Israel

After a night of missiles on the south of Israel (last Wednesday), I got up to a new day, full of missiles. My nerves were frazzled.  But why?  Nothing happened to me.  At night I had reset the RED ALERT app so that it wouldn’t alert me of all the …

The status quo with Hamas is intolerable and dangerous.  That is the given. But we continue to operate on the cusp of war without reaching that war. Solutions are not simple and clear-cut (even as some assume they are): The way is strewn with complexities.   What is required of …

We should ask ourselves, again, and again, how we got into the situation in which we have found ourselves. The question is of key importance, because the situation is intolerable. After months of enduring violence at the fence and ever greater numbers of incendiary devices launched from Gaza, after the …

Liberman’s appointment as Defense Minister ignited expectations of a qualitatively different approach to that of his predecessor—one discernibly more robust and resolute… Sadly, this was not to be  Shortly after Avigdor Liberman was appointed Defense Minister, two Palestinian-Arab terrorists cut down almost a dozen customers at a well-known coffee shop …

17 years ago today a suicide bomber entered the Sbarro pizza shop in downtown Jerusalem, detonated his suicide vest and murdered 15 people. The murdered in the August 9, 2001 bombing included 7 children as well as a couple and three of their children, an American citizen and a Brazilian …

After all of the hullabaloo, all of the analyses about deals that might take place between Hamas and Israel, and between Hamas and Fatah, it appears that we are left in the end with not much of anything. ~~~~~~~~~~ Quite simply, it’s a playing out of the parameters I’ve been …

“The arson terror kites and balloons come in the afternoon and the evening, sometimes in the middle of the night.” That’s when the winds pick up, blowing from the sea, inland, carrying Hamas’s flying firebombs to the people of Israel. Israeli firefighter Tal Goldstein stood in the sweltering heat, telling …

My friends, I had held off posting right before and again right after Shabbat because the situation here has been enormously lacking in clarity, and in tremendous flux, with many contradictory statements being advanced. Now, while there is still lack of clarity, and while matters may shift at any moment, …

If critics of the Nationality Bill have real concerns for the rights of non-Jewish minorities, the patriotic way to address them would be via a new Basic Law to protect them, not raucously denouncing the bill as “racist” The last week was one of immense sadness for me. It was …

Most of you are familiar with the saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This is broadly attributed to Albert Einstein. While I find no verification of this, it really does not matter, for the point is well taken. Following …

The Amazing Story of PMW’s Egyptian Translator PMW’s Egyptian Translator Meira grew up in Alexandria not knowing she was a Jew. Only when extremist Muslims tore her family’s house apart, screaming “Jews out,” did her parents disclose the family secret. Attending a Muslim Brotherhood school, Meira grew up believing that …

On the annual indexes across the globe conducted by survey agencies, Israeli’s consistently rate amongst the highest of nations whose citizens have the most number of complaints about life. Simultaneously they also poll just as highly on the happiness index. To some wags this simply means that Israelis are most happy when they …

Today we consider the enormous unrest in the north. What I present here is an overview of a vastly complex scenario – encompassing several players — that is shifting almost daily. Liat Collins on Friday cited an IDF intelligence officer who “mourned the passing of an age when he could …

Israeli security policy is driven by Arab enmity–not Arab ethnicity  One of the most mendacious and widely propagated myths regarding the Middle East conflict is that Israel’s defensive actions against hostile Arab initiatives, whose sole aim is to murder or maim Jews, simply because they are Jews—constitute “racism”. The apparent …

StandWithUs (SWU) is among the best pro-Israel organizations and resources available to the  Jewish community in the diaspora. I hope that I will be excused for my bias – given that SWU stood with me during the Reem’s Cafe litigation in Oakland – but these guys tread a razor’s edge with steady feet …

On July 19, the Knesset passed Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People. The furor that has ensued since then has been unreal.  As I have been focused on security issues, I come to this only now.  But a refutation of the charges leveled against this …

When last I posted, I spoke about the murder by a Hamas terrorist of Aviv Levi, an IDF soldier who was at the Gaza fence when he was shot in the chest by a sniper. I said then that the weapon used was an Iranian copy of the metal-piercing Austrian …

Today is Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish year. A day on which we mourn for the destruction of our Temples, and for the many calamities that have befallen us. One speaker I heard this morning spoke about the fact that this is not our history – it …

Israel will only be democratic if it is Jewish—and it will only be Jewish if it is Zionist. Therefore, it will only be democratic if it is Zionist i.e. if it is the nation state of the Jewish people. [A] nation is the culmination of a long past of endeavors, …

Two news items as I begin today’s discussion: 1) On Sunday, the Al-Nirab airbase, in northern Syria outside of Aleppo, was attacked. This is a base utilized by Iranians. Israel has not acknowledged responsibility for this attack but Israeli involvement is broadly acknowledged. Latest reports indicate that 22 people were …