יום חמישי, י׳ תמוז תשפ״וThursday, June 25, 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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US President-elect Joe Biden ought not jettison the outgoing administration’s Mideast achievements – successful policies that made the US and Israel safer and stronger! – because of Trump’s turpitude.
A political-diplomatic forecast for the year ahead: Fourth and fifth Israeli elections, a rotten new/old nuclear deal with Iran, more trouble from Trump’s insurrectionist/authoritarian movement.
A Chanukah-week trip to Dubai taught me that Israel and Jews are admired when they are strong and believing. Emiratis respect Israelis for their loyalty to ancient heritage and for their belief in the power of Jewish history. Believe it or not, the Emiratis seem to understand – perhaps better than we do ourselves, sometimes – that these anchors of identity are the greatest source of strength and authenticity.
The Emiratis and Bahrainis are paying the price for Israeli government malfeasance in handling Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount. The Wakf has been allowed to run wild, turning the holy site a base of hostile operations against Israelis, and now also against anybody who makes peace with Israel.
The Sand Curtain between Israel and the Arab world has fallen, like the Iron Curtain 30 years ago, but some of the world has difficulty rejoicing in the breakthrough. The Left assiduously is poking holes in the Abraham Accords and making sourpuss faces whenever the Roadrunner-fast advances in Gulf-Israel ties are mentioned…
Erekat died today, after doctors at Hadassah Hospital toiled for weeks to save him from the coronavirus. The smarmy Palestinian propagandist slandered Israel until his very last breath, and history will yet record his abysmal role in the many mistakes of the Palestinian national movement. Can't say that I am in mourning for him.
Bebinyan Yerushalayim nenucham. (In the rebuilding of Jerusalem shall we be comforted.)
Even if healed by Israeli doctors, the smarmy Palestinian propagandist will continue to slander Israel until his very last breath.
We must not let coronavirus tear Israeli society apart. We do not want to fall into America’s distrust doom loop.
The Israeli government needs an expert spokesman to stickhandle the corona crisis.
In addition to our ageless ushpizin, here are seven sets of modern-day ushpizin that I would love to host in my sukkah – to debate Jewish life, Israeli policy, and world affairs.
For European and other diplomats to continue to scurry about the region without pressing inevitable truths on the Palestinians is mischievous, at best. To be overly solicitous of the Palestinians, a long-time mistake of professional peace processors, is similarly unhelpful. Dishing out some tough love and dialing down Palestinian expectations would be much more constructive.
Alas, Israelis are wantonly flouting all sensible health restrictions. Just about every sector in this country has slacked off the social distancing guidelines, whether at work, at home, or play. We need rigorous government enforcement of the rules.
Two judges of the Israeli Supreme Court this week overruled the Israeli government’s decision to raze the home of a Palestinian terrorist. In doing so, they are collectively punishing the people of Israel with their personal political prejudices and misplaced values. As the Talmud teaches: “He who is kind to the cruel will end up being cruel to the kind.”
Despite the mixed balance sheet of changes that have taken place in this country’s society and politics over the past 30 years since I moved to Israel, it is a privilege to be part of a meta-historic, grand drama of Jewish national renewal and redemption.
Rabbi Haim Sabato’s elegy for Tisha Be’Av, mourning Israel’s loss of national unity and moral priorities, translated here into English for the first time, by permission of the author. He terms our current situation keter evion, a “pauper’s crown,” meaning sunk to rock bottom. Rav Sabato blames not only our politicians, but cultural leaders and educators too.
The nuclear deal between the West and Iran has funded Iran’s aggression, rather than buy its moderation. Who will now curb Iran’s aggression and nuclear progress, and how? Trump’s penchant for grand deals that prove his greatness makes me worry that (in a second term) he could be tempted into a settlement with Iran that falls far short of what is necessary. On the other side of the aisle, most Democrats support re-entering the JCPOA and lifting some sanctions against Iran.
The progressive Pope, Peter Beinart, seeks to denude the Jewish state of its rightful place among the nations. Alas, he seems to have decayed into a cocoon; inside a reactionary, defeatist brain that secretes poison. In this venal endeavor Beinart will fail.
Critics say attaining sovereignty will undermine the peace process and ruin Israel’s reputation abroad, but these myths do not hold up to scrutiny.
One can argue that the two-state map created by the American Mideast peace plan is too complicated and unworkable. But Israel’s intention to act on the plan will not create a situation of apartheid. The “enclaves” of settlement it entails are the inexorable result of the laudable principle that no Palestinian or Israeli should be forced out of their home. This salute to indigenous rights should be celebrated.
