יום שבת, ה׳ תמוז תשפ״וSaturday, June 20, 2026
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The writer is managing senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy. The views expressed here are his own. His diplomatic, defense, political, and Jewish world columns over the past 28 years are at davidmweinberg.com.
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Stop throwing pernicious pieties about concocted “settler violence” in Israel’s face as it fights for its life
Reject false equations and partisan lenses, do not hide or hide behind free speech, embrace Israeli strength, and more.
The scent coming from these old-guard European and American denizens is antipathy toward Israel. They simply cannot stomach a strong Israel.
The safety and security of Jews around the world depends on Israel winning – on regaining its strength, self-confidence, and deterrent power. This, in turn, will re-empower Diaspora Jews to defend Israel and themselves.
Upending stale thinking about the Arab-Israeli conflict is a good thing.
The draft bill currently before Knesset is an outrage and a fiction at the same time; Religious Zionists demand: Give our families a 50% reduction in army service too!
Israel will have to play along with President Trump’s priorities such as the hostage deal and a Saudi deal. If Israel does so, it will be well placed to expect a return from Trump down the line on other issues – ranging from Israeli assertion of sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria, to pushback against nasty international organizations that are at Israel’s throat, to US supply to Israel of heavy ordnance weaponry necessary for striking Iran, and more.
Time to re-engage in the fight for Israel with passion and conviction, not apologetics or apprehension. A new film and book show the way.
In this space last week, I correctly predicted a decisive win by Donald Trump in the US presidential elections and warned of a perilous transition in US-Israel relations in the lame duck days of the outgoing administration.
In its dying days the Biden-Harris administration will be chomping at the bit to act on its most “progressive” impulses: To clobber insolent Israel and to reset US Mideast policy away from Israel.
Which of the following Mideast-related events can be expected this coming year? Take this quiz and calculate the 5785 future you need to be prepared for. (My answers are at the bottom of the article.)
The feelings of triumph are justified, healthy, and very moral.
What better moment than the eve of Tisha Be’Av – ten months distance from Israel’s contemporary national catastrophe of Tisha Be’Av magnitude – to remind oneself of the Biblical warnings against the politics of defamation?
It is time to raid the high schools, university campuses, and senior citizen homes for manpower; to press the entire Israeli public, young and old of all hues and stripes, into industrial and emergency service.
Israel must act to halt Palestinian destruction of Jewish archaeological sites in Judea & Samaria.
Escalating Palestinian terrorism, surging illegal Palestinian construction in zones of strategic importance to Israel, and wildly out-of-control arson attacks must be stopped.
Israel has no choice but to stiffen its spine; and in some matters to grow a spine. More than ever before, Israel must reject impossible international dictates and demands.
Everybody knows that the rapidly growing and politically muscular Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Israel can no longer altogether avoid military and/or national service. But haredi leaders will not relinquish their rigid communal structure of full-time and lifetime-long Torah study. And nobody can draft haredi Israeli Jews against their will – no matter what the Supreme Court rules or the Knesset legislates. So here is my national service plan for haredi men during “bein hazmanim,” their long semester breaks.
The tectonic threat of Iran to Mideast and global stability must be countered head-on.
Israel must resist America’s fantasy framework for a swift, dangerously indecisive, end to the Gaza war.
An ugly, fringe phenomenon being falsely puffed up to "balance" the crimes of Hamas.
Take this Rosh Hashanah political-security quiz and prognosticate on the future for the Jewish new year. (My predictions are recorded at the bottom of the article.)
Oslo is the root cause of today’s terrible epidemic of terrorist and crime shootings.
Chances for a deal are high, the risks manageable, and the value overwhelming. The doubters and naysayers, as well as those who actively are trying to sabotage such an agreement, are wrong.
Lost in the anti-Netanyahu netherworld are manifold affirmations of commitment to IDF service despite the judicial reform juggernaut.
