Israel and her Neighbors

With just a few days left until Israel’s fourth general election in two years, we might ask: Is there a clever coalition calculus that will allow for regime change? Is there a way to avoid sinking into a repetitive Groundhog Day-esque cycle of do-over elections?

In the 1980s and '90s, Israel committed to helping Ethiopian Jews make aliyah and become Israeli citizens. To this day, though, a small group of Jews remain in Ethiopia and have been unable to immigrate.

Everyone has an opinion on what we should have done – but as this crisis has exposed weaknesses in social solidarity, in leadership, in democratic processes here, it has also demonstrated clearly the strength of the Israeli health care system.

Sometimes a Jew has to learn from a Christian how to perform a mitzvah. I learned how to clean racist graffiti from the walls of Jerusalem from Father Nicodemus of Dormition Abbey on Mount Zion.