Whether sovereignty over some or all the settlements is declared or not, the Netanyahu-Gantz unity government should be building like crazy in all the critical zones. Netanyahu cannot blame anybody but himself for delays in moving forward.
The sky will not fall in if Israeli law is applied to settlements and security zones. This is not to say that Israel should apply sovereignty now to parts of Judea and Samaria, or that Israel won’t be penalized somewhat by the international community for doing so. Only that Israel should make its decision based on core security and national interests, and not be bullied by inflated intimidations.
Tolerate no hate. Brook no terror. Beef-up the IDF. Be cautious about applying sovereignty. Resist socialists in government. Repel pressures to free the coronavirus economy too fast.
China’s criminal culpability for the deadly coronavirus outbreak cannot be ignored. Don’t let Beijing exploit the coronavirus chaos to position itself at the center of a new global order. It is time to reorganize geopolitical thinking toward the People’s Republic of China: restructure the global supply chain to reduce dependencies on Chinese manufacturing; push back against China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative; tackle China’s massive human right violations.
Strategically, Israel's fundamental military premise is defensive but its tactics are offensive—a result of its geography and absence of territorial depth. Israeli decision-making has always been driven by the active defense ethos, and this is reflected in Israeli filmmaking and TV-making.
A Yom Haatzmaut weekend reflection on the meaning of home in grand historical perspective; on the modern Jewish, Zionist and democratic home in the State of Israel. The Jewish people indeed has come home, in every sense of the word.
A post-Pesach review of top Israeli red wines from Bat Shlomo, Binnun, Castel, Drimia, Galil, Gros, Flam, Hayotzer, La Foret Blanche, Lueria, Matar, Psagot, Ramot Naftaly, Shiloh, Teperberg, Tura, Tzora and Tzuba.
What moral lessons might people the world over draw from the coronavirus crisis? Will anybody truly be transformed by the upheavals that are underway? Might we become “better” people? Or, when the dust settles, will people revert to established patterns and (misplaced) priorities?
The Haggadah’s four architypes of “sons” uncannily correspond to models of political engagement with Israel today. One is wise, one is wicked, one is simple, and one does not even know how to become part of the conversation…
Israel that can no longer afford the purposeful and self-destructive sectarianism of its minority communities. Israeli authorities have failed to act for years against these ills. All Israelis are now paying the coronavirus price for this anarchy; for minority lawlessness and government fecklessness. From an epidemiological perspective, Israel’s entire population constitutes an interconnected “communicating vessel” with immediate collateral impact. This is not just an epidemiological truth. It is a peoplehood truth. It is a theological truth. Kol Yisrael arevim zeh lazeh, all Jews are responsible for the welfare of one another. We are supposed to be guarantors of each other’s health, happiness and security. In order to survive and thrive, the State of Israel can’t afford it any other way.
Sending-off your son this week to serve in the IDF is a raw test of Zionist commitment, especially during a contagion.
The capriciousness and vulnerabilities of life teach us humility, moral responsibility and reliance on G-d. Lessons from the corona crisis.
Supreme Court intervention to thwart formation of a new Netanyahu government would be a declaration of war against democracy.
Which of the candidates for Israeli prime minister is truly going to build, and who is going to bury the building in years more of sterile peace processing and doomed attempts to achieve “international consensus”?
Crass Israeli politicians are stirring anti-religious passions for electoral gain.
How far can Abbas go in opposing negotiation and compromise, encouraging violence, venerating terrorists, spewing hatred, and pushing the criminalization of Israel – while still being considered a paragon of peace by the Israeli Left (ref. Ehud Olmert), the American Jewish Left (ref. Jeremy Ben-Ami), and the global community?
Israel should act to implement the Trump Plan and reap its early rewards, because it transforms the Mideast peace paradigm; recognizes a permanent eastern border for Israel; breathes new life into all 150 Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria; endorses permanent Israeli security control of the entire West Bank envelope; enshrines Jerusalem as the undivided and united capital of the State of Israel; unleashes a regional dynamic whereby Arab states can move towards open partnership with Israel; it treats Palestinians as responsible adults, with no free pass regarding the type of state they might establish; and it might nudge Palestinians towards replacement of their rejectionist leadership with men and women who seek peace and prosperity for their people, in partnership with Israel. Most importantly, the plan reflects, and can serve as a platform for, Israeli consensus on the Palestinian issue.
