Category: Israel
When Mistakes Are Worth Making
For some strange reason, I remember the scene with clarity. I was in the kitchen, early on a Friday afternoon about a month ago, cooking Shabbat dinner. Micha, our youngest, now 15, was hanging out in the living room. The radio was on in the background, and on the hour, the news came on. It was over in minutes, and then the music returned.
I hadn't really paid attention to the news, but Micha apparently had. "Do you think we're ever going to get Gilad Shalit back?" he asked. Without even looking at him, I said, without even thinking, "Of course we are. Definitely."
"You don't know that," a different voice piped in. Now, I looked up. Avi, his older ...
House Debate
Posted by Daniel Gordis in Israel on March 24, 2007 | Leave a comment
Shortly after the media began carrying the story of former IDF chief of General Staff Moshe Ya'alon's comment that sometimes prisoners of war must be sacrificed if the demands for their return are too high, I found myself at home with two of my kids. My son, headed for the army in just a matter of weeks, had just finished reading the story on the Web. "Sounds like Ya'alon stirred up a hornet's nest," he said.
"Pretty painful stuff," I replied, as I'd been trying to imagine what it must feel like to be the parents of Gilad Schalit, Eldad Regev or Ehud Goldwasser, and to have as respected a person as Ya'alon say that, especially this week.
"True," my son said, "but he might be ...
Dr. Daniel Gordis is Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center, where he is also a senior fellow. The author of numerous books on Jewish thought and currents in Israel...
The Jewish State must end, say its enemies, from intellectuals like Tony Judt to hate-filled demagogues like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even average Israelis are wondering if they wouldn't be better off somewhere else. 
