Israel At War

From Israel: A Message from our Executive Director

Posted on February 26, 2024

MERCAZ USA Executive Director Sarrae Crane has been in Israel for the last week and a half on the annual mission of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. She shares her thoughts about what she has seen and heard with us in this video message:  

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Entering Rafah: War on Hamas Reaches Critical Point

Posted on February 20, 2024

BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – STORIES – PHOTOS IN THE NEWS See our “Dispelling Falsehoods, Stating Facts” section to help address difficult questions about the conflict. The murderous 10/7 terrorist attack was executed with ruthless precision, designed to maximize casualties, kidnap civilians – including children – and instill fear in the Israeli population. […]

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UN’s Alarming Complicity: Hamas Exploits UN Premises for Terrorism …

Posted on February 13, 2024

… Anti-Jewish Attacks Masked as Anti-Zionism Spread Worldwide   BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – VOICES – STORIES – PHOTOS IN THE NEWS See our expanded “Dispelling Falsehoods, Stating Facts” section to help address difficult questions about the conflict Relieved Israelis applauded the safe return of two Israeli civilians in a heroic commando rescue […]

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Why Israeli ‘occupation’ of the West Bank and Gaza has lasted since 1967 

Posted on February 8, 2024

by Rabbi Alan Silverstein, PhD What, according to international law, is “occupation”? Land acquired as the result of an unjust warfare — a war of aggression — is characterized as “occupied territory.” This has been the case in China’s conquest and continued occupation of Tibet since 1950, Turkey’s conquest and occupation of one third of Cyprus since the early 1970s, and […]

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Hatred Against Jews Flows Down From Campuses to Kindergartens

Posted on February 6, 2024

BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS TO CONSIDER – VOICES – STORIES MAKING NEWS Pro-Palestinian and even pro-Hamas marches on university campuses and new reports of students harassing Jewish students at K-12 schools across the country are increasing at an alarming rate. The ADL has registered hundreds of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attacks in public and […]

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Is Zionism racism?

Posted on January 31, 2024

by Rabbi Alan Silverstein, PhD Thirty years ago, in his book “A Place Among the Nations,” Bibi Netanyahu observed that even beyond its army, its technological advances, and its service to global humanitarian causes, “Israel’s great shield … was its moral stature.” Natan Sharansky noted that Israel’s enemies have sought to erode its moral stature […]

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UN Agency Fuels Hamas Terrorism

Posted on January 30, 2024

BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – VOICES – STORIES – PHOTOS IN THE NEWS The United Nations has a decades-long track record of bashing Israel and using the Jewish state as the scapegoat for the world’s problems. Recent headlines: UN Palestinian employees were among the terrorists during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks The U.S., […]

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Israel does not meet the definition of settler-colonialism

Posted on January 25, 2024

by Rabbi Alan Silverstein, PhD A popular canard leveled against Israel and Zionism is that of allegedly being rooted in “settler-colonialism.” Rabbi Bradley Artson, dean and vice-president of Conservative Judaism’s Ziegler School of Rabbinical Studies, posted a blog entry, in which he lamented: “This week I have been inundated by hateful and violent antisemitic email […]

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Perverse Hamas Priorities: Build Tunnels, Deny Rapes, Spread Conspiracy Theories

Posted on January 23, 2024

BACKGROUND – TALKING POINTS – ACTIONS – STORIES MAKING NEWS Billions of dollars of humanitarian aid have poured into Gaza since Israel withdrew from the territory in 2005. Massive amounts of the money have been used by Hamas to build a vast tunnel network, manufacture rockets and incite Palestinians to hate Jews and Israelis. Gaza […]

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Torah for this Hour | January 19, 2024

Posted on January 19, 2024

From their first encounter, he understands that he is dealing with someone unusual. Someone who succeeds in places where his ministers fail. Maybe that’s because he grew up with him in the palace (but we don’t talk about that). His demands are high, so he answers, “No.” The second encounter is already more dramatic. Throughout […]

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