Defense Minister Israel Katz says that if his new haredi (ultra-Orthodox) IDF draft bill were adopted, the number of haredim serving in the IDF per year would jump to 4,800 in 2025, 5,700 in 2026, and steadily reach 50% eligibility by 2032, the seventh year of the bill’s implementation.

This, out of a pool of more than 60,000 young haredi men who currently exempt themselves from military or national service.

Deputy Attorney-General Gil Limon immediately retorted that the scope of Katz’s proposed draft does not meet constitutional standards of equality, as insisted upon by the Israeli Supreme Court (and as expected by most Israelis).

More relevant and poignant was the response delivered at a Wednesday meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee by Noa Mevorach of the Religious Zionist “Shutafot LaSheirut” movement (Partners in Service).

In a passionate address, Mevorach held up her husband’s conscription notice for reserve duty, what would be his fifth tour of reserve duty in the IDF since the Simchat Torah (October 7, 2023) invasion of Israel and the massacres led by Hamas. This next tour of duty would take him away from home and from his four kids for the upcoming holidays of Purim and Pesach, just as he was absent from home for Rosh Hashana and Succot.

“The blood of great (Torah) scholars from my community who went to battle for Israel over the past year, the husbands of my friends who were killed in battle and whose kids are orphans – cries out from the ground,” exclaimed Mrs. Mevorach.

“I hear the discussion here in this committee where it is said over and over that haredi men cannot be drafted except by consensus, that they cannot be drafted against their will, that force won’t work. And that the great goal of the proposed new draft legislation is to softly and slowly reach a 50% draft of haredi men.”

“So take another look at my husband’s fifth draft notice! I ask every member of Knesset to consider this: Why am I not eligible for a 50% discount too, for a 50% reduction in the army burden placed on my husband and on the shoulders of my family? Give me a 50% reduction! I’ll take either the holidays of Tishrei (Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Succot) or the holidays of Nissan (Pesach) in this cutback, so that my husband can be home for 50% of the holidays and we won’t have to sit at the holiday table alone or go to my parents.”

“Why am I not eligible for 50% savings? Who decided and with what authority was it decided that one particular population in the State of Israel, the haredi public, is entitled to a 50% discount? I also want the option to choose such a bargain!”

Of course, Noa Mevorach’s demand for relief and true sharing of the military burden is justified on religious, ideological, social, legal, and political grounds. And Defense Minister Katz’s draft/non-draft legislation is a weak, sad sop to the power that haredi factions hold in Israeli politics.

The enforcement mechanisms in the proposed bill – supposed financial sanctions against any yeshiva that does not meet its quota and against men who are issued draft orders but do not show up – are a joke too.

Moreover, the extent of haredi draft that Katz aims for does not meet the IDF’s immediate needs, which is about 10,000 new soldiers, including 6,000 to 7,000 combat soldiers.

Alas, I see no solution for this painful issue, no matter what draft/draft exemption law is passed in this Knesset or the next; no matter what sanctions are imposed on haredi families and institutions.

Haredi leaders are mostly 90+ year old scholars locked into an ideological framework that mistakenly posits spiritual primacy of their Torah study above all else. They are incapable of adjusting to the realities and necessities of Jewish statehood, and unwilling to risk the vast changes in haredi society that would surely follow any significant draft of haredim, even in frameworks that are super-finely tuned to haredi sensibilities.

It would be nice to believe that the trauma and suffering of the past 15 months in the general Israeli public and in the “Torani” (ardent Religious Zionist) community as represented by Mrs. Mevorah, would shock the haredi community out of its crushingly insular shell and nudge it forward towards national service – but nada. It has not happened to any significant degree nor will it.

This is an historic grand tragedy that has the potential to crash the modern State of Israel, no less, in the Heavens and on earth.

I don’t dismiss the slew of impressive efforts to integrate older haredi men and women in soft military and civilian-security frameworks such as the military industries and regional rapid-response Homefront defense squads – such as those being bravely advanced by Eli Paley of the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs. In fact, I salute him.

Nor should one dismiss the gargantuan effort now being made by the IDF, for the first time, to provide a truly haredi-friendly military environment for haredi inductees.

The IDF just drafted a first cohort into its new “Hasmonean” haredi brigade, complete with its own sequestered training base where haredi religious standards on everything from kashrut and tefilot to gender separation and ideological indoctrination are to be scrupulously observed. This impressive effort is headed-up by a smart and sensitive military commander, Col. Avinoam Emunah. (He was chased and hounded by haredi hooligans in Bnei Brak several weeks ago.)

Alas, these fine initiatives only nibble at the edges of the military, societal, and ideological need, which is significant draft to the fighting army of 18 to 26 years old haredi men.

And thus, the arrangements now proposed by the defense minister are both an outrage and a fiction.

Outrage, because they perpetuate mass draft desertion by the haredi community. They fail to nudge haredi leaders towards reluctant recognition of the post-October 7 changed situation and towards even grudging validation of military/national service for mainstream (not just marginal) haredim, yeshiva boys and kollel men.

Fiction, because the target numbers are a boondoggle. Like the previous frameworks for haredi draft over the past decades (the Tal, Plesner, Shaked, and other plans), the numbers will never be met, or they will be massaged to included lots of inductees who are not really haredi at their core, and thus “satisfy” the target goals.

I want to add my voice to Noa Mevorach’s cry. Two of my sons – serious religious men, Torah scholars even, with young families – just received their fourth call-up notices, covering another ten weeks of reserve duty on the Gaza and Judea and Samaria fronts, for the Purim-Pesach holiday period. I too demand a 50% discount for them.

Published in The Jerusalem Post 24.01.2025. 

**The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.**

The perils of predicting political and diplomatic developments are well known, especially in the Middle East. “Black Swan” events seem par for the course (i.e., events that are highly improbable, difficult to predict, and end up having drastic consequences – like the Hamas October 7 attack).

In my crystal ball column of January 2022, I did foresee tough combat ahead. I wrote that “Israel is likely to wage this year a multifaceted war against Iran’s terrorist proxies in the region – Hezbollah, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad – in successive or simultaneous fashion. A full-scale IDF operation to degrade enemy capabilities in Lebanon and Gaza is just a question of time, and this needs to be done before directly striking at Iran in Iran.”

I then further wondered “whether Washington would give Israel full-throated backing in such circumstances of intense ground combat, with all the civilian casualties this will entail.”

The good news here is that President Donald Trump is returning the White House in two weeks’ time, and there is reason to believe that he will give Israel room to maneuver, meaning an opportunity to finish-off Hamas in decisive fashion, and the American backing necessary to truly cut Iran down to size.

This entails freeing Israel from the burden of providing “humanitarian aid” to an enemy in Gaza during wartime (as outgoing President Biden illogically has insisted, something that only has kept Hamas in power), and providing Israel with the massive ordnance required destroy Iran’s nuclear bomb facilities.

Indeed, this is the year (even the season, winter-spring, meaning now) to tackle Iran, when it is at a nadir and before it goes fully nuclear. Iran’s proxies on Israel’s borders have been mostly eviscerated (see below) and Tehran has been stripped naked (by Israel) of its Russian-supplied air defense systems. President Trump can and probably will further weaken Iran with renewed “maximum sanctions.”

I cannot believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu will forgo the historic opportunity to complete his 25-year-long campaign against Iranian domination without a game-changing crushing blow on Iran, a pièce de resistance, which might also blessedly lead to regime change in that country.

In short, there is an opportunity at hand to overwhelmingly reset the regional strategic architecture beyond the knockback already delivered to Iran’s so-called “Shiite arc” or “circle of fire” against Israel.

