Latest

Two sophomore albums from Israeli musicians have received nominations for the upcoming 62nd annual Grammy Awards. The Anat Cohen Tentet, fronted by Israeli jazz clarinetist Anat Cohen, received a Grammy nomination in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category for “Triple Helix.” Southern Avenue, a Memphis-based soul/blues/R&B band cofounded by Israeli guitarist Ori Naftaly, received a Grammy nomination in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category for “Keep On.”

2019.8 Prevención de Palestina: una historia política desde Camp David a Oslo por Seth Anziska. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018. 435 páginas. libros – Opinión  Por el Profesor Kenneth Stein, Presidente, Center for Israel Education, agosto 2019. El desarrollo de la historia no otorga segundas oportunidades. No hay cambios. El peso de las malas elecciones o el […]

After lengthy groundwork by the National Security Council, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Economic Council, Israel’s political-security cabinet decided to establish an advisory committee to examine national security issues as part of the approval process for foreign investments. The decision comes as a result of American pressure and Israel’s fears of damage to the strategic relations with the United States, after Washington made it clear that it expects Israel to change its stance on Chinese activity in the state.

The idea that has arisen recently of holding elections in the Palestinian Authority appears more serious at this stage than in the past. The main promoter of the idea is Abu Mazen, who advocates separate elections: first for the parliament, and only later for the presidency. Although Hamas has long demanded that the two elections be held simultaneously, a change in Hamas’s stance is evident, following its declaration that it is willing to proceed with the elections, while hinting that it might consent to Abu Mazen’s plan. Yet despite the positive attitude that the PA and Hamas are currently displaying toward elections, it appears that there are still many other barriers to overcome.

“Decision Points” is a new Washington Institute podcast that provides fresh insights into critical moments in the U.S.-Israel relationship from prominent historians and policymakers. The series is hosted by Ziegler Distinguished Fellow David Makovsky, a renowned expert on U.S.-Israel relations, including territorial solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Whichever Israeli government ends up coming to power will be faced with a set of urgent security challenges that are coming from a range of arenas, all at the same time. Critical decisions on these challenges and establishing a defense budget will be the order of the day for the PM and his security and diplomatic ministers.

Following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw United States forces from the Kurdish zone in northern Syria, the international media and many political and military commentators hurried to crown Russia as the big winner in Syria and present it as the entity enjoying free rein there. However, regional actors are in fact in no hurry to cut their ties with Washington; they recognize the limits of Moscow’s power and are leveraging their developing relations with Russia to improve their bargaining position vis-à-vis the United States.

Ankara’s provocative policy stems from its worries about being boxed in by rivals in the East Mediterranean, some old (Greece and Cyprus), some new (Israel and Egypt). Erdogan seemingly believes that he can undermine this supposed “anti-Turkish axis” by challenging maritime zones around its weakest link, Cyprus—an approach in keeping with his more offensive-minded foreign policy in the neighborhood (e.g., see his ongoing intervention in Syria). Unlike his predecessors, Erdogan feels empowered to pursue Turkey’s interests unilaterally, even at the price of regional isolation.

October 2019 Israeli Voice Index revealed a decline in Israelis’ assessment of President Trump’s commitment to Israel’s security. The survey also found that 62% of Israelis support the parties they voted for in the last elections, seeking to join a Blue and White led coalition.

Assembled by Ken Stein and Eli Sperling Emory University and Center for Israel Education kenstein@israeled.org or kstein@emory.edu David Adesnik and Aykan Erdemir, “Trump’s first mistake in Syria was ever trusting Erdogan at all,” Foundation for Defense of Democracies, October 17, 2019. https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/10/17/trumps-first-mistake-in-syria-was-ever-trusting-erdogan-at-all/ Jawad Anani and Shimon Shamir, “Jordan-Israel Peace at Twenty-Five: Past, Present, and Future,” Washington Institute […]

The ultimate result of September’s election in Israel is still unclear. We do not yet know what type of coalition will be formed, when it will come together, or who will head it. We do know, however, that Israeli democracy had dodged a bullet. This is because, no matter who takes the reins of government or even if Israel holds a third round of elections, a radical assault on our judicial system has been halted.

The discharge of men inducted into the IDF from July 2015 began in March 2018, after 32 months of compulsory service (compared with 36 months until then). A law stipulating a further shortening of compulsory service for men is supposed to apply to those drafted from July 2020, such that they will serve 30 months. However, according to media reports, the past year has heard dissenting voices within the military against adopting this shortened service, in view of the increasing security challenges.

Given the turmoil in Syria, sectarian violence in Iraq, Lebanon’s economic woes, Turkish military adventurism, and Iran’s regional mischief-making, the October 2019, US bipartisan congressional delegation visit to Amman made great sense. It emphasized that for Washington, Jordan is a critical geographic and political asset for America and, for anyone else interested in preserving some measure of regional stability in at least part of the tumultuous Middle East.

In Israeli history books, the term is conjured every time the nation faces a major juncture that requires individuals and factions to transcend partisan loyalties. Judging from their behavior in the recent elections, Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz both appear to be fuzzy on the meaning of the word.

