Israel’s coalition crisis over the settlement’s regulation bill is not a normal power struggle between overweening politicians. It is not popularity contest between Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and his Kulanu Party and Education Minister Naftali Bennett and his Bayit Yehudi Party.     It is also not about contenders to the helm challenging Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political primacy.…

  The Palestinians are loudly mourning the passing of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. PLO Chief and Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas ordered flags in the PA to be flown at half-mast on Sunday to honor Castro.     They are right to celebrate him.     The Cuban Communist dictator, who murdered tens of thousands of his own people, imprisoned…

  In an interview this week with the Australian media, Jordan’s King Abdullah became the latest Arab leader to express hope that President-elect Donald Trump and his team will lead the world’s to date failed fight against jihadist Islam.     Like his counterparts in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Abdullah effectively ruled out the possibility that President Barack Obama will…

  Israel’s rule of law is facing a serious challenge. Depending on how it ends, we will either see our democracy secured, or we will find ourselves trapped in an authoritarian legal order in which our laws and our legal norms are dictated to the public by a junta of unelected attorneys.     The site of the battle is…

    What can we expect from President-elect Donald Trump’s administration?     The positions that Trump struck during the presidential campaign were sometimes inconsistent and even contradictory. So it is impossible to forecast precisely what he will do once in office. But not everything is shrouded in mystery. Indeed, some important characteristics of his administration are already apparent.  …

  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine has largely escaped scrutiny in the US presidential election now drawing to a close.     But as Americans make their ways to the polls, one of the final issues worth considering is what Kaine’s inclusion at the bottom of Hillary Clinton’s ticket tells us about the likely…

    As these lines are being written it is Thursday morning in the US. Wikileaks announced hours ago that it is about to drop the mother lode of material it has gathered on Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.   Previous Wikileaks document drops set the stage for FBI director James Comey’s letter to Congress last Friday, when he informed lawmakers…

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming trips to Australia, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan might be the most significant diplomatic visits he makes in his tenure in office. The trips will take place against the backdrop of two major international shifts that cast Israel into uncharted waters as a small state with a dizzying array of strategic threats arrayed against…

    In one of the immortal lines of Godfather 2, mafia boss Michael Corleone discusses the fate of his brother, who betrayed him, with his enforcer.   “I don’t want anything to happen to him while my mother is alive,” Corleone said.   Message received.   The brother was murdered after their mother’s funeral.   Last week it was…