The dreaded Third Lebanon War is now essentially over, with Hezbollah having lost most of its heavy missiles and its political-military leadership including its all-powerful, longstanding leader. (I predicted the demise of Hassan Nasrallah and Yihye Sinwar. In 2022, I wrote that “Yihye Sinwar will go the way of Saleh al-Arouri and discover that there are no virgins waiting for him in the next world. Hassan Nasrallah will get the chance to make a similar discovery.”)

Bashar Assad has been pushed out of power too, fleeing like a rat for his life from Syria to Russia. Might Abdul-Malik al-Houthi in Yemen and Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani in Syria be next?

The Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan will demand significant attention over the coming year, meaning that somebody is going to have to counter his Ottoman-style hegemonic ambitions and ruthless inclinations. Already he has occupied a swath of northern Syria; he seeks to dominate the entire country (through Al-Jolani) and threaten Israel from there; and he is preparing to carry out genuine genocide against Kurdish forces and Kurdish civilians (not the fictitious genocide of which Erdogan has accused Israel) – unless Tayyip is stopped by Trump, and maybe Israel too.

AS I ACCURATELY predicted, the Israel’s new peace treaties with the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco have held firm, despite the Biden administration’s lack of enthusiasm for the Abraham Accords and despite the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. This is the year that a tripartite US-Saudi-Israeli accord will be reached. It is one of Trump’s top priorities and is well within reach.

Israel will have to swallow some bitter pills to facilitate this, like acquiescence to the US sale of F-35 fighter jets to Riyadh and acceptance of a US-backed Saudi civilian nuclear program. Netanyahu may also have to mutter something about a “pathway” to Palestinian independence in the distant future even though neither he nor the Saudis believe this is feasible or sensible.

For Trump, everything is transactional, and so he will expect Israel to play ball regarding a Saudi deal along these lines. If Israel does so, it will be well placed to expect a return from Trump down the line on issues closer to home, ranging from Israeli assertion of sovereignty in parts of Judea and Samaria to pushback against nasty international organizations that are at Israel’s throat.

Advocates of a strong America and an even stronger US-Israel alliance can only be thrilled about Trump’s picks for key administration posts in defense (Pete Hegseth), national security (Michael Waltz, John Ratcliffe), and foreign affairs (Marco Rubio, Elise Stefanik, and Mike Huckabee). But remember: The likelihood that these people will serve four full years alongside Trump is negligible.

In his first term, Trump hired and fired his top lieutenants frequently. Remember H.R. McMaster, James Mattis, John Bolton, Michael Flynn, and Rex Tillerson? Only Mike Pompeo lasted a full term (first as CIA director and then as secretary of state), and alas he has not been given a senior post in the new administration.

Still on the international scene, hopefully this will be the year that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Pope Francis will take early retirement. Each has tacked to the hard anti-Israel camp with a series of incendiary comments. Isn’t it nice that the World Jewish Congress and European Jewish Congress awarded these very unfriendly figures with their highest awards in 2020 and 2022?

BACK AT HOME in Israel, last year I predicted that Israel would have to increase its defense budget from 60 to 90 billion shekels (from 16 to 25 billion dollars), with large chunks earmarked for a full year of combat in Gaza and Lebanon, long stints of military duty for reservists, rehabilitation of injured soldiers, massive production and stockpiling of ammunition, and for military strike planning on Iran.

Well, that is out the window. The defense budget this past year skyrocketed to NIS 190 billion (not including support for Israelis displaced from the Negev and Galilee), and in 2025 the budget will likely stand at NIS 150 billion (including the annual US defense package).

And that is before the Nagel Committee hits us this month with its recommendations for military restructuring and defense allocations for the next decade. The committee is going to insist that Israel hike spending on defense from 5 to 7.5 percent of GDP, which means tens of billions of shekels more.

Those of us who yesterday completed eight days of saying the Al HaNissim prayer for miracles, can start today saying an Al haMissim prayer for help with handling the massive new taxes that will surely be our burden for years to come. (Nissim means miracles; Missim means taxes).

It would be nice to believe that the trauma and suffering of the past 15 months would shock the haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) community out of its crushingly insular shell and nudge it forward towards national service, but nada. It has not happened to any significant degree nor will it.

Haredi elders (inevitably they are 90+ year old scholars locked into an ideological framework that mistakenly posits spiritual primacy of their Torah study above all else) are incapable of adjusting to the realities and necessities of Jewish statehood.

I see no solution for this painful issue, no matter what draft/draft exemption law is passed in this Knesset or the next; no matter what sanctions are imposed on haredi families and institutions. This is an historic grand tragedy that has the potential to crash the modern State of Israel, no less, in the Heavens and on earth.

(I don’t dismiss the slew of impressive efforts to integrate older haredi men and women in soft military and civilian-security frameworks, but this only nibbles at the edges of the need which is large-scale draft to the fighting army of 18-26-year-old haredi men.)

If there is hope on the horizon for Israel, it comes from those brave soldiers and their families, and from social activists and volunteers, who are the real heroes of the past 15 months of war.

I hope and pray that down the road – say, in 2028 elections – they will emerge as better unifiers with a vision of wholesome Israeli renaissance and nationalist resurgence. They are the proof that mainstream Israeli society is strong, its faith robust, and its grit undiminished.

Published in The Jerusalem Post 03.01.2025.

**The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.**

Over the past 15 years and especially since the atrocities of October 7, annihilationist Palestinianism has become the rave in some “progressive” circles, especially among hard-left rioters on Western campuses. This means dismissal of Jewish/Zionist rootedness in the Land of Israel and adoption of the Palestinian campaign to delegitimize and destroy Israel. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Palestinianism is an ideology and an identity invented by the KGB and advanced by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas ever since he rejected John Kerry’s 2014 peace initiative. It makes conflict in the Land of Israel a zero-sum game.

It fabricates Palestinian inhabitance of Israel going back to the Canaanites and Philistines of the Bible; it inverts Arab rejection and invasion of young Israel in 1948 and the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands by claiming a Palestinian “Nakba”; it turns the Temple Mount into Haram ash-Sharif, denying any Jewish history in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel; and it converts genocidal assaults on the People of Israel like Hamas’ Simchat Torah attack into heroic acts that must be celebrated by all freedom seekers.

In short, Palestinianism is violence against Israeli/Jewish indigenousness in the land of Israel. It savages the core identity of Jews and Israelis. It is an offensive to deny the most basic building blocks of Jewish connection to Jerusalem and Israel. It seeks to strip justice and authenticity from Israel’s very existence, and to upend Israel’s alliance with the human-rights-supporting, democratic world.

And as we have seen over the past year, it directly leads to violent antisemitic battering of Jews and Jewish institutions around the world.

We got a whiff of what was coming back in 2018 when UNESCO passed, davka on Chanukah, a series of nonsensical resolutions (proposed by Abbas), declaring Jerusalem an exclusively Moslem heritage city and criminalizing Israel’s custodianship of the holy city.

Most European nations, those great paragons of “peace” and “love” for Jews, went along with that affront, either voting for or abstaining on the denialist resolutions. Then they doubled down on such perfidy by adopting a similar resolution in the UN General Assembly in 2021.

Then-US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman responded to the UN disgrace by tweeting that “More than 2,000 years ago, Jewish patriots (Maccabees) captured Jerusalem, purified the Holy Temple and rededicated it as a house of Jewish worship. The UN can’t vote away the facts: Jerusalem is the ancient and modern capital of Israel. Happy Chanukah from this blessed city!”

