This time Israel has to send Gaza back into the Stone Age, abducting senior Hamas officials and their families, destroying their magnificent houses, the tall buildings, the restaurants, and the promenades in Gaza.
Recent months have been particularly challenging due to various reasons. The primary cause is a sharp decline in the Palestinian Authority's ability to govern. This, in turn, prompts various actors, some terrorists and some criminals, to take action, compelling Israel to intensify its activities in the region.
In this holiday we determine how we treat the book even before we engage in studying it. I recall that time when I was ambassador in Rome, celebrating the annual completion of the Torah reading with my daughter who had stayed back in Israel.
Nuclear enrichment on Saudi soil, and an American-Israeli “defense treaty,” as part of normalization with the Saudis, are incompatible with Israeli’s National Security Strategy (NSS), especially when the agreements are likely to come at the expense of preventing Iran from dashing toward the bomb.
The accosting of worshippers on Yom Kippur in the first Hebrew city is a deeply disturbing historical milestone. In any other place this would have been an antisemitic attack.
Rather than have Saudi Arabia try to keep up with Iran by getting enrichment capabilities, Israel should hope the US acts to bring an end to Iran’s threatening capabilities.
On Yom Kippur, we are required to look courageously at the gap between who we are and who we would like to be. The book of Jonah deals with ignoring our inner voice and the consequences of denying it. Alterman and Pinocchio both explore these themes
If Israel's rejection of allowing enrichment in Saudi Arabia means the derailment of normalization deals, so be it. Israel should seek a deal that overcomes the problematic Saudi demand for an independent fuel cycle on the one hand, and minimizes the damage from the nuclear understandings with Iran on the other hand.
The window of opportunity is open until spring, so the pressure is mounting on the US and Saudi Arabia to sign the agreement before the US elections will dictate an agenda that will be impossible to receive consensus by the parties.
Rosh Hashanah makes us consider the concept of time. What does it signify and what is the deeper meaning of setting the borders between the sanctified and the profane? And is it the creation of the world or the creation of man?
