יום שבת, י״א אב תשפ״וSaturday, July 25, 2026
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Over the years, in several of my columns in The Jewish Press, I have examined the critical bases of Israeli nuclear deterrence. Recently, in consequence of the growing threat of Iranian nuclearization, increasing attention has been directed toward pertinent issues of enemy rationality. With this in mind, the following three-part column will seek to explain the impact of "irrationality" on Israel's deterrence posture, and also the vital differences between prospective Iranian irrationality and "madness."
By Mike Cohen
We Jews are an extremely tight knit family. Families fight and argue, yell and scream, rant and rave – especially when things are stable. But push a family into the corner, or provide it with reason for celebration – and, usually, family members they will come together in profound and extreme ways.
Seven men – including 4 rabbis - happened upon by an Israeli paratrooper in a closed military zone on the Hermon mountains on Monday, were on a mission of their own – to safeguard the sanctity of the Jews of the city of Metulla.
By Yoel Meltzer
For anyone who is sick of the lies and hypocrisy - be it in Israel or the world - and really wants to work for change, it's not enough to simply stand on the street corner and shout the truth. How something is said or how someone looks while performing an act frequently has more impact than anything else in the eyes and ears of the viewer.
Aryeh Avner, Chairman of the Ometz (Citizens for Proper Administration and Social and Judicial Justice) movement has complained to Israel's Defense Minister Ehud barak that "According to information reaching the Ometz movement, there has been an increase in the phenomenon where IDF soldiers are forced to listen to talks by rabbis on religious matters."
AP reports that the Iranian army is prepared for a military confrontation with the United Arab Emirates should diplomacy over a disputed gulf island fail. "We do not allow any country to carry out an invasion," ground forces commander Gen. Ahmad Reza Pourdastan told Iranian state television. "If these disturbances are not solved through diplomacy, […]
It is time to look behind the news. Operation Iraqi Freedom is officially concluded; U.S. operations in Afghanistan are reportedly moving in a similar direction. More generically, however, debate about combat operations, strategy and tactics remains ongoing.
Vaknin has been a Knesset member representing the ultra-orthodox Shas party since the beginning of Prime Minister Netanyahu's first term in 1996. Considered a maverick, he distinguished himself in his party by holding that the thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who don't learn in Yeshiva but are registered as such should be forced to serve in the military.
The National Union went on the road this week, despite the Knesset's recess. Faction members visited Naot Kedumim and pledged to increase awareness of the Biblical landscape reserve. They also visited Ateret, where they were shocked to see a new access road being built by Arabs in Area C, an area under Israeli civilian and military control.
Hundreds of activists who had arrived to celebrate the Mimouna applauded the MKs announcements that there was no other option for their two factions but to run a united list in the next Knesset elections. MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzele) repeated his earlier announcement that if the two factions do not run as one, he would remove himself from the campaign.
In strategy and law, war, terrorism and genocide are not mutually exclusive. Now, following the “Arab Spring,” even as the usual suspects maintain their explicitly genocidal threats against Israel, certain “progressive” Jews proudly lead various rallies and publications for "peace” and “democracy” in the Middle East. Such “progress,” we might learn from Roman Polanski’s film “The Pianist,” could only be fashioned upon yet another generation of Jewish corpses.
Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said the rocket fire that hit the city of Eilat Wednesday night was "an extremely severe act of hostility." Head of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Kochavi confirmed that "more than ten terror bases in Sinai were revealed and dismantled over the past few months." After the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s, the rule of law has collapsed in much of Sinai, leaving a vacuum where Islamist militant groups are thriving.
On the surface, “The Pianist” is “merely” the true tale of a talented Jewish musician, Wladyslaw Szpilman, caught up in the unfathomable depths of Nazi occupation and terror. More profoundly, of course, it is a disturbing visual microcosm of the generic human struggle between good and evil, a titanic contest that is sometimes utterly clear but at other times distressingly “gray."
By Tibbi Singer
As of Thursday, the Military Rabbinate will render all IDF bases kosher for the Jewish holiday of Passover. After weeks of heavy-duty spring cleaning, soldiers across the IDF will be joined in the field by military rabbis who will certify the bases and assist if need be. By the end of the day, with the mission accomplished, the IDF will be declared Kosher for Passover.
By Jason Maoz
The media wolves were in full feeding frenzy ten years ago this month as Israel, after dozens of Palestinian suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks, mounted its largest military operation in the West Bank in decades.
Last week, a Foreign Policy article by Mark Perry shows American military intelligence officials and diplomats being snide, cutting, and condescending – both toward Israel and toward Azerbaijan, a country that sits on Iran's border and has its own serious problems with the Iranian style of radicalism exported to it.