The Trump plan’s reported parameters closely hew to the broadest political consensus in Israel. It is a peace paradigm that makes eminent sense to at least 75 percent of Israelis, in my estimation. Therefore, Israel should act swiftly to lock-in the concrete diplomatic gains that can be derived from this outline for regional accommodation. Hopefully the Palestinians will come to see the plan’s advantages too, including its framework for Arab regional investment in Palestinian-Israeli joint projects.
Seventeen recommended new books on Israeli and Jewish matters – on fighting antisemitism, Israel-Diaspora relations, defense policy, Jewish history, prayer, Talmud, Bible and more.
As raw anti-Semitism around the world has risen and morphed into virulent anti-Israel sentiment—making the two phenomena almost indistinguishable—the State of Israel has moved from indifference to active involvement in the struggle against such hate.
The Chief Rabbi’s vehement attack on Russian immigrants to Israel and his own conversion courts is short-sighted. How would he handle the aliyah and conversion dilemmas – just do nothing?
In eliminating Qassem Soleimani of Iran, Trump struck a blow for moral clarity. It should be considered not only a strategic move but an act of justice in foreign affairs. One must worry that down the line Trump could yet cut a deal with Tehran that doesn’t push Iran far enough away from the nuclear bomb or from Israel’s borders. But for the moment, Trump should be lauded for the nobility of his resistance to Iran; for smashing Soleimani and the apocalypse he represented.
A political-diplomatic forecast for the year ahead: A fourth election in Israel, Trump victorious, Jerusalem expands into E-1, and regrettably, more antisemitism.
A new JISS report says that Israel must be ready to tackle Iran militarily on its own and fight a pre-emptive war with Hizballah.
Partisanship, “progressive” politics, legal pretexts, anti-Israel sentiment, and community divisions hamper the effort to combat surging Jew hatred. The “fight” is also a distraction from even more-urgent battles: keeping Jews Jewish and keeping Israel safe.
By changing the discourse about settlements, the Trump administration is laying the groundwork for realistic negotiation. Even if you think that Israeli settlement should be rolled-back in the context of a sensible peace arrangement, applying the demonizing epithet “illegal” makes for a destructive narrative that distances, not advances, peace.
For Jews everywhere, this has been a depressing year – with antisemitic and anti-Israel activity on the rise. Thankfully, Stephen Harper and others are there to defend Israel.
The organization’s new knavery: cutting US military aid to coerce Israel into withdrawals. J Street is now less protective of Israeli security than Obama was.
The IDF must return to the fundamentals: ground maneuver to achieve “hachra’a” – decisive outcomes.
An unconventional theological-strategic thought: When Israel is strong socially and spiritually it earns the respect of friends and successfully deters its foes (and draws the support of the Heavens). On the link between Israel’s national security and its national decency.
A pre-Rosh Hashana political quiz: Calculate what Israeli and Jewish future you need to be prepared for in 5780…
Freedom of and from religion is what we’ll get if a defiantly secular, left-of-center Israeli government is formed later this fall, comprising Blue & White, Israel Beytenu, Labor-Gesher, the Democratic Union and the United Arab List. Just imagine…
Incitement against religious Jews and religious parties disfigures this election campaign. It’s hunting season on Jewish tradition, the traditional Jewish family, Jewish scholarship, displays of religious belief, the Rabbinate, rabbinical courts, Shabbat legislation, even religious cultural events.
With 18 days to go, I say that Israelis deserve better than the empty invective and detached sloganeering served-up by its politicians in this election campaign.
Disregard feral, foul and false talk that slanders Israel. Israeli democracy is not “shattering” nor are we facing the “darkest days Israel has known.” These are venal, absurd claims – spewed from the mouths of desperate politicos on the extremist fringe.
For the eve of Tisha Be’Av: Isn’t it time to re-energize our national spirit with a measure of historical perspective, and our societal morals with some fine-tuned lessons from Jewish tradition?
Danger ahead: There are signs that President Trump is getting ready to ease the pressures on Iran and bargain for a new nuclear deal: A US-Iran “deal of the century.” This could be knottier and more nebulous than valuable. My fear is twofold: that Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign will be cut short before Iran’s leaders truly have no choice but to capitulate to Western demands, and that the Iranians will bamboozle the West into another bad deal.
