Op-eds

The Severe Political Storm in Israel

On 26 April, Israel celebrated the 75th anniversary of its establishment as an independent state. The national mood, however, is acerbic and tense rather than celebratory, and the public is more divided than ever…. 
Strategic Comments V29, April 2023

Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs

A House Divided Cannot Stand

Throughout my entire life, love for Israel has been a primary motivating factor, a personal passion, and the focus of my career. I was blessed to have been born some years after Israel’s miraculous rebirth…Read More
April 11, 2023

Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas: Israel Now Faces the Perfect Storm of a Multi-front War

In just three months, Israel’s government of national lunacy has eroded its international standing, its domestic coherence and its national security. And our genocidal enemies are watching our self-inflicted disarray with glee… Read More
April 9, 2023

A House Divided Will Not Stand

Israel is convulsed by self-inflicted divisions that are wracking its society and economy, undermining its democracy and threatening irs national security… Read More

March 26, 2023

INSS

Israel-US Relations: Nothing Lasts Forever

After a disconnect of around two months, President  Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the White House’s statement, the President addressed the two main issues that are now of concern to the administration… Read More

March 23, 2023

What would the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander say?

To: President Raisi. Top-secret, for your eyes only. Urgent. From: Hossein Salami, Commander, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. Praise Allah, the end of the Zionist entity, “Israel,” is at hand...Read More
March 12, 2023

Israel Still Should Not Provide Weapons to Ukraine

The first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an appropriate time to assess Israel’s policies toward it, chiefly its refusal to sell weapons to Ukraine. The need for this assessment is particularly acute given the close strategic relationship… Read More
March 4, 2023

In Israel’s Current Crisis, AIPAC Is Vital and J Street Is Dangerou

No matter how well-meaning they are and how objectionable they find Netanyahu’s coalition, U.S. Jews should not lobby U.S. politicians against Israel’s democratically elected government… Read More
February 9, 2023

For the Glory of Netanyahu: Israel Will Become an Illiberal Democracy

Israel will become a kleptocracy, in which the never-ending array of public figures convicted, or under investigation, for corruption and malfeasance, become the norm. Under the guise of reform, Israel will become an illiberal democracy, akin to Turkey or… Read More 

January 18, 2023

For Netanyahu, Israel’s Democracy Is Just Collateral Damage

Netanyahu, his justice minister and his far-right allies are conducting a demolition derby of Israel’s state institutions and its foreign relations. An illiberal future beckons – as does The Hague, and lethal conflict within and across Israel’s borders…Read More
January 16, 2023

Military Aid to Israel Must Remain Unconditional

Israel never promised the Diaspora a Jewish Disneyland, or a rose garden, and the level of knowledge most American Jews have of Israel’s complex society and security is embarrassingly superficial… Read More

December 14, 2022

Israel’s New Coalition Is Unlike Anything You’ve Seen Before

Israel is entering one of the most perilous periods in its history. Forget about hawks vs. doves: From relations with the U.S. to rampaging settlers, from a crisis in the IDF to Hezbollah, Netanyahu has put us in uncharted water…Read More
December 12, 2022

Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs

Facing An Uncertain Future: Post Election Israel

Israel has a new, ultra-hardline government. The Likud itself, the most moderate component in the new coalition, has pivoted in this direction as well. The moderating forces of the past, are no longer there…Read More
v.16 Winter 2022

Israel’s New Coalition Is Unlike Anything You’ve Seen Before

Israel is entering one of the most perilous periods in its history. Forget about hawks vs. doves: From relations with the U.S. to rampaging settlers, from a crisis in the IDF to Hezbollah, Netanyahu has put us in uncharted water…Read More
December 12, 2022

Israel’s New Government and the Implications for Israeli Foreign Policy

The most far-right government in Israel’s history will soon take office. Unlike most Israeli coalitions, the new one appears likely to live out most, if not all, of its four-year mandate… Read More
Strategic Comments V28, November 2022

Why Israel Must Learn to Live Without Massive American Military Aid

Military assistance has been the holy grail of the ‘special relationship’ between the U.S. and Israel. But as those billions of dollars become increasingly controversial, Israel needs to think differently about working with its closest strategic partner…Read More
October 12, 2022

A Two-State Solution Is Israel’s Only Option

Given the urgent need for a two-state settlement, Israel should pursue a revitalized peace process by building off the Abraham Accords…. Read More
October 10, 2022

