The Arab country with the oldest and largest Jewish community – as well as the largest Jewish diaspora – has opted for political and economic ties with the Jewish state, itself home to some 1 million Jews of Moroccan descent.
Resuming contacts with Iran has become an early foreign policy priority for the Biden administration. American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO David Harris, a long-time observer of the Iran issue, offers six recommendations to the Biden Administration for any future negotiations with the Iranian regime.
Palestinian responsibility for and success in acquiring Covid-19 vaccines continues to be ignored. Israel has supplied thousands of vaccines from its supply, while facilitating delivery of the large number of vaccines ordered by the Palestinian Authority.
Whether Palestinian elections can help or hinder the resumption of talks will depend on the outcome – if the voting actually takes place – and ultimately on Abbas’s posture, or that of his successor.
By ruling that those who undergo Reform and Conservative conversions in Israel should be considered Jews under the Law of Return, the High Court of Justice both took a stand for Jewish peoplehood and upheld Israel’s national commitment to equality and religious freedom. The decision does honor to the country’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state.