The drill, called "Noble Dina", will continue through April 5, and will also include the U.S. Sixth Fleet. It is aimed at simulating submarine combat, airborne dogfights, as well as coordinating the defense of offshore natural gas platforms.
President Obama continues to favor the creation of a "nuclear weapons-free world." This explicit preference is more than naive; it is also undesirable in principle. For Israel, in particular, Obama's solution could likely open the doors to unendurable enemy aggressions. However unintended, therefore, it could become an utterly Final Solution.
It is impossible to rely on defense alone, because Israel simply isn’t big enough to absorb the damage when the defensive systems are not 100% effective. More importantly, a strictly defensive posture has zero deterrent ability. Why not fire rockets at Israel if the worst that can happen is that they will get shot down?
It would be unreasonable for Israel to draw any comfort from an argument that Iranian intentions are effectively harmless. Rather, such intentions could impact capabilities decisively over time. Backed by appropriate nuclear weapons, preemption options must somehow remain open and viable to Israel, augmented, of course, by appropriate and complementary plans for cyber-defense and cyber-warfare.
It would appear to be ironic that when it comes to Iran, so-called "doves" favor a mutually assured destruction policy that threatens the deaths of millions over a preventive policy that targets military nuclear facilities. But it is not at all ironic, since such doves would be against actually carrying out the threat that is central to any credible policy of deterrence. For them, deterrence is a bluff—a hollow threat and the Iranians would see right through it.
In an interview in Ankara, Turkey, published by the Anatolia news agency on Monday, Political Bureau Chairman of Hamas Khaled Mishaal accused Israel of using the Gaza Strip as a "guinea pig" for testing its military capabilities before attacking Iran.
If Syria and Egypt have nothing to fear from the President of the United States, what will Iran fear?
The IDF Spokesperson's Office reports that IDF soldiers patrolling along the Israel-Egypt border Thursday night identified a group of suspects who had infiltrated into Israel. The soldiers called on the suspects to stop, and when they failed to comply, the soldiers acted in accordance with the Army's rules of engagement. Simultaneously, shots were fired from […]
The threat and the ominous effects of an air attack against Iran is the pull and tug of sovereignty versus suzerainty. Is Israel an independent nation free of American influence? Does the president of the U.S. have a veto over Israeli military actions? Or is Israel free of outside influences, a state enjoined by what it believes to be its self interest?
For forty years I have studied the stunningly complex problem of enemy rationality, especially in certain earlier published writings concerning the particular nuclear threat from Iran.
Russian diplomat: 'The invasion will happen before year’s end. The Israelis are in effect blackmailing Obama. They’ve put him in this interesting position - either he supports the war or loses the support of the Jewish lobby.'
In response to the question of whether they would back US military action if it meant an increase in gasoline prices, a majority -53%- still expressed support for military action, while 42% said they would not.
By Rafi Harkham and Ariel Harkham
The Iron Dome is another, hi-tech manifestation of the siege mentality that guides Israel's cultural and political narrative. From media to academia to politics, Israel’s celebration of this so-called “strategic” weapon system - that neither neutralizes its threats nor enhances Israel's geo-political position – is an indictment of the degree to which Israel has accepted this siege mentality, and of its resignation to a permanent defensive posture.
Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said on Sunday that the US should premise its policy on Iran on the assumption that it is actively seeking to produce nuclear weapons. "I am very uneasy with the so-called intelligence report that say we don't know whether they are actually working on nuclear weapons," Kissinger said […]
Drew Zahn of World News Daily reports that Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr., R-N.C., has introduced a resolution declaring that the president's use of offensive military force without Congressional authorization would be considered "an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor." Jones cites Obama's authorization of military force in Libya as an example for such unilateral action. […]
Can there be successful athletes among the settlers in Judea and Samaria? Recent achievements show that the answer is yes! A very small geographic area has produced four international champions.
The military's latest estimate is that the rocket fire will continue in the coming days, and fears that the rockets' range will expand to the Tel Aviv area as well.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the National Journal on Thursday: "If they (Israel) decided to do it, there's no question that it would have an impact, but I think it's also clear that if the United States did it, we would have a hell of a bigger impact." President Obama and US officials have been […]
PM David Cameron: "I don’t believe that an Iranian nuclear weapon is just a threat to Israel...Not least because there are signs that the Iranians want to have some sort of intercontinental missile capability. So we have to be clear this is potentially a threat much more widely."
By Rafi Harkham
Anonymous diplomatic and intelligence sources tell Israeli paper that the Obama administration would supply Israel with weapons that would extend its time-line for military action – like advanced GBU-28 bunker-busting bombs and long-range refueling aircraft, so that Israel could wait till after the 2012 presidential election to launch a strike.
