InDepth

Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent embrace of the Arab Peace Initiative is, to say the least, unnerving. Certainly the response of Arab leaders to his action reflects the dangers for Israel inherent in the plan. President Obama seems to be preoccupied these days with Syria and Iran as well as serious domestic issues and is largely leaving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to Mr. Kerry. But the secretary of state seems poised to roil things up without any prospect of real progress.

Several weeks ago my wife, Chavi, and I attended the sad funeral of Mrs. Martha Melohn a”h. Besides being a dear friend of Chavi’s, Mrs. Melohn was the matriarch of a very well-known philanthropic family. This is not the place for a full-fledged eulogy of this remarkable woman, but I begin this article with reflections on a conversation I had with her just several months before her unfortunate demise.

Predicting the future of huge laws is next to impossible, except, in this case, to say that it will either fail or cost taxpayers a lot of money, or both.

The Arab League is an incompetent and ineffectual body that has long been ridiculed by most Arabs.

Whether or not amnesty comes, the United States of America is becoming too much like Mexico; a society of limited possibilities and diminished social mobility.

If Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh want to go to The Hague – we will be there to meet them.

For Lapid to successfully challenge Netanyahu, he will need to find the right time for a strategic exit from the government.

Europeans are rebelling against the unelected E.U. and its grandiose, self-regarding project of abolishing the national sovereignty.

Obama wants Americans to believe that government is only the sum total of their efforts together. But that is nonsense.

The fourth Great War is less 'Islam against the West' than it is Sunni expansionists vs. Shiite expansionists.

What President Lauder sees as the top assignment for the Jewish people is terrifyingly unique, if you're a student of history.

Ahmadinejad keeps standing up to America and America keeps doing nothing to stop him.

The Palestinian Authority is in a box of its own making. It cannot win militarily against Israel, nor will it engage in serious diplomacy with Israel.

Terror victims have families that expect justice to be done, just as they were promised.

When the borders of a state are breached, its existence as a state is undermined.

Behind every child with a label of disability there's a child with ability to be cherished, praised and supported.

Perhaps if Western states studied its policies rather than endlessly criticized them they might gain from the experience.

Israel has never stopped Palestinians from holding free elections or implementing administrative and financial reforms.

Too many times, the world has learned the hard way by 'turning the other cheek' while dictators terrorized both their own people and other nations.

No words can satisfactorily describe the joy and love which resonates in the heart of a father, as he looks upon his son.

As Jews, we assume a myriad of financial obligations in order to ensure that we live in accordance with the tenets of our faith. We give generously to our shuls and make charitable donations to various organizations that service the Jewish community. But one of the biggest investments we make is in our children’s future, as we enroll them in one of the many quality yeshivas our community boasts.

A flag with the Star of David hung prominently in the synagogues of Prague since the mid-14th century, with the approval of their great rabbis.

Netanyahu made an invaluable turnabout in the way Israel explains itself. We must complete that turnabout. We must not go half way.

A zoning plan that would have enabled the creation of critical Arab facts-on-the-ground in a strategically vital area of Jerusalem has been shelved thanks to efforts by several Zionist organizations.

A fundamental inequality is evident in all expressions of the Middle East peace process.

Muslims make up 30 out of 31 most wanted terrorists, or about 97 percent of them.

Last week, a few minutes after my stormy exchange with haredi members of Knesset, I went to what we in the Knesset call the "back cafeteria." It is not exactly a cafeteria but rather a lounge area behind the plenum where members of Knesset alone can enter.

The ticking of the clock is uniformly, maddeningly constant. Tick, tick, tick. In equal, perfectly differentiated, precise segments. One second after another. Tick, tick, tick. A minute. An hour. One day. Another. Then a week. A month. A year. A lifetime.

In other words, to speak in English in Washington to make the Americans happy is one thing; to do things in practice is something else entirely.

Jerusalem was never real to me. It was a name I came across in books of Bible stories as a child. If I’d ever tried to imagine it, it would have been like places in my books of fairy stories. I knew it was a city with crenellated walls, with domes and towers and minarets. In my mind, I saw it peopled with old men with long beards and flowing robes, and women with clay jugs precariously balanced on their heads.