11/23/2019
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made two brief, basic points in his declaration Monday on Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. He said that those communities are not illegal. And he said that far from facilitating peace, delegitimization of those communities has harmed prospects for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Israelis were all but unanimous in their praise…
11/22/2019
In Israel Thursday morning, the politicians were the big story. Israel Beitenu chairman Avigdor Liberman was the villain who had held the country hostage for nearly a year as he fed his narcissistic personality disorder. The left’s latest flagship, the Blue and White party is all the once vibrant political camp can put together now that it has lost its…
11/18/2019
Monday will long be remembered as a turning point in Middle East history. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement Monday that Israeli settlements are not illegal per se is the most significant shift in U.S. Middle East policy in the past generation. Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s capital has been a matter of U.S. law since 1996. There was little…
11/18/2019
Tuesday morning, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) released an anti-Semitic bombshell. It decreed that all EU member states must affix special labels to Jewish-made Israeli “foodstuffs” produced beyond Israel’s 1949 armistice and exported to EU member states. The ruling was made in response to a lawsuit brought before a French court by Psagot winery, located north of Jerusalem.…
11/08/2019
There’s an old Jewish joke where a young man walks up to his grandfather and asks him how he’s doing. The grandfather answers, “In a word, good.” “And in two words?” the grandson presses. “Not good,” his grandfather replies. The events of the week call the joke to mind in relation to Iran and its war against Israel and the…
11/01/2019
US President Donald Trump’s many critics insist he has no idea what he is doing in Syria. The assassination of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi over the weekend by US Special Forces showed this criticism is misplaced. Trump has a very good idea of what he is doing in Syria, not only regarding ISIS, but regarding the diverse competing actors…
10/30/2019
On Sunday, press freedom in Israel effectively ended, at least for some. Sunday evening, the police and State Attorney’s Office divulged that they are conducting a criminal investigation against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s top media advisors Jonatan Urich and Ofer Golan. The two are suspects and police investigators have seized their cellphones. Then on Monday, police revealed that two…
10/27/2019
Nearly every week, the Democrats reach new heights of radicalism. Israel has good reason to be deeply worried. Until 2000, the peaceful transition of power in the wake of elections was a feature of American democracy that everyone took for granted. In 2000, the Democrats shifted. They refused to accept the election results in Florida that gave Bush his victory…
10/20/2019
The ongoing criminal probes against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhahu are reaching their climax. After conducting a marathon four-day pre-indictment hearing for Netanyahu earlier this month, Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit reportedly intends to complete his review of the state prosecution’s cases and decide whether to indict Israel’s longest-serving prime minister by the end of next month. The main charges…
10/11/2019
The near consensus view of President Donald Trump’s decision to remove US special forces from the Syrian border with Turkey is that Trump is enabling a Turkish invasion and double crossing the Syrian Kurds who have fought with the Americans for five years against ISIS. Trump’s move, the thinking goes, harms US credibility and undermines US power in the…