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…
Faced with the decision whether to support Washington’s new policy toward Ukraine, Israel must choose between our identity and our security. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) For the first time last week, before President Trump’s televised altercation with President Zelensky in the White House, the United States sided with Russia in opposing a UN resolution condemning Moscow…
This article reminds us, agonizingly, how little has changed in Israel’s struggle with Hamas and its Iranian enablers. Present circumstances nevertheless offer us the opportunity to fundamentally change this brutal reality. While working tirelessly to return every last of our hostages from Gaza, Israel must thoroughly eradicate Hamas as a military and political force and…
Following the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the killing of 2,400 Americans, President Franklin Roosevelt addressed Congress and, via radio, the nation. “December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy,” he began and immediately declared war on the aggressors. But then, FDR halted, and his voice dropped. “The enemy has not…
A diplomatic coup de main or more Trumpian madness? A strategic move like Trump’s threatened tariffs for Canada and Mexico—or a sincere proposal to take over a strip in the Middle East? Depending on who you ask, President Trump’s pronouncements on the Middle East, made in the presence of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, could be described…
After the Casablanca Conference in 1943, the Allies—the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union—committed to the “unconditional surrender” of Nazi Germany and Japan. That goal never changed. By contrast, the American policy toward this war has changed repeatedly. Initially supportive of Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas, it quickly morphed into “October 7 can never…
Critics of Israel’s conduct of the war, both left-wing and right, have pointed out its many failures. After nearly a year and a half of intense combat, Hamas continues to control significant parts of Gaza, Hezbollah is far from defeated, and pro-Iranian militias in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen remain unbowed. Iran, moreover, the widely-crowned head…
