Israel
March 27, 2020 — Scott Johnson
In a logical and therefore surprising conclusion to Israel’s long-standing political paralysis, Benny Gantz has agreed to form a unity government with current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. As I understand the status of the agreement, the details are being worked out and the parties to the agreement have yet to sign on the dotted line. This JNS report by Dov Lipman relates details and wrinkles. Here is Lipman’s opening: After
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March 3, 2020 — Scott Johnson
Vice President Pence addressed AIPAC’s annual policy conference in Washington yesterday. I have posted the video below. The White House has posted the text of Pence’s speech here. The depth of the Trump administration’s support for Israel, as faithfully recounted by Pence, is astonishing. It is hard to believe that any other of the 2016 Republican contenders would have had the audacity to do all that Trump has done. As
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March 2, 2020 — Steven Hayward
The Jerusalem Post is reporting right now that with the polls closed and exit poll results dribbling out, Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partners are on course to form a government: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeded in winning 60 seats for his bloc of right-wing and religious parties, one less than he needed for a majority in the Knesset in Monday’s election, according to exit polls on the three television
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February 8, 2020 — John Hinderaker
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political life, trying to fend off bogus charges of “corruption” that have been concocted by his political enemies–a group that includes, unfortunately, most of Israel’s political class. Earlier tonight he delivered a remarkable campaign speech that included a blunt assessment of Israel’s recent past and its relationship with the United States. I am tempted to reproduce the whole thing, as reported by
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December 25, 2019 — Scott Johnson
This year Benjamin Netanyahu became the longest serving prime minister in Israel’s history. He is not only able to distinguish between Israel’s friends and its enemies, he has expanded its circle of friends (and allies of convenience) in surprising ways. In the tweet below he conveys his annual Christmas wishes to Israel’s Christian friends around the world. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Merry Christmas to all our Christian friends in Israel
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December 22, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The International Criminal Court is a creature of the United Nations that came into existence in 2002. The ICC’s mission is to “bring to justice the perpetrators of the worst crimes known to humankind – war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.” Needless to say, it hasn’t had a lot of success in doing so, and has been deeply controversial from the beginning. The United States has never joined the
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November 21, 2019 — John Hinderaker
The indictment of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that was announced today did not come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Israeli politics have become less workable and less democratic over time. What we are seeing here is an attempted coup by the Israeli version of the Deep State. I wrote about Caroline Glick’s presentation on the pending charges against Netanyahu at David Horowitz’s Restoration Weekend here.
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November 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared today that the U.S. does not regard Israeli settlements on the West Bank as illegal. He thus reversed the position taken by former Secretary of State John Kerry in the dying days of the Obama administration. Pompeo explained that, after carefully studying the issue, he concluded that President Reagan got it right when he found that the settlements are not illegal. Reagan had reversed
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November 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
I have tried to provide some coverage of the mass anti-Iran protests in Iraq and the anti-Hezbollah protests in Lebanon. Taken together, they can plausibly be viewed as a “revolt against Iran.” Caroline Glick argues that the mass protests are the product of President Trump’s tough economic sanctions against Iran. She writes: The sanctions are one of the causes of the protests in both Lebanon and Iraq. Due to the
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November 4, 2019 — Scott Johnson
We are instructed that whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world. We have a sort of case study in the Times of Israel/AP story by Aron Heller on Melpomeni Dina’s reunion with the surviving siblings she saved and their 40 descendants: “One by one, the 40 descendants of a group of Israeli siblings leaned down and hugged the elderly Greek woman to whom they
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November 3, 2019 — John Hinderaker
Earlier today, Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a group of Christian journalists and supporters of Israel at the 2019 Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem. The event celebrated the opening of the Friends of Zion Museum, which honors the contributions of non-Jews to the nation of Israel. I count myself, in a small way, as a friend of Israel. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed Christian journalists and dignitaries from around the world Sunday,
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September 25, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In the aftermath of last week’s inconclusive elections, Israeli president Reuven Rivlin has asked Benjamin Netanyahu to form a government. Netanyahu has until October 24 to do so. Rivlin declared that Netanyahu, the current prime minister, has the best chance to form a government. I think Rivlin is correct that Netanyahu has a better chance of doing so than his main opponent, Benny Gantz, who specializes in declaring victory but
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September 19, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The near dead heat in Israel’s election militates strongly in favor of a “unity government” in which power is shared between the center-right Likud party of Benjamin Netanyahu and the center-left Blue and White party of Benny Gantz. Earlier this week, Netanyahu reportedly wasn’t interested in such a government. However, with the reality of the election results now sinking in, the prime minister has changed his tune. The Jerusalem Post
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September 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The vote counting in the Israeli election is well underway now. According to the Jerusalem Post, with most votes counted, the center-left party leads Benjamin Netanyahu’s center-right party by one Knesset seat — 32-31. When the Post added the seats of other parties, it estimated that parties likely to join a Netanyahu coalition would reach 56 seats, compared to 55 seats for the opposition. However, one outlet was predicting that
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September 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Voting in the Israeli election has been completed, and exit poll results have been released. The polls appear to range from giving the edge to Benjamin Netanyahu’s opponents to showing essentially a dead-even race. It’s important to note that this was roughly true of the exit polling in April of this year. Back then, some exit polls were favorable enough to the opposition that its leader, Benny Gantz, declared victory.
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August 30, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Hezbollah has stated that it intends to produce missiles capable of striking Israel with pinpoint accuracy. Iran is assisting Hezbollah in this enterprise. It is helping Hezbollah construct and develop facilities at which precision missiles are manufactured. Israel has responded by attacking targets in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Attacks in the latter two countries are a recent development, prompted by stepped up Iranian efforts to assist Hezbollah’s missile development. The
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August 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In his book Why Are Jews Liberals?, Norman Podhoretz argued that the real religion of a great many non-Orthodox American Jews is liberalism, not Judaism. There’s a lot of truth in this, I think. However, it’s one thing for a serious Jew like Norman to say so. It would be inappropriate for a non-Jew to say it, and especially so for an American president. But President Trump’s recent comment about
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