The Gamble of Israel’s ‘New Right’
"Boom!" read the headline of a supplement in Israeli weekly Makor Rishon, after two leading politicians, Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, announced on December 29...
View ArticleHigh Stakes for Likud as Netanyahu Indictment Looms
The "Bezeq-Walla! Affair," or Case 4000 as it’s been dubbed by Israeli media, is one of three corruption cases facing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s also the most serious in that...
View ArticleHow to Reform Israel’s Runaway Supreme Court
On March 17, Israel’s Supreme Court banned Michael Ben-Ari, a member of the Otzma Yehudit or "Jewish Power" Party, from being a candidate in the Israeli elections. The court made its decision even...
View ArticleIsrael Heads Again to Elections as One Politician Gambles It All
Five weeks after being sworn in, the 21st Knesset voted to dissolve itself. It's a first for Israeli politics; the country has never held back-to-back elections. Two freshman legislators even burst...
View ArticleIsrael’s Right Resists Unity At Its Own Risk
"Shooting in the halftrack," an Israeli phrase connoting friendly fire, was the term used to describe the behavior of Israeli right-wing politicians and pundits, who spent last week sniping at one...
View ArticlePA Intransigence Makes Peace Deal Unlikely
The Trump administration rolled out the economic details of its peace plan on Sunday ahead of its "Peace To Prosperity" Workshop which opens in Bahrain this week. The problem is that the intended...
View ArticleReview: ‘The Notorious Ben Hecht: Iconoclastic Writer and Militant Zionist’...
Julien Gorbach's The Notorious Ben Hecht: Iconoclastic Writer and Militant Zionist is the second book to come out this year on the reporter, playwright, screenwriter, essayist, novelist, polemicist,...
View ArticleDems and Jewish Groups Pick Wrong Side on Omar-Tlaib
Should the Netanyahu government have barred "Squad" members and BDS advocates Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from entering the country? Chattering classes in both countries quickly took sides. Surprising...
View ArticleEven Some of Israel’s Greatest Supporters Don’t Get the Middle East Conflict
Never has a U.S. administration been so favorable to Israel. And Israeli Jews are full of gratitude—anything good earns a Trump comparison: "It’s No. 1, like Trump," an Israeli grocer told me the other...
View ArticleHezbollah, Operating Under Constraints, Hopes to Avoid War
Two weeks ago, a third Lebanon war was narrowly averted. Hezbollah fired several anti-tank missiles at an IDF ambulance and missed. Both Hezbollah and Israel breathed a sigh of relief. The reasons for...
View ArticleBlasting Bibi
Biographers typically have an affection for their subjects. Sometimes so much so that they descend into hagiography. No danger of this from Haaretz writer Anshel Pfeffer, an extreme example of the...
View ArticleWhy Israel’s Nation-State Law Matters
On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that the "spirit of Hitler has been revived, Israel is the most fascist and racist state." He then called on—well, everybody—"to work against...
View ArticleHamas-Israel Military Confrontation Looks Likely
Since March, Israel and Hamas have been in a war of attrition that neither wants to escalate into a full-blown confrontation. Ironically, that is exactly where things are leading. Netanyahu just...
View ArticleBritish Labour Party Crackup: A Warning of Things to Come
Britain's Labour Party has undergone a kind of gravitational collapse. Its fringes have fallen into its center, forming a black hole that is a maelstrom of anti-Semitism. Hard to imagine that only a...
View ArticleNorth Korea on the Mediterranean
Since March 30, when Hamas launched its first "return march" with thousands storming Israel's border, Israel's media pundits have said neither side wants escalation. They had it right. What's being...
View ArticleLosing the Negev
"The Bedouin need to understand that we live in a country of law," said Yoav Galant, minister of construction and housing, on Wednesday, sending a warning shot across the bow of local leaders in an...
View ArticleAvenue to Oblivion
Jonathan Neumann has written a splendid book. The first-time author has produced a devastating broadside against Jewish radicals who have co-opted tikkun olam—a Hebrew phrase meaning "to heal (or...
View ArticleBibi’s Rallying Cry
"Anyone but King Bibi," is the sort of derisive comment you'll hear from a Tel Aviv resident in a bar after a couple of Goldstar lagers. But Israel's prime minister earned the nickname as praise after...
View ArticleOperation Northern Shield: A Notch in Israel’s Belt
Operation Northern Shield is a victory for Israel. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Dec. 4, Israel's military thwarted a Hezbollah plan to attack the country through tunnels. Israel revealed the...
View ArticleIsraelis Nervous About U.S. Withdrawal From Syria, Fearing Iranian Gains
The Netanyahu government is projecting calm about President Donald Trump’s decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, but no one in Israel, from politicians to pundits, thinks it is good news. Israel’s...
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