Following the end of the Six Day War there was great debate within Israel about what to do with the territories gained during the war, which included East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
Some in Israel advocated an immediate withdrawal from the territories. Others supported a withdrawal only in exchange for peace with the surrounding Arab countries. And some, euphoric over the reunification of Jerusalem and control over Judaism’s…
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Israel preemptively attacked Egypt on June 5, 1967. After a month of increasing regional tensions escalated by Egypt (spurred on by the Soviets) and failed diplomatic efforts to calm the situation, Israel’s leaders believed they had no choice but to strike first. Within hours, Jordan and Syrian forces attacked Israelis forces.
In May 1967, events in the region led Israel to expect that an Arab attack was imminent. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser had ordered a withdrawal of the…
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt
Haaretz While there was anticipation in some quarters that Hamas’s announcement of a new charter would signal a change, it turns out it was much ado about nothing. Hamas remains a deeply anti-Semitic organization committed to the path of terror and to the denial of Israel’s right to exist. Its new charter does little to advance peace but does much to sustain conflict.
Ahead of the rumored changes, reports circulated that offered hope in…
ADL responds to an article in The New York Times titled "Hamas Tempers Extreme Stances in Bid for Power” which appeared on May 2, 2017. Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
To the Editor:
The story of a new Hamas statement of principles, with all the fuss and anticipation, is much ado about nothing. On the core of Hamas’s attitudes and policies toward Israel, nothing has changed.
For Hamas, there is only one legitimate authority in the Holy Land. Israel,…
May 01, 2017 By Susan Heller Pinto
Associate Director of International Affairs and Director of Middle Eastern Affairs at the Anti-Defamation League
This blog originally appeared in The Times of Israel
I feel like I have spent the better part of 2017 in meetings discussing and planning for portentous anniversaries in the history of Zionism and Israel. This year, after all, marks the 120th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress (August 1897); the centennial year of the Balfour…
ADL letter to the public editor concerning convicted Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti. Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
To the Public Editor:
We appreciate your comments about the Times failure with regard to the article by Marwan Barghouti. Unfortunately, it did not go far enough nor did the newspaper's clarification.
Yes, Mr. Barghouti was not merely a Palestinian parliamentarian. He was convicted of murder by an Israeli court.
Also important…
This letter was written in response to an article that appeared in The Nation regarding zionism and feminism. Letters to the Editor
The Nation
To the Editor:
My parents came to Israel from Morocco, a country where Jews and Muslims lived together in harmony for centuries. They instilled in me and my siblings a loving humanism that demands we treat people of different race, gender, and religion with equal respect. As an Israeli woman, I inhabit multiple identities…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening In commemoration of Women’s History Month, this resource helps educators engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the experience of women and gender in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution to women’s experience, instruction should…
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | February 09, 2017 Your Holiness,
This week, in synagogues all over the world, Jews will read Shirat Ha-yam, the “Song of the Sea” from the book of Exodus that Miriam, Moses and the Israelites sang after they miraculously passed through the Sea of Reeds on dry land.
As a newly free people, they expressed their thanks to God for their redemption, saying:
Who is like you, o eternal, among the…
December 21, 2016 Editor’s Note:A Muslim academic and a Jewish interfaith rabbi recently sat down together for a discussion about the spate of hate crimes that have taken place in the aftermath of the 2016 election campaign and what can happen with Jews and Muslims work together to combat hate speech.
The following conversation between Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Institute at Manhattan College, and Rabbi David Sandmel, Director of Interreligious…
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | September 23, 2016 JTA Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ statement before the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday revived old hatreds more than it broke new ground. It was little more than a rote diatribe against Israel and a call for international pressure to coerce the Jewish state in place of the hard give and take that happens at the negotiating table. It shed light on why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has endured so long through…
September 23, 2016 Benjamin Netanyahu
Office of the Prime Minister
Jerusalem, Israel
Dear Mr. Prime Minister:
We are writing to congratulate you on your stirring and effective address to the United Nations General Assembly.
Your call to President Mahmoud Abbas to meet you in person and to address the Knesset, your condemnation of the heinous terrorist attack in Duma and your words of empathy for the Dawabsha family, along with your expression of hope for peace,…
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | September 13, 2016 Foreign Policy If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s purpose was to criticize the Palestinian leadership, there are many issues he could have raised in his latest short video posted on Sept. 9. He could have spoken about their celebration of terrorists, or he could have raised their demonization of Israel through anti-Semitic conspiracy theories or their repeated rejection of any Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. He could…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening Commemorating National Hispanic Heritage Month
In commemoration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we present this resource to help teachers engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the Hispanic American experience in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution…
by: Jonathan Greenblatt July 07, 2016 This blog originally appeared in Medium.
As we approach the first anniversary of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) it is an appropriate time to reassess the merits of the deal. ADL was among the nuclear deal’s critics.
Beyond the nuclear restraints it would impose on Iran, our concern is that it would normalize an expansionist, militant regime whose unrepentant and fundamentalist ideology was not tamed by the deal.
Unlike…
by: Rabbi David Sandmel | June 05, 2016 The Times of Israel The General Conference of United Methodist Church recently concluded its quadrennial gathering, which this year was held in Portland, Oregon. I and many others in the Jewish community, not to mention many Christians as well, were pleased with the outcome of a number of votes on resolutions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Inter alia, the Church rejected resolutions calling for divestment or for investment screens…
May 27, 2016 In April, ADL sent a letter to G4S recognizing its public statement that its decision to sell its business in Israel was unrelated to pressures from BDS campaigns. In the public statement, G4S said it “reiterates that it does not support the anti-Israel boycott by BDS or any other group.”
This letter was sent following consultation with sources, including in Israel, who indicated that BDS has not been a motivating factor in G4S’s decision. Our…
November 01, 2015 For many years, a consensus existed in the organized American Jewish community that we should support the democratically-elected government of Israel, whether Labor or Likud, on a non-partisan basis, particularly on matters of Israeli security. The logic was twofold: Moral – Israelis put their lives on the line every day in a dangerous neighborhood and we, sitting in the comfort of America, should respect Israel’s democratic process regarding the safety and…
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | October 27, 2015 PBS - Religion & Ethics Newsweekly The promulgation, on October 28, 1965, of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Church’s Relations with Non-Christian Religions, may be the most important moment is post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian relations and interfaith relations writ large.
In its fourth chapter, Nostra Aetate effectively overturned centuries of what the noted French Jewish historian…
February 14, 1896
Publication of Theodor Herzl's treatise "The Jewish State"
August 29, 1897
Opening of the First Zionist Congress at Basel, Switzerland
November 2, 1917
Issuing of Boycott (on the Jewish community of Palestine)
July 22, 1946
Irgun bombs King David Hotel
February 14, 1947
Britain gives UN responsibility for Palestine
November 29, 1947
UN Partition Plan approved (Resolution 181)
May 14, 1948
Declaration of the State of Israel
…