Israel

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 …

The unrelenting drive to bring an indictment—any indictment—against Netanyahu has long exceeded the bounds of reasonable law enforcement. The issue at the center of these investigations seems trivial against the background of the existential crises Israel is facing…The first probe, also known as case 1000, involves gifts of cigars and champagne …

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 …

The purported electoral appeal of the Blue & White line-up is that it includes 3 former IDF Chiefs-of-Staff, yet virtually invariably when top military figures have departed from their field of expertise (security) & ventured into one where they have none (politics), they have been disastrously wrong.  The greatest tragedy …

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 …

It would seem futile to conduct yet another indecisive round of fighting, only to return to yet another tense and sporadically violent interbellum for several years—until the next major flare-up of fighting…  Military assessment warns of high risk of war with Gaza – The Times of Israel, Feb. 13. 2019. …

My Facebook feed is full of Ori’s photo. She looks different in the different images but in each, her radiant smile is the same. Ori, “my light” in Hebrew, was obviously a fitting name for this sunny girl. The more we hear about Ori from friends, family and the people …

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 …

On the day that we no longer know how to weep, we will have lost our humanity. Ori Ansbacher, 19, was a resident of Tekoa in Gush Etzion.  She was doing a year of national service at a youth center in Jerusalem. On Thursday, Ori was reported missing. Ultimately, her …

Despite claims to the contrary, the Palestinian-Arabs, territory and the fate of the Jewish settlements will permeate the agenda of the April elections, lurking below and hovering above all other issues.    Almost inevitably, elections in Israel revolve—one way or another—around one issue…even when everyone insists they don’t. This is …

A great many things have to come together over the next couple of months before we can say definitively that the political situation in Israel is really good. But I now feel a modest optimism that eluded me when last I wrote. “Modest,” because we never know what’s waiting for …

Prime Minister Netanyahu has stood head and shoulders above his political opponents for the past decade because he has managed to convince the electorate of two factors. Firstly that in effect he is Israel’s ‘security guard’ and secondly that notwithstanding any of his flaws, no-one else is really up to …

As has undoubtedly been obvious to many of my readers, even though Israel is in the throes of an election campaign (or the first stage of a campaign), I have studiously avoided writing about it. There has been ample reason for this:  The process has been so convoluted that reporting …

The Ministry of Strategic Affairs report reveals over 100 different links between terror groups and organizations promoting Israel boycotts, including the employment of 30 current and “retired” terror operatives. Jerusalem, Israel — February 3, 2019— The Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy (MSA) released its “Terrorists in Suits” report …

Benny Gantz’s election campaign videos are being used by Electronic Intifada to tar and feather Israel. When this is your starting point: . . . Gantz, like Netanyahu, is accurately reflecting the desires and fantasies of an Israeli public that views the willingness to shed the blood of defenseless Palestinians …

“But why does he have to make provocations with these declarations of his?!” I was shocked to hear this sentence come out of the mouths of my Jewish American relatives. Yes, they were referring to Trump (who they hate) and to the Jerusalem Declaration. I love my relatives but they …

Sunday was International Holocaust Remembrance Day.   Israel marks the Holocaust on a separate day – Yom Hashoah, after Pesach in the spring.  Yet, I cannot let this day pass in silence. The Holocaust was an expression of evil of overwhelming proportions. After Hitler was defeated and the nature of the …