Alas, the gangs rampaging today against Jews and Israelis in the streets of Berlin, London, Montreal, and Sydney have swallowed every bit of Abbas’ bile about exclusive Arab rights to Israel. They ignore the fact that Abbas’ gangs have destroyed Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus, sought to destroy Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, have run Christians out of Bethlehem, and have wantonly dug-up and destroyed thousands of years of Jewish archeological treasures on the Temple Mount.

WHAT DO YOU DO in the face of such defamation and betrayal? What do you do when the Big Lie is evident everywhere?

First, you act to introduce realism and truth-telling to the global dynamic by re-asserting the Jewish People’s profound historic and national rights in Israel and Jerusalem. You insist on a narrative that proclaims incontrovertible indigenous Jewish rights in Israel. You push back against anti-Israel denialism by reinforcing Israel’s sovereign hold on all parts of Israel.

This begins with recapturing a sense of outrage about anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish sentiment. After 2,000 years of demonization and persecution, Jews and Zionists in the 21st century no longer have bear body blows on a regular basis! We are no longer powerless. It is time to re-engage in the fight for Israel with passion and conviction, not apologetics or apprehension.

From a hasbara (public diplomacy) perspective, it is not enough to explain Israel’s security dilemmas or revisit Israel’s past diplomatic generosity towards the Palestinians. What is needed is a much more basic restatement of Israel’s cause and purpose: Israel as a grand historic reunion of people and land; as the Jewish People’s contribution to science, technology, arts and culture in the modern world; and Israel as a reliable anchor for democracy in a dangerous part of the world.

I think that Israel wins when you speak about justice and the Jewish nation.

Second, in the face of betrayal and peril, you act with overwhelming military power to reset the regional strategic architecture and reinforce Israeli deterrence. Israel is now doing this across all its borders, and a fierce takedown of Iran is surely next.

Of course, this presents a heightened hasbara challenge for advocates for Israel –which must be met defiantly and unwaveringly.

For Zionists and advocates of Israel there is no choice but to own-up to Israel’s strength. They must affirm it and articulate how that strength is justifiably and wisely being used to fight Iran, Islamic jihadism, and annihilationist-against-Israel Palestinianism.

Remember David Ben-Gurion’s famous adage about the messianic era when the lion will lie down with the lamb, as per Isaiah? “That will be great,” said Ben-Gurion, “as long as Israel is the lion”!

So, supporters of Israel cannot apologize; cannot be shy about Israeli military prowess. They must articulate the reasons why Israel must be the “lion” and use crushing force to deter enemies and defend its homeland.

I have found that forthright talk has a salutary impact. Without being nasty or unfeeling regarding Israel’s adversaries, one can convey a deep sense of sincerity by articulating core Zionist commitments and clarifying Israeli red lines. People are forced to respect that, even if they may not impute to Israel spectacular charity.

Better shock-and-awe than shrink-and-whimper.

WHEN SEEKING SOLACE and affirmation in these trying times, I also draw inspiration from intelligent and courageous non-Jewish allies. They should be acknowledged and encouraged.

The Emiratis are an excellent example of far-sightedness and friendship. The Emiratis do not bemoan colonialism in their past. They do not wail about anti-Arab discrimination, wallow in negativity, or seek scapegoats. They believe in hard work and in using one’s riches (be they intellectual riches or oil riches) for the betterment of one’s own people. From this perspective, cooperation with Israel is a win-win situation for the Emiratis, and they honorably have abided by their peace treaty with Israel despite global and regional assaults on Israel. 

Indeed, in repeat visits to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, I have found that Emiratis respect Israelis for their faithfulness to Jewish tradition, for their belief in the power of Jewish history, for their loyalty to ancient heritage and unique national identity. Believe it or not, the Emiratis seem to understand – perhaps better than we do ourselves, sometimes – that these anchors of identity are the greatest source of strength and authenticity.

Another shining example of intellectual honesty towards Israel and courage is the Lebanese-Syrian activist Rawan Osman, who features in the jaw-dropping new documentary film “Tragic Awakening: A New Look at the Oldest Hatred.” Osman details her journey from Jew-hater to Jewish believer and supporter of Israel, on the background of an intellectual investigation into the roots of ancient and modern antisemitism.

Brilliantly produced by my friends (and former fellow Canadians) rabbis Raphael Shore of OpenDor Media and Shalom Schwartz of the Aseret Movement, the film offers a bold answer to the question: Why the Jews? Their answer is a classic Jewish answer, the Talmudic answer: Sinah (hatred) of Jews stems from Sinai, meaning that Jewish morals and teachings sourced in the Torah are an “affront” to some in the world. Jew-haters hate Judaism’s empowering, soaring, disruptive message. (That certainly was the case for Adolf Hitler).

Run and see the film, and/or read Rabbi Shore’s provocative new book on which it is based, Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jews? Learning to Love the Lessons of Jew-Hatred. He argues that the best response to those who hate Jews is to embrace Judaism, appreciate its grandeur, and benefit from it. As the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks taught: Non-Jews most respect Jews who are self-respecting.

In any case, it is wonderful that deep-thinking and brave figures like Rawan Osman can rise beyond the decrepit teachings fed to her during her Arab adolescent years.

I take inspiration also from Indigenous activists like Nova Peris of Australia. A double-gold Olympic champion and former Member of Parliament who is lionized and recognized by everyone Down Under, she has become one of Israel’s most outspoken defenders.

Nova electrifies listeners with her discourse on proud Aboriginal identity and Indigenous claims to ancestral lands, making an explicit comparison between the struggle of her First Nations communities and the struggle of the Jewish People for respect and for reclamation of its ancient homeland, Israel.

“The history of the Jewish People reminds me that strength comes not just from right but from purpose, faith, and resilience,” says Nova.

Yes, indeed, in these darks days there are smart, good people who unapologetically stand with Israel. We must take heart and determine to win all our wars unapologetically and smartly too, Maccabean style, ka-yamim hahem bazman hazeh, as in the days of old in these very times.

Published in The Jerusalem Post 27.12.2024.

**The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.**

Education ranks first among the fields where the brightest sons and daughters of the national religious sector are encouraged to contribute, according to a comprehensive survey conducted in July for Beit HaTzionut HaDatit (House of Religious Zionism). In response to the question “Where should the best go?”, “education and social work” was chosen by the largest share of respondents (approximately 37%). The fields of law, media, public and political activity, defense, and religious engagement followed closely behind.

The emphasis on education, even during a time of prolonged and intense warfare that has underscored the severity of the security challenges and amid profound crises in law, media, and the economy, highlights the recognition of its pivotal role. It reflects a deep understanding that education is the key to every area: Leadership, security, science and technology, economic prosperity, culture, and social cohesion. The eternal nation not only does not fear a long journey but believes that only through education can true influence be achieved, a nation be built, and a model society for the future be created.

The devastating war that began on Simchat Torah 2023 continues to shake us, dismantling long-held assumptions and historical paradigms. It forces a profound reckoning with the essence of the state and the unique destiny of our people among the nations. This war has brought us back to foundational values and reminded us – a truth we sought to escape – that we are still fighting for our very survival.

The atrocities, terror, and dread of the monstrous attack that struck us without warning, followed by the sorrow, grief, and heavy price paid, have been tempered by extraordinary stories of courage and heroism. Astonishing self-sacrifice and unprecedented bravery emerged from “ordinary” citizens and soldiers who heard the call and answered, “Here I am.” Our enemies, who expected to find a fractured nation and a weakened army, instead encountered heroes of unyielding spirit and strength – young fighters who revealed the true character of this generation: a generation of valor.

When we ask what shaped these young individuals and instilled in them the values that inspired their heroism, the role of the education system cannot be overlooked. This is not to diminish the profound influence of the home and family, where the roots are first planted, nor the role of community, youth movements, or military service, where the IDF instills these values deeply. Yet preceding all of this are the efforts and investment of the education system — in classrooms, schoolyards, educational trips that connect youth to the land and society, and various social-educational frameworks.

