From the leftist Israeli media you would never know that 50,000 Jews celebrated Zionism in Hebron last weekend.

By changing the discourse about settlements, the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for realistic negotiation. Even if you think that Israeli settlement should be rolled-back in the context of a sensible peace arrangement, applying the demonizing epithet “illegal” makes for a destructive narrative that distances, not advances, peace.

Old habits, it seems, die hard. European countries have a historic knack for judging Jews, depriving Jews of scholarships, restricting Jews to specific pales of settlement, and tagging, branding and labeling them.

Keep the settlement issue in proportion. Settlements are not the bane of local or world peace nor necessarily an obstacle to peace. They neither explain Palestinian unwillingness to make peace with Israel nor are they the cause of traffic jams in Tel Aviv.

Israel must administer Area C effectively and with much more authority, whether it wishes to either hold the territory as an effective card for future bargaining or it intends to annex the lands to Israel.

Netanyahu has managed to stave off elections for now. He should use the time to restore Israeli deterrence, build in strategic areas, improve civil defense readiness, expel hostile U.N. agencies, and make diplomatic gains. Eight policy initiatives for the coming half-year.

General Yadlin’s unilateral disengagement plans are neither new nor logical. Unilateral Israeli withdrawals will not enhance Israeli security nor improve Israel’s international position and moral standing; and it will rip Israeli society apart, for no good reason.

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.

My fall reading recommendations, with essays and books on democracy in the Arab world, the industry of lies against Israel, Zionism, anti-Semitism, settlements, and Haredi army service.

Israel shouldn’t pay the EU one red cent of “compensation” for dismantling illegally-built EU settlements in Area C. And if our government idiotically dares to settle with the EU, and shells out a single shekel, I am going to withhold paying my taxes in protest.