Grandma's army

Like the corona virus, the new anti-Semitism has mutated so that practitioners of it can deny that they are anti-Semites. “After all”, they’ll say, “I’m not a racist. I have no problem with Jews or Judaism. I only have a problem with the State of Israel”. But in a world of 56 Muslim nations and 103 Christian ones, there is only one Jewish state, which constitutes one-quarter of one per cent of the land mass of the Middle East! Israel is the only one of the 193 member nations of the United Nations that has its right to exist regularly challenged, with one state, Iran, and other groups, committed to its destruction. How come the Jews have been  “chosen” for thousands of years as the world’s scapegoats whenever a crisis emerges? At the time of Jesus, Jews were hated because of their religion. At the time of Hitler they were hated because of their race. Today, since the leading source of authority worldwide is “human rights” Israel is regularly accused of crimes against humanity:...

Israel's management of the coronavirus epidemic is proving to be one of the most challenging events since the establishment of the state. Meanwhile, IDF recruitment continues as usual, as does combat training, with adjustments made in order to comply with the guidelines of the Health Ministry.  To date, 23 IDF soldiers have contracted the coronavirus, and 5,600 soldiers are in quarantine, of which 240 are “lone soldiers.” With four grandchildren in the IDF, I was interested to hear from them how the coronavirus impacts on their army service: Amitai , who is in the Armoured Corps, began an officer’s course 7 months ago and last week the concluding ceremony was held – for the first time, with no family or friends with whom to share their celebration. The course was carried out as always, beginning with the cadets from all of the ground forces. The subjects they studied were focused mainly on leadership, ethical values, command and basic warfare. The coronavirus ...