Israel must forgo the forlorn hope of winning Arab amitié and pursue different strategic goals. The most it can hope for is to be grudgingly accepted; the least it must achieve is to be greatly feared. The IDF looks for every possible way to maintain peace even if the very heavy cost is the complete loss […]
International agreements involving the abdication of strategic assets in exchange for vague ‘assurances’ of future support are not worth the paper they are written on. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow – Lord Palmerston in the […]
One of the reasons that the conflict with the Palestinian-Arabs has dragged on for years, is that Israel has failed to conceptualize the conflict correctly. Failed comprehension has brought failed policy. Poll: 23% of Arab Israelis would support Arab invasion in Israel– i24NEWS Headline, May 15, 2022. Paradoxically, perhaps an incident that most vividly illustrates […]
As the Biden administration continues to bring executive incompetence to yet unplumbed depths, any fair-minded person must feel increasingly compelled to question the authenticity of the 2020 poll. “Man can believe the impossible, but man can never believe the improbable.” – Oscar Wilde, “Intentions”, 1891. As the Biden incumbency drags excruciatingly on, one thing is […]
The simmering conflict between Egypt and Ethiopia over the construction of a massive dam on the Blue Nile could have grave ramifications for Israel. …no one can take a drop from Egypt’s water, and if it happens, there will be inconceivable instability in the region. – Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Aljazeera, March 30, 2021. …we […]
Legal proceedings are being carried out with scant regard for the law. In some cases, the law is blatantly disregarded; in others, factual evidence is ignored; in yet others, infractions are invented to fabricate charges. All cases have been approved by the courts. Confidence in Israel’s justice system, once so high, has slumped, and the […]
There are only two possibilities regarding Finance Minister Liberman’s involvement in what has become known as the “Yisrael Beiteinu affair”; neither bodes well for Israel. Power doesn’t corrupt people; people corrupt power.” – William Gaddis (1922-1998). Much has been aired about the glaring defects of the current Israeli government—about how it rewards deceit, how it […]
There may well be things more depraved than an Israeli government minister soliciting funds for a self-declared mortal foe, but none come readily to mind “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.” —Anonymous ancient dictum—misattributed to Euripides. Israel is a country of many paradoxes and colliding opposites—many of which make it […]
It will take a long time—probably decades—to repair the damage, which the mendacious machinations used to ensconce the current coalition, have wrought, not only on the fabric of Israel’s body-politic, but on the very essence of the Zionist endeavor itself…if such repair is at all feasible. Ever! Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only […]
While it may be inappropriate that someone under criminal indictment should be a candidate for, or serve, as prime minister, it is far more inappropriate that he/she be precluded from doing so by abuse of the legal system. We have a prime minister mired up to his neck in investigations. He has no public or […]
If difficult socioeconomic conditions in the ultra-Orthodox community have not produced the rampant crime that afflicts Arab society, why should this be assumed to be the case among Israeli Arabs? The homicide rate in Israel generally is low by international standards, but what has emerged in Israel’s Arab streets is an alternate universe of lawlessness, […]
Israel must prepare for a daunting situation, in which, along its eastern frontier, it could face a huge expanse of hostile territory, controlled by radical Islamist warlords, stretching from the fringes of Greater Tel Aviv to the border of Iraq — and beyond. “…the only certainty is that there is nothing certain”.–Gaius Plinius Secundus (“Pliny the […]
Lapid’s recent Gaza policy proposal is just one more display in an appalling catalogue of his imbecility-cum-ignorance, which, in light of his electoral success, is—in itself—a grave indictment of the Israeli voter Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe—attributed to Albert Einstein. I used to have […]
In a single act of rash duplicity and deceit, Naftali Bennett provided the left with a prize plum from which it has been precluded for years: Broad access to positions of governmental control and influence. Bogey Ya’alon, Benny Gantz and Yvette Lieberman are knowingly endangering the security of Israeli citizens… As Israel’s Defense Minister, I declare: An […]
There is a symbiotic link between the abysmal (mis)conduct of Israel’s public diplomacy and the building crescendo of Jueophobic frenzy across the globe. Israel is losing the war for international opinion because – in the final analysis – she does not really want to win it! Or at least the official organs charged with administering […]