January 2015 The news in Israel has been focusing on two main topics in recent weeks: the upcoming elections and ongoing revelations of corruption in government circles.  With regard to the elections, the news is full of intrigue and spin. Great fun to follow but I’m not sure how relevant it all is to the […]

Tuesday, December 2, 2014 For weeks now, the government has been in election mode.  Despite the fact that there are many issues that need to be debated seriously, the politicians sense that elections are in the air and direct their comments more towards their own constituency than towards an efficient solution to any given problem. […]

Tuesday, November 4, 2014 On Sunday night, November 2,  I ran a Shabbat dinner in Amarillo, Texas, hosted by a wonderful friend of CFOIC Heartland, Mike Isely and his group Texans for Israel.   I have run programs of this sort in a number of different countries for the past few years, but it never ceases […]

Fall 2014 It was a brutal, punishing summer for most Israeli families. Instead of family vacations, and day trips to Israel’s sandy beaches, the 2014 summer vacation was fraught with frequent trips to the bomb shelter, and characterized by conflict. For the Avitan family, the nightmare was magnified by the fact that they live in […]