This will be my last posting before Pesach begins on Friday night. This year, the Pesach themes of redemption and evil resonate for me with special power.  The Almighty redeemed us when he took us from Egypt but that redemption was not complete:  it is an on-going process. In the …

It’s only a thought, or a rumor, at this point. I want to call your attention to a new, expanded (and highly informative) page I have put on my website about Israel’s rights to the Golan Heights: https://www.arlenefromisrael.info/israels-legal-rights-to-the-golan-heights/ As time allows, I will be updating my site in other ways …

When the polls in Israel closed at 10 PM on Tuesday, the air was fraught with tensions.  Various exit polls, notoriously unreliable in any event, were providing such disparate results that there was little clarity on what the outcome would be. The count was announced early in the morning on …

Thirty-seven years ago, during the First Lebanon war, Israeli troops engaged in a fierce and bloody battle with Syrian and affiliated PLO units at Sultan Yacoub near the Syrian border. Tank Commander Sgt. First Class Zachary Baumel (pictured) went missing, along with Zvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz. The three were …

If we care about what’s going on around us, in the end there is no choice but to open our eyes and look hard. The situation is difficult. I did my good news posting and was very glad for it. ~~~~~~~~~~ By the end of last week, I was giving …

My sanity, certainly, and perhaps yours too. Yesterday was April Fool’s Day.  I don’t do April Fools shtick, but I found someone who does: US astronaut Scott Kelly, partnering with SodaStream. https://www.israel21c.org/us-astronaut-partners-with-sodastream-to-turn-burps-into-fizzy-water/ For myself, I decided that it’s a really appropriate day for a good news posting.  Do we need …

I begin this posting with a caution about how “current” it will be when you read it. This may seem to be a strange statement. But it is an honest and necessary one, in light of the current situation, which is so very, very fluid. That instability, that shifting dynamic, …

In my last posting I discussed Israel’s failure to be tough enough – to create an environment of deterrence – with regard to terrorists residing in Judaea and Samaria, and inside of Israel. I noted to myself then that I needed to follow up with a similar discussion with regard …

Purim is over, and we are back to “normal,” whatever that actually is. Last Tuesday, the terrorist who murdered Staff Sgt. Gal Keidan and Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger at the Ariel Junction a week ago, was caught and eliminated.  Security forces had tracked him to the Arab village of Abwein, near …

Perhaps it should not be unexpected, for there is frequently an increase in attacks before Purim, which comes later this week. But one can hope.  And one still feels punched in the stomach at the news of yet another attack. I begin with what is most important: a request for …

The air in Israel is heavy with tensions, but in many instances, for the wrong reasons. We are subject to so much nonsense: unfortunate sparring between persons in the political sphere; undue attention to the trivial. Perhaps what is currently happening is inevitable during a campaign, but I would prefer …

“We”? I am speaking of Jews:  The Jews here in Israel, certainly.  And some percentage of American Jews. I’ve been tracking the growing antisemitism in the US – including in the halls of Congress — with alarm and anger.  But, focused on events here, I have not written about it …

The danger is Benny Gantz as prime minister, in a very literal sense.  And so I lead off with “Elephant in the room – highlighting Gantz’s military record,” written by Dr. Aaron Lerner, co-founder and director of IMRA (emphasis added): “Bennie Gantz’s military career was torn to shreds in a feature …

About a week ago, a reader wrote to me that we should have good cheer: things were looking so bad, politically, that they were bound to start looking up. I appreciated the optimism, for I try to hold on to that attitude myself.  The problem, however, is that things have …

There is quite a hullabaloo ongoing with regard to the inclusion of the Otzma Yisraelit faction on the Bayit Yehudi-National Union list (in a technical merger, which means they go their separate ways after the election). In an effort to move past the hysteria and the accusations, I want to …

Not I.  In all of the many years during which I have tracked Israeli pre-election campaigns, I have never encountered a campaign season like this one. I’ve been writing about the multiplicity of new parties, and perhaps that was a clue that I missed: an overt sign of divisiveness.  And …

For weeks I was reticent about the intricacies of Israeli politics as the first stage of the campaign began to heat up.  It was all too complex – with new parties forming, and would-be members of the Knesset switching allegiance from one group to another or simply resigning. It was …

It would not be surprising if my title today has left you scratching your heads. As if a person can be one or the other, but not both. But it is the Palestinian Authority that has posited this dichotomy! It is part of a surreal and highly politicized image they …

To find upbeat news, that is. No, it is not easy right now. But it is important for all of us to focus positively from time to time. And so I will touch a couple of diverse bases. ~~~~~~~~~ A two-day international conference on the Middle East was hosted by …

Please, read to the end: When last I wrote, I spoke about the tears, the terrible sadness, evoked by the terrorist murder of Ori Ansbacher. That sadness is still in my heart, and in the heart of everyone here with whom I speak. But it is fury that has now …