This week's Torah portion offers us a message about the need for us to act with courage and act decisively to prevent disaster
In this portion, we have many great inspiring moments: crossing the sea to escape Pharaoh, the song of the sea afterwards, the fight against the nation of Amalek. In fact, in this week's Torah portion, the Israelites see literally dozens of miracles - miracles come fast and furious, one after another.
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for the period of
January 21-31, 2012
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1. Bills, Resolutions
& Letters
2. Odds & Ends
Apologies
for the belated and abbreviated Round-Up this week (and the
absent Round-Up
this coming Friday) -- both are due mainly to the visit to the
U.S. of Jerusalem
expert Danny Seidemann, who is in the U.S. discussing current
developments/trends in East Jerusalem settlement construction,
and the imminent
threat they pose to the viability of the two-state solution. His visit coincides with
the publication of a
new map presentation laying out these current
developments/trends and
projecting (conservatively) what the map of Jerusalem will
look like at the end
of 2013, assuming these trends continue unchecked. That presentation can be
viewed/downloaded here.
Alpher discusses the Israeli-Palestinian pre-negotiation talks in Amman, interim conclusions from the "Arab spring" one year after the outbreak of the revolution in Egypt and the meaning of the 2009 survey just published on Israeli attitudes towards religiosity.
Rabbi Amy Eilberg is the first woman ordained as a Conservative rabbi by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Rabbi Eilberg directs interfaith dialog programs in Minneapolis/St. Paul, and is deeply engaged in peace and reconciliation efforts in connection with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as with issues of conflict within the Jewish community. She is at work on a book on Judaism and peacemaking.
Go HERE for all installments of APN's "They Say, We Say"
They Say: Settlements are not an obstacle to peace. They take up only a tiny fraction, around 1 percent, of the entire West Bank.
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for the week ending
January 20, 2012
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1. Bills, Resolutions
& Letters
2. Odds & Ends
Barry Leff is a rabbi and business executive living in Jerusalem. He is the chairman of Rabbis for Human Rights and serves on the board of the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary. He blogs at www.neshamah.net
.
Alpher discusses human rights and racism in the wake of martin Luther King's birthday, and the Israeli government's role and reports on the meetings in Amman and their potential political repercussions in the US, Israel and Jordan.
Shaul Magid is the Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Professor of Modern Judaism at Indiana University/Bloomington. He is also the rabbi of the Fire Island Synagogues in Sea View, NY. His new book American Post-Judaism: Identity and Renewal in a Postethnic Society will be published next year with Indiana University Press.
Alpher discusses the significance of a settler among the new justices for the Israeli Supreme Court, the prospects for fruitful negotiations in the aftermath of last week's meeting in Amman, Fateh preventing Israeli-Palestinian track II meetings in Jerusalem, and the political potential of journalist Yair Lapid.
Alpher offers a limited year-in-review for 2011, and discusses the recent developments on the Palestinian scene and whether Arab League observers in Syria will make any difference there.