Rabbi Gold, who passed away this week at 88, was known for feisty and infectious Zionist passion and for biting witticism. He understood God’s love for all Jews in absolute terms (which he sought to emulate absolutely), and he understood God’s grant of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People in absolute terms, in a totality wrapped with kedusha, holiness. These are not gifts that one can simply fritter away.
The only real power standing in the way of Palestinian terrorism and Iranian hegemonism is Israel.
There is no moral equivalence whatsoever between Palestinian terrorists and Israeli troops. Falsely balanced diplomatic formulations like those that “call upon all sides to end the cycle of violence” must be rejected. This is prattle that covers for Palestinian extremism and rejectionism, and retards the cause of peace.
The Left prefers shafting Netanyahu and promoting Palestinian statehood to breakthrough diplomacy that would transform the Mideast.
Alas, coming soon: More American goodies for Iran in exchange for more pious and empty Iranian pledges.
Dr. Kissinger is most consequential figure in US foreign policy of the past century. His record regarding Jews and Israel remains controversial, but I think that on balance Kissinger deserves respect.
We are obligated to be doresh Yerushalayim, to spiritually refine ourselves and draw closer to He who truly owns Jerusalem; to long for God’s revealed presence, seeking to encounter Him with the tools at our disposal. Already today, the Divine Presence peeps at us through the cracks of the Temple Mount retaining walls, there to be seen and experienced, if we only seek it.
The illustrious Jewish-American novelist is a penetrating and courageous critic of contemporary society and its attitudes to Jews and Israel.
Israel’s future depends more on repairing a modicum of national unity and even global Jewish accord than it does on countering Iran
On the 75th Yom Haatzmaut, focus on the brilliance bursting forth from the nation of Israel in realms galore.
A comprehensive picture of Iranian belligerence and its tectonic threat to Mideast and global stability.
The US president is neighing about Israeli democracy and stiffing Netanyahu to counter Israel’s insistence on acting against Iran.
I do not believe that the Saudi-Iran agreement closes the door on Saudi-Israeli entente, nor on a renewed pro-Western regional alliance involving Israel and the Saudis
Beware the doomsday discourse about irreparable depredations in Israel’s democratic moorings. The poison it pumps into Israel’s soul and standing is far worse than its proximate cause.
Compared to the ongoing Palestinian terrorist mega-pogrom against Israeli Jews, the Huwara rampage must rank as one the weakest pogroms in the ugly history of pogroms. So where is the anguish over Israeli Jews continuously murdered by Palestinian terrorists?
Fight fire with fire. The terrorists want to chase Israel off this land; in response, Israel should lay stakes on more land each time they fire a shot.
One would think that Jordan’s “special role” means it has a responsibility to maintain the site as a place of prayer, brotherhood and tolerance.
Restoring the pre-Aharon Barak juridical culture of restraint is a necessary process.
The overpowerful justice system threatens Israeli democracy, not Justice Minister Levin’s counter-revolutionary proposals.
PALESTINIAN-JORDANIAN IMPUDENCE and ISRAELI INFIRMITY.
In Washington and other capitals, an ungenerous spirit has set in.
My first “aliyah” this week to “Har HaBayit” was scary, emotional, fascinating, and infuriating. And necessary.
I told interlocutors in the Arabian Gulf last weekend that Israel firmly will assert its sovereignty and governance in the face of Israeli Arab and Palestinian lawlessness. That is what most Israelis expect of their new government! At the same time, I assured Israel’s Emirati and Bahraini allies that Israel will do so without racist incitement and delegitimizing rhetoric, and without crude demonstrations of its power, but rather with finely calibrated tools and from an approach of maximum willingness to dialogue. (I hope that I am right….)
Remembering 3 Remarkable and Relevant Rabbis
I'm less concerned about the direction of the emerging direction of the new government than I am about the hysterical reactions to it from foreign governments and hard-left observers.
Israel must reject the hypocrisy of foreign leaders from Washington to Paris who threaten to downgrade their ties with Israel if Ben-Gvir gets a seat in cabinet.
Consider one of the lesser-known parties running for election to Knesset. They serve as an antidote to widespread cynicism about Israel’s political system.