Dr. Henry Kissinger remains one of the greatest practitioners of modern foreign policy and strategic affairs; a towering intellectual thinker; an architect of global stability and Mideast peacemaking; and yes – he was friend of Israel when in office and he is today too. (He did NOT purposefully delay US resupply of Israel with arms during the Yom Kippur war).
His violent discourse disqualifies him from leading this country again, not to mention his pillaging of Jerusalem.
At the core of the Trump peace initiatives is creative chaos; replacing hoary assumptions with new bridges and highways – literally and figuratively.
Keep the settlement issue in proportion. Settlements are not the bane of local or world peace nor necessarily an obstacle to peace. They neither explain Palestinian unwillingness to make peace with Israel nor are they the cause of traffic jams in Tel Aviv. Everybody should stop using them as a thinly veiled smokescreen for a great deal of anti-Israel sentiment.
Even an interim Israeli government can clean-up the city, stop dithering on construction, rebuff deleterious foreign pressures, and invest in all sectors of Israel’s national capital. It can reestablish forward Zionist momentum – for the greater good of both Arab and Jewish residents, and to secure the national goal of a united, livable and luminous Jerusalem.
Avigdor Liberman cynical use of the haredi draft issue to torment Netanyahu has nauseatingly forced Israel into another utterly unnecessary election campaign; a campaign that means months more of deadlock in government policymaking and tons of hateful election rhetoric and divisiveness.
A new national security plan for the Israeli government by fellows of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) says: Avoid risky diplomatic escapades and prepare for war.
Reasonable disagreements are degenerating into demonization and double standards applied against the prime minister.
The drafting or exemption of haredi men from military service is back as the super-stumbling block before Netanyahu’s new government. Here are two possible solutions...
It should be said plainly: The core cause behind Netanyahu’s fifth electoral win is contempt for the failed Oslo Accords and the disastrous Gaza disengagement.
Trump’s landmark Golan decision asserts the law of diminishing returns: Arabs who refuse to make peace with Israel lose rights and assets as time goes forward. Mahmoud Abbas: Take notice.
Israel must administer Area C effectively and with much more authority, whether it wishes to either hold the territory as an effective card for future bargaining or it intends to annex the lands to Israel.
I doubt there is much to be worried about. It is inconceivable that the Trump plan will parrot the stale Clinton/Obama parameters of yesteryear or force any “peace paradigm” on Israel. Not when Iran is on an imperial march and the Palestinians are mired neck-deep in denialism, rejectionism, terrorism and corruption. Any movement away from antiquated formulas, obsolete paradigms, and hoary solutions – most of which have been based in maximalist Palestinian demands deemed “holy” by the so-called international community – would be a huge achievement.
Radical Islamic groups, foreign actors, and Palestinian authorities have stepped-up their subversion of Israeli sovereignty in eastern Jerusalem. These assaults on Israeli sovereignty in united Jerusalem must be met by an Israeli counter-assault. Mainly this means intensive civilian investment in the eastern part of the city.
Lt. Gen. Gantz seems to be suggesting unilateral Israeli withdrawals and another disengagement. This is both frightening and clarifying.
Arens upheld the policy principal that Israel must always retaliate for attacks on its soil. He wasn’t prepared to bend to US diplomatic or defense pressures when Zionist fundamentals were at stake.
Some hard-left Jews are out to sabotage the Birthright program. They are cutting away the limb – love for, and identification with, Israel – upon which all pro-Israel Jewish community activity must be based. J Street has become a hostile hobgoblin. Its campus arm, J Street U, has become a primary vehicle for conveying the most poisonous messages against Israel to students, and the sapping of support for Israel at American universities.
Netanyahu has managed to stave off elections for now. He should use the time to restore Israeli deterrence, build in strategic areas, improve civil defense readiness, expel hostile U.N. agencies, and make diplomatic gains. Eight policy initiatives for Netanyahu over the coming half-year.
I dare you to answer these 15 questions about Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas in Gaza without cracking a bitter smile and heaving a sigh of cynical disbelief.
It is a big mistake on the part of some US Jews to politicize the fight against anti-Semitism. Keep partisan politics out of it! Israeli and Diaspora Jews should band together to draw strength from solidarity, jointly combat hate, and raise the flag of unafraid and vibrant Jewish life everywhere.
Unilateral Israeli withdrawals will not enhance Israeli security nor improve Israel’s international position and moral standing; and it will rip Israeli society apart. And as the Lebanon and Gaza precedents proved, unilateral Israeli withdrawals only guarantee continuation of the conflict and even its escalation.
