Europe surrendered to Islam long ago. So why does it blame Israel? This is a form of global cognitive dissonance: European hatred toward us, coupled with their failure to read the map correctly over the decades, has driven them deeper into old, misguided assumptions. They cannot admit their mistakes and would rather collapse, perhaps assuming we will go down with them. But we will not.

It's like people who make a bad investment and keep doubling down. They would rather lose everything than admit error, pull out the little they still have, and start over. That is Europe today, along with other countries. Their position on the so-called Israeli-Palestinian conflict only signals how they will continue to behave. It is almost pitiable.

A toothless trend

After all the hype around recognizing a Palestinian state, with headlines like "France hesitates, Spain wavers, Britain joins in," we can admit it is retro, almost laughable. They think they are moving forward, but they are stuck in the same place.

If I were the mother of the Palestinian Authority, I would have a sit down with it and say: your salvation will not come from a Palestinian state, nor from Palestinian terrorism. Something in your identity is unresolved, and that is why every path you take ends in failure. At best, you end up with deception, not success.

So much focus on the Nakba blinds them to reality. But what was the UN Partition Plan of 1947? The General Assembly called for two states, Jewish and Arab. The British Mandate ended, we were born, and we took our state seriously. On the other side, instead of building something in their portion—say, a hi-tech hub, cherry tomatoes, housing, or social reform—they set up in September 1948 a puppet government led by a Lebanese appointee, tasked mainly with fighting the young State of Israel chutzpah.

But after Israel's fledgling army carried out Operation Yoav and the Palestinian government was moved from Gaza to Cairo in 1959, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser himself dissolved it. He, apparently, was not so keen on a Palestinian state either.

In 1974, the UN General Assembly recognized the Palestinians' right to self-determination, independence, and sovereignty in the Land of Israel. This "Pro Max package" included exclusive representation through the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), permanent observer status at the UN, and a demand that Israel return "stolen" land and property. Guess what: fifty years later, Jews still live in Kerem Maharal. Could it be that the UN is simply a propaganda machine chasing trends, with nothing sharper than its rhetoric?

And in first place

1988. Israeli singer Yardena Arazi dominates the stage while the Israel Broadcasting Authority puts on a private pre-Eurovision contest just for her. Meanwhile, the UN decides to let the PLO rebrand itself as "Palestine." Arazi heads to Eurovision with the song "Ben Adam." The Palestinian state, though "declared," still lacked any official status.

In 1989, the PLO's UN representative boasted that 94 countries already recognized Palestine.

In 1993, Israel gave the experiment a push with the Oslo Accords, essentially a pilot project for such a state, complete with police, ministries, and autonomous powers. We all know how that ended.

In 2011, Mahmoud Abbas submitted formal requests for recognition at the UN, and since then the process has limped forward, one step at a time, toward recognition, and toward irrelevance. Today, of the 193 UN member states, about 56 recognize a Palestinian state.

The First Lady

Trump's performance at the UN is the only real answer to the farce of the bloated General Assembly, which refuses on principle to distinguish between substance and nonsense, truth and lies, good and evil.

October 7 should have been a one-time opportunity for the world to wake up from the Islamist plot and revoke the rights granted out of fear, distortion, and blindness. But the UN, trapped in its conception, fears opening its eyes.

The US president, with sharpness and ease, handed them a distilled capsule of human sovereignty. Without stumbling over the teleprompter or escalators meant to trip him up; without listing a parade of dignitaries but instead singling out the one who matters most to him, the first lady; without caring about their shallow misreadings of his capabilities, even down to walking down stairs or reading a speech. He showed that he is fit on all counts, unshaken under pressure, and in fact only grows stronger in crisis. He can even tell them off the cuff how the supposed guardians of global peace have failed time after time, while he himself has wrapped up wars.

Those who bow to foreigners and let villains destroy the world in the name of false values will not enjoy the tolerance of the leader of the free world, who comes to scatter shards of truth. Those who want to succeed must drop outdated, irrelevant retro trends and update themselves. Simple truth is the only fashion worth following.

The post Forget the Palestinians, they don't really want it appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

On the eve of Shabbat Chazon, right before Tisha B'Av 5784, it's easier to feel the destruction. The smoke from the Simchat Torah fire still lingers in the air, and the fear of sitting on the floor and reading about slaughtered babies is growing more and more intense. We're used to seeing it in the paper, familiar with it from the Holocaust. How did such a scroll end up in the Bible, and why do we flow with the text and events as if in every generation, a person must create their own legends of destruction?

In the biblical Tisha B'Av, enmity peaks, followed by exile. After the Holocaust in Europe, we sought an escape and were forced to settle in the Land of Israel, yet we left a magnificent trail in every possible diaspora. Over the years, a love-hate relationship developed between Israel and the diaspora, a relationship that now takes on a different angle. In our continuous Israeli destruction, one of the characteristics is the longing for exile and the desire for a foreign passport.

When we still lived under the illusion that the world loved us, we obtained foreign passports so that our children could study medicine for free in Hungary. During a global pandemic, we invested in foreign citizenship to make it easier to move around the European Union next time. When the judicial reform broke out, the trend was that the world is democratic.

On Tisha B'Av, we don't study Torah, but we are allowed to learn from the legends of destruction—an anthology of stories mainly found in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, dealing with the period before the destruction of the Second Temple, a bit about the dead of Beitar, and the Bar Kochba revolt—difficult personal content that illustrates the spirit of destruction.

This week, I returned from a short trip to the United States. I met people who had experienced antisemitism and couldn't help but think about how this time, waves of hatred are sweeping all Jews, wherever they are, turning those we used to mock into Zionist soldiers on American campuses, risking their lives just to walk across campus. It's like the legends of destruction.