Just days after the education system was once again in the headlines following the concerning results of the 2023 TIMSS international mathematics and science exam, it is important to highlight its role in our resilience during the far greater test of the past 14 months. (This does not absolve the system of its obligation to act urgently to improve performance in mathematics and science, fields that are vital for Israel’s future.)

The education system carries the nation’s most critical responsibility: building the next generations!

It is tasked with fostering excellence and encouraging achievement in both the scientific and humanities fields. Without excellence in science, Israel will struggle to maintain its status as a startup and innovation powerhouse, strengthen its capabilities (including military), finance its many needs, and ensure a high standard of living. Without excellence in the humanities, Israeli society will falter in preserving its spiritual and moral strength, refining its identity, and answering the question, “National security – for what purpose?” The system must cultivate graduates who possess values, knowledge, and skills that enable them to develop as independent, educated individuals with emotional and social resilience, maximize their potential with a sense of purpose, and contribute to society, the community, and the state.

Within the national-religious public, this mission is viewed as a sacred duty, fulfilling the commandment to “teach them to your children.” Here, the education system is expected to instill awe of heaven, a love for Torah and commandments, and the tools to strengthen Jewish and faith-based identity. It must produce graduates who are idealistic, state-minded, proud of their identity, and committed to preserving the Jewish character of the state, the unity of the people of Israel, and the settlement of the land. These graduates must skillfully balance between the sacred and the secular, Torah and work, tradition and modernity, and religion and state.

This mission must be accomplished in a reality marked by confusion, instability, and blurred boundaries between truth and falsehood, weakened authority, technological advancement, tension, polarization, diversity, and separatism. The education system absorbs all social disparities and ideological conflicts, yet it also has the power to influence them, promoting tolerance, openness, solidarity, and a shared sense of purpose.

The challenges facing the education system are immense. These include fundamental questions regarding its philosophy, structure, and processes; planning and budgeting; integrating technological innovation into teaching; upgrading learning environments; and improving its relationship with other related systems. Above all, there remains the fight for quality human capital.

The importance of education is universally acknowledged. The understanding within the National-Religious public that now is the time for its brightest youth to enter education presents a valuable opportunity. While it is not sufficient on its own, it is a strong starting point from which to advance complementary, practical steps.

Published in  Israel Hayom, December 17, 2024.

**The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.**

The yahrzeits of Israeli soldiers who fell in battle at the start of the IDF counter-assault against Hamas, a month or so after October 7 last year, are being marked right now, in mid-Mar-Cheshvan – the bitter, bitter Hebrew month of Cheshvan. (Yahrzeit is Yiddish for anniversary of death.)

One of these slain heroes is my beloved young friend Yonadav Raz Levenstein, may the Heavens avenge his death. Yonadav had the physique of a giant and the soul of a singer-scholar. Given his size, enormous red beard, and outstanding military leadership, he was known as the “Viking” of the Givati Brigade’s reconnaissance unit. Given his calm demeanor and erudite take on all things, he was revered at 23 years old as the wise old man of the unit.

He had married the love of his life, Hadar Karavani, just two months before being felled by Palestinians who popped out of a terror attack tunnel in Gaza. I remember Yonadav’s Givati platoonmates dancing and singing at the wedding with such passion and power that the ground literally shook and the heavens seemed to stir too. He was the youngest son of my dear friends, the Levensteins: the late, great Dr. Michael, and the valiant Leora.

At Yonadav’s yahrzeit gravesite gathering several days ago at Mt. Herzl, and at many other recent cemetery memorial gatherings (far too many!), what I saw was astounding. What I heard was heartening, and what I felt was fortifying.

Of course, there was anguish and longing, pain and pathos, bone-penetrating sadness at the loss of a promising life cut short, and acute compassion for the immediate bereaved family. All this folded into the grim reality of so many other one-year-old military grave markers arrayed in precise rows as far as the eye could see, immersing me in the enormity of Israel’s national sacrifice.

But there was no despair. No regrets, and no wallowing in recrimination. No talk of giving up hope.

Instead, there was pride at the privilege of fighting for the freedom, security, and sovereignty of the Jewish People in the Land of Israel. There was determination to battle on. There was resolve to win against all enemies. It was a tsunami of steadfastness, a demonstration of overpowering ideological devotion to Jewish destiny.

And there was buoyancy: Enthusiasm to live a happy, meaningful, and productive life despite the tragedy – out of allegiance to the fallen soldier and indeed, to the nation at large.

There were young soldiers arriving straight from the battlefield and going directly back to the battlefield, who spoke of the morality and courage they learned from their fallen comrade-in-arms. There were battered and bereaved grandparents offering wisdom about the vicissitudes and vulnerabilities of life, while charging their other grandchildren to struggle on – since Israel’s path is righteous, and its cause is just.

This is what social scientists call resilience.

BROAD segments of the Israeli public are fueled and redeemed by such resilience, driving them to take on myriad tasks of volunteer kindness and brotherly love.

This ranges from remarkable mothers holding down the home front to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis (and Diaspora Jews) who volunteer in myriad ways to make up labor shortfalls in fields, factories, and hospitals. From those who babysit for families of reservists away from home, to those who cook and bake for soldiers on the frontlines. From social workers and trauma specialists accompanying the families of hostages and the displaced and bereaved, to public diplomacy mavens who courageously take on the antisemites around the world.

In short, Israeli society is heroic, compassionate, determined, and resilient. It is a beautiful thing.

Despite the losses of the past year and the grim reality of continued battle that likely will be Israel’s lot for years to come, most Israelis also are optimistic about the future. Dozens of in-depth polls and international indexes of “happiness” bear this out.

For example, a recent survey of Israel’s younger generation (by Glikman, Shamir, Samsanov of the Publicis Group) makes it crystal clear that Israel is blessed with the most believing youth; a generation of future leaders who are upbeat and keen enough to drive Israel towards every success despite the challenges ahead.

Fifty-nine percent believe that Israel is strong, will win all wars, and has a great future. Forty-nine percent say they are mobilized to the military or are volunteering in civilian frameworks and are “devoted” to the State of Israel. Eighty-two percent are prepared (to some or to a great extent) to pause the “good life” in terms of personal plans for work, study, and vacation in order to serve the country, and they are prepared to forgo travel abroad all-together.

The explanations given for such unbelievable optimism and commitment – despite internal Israeli disagreements and escalating external conflicts – range from the rich tapestry of social connections that bind Israelis together to shared cultural and national creeds.

I THINK that Israel also is a deeply believing nation, one of the most “religious” societies in the modern world, and this is a central source of resilience. As “secular” as many Israelis are in their lifestyle, they are simultaneously deep believers in Divine providence over the Jewish People.

By and large, Israelis sense that they are on a grand meta-historic journey; a journey pregnant with spiritual powers and loaded with a moral heritage that has sustained the Jewish People for thousands of years and returned it to the Land of Israel. They know that no Jew lives in Israel merely by chance or on a whim, but rather that there is a guiding hand behind the modern renaissance of Jewish life and peoplehood.

Look at all the prayer assemblies in every corner of this country. Witness the mass Kabbalat Shabbat ceremonies at the hip Tel Aviv Port and Jerusalem Train Station entertainment spaces every Friday night, attended by hundreds. Listen to pop music lyrics on mainstream supposedly “secular” radio stations – songs of spiritual longing with words drawn from the Bible and traditional prayers. You feel the spiritual searching underway, with increasing intensity since the atrocities of October 7.

