The Israeli Dilemma: Dictatorship now, or Elections (again) in November
Next week, Israel is going to elections, but Israelis do not seem to be duly impressed by this opportunity to exercise their basis democratic right. And it is not surprising that elections are not really one’s priority any more when Netanyahu has carefully planned the Corona crisis such that just now, the country is opening […]
Defense and Elections
Since its establishment 73 years ago this spring, Israel has been at war, or in a state of war, most of the time. The peace accords with Egypt and Jordan have improved the security status of Israel significantly but the Northern border has been a continued source of tension, in particular with Hezbollah in Lebanon, […]
Jewish Conversion and Jewish Coercion
Last Monday, after fifteen years of waiting, the Israeli Supreme Court handed down a decision regarding non-orthodox conversions, that will reverberate for quite some time in both orthodox religious circles as well as the Reform and Conservative Jewish communities in Israel and abroad. Responding to a petition of eleven non-Israelis, who converted in Israel with […]
Elections Israeli Style
With three weeks to go until the elections in Israel, it is already clear that this time around it is just going to be “more of the same”. This election, like the three before it, are no longer about ideology, about what people think, about how people want to see the future of Israel. There […]
A Year of Corona
Israel (and the world) have now been in the grip of the Corona virus for a year and life for all has changed drastically with no clear sight on returning to “normal” routine anytime soon. The political and health authorities have several times promised that the end of the pandemic is near but they were […]
Vaccination: Enforcement or Incentives?
The world over, Israel has been praised, and watched with envy, as large numbers of the population are being vaccinated against the Corona virus. Within weeks of the arrival of the vaccines, hundreds of thousands of people have been inoculated, starting with the medical personnel and people over the age of 60, two groups that […]
The Real Problem Israel sees with the ICC Investigation
The ICC (International Criminal Court), an independent judicial organization, issued last Friday a ruling that would permit the start of an investigating procedure against Israel (and Hamas), for possible war crimes. The news caused an outcry in Israel, calling the ICC biased, Anti-Semitic (of course) while questioning its authority to perform such an investigation at […]
In the Next Haredi Funeral, they will be Burying the State of Israel
This week has shown Israelis (and the world who watched in disbelief) that there is the State of Israel and the Haredi enclaves. While in Israel, the Corona pandemic restrictions are being violated to a significant extend, in the Haredi community, the restrictions simply do not apply. The Haredi leadership has chosen to ignore the […]
The Tragic Scandal that is Israeli Politics
Israel is still struggling with the Corona virus, and even as more than a million Israelis already have received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, the number of new patients does not decrease significantly, standing at more than 5,000 daily and the number of deaths hovers around 50 death per day. The hospitals are overburdened […]
Haredim are Above the Law
With Israel in “lock-down” for three weeks already and at least another week to come, many of us are trying to stay within the safety regulations, but at the same time to explore the limits of the lockdown rules and sometimes breaking them if “we think it is OK”. And with the rules often designed […]