Tikkun olam

Aharon Buch Sandikovsky is a 20-year-old student at the University of San Diego. He's in his fourth year of studying business administration, born in the U.S. to parents who came from the Soviet Union. Aharon was the first in his family to celebrate a bar mitzvah after years of fear of displaying Jewish symbols in public.

On campus, Aharon is active in organizations supporting Israel and participates in Jewish studies projects. "I love teaching about Judaism and helping other Jews connect with their roots and identity," Aharon shares. "Many people don't know what Judaism is about—for me, it's primarily about Tikkun Olam (repairing the world). And Tikkun Olam starts with being kind to people, helping, learning from history, and wanting to make the world a better place."

The common perception Aharon encountered from the beginning of his academic studies was that Jews love money and have long noses. The correct perception that everyone holds is that the tefillin booth on one of the side paths of the campus, where he and his friends occasionally perform the mitzvah, belongs to Jews.

That's why it was one of the first points attacked after Simchat Torah: "They shouted at us, 'dirty Jews,' slogans against occupation and against Jews. They spat on us. In the campus's main square, I organized a candle lighting in memory of the fallen and a prayer for the return of the hostages and for the elevation of the souls of the murdered. People wearing keffiyehs and stickers calling for an Intifada against Jews disrupted the event, and even weeks after the attacks began, we still felt afraid to walk around campus.

After my mother visited me, and a student who noticed the Star of David necklace she wore attacked me, I set up escort groups with friends to help students walk from the yard to the classroom, the library, the labs, to avoid the stone-throwing incidents that began to occur within the campus walls."

Just not Waze

The harassment didn't end with student life: "We were assigned to write about a successful economic company. How it was founded, grew, and became prosperous. I wrote about Waze, and I put a lot of effort into it. Suddenly, I received a grade of 20 via email.

"I couldn't believe it. I asked the teaching assistant why. He replied, 'Because you didn't write that Waze operates in an apartheid state that segregates Palestinians from society and ignores the West Bank.' I was very angry, went to the department head, who arranged a meeting with the professor and recommended that the professor correct the grade. Eventually, he agreed and changed it to 90. But there was no reprimand or remark for him, and I have no doubt that he wouldn't hesitate to repeat this with the next Jewish student."

Recently, Aharon applied to the student union. "I registered through the app like any other candidate, and suddenly I noticed that my name was removed. I asked other Jews who had registered—they found out their applications were also removed. I inquired with the responsible student, who replied: 'You support genocide and apartheid, so you can't run. Your values don't align with this place. You can vote, but not run.'

"I tried many times to explain to my friends on campus that they're relying on false facts, but it doesn't matter to them. They follow hate-filled media and aren't open to hearing what Judaism or Zionism truly are.

"Antisemitism doesn't need an excuse. There's no respect for someone else's faith. This hatred is a growing monster, and to be honest—there's no normative future for Jews here. When I was young, I visited Israel, and when we landed, I kissed the ground. I think about that and wonder if perhaps this passion for Zionism will ultimately lead me to make Aliyah. For anyone to whom Judaism is important, there's no future to build amidst such hatred."

I asked Aharon if he's aware of the challenges in Israel, and he answered me with a discussion about military service. I didn't challenge him with Israeli arguments about "religious coercion" in the public sphere or about prayers in urban spaces, nor did I ask if he thinks being Zionist is always a compliment in Israel. Somewhere within the destruction, only the vision sustains him.

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In Israel's charged political landscape, a new target has emerged: the ultra-Orthodox community. As public anger over military draft exemptions intensifies, we must question whether this approach is truly advancing national unity or merely deepening societal divides.

If you step outside in Israel, you'll discover that on any given day, the animosity towards the ultra-Orthodox community rivals, if not surpasses, the long-standing antipathy towards Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The media is also pulling the Religious Zionist movement into this trend. In their deep mourning, moral integrity, and religious righteousness, they're willing to speak into microphones denouncing the ultra-Orthodox dodging the military draft, even before protesting Netanyahu's political evasion. It's an opportunity to swim with the current and gain some recognition.

In this cold era of pragmatic Israeliness, gaining legitimacy requires more than just sacrifice; it demands a politically palatable narrative in the form of "broad consensus" among the "accepted ones," who sit behind the driver giving directions. Currently, the Religious Zionist movement still doesn't grasp this and they are being interviewed more frequently because it's fun to watch a bloody catfight, a derby of suffering religious Jews. They're interviewed because they're saying what the trendsetters want to hear, not because they're truly important or because their sacrifice is valued.

Some processes occur naturally and coercion – especially when accompanied by aggressive pseudo-fashionable campaigns – only harms them. Take the Chametz Law as an example. How many secular Jews got excited about throwing bread out of the house on Passover because of this law? Zero. How many secular Jews who respected and liked the tradition of matzah on Passover developed antibodies towards it since the issue became political and coercive? Many. By what percentage have public displays of chametz decreased thanks to the law? None.

Ironically, this push against ultra-Orthodox conscription comes at a time when Israeli society is experiencing a resurgence of traditional values. We're witnessing a broadening spectrum of religious observance, from Ashkenazi traditionalism to Sephardic customs, proving there's more than one way to make Kiddush. The spectrum has widened – boys wearing tzitzit without a kippah, and women donning head coverings with pants. Even in secular kindergartens in Tel Aviv, they had great Kabbalat Shabbat ceremonies before religious groups decided they could improve it.

In recent years, more ultra-Orthodox are enlisting, believing more in the state, and participating more in social processes and the job market. The ultra-Orthodox society went above and beyond since October 7. It takes a rare combination of stupidity and malice to turn good intentions into a civil war.

