On November 5, 2023, less than a month after the largest post-Holocaust massacre of Jews, I wrote an article for Clarity entitled, “A Dirty Harry Moment.” The reference was to an old action movie in which Clinton Eastwood, a detective, confronts a criminal holding a gun to hostage’s head. “Go ahead,” Eastwood grunts, “make my day.” The…
The war with Iran proves once again the importance for Israel to have an American strategic bomber as part of the Israeli Air Force’s aircraft arsenal. Twice, in 2013, during my tenure as Ambassador in Washington, and later, as a Member of Knesset in 2018, I asked the United States to sell us a strategic…
Israel’s Operation Rising Lion in Iran will end in one of two ways. Either the regime in Tehran will implode or President Trump will negotiate a ceasefire. Irrespective, the result must be the same. The Islamic Republic’s empire must fall. For many years now, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, American diplomacy on Iran has…
During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Golda Meir rejected early ceasefire calls to secure a decisive victory and restore Israel’s deterrence; Now, Netanyahu faces a similar choice in conflict with Iran. “Peace between Israel and Iran is within reach,” the President of the United States recently declared — another signal that Washington’s backing…
Cyclist passes by the flag of Israel, taped on a hydrant on the east end of the Pearl Street Mall, after a Sunday attack near the courthouse Monday, June 2, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Throughout the day, Monday, June 2, CNN ran the headline, “Dozens shot dead and injured near Gaza aid…
Ein Zivan Vineyard, Golan Heights pictured in 2018. The border to Syria runs only a few hundred meters away (Juergen Schwenkenbecher/AP) President Trump’s decision to lift U.S. sanctions on Syria and recognize the regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani) poses serious short- and long-term challenges to Israel. In the short term, it means that…
The Prime Minister’s recent statement that Israel “will have to wean itself off American military aid, just as we weaned ourselves from U.S. economic aid” was, for me, a vindication. In 2016, while in Knesset, I was the only member of the Israeli government to oppose acceptance of President Obama’s ten-year $38 billion aid package. The reasoning behind…
Along with “no daylight,” one of the longstanding principles of the U.S.-Israel alliance was “no surprises.” This meant that if the American president planned on making a major policy statement on the Middle East, especially one that impacted our security, Israeli leaders would be given the opportunity to review it first and submit their comments.…
My first encounter with antisemitism, when I was about nine years old and growing up as the lone Jewish kid in an entirely Catholic neighborhood, was being called by some bully a Christ-killer. I would go on to encounter many other stripes of Jew-hatred: Jews have too much money, power, and influence, Jews are devious,…
Israel has repeatedly outsourced its security to others–the results have always been disastrous The state created in 1948 to ensure that the Jewish people would never again have to rely on anybody else for our security has repeatedly outsourced its security to others. The results have always been disastrous. In the 1950s, we outsourced our…
On November 5, 2023, less than a month after the largest post-Holocaust massacre of Jews, I wrote an article for Clarity entitled, “A Dirty Harry Moment.” The reference was to an old action movie in which Clinton Eastwood, a detective, confronts a criminal holding a gun to hostage’s head. “Go ahead,” Eastwood grunts, “make my day.” The…
The war with Iran proves once again the importance for Israel to have an American strategic bomber as part of the Israeli Air Force’s aircraft arsenal. Twice, in 2013, during my tenure as Ambassador in Washington, and later, as a Member of Knesset in 2018, I asked the United States to sell us a strategic…
Israel’s Operation Rising Lion in Iran will end in one of two ways. Either the regime in Tehran will implode or President Trump will negotiate a ceasefire. Irrespective, the result must be the same. The Islamic Republic’s empire must fall. For many years now, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, American diplomacy on Iran has…
During the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Golda Meir rejected early ceasefire calls to secure a decisive victory and restore Israel’s deterrence; Now, Netanyahu faces a similar choice in conflict with Iran. “Peace between Israel and Iran is within reach,” the President of the United States recently declared — another signal that Washington’s backing…
Cyclist passes by the flag of Israel, taped on a hydrant on the east end of the Pearl Street Mall, after a Sunday attack near the courthouse Monday, June 2, 2025, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski) Throughout the day, Monday, June 2, CNN ran the headline, “Dozens shot dead and injured near Gaza aid…
Ein Zivan Vineyard, Golan Heights pictured in 2018. The border to Syria runs only a few hundred meters away (Juergen Schwenkenbecher/AP) President Trump’s decision to lift U.S. sanctions on Syria and recognize the regime of Ahmed al-Sharaa (Abu Mohammad al-Julani) poses serious short- and long-term challenges to Israel. In the short term, it means that…
The Prime Minister’s recent statement that Israel “will have to wean itself off American military aid, just as we weaned ourselves from U.S. economic aid” was, for me, a vindication. In 2016, while in Knesset, I was the only member of the Israeli government to oppose acceptance of President Obama’s ten-year $38 billion aid package. The reasoning behind…
Along with “no daylight,” one of the longstanding principles of the U.S.-Israel alliance was “no surprises.” This meant that if the American president planned on making a major policy statement on the Middle East, especially one that impacted our security, Israeli leaders would be given the opportunity to review it first and submit their comments.…
My first encounter with antisemitism, when I was about nine years old and growing up as the lone Jewish kid in an entirely Catholic neighborhood, was being called by some bully a Christ-killer. I would go on to encounter many other stripes of Jew-hatred: Jews have too much money, power, and influence, Jews are devious,…
Israel has repeatedly outsourced its security to others–the results have always been disastrous The state created in 1948 to ensure that the Jewish people would never again have to rely on anybody else for our security has repeatedly outsourced its security to others. The results have always been disastrous. In the 1950s, we outsourced our…