David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon would have faced up to the moment. Even though they did not share the same ideologies, they did share a common view of leadership and the role of the prime minister. First and foremost, they understood what was important. They never shied away from making painful decisions in which they put the state, not their political needs, first.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continues to take the hardline Iranian stance regarding anything related to the management of the nuclear crisis with the West. After the failure of attempts by French President Emmanuel Macron, which “nearly” led to a meeting between Presidents Trump and Rouhani, the Iranian Supreme Leader stated at a meeting of the leaders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that Iran would continue with its policy of reducing the level of its commitments to the nuclear deal: “The policy of ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran as a way to force it to compromise has been a resounding failure.”

Watch as two pioneers of Israeli-Jordanian peace assess the state of their countries’ relations on the 25th anniversary of their historic 1994 peace treaty.

Fears of a potential military conflict with Iran may have opened the door to a Saudi-Iranian dialogue against the backdrop of a rethink of US military logistics, involving at least a gradual partial relocation to the US of command and control operations based in the Gulf for almost four decades.

On October 9, Turkey launched its long-expected military operation into north Syria with the goal of undermining the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG). Why did Ankara act now? What are the operation’s tactical objectives? And how does the decision fit into the Trump administration’s own objectives in Syria?

Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s calls to invite Israeli Arabs to live and work in Saudi Arabia could be either a diplomatic breakthrough or a cynical ploy. If the former, it could indicate that at long last, the Arab world is awakening to the possibility that to fully enter the modern world, it must normalize relations with Israel.

Anti-Israel mobilization and rhetoric have always been a prominent feature of official Arab discourse, regardless of political orientation. Islamist, nationalist, and secular parties have all seen vocal hatred of Israel as a cornerstone for rallying support and a vehicle to spread unrelated political messages to achieve related objectives, with unrelated acts being framed as forms of ‘resistance’ against Israel. However, the Syrian civil war has slowly shifted the dynamic of who is considered ‘enemy’ in the Arab world.

Assembled by Ken Stein and Eli Sperling Emory University and Center for Israel Education kenstein@israeled.org or kstein@emory.edu Einat Admony, “How Celebrity Chef Einat Admony Learned to Love Israeli Food,” Daily Beast, September 17, 2019. https://www.thedailybeast.com/an-essay-from-chef-einat-admonys-new-book-shuk Tony Badran, “Welcome to the End of the Process,” The Caravan Journal, September 26, 2019. https://www.hoover.org/research/welcome-end-process Dany Bahar and Zvi […]

September 2019 Israeli Voice Index found that a majority of Israelis prefer a unity government. Additionally the majority of Israelis do not think the State should offer Benjamin Netanyahu a plea bargain or that he would agree to one. In the September survey we found a significant increase in the rate of Israelis who are optimistic about the future of democratic rule and about the future of Israel’s security. The increase is evident particularly on the left and in the center and does not exist in the right-wing camp (Jewish Israelis) where there was a decline in optimism.

Vladimir Putin sees an opportunity in escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf, but his attempts to make the most of it have been clumsy and could be self-defeating. When Saudi Arabia’s six battalions of US-made Patriot batteries recently failed to detect drone and missile attacks on two of the country’s key oil facilities, knocking out half of production, Putin saw an opportunity, and urged the kingdom to move ahead with the acquisition of Russia’s much-touted S-400 anti-missile defense system.

There is much discussion around the world about how to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. But few, if any, international bodies deal with the question of how to prepare for the day Iran achieves such capabilities, if that day has not already arrived.

The study finds that most Arab Israelis are in favor of the Arab parties joining the government, but do not recognize Israel’s right to define itself as the nation-state of the Jewish People. Additionally – 65% of Arabs are proud to be Israeli – the highest since 2003.

The present volume of the Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann begins with the Allied victory in Europe and ends in the investigation of the Palestine problem by the United Nations Special Committee. Within this period Weizmann was reduced from being the President of the Jewish Agency and the acknowledged leader of his people to a lonely figure, virtually retired from public life. This was because he continued to place his faith, at least until the summer of 1946, in cooperation with Great Britain, the Mandatory Power, while his principal colleagues in Zionism were adopting the ways of violence in Palestine.

After an unprecedented second round of elections – the final outcome is still unclear. We’re now entering the next stage of the political lifecycle: coalition negotiations. The Israel democracy Institute provides detailed analyses of this election’s outcomes compared to others in Israel’s history.

This election will be less about which candidate ends up as prime minister, but rather the real possibility of radical judicial reforms that might soon pass in the Knesset and which would limit the Supreme Court’s ability to perform crucial oversight over the political system.

The relationship between Israel and the American Jewish community has been central to the ability of both communities to develop and flourish over the past 70 years; it is likewise vital to the national security of Israel and the entire Jewish people. The current generation has witnessed increasing trends of distance and alienation between Israel and American Jewry, a weakened connection and sense of mutual belonging, and the decline of responsibility and involvement between the two communities. These join the challenges concerning the continuity of the American Jewish community and its political and social influence within the United States.