Abu Yehuda

Israel’s struggle with Iran has a physical and cognitive aspect. Every skirmish has components in these two realms. Israel often wins a battle in the physical realm while losing it in the cognitive one

J Street’s primary goal, like that of the numerous other anti-Israel organizations in the US, including the nominally “Jewish” If Not Now and Jewish Voice for Peace, as well as explicitly antisemitic ones like If America Knew, is to create antipathy and distrust for Israel, so that Americans will oppose pro-Israel actions by the US government – for example, the recognition of Israel’s possession of the Golan Heights

Identity politics can be democratic in the sense that there can be elections. But it is inconsistent with what we know as “liberal democracy,” because the division of power, wealth, and rights in identity politics is based on group membership rather than ability, work ethic, or moral standing.

The Diaspora is a dead end for Jews, both physically and culturally. You can make a case for the continuance of Jewish communities in the Diaspora, and you can find many areas in which Israel needs to improve. But the necessity and centrality of the Jewish state to the continued existence of the Jewish people is indisputable.

We are sick of politicians. We are sick of the way their selfishness has prevented us from getting a government that could deal with the many issues facing the nation today, including the most important strategic ones. If there were a button to push that would remove all of our politicians, we would push it.

It may not matter what, if anything, Biden thinks, because he will be guided by unseen hands.

We barely trimmed the weeds, with the IDF ordered to end the fighting before the Memorial Day and Independence Day celebrations this week, and the Eurovision song contest which will begin next Tuesday in Tel Aviv

I think it’s worth emphasizing the surreal nature of this issue. Israel controls Jerusalem. No other nation has made Jerusalem its capital city since the Jebusites lost it to King David’s army around 1000 BCE.

Liberal Jews have distanced themselves from Judaism, the Jewish people, and Israel. They have very little left of their Jewish identity. But when Abbas blamed the Jews for the Holocaust, they finally had a problem.vi

In the past one hundred years, nothing has changed except for the defendant.

The development of a Sunni-Israel bloc in the region would be a breakthrough that would fundamentally alter the balance of power, and reduce the need for the US to physically intervene to keep the peace

New plants will cover the ugly scars terrorism left behind. Tu B’Shvat should not have to be used in this way but it is fitting that it was. Ours is a love story between a people and their land, between a land and its people.

And that is why a Jewish state, even though the fact of its existence does not itself prevent antisemitism, is invaluable in ending it. A stateless people is a powerless one, and the use of power is the best remedy for Jew-hatred.

One might wonder if there is any other country in the world that relates to its soldiers like Israel does. I certainly don’t know of any. Our enemies see it as a weakness to be exploited, and do so whenever they can. But it is also a strength, a motivation the leads Israeli young people to volunteer to take risks, knowing that they are not alone. The nation stands behind them.

Trump is blamed by many for damaging democracy. But I think far more damage has been and is being done by the reaction to Donald Trump. Trump and his movement are being used as an excuse to push the country down a path toward less free expression and less free thought.

Obama is easily “infuriated” by Israel but the problem in the US-Israel relationship is America has trouble treating Israel as a sovereign nation.

The insurmountable obstacle to a deal is that the essence of the Palestinian movement is the denial of a state belonging to the Jewish people in any part of the land between the river and the sea

In order for there to ever be peace between Israel and her neighbors, the Arabs must face reality: that Israel is a legitimate country belonging to a legitimate people, and that the Palestinians are not going to “return” to it, not ever. The charade of the “Palestinian refugee” must end.

One of the reasons that Israel has been so successful, despite the challenges it has faced from its external enemies and internal tensions and the complications created by its internal minority, is its sense of national purpose as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Obama’s was the most consistently anti-Israel administration since the founding of the state of Israel, considering the deliberate insults and provocations. It also failed the American public by "permitting" Hezbollah’s narco-terrorism

Today many of Israel's elite are “post-Zionists,” citizens of the world. They are embarrassed by Zionist patriotism. How else to explain why they oppose the Nation-State Law which does nothing more than express the idea that the Jewish people have a collective right of self-determination?

There are ad hoc groups of former security officials, etc.--and then there is Ehud Barak.

I don’t think there is a harder job in the world than being Prime Minister of Israel. There’s no room for mistakes. If he screws up, he – and the nation – pay the price right away. At the same time, the constraints placed on the PM by the exigencies of the coalition system, the too-powerful Supreme Court and Attorney General, and the intrusive and hostile media, limit what he can do. He bears all the responsibility, but has insufficient authority to do his job.

There is no contradiction inherent in the formulation “a Jewish and democratic state,” because all citizens, Jews and Arabs, have full civil and political rights. That is true, as far as it goes. But it’s our country, not theirs.

Palestinianism as an ideology is in a certain way like Marxism or Scientology. When Palestinianists are confronted with clear-cut facts, they nevertheless find it possible to deny or ignore them

{Reposted from the Abu Yehuda blog} Here we go again. Another yawning gulf between Israelis and American Jews, “a rupture that threatens Jews everywhere, the...

A sovereign state decides which non-citizens may cross its borders. Period. There is no internationally recognized human right to enter any country one wishes. Israel can deny the enemy entrance

it only seems reasonable in view of the extreme and violent hostility of much of the Arab population of the area to Israel and Jews, that Israel should follow Pakistan’s example and exclude “enemies of the state” from citizenship.

There are many unknowns. Will the virus die out or slow its progression during the summer, as happens with the flu? If so, will it come back next winter?

Why should Israel be paying-with land and concessions-for things it should be getting as a matter of course?