My ani ma’amin—about the connection between creativity and limitations, between freedom and law I am committed, as always, to bringing you the most up-to-date and clear-eyed insights into the fateful issues facing Israel and the Jewish people today. Occasionally, though, I’d like to invite you to step outside our current challenges and join me in…

There is no cost-free way to bring this war to an end. In English, one says that a leader or a government has “climbed up a ladder” while in Israel the expression is “climbs up a tree.” Either way—a ladder or a tree—Israel’s government and its leader have ascended very high. Ever since Prime Minister…

SAPIR Journal invited me to write this article at the end of March, 2025, shortly after much of the world blamed Israel for breaking the Gaza ceasefire and for unleashing one of the deadliest-ever bombing campaigns on the Strip. Hardly a propitious time to write about Israel’s chosenness! Yet, without fully grasping my argument, much less…

The leader of Hamas bet that the West’s oldest hatred would obscure Hamas’s atrocities. He was right. Growing up as the only Jewish kid in an Irish and Italian neighborhood, and then later as an Israeli soldier and diplomat, I experienced many different forms of antisemitism. I’ve gone from being labeled a Christ-killer to a…

In Judaism, we have a traditional period of mourning—the Nine Days culminating on Tisha B’Av. On that day we recall our people’s suffering during the destruction of our Temples, our expulsions, and the many massacres at the hands of our enemies. Precisely at this period, when Israel is once again subjected to widespread hate and…

A Hopeful Deja Vu The radical changes that took place in the Middle East as a result of the Six-Day War did not happen immediately. Will the region once again be transformed? Michael Oren Jul 29, 2025 The situation might sound familiar. A major Middle Eastern power declares its intention to destroy the State of…

The IDF announces decision to act “to prevent the entrenchment of hostile elements beyond the border, protect Israeli citizens, and prevent harm to Druze civilians.”   Supporters of Israel worldwide, including a great many Jews, have little notion of who the Druze are, much less Israel’s “blood covenant” with them. Few would know that, though…

With new leadership in Damascus, Trump wants a deal between the two countries. That will be a tall order.   Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, D.C., last week, and high on the agenda in his meetings with President Donald Trump was Syria—and the possibility of peace, or at least nonbelligerency, between Israel…