Studies show that US coverage is Israeli-centric. The main bureaus for CNN, Associated Press, Time, etc. are located in Israel and often staffed by Israelis. The son of the NY Times bureau chief is in the Israeli army;"pundit" Jeffrey Goldberg served in the IDF; Wolf Blitzer worked for AIPAC. Because the U.S. gives Israel over $8 million/day - more than to any other nation - we feel it is essential that we be fully informed on this region. Below are news reports to augment mainstream coverage.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Civil Unions in Israel - but not for you

Jerusalem Post Blog
Israel has over 340,000 citizens unable to marry at all. Imagine, a democratic country where such a sizable portion of the population must travel to Cyprus, or elsewhere in the world, to be registered as a married couple. These are mostly citizens who immigrated under the Law of Return but who are not halachically Jewish (not Jews in the eyes of Jewish law). They may live as Jews in every way, but they were not born to a Jewish mother and conversion in Israel is, even when one is willing to be demeaned by the process, nearly impossible.

I do not favor intermarriage. I work hard to see that a Jew will choose to marry a Jew. But it is just silly, presuming you do not favor a theocracy, for intermarriage to be illegal (of course, that is, unless you have the money to fly to Cyprus for the day). But even more silly is that there is no way for those with no official religion to marry at all.

Full Article
at 10/19/2009 02:31:00 PM