Israel

The Hebrew year 5778 is almost upon us now. It’s natural, I think, to want to know what lies ahead. But our tradition tells us that this knowledge lies in Heaven. We pray that that the Almighty will keep us. We pray for strength, and for the wisdom to hold …

It is not a certainty that I will post again before Rosh Hashana, which begins on the eve of next Wednesday, September 20th. And so today I want to send out my wishes to all for a year of blessings – blessings of health, and parnassa, personal fulfillment and love. …

Several flaws in MK Smotrich’s otherwise bold proposal will prevent it from achieving its long-term strategic goal: Sustainable Jewish sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel    … I am not talking here about cruel expulsion or the flooding of countries with penniless refugees. The emigration we are talking about …

There are certain heated and convoluted subjects I prefer to stay away from in my postings because writing about them seems to me not productive, especially when there is so much else to deal with. But I am now witnessing a multi-pronged phenomenon that I have decided I must address, …

Over and over I keep hearing the word “narrative”. Most often it is spoken by people who insist on the importance of understanding and respecting the “Palestinian narrative.” How many people have actually paused to consider what “narrative” means? More importantly, how should we respond to a narrative that is …

Some readers and media analysts must have become really touchy lately — to the point that Times of Israel (TOI) changed the title to their article about a teacher who posted leftist materials on her Facebook timeline. The supposedly misleading nature of many titles news sites affix to published articles …

While Israel has been “managing the conflict”, its non-state adversaries have been enhancing  their capabilities so dramatically that they now a grave strategic threat.  …to remain at peace when you should be going to war may be often very dangerous. .. –Thucydides, The History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BCE …

Theodor Herzl is well known for his observation that, “If you will it, it is no dream…” (im tirtzu ein zo agada). It was 120 years ago, from August 29 to August 31, 1897, that Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress, in Basel, Switzerland.  That Congress – which established the …

The Palestinian population is not some hapless victim of the terror groups, but the very crucible from which they emerged Congress is finally considering legislation to stop the Palestinian Authority from incentivizing violence…This has to stop, and the Taylor Force Act…attempts to do that. As it currently stands, the act …

These are hardly quiet times, and there is much to attend to. The trick is to focus on those issues that have genuine import, and to pass over the shtuyote (the nonsense) that masquerades as news. Otherwise we drown in a barrage of “events,” and run the risk of paying …

Notwithstanding the constant polarisation that especially his domestic words and deeds seem to generate, on some foreign policy matters President Trump seems to have very wide American support. A case in point is his recently announced Afghanistan policy. Candidate Trump campaigned against increasing America’s military role there and was very …

One of the most misrepresented and emotionally loaded issues about Israel – and there is a smorgasbord to choose from – is its security barrier.  This is one of the issues that featured prominently in a recent programme on Maori TV (One World – He Ao Kotahi) where the narrator …

Recent events, both here in Israel and in the larger world, have generated in many of us feelings of distress, turmoil, confusion and anxiety. There is a whole lot that is wrong, or crazy, or frightening going on. But as I sat down to write this post, I was able …

Given the resistance to removing hundreds of thousands of Jews from their ancient homeland in Judaea-Samaria, an egregious idea is emerging: Instead of evacuation, abandonment The settlements would remain Israeli enclaves inside a Palestinian state. This will enable the establishment of an independent Palestinian state without dismantling Israeli settlements and …

My grandmother was alone in the house. Not really alone, her two small babies were there and the accountant that would be useless in a fight was there too. Her husband (first husband, not my grandfather) Haim Natanzon was away guarding the territory they had been assigned to protect. She …

New calls for unilateral withdrawal are both pernicious—because of the calamitous consequences it will precipitate—and puerile—because of the naïve hope that it will not. I can even pin dates on it. In 2007 or 2008 we will have another major disengagement in the West Bank. And within a decade, we …

Dear friends, It has been, incredibly, some nine days since I’ve last posted. But now I can share with all of you the reason I have been occupied: I proudly introduce here a one-of-a- kind video produced by the Legal Grounds Campaign, co-chaired by Jeff Daube and myself: “All About …

North of Haifa there is a road that seems like it is going nowhere. I knew there was a town at the end of the road, a Bedouin town, but I had no idea what kind of town I would find there other than that it has a population of …

By rigorous process of elimination, we are left with the Humanitarian Paradigm, as the only possible policy prescription able to adequately address the imperatives needed to preserve Israel as the nation state of Jews. O, who can hold a fire in his hand; By thinking on the frosty Caucasus? Or …

 I am a Zionist. If I announced that, on walking into a party in New Zealand, I would quite likely get a worse reaction than if I declared that I am a P-addicted, ISIS sympathising prostitute. It’s not the kind of thing that one can state in polite company, at …