Why? No proper answer

When a veteran Israeli journalist asked Lord Coe, the chairman of the London Games, if he could address the vexed question of the missing minute's silence for the murdered Israeli athletes at the Games' Opening Ceremony, the response was extraordinary.

"That's an impertinent question," he said. "Impertinent?" responded the Israeli journalist. "It's a very sensitive matter in my country."

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Sinai strike signals deluge after Assad

it has long been held that Iran is the greatest threat facing Israel. But there is a far more imminent danger - and it is closer to home.

With Assad's regime ever closer to implosion, many groups are circling for power in Syria. Prominent among these are foreign jihadists who have been flooding into the country to fight and are waiting for their chance to turn their firepower on Israel.

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Modest request but leaves a bitter taste

This week the London Olympics will finally begin and the organisers will hope the carping of the naysayers will be drowned out in a rush of national pride and sporting excellence.

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Threat was real but no-one panicked

The trial coincided with news that last summer, an African Al Qaeda leader was found with attack plans against London Jews in Golders Green and Stamford Hill.

Also last year, two British synagogues were among potential targets for a letter bomb campaign.

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What is Mick Davis going to do?

It seems that I opened a can of worms last week when I drew attention in the Jerusalem Post to the fact that the UJIA had appointed a bitter critic of Israel, Joe Millis, as its PR and communications manager.

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Mofaz walks, coalition crumbles, elections nigh

Shaul Mofaz's announcement on Tuesday afternoon that Kadima was leaving the coalition, after only 70 days of partnership with Likud, was the opening shot for an almost certain 2013 general election. Both Mr Mofaz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are now heading to the polls seriously weakened.

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Good week for education but what will long-term effects be?

This has been a good week for Jewish education.

The approval of three new Jewish free schools shows the government is prepared to back the establishment of new institutions with an ethos based on Jewish faith and culture. It also demonstrates a real appetite in the community to set up new schools and the tenacity to follow through.

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Just a minute, that's all

Perhaps they are concerned Arab nations will react badly to a silence in memory of 11 men – Israeli men - murdered for representing their country at a sporting event that is supposed to be above politics?

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Blind faith of brothers and others in law

When the political class loses faith in its ability to make moral judgments, what does it do? It calls in the lawyers. The present fashion for judge-led inquiries in the UK has given us the Leveson inquiry into the ethics of the press, and may yet lead to a similar examination of the ethics of banking.

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