Despite the dramatic physical, societal and political differences between Israel and the US, in both countries a very similar—and disturbing—assault on the fabric of democracy is taking place.    Israel and the US are very different in many ways. Geographically, they are separated by the width of an ocean and …

Despite its many undoubted merits, democracy has one glaring detriment. There is never a dictator to blame for the fate that befalls the people. They alone are responsible for whatever befalls them. Israel is now hurtling towards its third national election within a year. Not Force Majeure  This was not …

Last Thursday (Nov. 21, 2019), Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit dropped a long-awaited bombshell on Israel’s political system. Emotions erupt After months of speculation, he announced his intent to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in Case 4000 (the Bezeq-Walla Affair);  for breach of trust in …

“Such a missile would pulverize a house to dust. It blasted a crater that is impossible to describe… There is no protection that defend us in the case of missiles like this.” – Gaza-border resident    I have written on Gaza in my last two columns—one just before the latest …

Delaying the inevitable does not make it less inevitable—only more costly   The targeted assassination of the senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist, Bahaa Abu al-Ata, strikingly underscored two—curiously contrary—things. The paradox of Israel: Techno-tactical genius; strategic imbecility. The one is Israel’s remarkable expertise and aptitude at the techno-tactical level that …

The obdurate resistance of Gaza to any type of resolution has led to such overriding exasperation that it has begun to undermine the quality of the public debate on the issue. The IDF swept triumphantly into the Egyptian-ruled Gaza Strip in early June 1967 and pulled out ignominiously in mid-August …

Former Justice Minister, ‘Tommy’ Lapid: “…the legal system in Israel is being undermined by an over-zealous State Prosecutor’s Office, that is losing esteem and credibility with each additional trial…”    This week was a tumultuous one for Israel’s legal establishment—and rightly so. Perversion of the democratic process. For almost a …

  Since the early 1990s, and certainly since the Oslo process (1993), the ‘Land for peace’ principle  has been Israel’s dominant policy paradigm, particularly, but not exclusively, with regard to the “Palestinian problem”.  This is something that is difficult to comprehend.  After all, not only was it a formula that …

The Oslo process that resulted in the signature of the “Declaration of Principles” on the White House Lawns on September 13, 1993, was in many ways a point of singularity in the history of Zionism, after which everything was qualitatively different from that which it was before.  It was a …

The feasibility of Trump’s “Deal of the Century” will be dramatically impacted by the nature of the regime east of the Jordan River and its prospective stability. With the media in a furor over the election deadlock and the legal woes of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, some of the other …

From the rabid rants of the myriad of “Bibiphobes”, the uninformed observer would be led to believe that Netanyahu is to blame for every misfortune and every malfeasance on the face of the globe… Let me commence with full disclosure on two matters: First, I am a totally non-observant Jew, …

Arguably, Netanyahu’s gravest strategic miscalculation was not to call elections in May 2016 rather than capitulate to Liberman’s demand to be given the Defense portfolio.   Earlier this month, I wrote a column with the interrogative title: Sept. 17: Will the Right snatch defeat from the jaws of victory…again? Judging …

 Will the growing use of drones by the Gaza-based terror groups make the billion dollar Iron Dome and anti-tunnel barrier useless—or at least irrelevant?  Departing briefly from the upcoming elections, Sunday’s media headlines conveyed the news that a drone, launched from the Gaza Strip, had attacked an IDF position near …

The continued existence of the Left as a viable force in Israeli politics, despite the manifest failure of its political credo, is the gravest indictment of the Israeli Right.   For by… faith more firm in their unhallowed principles, the bad have fairly earned a victory over the weak, the vacillating, …

Of all the policy paradigms for the resolution of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian-Arabs, incentivized Arab emigration is the most humane if it succeeds and least inhumane if it does not.  “Past attempts to encourage Palestinians to voluntary emigrate have always failed, so time and effort would be …

Notwithstanding AIPAC’s discomfort over the Omar-Tlaib case, there is more that hint of hypocrisy in its joining the general assault on Israel. The brouhaha over the ruckus that erupted last Thursday between the Netanyahu government and the two radical, anti-Israeli Congresswomen, Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), refuses to …

“Every round of violence, in which the results are not a clear-cut IDF victory is, in the eyes of Israel’s enemies, another nail in the coffin of the Zionist entity.” – Veteran war correspondent, Ron Ben Yishai, June 1, 2019. …the ability to defeat the enemy means taking the offensive. …

I am, of course, aware that I used this exact same excerpt in commencing my recent column, Cracks in the Dome?, in which I warned of the disturbing defects of adopting an essentially defensive doctrine in facing the escalating threat from Gaza. However, I make little apology for its re-use, …

The endeavor to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by economic means not only shows a grave defect in understanding its underlying causes, but inverts the causal relationship that generates & sustains it. When senior representatives of the Trump administration, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt woke up this morning in Israel (May …

The huge investments made in defensive systems are slowly emerging as an exorbitant and costly failure—or at best a very partial and temporary success. The time has come to rethink Israel’s strategic paradigm. Earlier this week (5/21/2019), both Israel and Hamas denied reports that they had reached an agreement on …