The difficulty of moving forward in the Jordan Valley and Area C One of the major ways our personal lives mirrors the sweep of history is in the realm of decision making. Both individuals and nations face decisions on a daily basis. Most are mundane and inconsequential. There are however, …

Ironically, BDS activists play a salutary role: They unite the rest of society, from Left to Right, in contempt for them. Two recent initiatives by mostly Israeli Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement activists and BDS sympathizers shine an intense light on how warped and detached they have become, and how …

May 15 is the day the Arabs mourn the ‘catastrophe’ of Israel’s establishment, but the real Nakba was that of the Jews of Arab lands. My organization, Im Tirtzu, has become famous (some would say infamous) for our calling out the lies, misrepresentations and deliberate distortions attached to marking “Nakba …

The ‘crop commandos.’ many of them just out of the IDF, are working to help farmers get the harvest in, and are beginning to love it. Working the Land. It was the animating ethos that shaped Zionism. It was the romantic vision that entranced and attracted generations of urban and …

Left wing organizations have long viewed judicial activism as their best antidote to electoral failure, but that is about to change. It seems like an axiom of political quantum mechanics that the Left is extremely well financially endowed, while the Right operates on air. Armed with financing from European governments …

We have been exhibiting a disturbing tendency to look for scapegoats, but demonizing an entire sector of our own people is unacceptable. Thomas Paine’s famous line has attained iconic status: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Indeed, crises can bring out the best, as well as the worst …

Friends, In finally cleaning off my desk (Hey, what’s a lockdown for?), I came across the hard copy of my op ed from almost exactly two years ago in the Jerusalem Post which analyzes the recent ranking Israel had received as the 11th happiest country in the world.  My premise …

There are numerous lamentations about the negative implications for Palestinians and the manifest injustice being paid to them. One of the less remarked upon, but nevertheless most painful series of reactions to President Donald Trump’s long awaited “Deal of the Century” has been the response of the organized American Jewish …

You don’t have to be a kabbalist to see the opportunities for finding significance in the upcoming new year: 2020. As the symbol of clarity of vision, 2020 is the gold standard of seeing clearly, without distortions or blurs. So may it be for all of us. Since 2020 is …

For those of you who have always regretted not reading the classic “1984,” fear not: you are living it. In George Orwell’s classic of life under an all-encompassing totalitarian regime, the concept of Doublespeak was an integral aspect of communication. With Doublespeak, what was conveyed was the opposite of what …

Indictments, political logjams, intensifying drum beats of potential conflicts on multiple borders: we are awash in confusion, uncertainty and the potential for paralysis. It is exactly because we are in unprecedented, uncharted and therefore frightening waters that we need to take a collective deep breath, step back and employ the …

Our PM has not only helped restore Jews to geopolitical history, he has placed Israel not just in the corridors of power, but increasingly, at the table of power. For those whose middle-of-the-night dreams include the vanquishing of the Royal Family – the turning away of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu …

Comparing the damage from what did and didn’t happen. The recent controversial non-visit by US Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib provided many people with a platform to discuss the implications of what happened.  But what if these two would-be visitors had come?  Would we be as insightful on that …

To believe that marking the days is no longer necessary because we are back in our land bespeaks a profound lack of historical awareness and ignorance of both the big picture, and ironically, the very context of today’s events. ~~~~~~~~~~~ The Jewish People has just entered our “season of sorrow:” …

One of the recurrent drumbeats heard from certain quarters in Israel is that we are teetering on the brink of losing our democratic bearings. There are those who hear it in distant thunder claps, while others think it has already happened. To them, we are already in the morass of …

These students are turning into some of Israel’s best ambassadors in one of the largest and most influential countries in the world.’ ========= This week, dozens of visiting Chinese students marked the end of the largest extra-curricular academic program for visiting Chinese students in Israel. The program, run by the …

It was supposed to be just a quiet getaway. For our anniversary, my wife and I decided to spend Shabbat at the Ein Gedi guesthouse, a place we have visited many times before.  Waiting for Kabbalat Shabbat services to begin, I struck up a conversation with a retired French industrialist …

In the US today, “white people” are being shamed into feeling that somehow they, and all their forebears, are directly responsible for the persecution of whoever makes it onto the accepted list of the “oppressed.” Israel does not relate to that. The recent Conservatism Conference in Jerusalem, sponsored by the …

If professors in their classrooms were spewing a doctrine of white supremacy, black inferiority, or inherent Arab villainy, how do you think this would be received?  Would they be ignored because, after all, there is, thankfully, academic freedom in the West? Or would there be an outcry against their points …

This was an unmistakable sign. One will miss it or ignore it at his peril. The despicable cartoon just published by The New York Times in its International Edition stands as one of those existential gut checks, those moments where the veil of complexity is stripped away and we are …