- September 29, 2023
Israel needs to approach the emerging peace arrangements with Saudi Arabia and accompanying understandings with the US – with enthusiasm but also caution. Too much zeal for a deal in Jerusalem will boomerang in Israel’s disfavor.
- September 22, 2023
Pray for judicial compromise, government and opposition restraint, Jewish continuity and peoplehood, the integrity and strength of the IDF, real peace with Saudi Arabia, regime change in Iran, political sanity in America, emphatic Israeli government action against terrorism and lawlessness, and more. Pray for prayer on the Temple Mount instead of Islamic violence.
- September 15, 2023
Take this Rosh Hashanah political-security quiz and prognosticate on the future for the Jewish new year, in Israel and around the world. (My predictions are recorded at the bottom of the article.)
- September 2, 2022
“Wine-washing” Israel with outstanding fruit of the vine. A selection of superb Israeli wines, with an emphasis on Mediterranean style wines (Rhone Valley varietals).
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- January 6, 2023
Israel should implement policy change in concentrated fashion and plow through the chorus of international criticism. What doesn’t get done in the next 6-12 months will get bogged down in internecine squabbling or be impeded by accumulative foreign pressures.
- December 22, 2022
In Washington and other capitals, an ungenerous spirit has set in. Israel’s new government, which finally may be formed in the coming week, will have to pushback hard against this increasingly brazen, vulgar, and hypocritical trend.
- December 16, 2022
On Palestinian-Jordanian impudence and Israeli infirmity.
- December 9, 2022
My first "aliyah" to "Har HaBayit" was scary, emotional, fascinating, and infuriating. And necessary.
- December 2, 2022
Kohelet is Israel's most dynamic think tank; not just a successful policy institute but a revolutionary advocacy agency that has had an outsize influence in the intellectual debates of our times.
- November 25, 2022
I told interlocuters in the Arabian Gulf last weekend that Israel firmly will assert its sovereignty and governance in the face of Israeli Arab and Palestinian lawlessness. That is what most Israelis expect of their new government! At the same time, I assured Israel's Emirati and Bahraini allies that Israel will do so without racist incitement and delegitimizing rhetoric, and without crude demonstrations of its power, but rather with finely calibrated tools and from an approach of maximum willingness to dialogue. (I hope that I am right....)
- November 21, 2022
Remembering three relevant and very different Anglo rabbis: The elevated expositions of Rabbi Sacks, the beautiful teachings of Rabbi Carlebach, and the angry warnings of Rabbi Kahane.
- November 11, 2022
I am less concerned about the direction of the emerging new government than I am about the hysterical reactions to the possible government by foreign and hard-left observers. People like Tom Friedman and Asa Kasher swiftly grab the opportunity to declare Israel a lost cause, and seem only-too-happy to jettison their associations with Israel and Judaism.
- November 4, 2022
Rule emphatically but be as inclusive as possible. Keep the foxes (Deri, Ben-Gvir) out of the henhouses. Prepare for war the right way. Build in Jerusalem. Engage the Jewish world. And more.
- October 28, 2022
Consider one of the lesser-known parties running for election to Knesset. They serve as an antidote to widespread cynicism about Israel’s political system.
