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Orit Arfa

Orit Arfa is an author and journalist based in Berlin. Her first of two novels, The Settler, follows the aftermath of the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza. Her work can be found at: www.oritarfa.net.

The choice of the 40-year-old Green Party member leaves analysts and the media unsure over effects on the domestic Jewish community, anti-Semitism and Israel policy, among other things.
“We now have a culture minister who is a close friend of the Iranians and who has bowed her head wearing a headscarf in front of the mullah regime, in addition to being a supporter of the boycotters of Israel,” said Sacha Stawski, head of the pro-Israel watchdog group Honestly Concerned.
“When it comes to the liberal democratic party, that is a party which has traditionally been very pro-Israel,” said Sacha Stawski, head of the watchdog group Honestly Concerned and organizer of the Israel Conference in Frankfurt.
Rafael Korenzecher doesn’t foresee mainstream political parties, even the more conservative Christian Democrats, standing up for Jewish interests despite their lip service to the contrary.
“Usually, it’s a balagan (Hebrew slang for ‘mess’), and it’s beautiful. This year, it’s regulated from both sides, but it works,” said Jana Erdmann, head of press and communications for Chabad’s Jewish Educational Center in Berlin.
The positions of political parties on Jewish German life and Israel read well on paper, as they also did in person at a pro-Israel rally in May at the Brandenburg Gate, where all parties (aside from the excluded AfD) sounded unusually strong pro-Israel rhetoric.
Still, some attendees wonder: Why now? What’s the source? And will it be followed by real action?
He shatters myths about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, finding his greatest Israeli allies in his quest for peace and normalcy among those living in Jewish settlements.
The outgoing president set a new standard among Republicans for what it means to be pro-Israel.
Jews are a particular obsession of Islamic terrorism, even if they’re not targeted outright. “The comments made on social networks by the perpetrators of the latest attacks or on videos of allegiance, references to Jews are constantly present, even systematic,” says Francis Kalifat, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France.
The law is part of a larger effort under Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, one of the European Union’s most pro-Israel leaders, to remove any doubts about anti-Semitism and enrich the country’s Jewish life.
Even though the pro-Israel platform of the Sweden Democrats, as well as its opposition to Muslim migration and approach to the coronavirus, align it with Jewish interests, the party’s Nazi past, and opposition to ritual slaughter and circumcision, make it unacceptable to most.