Category: Israel Hayom

There are between competing narratives about Israel: that it is flying-high, or that it is heading towards disaster. Wise and important actors around the world are coming to the conclusion that the first assertion is true. Israel is an anchor of sanity and a source of ingenuity in an unruly world. Israel’s strategy of vigilance, patience, and looking over the horizon for new partnerships is working.
It is no longer acceptable just to sit back and sigh that “Israel’s hands are tied” in response to terrorism and lawfare. Israel should build massively in strategic consensus settlement zones.
A diplomatic and political forecast for the year: No war, no elections, no division of Jerusalem, no European support for the protesters in Iran. Perhaps a real Arab-Israeli peace process, with Saudi women driving… to Israel.
Is this country’s leadership hardening the home front for the resilience needed going into our next confrontations? Is the fighting spirit of the IDF all that it needs to be? Not so much, according to experts I heard from this week.
Trump’s new US national security document is a robust statement of American strategic realism; a necessary corrective to Obama-era enfeeblement and self-flagellation. There are enemies out there and the US has to lead in confronting them.
The Palestinians and the Europeans brought Trump’s Jerusalem declaration on themselves by running an ugly campaign of denialism and denigration against Israel. Their brazen persistence in delegitimizing the Jewish People’s historic roots and rights in Jerusalem led to this defiant and ultimately honorable result: a re-assertion of reality.
Israel should not bear-hug the problematic Saudis, nor fall prey to over-enthusiastic fantasies. Don’t assume that MBS is the answer to Israel’s prayers in facing-down Iran. Don’t expect overt Saudi peace overtures to Israel, and beware inevitable demands for down-payments to the Palestinians as the up-front price for lukewarm Saudi openness to Israel.
Iran is on the march, presenting a significant security challenge to Israel, to moderate Sunni countries, and to the West. No duplicitous decrees by supreme or smiling ayatollahs should deflect our attentions.
The application of de facto sovereignty and governance on the ground is the core of political action that can keep Jerusalem whole. The struggle for sovereignty in Jerusalem has transitioned from ‘Jerusalem on High’ – high-powered political summits, to ‘Jerusalem of Below’ – decent daily life in the city for Arabs and Jews alike.
David M. Weinberg is a think tank director, columnist and lobbyist who is a sharp critic of Israel’s detractors and of post-Zionist trends in Israel. Read more »
A passionate speaker, David M. Weinberg lectures widely in Israel, the U.S. and Canada to Jewish and non-Jewish audiences. He speaks on international politics and Middle East strategic affairs, Israeli diplomacy and defense strategy, intelligence matters and more. Click here to book David Weinberg as a speaker

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