Israel seeks to minimize civilian casualties, while Hamas seeks to maximize civilian casualties and use them as a propaganda tool. “Israel has taken more steps to avoid harming civilians than any other military in history…]S[teps that Israel has taken to prevent casualties [are] historic in comparison to all these other wars.” — John Spencer, Chairman […]
When Israeli voters next go to the polls, over what led to the grim events of Oct. 7, their choices must not be driven by uninformed rumor, ill-informed speculation, and misinformed emotion. The campaign [Breaking Dawn] has reinstated Israel’s deterrence and initiative – Yair Lapid – Ynet, Aug. 8, 2023—barely a year before the massacre […]
“Foreign policy is really domestic policy with its hat on.” — Hubert H. Humphrey Under Biden, important foreign policy interests are being sacrificed domestic ones Under the Biden administration, US foreign policy appears afflicted by several perturbing defects. Indeed, it seems to suffer from both a lack of general strategic perspective and of sound theater-specific […]
While the current coalition is far from unblemished, things could be worse—and have been, recently. The current Netanyahu-led coalition has been lambasted, almost without respite, from the moment it was formed—arguably even before that, while it was still being assembled. Unprecedented breach of the basics of democratic governance It has been accused—usually with only flimsy […]
“Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat –Those whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” —Euripides, a man of letters in ancient Greece (c. 480 – c. 406 BC) “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” — attributed to Albert Einstein The historical record bodes ill for initiatives […]
What once was unthinkable is now moving to the center of mainstream thought. Consideration should be given even to the heroic remedy of transfer of populations…the hardship of moving is great, but it is [still] less than the constant suffering of minorities and the constant recurrence of war.” — Former US President Herbert Hoover, “Great […]
One of the reasons that the conflict with the Palestinian-Arabs in general and Gazan Arabs in particular, has dragged on for years, is that Israel has failed to conceptualize the conflict correctly. There is a prevailing myth that the general population in Gaza is the hapless victim of its radical leadership. This is demonstrably false. […]
The political rationale of the Gaza conflict can be mirrored in the inexorable logic of an almost mathematical algorithm—studiously ignored by Israel’s policy-making echelons “The enemy of …conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events” — John Kenneth Galbraith Saturday 7th of October marked the demise of conventional wisdom and of “respectable” Establishment […]
Past deeds of heroism are no justification for present acts of subversion. Thy destroyers and thy demolishers shall emerge from within thee. – Isaiah 49:17 A situation has been created with centers of power with authority without responsibility…this is not democratic…the Supreme Court is one of those centers— Lt-Gen (res.) Moshe “Bogey” Yaalon, in an address […]
The focus of Israel’s Declaration of Independence is overwhelmingly on Jewish sovereignty and political independence in the ancestral Jewish homeland—not on liberal democratic governance. “As embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the essence of the State of Israel is to be a Jewish and democratic state.“ Colonel (res.) Adv. Pnina Sharvit Baruch, the Institute for […]
The opponents of the proposed judicial reform are not defending liberal democracy, but promoting Orwellian dystopia. “Deceivers are the most dangerous members of society. They trifle with the best affections of our nature, and violate the most sacred obligations.” — George Crabbe, English poet, surgeon & clergyman (1754-1832). “When one with honeyed words but evil […]
The raising of the issue of a constitution as a potential way out of the political impasse over the future of Israel’s legal system is nothing but a red herring on the part of the opponents of judicial reform. I don’t think it is right for the Supreme Court to change fundamental things in accordance […]
When the official reasons given for the Oct. 2022 gas deal with Lebanon unravel, who can be blamed for allowing “heretical” alternative explanations to creep into one’s mind. We will divide up the region. Israel will return most of the West Bank, and the Palestinian flag will fly on public buildings in East Jerusalem – […]
Typical of the deluge of the Orwellian gobbledygook opposing the proposed judicial reform is a recent video by virulent anti-Netanyahu activist, Mika Almog, granddaughter of the late Shimon Peres. The greatest danger to Israeli democracy emanates from those masquerading as its champions—Distorting Democracy, July 28, 2011. Thy destroyers and thy demolishers shall emerge from within […]
If the so-called “champions of democracy” succeed in obstructing the judicial reforms, democratic rule will be replaced by mob rule—and Israel will be teetering on the brink of an Orwellian dystopia. The starkest indicators [of erosion of democracy] which presumably underlie the country’s downgrading in international democracy ratings, involve elite decisions about rejecting election results […]