SDEROT, ISRAEL – This small town of 20,000, located within walking distance of Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip, should be on everyone’s mind. As things go in Sderot, so they will go in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And, for all who truly desire peace, what’s happening to Sderot, and how the predicament of its residents has been virtually ignored, gives scant hope. The international community ought to be paying closer attention.
Sderot, and other communities in the western Negev region of Israel, has been the target of some 2,400 rockets since the beginning of 2007, and thousands more since 2000, launched by Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. That’s about one rocket every three and a half hours over the last year, targeting almost exclusively civilians. Imagine trying to live, raise children, conduct normal civilian activities under these conditions.
Continue reading ‘The Agony of Sderot’
Last week in Washington, the price of oil reached a record high of $160 a barrel. In response to a series of world events unfolding over the past several months –– civil unrest and loss of local oil production in Nigeria, explosions in a pipeline in Azerbaijan and a cut in oil production by Venezuela and Iran – all contributed to world oil production to drop by one percent. This was enough to send oil prices rocketing, with serious consequences for the American and global economies.
Luckily, this scenario was part of fictional role-playing game, simulating a White House Cabinet meeting called to address the oil crisis. The mock Cabinet took into account several feasible events, and attempted to address the situation by suggesting a national speed limit of 55 miles-per-hour, restricting Sunday driving, rationing gasoline and dipping into the National Petroleum Reserve. The event was organized by the bipartisan group Securing America’s Future Energy and stressed the vulnerability of the U.S. economy to shocks in oil price.
As we celebrate Hanukkah in our homes, Congress prepares to pass a bill that would help us conserve another kind of oil –– the thick petroleum extracted from the depths of the earth. Similar to the olive oil the Maccabbes discovered, today we have a chance of making a given amount of petroleum last longer –– this time by means of efficiency standards.
Continue reading ‘Congress’s Hanukkah Gift’
According to the New York Times article, “Challenging tradition, young Jews worship on their own terms,” as well as anecdotal evidence, religion appears to play a stronger role in connecting American Jews in their 20’s and 30’s to Judaism than in previous generations.
American Jews like me whose commitment to the Jewish people stems from a cultural/nationalistic/ethical affiliation are a dying breed. I am concerned that this trend will adversely affect secular Jewish organizations. Can any strategic action be taken to postpone, much less prevent, this inevitable shift, thereby preserving the tradition of Jewish political advocacy as an attractive affiliation option?
Continue reading ‘That “Old-Time Religion”?’