The foreign hand that rocks the cradle  

Often those who rock the cradle of Israeli democracy, inflaming or frightening citizens, are foreign actors with their own agenda.

Im Tirtzu Chairman Matan Peleg

For years, huge sums of foreign money have been fueling left-wing protests in Israel, leaving deep societal scars.

The influence of foreign actors and governments on Israelis’ well-being and politics often comes up in public discourse; it is felt in Israel’s policies on its war on terror, on settlement in all parts of the country, on immigration, and is felt in relations between its various social groups. This outside influence is brought to bear for the most part through large-scale funding of Israeli left-wing nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) whose activities include disseminating anti-Israel propaganda and lawfare. Read more…

February 21, 2023 | 4:45 pm | 1 Comment »

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Unilateralism is the answer, not the problem  

The terrorists want to chase Israel off this land; in response, Israel should lay stakes on more land each time they fire a shot.

By  David M. Weinberg, ISRAEL HAYOM    19.2.23

Foreign ministers of four European countries and Canada joined the US last Tuesday in opposing a decision by the Netanyahu government to regularize the status of nine Israeli towns in Judea and Samaria (“Jewish settler outposts in the occupied West Bank”), and to build some 10,000 more homes (“settler units”) over the coming decade.

The foreign ministers said that they “strongly oppose unilateral actions which will only serve to exacerbate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians and undermine efforts to achieve a negotiated two-state solution.”

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February 21, 2023 | 4:22 pm | Comments »

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Netanyahu leaning on top security officials to rein in Smotrich, Ben-Gvir  

‘This time Netanyahu is helpless in the face of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich’s demands.’ PM urging top brass to rein his own ‘extremist’ ministers.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has recruited senior Israeli security officials for his bid to rein in nationalist members of his coalition government, Ma’ariv reported Tuesday morning.

Citing officials privy to the details of Netanyahu’s conversations with top security brass, the report claims that the prime minister has placed ongoing pressure on senior security officials to challenge “the extremists in the government,” with a particular emphasis on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) and Minister in the Defense Ministry and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionist Party).

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February 21, 2023 | 10:48 am | Comments »

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The Resilience of the Jewish People  

By Leah Rosenberg, ISRAEL UNWIRED        February 20, 2023

One of the most powerful videos about the Jewish People you will ever see. 

The Jewish people have a resilience that is remarkable beyond words. This video will leave you in complete awe.


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February 21, 2023 | 10:37 am | Comments »

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Victory Not Stalemate   

by Steve Kramer

Israel has not achieved a clear cut victory over its existential antagonist, the Palestinian Arabs. That’s right, NO EXISTENTIAL VICTORY yet. In fact, the last clear battlefield victory against the Palestinian Arabs was more than twenty years ago. Why existential? Because our enemy wants to erase the Jewish State from the globe and replace it with a Palestinian Arab terror state, such as we see today in Gaza. Israel’s government needs to instill this realistic fact into the mindset of our Western allies, plus those Israelis and other individuals who have yet to realize it.

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February 20, 2023 | 4:39 pm | 6 Comments »

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Israel: Don’t Give Your Enemies More Ammo!  

After a recent visit to Israel, we’re deeply concerned by the unprecedented degree of tension and sheer animosity permeating the political arena.

As friends of Israel rather than Israeli citizens, we do not seek to intervene on any partisan basis, but to sound the alarm about the very real potential for Israel’s enemies to exploit the current rhetoric and do harm to the country as a whole.
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February 20, 2023 | 4:33 pm | 3 Comments »

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Israel vows not to legalize more than the 9 outposts in the coming months  

 20.2.23

Israel has agreed to a request from the Biden administration that no additional outpost communities be legalized in the coming months, as part of Secretary of State Blinken’s effort to secure a “pause” in unilateral actions by Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced Monday afternoon that the government will not move forward with any plans to normalize unregulated Israeli outpost communities in Judea and Samaria for the next few months, without specifying a precise timeframe.