FORGET THE “THRESHOLD! BE STRATEGIC AND PRINCIPLED, NOT TACTICAL AND CYNICAL,
Which of the following political, security, and domestic events can be expected in Israel, the Mideast, and around the world this coming year? Take this quiz and calculate the 5783 political future you need to be prepared for. (My answers are at the bottom of the article.)
On their second anniversary, it can be said that the Abraham Accords constitute an ideological breakthrough of Biblical magnitude.
Washington and Brussels have no business second-guessing Israel’s security operations.
On Europe’s insolence towards Israel and its willfully blind reverence for the Palestinians.
Israel’s necessary strategic posture is ferocious, in addition to peace-seeking. Get used to it.
WHAT WE REALLY NEED, MUCH MORE THAN A COMPTROLLER’S REPORT ON POLICE FECKLESSNESS, IS A NATIONAL PLAN TO ROOT OUT THE SOURCES THAT ARE FUELING EXTREMISM AND VIOLENCE IN PARTS OF THE ISRAELI ARAB COMMUNITY.
Tisha Be’Av, the mournful commemoration of Jewish national destruction and self-destruction which falls this weekend, hasn’t quite reached the status of Yom Kippur as a day of reflection and repentance. But it should.
Wakey, wakey! Time for a course reversal. Consider the grand drama of Israel reborn, and don’t go weak-kneed on Iran.
Which policies will Yair Lapid choose to adopt during his time as PM? Here are my nine “landfills” — policy suggestions for the period in which Lapid fills-in for Bennett.
Beware false election narratives from both the left and right. Do not let radical electioneering disfigure a noble reality. Israel continues to be a free, enlightened, creative and exciting place.
Jordan seeks to influence the Biden administration to ice the Abraham Accords in favor of the Palestinians. That would be a mistake. Expansion of the accords can only improve, rather than impede, prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. The accords need not “sideline” the Palestinians if the Palestinians don’t sideline themselves.
President Biden should not come to the Mideast without a useful agenda that includes truly confronting Iran.
… the tough get going. When this country is under attack, Israel’s friends need to be more determined than ever to defend it.
Israel has good reason to fear that Abdullah and Biden are cooking-up an attempt to impose new pro-Arab “arrangements” on the Temple Mount, with Biden coming to Israel in late June to ride herd on this issue. Note: King Abdullah has no claim to “custodianship” over Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
The world knows only how to criticize and demonize Israel. What a shame. But at least Jews should know and appreciate Israel’s humanity. On Yom Haatzmaut, we can all add this to our calculations of kevod shamayim and kiddush Hashem (the glorification of G-d’s name in the world) that has been wrought by the State of Israel.
Israel seems to exist in two parallel, contradictory worlds. One is a false, hackneyed, out-of-date, and threatening universe where recalcitrant and violent Palestinian leaders are venerated, and admirable Israeli leaders are criminalized. The other universe is real, promising, forward looking, and stabilizing, and is marked by a peace dynamic that runs from Jerusalem to Dubai, Manama, Rabat, Cairo and Amman; and from Jerusalem to the most important leaders in the world.
Erdogan needs to be handled cautiously and, yes, respectfully. He also needs to be cut down to size.
Allowing Iran to march merrily forward with its nuclear bomb and ballistic missile programs and its hegemonic regional ambitions is an even worse threat to world security than the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and certainly to Israel’s security.
Only Iran and a motley assortment of “progressives,” because Israel is becoming the lynchpin of a new regional alliance that advances peace and security.
Two new studies warn of radicalization among Arab Israelis and urge robust government action.
Israel gets almost no international credit for its many humanitarian medical activities. And Palestinian leaders get the best medical care in Israel even though they constantly issue the most bloodcurdling libels about Israeli “apartheid.”
Looking ahead, this is what I see: A rotten nuclear deal with Iran, conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah, government stability but stagnation, and despite it all – a banner economic year.
