It was a stunning, horrific and unprecedented event on a scale that will surely be burned into Israel’s consciousness. In the early hours of October 7, under the cover of a massive rocket barrage and less than a day after Israel marked the somber 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, hundreds […]
Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman made a remarkable disclosure a few days ago when he told Fox News that Saudi Arabia and Israel are moving “closer” each day to a historic normalization agreement. Salman, the de facto ruler of the oil-rich desert kingdom, issued this encouraging comment following an interview with the Atlantic magazine […]
It is abundantly clear that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intention to radically overhaul the judiciary, a highly contentious and divisive proposal that has sparked months of nation-wide protests and exposed deep political and social rifts in Israeli society, has adversely affected the armed forces and emboldened Israel’s external enemies. In recent weeks, senior military intelligence […]
On a sparkling late summer day 30 years ago today, the tremors of a seismic shift in the Middle East were felt as two sworn enemies chose reconciliation, coexistence and peace over hostility, tension and war. On September 13, 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his arch nemesis, Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the […]
Is Israel an apartheid state? The question itself arouses deep emotions, acrimonious debate, and implies that Israel has strayed far from its liberal democratic values as the world’s only Jewish state. I’m raising this explosive and divisive issue in light of Tamir Pardo’s recent remarks. The former director of the Mossad, Israel’s external intelligence agency, […]
Once again, very much to his own detriment and that of the Palestinians, Mahmoud Abbas is playing into the hands of Israelis who categorically reject a two-state solution. Last month, in a speech that was broadcast on Palestinian television two weeks ago, the president of the Palestinian Authority made two outrageous comments that Germany’s ambassador […]
A potential breakthrough in Israel’s relations with the Arab world degenerated into a diplomatic fiasco after Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen rashly disclosed he had secretly conferred with his Libyan counterpart, Najila el-Mangoush, in Rome on August 26 in a meeting hosted by the Italian foreign minister. In the wake of his impromptu announcement, which […]
More than a month after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government announced a series of measures to strengthen the ineffectual Palestinian Authority, they have yet to be implemented. Israel’s inaction leads critics to conclude that the measures are mostly declarative or symbolic in nature and are mainly intended to mollify the United States and the […]
Nation-wide protests in Israel condemning the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary have been going on ceaselessly for the past seven months. The protesters’ zeal and commitment has been unflagging. Two days ago, they demonstrated in front of Ramot, a moshav near the Sea of Galilee where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his family were […]
Three years to the month after a massive explosion wrecked the densely-populated neighborhood around the port of Beirut, the weak and ineffectual government of Lebanon has yet to hold anyone accountable for one of the biggest non-nuclear blasts in history. On the evening of August 4, 2020, a fire broke out in hangar 12, a […]