Archive for the ‘Israel’ Category

Violence in Jerusalem Part III

 At the first, second, twentieth or maybe even the fiftieth glance, the current outbreak of Palestinian violence appears to be yet another repeat of an old scenario. However, a closer look indicates that there have been many changes to the old script. These modifications appear to be so significant that, if they remain unaltered, they […]

Violence in Jerusalem, Part II

The recent outbreak of violence in Jerusalem and elsewhere has many causes. Unfortunately, there are few politically-viable remedies for those causes that are readily available. Worse still, the few governmental decisions that could ameliorate some of the sources of the violence have been reduced in number because, over the past two decades, the very nature […]

A Critical Issue About the Iran Agreement That Has Never Been Discussed

In mid-August, I wrote a short article laying out what I thought were some genuine concerns that people should have about the recent agreement with Iran.   Normally, I would have posted the article on my blog. However, because I believed that the subject matter should be discussed urgently by a broad public, I chose […]

The Chasm Separating Israel From Europe and American Diaspora Jewry

I don’t normally like to talk about my health. But, this time, I must make an exception. You see, I’ve been getting a very sore neck lately because, after reading so many of the current news stories in print and watching videos of so many of those same news stories on television, I have been […]

Israel in the Wake of the New Coalition Government

I have long held that, with the notable exception of a very few types of natural disaster, events don’t just happen by themselves. They are invariably the product of processes that have been underway for a long time.   Several processes, which have been underway both within Israel and outside it, have now combined to […]

Space in the Middle East

Last time, I noted with great sympathy that most people have become totally confused about the events taking place in the Middle East. Since then, that confusion has risen to unprecedented levels…not least because US jets bombed the Iraqi city of Tikrit in order to aid the Iranian-supported Shiite militias doing battle there while, at […]

A Guide to the Perplexed: Middle Eastern Time

There is an ancient Chinese curse that goes: “May you live in interesting times.”   Based on the flood of news that we have been witnessing in recent months, it would appear as though those who have cursed us have been working overtime. We have been inundated by so much news and so much spin […]

The Impact of the Likud Election Victory on the Israeli Political Landscape

Two weeks ago, I noted that the real election was between those who sought to revitalize Israel’s tattered social contract, and those who supported the current political system. I said that under the current system, the country is ruled by a federation of sectoral micro-sovereignties whose primary concern is to further their own narrow interests—even […]

What The Israeli Election Is Really All About

After more than a hundred days of largely uninspiring, uninformative, useless twaddle, and the commitment of more than 2.3 billion shekels that could have been far more usefully employed, one cannot but come to at least one irrefutable conclusion: Once all the ballots cast in this election have been counted, not one of Israel’s political […]

The Success or Failure of the Peace Talks is not Contingent on the Outcome of the Current Election Campaign

I have been studying Israel and the Middle East and Israel in detail for almost fifty years, and I have come to one irrefutable conclusion. Modern Israel has produced almost as much as and maybe even more mythology than did ancient Greece.   In most places, myths are used to try to explain things that […]