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As we enter the new decade, the time is right to ask how Israel can amend ties with the mostly liberal American Jewish community, while safeguarding strong relations with the White House. This is especially urgent in light of the recent killing of Qasem Soleimani and its reverberating impact across the globe and region.
MirYam's podcasts are uploaded for your listening pleasure and convenience. Taking the form of speeches…
A single question will determine the outcome of tomorrows national elections. After all of the twists and turns, the fundamental decision of the voters remains unchanged. Should Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should serve a fifth term or not?
The unnecessary ‘Holocaust law’ passed by the Polish Parliament and supported by its government and president has caused significant damage, placing a wedge between Poland and Israel and the Jewish people.
Irrespective of how often Polish leaders claim that the law is misunderstood, the damage has been done, and now, extra effort is needed to repair it.
The downing of an Israeli fighter aircraft by Syria’s air defense system represents an operational and propaganda success for the Assad regime. The wider picture, however, is much more complex. One take on the recent escalation is that the risk of full-scale conflict has risen significantly.
True democracy is based on a changeover of governments, in which parties alternate between the opposition and government within reasonable periods of time.
This ensures that different sectors in society receive expression via the government. If the changeover fails to occur, and the political system stagnates, the balance between segments in society becomes undone, and groups that support the government receive a disproportionate preference from the ruling elite.
The Middle East has entered a period of unusually high tensions. Currently, it appears as if there are far more threats than opportunities, and the risk of military clashes has risen.
Two speeches delivered at this year’s UN General Assembly attracted widespread attention, and contain clues about the world’s two most potentially volatile, brewing confrontations. The speeches relate to developing crises with Iran and North Korea, and the US will probably have to prioritize one over the other.
The cancellation by the Israeli government of the 2016 decision to create an egalitarian prayer plaza at the Western Wall has caused significant harm to the image of a strong alliance between Diaspora Jewry and the State of Israel.
The lasting legacy and central remnant of the Six Day War is the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, which continues to fester, and to divide Israeli society.
Fifty years after the start of the Six Day War, it is worth reviewing how this seminal event affected Israelis on a personal and a national level, and continues to have a major effect to this day.
President Trump completed his landmark visit to Saudi Arabia and to Israel as well as the Vatican, NATO and the G7 summits, and is back to the intensive political dealing and wheeling challenging him at home. Many words have been spoken and written attempting to characterize and to evaluate Trump’s goals and achievements during his interesting choice for his first foreign visits. Here are some observations that merit attention.
US President Donald Trump is breaking with past norms by choosing the Middle East as his first destination for international visits — a development that likely holds important significance for Israel.
When one considers the relationship between the American Jewish community and Israel, two different stories emerge. The first is that of a US Jewish community with unusual power – both in its economic abilities and high political involvement – that is able to look out for Israel, and is committed to the well-being of the Jewish state.
The recent speech by outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry represents a missed opportunity by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Former Deputy Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ambassador Arthur Koll shares his insider views on the Israeli political scene and the recent Trump election. On L'Chayim with Mark S. Golub.
A dream has come true for Prime Minister Netanyahu, the emergence of a Republican President, backed by a Republican senate and house. There will be need neither for maneuvering back and forth between the White House and Capitol Hill, nor, at times, working with Congress against the preference of the president.
The dust is now settling from the stormy and dramatic US election campaign. Donald Trump is the President-elect, and from this moment onward, Trump and the administration he assembles will be engaged with preparations to take power, seeking to heal the wounds in a deeply divided America, and formulating a new foreign policy, which remains unknown at this time.
The European Union is facing the largest challenge in its history, in the form of mass migration and significantly heightened security threats.
As a result, it is engaged in a fateful quest to reconcile a growing clash between its values and interests, scrambling to preserve its liberal and free spirit and, at the same time, meet unprecedented terrorist challenges.