Ignore Bibi’s Bluster: Israel Must Back Biden on Iran Deal

Israel can’t take on Iran alone. After the catastrophic Trump-Netanyahu exit from the nuclear deal, Israel’s leaders should park the tedious rhetoric and work urgently, and as closely as possible, with the Biden administration…Read More
August 30, 2022

17 Years Later: Did Israel’s Gaza Withdrawal Aid Peace?

Seventeen years ago this week, Israel withdrew from Gaza and dismantled the seventeen settlements that existed there. To demonstrate that it was prepared to go ahead on the West Bank as well, Israel dismantled four settlements there, too… Read More
August 13, 2022

Next Time Israel Fights Gaza, It Could Face a Nuclear Iran

How Israel responds to military pressure from the Palestinian enclave – and from Hezbollah – would be radically different if their patron Iran crosses the nuclear threshold…Read More
August 9, 2022

Netanyahu’s Nihilistic, All-out War on Israel

We dodged a bullet at the last elections. But if Netanyahu wins in November, Israel would be led by the most radical, darkest forces in its history…Read More
July 6, 2022

55 Years Later: How the Six-Day War Forever Changed Israel

Few are familiar today with the strategic circumstances and dramatic crisis atmosphere that surrounded the war’s outbreak. In fact, the war was a turning point in the entire history of the Arab-Israeli conflict…. Read More
June 5, 2022

How Israel Squandered Its Dramatic Victory in the Six-Day War

In June 1967, when the Six-Day War broke out, Israel had just turned 19, a plucky young state still living in the immediate shadow of the Holocaust. Israel was surrounded by enemy states avowed to its destruction…Read More
June 2, 2022

Israel Is Hardly ‘Indifferent’ on Ukraine

The burden of Jewish history means that Israel can and should do more to assist Ukraine, but like all states, its foremost moral commitment must be to its own security… Read More
May 12, 2022

Stop Abusing the Holocaust. Israel Is Doing Everything It Can for Ukraine

As I write, air raid sirens have just sounded their somber, eerie annual wail throughout Israel in memory of the six million. That so much of the Holocaust took place in Ukraine made this year’s Remembrance Day particularly poignant. … Read More
May 1, 2022

IRGC Terror Designation Should Not Prevent Iran Nuclear Deal

A nuclear deal with Iran is critical to Israel’s national security. A lifting of the US designation of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group, the primary outstanding obstacle to a renewed deal, is a symbolic issue that should not be allowed to get in the way… Read More
April 29, 2022

Israel’s Spyware Sector Will Survive the NSO Pegasus Scandal

The international trade in digital surveillance tools  has long been controversial, particularly their sale to repressive governments that have allegedly used them to target dissidents and journalists… Read More
April 26, 2022

This Is Israel’s Only Way to Stop Iran’s Nuclear Missiles

Opponents of a renewed nuclear agreement with Iran may have found the dealbreaker they long sought. The US  has apparently decided to reject Tehran’s demand that it remove the Revolutionary Guards from the “terrorist list”… Read More
April 18, 2022

What Israel Can Do for Ukraine – and What It Can’t

Israel faces growing pressure to take a more explicitly pro-Ukrainian position, but it fears angering Russia. On Iron Dome, mediation, field hospitals and cold hard reality, this is what Israel can actually offer Ukraine Read More
March 6, 2022

On Iran, Israel Must Not Stand Alone

Israel has no greater friend than the United States. Indeed, few great powers have ever demonstrated a deeper commitment to the security and well-being of a small regional ally. In a nuclear crisis with Iran, the United States would have Israel’s back. Probably… Read More
February 4, 2022

For Russia and Iran, the Ukraine Crisis Is Already a Success. For Israel, It’s Bad News.

The Ukraine crisis is a no-win situation for Israel, caught between America and Russia. But the impact of the crisis on Israel’s national security goes far further – taking in Iran, the Gulf and China… Read More
February 3, 2022

It’s un-Jewish to Be Too Optimistic. But in Israel, There’s Now Faint Cause for Hope

This time last year, Israel faced a nearly perfect storm. Netanyahu’s no-holds barred attempts to remain in office, at virtually all costs, had shaken the very foundations of Israeli democracy. The economy was in a tailspin and unprecedented domestic tensions… Read More
January 16, 2022