In data published by the Central Bureau of Statistics, 80% of self-declared secular Israelis say that they “believe in the G-d of Israel.” Eighty percent! In my view, this means that four-fifths of “secular” Israelis are not truly secular! They believe in the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who remains active in Jewish history.

And this, I think, is a central source of Israeli resilience in the face of so much adversity.

Alas, antagonistic-to-religion Israelis (a super minority of the public) drown in their own rancor and displeasure at such statistics. Supposedly “enlightened” but in fact downbeat and blinkered, they are scared by “true believers”– whether they mean believers in God or believers in Jewish rights to the Land of Israel.

What they don’t understand is that “religious” and “believer” need not mean, and generally doesn’t mean, insular, intolerant, or irrational. Rather, it means contemplative, proud, determined, and resilient. It means faith in G-d, confident in Jewish-Zionist rights, and trusting in the Jewish future.

The late, great British Chief Rabbi Lord Dr. Jonathan Sacks wrote: “The Jewish People have been around for longer than almost any other. We have known our share of suffering. And we are still here, still young, still full of energy, still able to rejoice and celebrate and sing. Jews have walked more often than most through the valley of the shadow of death, yet they lost neither their humour nor their hope – because of faith in G-d.”

On Yonadav’s yahrzeit, in his honor and memory, it is appropriate to acknowledge the deep wellspring of identity, loyalty, and purpose that animates this nation. It is important to know the gutsy optimism and amplify the patriotic faith authentically expressed by Israel’s younger generation and much of Israeli society. The Jewish People cannot afford anything less robust.

Published in The Jerusalem Post 22.11.2024.

**The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.**

More than last week’s US presidential vote being a victory for Donald Trump, it was a searing defeat for Barack Obama. This month’s real headline is “Trump thrashes Obama again.”

In a torrent of impassioned campaign stops over the past two months, former president Obama made it clear that this election was a referendum on his policies.

He explicitly warned that unless Kamala Harris was elected president, everything that he stood for and worked for would be washed down the drain. He literally said that the “fate of the nation” hung in the balance.

He said the same thing in 2016 when he strenuously campaigned for Hillary Clinton.

Back then, Obama told voters, ”If you supported me in ’08, if you supported me in ’12, if you think that I’ve done a good job, if you believe that Michelle has done a good job – everything that we’ve done over the last eight years will be reversed with a Trump presidency. And everything will be sustained and built on with a Hillary Clinton presidency.”

Well, there never was a Hillary Clinton presidency, and there will not be a Kamala Harris presidency either. And it is not just because both were flawed candidates. (In Harris’s case, this is the understatement of the century.)

It is because more than half of Americans rejected the notion that Obama had “done a good job,” and they were not interested in “sustaining” his policies.

They didn’t want another four or eight years of stand-ins for Obama on top of his own eight years in the White House and his four surrogate years via President Biden.

No longer able to buy the Democratic message 

They did not buy the Democratic message that everything was swell in America and that all that was needed was a competent Democrat to advance Obama’s superior approach. They didn’t buy the assertion that Obama was America’s leading tutelary figure.

If you’re not familiar with how iconic and messianic Obama is still considered by the progressive “elites” of America and how dominant he still is in Democratic backrooms, see David Samuels’ July essay in UnHerd, titled “The true President of America’s Fifth Republic: Obama, not Biden is the nation’s new Lincoln.” Just who did you people think was running things for the past four years? “It’s me,” writes Samuels in Obama’s voice.

Americans who elected Trump as president in 2016 and again this year were uncomfortable with Obama’s smug assurances of omnipotent everything: That he possessed exceptional insight on every issue, and that he had executed the most-outstanding economic, social, and foreign policy. And that Hillary and Kamala were the repository of this unique wellspring of near-prophetic and superhuman wisdom.

Moreover, it seems that many Americans were turned off by the Democratic-progressive obsession with race, identity politics, quotas, ideological and personal purity tests, and other hallmarks of what is called “wokeism.”

These markers became part of American culture under Obama, ramped up under Biden, and would have roared forward to dictatorially uber-dominate American social and political discourse under Harris.

Championed by the liberal legacy media and radicalized high academia, this discourse was meant to gut the traditional moorings of Judeo-Christian values in American society and to upend long-standing American principles in foreign policy. And so, American voters took down Obama/Biden/Harris, resoundingly.

ON FOREIGN POLICY, think back to Barack Obama’s last UN speech in December 2016. In his swan song, Obama seemed baffled by the stubborn refusal of the world to reform itself in his image and on his say so. How can there still be “deep fault lines in the international order,” Obama wondered aloud, with “societies filled with uncertainty, and unease, and strife?”

Hadn’t his very identity as a man “made up of the flesh and blood and traditions and cultures and faiths from a lot of different parts of the world” served as a shining and irresistible example of blended global peace? How could it be that, after eight years of his visionary leadership, people everywhere were not marching to the tune of Obama’s self-declared superior “moral imagination”?

Unwillingness to project power 

The answer to these painful questions, to which Obama could never admit – nor can Biden – is their unwillingness to project power and confront adversaries.

Both Democratic presidents rejected the traditional and time-tested hard power tools of statecraft. They abjured the use of military force and other forms of raw American power. They knew how to “speak out forcefully” – say, against Iran or the Houthis – but that’s it.

They were simply ashamed of America’s “overbearing” record of decisive global leadership and left America shorn of its ability to shape the world in right directions.

Indeed, they were filled with “contempt” for the notion of America as a moral actor on the world stage (see Ben Rhodes, Obama’s doppelganger, in a 2016 New York Times Magazine interview with the same David Samuels). The words “enemy, “threat,” and “adversary” were not part of their political lexicons. Nor were concepts like “victory” for the West or “beating” the bad guys.

Alas, throughout Israel’s wars of the past year against Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, the Biden-Harris administration has fetishized de-escalation – apart from Biden’s immediate emotional, appropriately defiant response to the initial Hamas assault on Israel.

In the main, US diplomats have spent the past year begging and panting for “immediate ceasefires,” expressing alarm at the possibility of any “escalation,” and distancing themselves from “involvement” in any Israeli military initiative except pure defensive operations (like blocking incoming Iranian missiles).

And they have feigned dismay at the isolation of Israel while paving the way towards that isolation with demonizing sanctions against settlers and with false accusations about Israel’s “starvation” of Palestinians in war zones.

And so, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis (as well as Russia, China, Turkey, and other bad actors) have never taken the Democrats seriously, of course. They have ignored the Biden-Harris-Blinken-Sullivan squad’s exhortations to de-escalate, just as Iran laughed all the way to the bank when Obama signed the JCPOA nuclear accord and released tens of billions of dollars to Iran.

Biden continued the bankrolling of Iran via sanctions relief and the release of seized oil revenues. Iran almost certainly would have obtained nuclear weapons sometime during a Harris presidency with little pushback from Washington.

America’s enemies – yes, enemies! – have not feared the US for years, except when Trump applied “maximum” economic pressure on Iran and bumped off IRGC leader Qassem Soleimani.

THE BEST prescription now for an American reset leading to global stability (and improved Israeli security) is a determination by the Trump administration to neutralize the Iranian nuclear juggernaut, counter Iran’s hegemonic march across the region, and thwart Iran’s proxies.

What is needed is a strategic reset based on overwhelming American power and the presentation of a credible US military threat against Iran – at least.

This includes arming Israel with bunker-buster bombs, not on weak-kneed US protestations of non-involvement in Israel’s wars, desperate exhortations towards de-escalation, nor toothless, soft understandings between Washington and Tehran.

If there is a path to peace and stability in the Middle East, it requires enhancing the firepower of America and its allies, not redoubling the pursuit of “de-escalation.”

