2025 was a year of war–in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. It was a year of loss and trauma but also of victory and, for the hostages, redemption. 2026 promises to be a pivotal year of breakthroughs in relations with several of Israel’s long-term foes. Beyond that, 2026 for Israel could be a year of recovery,…

Rather than a departure from standard practice, recent actions by the United States continue its longstanding commitment to protect vulnerable religious communities abroad. President Trump’s decision to intervene militarily to defend Christians from ISIS attacks in Nigeria has been criticized by left and the right-wing commentators alike. Progressives denounced the operation as the product of…

Netanyahu and Trump’s pivotal meeting in a critical moment. Though it will take place in better circumstances than his previous five visits to the White House this year, Netanyahu’s forthcoming meeting at Mar-a-Lago with President Trump might well be the most crucial. On the agenda are issues that are likely to prove pivotal to Israel’s…

Mein Kulturkampf Clarity with Michael Oren, February 5, 2024 “I have only one passion, that of light, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and which has the right to happiness.” So concluded J’Accuse, Emile Zola’s 1898 attack on the French judicial, military, and political establishment. His purpose was to expose the…

For many years—decades, even—of terrorist strikes and wars, Israel had been the most dangerous place for Jews. But is it still? Reflecting on the Bondi Beach massacre made me remember—perhaps strangely—a remark once made by my son, Noam, in his Bar Mitzvah speech. The year was 2003, the height of the Second Intifada, with hundreds…

Establishing a Palestinian state today, in the aftermath of October 7, is not only not in Israel’s interest but is, far beyond that, certifiably insane. Last Wednesday evening, December 3, in Toronto, I took part in a Munk Debate. For those unfamiliar with the institution, Munk defines its mission as “to help the world rediscover…

Ending Netanyahu’s corruption trial would mean an admission of guilt and could be the end of his political life. Back in 2019, while serving as a deputy government minister, I was approached outside a Knesset meeting by Yossi Yona, a former philosophy professor and member of the opposition Labor Party who I’d come to admire.…

During a time of renewed division, the state must do its utmost to maintain internal unity. Beyond the coalition’s judicial reform plan and even more than the Gaza War in its final phases, the question of the October 7 inquiry will divide the state as never before. If the prime minister rejects an independent state…

Rebuilding Israel’s foreign relations cannot wait. The ruins of Gaza could serve as a metaphor for the state of Israel’s foreign relations. After two years of brutal, complex, and controversial war, little remains of our ties with many of our former allies in Western Europe, much of the developing world, and, in the United States,…

Though traumatized by war, the thousands who came to lay Sgt. First Class Yona Brief to rest united in a display of unrestrained compassion. This week marked the Hebrew anniversary of Sgt. First Class Yona Brief’s passing. The day reminds us of the terrible price we paid for this war and of the eternal debt…