Army and state leaders know that political reasons and sectoral activism prevent many from enlisting. Now, public protest against the ultra-Orthodox sector is becoming a major deterrent. The ultra-Orthodox have respect for where they came from and what they represent. Linking military service with disrespect for the study hall they come from turns the issue into a battle between sectors, and strengthens their sense of belonging to a sector they don't necessarily have to belong to. The campaign against the ultra-Orthodox is a boomerang that sets us back years.

The IDF needs a strategy before it needs the ultra-Orthodox to enlist, but that's too complex a message for newspapers, and we're in an era of catchy messages. It's easier to rail against draft dodgers and write about the government refusing a deal than to address complex geopolitical challenges or question our national priorities. Which activist is willing to get dozens of former generals to sign a petition saying, "We won in the Six-Day War without losing a year of studies and destroying the home front because we had purpose and courage, not because of the infinite quota of ultra-Orthodox who decided to fall on their sword"?

The ultra-Orthodox need to enlist and Netanyahu has failed, but it's not "just not ultra-Orthodox" and "just not Bibi." The fact that in no protest is Israeli anger directed at the real enemies, or that no one calls for punishing the terrorists unless it is used as a bargaining chip for the hostages to be returned, or that no one calls for annexing a security strip in Lebanon and Kiryat Shmona until we ensure our safety – says it all.

The orchestrated campaign against the ultra-Orthodox, like against Netanyahu, pushes away the day when change will mature. The dominant style of protest is violent and negates the possibility of thinking freely and engaging in genuine dialogue. You don't solve anything with violence.

The Kaplan protest is so hateful that it's unable to understand why it consistently strengthens the other side. It pushes the Bibists into the arms of the object of their admiration, just as the anti-ultra-Orthodox campaign will shove the ultra-Orthodox into their corner, just as religious coercion fortifies secularism. Religious indoctrination campaigns don't work from any side, not religious or secular zealotry and not right or left-wing; they only serve to deepen our divides. It's time we step back, reassess our approach, and find a path forward that unites rather than divides our nation.

The post The boomerang effect: How anti-Haredi campaigns set Israel back appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

The summer holiday is behind us and the school year is ahead. A moment after the self-pity for having spent the summer with our children in the scorching Israeli heat, public opinion is vacant to focus on the upsetting education system.

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Why are teachers striking? How come the children go to school and don't know how to behave? What happened to values? Certainly in Europe, they know how to handle it properly. In Estonia, for instance.

I joined an Israeli delegation of heads of colleges that traveled all the way to the capital Tallinn to bring you the bottom line: Yes, Israel has what to learn from Estonia.

One Saturday evening I received a WhatsApp message from a leading professor who asked to speak with me. I assumed he wanted to publish an article on the Israel Hayom website so postponed the talk until the morning. The next day at the appointed time I called him, and he actually invited me to join the delegation.

Professor Haim Shaked said the delegation looked at education models in Israel and worldwide and decided to look into Estonia's success.

Estonia... I thought to myself while listening to the intelligent explanation. Isn't that the Baltic country that sends mediocre songs to the Eurovision Song Contest? But the professor explained that Tallinn was considered the education capital of the world and that the delegation was headed there to check, among other things, how its institutions operated and got to the lead in the OECD's Program for International Student Assessment, surpassing Finland.

I didn't have time to ask who else was joining. A quick Google search made it clear to me that Estonia has indeed been branded in recent years as holding the key to advanced education in the world. I booked my trip and began to wonder about the potential of this very young country. In my head, I dubbed the capital Digitallinn – because most of the mentions of it in articles written in Israel in recent years glorified the digitization and progress that brought Estonia to this educational lead.

When talking about Tallinn, they praise the freedom of choice that students have, who already at the age of 14 can choose a practical professional path and learn hair styling, hotel management, or graphic design, and at the end of the training, launch a business at a click of a button.

The more I prepared for the trip and was exposed to zero bureaucracy, the more I imagined Estonia as having public spaces with free Wi-Fi, equal education based on virtual learning, classrooms with elaborate 3D presentations with voice-activated screens descending from the ceiling, and everything from Israel seemed outdated.

Imagination and reality collided on the first day of the journey at Tallinn University. It was full of old and wide radiators attached to the walls, decorating the corridors in Soviet-style and making it clear that this was an old building. In the classroom itself, a 40-year-old researcher began lecturing on education in Tallinn, and when I looked for a socket to charge my laptop – a simple connection to electricity that is easy to find in any college in Israel - I discovered that the advanced university of Estonia did not have such a basic necessity.

Internet connection was also limited. In fact, the only progressive marker that stood out during her talk was the lecturer's ability to control who entered the classroom while she was speaking. When the class starts, the lecturer locks the door, and good luck to those who are late. When I went to the bathroom after half an hour, I couldn't re-enter the classroom, so I stood in the corridor until another lecturer opened the door with his secret card, which contained a chip for the privileged only.

This element expresses the symbolic foundation, which in retrospect is one of the secrets, and perhaps even the basis, for the success of Estonian education – discipline, authority, and respect for the teacher. If the lesson is a revolving door – yes, including at university – there will be no achievements.

I sat in class and thought: A teacher can prepare a wonderful lesson, and we, as young students or as mature students, may ruin the lecture just because we went outside to talk on the phone and disturbed the concentration of our colleagues, or because we went to get tissues from the bathroom and half the class flowed outside after us as part of the atmosphere of freedom.

When the very presence of the student in the class becomes a serious matter, when you can't be distracted and go back as if nothing happened because there is discipline and a "smart card" that enforces it – the attitude becomes more serious and you are forced to respect the framework and study.

The vast majority of children in Tallinn benefit from subsidized school classes. Art, music, and technology are integrated into the daily schedule. The regional school even has a pool, and it's not even a private institution.

