Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Synchronicity

Times have changed, and what’s happening to Israel’s democracy seems to be just what’s happening to the U.S.

Credit: Yaakov (DryBones) Kirschen.
Credit: Yaakov (DryBones) Kirschen.

Accepted wisdom has it that if you’re in America and you see the news from Israel it’s never as bad as it looks, and if you’re in Israel and you see the news from America, it’s never as good as it looks.

Well, times have changed, and what’s happening to our democracy seems to be just what’s happening to their democracy.

Which seems to be true, no matter where it is you’re watching from.

So why are we in sync?

Political cartoonist Yaakov Kirschen grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., made aliyah to Israel in 1971 and began drawing “Dry Bones” in January 1973. The internationally syndicated, award-winning cartoons ran in The Jerusalem Post for 50 years. They were reprinted in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME and other mainstream media publications. The “Dry Bones” story has been covered by CBS, CNN and Forbes, among other outlets. He was a member of America’s National Cartoonists Society and the Israeli Cartoonists Society. Kirschen died at 87 on April 14, 2025.
The White House peace envoy said Washington had only begun understanding what stripping enclave arms required, calling it “beyond your comprehension.”
“Our motto is God first, and Israel always has a special place in our hearts,” Naoero Foreign Minister Lionel Aingimea said.
The Israeli-American Council launched a petition demanding that concert organizers remove the rapper from the tour after his on-stage calls to “Free Palestine.”
Crowds thronged the plaza at Judaism’s second-holiest site, with the event broadcast on giant screens along the Old City walls.