It’s the Narrative, Stupid
Virtually all Palestinians believe a false narrative designed to combine with the features of the Arab and Muslim culture in such a way as to create endless, insoluble conflict with the Jewish state.
Do We Have an Ally in America? Or Something Else?
In April, Iran launched an aerial attack. Israel should have responded with conviction to ensure Iran would never dare try it again. Instead, to maintain US support we made only a symbolic gesture, by bombing a radar station. And now here we are again.
Taking the First Step to Ending our Unhealthy Dependence
Obama is easily “infuriated” by Israel but the problem in the US-Israel relationship is America has trouble treating Israel as a sovereign nation.
What Does Zionism Really Mean?
I want to be more specific about the meaning of Zionism today: I say it is the belief that the State of Israel is the state of and for the Jewish people, and not a “state of its citizens.”
A World Without America?
I see a version of history being taught in which the US and the West in general are presented as the greatest of evils. Young people are learning to despise their own country and to want to destroy it, rather than to identify with it and improve it.
Israel, Wake Up!
The Arabs have a vision and have never stopped aggressively fighting for it. The Jews, on the other hand, seem to have lost theirs – it was called “Zionism”
The Israeli Arab Murder Epidemic
Everyone in Israel is talking about the explosion of violent crime among Arab citizens. As of today there have been 95 murders of Israeli Arabs in...
The Israeli Arab Murder Epidemic
Unfortunately the increased crime, especially if it’s coupled with inefficient enforcement of laws, leads to its normalization in society. More and more, crime is seen as an option by young people in Arab towns. This is what is going on now, and it’s particularly noticeable with regard to the crime of crimes, murder.
How to Respond to Iranian Piracy?
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
Israel is Stuck
I see the continued existence of a Jewish state of Israel as a fundamental imperative. But if coexistence is impossible, and if divesting of the territories containing most of the Arabs is also impossible, what is the alternative?
The Meron Tragedy and Israel’s Autonomous Communities
Israel is not a large country and it can’t afford have several autonomous enclaves that don’t consider themselves part of the state. The lack of respect for the laws made by the national government is corrosive
Is America Still Behind Us?
Just Ask our Enemies
Setting National Goals
Leaving out the extreme Left and the Haredi and Arab parties, I believe most Israelis more or less agree that our important goals are prioritized as follows...
Biden’s Stupid Mideast Policy
Trump and Pompeo’s sanctions were strangling the Iranian economy, and while there is no doubt that this caused significant hardship to ordinary Iranians, a military confrontation would be far worse for everyone. Had Trump been reelected, the pressure would have continued.
A Just Society – or Changing the Color of the Oppressors?
Issue isn't 'Black and White'
Ministers of Silly Walks
What’s truly wrong is that portfolios are given out as bribes and rewards for political support.
Why They Attack Jews in New York
I have been searching for a coherent statement by an assailant. Most of them don’t get past “f- you, Jews.” But it seems to me that they blame Jews for something, and feel justified in hurting them. The consequences of doing it are not great, so why not?
The Real “Real Reason the Left Hates Israel”
And, thanks to postmodernism, facts don’t matter.
Israel’s Coming Constitutional Crisis
Can there be a constitutional crisis without a constitution?
Our Strategic Balagan
Balagan: chaos, total disorder, huge mess. Borrowed from Russian.
Ben-Gurion, Zionism, and Democracy
There is only one Jewish state. There are numerous versions of the democratic “state of all its citizens” in the world, but as time goes by and it becomes harder and harder for Jews to live in them, we are finding that Herzl, Ben-Gurion, and other Zionists were correct: a Jewish state is essential for the survival of the Jewish people
Question Time
Questions and answers on Israel and world Jewry
Our Fragile Strategic Paradise
Israel’s leaders must realize that today we are living in a temporary strategic paradise, which can end at any time. If Theresa May, Trump, or Putin (or worse, all three) should be supplanted by their likely replacements, our freedom of action – diplomatic, economic, and military – would be severely circumscribed.
On Democracy
True democracy is difficult to obtain, and difficult to keep. We are fortunate in Israel to have the degree of democracy that we have
On Palestinians
Of course the Palestinians have a culture; it is unique among Arabs. It is all about their historic sense of injustice, their obsessive certainty that all of their misfortunes are somebody else’s (usually our) fault, and their endless creative pursuit of strategies, tactics, and weapons that they hope will finally bring them to their judenrein promised land.
Restoring Balance Between the Knesset and the Court
The issue that is presently driving the controversy is a series of Court decisions that have made it impossible for the government to deport any of the 38,000 African migrants that entered the country illegally since the early 2000s
The Dawabshe Horror Show
The treatment of the suspects in the arson murder of three members of the Dawabshe family in the Arab town of Duma is deeply disturbing. To put a not-too-fine point on it, the suspects probably did not commit the crime, were arrested for political reasons, and were tortured to obtain confessions. This in the State of Israel in the 21st century.
The Reform Jewish al-Aqsa
Israelis couldn’t possibly care less about mixed gender prayer. But for liberal American Jews, it plays the same role as “al-Aqsa is in danger” does for Arabs, inciting fury against Israel and its leadership.
Illuminating Gaza
In effect, the money given to Gaza was converted into weapons. And that provides a way to solve the problem: we can convert it back.
Foreign Leaders Eulogize Peres – for the Wrong Reason
The funeral should have been held on the day Peres died, as is customary in Judaism. Then it would have been impossible for most of these political celebrities to be here.