Israeli politics Archives - David M. Weinberg

Can Israel be unified?

April 28, 2023

Israel’s future depends more on repairing a modicum of national unity and even global Jewish accord than it does on countering Iran. But competing visions of Israel’s essence and identity are at play.

Cool it!

March 10, 2023

Beware the doomsday discourse about irreparable depredations in Israel’s democratic moorings. The poison it pumps into Israel’s soul and standing is far worse than its proximate cause.

An economic tsunami – really?

February 3, 2023

The hysterical handwringing about judicial reform – which intelligent observers know will yet be moderated and slowed by the process of negotiating this through the Knesset – only feeds the anti-Israel monster that exists out there in the world, saps Israeli and Jewish self-confidence, and worst of all – creates self-fulfilling prophesies about Israel’s economic isolation. Alas, this is time-worn left-wing trick: Threatening global ruin to scare-off Israelis from reasonable right-wing policies.

Israel’s Supreme Court needs democratic checks on its power

January 27, 2023

Restoring the pre-Aharon Barak juridical culture of restraint is a necessary process.

Go away, Arye Deri

January 20, 2023

Arye Deri should resign immediately and stay home permanently. His ruinous record in politics is without peer. His brand of blithely sectorial, brusquely cynical politics has been catastrophic. Unfortunately, I expect that we will see Deri back soon as speaker of the Knesset or as alternate prime minister.

Judicial reform is reasonable and right

January 13, 2023

The overpowerful justice system threatens Israeli democracy, not Justice Minister Levin’s counter-revolutionary proposals.

Strike while the iron is hot

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.

The Kohelet Forum’s feat

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.

Radicals with “Ben-Gvir-Phobia” purposefully seek to crash Israel’s diplomatic relations

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.

Ten Tips for Netanyahu

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.

Tag: Israeli politics