Al Ahram reports that a women's demonstration has been planned for Thursday to coincide with International Women’s Day, in downtown Cairo. Organizers are expected to provide parliamentary leaders with 100 suggested names of prominent female Egyptian figures for inclusion in a constituent assembly that will be mandated with drawing up a new constitution. Despite the […]
As only a distinctly last resort, Israel needs nuclear weapons for nuclear war fighting.
While the personal relationship between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu thankfully seems to have taken a turn for the better, and on several issues they had a meeting of the minds – it seemed almost like a minuet – there is no escaping the reality that sharp policy differences remain on some fundamental issues.
Berlin-based researcher Benjamin Weinthal argues that Israel is militarily capable today of launching a successful attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. It would require successive strikes, using GBU-28 bunker busters to knock out Iran's entire nuclear program. Those devastating bombs were delivered to Israel by President Obama, who made good on a promise made by President Bush.
For those who have claimed that Obama is anti-Israel and/or weak on Iran, his forceful statements in a recent interview should make them reconsider. I was not surprised by President Obama's strong words, because he said similar things to me in private conversation. And I, for one, am satisfied with the President's words. Now I want to hear them repeated by Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, by Joint Chief of Staff Martin Dempsey and by others in the Obama Administration.
By Rafi Harkham
The New York Times quoted a former senior Israeli official as saying that the Iranian retaliation against an Israeli military strike would be the functional equivalent of Iraq's scud missile attack on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, the 3000+ Hizbollah rockets fired on Israel during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and the terror attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Buenos Aires in the early 1990s, multiplied in scale at least three times.
US President Barack Obama's sentiments notwithstanding, nuclear arms are not per se destabilizing or "warmongering." They are not necessarily anti-peace. Rather, in certain identifiably volatile circumstances, nuclear weapons can actually be indispensable to the avoidance of catastrophic war.
We are now more than ten years into America's invasion of Afghanistan, which was designed to rout the Taliban who had harbored Al Qaeda. The fighting has resulted in thousands of American and NATO deaths and casualties as well as billions of dollars spent. It would appear, however, that little has been accomplished in terms of American goals, with the Taliban still a formidable military and popular force in the country.
Israel Defense reports that Eurospike, a subsidiary of weapons manufacturer Rafael, has signed a contract to supply Spike missiles totaling hundreds of millions of dollars to Germany.
The Syrian military continues to pound opposition strongholds as voting stations opened around the country to decide on a new constitution.
By Ted Belman
The Obama administration needs to lead the world in providing direct aid to the Syrian people to stop the genocide in Syria
As atomic energy watchdogs reported being denied access to critical Iranian nuclear facilities, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told reporters that Israel alone would make the decisions necessary for the security of its citizens.
In the strict Islamic view, not merely in the more narrowly Jihadi or Islamist perspectives, Israel must be seen as the individual Jew in macrocosm. The Jewish state must be despised on account of this relationship – that is, because of the allegedly “innate evil” of each individual Jew.
By Rafi Harkham
The Knesset has quickly assumed a proactive role in filling the void left by the the Israeli High Court's decision to annul the Tal Law. Two bills pertaining to mandatory service were already debated and voted upon today, Opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni continued to blast the low enlistment rate of the Haredi population, and FM Avigdor Lieberman pledged to propose more legislation on the matter in the future.
It seems like only yesterday that the Obama administration missed no opportunity to declare its solidarity with Israel regarding the threat of a nuclear Iran.
Obama administration officials and US Congressman have suggested that the $2 billion in yearly military and economic aid to Egypt has been jeopardized by the Egyptian government's clampdown and prosecution of pro-democracy groups and individuals.
International law is not a suicide pact. Indisputably, Israel has a peremptory right to remain alive. It was entirely proper for Netanyahu to have previously opposed a Palestinian state in any form. Both Fatah and Hamas still see all of Israel as part of "Palestine."
Read the first five books of the Bible and the Book of Joshua. In them, God clearly specified what was expected of Israel: obedience, righteousness and faith being the gist of it. God blessed Israel when it obeyed, and when Israel faltered, God unleashed abundant wrath.
Jorge Luis Borges, the very special Argentine writer and philosopher, sometimes identified himself as a Jew. Although lacking any apparent basis in halacha, he clearly felt himself to be a kindred spirit: “Many a time I think of myself as a Jew,” he is quoted in Willis Barnstone’s, Borges at Eighty: Conversations (1982), “but I wonder whether I have the right to think so. It may be wishful thinking.”
While thousands of U.S. soldiers recently returned home from the Middle East, their redeployment to the area may be imminent due to the ongoing developments on the Iranian nuclear front.