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February 20, 2023 | 1:55 pm | Comments »

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PA agrees to yank UN measure, even as Israel readies to advance settlement package  

Facing US pressure, Ramallah suffices with symbolic Security Council statement panning settlements, while Israel will agree to halt some, but not all, activity beyond Green Line

19 February 2023, 8:09 pm  

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (C), and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. (Collage/AP)

The Biden administration has managed to coax the Palestinian Authority to withdraw its support from a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to settlement activity, after convincing Israel to temporarily hold off on a handful of measures meant to further entrench its presence in the West Bank, four sources told The Times of Israel on Sunday.

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February 20, 2023 | 1:10 pm | 3 Comments »

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Israel agrees to freeze settlement construction, demolition of illegal Arab homes  

WHAT A TRAVESTY
Netanyahu government and Palestinian Authority reportedly reached deal, under heavy US pressure, to freeze ‘unilateral’ steps for months.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to a number of concessions to the Palestinian Authority, as part of the Biden administration’s push to broker a deal between the two sides to lower tensions during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Walla reported Sunday evening.

According to the report, two Biden administration officials say that the US has secured “understandings” with Jerusalem and Ramallah, under which both Israel and the Palestinian Authority will refrain from unilateral moves over the next few months.

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February 20, 2023 | 12:34 pm | 2 Comments »

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The ‘two-state solution’ and the Palestinians: Partition or politicide?  

The world still believes that the “two-state solution” is the way to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But when the Palestinians invoke this idea, they’re holding something back.

By Joel Fishman, JCPA

For decades, the “two-state solution” slogan has triggered a conditioned reflex. It has been widely accepted as the optimal solution to the war that the Arab world has waged against Israel. Each side, however, interprets the term differently. Only by tracing its origin can we understand its double meaning.

From the outset, the term was designed as a weapon, whose purpose was deception. Its facile appeal has remained because the general public is largely ignorant of the real motives behind it.

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February 20, 2023 | 1:37 am | 4 Comments »

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Israeli minister tells US envoy to ‘mind his business’ on judicial reforms  

Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli slammed U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides for saying that Israel should “pump the breaks” on its initiative.

Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Likud MK Amichai Chikli at the Knesset in Jerusalem, Dec. 28, 2022. Photo by Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90.

(February 19, 2023 / JNS) Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli rebuked U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides on Sunday, after the American envoy jumped into the debate over Jerusalem’s proposed judicial reform package.

“I say to the American ambassador, slam the breaks on yourself and mind your own business,” said Chikli regarding Nides’s call for the Israeli government to modify its initiative. “You’re not the sovereign here. We’d be happy to debate with you international or security affairs, but respect our democracy,” he added.
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February 19, 2023 | 5:34 pm | 26 Comments »

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Herzog in the crosshairs  

The idea that it’s possible at this juncture to conduct rational talks with hysteria-mongering judicial-reform rejectionists is tenuous, at best.

 In an op-ed on Friday in The Jerusalem Post, attorney Russell Avraham Shalev of the Kohelet Policy Forum explains what’s missing from Israeli President Isaac “Bougie” Herzog’s proposed judicial-reform compromise, despite its “many positive elements.”

“While Herzog sounded many of the right rhetorical points, [he didn’t] adequately address the central aim of the government’s reform legislation: putting an end to Israel’s juristocracy and restoring popular sovereignty,” writes Shalev, who goes on to describe how the Supreme Court has spent three decades expanding its powers, “without any legal or constitutional mandate,” causing an “ever-narrowing ability of [the country’s] citizens to rule themselves.”

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February 19, 2023 | 5:24 pm | Comments »

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Some of my fellow generals have crossed the red line  

There are national security implications to the revolt against judicial reform.

By Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, INN

(JNS) These are tense days in Israel, even by Israeli standards. Not since the days before the 2005 Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the uprooting of 8,000 Israelis from their homes have there been such tensions and today there is the tangible threat that Israelis may use violence against their brothers to promote political aims.

Amongst the seemingly endless avalanche of letters of protest and warning, petitions by professional organizations and open letters by Israelis and foreigners alike against the government’s planned reform of the outsized and illegal reach of the judiciary, one special group of “formers” has me very worried. It is a group I myself belong to: The generals.

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February 19, 2023 | 5:11 pm | 2 Comments »

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