The specter of Israel’s sequestration and boycott by the world is exaggerated, often purposefully so by the Israeli Left. This includes Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who this week warned that Israel had better open a diplomatic dialogue with the Palestinians, otherwise the threat of Israel being designated an “apartheid state” will grow severe. You would think that BDS and lawfare are greater “threats” than, say, the Biden administration’s capitulation to Iran on the nuclear issue!
The discourse about Israel in Dubai and Ramallah couldn't be more different: cooperation versus confrontation, celebration versus demonization
Nothing short of a deep commitment to traditional Jewish ritual practice will lead to a revitalization of Jewish life in America and create a basis for recovery in Diaspora-Israel relations.
What is truly more urgent: Curbing greenhouse gas emissions or quashing Iran’s nuclear bomb drive?
Biden is braying about Jerusalem, Palestinians, and settlements mainly to force Bennett into submission regarding Iran. He is signaling to Bennett: Shut-up about the nuclear deal and don’t you dare try to scuttle it, or else the US will make your life miserable on the Palestinian front.
His mesmerizing address, about “three epiphanies” he experienced in Jerusalem, was a Zionist masterpiece!
On his first yahrzeit, his many admirers must recommit to the truths he taught and advance the moral society he sought.
Tzipi Livni’s candidacy smacks of desperation that overlooks the fine crop of dynamic candidates already standing for the Jewish Agency’s top post, especially the women. Moreover, the JAFI chairmanship should not go to a failed politician who is the antithesis of “consensus,” and who will abuse the post as a bully pulpit to rebuild her political career.
Here I offer a different type of list: A smattering of “interesting” Jews to follow in 5782. Interesting in my book means profound, substantive, and making a real contribution to the long-term future of Israel and the Jewish People.
Coming off our hot summer, and before settling into the High Holiday season (hopefully without coronavirus lockdowns), take this quiz and calculate the 5782 political future you need to pray about. My answers are at the bottom of the article.
On the first anniversary of the Accords, don’t be begrudging or doubtful about their future.
Responsible rabbinic leadership has a responsibility to harmonize halacha with the greater good of society.
Bennett must beware Biden’s bearhug as the president tries to bunt the Iran nuclear problem to somebody else’s “watch.”
Nevertheless, in my opinion there is ample room for the Bennett-Lapid government to set a few things in order, and to make it clear to Israeli friends and adversaries abroad that there is principled continuity in Israeli foreign and defense policy.
A straitjacket “change” coalition would be good for Israeli politics and society. National unity, however temporary and fragile, along with a change of leadership after 15 years, is necessary and worthwhile.
The soft bigotry of low expectations from the Palestinians, and the hard bigotry of impeccable-impossible demands on Israel.
Reportedly, former US Secretary of State John Kerry shared intelligence about Israel’s anti-Iran covert operations with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. How much further will US officials today go to undercut Israel’s military campaign against Iran?
The organization has become an anti-Israel mutant, lobbying to restrict US military aid to Israel and moving towards a “confederated state” to replace Israel.
The hard ideological Left in the US and Israel is revving-up its engines in support of a soft nuclear deal with Iran, mainly by attacking Netanyahu.
Those who consider history only in terms of national politics and international relations underestimate or misjudge Israel. They fail to appreciate the power of Jewish history animated by ancient faith.
Obama’s echo chamber is coming back in the service of President Biden to put Israel on the defensive and validate another awful nuclear deal with Iran.
A “sticker song” which rolls campaign clichés and slogans into a dirge on our political jam. Here is the refrain: How much bile can one swallow? Only Bibi. Anybody but Bibi. I vote, therefore I am. Father, have mercy, Father, have mercy. We all scream for ice cream. Gevalt.
The terror of “woke” cancel culture knows no bounds. First, they came for Babar the Elephant; then for Curious George; then for Disney children’s movies; then Mr. Potato Head; and then Dr. Seuss. Undoubtedly next on the guillotine will be the Berenstein Bears. Soon enough, they will come after the Bible for its “racist” and “gender-backwards” content.
When there is a desecration of G-d’s name and danger to public health, one does not shy away from criticism of haredi leaders.
