Dispassionate analysis of the political deadlock in Israel will reveal that this state of suspended political animation is the result of nothing more than what the Jewish sages designated as “baseless hatred” among Jews. …take for example the vaccinations. Today he [Netanyahu] holds a press conference and declares there are …
Read More »Frustration with the current Israeli election process. Opinion piece Feb 21.
Whilst this is being written before final election results are known there are a few things we can say. And before we come to that, for all of the justified frustration with the current election process in Israel, all forms of democracy have shortcomings. Netanyahu began his second term as …
Read More »From Israel: “Can It Really Be??!”
Yup, it can. This is the first posting of the year 2021, and it will focus on good news. There hasn’t been much of late. But I rejoice that there actually seem to be a number of upbeat items worthy of attention. Let’s set a positive tone while that is …
Read More »Pres.Trump changed ME conversation in two main ways:Opinion piece Nov. 20.
President Rivlin and Prime Minister Netanyahu have both spoken with President elect Joe Biden and for the first time have referred to him with that descriptor. That in and of itself is significant as President Trump has not yet ceded the election and there are still two months remaining of …
Read More »INTO THE FRAY: Indicting Netanyahu – The unintended consequences.
The recent release of taped telephone conversations underscores the bitter irony that the politically motivated initiative to indict Netanyahu on contrived charges will end up by undermining precisely those who launched it & were complicit in conducting it. There is something sick in the State Prosecutor’s Office; Shai Nitzan is …
Read More »From Israel: Hanging by our Fingernails??!
In spite of the title of this posting being potentially ominous in tone, I begin with a brief good news item: It rained on Tuesday here in Jerusalem, and only in Jerusalem. The rainfall ‒ accompanied by thunder and exceedingly heavy for a brief time ‒ was a real surprise. …
Read More »From Israel: “You Won’t See Me Dancing!!”
I had thought I would not write again until after Rosh Hashanah, but feel compelled to put out this posting on the new agreements Israel has signed with the UAE and Bahrain. The signing on the White House lawn on Tuesday, September 15, generated an enthusiastic – even highly emotional …
Read More »From Israel: Mission Impossible!!
Making sense of a world that seems more convoluted day by day is impossible. None-the-less, I’m going to give it my best shot. Be sure to read to the end for two good news items that will provide a badly needed smile and a bit of uplift. ~~~~~~~~~~ We look first …
Read More »Israel and the UAE Deal – Opinion piece Aug. 2020.
Once again, and as has been the case for some time now, there are only two central players in Israel’s political arena – Bibi, the flawed human being and Prime Minister Netanyahu, the statesman. Bibi against whom the discontent of the demonstrators and beyond, manifests itself throughout daily life in …
Read More »The newly re-aligning Middle East: “Thank you, Barack Obama.”
Obama tried to punish Israel and encourage Iran, leaving America’s Sunni allies with only Israel to turn to. In one of the great recent examples of the Law of Unintended Consequences, substantial credit must be given to Barack Obama for helping to set the stage for the recent announcement of …
Read More »From Israel: Madness, Disaster and Promise!!
Wednesday night and Thursday are Tisha B’Av – the day that marks many catastrophes that have befallen the Jewish people, most significantly the destruction of our Temples. It is a time of mourning. Tisha B’Av calls for contemplation, and this year is particularly difficult. Not only for us, as a …
Read More »Israel – Two worlds clashing: Opinion piece July 2020.
In Israel we currently see two worlds clashing. Perhaps more accurately, running parallel, as if the other did not exist. That is, the real world and the world of the internal machinations of the Israeli government and Knesset politics. In the real world, Israel, initially an international leader and example …
Read More »Prime Ministers – “Chalk & Cheese” : Opinion piece June 2020.
It would be hard to find two more contrasting leadership styles than those of Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defence Minister/Prime Minister in waiting, Benny Gantz. One highly visible almost 24/7 and the other, unseen and publicly at least, almost silent. And at the same time, two people whose political fortunes, …
Read More »From Israel: Badly Flawed, a Bit Scary!!
It’s official. Israel’s 35th government was sworn in on Sunday after a full 500 days of angst that included three elections and the problems of an interim government. The Knesset approved the new government by a vote of 73 to 46. People are celebrating the fact that a fourth election …
Read More »Those pesky Israelis just can’t stop disappointing diaspora Jews.
Some UK Jewish papers have already opened the ‘annexation front’, criticising Israel for unilateral action it may be about to take. I promised myself I would stay quiet on this until July – when I expected to be forced to stand up against an uproar from some of the small-but-vocal …
Read More »From Israel: Can This Mess Be Unscrambled??
The “mess” I am referring to is the electoral situation, and, quite frankly, I do not see the possibility of unscrambling it and making reasonable sense of the situation. This comes as an interim report, setting out the relevant parameters; final resolution is expected by the end of this week. …
Read More »Three election attempts: Opinion piece April 2020.
When people discussed the need for Israel to finally form some sort of unity government after three election attempts in order to deal with real matters of government, almost no-one imagined that as Bill Gates had predicted already in 2015 – the next danger facing mankind would not be something …
Read More »From Israel: Miracles Do Happen!!
Sometimes, when we no longer expect things to get better – when we are already resigned to the fact that they may get worse, the situation shifts. And that is what happened yesterday, when the news broke – in leaks at first – that Gantz was going to join Netanyahu …
Read More »From Israel: Beneath Contempt!!
Not our government’s response to the coronavirus danger, certainly: That has been most exemplary. And I want to look at this first, before I describe the contemptible situation we have also been dealing with. Israel, as it turns out, responded more quickly than other countries to the impending threat of …
Read More »Into the fray: Fickle, faithless & feckless.
This week, Israeli politics plumbed appalling new lows with reports that, Blue& White, which, as the major rival to PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud, emerged as the second largest party in last week’s Knesset elections, was actively planning to violate its solemn pledges to the voters, made only days previously. In …
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