The delegation, made up of lecturers and senior researchers in the field of education who belong to diverse geographical and social areas of Israeli society, and who also care about teachers, students, and academia, were bombarded with questions. But first of all, Estonians wanted to know the basics: how much a teacher in Israel gets paid.

To compare, the average salary in Estonia is about 1,300 euros a month and a teacher earns about 1,800 euros a month. In Israel, the average salary is 11,700 shekels and a teacher earns an average salary of NIS 14,000. In other words: their teacher's salary is 40% higher than the average, ours is only 20%. Is that what makes the difference?

"There is a demand and prestige for the profession, also due to the status and not only due to the salary," Shaked, who is president of the Hemdat College of Education in Sdot Negev, said. "Education is a field based on human capital. We heard about a program here to teach history in high school, there were only 30 places and 2,000 applicants.

"In Israel, on the other hand, there is a shortage of teachers because there is a decline in the value of learning and knowledge in Israeli society, and the value of the teaching profession has declined. In the past, Jews gave their lives so that children could learn under the most difficult conditions, and today Israeli parents say that if the child does not go to school, it is no big deal. Here the status of the teacher allows investment and application of innovative teaching methods."

Q: Such as? 

"The number of students is limited in the class, focusing on a small number of areas of knowledge. In Israel, on the other hand, we have 15-17 compulsory subjects for matriculation, and in Estonia, there are only three main exams."

Shaked continued, "There used to be a model that a student needed a little bit of geography, a little bit of history, and in religious education a little bit of the weekly Torah portion, Jewish law, and the prophets. But this grew into a list of endless subjects that the student had to learn out of the illusion that the child would take all the bits of learning and turn them into knowledge coherent to life.

"Today we know that you need a lot of language classes and a lot of math, and not to take a little, a little and a little. In Estonia, they realized that the more you study, and not the more tests you take, the more educated and intelligent you will be. And this is the right way to develop."

Q: Then why doesn't Israel adopt this? 

"Israel still has the attitude that what is not tested is not learned. If there is no exam in history, history will not be learned, and so on. With us, even subjects with an internal grade are not taken seriously – and not only by the students."

The language of survival

By the way, language and nationality - a recurring motif that most of the educators we met dwelled on – are interconnected in a new law promoted by the Estonian government to strengthen the Estonian language. Studies in Russian will be banned, and as a result, about 2,000 teachers will be laid off.

In this law, most Estonians see their survival.

"There is already a regulation that schools where lessons are taught in Russian, do not receive funding from the state, but studies conducted by the government have shown that this is not enough," said Kätlin Vanari, an education expert and lecturer at Tallinn University. "The law that states that those who do not speak Estonian do not receive citizenship is not deterring enough".

Q: Why resist Russian culture in the education system? 

"It was only in 1991, exactly 32 years ago, that we managed to break away from the Soviet Union and gain independence. We suffered from the Soviet occupation for years. In the world, we – the Baltic states – are used to being associated with the Soviet Union, but we are more like Finland. The sound of our language is also more like Finnish. The fact that still a quarter of those who live here speak only Russian harms our national growth."

Q: But then students who speak Russian might feel like second-class citizens. 

"In their free time, they can speak Russian. The focus during the course will not be on being Russian but on glorifying Estonia."

Q: Is the Education Ministry not worried that Russian speakers may create their own independent education system? 

"No, it's no longer legal. They won't be able to do that. Estonian is the national language. Russian children and their families live here, and they must speak the language. The law passed the government unanimously. It has no opponents."

Q: What about Jews in Estonia? What language do they speak? 

"Russian. That's known."

When asked whether Russian speakers demonstrated in the streets against the government's decision, Vanari could not comprehend how such demonstrations could even take place.

The government's decision stems from the war in Ukraine and the fear of brainwashing by Russian-speaking media. The Estonian post-trauma from the possibility of being invaded again sets the tone in the education system as well.

Professor Yael Tamir, president of Beit Berl College, offered a wider perspective.

"Estonia managed to rise up and become one of the most developed countries in Europe in a relatively short period of time – to build a free, high-quality, and functioning education system thanks to the deep commitment to its identity," Tamir said. "The mobilization to succeed and the leadership in the PISA tests are a significant expression of this and are intended to prove that autonomy pays off. They focus on preserving language and identity, and they do that in Israel as well."

Q: Specifically now? 

"It didn't just start now. As part of the Soviet occupation, citizens were forcibly transferred here to make them Russian. The wound has been burning for years. People who live here feel that a school that teaches Russian is a success of the Russian army from the 1940s.

"They think that Russia's ambition and what is happening in Ukraine reflect an aspiration to return to this part of the world. Therefore, in their eyes, any Russian cultural hold is dangerous. This is not a debate about borders and it is not a debate that is over. Imagine that the people of a country who want to speak Russian are the people who are closest to Russia, and in ten years, will the Russians say, 'This is part of Russia' and want to annex them?"

Q: Isn't it better to launch a national birth campaign instead of banning Russian?

"They tried it once, but it didn't work," Tamir said. "And most families here have only one child."

A member of the Israeli delegation, Professor Faisal Azaiza, dean of faculty for Social Welfare and Health Sciences at the University of Haifa, offered an interesting proposition to solve Israel's shortage of teachers by tapping into the Arab sector.

"There is a surplus of teachers in the Arab population, there is a shortage in the Jewish population. Strategically, it is worthwhile and important to absorb Arab teachers in Jewish schools. This will improve relations between the sectors and create a partnership."

Sharp pencils

Eve Eisenschmidt is a Professor of Educational Leadership at Tallinn University. She said that "part of the motivation comes from the absolute autonomy that the Education Ministry gives to school principals. There is no hypermanagement. Such trust in the educators brings motivation. If it wasn't like that, teachers would leave."