This Is What Would Happen if Israel Strikes Iran

Since the fading of an imminent nuclear deal, there’s been plenty of ink spilt opining, wrongly, that Israel has no military option. If Israel finds itself facing Iran alone, it will strike – and this is how Tehran’s retaliation will play out. Read More
December 26, 2021

The National Unity Government in Israel

In June 2021, a national-unity coalition came to power in Israel after a chaotic period in which four elections held over the course of two years had failed to produce a stable governing majority. A sense of normality has now returned… Read More
Strategic Comments V27, December 2021

Hamas Came Out Ahead in the Gaza War. Here’s How Israel Can Turn Adversity Into Victory

After 11 days of fighting, a welcome calm prevails once again. Much to our regret, however, we cannot but conclude that the overall outcome of this round leans in Hamas’ favor. Many walls fell during Operation Guardian of the Walls. Read More
May 24, 2021

On Iran and America, Israel Must Now Make Fateful Strategic Choices

Israel stands today at a strategic crossroads, before two interrelated decisions of critical importance: Iran, and our relationship with the United States. The U.S. is determined to return to the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement and, apparently, so too is Iran. Read More
April 22, 2021

Killing Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Chief Was Justified. But It Wasn’t Wise

The question is not whether Israel was justified, if involved, in the targeted killing of Iran’s atomic chief. It was, and the world is a better place for it. The question is whether it was a smart move. Let me offer the following ten criteria for making that call. Read More
October 30, 2020

Netanyahu’s Plot Against Israel

The deterioration of Israel’s democracy was surprisingly rapid. The third lockdown led to an unlimited state of emergency: The premier told us he had no alternative Read More
October 7, 2020

Special Coverage – Israel, UAE, Bahrain Agreements: Trump Just “Outed” the Anti-Iran Axis

The “outing” of the anti-Iran axis, notwithstanding, the agreements cannot hide the overall failure of Trump’s and Netanyahu’s policies towards Iran. Read More
September 16, 2020

Can a Nuclear-armed Saudi Arabia Be Israel’s Partner for Peace?

While Israel’s PM was busy subjugating an entire nation to three rounds of elections , to the self-inflicted catastrophe known as  annexation, and to his dismal failure to address the COVID and economic crises,the nuclearization of the Middle East has continued unabated. Read More
September 1, 2020

Israel’s View of the Lebanese Armed Forces: A Complex Picture

As tensions mount on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the role of Lebanon’s official military must not be overlooked. Defining an Israeli perspective of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is more complex than meets the eye. Read More
July, 2020

Annexation is a Mess: This Isn’t the Way to Run a Country

Less than two weeks from the target date for annexation no one, including the prime minister, knows what we are talking about, 30% as under the Trump Plan, Jordan Valley nd blocs, just the blocs? Hebrew Only. Read More
June 21, 2020

How Israeli Annexation May Trigger a Multi-front War Within Weeks

Israel stands before one of the most difficult periods it has ever known, just about a perfect storm.The political and judicial crisis surrounding Netanyahu’s trial has barely begun. Read More
June 17, 2020

Israel’s Elections

The formation of a new government in Israel on 17 May 2020 ended a lengthy and tumultuous political impasse in which three legislative elections failed to deliver a clear majority to one party or coalition. The sense of resolution lasted only a week. Read More
Strategic Comments V26, June 2020

Rare Scrolls from 2070 Discovered – Glimpse into History of Previous Half-Century

Rare scrolls from 2070, that shed as yet unknown light on events of the previous half-century, were recently discovered near the Dead Sea. It turned out that Israel never recovered from the coronavirus. Israel’s health system… Hebrew only. Read More
May 30, 2020

The ”Dayenu” School of Foreign Policy – 2020

Two years ago I announced with all due flourish and panoply, the establishment of a new school of foreign policy thought, to be known henceforth and throughout the generations, as the “Dayenu School.” In just a remarkably short time, the new school has gained a place of pride alongside the venerable “realist” and “liberal” schools. Read More
April 2, 2020

Beny Gantz’s Humiliating Surrender Ends All Hope

Benny Gantz’s decision to join a Netanyahu led-coalition puts an end to hopes for a change in government in Israel. By foregoing, without any struggle, the chance he was given to form a government, or to pass the promised legislation blocking… Hebrew only. Read More
March 30, 2020

Trump Is Failing to Protect Israel Against Iran

The beginning of the final and critical year of President Trump’s first term, during which we will find out whether he is reelected to a second, is a fitting time to assess his achievements in the Middle East to date. Read More
January 21, 2020

