Steve Kramer

Steve Kramer

Steve Kramer grew up in Atlantic City, graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1967, adopted the hippie lifestyle until 1973, then joined the family business for 15 years. Steve moved to Israel from Margate, NJ in 1991 with his family. He has written more than 1100 articles about Israel and Jews since making Aliyah. Steve and his wife Michal live in Kfar Saba.

Setting straight the factoid crowd

 By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — What’s a factoid? According to one definition, it’s a questionable or spurious (unverified, false, or fabricated) statement presented as a fact, but without supporting evidence. (Wikipedia) Factoids are what passes for knowledge among Westerners who vilify Israel and describe it as apartheid, neo-Nazi, warmongering, and more. Advocates for […]

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Middle East, Steve Kramer

Analyzing Europe’s Middle East bias

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel –What is Palestinianism? According to journalist Ben Cohen, anti-Semitism has become less a political phenomenon, and more a social movement, with what he calls “Palestinianism” as its key ideology: “Palestinian Arabs have assumed the status of iconic, transcendental victims, as the Jews did for a brief period after World

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International, Middle East, Steve Kramer

France, other EU states, hinder Mideast peace

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — France, which fancies itself an exemplar of European statesmanship and strategic thinking, has told Israel that France’s unilateral recognition of Palestine’s statehood is what’s best for Israel’s development and security. But the practical result of France and other European states coddling the Palestinian Arabs is that the Arabs

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International, Middle East, Steve Kramer

The importance of Israel being ‘Jewish’

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — Israel’s cabinet is embroiled over the proposed nationality bill that would raise the Jewish, democratic ethos, mentioned in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, into a Basic Law, which is Israel’s version of a constitution. Not only are many Israelis, and especially Arabs, fearful that their status will be downgraded, others

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Middle East, Steve Kramer

Issue not land, it’s Islamist hatred of Jews

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — Once again, the Obama administration has become disturbed about Jews building homes, neglecting to pressure Palestinian leaders to stop incitement against Jews and terror attacks on Israelis. The offense: permits were approved to construct less than 100 homes in a Jewish area of Jerusalem which happens to be beyond the

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Middle East, Steve Kramer

Western critics of Israel schooled in hypocrisy

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel — The White House has just lowered its standards regarding civilian casualties during warfare. Yahoo News headline, reporter Michael Isikoff (Sept. 30) “White House exempts Syria airstrikes from tight standards on civilian deaths amid reports of women and children killed in U.S. air offensive, official says the ‘near certainty’

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Steve Kramer

British colonel denounces lies about Israel

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel –In August we attended a lecture in Ra’anana by Richard Kemp, sponsored by the excellent Standwithus organization, which is dedicated to informing the public about Israel and to combating the extremism and anti-Semitism that often distorts the issues. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Col. Kemp, he is a

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Middle East, Steve Kramer

Touring holy places of three religions

By Steve Kramer JERUSALEM — I had last visited the Temple Mount in 1982, on a synagogue-sponsored trip from New Jersey. My memories of that visit are hazy, but Michal and I got another chance just before Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. We joined a Tel Aviv University-sponsored trip, guided by archeologist/historian Dr. Stephen Rosenberg, whose

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Jewish History, Middle East, Steve Kramer

Answering a liberal Jewish critic of Israel

By Steve Kramer ALFE MENASHE, Israel –One of my readers asked for help in answering friends who have been “awakened” to anti-Zionism by Antony Lerman, who recently wrote, “The End of Liberal Zionism” (8/22/14) in The NY Times Sunday Review. Lerman writes on the subjects of anti-Semitism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, multiculturalism, and the place of

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Middle East, Steve Kramer, USA