Few Americans had this specific perspective on Mideast affairs in mind when they elected Trump over Obama/Biden/Harris last week.

But surely, they felt the vibe – that American wokeness and moral self-doubt were insidious weaknesses. And therefore, they ruled that the Obama era finally must end.

Published in The Jerusalem Post, November 17, 2024 and Israel Hayom, November 20, 2024.

**The opinions expressed in Misgav publications are the authors’ alone.**

Which of the following Mideast-related events can be expected this coming year? Take this quiz and calculate the future you need to be prepared for. (My answers are at the bottom of the article.)

1. Which of the following diplomatic-political events can be expected this year?

a. A coordinated US-Israel strategic strike that finally destroys Iran’s nuclear program and ballistic missile array.

b. A US-Saudi-Israeli diplomatic deal, bringing an end to 100 years of Arab-Israeli conflict.

c. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will triumphantly bow out of Israeli politics after crushing Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran and feeling vindicated by a feeble end to his criminal trials.

d. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will run and win re-election after crushing Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran and feeling vindicated by a feeble end to his criminal trials.

e. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be run out of office by an Israeli public that holds him responsible for the collapse of October 7, 2023, and the escalating regional conflicts that have ensued with no end in sight.

f. Answers a, b, and c. And the messiah will come, too.

2. Which of the following security developments can be expected?

a. Mahmoud Abbas will be overthrown by one or more of the following Fatah leaders: Hussein al-Sheikh, Jibril Rajoub, Mahmoud al-Aloul, Majid Faraj, Marwan Barghouti, Mohammed Dahlan, or a Hamas leader that replaces Yahyah Sinwar.

b. The Palestinian Authority will sign a “treaty of protection” with Turkey and Iran.

c. The IDF will have to retake Judea and Samaria to stem terrorism and prevent a complete Hamas takeover of the Palestinian Authority.

d. The Israel Police and General Security Service will mount a massive campaign to confiscate the tens of thousands of unlicensed weapons in Israeli Arab communities and to shut down Bedouin protection rackets in the Negev.

e. The Israeli government will raise the defense budget from NIS 60 to 90 billion (from $17 to $24 billion), amounting to 7.5% of GDP, forcing massive cuts in social services, civilian infrastructure projects, and all pet political projects.

3. If Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, and/or Avigdor Lieberman were to form the next Israeli government, they would manage diplomacy and security much better than Binyamin Netanyahu has by doing which of the following?

a. Cutting a swift hostage release deal with Hamas, then convincing Egypt to take control of Gaza.

b. Unilaterally withdrawing Israeli troops and settlers from significant sections of Judea and Samaria.

c. Quickly reach a peace accord with Mahmoud Abbas, who will assume responsibility for Gaza and bring stability, good governance, and goodwill to the entire area.

d. All the above answers are ridiculous. None of this is wise or feasible, and neither Gantz, Lapid, nor Lieberman would go there, despite the fantasies of many global observers.

4. Which of the following wins the top prize for the false promise of the past year/s?

a. Hamas is deterred.

b. Israeli military and intelligence “will know how to handle all challenges.”

c. Palestinian statehood will bring peace and stability to the region.

d. Western allies always will back Israel’s right to defend itself.

e. Haredi enlistment in the IDF is inevitable, especially if Israel is patient and invests wisely in higher education and employment programs for the Ultra-Orthodox.

f. All the above, especially d.

5. When will the next Israeli election be held?

a. April 2025.

b. November 2025.

c. In 2025, then again in 2026, again in 2027, and again in 2028.

d. In 2026 or 2028, a fresh crop of brave, battle-tested, and ideologically motivated leaders will enter Israeli public life, breathing hope and inspiration into Israeli politics. These will be the heroic lieutenant colonels (battalion and brigade commanders) of the current war and the equally heroic civil society leaders of the day.

6. Who will win next month’s US presidential election?

a. Kamala Harris, conclusively so, but Trump will refuse to recognize the result, leading to convulsions and violence across the US.

b. Donald Trump, authoritatively so, but Democrats will seek every way to undermine the legitimacy of his second presidency and cripple his administration.

c. The result will be so close and unclear that the determination of the matter will be dragged out for months and dragged all the way up to the US Supreme Court.

d. Once decisively determined, Americans will rally behind their next president and begin to repair their politics and society.

7. Between the November US elections and the inauguration of the next president in January, which of the following can be expected?

a. The P5+1 led by President Joe Biden will sign a soft, capitulatory new/old nuclear agreement with Iran that redefines the “nuclear threshold” in a way that allows Iran to blissfully and not-so-secretly advance toward a nuclear weapon.

b. Iran will test-detonate its first nuclear weapon, and in response, President Joe Biden will bomb the hell out of Iran, decapitating the Islamic Republic’s leadership ranks and all known military and nuclear sites and re-asserting US strategic dominance on the world stage.

c. To rein in and punish Netanyahu, the Biden-Harris administration will hit Israel with an arms embargo, more sanctions against a broad range of settler and right-wing civil society organizations, a vote at the UN Security Council recognizing Palestinian statehood, a nod to the ICC and ICJ to hit Israeli leaders with war criminal arrest warrants, and worse. All this, especially if Trump wins the election.

8. If elected as US president for a second term, Donald Trump will do which of the following?

a. Defund the United Nations.

b. Hit Iran with crushing sanctions and assassinate some IRGC leaders, as he did in his first term – to show who is the boss. But then he too will seek a conciliatory peace deal with Iran, no less than Obama and Biden did.

c. Pursue a grand Israeli-Palestinian peace accord based on misplaced respect for Mahmoud Abbas, misdirected disdain for Binyamin Netanyahu, and ridiculous belief in his own masterful deal-making powers.

d. Green-light unilateral extension of Israeli sovereignty to the broad Jerusalem envelope, Jordan Valley, and settlement blocks.

9. How many rockets and missiles have been fired into Israel from Gaza since Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s vaunted “disengagement” (unilateral withdrawal) from Gaza and the expulsion of Israeli residents from Gush Katif and other Israeli towns in Gaza?

a. 10,000.

b. More than 13,000 this past year alone!

c. 55,000, and at least 10,000 acres of Israeli agricultural fields in the Gaza envelope have been burned too.

d. 55,000, plus 13,000 rockets and missiles launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel in recent months.

10. If on one day, 200 rockets were to be fired into populated areas of Paris, Bonn and London (never mind if this were to continue for months), what would be the “proportionate response” of Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, and Keir Starmer?

a. They would seek to invest billions in the attacker’s economy to improve quality of life and squelch the urge to attack France, Germany, and Britain.

b. They would vote for a UN Security Council resolution calling on all sides to show restraint.

c. They would erase the leadership of the attacking party from the face of the earth. And then carpet-bomb the attacking zone to kingdom come, as the allies did in WWII.

11. World leaders will respond to future rounds of Israeli conflict with Iran and its proxy armies by doing what?

a. Calling on “all sides” to de-escalate and end the violence, while condemning Israel for “disproportionate” use of force and demanding that Israel provide humanitarian supplies to the enemy at wartime.

b. Profess robust support for Israel’s “right” to defend itself but deny Israel the arms and other material necessary for Israel to do so in real war.

c. Cheerfully and generously dump more cash into the sinkhole of reconstruction and rehabilitation for Gaza/Lebanon without serious supervision of how the funds are used (and diverted for military rearming).

d. Condemn Hamas and Hezbollah for firing indiscriminately at Israeli civilian centers and for partnering with Iran in the long campaign to weaken and destroy Israel, while pouring international aid into the rebuilding of the devastated northern and southern parts of Israel and seeking increased partnerships with the Israeli tech and military tech sectors to strengthen Israel and reinforce the Western alliance against Islamist tyranny.