The One Move Trump Should Make to Actually Defend Israel

Between salvos of Hamas rockets, Netanyahu shenanigans and Trump’s antics, you may have missed the really big news, an issue which will have lasting effects on the U.S.- Israel relationship: are the two states now nearer than ever to signing a defense treaty?  Read More
December 8, 2019

My Day With the West Bank Settlers Who Are Destroying Zionism

I recently returned from a visit to a different reality. I was part of a group of former senior defense officials conducting a series of meetings in the West Bank with heads of the regional councils and the settler movement, rabbis and politicians. Read More
October 10, 2019

Israel Election Results: Netanyahu Will Pull Out All the Stops – Including Military Action – to Hold on to Power

The final results from Israel’s do-over elections are not yet in, but barring entirely unrealistic developments, Benjamin Netanyahu’s long reign as king-premier will soon be over. To be sure, Israel faces a protracted period of ugly coalition machinations… Read More
September 18, 2019

This Is Israel’s Last Ever Zionist Election

For decades commentators have warned that the politico-military and societal processes underway in Israel pose severe dangers to our national future, and therefore that each of the previous round of elections were nothing less than critical.  Read More
September 12, 2019

Never waste a good crisis

Coercive diplomacy is a legitimate part of national security decision-making, and even Trump critics must acknowledge that the policy of “maximal pressure” has placed Iran under extreme duress. The objective is not to cause Iran pain, but to… Read More
July 29, 2019

Enlightened, Beautiful, Two-state Israel Should Declare Independence

If the upcoming elections don’t produce real change, if West Bank annexation becomes reality, if democratic norms and the rule of law continue to deteriorate, we need a new partition plan – this time, for Israel itself. Read More
June 30, 2019

Annexation for Exoneration: How BiBi Betrayed the Zionist Dream

It is to be hoped that Netanyahu is too smart and politically adroit to accede to the more extreme versions of annexation espoused by his coalition partners. Read More
May 19, 2019

The ”Dayenu” School of Foreign Policy – 2019

One year ago, I announced, with great fanfare, the establishment of a new school of foreign policy thought, destined to take its place in the pantheon of the long existing “realist” and “liberal” schools. The new school was named, and will be known throughout the generations, as the “Dayenu School”. Read More
April 18, 2019

Israel’s Elections

Prime Minister Netanyahu faces the most serious political challenge to his premiership for the past decade in the general election on 9 April. Despite being beset with corruption allegations and facing meaningful opposition, Netanyahu remains the most likely… Read More
Strategic Comments V25, April 2019

The Asad Regime Won Syria’s Civil War: Can It Survive an Israeli Attack?

The Syrian conflict has triggered Israel’s primal fear: the threat of an entrenched Iranian presence on its borders. If a resurgent, unreliable Russia doesn’t step in, then Assad and his army will be Israel’s first targets. Read More
March 10, 2019

The War That Will Decide Israel’s Future Won’t Involve Airstrikes, Tanks or Missiles

Many among Israel’s secular public, the majority of the population, have come to accept the contention put forward by the religious parties and others, that the ultra-orthodox Jewish population cannot be forced to serve in the IDF, study the core school curriculum. Read More
January 23, 2019

For the First Time, Israel Faces an Adversary Too Powerful to Be Defeated

Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenai recently outlined a draft version of a vision for Iran for the next 50 years. The vision calls for Iran to become one of the world’s top five countries in science and technology, one of the top seven in “progress and justice…Read More
January 9, 2019

A delusional solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked recently raised a new proposal for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to Shaked, Areas A and B in the West Bank (which are under the varying levels of control of the Palestinian Authority), Gaza and Jordan … Read More
December 14, 2018

‘Get Used to the Rockets’: What Netanyahu Should Tell Israelis Living Near Gaza

In this candid – and imaginary – letter to the residents of Sderot, the Israeli PM recognizes there is no quick military or political solution to the conflict with Hamas. Read More
December 3, 2018

Why Israel Will End Up Facing Iran Alone

Eureka! Saudi Arabia, as the “enlightened” international community has recently learned, is not a cuddly country. Its regime is probably the most heinous on earth, but it took the gruesome murder of one journalist…Read More
November 1, 2018

Ending the Impasse the Trumpian Way

The Oslo Accords, signed 25 years ago in Washington, held out the promise of an historic breakthrough to Israeli-Palestinian peace. For the first time, the two primary rivals in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the bitterest, who had declared that they would never talk… Read More
October, 2018

