Op-Eds

Visceral hatred of Israel is common even in countries with which it has peace treaties. Not only does this hinder peacemaking, but it creates a real risk that treaties won’t survive an autocrat’s fall.

The pervasive Palestinian Antisemitism is the direct result of the PA’s teachings.

The Jordan Valley, in its full scope and broadest definition, is essential to Israel’s national security. Its retention by Israel requires not only military deployment but a comprehensive development plan—i.e., the construction of housing, roads, and infrastructure—that will establish this territory as Israel’s eastern wing.

The Democrats are bloviating as vociferously as they can to create an appearance of crime and judicial requirements. But the blunt reality is that those elements don’t exist. criminal charges. There’s no actual crime at issue.

On January 3, 2020, an American drone killed Iran’s roving fixer in the Middle East, Quds commander Qassem Soleimani, sparking intense, but largely partisan, reactions in the US. While Republicans lauded President Trump, many Democrats worried that the action might spark a war with Iran. But while it is easy to criticize Trump for stirring up conflict in the Middle East, Iran has helped to create the conditions of this current conflict.

Whatever substances regular American students use, our yeshiva high school students use as well. This assertion may astonish or frighten you, but it’s true. The only thing that is unknown is the scope of the problem.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, chief of Tehran’s Lebanese proxy terror group Hezbollah, made a speech earlier this month encouraging the killing of every American soldier and officer in the Middle East. It is not every day that a terrorist leader expressly calls for the mass killing of Americans. Will Trump respond?

Seventeen recommended new books on Israeli and Jewish matters – on fighting antisemitism, Israel-Diaspora relations, defense policy, Jewish history, prayer, Talmud, Bible and more.

It's no surprise then that the hatred of Jews is not diminishing, but increasing at alarming rates. And while there is no single reason, a large part of it comes from leaders of countries who continue in their campaign to demonize the Jewish state and doing their best to paint them as the ones who somehow have to give into appeasement and into the barbarians surrounding them to somehow secure peace. This is exactly what they did with Hitler and exactly why World War 2 started in the first place.

"In France, perpetrators of anti-Semitic attacks claim insanity to elude justice. The mental illness defense has become more prevalent when it comes to hate crimes in France. And it seems to be working." — Shirli Sitbon, Haaretz.

Israel possesses assets and innovations that can solve many of the problems that plague its Arab neighbors. If peace can possibly be achieved between Israel and the Arab world, the potential for mutually beneficial practical and economic relationships is astronomical.

My wife’s learning has not transformed us into rabid feminists. Quite the contrary. Over the past 15 years, our home has become a place filled with Torah learning and discussion day and night. The more my wife learns, the more she – like most of the other 25 women in her Daf Yomi class – comes to humbly appreciate and venerate the giant stature of our rabbis down through the ages.

It seems that even after the Holocaust, and with increasingly violent attacks in America and elsewhere, Jews still haven’t learned the lesson of active self-defense.

Take a chance-become a champion.

Meanwhile, America, which has treated us so well and has consistently stood uniquely with Israel, has merited glorious achievements. G-d’s hand guides history; we need only look carefully to see the remarkable but unmistakable.

The diplomatic campaign Mahmoud Abbas has been waging for a decade and a half is no less dangerous to Israel than the “armed struggle” led by Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. With the growing influence of Iran and the advent of a new array of threats on Israel’s borders to the north and south, renewing negotiations with Abbas on the basis of the Barak-Olmert framework would entail an existential threat to Israel.

If Congress and its GAO truly believe that President Trump violated the law, let them go to court and seek the civil remedy provided by the law.

The vast Leviathan natural gas field off the Haifa coast could be a game-changer for Israel’s relations with the EU. Europe is currently dependent on Russian natural gas. A reliable and price-competitive natural gas alternative in the Mediterranean could diminish Moscow’s ability to use energy supplies as a political weapon against Europe.

The whole idea of boycotting Israel is designed to prevent the world from learning about the good things that Israel stands for and actually provides.

It is clear that the much quoted injunction against Gemara study by women refers to requiring women to study Gemara as a required matter of course as is done for men. Over 400 years ago Rabbi Yehoshua Falk explains this in his commentary “Prisha” on Tur Yoreh Deah 246 and says there is no problem with women who are exceptions to the rule becoming learned in Gemara. His wife Baila, was also a celebrated Talmudist.

It’s clear that all this Holocaust memorializing and education hasn’t put anti-Semitism back in its putrid box.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague has an abysmal record. It has few convictions, yet in the 17 years of its existence has spent more than $1.5 billion. The ICC’s decision to investigate supposed Israeli war crimes is a largely political ruling. Israel should confront the court by exposing that its multiple deficiencies far exceed its merits.

Before 1979, Iranian women had freedom. They want it back.

As raw anti-Semitism around the world has risen and morphed into virulent anti-Israel sentiment—making the two phenomena almost indistinguishable—the State of Israel has moved from indifference to active involvement in the struggle against such hate.

King and Heschel remained friends and spiritual brothers ever since they met in 1963

The Chief Rabbi’s vehement attack on Russian immigrants to Israel and his own conversion courts is short-sighted. How would he handle the aliyah and conversion dilemmas – just do nothing?

Just like the denial of the Jews in Egypt during the Redemptive Process, so too, many Jews worldwide, since 1948, have denied the Redemption taking place in our days, with the rise of the State of Israel, and the freedom to come back to the homeland.

Soft power and coercive diplomacy tools have not worked for almost 20 years against “peaceful Iran” (as Obama used to call it), and America has opted instead to exercise hard power. Trump’s order to kill Qassem Soleimani exposes once again the vast gap between the US and Europe on the problem of Iran.

Human nature is such that when times are good – when we have gezunt and mazal and beracha – it's easy to forget the source of our blessings. Let's remember who sent them

Administrative detention is a necessary weapon in fighting actual terrorism – e.g., plots to carry out suicide bombings and the like. But Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria may be served with administrative orders for nothing more than being active in the settler cause –