She said that if for instance, a teacher doesn't feel that a certain method works with the students, he or she can choose an alternative that would work better for students to acquire knowledge in a certain field, including lessons outside of school premises or even classes online.

Eisenschmidt stressed that discipline and rules are maintained even in Zoom classes. A school that doesn't put more than 24 students in one class on average, and allows learning from home once a week, is certainly a more pleasant environment.

Most of the children, around 90%, in Tallinn also participate in extracurricular activities provided by the school. Art, music, and technology are integrated into the schedule, between 3 and 4:30 p.m. every day. The classes are part of the municipal services, and they are conducted professionally and seriously.

I also could not help but notice that despite the presence of hundreds of children, the atmosphere is quiet and unchaotic.

After Estonia, the delegation visited Finland – a mere two hours away by ferry – the country that used to lead the PISA chart before Estonia took over.

The international school in the capital Helsinki operates in a method that has also reached Israel - the international schools in Givat Haviva and Hakfar Hayarok. The studies are conducted in English, the subjects are varied, and there is an emphasis on nurturing the students and the environment.

The principal of the Helsinki School, Kathleen Naglee, is an American originally from Hungary who came on an educational mission to Estonia about a decade ago and from there moved to Finland. She welcomed us with excitement saying she was Jewish and her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor.

Naglee defined the Estonian engine for success by bringing an example from real life.

"On a school family trip, the students were picking blueberries. One of the children accidentally dropped his basket, and the fruit scattered. As an American, I went over to help him pick it up from the ground and comforted him, but the Estonian parents looked and said, 'He dropped it and he will pick it up, it's his responsibility.' The parents are not afraid to pose challenges."

It seems to me that this was the moment when I finally understood that the educational prosperity of Estonia does not stem from its geographical proximity to Finland, but rather from proximity to Sovietization. Those who had the privilege of receiving a Soviet education must recognize the pattern. Estonians received a Soviet education, but they chose to perceive themselves as "Finland's little sister."

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The school in Helsinki is beautiful, bright, and rich. In the cafeteria, which is on a kind of massive patio in the center of the building, a motto is engraved on the wall: "Each of us is a special snowflake." A snowflake is also part of the school symbol that can be seen in almost every classroom and hallway.

Sigrid Kagi was a member of the Estonian delegation that held a special hackathon for educators from Israel. She launched a line of quality after-school programs operated by educators and intended for all levels, including in the summer.

"First you need to understand the mentality," she said. "In Estonia, the summer vacation is seen as a relaxed family time of fun, but also as an ideal period for enriching the student's knowledge. Most children don't want to waste time.

"During the first part of the vacation, the schools run a special curriculum with professional educational teams. There are also summer camps operated by a variety of organizations. These are concept camps: each camp has a theme, those who guide the camps are professionals in the field of the subject taught, and the emphasis is on education and imparting different life skills.

"In addition, during the summer students complete a reading list that was given to them at the end of the academic year. Some of the lists are regular reading books and some are books that prepare for the study material of the new school year."

Q: And is there no resistance to this? Do the children really read everything on the list? 

"We make sure to give the student a choice. He or she doesn't have to read all the books but can choose what to focus on from the entire list. Some schools define the reading list as non-obligatory, which adds to the child's motivation." 

Choice is an important element in education in Estonia. We saw that in many aspects, they let the child decide what he or she preferred. But what all these choices had in common is that the child was not inventing anything, but rather choosing from several options provided.

Having visited various educational institutions in Estonia over the span of five days, what did I learn? 

That education begins at home. 

True, there is progress in this country with regard to bureaucracy, no one waits in line anywhere, and cell phones are a tool for efficiency and not for wasting time.

But Estonia excels because it is strict about discipline, because its standards are high, and because the children grow up in a society where there is respect for authority. Perhaps in such a society, the generation of screens can accomplish magnificent achievements.

The post How did Estonia become world leader in education and what can Israel learn from it? appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

With the enormous media pressure facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government over the proposed judicial reform, new Public Diplomacy Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan has her hands full. 

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The proposed overhaul of the judiciary has set off a political firestorm and prompted protests in Tel Aviv and elsewhere. 

There is intellectual degeneration and ignorance on the Left, Distel Atbaryan, who spent part of her life working in left-wing institutions, notes. The "masses" are protesting, completely convinced that democracy is dying, but they have not checked how the judiciaries work in other countries, compared to Israel, and how judges are appointed elsewhere. 

A simple 10-minute explanation of how the balance between the legislative executive and judicial has been violated in Israel for the past 30 years immediately disproves their claims, she stresses. 

Q: If that is the case, why didn't the government lay the necessary groundwork ahead of the announcement? Perhaps some of the reactions could have been prevented. 

"We thought the ground was ready as the Right had spoken of nothing but the need for a judicial reform for the past five years. The discussions did not focus on the two-state solution, nor the Palestinians, but on the reform. From the moment the elite resorted to incriminating someone who is innocent, it was a mistake to their detriment, because what was under the surface was revealed by the Netanyahu trial. 

"And if you look at social media, you will see that was the burning issue. Looking back, there is an error of perspective here, which stems from the fact that we did not take into account that there were many centrists in Israel who were unaware of the discourse. And the Left, which buys ink by the barrels, reached them before us. If I tweet, I will reach a maximum of 20,000 Israelis out of a population of 9 million. When it comes to public opinion, the Left wins. And former and current leaders of the judicial system joining the protests is actually a good thing because the truth has surfaced: that it is ultimately a war of the privileged against those who have been left behind and stepped on for years."

Q: So what part of the announced reforms is going to ultimately pass? 

