Commentary

Where is the world's outrage? Why does no one ask where all the aid money has gone? Why is it up to the UN to build schools and hospitals while Arafat's wife lives in Paris and shops at Dior?

For the first time in many years our country is united. Prayer groups are everywhere. Israeli flags are everywhere. Clowns are everywhere. Children of the South have been given "respite days"...

Were the houses in Neve Dekalim any less of a home for their families than those in Tel Aviv or Rechovot? Or is a peaceful Shabbat meal in Ashkelon or Beer Sheva any less valuable than one in Sderot?

While we both got married and are blessed with wonderful partners in our work, only two months after your wedding, your wife is at the hospital bedside as you recover from your battle wounds...

Your seriously want me to pray for "our beleaguered brothers and sisters in the Holy Land"? They have created the mess they now deplore and have subjugated 1.5 million Gazans to three years of inhumane and intolerable hell...

Why do rabbis expound on Israel's military strategy? Would we heed a dentist's opinion on an engineering problem? Herein lies the crux of the perplexing nature of the "Mideast conflict"...

The vernacular in the British military is undoubtedly abundant with unsavory words and slurs. But the UK is in an uproar; they hold him to a higher standard. "We expect better from our Royal Family"...

When having difficulty figuring out how to write about this conflict, I often think back to my time working on The Kingdom. The wonderful people I worked with. Ashraf's deep and earnest desire for peace...

The murder of others, even if they are the oppressors, seemingly amounts to a glorification of war... Prayer, I am told, is an act of enlightenment. Am I to pray for the brutal demise of the enemy?

The bully begins his attack. At first it is only light slaps, but before long, it turns into merciless punches against my hapless boys. Ugly bruises are forming all over their bodies. So why do I stand at the sidelines waiting? I have many reasons...

Recent wars have changed the narrative; we are convinced that terror groups are indefatigable. They seem able to withstand all attacks. Confidence slowly erodes as we repeatedly ask: Can we win?

Has there ever before been a "military" campaign waged by guerrilla fighters, terrorists, or soldiers where the game-plan has been focused on maximizing their own civilian casualties, to win a media war?

Many angles give necessary depth to the present scene, but I'm going to focus on a simple equation: Israel is a country with a large Jewish population, and many of their neighbors want them all dead.

We try to explain away evil as "misunderstood good." Often times, the only people that "enlightened" minds choose to label as evil are those who have the courage to identify evil for what it really is.

As the only Jew in my office, I face a daily barrage of questions about Israel's actions in Gaza. What do I say?

When did we start treating those who blow themselves up on busses and lob rockets into kindergartens as soldiers in a legitimate army? How did the news media morph lawless terrorists into formal combatants?

When reality has forced us to relinquish control, the ties of family and friendship are still within our purview. The bonds between us and those closest to us keep us going.

Suddenly, I understood. They are looking deeper than the PR war. They have given up on worrying about what others thought of them. They refuse to sacrifice their dignity to make others feel sorry for them

"To the north is Gaza City. To the south are the refugee camps, Nusayrat, Dar al Balah, Khan Yunis and Rafah. Don't approach the fence and no sudden movements at night,"

In vain, you attempt to squelch the dooming thoughts ablaze in your mind...the horrors of what could happen...what might be the terrifying end result.

Ban Ki-Moon accused Israel of "disproportionate and excessive use of force." Israel's "close friend and ally," the "moderate" Mahmoud Abbas, used words like "genocide," and "international terrorism"...

If I know someone is dealing drugs at the corner of my kids' school, I'm not meant to ignore that reality and simply approach this person with love. I'm duty-bound to protect my children...

56 percent of Israelis supposedly support the truce with Hamas. But 79 percent said they do not believe, or are inclined not to believe, that it will last for long. A very telling poll...

Why did they find it so very difficult to accept the guidance of a mystic brother, yet so easy to be subservient to a foreign Pharaoh?

It's been like trying to get to the Golden Gate Bridge using a map of Lower Manhattan. The problem has nothing to do with traffic jams or poor driving; it has everything to do with using the wrong map

"It takes two to make a fight. So I must deserve this -- after all, I'm not perfect either. I left dishes in the sink and didn't have dinner ready when he came home. Sometimes, I was a little confused after he beat me up and didn't function so well.."

Israel will fight back until Hamas and Hezbollah accept a cease fire, at least for the time being. Yet that is exactly what we must fear...

A presentation of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's views on the Jewish people's connection with the Holy Land, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the so-called "Land for Peace" issue