What Israel is experiencing these difficult days, is truly painful and heartbreaking to see.

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Those protesting against the judicial reform in their tens of thousands every week and marching in the heat, are overwhelmingly patriots. They love this country. They fought for this nation. They feel immense pain.

Those who seek reform, are no less patriots either, and they believe in the justness of their cause.

Of course, there are some extremists on either side, who seek to exploit the situation, to hold the country for ransom, and undermine the very core values and structures of our treasured democracy.

Few reasonable people will disagree that Israel urgently needs judicial reform. The two overriding questions are: the nature and extent of reform and the manner in which it is implemented.

I have actually never thought that Iran presented an existential threat to us (albeit not from lack of effort on their part, or the vigilance and actions of our security forces and intelligence). Our military knows very well how to deal with those who seek us harm and I continue to place absolute faith in them.

It is the internal division and the incendiary rhetoric, that is unprecedented, and threatening to rip us apart.

Our people have a history unlike any other, with no shortage of tragedies that have befallen us, both due to outside foes and our very own doing and disunity. That we are today on the eve of Tisha B'av should only remind us of this danger and serve as a clarion call to action.

We need to accept that our brothers and sisters, with whom we disagree, even passionately so, have legitimate views. We need to reach out to one another, not scream at each other from competing rallies.

The rhetoric on both sides needs to be toned down immediately.

Our leaders need to listen to their people, with empathy and fair hearing. They need to put aside their ego, sit down and negotiate a compromise until there is a resolution.

There is still time to do the right thing.

Until that happens, we cannot commence the process of healing that we truly need, and the gaping wound that is ripping at our nation, will only tear us further apart.

I made aliyah exactly eleven years ago, out of a deep Zionist yearning. Throughout that time, there has been no shortage of challenges and tribulations, including multiple wars. But I have never regretted a day.

Now more than ever, I am still profoundly inspired by Israel's story and will always continue to unwaveringly fight for the Jewish nation – both against foreign enemy and for what I believe within.

In the immortal words of Ehud Manor, "I have no other country even if my land is burning."

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The post There is still time to get this right, but shouting matches won't work appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

When news broke two weeks ago that Harvard University's Kennedy School refused a fellowship to former Human Rights Watch head Ken Roth, I did not hesitate to applaud their principled decision to deny a platform to someone who has made a career from weaponizing international law and human rights to demonize the State of Israel and peddle in antisemitic tropes.

From the moment the decision was made public, Roth engaged in an unprecedented temper tantrum and press campaign, making it out to be the greatest injustice in the history of mankind, even tweeting about it over one hundred times in the space of barely two weeks.

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Harvard University is meant to be one of the world's foremost academic institutions. Its motto, VERITAS, is literally Latin for truth. That is what makes yesterday's announcement by Doug Elmendorf, Dean of the Kennedy School, that they will reverse the decision and offer Roth the prized fellowship after all, all the more depressing and infuriating.

Being awarded a fellowship at a prestigious university like Harvard ought to be a privilege, not a God-given right or a prize as a result of a PR campaign. One would think it requires an extensive history of scholarship and some semblance of academic integrity.

For over the last three decades under Roth's leadership, HRW morphed has, sadly, from a once storied human rights watchdog, into a pit bull, pathologically obsessed with Israel, singling out the Jewish state for repeated opprobrium and differential treatment, while turning a blind eye and excusing, justifying and whitewashing Palestinian terror.

In more recent times, HRW has become the leading proponent of the "apartheid" libel against Israel, while calling for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the Jewish state. Such is Roth's unhinged and visceral hatred of Israel, that he has also inexcusably blamed the country for the rise in antisemitism and violence against Jews, even leading noted writer Jeffrey Goldberg to pen an entire article asking "Does Human Rights Watch Understand the Nature of Prejudice?"

As far back as 2009, Roth's obsession and bias with Israel had become so intolerable, it led to HRW founder Bob Bernstein to publicly excoriate the very organization he founded, writing in the New York Times that, under Roth's leadership, "Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective." Instead of heeding Bernstein's advice, in the years that followed, Roth's obsession with Israel only intensified, to the point of fixation.

Writing for The Guardian, Roth claimed that the initial decision to refuse him a fellowship was due to his "criticism of Israel" and "donor reaction", adding that HRW recognized that "we would never attract donors who wanted to exempt their favorite country from the objective application of international human rights principles. That is the price of respecting principles."

Israel of course is not above the law or fair criticism, however, the undeniable fact is that Roth has systematically denied Israel equal treatment, taking his criticism to an obsessive and obscene level, refusing to accept the Jewish state has legitimate security concerns and denying it the same rights as afforded to other democracies.

In reversing his decision, Kennedy School Dean Elmendorf said he made an "error" in his initial refusal to appoint Roth, which was not influenced by any donor pressure, but rather had been guided based on his evaluation of Roth's potential contribution to the School. Elmendorf ought to have stuck to his initial assessment.

Instead, there can be no other way to look at this reversal, other than as a cowardly and pitiful, caving in to Roth's pressure campaign. One may be forgiven for asking if Harvard now has any red lines at all in the hallowed pursuit of "open debate"? What next? Maybe a fellowship to Vladimir Putin to teach modern warfare, or Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a fellowship in gender studies?

At a time of antisemitism surging to unprecedented levels on campuses across the United States, instead of taking a principled stand, Harvard has just normalized and rewarded Jew-hatred with a prestigious Fellowship.

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The post Does Harvard's 'Veritas' apply to Israel? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The therapy has been widely discredited by members of the mental health and LGBTQ communities.

Thus, I was shocked, angered, and repulsed by the minister's hateful and homophobic remarks.

Israel should be a light unto the nations but the minister's comments bring only darkness and shame. We can do better. We must do better.

Video: Moshe Ben-Simhon

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