"All of it. The opposition does not reflect the public, but only the privileged. Let there be no mistake: We are the ones in the right; the ones with the truly liberal values, and it's not just about bridging the gap."

Q: Another government initiative that faces strong opposition is disbanding the Kann public broadcaster. Why not propose reform – rather than shutting down – in this case as well? 

"Kann is an important resource, but there is an unfortunate element to it. Its documentaries, comedies, and other works are excellent, and I myself am a fan. In fact, I worked for the company and I know that their quality control is excellent and the employees are professional. But there is also discrimination."

Q: What do you mean? 

"Kann prides itself on diversity, but I myself have been told when working there that 'Netanyahu supporters will not have a voice here.' The last time I checked, Netanyahu supporters made up half the country. "

Q: So how will its closing help? 

"The move will bring populism, appeal to ordinary Israelis, and a free market and will open up regulations and concessions. And the people who oppose it now are good and dear people with whom I interact, but right now they are unable to listen."

Q: But as of now, there is no possibility to open another channel, much less a right-wing one. 

"Well, if Channel 14 News, which identifies as right-wing, reaches a 30% rating, half of Netanyahu's opponents will become his supporters. But it just doesn't have the budget for it. I used to work at Channel 13 News, which is problematic, and Channel 14 News at the same time. I can say that Channel 14 News' entire weekly budget was what Channel 13 News spent on breakfast."

Q: Then why don't you and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi go instead to the people who run Kann and demand diversity? 

"It was already tried in the past, including when I worked there. When there was oversight, there were changes, but as soon as the oversight ceased, it went back to its old ways. Why would it be different this time?"

The appointment of Distel Atbaryan, one of few female members of the Netanyahu government, was a long and tumultuous road. She was first expected to be appointed deputy minister, then a minister at the Prime Minister's Office, and only later was announced to have received the public diplomacy portfolio. Despite being new to politics, during the Likud primaries for the Knesset candidate list she ended up high up, reaching the 10th slot. 

"I did really well in the primaries, she said. "I am the first in the history of the Likud to have succeeded in the primaries after Netanyahu's list was finalized. Usually, people crash. I only had a year and a bit to prove myself, and yet I got a good place on the list that had no earmarked slots, neither regional nor national."

Q: You are becoming the most powerful woman of the Likud. 

"For many years now, I have been writing opinion pieces and over time, tens of thousands of people felt that they had a voice, and I translated that voice to the electorate."

Q: Why do you think there aren't more women in the new government? 

"This time, the Likud decided to adopt part of former Transportation Minister and Labor chief Merav Michaeli's method and earmark places for women in the party. But all it did was create camps, remove free choice – regardless of gender – and turn women against women. As usual, identity politics only made things worse, rather than helping. Otherwise, some excellent women would have made it in. And in general, perhaps instead of hyper-focusing on the number of women in the government, we should look at how many Israelis of Sephardi origin are on the Supreme Court."

Q: And how do you plan to run the Public Diplomacy Ministry?

"I see the Public Diplomacy Ministry as a chocolate factory for everyone involved. I will produce content both for Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli's war against the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement and for Ron Dermer for his campaigns in the Strategic Affairs Ministry. 

"In addition, there are about 2,000 civil public diplomacy groups in Israel and the world that are not in contact with each other, and we need to create a uniform language. The Public Diplomacy Ministry will be the connecting thread. I'm recruiting the best Israeli minds to build a factory that takes people from the national service and schools and produces a headquarters with TikTokers and Instagramers in Israel and around the world."

Distel Atbaryan is the fourth lawmaker – and first woman – to head an independent Public Diplomacy Ministry. Back when it was part of the Foreign Ministry, it was also headed by such famous figures as Aharon Yariv, Shimon Peres, and Yisrael Galili. Today, it works closely with the Strategic Affairs and Diaspora Affairs ministries. 

Traditionally, prime ministers preferred to keep the Public Diplomacy Ministry part of the Foreign Affairs or Strategic Affairs ministries. During the Bennett-Lapid government, for example, it was not independent. As such, certain aspects of it are yet to be organized, even such basics as office space. 

Q: How will public diplomacy be different from what we've known until now? 

"I will not be trying to sell the idea of "fun Israel" with sunny beaches or a place where cherry tomatoes and thumb drives came from because when selling such "goods," the world hits back with accusations of occupation and enjoyment at the expense of another nation. 

"Public diplomacy is supposed to be the exact opposite: first of all, to explain that this is our home, that the Arabs of the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria succeeded in creating a false narrative. There are people today who have made conservatism sexy, like Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and others. The pro-Israel and pro-Zionist sentiment is huge. When they do a podcast, a million people listen. Young people, in particular, crave knowledge. 

"Hasbara, as public diplomacy is known in Hebrew, is – first and foremost – a battle against ignorance, because many people in the world have no idea what is happening here and how Palestinian leaders treat their people. I want progressive students in the United States to understand that if they support LGBTQ and women's rights, then their support for the Palestinians is contradictory. I want them to know that the Palestinians are only oppressed by Palestinians."

Q: What would you say is the hardest part of public diplomacy? 

"Accusations by our best journalists and politicians that Israel has apartheid policies and is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Claims that Israeli democracy is coming to an end. The situation is much more complex because not only am I dealing with antisemitism from the outside but rejectionism on the inside. 

"Take the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, for instance. It informs us of strikes and bombings, but the Public Diplomacy Ministry is the one that has to fill in the gaps: that these are terror targets and that Israel is never the oppressor, but extends its hand in peace, from the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan until the 2000s." 

Distel Atbaryan is also planning to focus on Israel's ties with other nations. 

She explained, "Israel's foreign affairs deteriorated during the premiership of Yair Lapid. Look at the harming of ties with Poland."