Donald Trump Is Right to Coerce the Palestinians

The prospects for a two-state solution are dissipating in front of our very eyes, due to changes on the ground and the Israeli and Palestinian sides’ differences. The Trump administration is trying to find a way out of the impasse,as it is so often does, by breaking things. Read More
October 31, 2018

Flaming Kites, Hezbollah and Iranian Nukes

Bucking perceptions abroad of a country in crisis, life is good in Israel, even if existential threats loom just beyond the horizon. Read More
August 14, 2018

In the Middle East the Russians Aren’t Coming: They Are Back

Four decades after the US largely succeeded in sidelining the Soviet Union in the Middle East and becoming the leading regional, Russia is resurrecting its long-lost standing. The process of partial American disengagement from the region that began under Obama  Read More
August 13, 2018

A better Iran deal has to be better for Iran, too

Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran deal, an outcome Prime Minister Netanyahu went to extreme lengths to help promote, was a major success for him, one of a number in recent months. If elections were held today, Netanyahu would be reelected easily. Read More
July 19, 2018

Trump’s Mayhem Allows Putin’s Russia to Take Over the Middle East, One Country at a Time

In recent years Russia has staged a comeback in the Mideast, big time, to the extent that it may replace the US as the leading foreign power in the region. Russia’s success results from a combination of both deft diplomacy and weapons and nuclear reactor sales… Read More
July 19, 2018

A better Iran deal has to be better for Iran, too

Trump’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran deal, an outcome Prime Minister Netanyahu went to extreme lengths to help promote, was a major success for him, one of a number in recent months. If elections were held today, Netanyahu would be reelected easily. Read More
July 19, 2018

Trump Has No Coherent Strategy on Iran. Astonishingly, Neither Does Israel

More than a month after the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, its strategy for containing Iran’s nuclear program and regional expansionism remains murky. Having worked tirelessly for the agreement’s abrogation, this should be Netanyahu’s finest hour. Read More
June 24, 2018

From Pyongyang to Tehran, Jerusalem and back

Pyongyang is about as far from Israel as possible. Israelis could be excused if they thought that the the summit between President Trump and N. Korean Leader Kim Jong Un had little direct importance for them. However, it has wide ranging ramifications for Israel. Read More
June 14, 2018

Why Israel Needs to Escalate Its Threats Against Iran – Right Now

Israel faces two severe threats today that may soon require some very difficult decisions, possibly leading to war. The Iranian-Hezbollah axis in the north is growing stronger, under Russian auspices, with Iran reportedly trying to establish permanent baes Read More

April 13, 2018

Israel at 70: Strong enough to chart a new national course

At 70 Israel has become a stable and prosperous state, a vibrant if discordant democracy, the “startup nation”. Ben-Gurion stated that if its Jewish population ever reached five million, its existence would be assured. It now numbers 6.5 million. Read More
April 10, 2018

The ‘dayenu’ school of foreign policy – 2018

A high point of the Passover Seder is the jubilant song “Dayenu” (“it is enough”), fortuitously sung just before an enervating sense of lethargy, induced by prodigious caloric intake and an excess of holiday ritual, begins to set in. Read More
March 27, 2018

The Middle East Is Marching Toward Israel’s Nuclear Nightmare Scenario

While our leaders in Jerusalem were giddily drinking champagne and Washington was proudly trumpeting tweets, the Middle East continued its march towards the nightmare scenario of a region with multiple nuclear actors. Read More
March 1, 2018

My Reasons for Recommending a Defense Treaty between the U.S. and Israel

It could secure the Zionist project by helping to sell Israelis on a peace deal with the Palestinians, and it could help to cement Israel’s long-term relationship with America. Read More
February 26, 2018

Israel is fighting BDS the wrong way

February 12, 2018

Has Israel Grown Too Dependent on the United States?

Israel’s relationship with the US is a fundamental pillar of its national security. Militarily, diplomatically, and economically, American support has for decades been a vital strategic enabler. Washington is usually Israel’s first Read More
February 5, 2018

The two-state solution is the only game in town

The New York Times recently joined the growing clamor warning of the possible demise of the two-state solution. The failure to reach a two-state solution does not mean, however, that a one-state solution, or some other approach, is preferable. Read More
January 28, 2018

A Good Deal for Israel

Op-eds 2006-2017