12. The most important prayer that Israelis can offer over this Succot and Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah holidays is:

a. A prayer for enhanced Zionist spirit and backbone, including renewed commitment to national service and winning against Israel’s enemies.

b. A prayer for the hostages, wounded soldiers, and war widows/orphans.

c. “May it be your will, O Lord, that there be great affection and peace among all your people of Israel; that we should all be guided by brotherly love and compassion; that we should accept one another and learn from one another; that we should appreciate all your living beings; and that the misfortune of one person should touch the hearts of all.” (Attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.)

d. “For the Leader, a Psalm of David, a Song. Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; and let them that hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad, let them exult before God. Let them rejoice with gladness. (Psalm 68)

e. “Oh Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs: Oh God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth! Lift up yourself, you judge of the earth. Render to the proud their recompense. Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?… The Lord is my defense, and my God the rock of my refuge. He brings (upon the enemy) their own iniquity, and He cuts them off in their own wickedness…” (Psalm 94)

f. All the above.

MY ANSWERS: 1f. 2e. 3d. 4f. 5d. 6d I hope. 7c I am afraid. 8b. 9d. 10c. 11 Alas not d. 12f.

Published in  Israel Hayom, October 27, 2024.

As Israel fights for its security and battles diplomatic terrorism on the international stage, former Israeli minister and ambassador Gilad Erdan has joined the Jerusalem-based Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy. Erdan will head the Center for Diplomacy and International Cooperation at the Misgav Institute. 

As Israel’s ambassador to the US and to the UN, Erdan spearheaded Israeli diplomacy and public diplomacy. Previously, Erdan served for seven years as a minister in Israeli governments. He was Minister of Public Security, Minister of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy, and Home Front Command Minister, among other. He is deeply knowledgeable of Israel’s national security challenges.

 At the Misgav Institute, Ambassador Erdan will lead projects and research aimed at strengthening Israeli policy in international affairs and its standing on the global stage, including tackling BDS and delegitimization campaigns, and dealing with hostile international organizations such as the UN. He also with work on expanding Israel’s international partnerships. Erdan also will join the institute’s International Advisory Council.

 Meir Ben Shabbat, chairman of the Misgav Institute warmly welcomed Ambassador Erdan. “I have no doubt that Gilad’s knowledge and experience as Israeli ambassador to the US and the UN, and his longstanding involvement in Israel’s national security affairs, will contribute greatly to the success of the institute.”

 Ambassador Erdan said “I am very pleased to join the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy to advance its important work. There is much work ahead to do in exposing the distortions against Israel in international institutions and in repairing them.”

This week, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby denied any US “involvement” in Israel’s intensive campaign of strikes against Hezbollah missile depots and military installations. And he urged “de-escalation.” The Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh similarly emphasized that the US military has “no involvement” in Israel’s Lebanon operations.

Last Friday, Kirby assured Israel’s enemies and the oh-so-concerned world that there was “no US involvement” in the Israeli strike on a senior Hezbollah commander, Ibrahim Aqil. “We’ll let the IDF speak to their operations. I am certainly not aware of any pre-notification (to the US) of those strikes.”

White House Middle East czar Brett McGurk offered lukewarm acceptance of Israel’s targeted assassination of Aqil. (After all, the US had a $7 million bounty on his head for his role in the 1983 bombing of the US embassy in Beirut.) But he followed-up quickly by distancing the US from Israel with a “that said” modifier. “That said, we have disagreements with the Israelis on tactics and how you kind of measure escalation risk.”

When pagers belonging to Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon exploded two weeks ago, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller also averred to every willing listener that America was “not involved” and had “no advance knowledge” of the operation.

“We’re collecting information in the same way that journalists are across the world to gather the facts about what might have happened,” he blathered. Miller added several additional sentences of protest to make sure that nobody could think – nobody at all G-d forbid – that Washington was on board with the beeper blasts attributed to Israel.

After Israel eliminated Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Teheran, John Kirby predictably prattled that the US “was not involved,” and “we don’t want to see an escalation.” Defense Department spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said, “We’re trying to send a message, which is we’re looking to de-escalate the situation.”

After Iran fired hundreds of missiles towards Israel on April 13 (an assault that fortunately was scuttled by Israeli and US and other forces), US President Joe Biden warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US “would not be involved” in any Israeli counteroffensive against Iran.

Kirby, once again professing US innocence and peaceful intentions, was particularly verbose: “As the president has said many times, we don’t seek a wider war in the region. We don’t seek escalated tensions in the region. We don’t seek a wider conflict. We don’t seek a war with Iran. And I think I will leave it at that,” he added.

When Israel nevertheless conducted a limited retaliatory strike on a radar facility inside Iran, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declined to confirm reports that Washington was notified of Israeli plans shortly before the attack. “I’m not going to speak to that except to say that the US has not been involved in any offensive operations. Our focus has been on, of course, making sure that Israel can effectively defend itself, but also de-escalating tensions, avoiding conflict,” Blinken said.

YOU GET the picture: America is not really backstopping Israel with American commitment and power in the confrontation against Iran and its terrorist proxies.

Instead, the Biden administration repeatedly swears on the graves of American mothers and before every international forum that it is “not involved” in Israeli military operations. And it is discombobulated by a de-escalation mantra that is hemming-in and handcuffing Israel.

This is based on a fanciful American dream that a hostage deal and an end to Israel’s assault on Hamas will lead to quiet with Hezbollah and the Houthis, calm in the West Bank and Jordan, and new US understandings with Iran. And magically also lower oil prices on global markets.

Alas, the Biden-Harris administration is still seeking to reset the region through conciliation with and concession to Iran, not confrontation. That is why Washington once again is quietly negotiating with Iran (reportedly in Qatar and Oman) over contours of a new nuclear deal, a deal that will launder Iran’s massive violations of all previous nuclear accords and allow it to remain a near-nuclear-weapons state.

This completely ignores the fact that Iran does not hide its overarching revolutionary and genocidal ambitions: to export its brand of radical Islamism globally, to dominate the region, to destroy Israel, and to subdue the US.

THE PROBLEM is that you cannot defeat evil by “riding the brakes” (per Prof. Gil Troy) or by “fetishizing de-escalation” (per US grand strategist Prof. Edward Luttwak).

What is needed is US determination to neutralize the Iranian nuclear juggernaut, to counter Iran’s hegemonic march across the region, and to thwart Iran’s proxies. Needed is a strategic reset based on overwhelming American power, on the presentation of a credible US military threat against Iran, at least. Not on weak-kneed US protestations of non-involvement in Israel’s wars, or soft understandings between Washington and Teheran.

In this regard, “de-escalation” is the wrong goal. From Israel’s long-term perspective – especially after the October 7 attack, Hezbollah’s entry into the war, and Iran’s attempts to ignite a third intifada in Judea and Samaria – escalation of the confrontation with Iran is inevitable, and at this point even preferable.

Indeed, it has dawned on Israelis and their leaders that this country faces a decade or more of a war of attrition against Iran and its proxy armies, and that an escalation in strikes on these enemies is necessary, not something to shy away from.

Israel cannot live with an Iranian “ring of fire” around its neck. Washington should not countenance this either. If there is a path to peace and stability in the Middle East, it requires enhancing the firepower of America and its allies, not redoubling the pursuit of “de-escalation.”

Alas, “Biden’s mania for de-escalation has prevented Jerusalem from deploying its assets to maximum effect in the current wars,” writes the intrepid American analyst Dr. Michael Doran. Worse still, “the Biden administration has postured the US in this war less as the leader of a regional coalition against the ‘Axis of Resistance,’ and more as a mediator between it and Israel.”