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"Look at the situation with Russia and Ukraine. Former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett thought of mediating and ruined things with both Moscow and Kyiv. The United Arab Emirates, Morocco, and other countries of the Abraham Accords, on the other hand, support Netanyahu and are happy with the economic and social cooperation with Israel. 

"When there is a reality of prosperous agreements, there is no need for forced explanation. I recommend to Israelis whose confidence in their country has dropped travel to Dubai or certain cities in the US and say that they are from Israel. They will be welcomed with open arms and told that they love the IDF and Netanyahu." 

Q: You asked the prime minister to establish a war room to help pass the judicial reform. How will that work? 

"I have no interest in acting as a spokeswoman for the government, on the contrary. The reform comes to create transparency. I want to present the systems of other countries versus the ones in Israel. To create digital public discussions. I want to do away with the propaganda, not create it."

Q: In your opinion, what is the essence of the reform? 

"That the voter decides what his or her life will look like, because nine million Israelis know better what's best for them, and not a panel of nine judges."

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The post 'I want progressives in the US to understand that the Palestinians are oppressed by Palestinians' appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

While campaigning, Itamar Ben-Gvir vowed to "protect the house," a.k.a. Israel. He got right to it – having been sworn in as national security minister – this week by visiting the Temple Mount, a move that prompted hysteria at home and abroad.

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He was afterward subjected to unprecedented criticism – especially by the Israeli Left – to which he responded sarcastically, saying he and his wife Ayala were used to "weekly death threats."

Ironically, it was the opposition that catapulted Ben-Gvir to an international level. The storm it fabricated spread the news about the lawmaker throughout the Arab world and his political views throughout Europe.

In reality, the Temple Mount is of little interest to anyone in Israel, except a handful of religious people. Not even the ultra-orthodox population cares about it that much. The holy site is mostly used as an instrument in political games.

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid hysterically claimed that Ben-Gvir committed the most explosive act there was, claiming the move would lead to bloodshed. He must have been so disappointed.

Israel has been traumatized by the premiership of Ariel Sharon, but we can no longer continue with these patterns. Had Ben-Gvir pilgrimaged to Mecca, now that would have been explosive. But there is and should not be anything controversial about his ascent to the most sacred Jewish holy site. Jews are afraid of themselves, like an ostrich that hides in the sand after years of living in the background.

I was amazed to hear Labor's Gilad Kariv, a reform rabbi and head of the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, praise Ben-Gvir for his decision. Freedom of religion is freedom of religion, sanctity is sanctity, and the sanctity of the Temple Mount precedes even that of the Western Wall.

And Lapid, ironically, has succeeded in creating the Ben-Gvir storm that has spread throughout the globe: his gambit was reported by news outlets worldwide and was condemned by Jordan, China, and the United Arab Emirates. The United Nations even convened an emergency session on the matter.

But underneath it all, Dubai is also unlikely to care about the Temple Mount, for what it truly values is economic stability and protection from the Iran threat.

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The post How the Left's approach to Ben-Gvir has backfired appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Commentators enjoy discussing the most religious government ever established in forced trepidation, which is amusing. Half a year has passed since Israel held its breath in anticipation of the Muslim Shura Council members' decision. The prime minister of that time, Naftali Bennett, did not know if the senior coalition partners – Mansour Abbas and Walid Taha – would stay in the government or quit. It all depended on the decision of the leaders of the Islamic Movement in Israel, who went to sleep in the middle of the debate and continued the day after at their leisure.

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Nonetheless, the Israeli public hardly showed any sign of nervousness over having supposedly religious forces taking over the government. Bennett and the then-Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid would be more than happy to switch places with Netanyahu, who is beginning negotiations with the right-wing party leaders who have already started to face anti-religion incitement in official media outlets.

Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich and Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir are religious elected officials who do not seek permission from their rabbis before executing a political plan. While they ask for their advice and blessing, they do not invalidate themselves or their political and practical judgment. Those following the third-largest party's election strategy can likely imagine Rabbi Dov Lior was not the creative mind behind it, and he will probably not be the one who determines the party's other strategies.

No sector-affiliation differences

Israel's Transportation and Road Safety Minister Merav Michaeli's term in office is nearing its end. She indicated that she ceased investing in initiatives that contradict her worldview (roads in Judea and Samaria, for example) and that upon beginning office, she focused on its employee structure and the employees' political affiliation.

Transportation regulations allow the minister to authorize bus operation on Shabbat when specific routes require it. However, aside from anti-religion rhetoric, nothing else has happened regarding this matter. When Smotrich himself served as the caretaker government's transportation and road safety minister, he cooperated with Keren Terner-Eyal, who served as that ministry's director general (a woman! an irreligious person!) and her team, operating in a business-like fashion and maintaining bus services for those who missed the last one on Friday evening, even if it was in the middle of the night.

Neither civil marriage nor marriage of LGTBQ couples will be promoted by this government, just as they were not promoted by the last one. Equal sharing of the military burden? Lapid took it off the agenda long ago. The Western Wall compromise? A hot potato feared by everyone, regardless of sector affiliation. Will the new government force students to take more Judaism classes in school? As a graduate of Israel's secular education, I hope it will.

A crisis can be expected on religious matters only to those who need religious services as the battle over the new chief rabbis of Israel heats up. But the drama that may emerge out of this election could revolve around judicial, security, and interior affairs ministerial appointments. Religious matters are not going to be affected.

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The post It's not the end of the world appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

It happens to a lot of women. Your career takes off early, but you tie yourself to a partner. It can be a lack of self-confidence or a strategy – depending on the circumstances. It can be a wonderful partnership, but political relationships, similar to real estate, need to be sold off at the right moment and move on. If you miss your window, your asset loses value, even if it's just as good as it was a year ago.

