The Slippery Slope towards a Dictatorship
A couple of days ago, during a rather routine interview on Radio 103FM, the Israeli minister of Strategic affairs, Eli Cohen, was asked about the problems surrounding the appointments of senior public servants that are due, the Police Commissioner, the State Attorney and the Attorney General. In and by itself legitimate and urgent questions since […]
Elections, Yes or No?
Tomorrow night at midnight, the Knesset will disband itself unless a budget is passed or a law extending the grace period during which the government needs to present a budget is passed. The bookmakers in London and elsewhere are probably trying to decide if to allow betting on this, but calculating the odds is nigh […]
The Price of Peace: an Update
The news of the impending peace agreement between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, is only a couple of days old but there have been major changes to both the perception of the deal and the reality of this U.S.-brokered deal. It turns out that everybody has its own interpretation of the agreement (that hasn’t […]
The Price of Peace
The news of last Thursday, that Israel and the UAE have reached a peace agreement, is exciting and important, but more exciting and important is the price Israel will be paying for this agreement. The annexation of parts of the occupied territories is “off the table”. However, as with most “exciting and important” news coming […]
Politics?
Israelis have had the privilege to go to the polls to elect a parliament three times in the past 15 months and apparently this was not enough for at least some, because the talk about a fourth round of elections is getting louder by the day. Israel is dealing with a second wave of Corona […]
Rabbis can say anything
The freedom to practice a religion, to believe what you want, is a basic human right and people have gone to war and died for it. In modern Western countries, many people are religious and these countries very carefully preserve their right to be. At the same time though, these countries, being democratic, need to […]
From Czar to Court Jester in two weeks?
Only a short while ago, after the appointment of Professor Gamzu to lead the Israeli response to the Corona virus crisis, there was new optimism that the crucial leadership of the strategy in the fight against the virus would be taken out of the political morass and finally be handed over to a professional. But […]
Last Resort or Last Hope?
Israel has been swept up in demonstrations over the past weeks to an extend that hasn’t been seen a long time. The reasons people have been taking to the streets vary widely. Some are worried about the messy approach by the government in the struggle against the Corona virus. Some are upset about the many […]
Counting Jews
A couple of days ago, I read an interesting article in the March issue of “The New Yorker”, titled “But Who’s Counting”. The article, written by Ms. Jill Lepore, discusses the history of the phenomenon called “Census”. It is interesting to read how the need of countries, kings and dictators through all time, to count […]
A Czar to fight the Corona virus in Israel
After more than five months in which the Corona virus has wreaked havoc with our daily lives, and endless discussions about the need to have somebody in charge, somebody with both the knowledge and the experience as well as the authority to make decisions, Israel finally appointed Prof. Ronni Chamzu to be the Corona Czar. […]
