Here is a potpourri of punditry on Israel’s demand for recognition as the Jewish state, Obama’s mistakes, Islamic radicalism, the settlement freeze, Israel’s monopolies, and the fight for Jerusalem.

Here is a hard-to-believe and ludicrous revelation: Tiny and much-besmirched Israel is the 31st highest dues-paying country — out of 192 member countries — at the UN! Israel remits over $40 million annually, which is more than 160 other nations pay. Reasonable or absurd?

The October 2010 news bulletin of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies has a fascinating and sobering roundtable discussion with professors Gilboa, Inbar, Rynhold, Singer and Steinberg on the future of US-Israel relations, beyond the current round of peace diplomacy. It also has articles on Israeli responses to the threat of nuclear terrorism, IDF reforms post Lebanon and Gaza wars, 20 new BESA Center publications, and more. Edited by yours truly. Read excerpts here and online at www.besacenter.org

Watch the important short documentary, just released, called Echoes of a Shofar, which tells the story of the brave Israeli teenagers who defiantly blew shofar at the Western Wall at Yom Kippur’s end – during the British Mandate years, when it was illegal to do so. A reminder why Israel should never relinquish control of Jerusalem’s Old City.

The Mavi Marmara still docks in Ashdod, and other ships are on the way from Iran and Lebanon to similarly challenge Israel. Israel may yet end up with a flotilla of “humanitarian attack” craft. What are we going to do with all these boats? Here are ten things Israel could usefully do with the first, trailblazing terrorist trawler.

The widely held presumption that splitting Jerusalem will lead to prosperity for the city and to peace for Jews and Arabs is an egregious error. Partitioning Jerusalem will destroy the city. It will die, in every way – culturally, religiously, economically and more. And it will turn into a Belfast-style battlefield.

Erdogan has accused Israel of war crimes, walked out on its president, and backed Israel’s sworn enemies. So Israel hazed his ambassador a bit by giving him a cheap seat. Shocking!

This Shabbat sermon, delivered on the eve of Rosh Hashana, dwells on the growing campaign to criminalize Israel through “lawfare” and its meaning for Israel and world Jewry.

For seven years, Sderot residents feared they had been abandoned by a feckless government and an inattentive public. They wanted to know that people cared. Mordechai Elbaz, a third generation Sderot plumber (pictured with me), had his backyard plumbing supplies warehouse blown to smithereens by a Kassam rocket a few hours before my visit.

The neglect of Sderot – the Israeli town that borders the Gaza Strip and was under seven years of bombardment from Gaza — is a metaphor for the ebbing away of a caring Jewish-Zionist society, and a symbol of the recklessness that passes for Israeli security policy.