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Anyone familiar with Ayelet Shaked's work in the Justice Ministry and Interior Ministry knows she worked hard and implemented a right-wing ideology. However, the number of people who were actually exposed to her performance over the past year doesn't equal one mandate. Why weren't her accomplishments publicized? Perhaps to keep the coalition intact; or perhaps because her partner was weak when it came to public relations. In actuality, in politics just as in life, the woman remains loyal and is also left to pay the price.

For several months, senior Yesha Council officials whispered in giddy tones: Tomorrow, tomorrow Shaked will resign. But one day passed and then another and it appeared that loyalty to a political alliance gone wrong was trumping considerations beneficial to Shaked and her constituents.

Behind the scenes, Shaked hadn't changed at all: Just as she appointed kippa-wearing judges by the droves to change the justice system from the inside, she also prevented Palestinian family unification when the so-called "citizenship law" failed. As interior minister, she kept in touch daily with settlement representatives and continued fighting for them against her colleagues in the government.

Shaked's natural place is in a party such as the Likud, but with people like Religious Zionist Party MKs Simcha Rotman and Bezalel Smotrich, who she worked with in Habayit Hayehudi. Likud voters would have welcomed her had she defected at the right time. Now even her constituents in the settlements won't rush to buy what she's selling again, despite her unwavering devotion to them.

Shaked received five mandates in recent polls. The last time she led a united right she was supposedly destined for greatness, but eventually crossed the finish line with just seven mandates in tow. Who will open their doors to this talent, who discreetly maintained ties with her old political home but on the main stage, in the spotlight, remained loyal to her senior partner instead of standing up independently?

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The post Shaked didn't sell in time, and missed her exit appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Why is it that the high-level travel warning issued by the Counterterrorism Bureau has no effect on the masses of Israelis vacationing in Istanbul? Jalal Bana wrote in Israel Hayom on Thursday that most of the Israeli travelers in Turkey are Arab Israelis. 

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Meaning, the warnings should be published mostly in Arabic, and the leaders of the sector should be recruited to join the efforts. But if it is possible to turn an entire country hysterical because the Iranians are about to eliminate us, then let us not miss out on this opportunity. 

Do you personally know an Israeli who is in Turkey now? Or has just returned? I don't. But I do know someone who is sick with the coronavirus. And another person who has just recently recovered. 

But when it comes to these individuals, the government takes no responsibility. Perhaps because tackling the virus would cost them much more than calling on Israelis to return from Istanbul. After all, if there is no pandemic, then there is no need to pay those affected by it. 

After several unsuccessful attempts to get a refund for the days I spent in isolation in early 2022, I finally sat down this week to get it done. Here is what I found: I will not be receiving the 2,500 shekels ($720) I deserve for quarantining with my child who had gotten infected with the virus.

Why not? Because I did not call the Health Ministry on the first day of the isolation period to inform them of the quarantine. The health fund has a record that my child was sick, as does the Health Ministry. And yet, I was apparently required to pick up the phone one more time to make it clear to them that I, a self-employed single mother, was taking care of a sick child. Gone are the days when parents that did not look after their children were required to report.

The government does not take responsibility for the coronavirus. When the pandemic just began, then-Prime Minister Netanyahu put Israel on high alert, and Naftali Bennett complained that it was not enough. As a matter of fact, his public name was rebuilt as that of an expert on tackling the pandemic.

Netanyahu promised before the elections that the grants given to businesses to survive the pandemic would not need to be returned, yet Bennett's government is happy to take them back from businesses that are going bankrupt left and right.

The message is: take care of your health and financial problems on your own.

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The post Israel must not ignore the damage caused by COVID appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Anyone born after 1980 is old enough to remember a halachic ruling issued while the Kadima government was in power that MK Otniel Schneller, a resident of Ma'ale Michmash in Binyamin, must not be allowed to pray in a minyan. Sixteen years later, Schneller says he is still working on political initiatives to establish a Palestinian state, and adds that the neighbors who turned their backs on him at the time are now his best friends in his community.

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MK Bezalel Smotrich took a leaf out of Will Smith's Oscars display, a strategic mistake in which he shot himself in the foot rather than firing at his opponents. If Smith had taken his wife's hand when they were mocked at the Oscars and kept quiet, we would remember the crude host and criticize him. Today, everyone remembers Smith as the violent one. In one of Prime Minister Bennett's worse weeks, when the end of the coalition seems closer than ever, Smotrich missed the coattails and diverted the public's attention.

On Friday, Bennett will arrive at synagogue just before the four cups of seder wine are poured. The nauseating image of him raising a glass in the Ilka pub in Tel Aviv, the site of a terrorist shooting last week, will still be in the other worshippers' minds, and it doesn't go down well on a night when we remember the people of Israel in Egypt. Even Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked doesn't feel at home anymore in the sector that once admired her, and if there is anything that can spark pressure on her to take action, it isn't the attacks of someone who was once an ideological partner and close friend, and is now waging a battle against her in the media.

There will be no political redemption without a national government, and that can't be formed if the right-wing leaders keep fighting among themselves like kindergartners. Gideon Sa'ar is still turning his back on Benjamin Netanyahu, as is most of the coalition, and not even terrorism in the heart of Tel Aviv is budging them from their narrative of shunning. Bezalel is calling on the other children not to let Naftali and Ayelet be in charge.

Every woman who has given birth knows that at the most critical stage of contractions, an injection of Pitocin could delay the birth itself. Natural processes don't work well with artificial pressure. This government was founded on a clear ethos of boycott, and leaving that narrative behind entails a different set of rules. On the political playing field, games of religion and personal rejection should be a thing of the past.

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The post The Right has to stop with the cold shoulder appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.