IN THE MEANTIME, Washington wags along with global media elites have reversed causality in their commentary on the wars that Israel is fighting. According to them, it is Israel that has “escalated tensions” with the Palestinians, “escalated conflict” with Hezbollah, “risked escalation” with the Houthis in Yemen, and may yet initiate a “major escalation” with Iran.

Notice the pattern: Wherever Israel defends itself against aggression from these bad actors, it is accused of “escalation.” Much like its equally annoying cousin “disproportionate,” the term “escalation” is a synonym for “unacceptable” Israeli self-defense.

On his Substack blog called “Clarity,” former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren goes one step further. He draws attention to worrying new diplomatic language that essentially guts Israel’s ability to defend itself.

Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, allows that Israel can defend itself, “but how it does matters.” Israel can defend itself, but only if it does not kill too many of the bad guys. Israel can exist, “but we must have a two-state solution…. where the Palestinians have security, self-determination, and the dignity they so rightly deserve.”

Harris’s new boilerplate subjects Israel’s right to self-defense and sovereignty to conditions (like a ceasefire and a hostage deal and “urgent” Palestinian statehood), few of which realistically can be met in the medium-term future.

And as Ambassador Oren notes, the biggest “but” pertains to the way Israel defends itself. The implication of Kamala’s “but” is that Israel must remain defenseless unless it can defeat terrorists without causing large numbers of civilian casualties.

“Israel has the right to defend itself, but too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, children, mothers…” the Vice President exclaims. Since no one in Washington or elsewhere in the world has a recipe for defeating an enemy that hides behind and beneath civilians without causing significant collateral damage, this “but” effectively neuters the IDF.

The “how it does matters” condition also is rapidly gaining prominence in relation to the fight against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The liberal media already is accusing Israel of wreaking excessive damage to Lebanon and its civilians, and risking – you guessed it! – the feared and condemnable “escalation.”

Israel must wage war against this “but.” It is an insidious qualifier which conditions Israel’s legitimacy and strips Israel of the ability to defeat its enemies.

Published in The Jerusalem Post, September 27, 2024 and Israel Hayom, Septenber 30, 2024. 

Everybody who wants to see the West triumph over the radical Islamo-fascist camp led by Iran smirked and smiled just a bit this week when thousands of beepers simultaneously exploded in the pockets of Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and Syria.

Such “schadenfreude,” German for satisfaction felt at someone else’s misfortune, is more than reasonable. 

In this case, it is, in fact, quite healthy and splendidly justified, especially after so many months of seeming Israeli helplessness in the face of thousands of Hezbollah attacks on Israel.

The crafty technological hit on some of Israel’s worst enemies – an intelligence-driven caper straight out of the finest and wildest spy novels – gave Israelis and Jews, supporters of Israel everywhere, and all reasonable analysts a glimmer of hope that Israel is getting back its moxie, its verve, its vigor, its ability to win over enemies.

The ingenious strike that targeted and humiliated Hezbollah’s operational ranks gave supporters of this country renewed confidence that Israel is determined to prevail over the Shi’ite hegemonic juggernaut and that Israel has plenty of effective surprises planned.

This feeling of triumph is healthy. That alone is a strategic victory.

MORALISTS have long despised schadenfreude as a guilty and cheap pleasure, a low emotion unbefitting of mature adults. But the emotions we are talking about in this case are neither cheap nor crude. 

There is no glee here, just a sense of justified comeuppance, of vindication, and relief.

This is why I don’t like the Hebrew term simcha la-ed that is closest in meaning to schadenfreude. It translates as joy or happiness at the misfortune of others – and that smacks of primitivism.

That also is why the English term epicaracy, drawn from Greek and meaning the derivation of pleasure from, or finding fun in, the suffering of others is inappropriate too.

Again, these are not the core emotions at work here. Nobody is enjoying the pain of Hezbollah or having fun in warfare, but rather celebrating a cunning and necessary Israeli military success that comes after a long period of setbacks.

Israel needed this win 

THE TRUTH is that Israel truly needed this win. Many Israelis have grown disillusioned with the Israeli military and the associated intelligence establishment, for failing to discern and warn of enemy intentions, for failing to find and target Hamas leadership, and for failing thus far to decisively win the wars against Hamas and Hezbollah.

The beeper bang-up is only a tactical win, but it suggests that Israel has turned the page – shall we say with a grin, turned the page(r)! – and is now embarking on a more offensive path to crushing Hezbollah, or at least significantly deterring it from further escalation.

Some Israelis also are disenchanted with the Netanyahu government, wildly accusing it of being a heartless government focused only on its electoral base, concerned mainly about just getting through another day in power – not securing hostage release or resolutely winning the wars.

The beeper bang-up suggests that, on the contrary, the government has been smartly planning for a long time for an assault on Hezbollah, and that more intelligent military strikes and diplomatic moves are possible.

Wouldn’t it be good if Israel could disable Hezbollah’s massive missile force with a similar cyber strike? Imagine an electromagnetic attack, a burst of energy that short-circuits the 150,000 Hezbollah warheads aimed at Israel. 

Yes, I would celebrate that with profound schadenfreude (even if it wrought enormous destruction in Lebanon)!

Many Israelis also have been crushed by the ongoing pressures of long-term war: the grief over fallen soldiers, the suffering of the wounded, the torment of hostage families, the dislocations of displaced Israeli families from the North and the South – refugees in their own homeland, the anguish of young families whose fathers have been away from home on military reserve duty for most of the past year, and so much more.

The beeper bang-up does not solve their problems nor does it alone revolutionize Israel’s overall strategic situation. 

But the ingenuity, muscle, and grit evidenced by the strike on Hezbollah does wonders for the Israeli national psyche and especially for those who are in despair.

It suggests that the many sacrifices being made by Israelis will yet carry the day and help overcome the enemy. 

There is some relief if not consolation in knowing that Israeli political and military intelligence leaders have a few more tricks up their sleeve and that the enemy is vulnerable.

Many Israelis and Jews around the world also have grown furious with that world. 

There is great rage at cynical, even malevolent Western thought leaders and politicians who have abandoned Israel by denying it weapons, falsely accusing it of war crimes, and voting to hand the enemy more land.

(See, for example, this week’s reprehensible United Nations General Assembly resolution passed by an overwhelming majority which essentially strips Israel of the right to self-defense and self-determination in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem. To its disgrace, France voted in favor, while Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Australia shamefully abstained.)

The beeper bang-up doesn’t quell anger at the world but it does suggest some pushback. After all, the world (especially the US) has wrongly been pushing Israel to settle for yet another flimsy diplomatic agreement with Hezbollah that essentially would change nothing.

Israel will continue to shake Hezbollah 

So no, leaders of the world, Israel is not going to agree to “de-escalation” or to an agreement not worth the paper it is printed on that would leave the terrorist army’s arsenal intact and let it go scot-free after devastating the Galilee and Golan over 11 months of warfare. Israel is going to beeper-bomb Hezbollah and further rout it out, too.

In summation, by striking at Hezbollah so cleverly, Israel seems to have started back on the path to victories. Therefore, the resultant feelings of triumph as described above are justified, healthy, and very moral.

The self-satisfaction and derision of the enemy as expressed in so many memes and jokes (“If you have Motorola stock, sell short.”) plays a crucial role in binding our society together, especially since the pyrotechnical beating suffered by Hezbollah is not the end of the story. 

Israeli society will yet have to endure more painful levels of conflict with Hezbollah.

Schadenfreude over even temporary and partial subjugation of Hezbollah to Israel’s technological wizardry is a wonderful and worthy thing.

Published in The Jerusalem Post, September 20, 2024 and Israel Hayom, September 22, 2024.