Many of us continue to be apprehensive about what the Middle East policy of a reelected President Obama would look like. Though Mr. Obama continues to insist that U.S. support for the security of Israel is "unshakable," his turnaround on pressing Israel on the 1967 lines and settlement growth, while welcome, was unnerving. Not only did it occur at the outset of the presidential campaign season, it was also uncommonly abrupt.
Remarks come at the launch of political reform movement "Yesh Sicui"
Report cites two senior administration officials who say the Pentagon and the US Central Command are performing the review.
Lapid: "By the 31st of July . . . behind our backs, as always, they will extend the Tal Law again."
Efraim Halevy served as Mossad's chief from 1998-2002.
Obama describes the cooperation between the US and Israel as unprecedented
“Everything in this world exudes crime,” says Baudelaire, “the newspapers, the walls, and the face of man.” But this “face” does not belong solely to what classic seventeenth-century international law scholar Hugo Grotius called “men of deplorable wickedness.”
A team of UN Nuclear experts will return to Iran for the talks on February 21.
Former IDF Chief of Staff makes comments at Herzliya Conference.
Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi: "When Khamenei gives the order to produce the first nuclear weapon – it will be done, we believe, within one year."
Western and Arab efforts to pass forceful Security Council resolution hampered by Russia.
Three-day visit by IAEA nuclear experts was scheduled to end on January 31.
General Martin Dempsey acknowledged that US and Israel see the threat differently.
Gabi Ashkenazi says that Israel must 'keep a viable military option on the table.'
Everyone who has taught international law, or written about it, knows that the idea of crisis in actually inherent in the subject. More than anything else, this crisis, this continuing or protracted dilemma, is one of efficacy, of effectiveness.
Given its context, the recent declaration of the mufti of Jerusalem that it is Muslim destiny to destroy the Jewish people cannot be dismissed as the primitive rant of a crackpot cleric.
By Sara Lehmann
New York’s 9th Congressional District will forever be remembered not only for the departure of disgraced veteran Congressman Anthony Weiner but also for who replaced him. Bob Turner’s victory marked the first Republican win in that district since 1923, and his September 2011 election stunned the Democratic Party.
Russia opposes sanctions and military intervention against Syrian regime.
By Sam Ser
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz are reported to be locked in a disagreement over the appointment of the next air force commander, with some suggesting a possible strike on Iranian nuclear facilities as the source of the divide.
The following article by Professor Beres and Colonel (Israel Defense Forces) Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto was originally published in the April 18, 2007 issue of The Jewish Press. Its warnings and predictions concerning a nuclear Iran have been proven unassailable.
Russia says it will veto any UN authorization of military force against Assad regime.
Yukiya Amano makes comments in interview with Financial Times Deutschland.
Bolton: "The world's central banker of terrorism will very soon become a nuclear weapons state."
The much-publicized joint defense drill planned between Israel and the United States has been postponed in the wake of quickly escalating tensions between the two countries and Iran.
"Austere Challenge" was to be largest-ever anti-missile joint military exercise between Israel and United States.
Obama fears Israel will strike Iranian nuclear facilities.
NATO ambassador: military action against Iran "direct threat" to Russia.
By Sam Ser
Syrian authorities have ignored the mission's requests to take steps such as removing weapons and military personnel from mosques in cities where protests have taken place, and the casualty rate in the army’s response to the protests has actually increased since the monitors began their work three weeks ago.
Former Head of Russian Intelligence speaks of possible Western military intervention.
According to ancient Jewish tradition, one that certain Talmudists trace back to the time of Isaiah, the world rests upon thirty-six just men, the Lamed-Vav tzaddikim.
We do not mean to denigrate the impressive military support and cooperation the Obama administration has directed toward Israel.
Ehud Barak and Dimitris Avramopoulos pledge to deepen bilateral ties.
Israel is weighing options against Iran with the help of Britain's Institute for National Security Studies.
IDF soldiers arrest four Palestinians, armed with pipe bombs, pistol, and a knife, at Salem Crossing near Jenin.
Five activists suspected of involvement in the attack on the IDF's Ephraim Division military base last month indicted in Jerusalem District Court.
The Israeli military will take part in a major missile defense drill in partnership with the United States, following a 10-day Iranian naval exercise near the Strait of Hormuz. The Israel-US Drill is called “Austere Challenge 12”, and will work to improve defense systems. No date has been announced. On Wednesday, Iran announced that the […]
It is hard to make much sense out of the recent military threats Iran has been aiming at the West and the U.S. in particular.
Asara B’Teves, the 10th of Teves, commemorates the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar that ultimately culminated with the First Temple’s destruction on the 9th of Av the following year.
July 24, 2026 