Reducing enemy capabilities and ambitions in Gaza requires Israeli military readiness and government willingness to use force intermittently, while maintaining a healthy and resilient Israeli home front….Perhaps the Egyptian mediators might yet broker a deal for quiet, but if Hamas doesn’t back down fast – Israel is ready for a fierce campaign involving pinpoint commando operations and targeted assassinations. The IDF can pounce with crushing blows, without conducting a full-scale ground invasion.
Seven special guests – modern leaders – who underscore Israel’s successes. An upbeat strategic assessment for Succot.
A roundup of recent deep-think articles on American Jewry, Haredi bourgeoise, Iranian challenges, and American populism.
Israel is a grand historic reunion of people and land, and a just and moral actor in the medieval and violent Arab Middle East! Palestinian fantasies such as the so-called ‘right’ of return only encourage absolutist demands and obstructionism.
Red or white, support blue and white. Make a brocha and enjoy!
Israeli democracy has strong institutions and foundations, and there are reasonable points of view on all sides of the current debates. Don’t paint every political issue as an apocalyptic turning point.
Had a 100-kilogram rampart stone fallen into the Mount where Moslems gather or pray – Israel would be excoriated, even though Wakf digging may be to blame.
The drive to pass the Jewish nation-state law and the growing appeal of sophisticated Bible study stem from a similar profound place: a desire to entrench our roots in this land.
Why is the law necessary? In short: The delicate balance between Israel’s Jewish and democratic characters has been upset over the past 25 years by the Israeli Supreme Court. Former Chief Justice Aharon Barak and his ultra-liberal successors have dramatically diluted the Jewish dimension of the Jewish-and-democratic equilibrium. Time for a reset.
Israel should be defending itself against Erdogan by blocking his Jerusalem incursion, and taking the offensive against Erdogan by impeding his military build-up.
A final conversation that I was privileged to have with the greatest columnist of this generation, who passed away last night – about Zionist belief and the eternity of Israel.
On Israel-Diaspora “distancing”: Nothing short of a deep commitment to traditional Jewish ritual practice is likely to lead to a revitalization of Jewish life in America and subsequently create a solid basis for recovery in Diaspora-Israel relations.
The deep “psychological asymmetry” employed by Hamas and Fatah as a strategic weapon against Israel is working. How to handle this? Here are five strategies, including this: Don’t be embarrassed by Israel’s strength. Admit to it. Flaunt it. Better shock-and-awe than shrink-and-whimper.
It is maddening to see Western leaders – with the notable exception of America's and Australia's– succumb with equanimity to Hamas’ obvious criminal 'stuntsmanship' on the Gaza border. What is Western support for “Israel’s right to exist within secure and recognized borders” worth if those borders cannot be defended?
The JCPOA was based on Western charity for Iranian lies. After Israel’s intelligence coup, the question is: Will JCPOA boosters continue to deny reality and accuse Israel of being alarmist? Will they continue to pretend they didn’t know, and to accept Iran’s naked denials?
An ideologically bankrupt A.B. Yehoshua wants to replace the Jewish state with an Israeli-Palestinian federation, the inevitable result of a loss of Jewish-Zionist identity and demoralization that began with the Oslo Accords. Having despaired of the “two-state solution,” he is now dumping the idea of Israel all-together
Nobody in the world has the right to criticize Israel’s defensive actions on the Gaza border, even if Israel had used significant force against the Hamas mobs – which it didn’t
The State of Israel’s identification with Jewish nationhood is under attack from large parts of the international community, and from Israeli Arabs, Palestinians, post-Zionist Jews, and anti-Jewish Jews. The “Jewish” side of the formulation “a Jewish and democratic state” is under internal assault as well.
Two momentous speeches in the Knesset plenum – by Canadian prime minister Harper four years ago and US vice president Pence this week – may have transformed the course of history. They offer moral and spiritual leadership for the world.
Wise and important actors around the world are coming to the conclusion that Israel is an anchor of sanity and a source of ingenuity in an unruly world and are willing to develop new partnerships with the start-up nation.
My diplomatic-political forecast for 2018: No war and no election in Israel, no division of Jerusalem, and no European support for Iranian protesters. I hope to see steps toward Arab-Israeli peace, and to see Saudi women driving – all the way to Israel.
After recognizing Jerusalem, America’s next move should be banishing the EU from regional diplomacy.
June 19, 2026 
