My mother, a veteran family therapist, was fond of saying, “the presenting problem is not the problem.” In other words, the issue that appears to be the most pressing often acts as camouflage for a much deeper and far more threatening problem. In the quickly arranged summit meeting between President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu,…

The following are the remarks written for the Wilson Center in Washington where I was recently named The Joseph B. Gildenhorn Distinguished Fellow. Last week, representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency entered the center and all but closed it down. The speech, I believe, still deserves to be read. It’s about the school—not Princeton, not…

The perennial eulogists of Benjamin Netanyahu’s career are having a banner week. Though it lacks a constitution, Israel stands on the brink of what might otherwise be called a constitutional crisis sparked by Netanyahu’s firing of Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet national security agency—Israel’s equivalent to the FBI. The government has also begun the process…

During the summer of 2024—because I could no longer bear the thought of not taking an active part in our ongoing war, and thanks also to my stubborn refusal to acknowledge my advancing years—I volunteered for the IDF reserves. For the first time in decades, I put on a uniform, donned a helmet, and picked…

While our attention is understandably focused on the renewed fighting in Gaza, we could easily overlook one of the most transformative moments in the Middle East. Share The president who ordered the liquidation of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, in 2020, is now threatening to do what no American leader has ever…

While deeply moving, President Trump’s recent meeting with former Hamas hostages was also depressing. Eight Israelis — unbowed, patriotic, and highly representative of our society as whole — told the president that their state had let them down. The only hope for the remaining hostages rested with America, they implicitly said, and its ability to…

Is Israel ready for a large-scale aliyah? Does Israel still want it? These questions came to mind repeatedly during my visit to Australia last week while I was speaking with Jewish leaders. Australian Jewry is unique among Diaspora communities. Founded as a penal colony by the British at the end of the 18th century, Australia…

Fifteen years ago, the Obama administration pressured Israel to agree to a ten-month settlement freeze. The goal, the Americans told us, was to incentivize the Palestinian Authority to join peace talks. Our government responded that the freeze would not only fail to bring Abu Mazen to the negotiating table, it would make it almost impossible…

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When Bibi collided with Obama in 2011, Rahm Emanuel pounded my chest and barked: ‘Your [expletive] prime minister cannot come into the [expletive] White House and [expletive] lecture the president!’     On May 20, 2011, inside the Oval Office and before the cameras, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lectured President Barack Obama. During a…