopes. To attain them, it will take us all, decent people who regard every human being as the infinite embodiment of God’s creative and loving will.

L’shanah tovah u-m’tu-kah u-v’ri-yah l’chul’chem u-l’mish’patch’chem u-l’chol y’di-dei-chem!

4 Articles About Hamas, Netanyahu, Settlements , and Fear among American Rabbis to speak about Israel

07 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by in American Jewish Life, American Politics and Life, Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

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Now that the fighting has stopped, sober analysis of the most recent war has begun. Here are four articles I believe worth reading, among many.

1. Failure in Gaza, By Assaf Sharon – New York Review of Books

Assaf Sharon is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Tel Aviv University. He is the academic director of Molad: The Center for the Renewal of Israeli Democracy.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/sep/25/failure-gaza/

“Understanding how we got to this point—and, more importantly, how we can move beyond it—calls for an examination of the political events that led up to the operation and the political context in which it took place.”

“False assumptions, miscalculations, and obsolete conceptions robbed Israel of initiative. Lacking clear aims, Israel was dragged, by its own actions, into a confrontation it did not seek and did not control. Israel was merely stumbling along, with no strategy, chasing events instead of dictating them. What emerged as the operative aim was simply “to hit Hamas,” which for the troops translates as a license for extensive and unchecked use of force.”

2. Israel’s Lessons From the Gaza Wars, by Ali Jarbawi – NY Times, September 4, 2014

Ali Jarbawi is a political scientist and a former minister of the Palestinian Authority. This article was translated by Ghenwa Hayek from the Arabic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/opinion/ali-jarbawi-israels-lessons-from-the-gaza-wars.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

“The road to peace is both clearly delineated and short: It is the public acceptance of the legitimate right of the Palestinians to end the occupation and establish a state.”

3. Israel’s land appropriation: Foolish, ill-timed and self-destructive – By Rabbi Eric Yoffie – Haaretz – Sep. 3, 2014

Rabbi Eric Yoffie is the immediate past president of the Union for Reform Judaism, and is now writes frequently in Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post –

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.613782

“Perhaps there could be a more foolish, ill-timed, and self-destructive decision than the one made by Israel’s cabinet this week, but it is hard to imagine what it might be.
Israel’s enemies in the Middle East and throughout the world are rejoicing. If you really despise the Jewish state, nothing makes you happier than a move by Israeli leaders to expand settlements. The move, in this case, was a decision by the cabinet to appropriate 1000 acres of West Bank land for settlement building in the Etzion settlement bloc, near Bethlehem. The land has been designated as “state land,” even though ownership is claimed by local Palestinians.”

“Nothing unites the world against Israel like settlement building. Even Israel’s staunchest supporters abroad, trying to make Israel’s case to a skeptical public after the Gaza war, are asking: Why undermine us now?

4. Muzzled by the Minority, By Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, Reform Judaism Magazine, Fall 2013

http://ericyoffie.com/

“Many rabbis don’t express their true views about Israel publicly for fear of clashing with a handful of congregants who might lash out against them. But there are ways to navigate this minefield of divided opinion.”

Rabbi Yoffie worries aloud about the lack of civility in the American Jewish community vis a vis Israel, and offers a five-fold approach to resolving this issue. He confronts, as well, a number of challenges facing American rabbis and American Jews generally in our relationship to the state of Israel, and sites a number of opinion surveys of American Jewish attitudes towards Israel, the occupation, settlements, and the rightful role that American Zionists have in expressing views publicly that may counter the policy positions of the government of Israel. He notes that according to the 2013 Pew Research Center poll, the majority of American Jews remain strongly devoted to Israel without necessarily agreeing with everything Israel’s leaders do, and that the majority opinion in the American Jewish community is dovish, not hawkish, contrary to what many organized American Jewish organizations say and would like us to believe.

A Podcast I Highly Recommend Coming out of Israel

31 Sunday Aug 2014

Posted by in Israel and Palestine, Israel/Zionism, Jewish History, Jewish Identity

≈ 1 Comment

For those who want, crave, need to be engaged with all things Israel, I have recently become a huge fan of a year-old podcast produced in Tel Aviv that I listen to daily.

After I listened for two weeks, I emailed the station TLV1 to offer my complements and gratitude, and their Sales and Marketing Manager, Itai Shelem, contacted me. He told me the following about the station’s mission:

TLV1 is an English-language internet radio station broadcasting from Tel Aviv – the heart of Israel and cultural barometer of the Middle East. Reflecting Tel Aviv’s vibrant fusion of East with West and traditional with modern, TLV1 interweaves Israel’s rich cultural history with an exhilarating future embodied by the hi-tech industry.

Whether from street-level or the hallways of government, in earnest or in jest, TLV1 has its finger on the pulse: From breaking news to culinary trends, from musical pioneers to game-changing entrepreneurs, we don’t miss a beat.

Then Itai, said:

We’ve got over 20 different shows ranging from music, culture, sports, and food – all available via podcast and on-demand on our site. We supply radio content to Haaretz.com. We are working on putting on radio plays and taking our radio shows on the road, in front of a live audience. I’ve very excited about that.

The Tel Aviv Table, The Promised Podcast, StreetWise Hebrew, and So Much to Say are our most popular programs. We’ve got two music editors that select music for shows, often based on the content at hand.

I have found the show “So Much to Say” particularly enlightening. It is a 5-day a week hour news broadcast of stories making the Israeli headlines made up mostly of interviews with Israeli experts on a wide range of issues including the recent war in Gaza, PTSD among Israeli children in the south, growing racism in certain sectors of Israeli society and the Ministry of Education’s efforts to combat it in the schools, Israel’s targeted killing of Hamas terrorists and its relationship to international law (see my earlier blog on this issue), and the recent re-opening of the Chabad house in Mumbai after a terrorist strike three years ago. Interspersed between every story is Israeli or international popular music. The hosts are smart, well-spoken and well-informed. Their agenda is simply good, thoughtful and probing journalism.

Itai told me as well that the number of listeners is growing dramatically. He wrote:

“Last month (July), 74,000 unique listeners tuned in, consuming nearly 160,000 on-demand radio segments, which does not include listeners to our live audio stream. These listeners represent over 185 countries and territories, and more than 6,800 cities.”

Just to be certain you understand my motivation in recommending TLV1, and especially “So Much to Say” – I am not on their payroll and have no relationship to anyone at the station. I receive nothing in response to blogging about TLV1, just the satisfaction that some of you will download the podcast, listen and be as enlightened with accurate cutting-edge reporting as I am.

If you don’t trust my judgment, then listen in yourself and make up your own mind.