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The Talmud describes Jews as rachmanim b'nei rachmanim: a compassionate people who are sensitive to human suffering. They are unable to sit by and ignore the terrible drama of human misery. Instead, they get up and do something about it.

Proximity talks between Palestinians, Israelis and U.S. negotiators will begin next week, but I'm not hopeful, in large measure because the parties have never been further apart and confidence in the U.S. has been diminished.

The outburst by eleven UC students against Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren has generated a firestorm of condemnation of their actions, including from UCI Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, whose credentials as a defender of free speech rights are unassailable.

Recently Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States, who is an academic historian and a political moderate, was invited to speak at the University of California at Irvine. I know Michael well and have heard him speak many times. He is one of Israel's most effective advocates, particularly on university campuses. He speaks about peace, about the two-state solution and he brings a historical perspective to his analysis. Because he is so effective, anti-Israel zealots try to prevent him from speaking and his audience from hearing his views.

The voice of Father Jamal Khader coming over the waves of Radio Mawwal in Bethlehem was soothing and confident. A caller asked him to explain the words of Jesus, "to love your enemy", in light of the occupation and walls built by Israel and the injustice against Palestinians.

Father Khader, who was being interviewed along with Rifaat Kassis, the coordinator of a new initiative by 16 Jerusalem-based Christian leaders, said that Christians are committed to these words without reservation.

Germany's only Jewish Film Festival is in danger of closing down due to lack of funding, the event's founder and director Nicola Galliner said yesterday.
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Both Saudi Arabia's Prince Turki Al Faisal and Israeli Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon have downplayed the importance of a handshake between them - although for different reasons.

The handshake occurred after a minor spat at an international security conference in Munich, Germany over the seating arrangement. Turki had said he did not want to sit next to Ayalon because of Ayalon's recent public humiliation of Turkish ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol.

By Mark Starr

BOSTON -- The weather at the Australian Open has been unusually damp this week, but the mood in Melbourne is sunny. After a few years in which its game seemed to flag almost as much as its economic underpinnings, women's tennis appears poised -- with a star-studded cast -- for a revival season.

A lot has been written about last week's terrorist attempt aboard a Detroit-bound flight, and there is no question in my mind that it was a security failure of biblical proportions. I think HuffPost blogger Taylor Marsh summed it up very aptly:

Massuah Holocaust Institute will present 36 video interviews with survivors – and invites them and/or their relatives to take part in the event.