Is Netanyahu's Refusal to Step Down to Face Charges a Foreshadowing for the US?

by Nomad

What with the impeachment hearings and the non-stop insanity emanating out of Washington, you will be forgiven if you haven't been keeping up with the constitutional crisis unfolding in Israel.  Most of us would agree that we have enough on our plates, especially during Thanksgiving. 

The events in Israel might seem far away and trivial. However, they could well be a portent of what's to come in the US if Trump loses the 2020 election.  

Journalist Chemi Shalev, writing for Haaretz, observes that Israel is currently in a state of chaos with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding his own country hostage in his " unrelenting effort to avoid criminal prosecution"  after being charged with fraud and breach of trust. 

The Tragic Murder of Yoav Hattab and The Chain of Sorrow

by Nomad

A look at one of the victims of the Paris terrorist attacks and how his life connects three cultures.

The name, Yoav Hattab, might not be familiar to you. He happened to be one of the four murdered hostages at the kosher supermarket, Hyper Cacher, (The other victims were Yohan Cohen, Philippe Braham, and François-Michel Saada.)

That attack was connected with earlier carnage on the offices of a satirical magazine which left 12 people dead and 11 others wounded. 

When terrorist Amedy Coulibaly stormed into the suburban market, he knew only that it was a Jewish-owned. That was enough of a target as far as he was concerned. In his mind, as in the minds of all terrorists, his victims had no families, no friends, and no histories. 

So. like the priest in The Bridge of San Louis Rey, I wanted to take a moment to look at the life and the death of this stranger who became a victim. 

The most tragic aspect of the supermarket attacks- as with terrorism in general- was its random nature. The fact that location was a target was random. The victims too were random. The only real linkage, from the attackers' point of view, was that the workers and the customers were most likely to be Jewish. 

In Hattab's case, that's only half of the story. This 21-year-old man was not French but from the predominantly Muslim Tunisia. He had been living in Paris while completing his graduate degree in international business studies. He was clearly not afraid of life and was preparing himself for an interesting productive life.

Moshe Uzan, a 25-year-old friend, told one reporter that Yoav's character set him apart."There are those who stand back and watch their lives. But he, he played an active role."