Ruthie Blum

The significance of Netanyahu’s address to the nation

Though the Israeli prime minister’s statement lacked dramatic breaking news, it was a message that everyone at home and abroad needed to hear. Remember FDR's fireside chats in WWII? Opinion.

Passover:

Long division and a short memory

There’s nothing new about Jewish disunity, which makes our story even more miraculous. Opinion.

Methinks the left doth protest too much

A U.S. probe of the money trail to the Israeli machine operating to topple Benjamin Netanyahu should cause the movement's radical engineers to shake in their Birkenstocks. Opinion.

Striking when the iron’s cold

“Operation Strength and Sword” in Gaza upstaged the protest movement’s plans to escalate its war against Benjamin Netanyahu on the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. They were furious. Opinion.

US, Israel, and Ukraine

Unlike Zelenskyy, the darling of the West, Netanyahu’s been vilified and his country condemned, even by allies, including Ukraine, at the United Nations. Opinion.

Babies in bandanas

The children of Gaza and the Palestinian Authority are raised on a steady diet of hatred in which their parents take part. Their heroes are bombers, not Batman. Opinion.

Yoav Gallant’s exit, stage left

Too bad he didn’t take a hike long ago, when he first revealed his real fealty and true khaki-green colors. Opinion.

Yair Lapid’s Orwellian idiocy

The Israeli opposition leader’s hysterical rant about representing “the majority” gives new meaning to stupid ideas. Opinion.

The ‘day after’ chorus was always singing out of tune

The fall of the Assad regime highlights the foolishness and true motive of those accusing Netanyahu of not having a plan for a post-Hamas Gaza. Opinion.

Bibi’s latest challenge

With Israelis divided over the ceasefire, Netanyahu needs to persuade the public that he’s not capitulating to Hezbollah—or the Biden administration. He tried to do that in a recent interview, part of which is brought here in translation. Opinion.

Fighting Lawfare:

Penalizing the criminal international court

Shame on Team Biden for having imagined that it’s “better to engage” with the ICC than impose sanctions on it. Opinion.

Amos Schocken’s lies, Bill Clinton’s truths

The "Haaretz" publisher calls Palestinian terrorists “freedom fighters,” while the former U.S. president highlights their history of rejectionism. Opinion.

No, Bibi didn’t agree to the insane Biden-Macron proposal

Hearing the initial report of a 21-day ceasefire, Israelis went as ballistic as the missiles being fired at them from every direction. Op-ed.

Restating the obvious: Hamas isn’t negotiating

“Unfortunately, many people repeat the narrative that in fact we are the ones preventing a deal,” said Gal Hirsch. “But this is a lie.” Op-ed.

Kamala's narrative of moral equivalence

The news of another six murdered hostages, among them American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, makes the U.S. administration’s pressure on Israel for an end to the war all the more appalling. Op-ed.

The high cost to the hostages of ‘enlightened’ hypocrisy

Sound policy does and should drown out the Bibi-bashing for the sake of the men, women and children in the clutches of an actual monster. Op-ed.

Joe Biden’s sycophants in the Hebrew media

That broadcasters Oded Ben-Ami and Yonit Levi are able to take time out of their frenetic schedules to hail the U.S. president as a high-functioning Zionist hero is as politically transparent as it is embarrassing. Op-ed.

En route to Beirut?

Israel must stop engaging in tit-for-tat strikes against Hezbollah and launch a serious campaign in Lebanon. "Red lines” aren't merely for coloring books. Opinion.

‘If only we had known’

Neighbors of the hostage-holders in Nuseirat express self-pity, not sorrow for the captives next door. Op-ed.

Heroes in flip-flops

In Gaza, they’re battling Hamas. When on leave in Israel, they’re changing diapers. The contrast is both charming and jarring. It is also in contrast to the op-ed posted before it, titled "My brothers, do not commit this wrongful act."

Has Israel’s security apparatus learned nothing from Oct. 7?

The quiet release of Shifa Hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya to Gaza is a travesty that must not go unpunished. Opinion.

‘Leadership’ and ‘unity,’ Ehud Barak-style

A new research center at Tel Aviv University is backed by and named after the failed former prime minister who’s been fomenting societal schisms. Op-ed.

The ‘conceptzia’ is harder to combat than Hamas

The IDF spokesman should learn to keep his pre-Oct. 7 ideas to himself or take a hike with his boss, Herzi Halevi. Opinion.

Compassionate Israelis, complicit Gazans

The heroic hostage-rescue operation brought out the best in the Jewish state and typical sociopathy in the Strip. Op-ed.

Labor Party pipe dreams

Outlawing Yair Golan’s despicable activism and statements bordering on treason during war isn’t the best way to discredit him. He does that all on his own. Op-ed.

Hamas barbarism in living color

Even impeccable Israeli "hasbara" can’t compete with Pallywood productions and comparable fake news, regardless of how blatantly mendacious. Op-ed.

Gallant, go home

The Israeli defense minister’s disgraceful display was—in the words of the late baseball great Yogi Berra—“like déjà vu all over again.” And despite the protests against him, he has the gall to speak about his "plan." Opinion.

Lindsey Graham lets Lloyd Austin have it

“This is Hiroshima and Nagasaki on steroids,” the South Carolina senator told the defense secretary about Israel’s need to defeat Hamas in Gaza.

The perils of a bad deal

We can’t let policy be dictated by the feelings of the families and friends of the hostages. Take the case of Gilad Shalit, for example. Opinion.

Shai Davidai’s war on campus antisemitism

It takes courage and a dire situation for a left-wing academic to risk his livelihood and social standing to combat Hamas-inspired Jew-hatred. Opinion.

Iran’s attack was a casus belli, not a ‘retaliation’

Dubbing IRGC headquarters in Syria a “diplomatic mission” is like calling Shifa a hospital. Opinion.

It ain’t over ’til it’s over

Contrary to panicked assessments, the exit of troops from Khan Yunis doesn’t signal the end of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. Opinion.

Blinken’s Rafah blunder

The U.S. secretary of state’s warnings to Israel are music to Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar’s ears. Opinion.

Yahya Sinwar’s false hopes for survival

If the Hamas chief believes that condemnation of IDF actions in Gaza is going to end the war and leave him in power, he’s existing in a pre-Oct. 7 universe. Op-ed.

Anti-haredi sentiment and the haredi boycott of Angel Bakeries

Former Public Security Min. Barlev is a private citizen but he’s also the chairman of a commercial enterprise. Op-ed.

The Jerusalem rally was a reminder-the left, not democracy, lost

The Orwellian doublespeak of the Israeli left is so blatant that it’s putting regular propaganda to shame. Op-ed

Op-Ed:

Tears of heartbreak and joy

Baruch Ben-Yigal’s story is a perfect metaphor for the indelible link between death and rebirth that is Israel’s curse and blessing.Op-ed.

Israel's memorial days and inexcusable hyperbole

President Herzog conveyed an appropriate Yom Hashoah message, but the people who most needed to heed it weren’t listening. Op-ed.

Op-Ed:

Saluting the unsung heroes of the Israeli Air Force

The well-deserved high standing of IAF pilots has gone to their heads. Op-eds.

Op-Ed

The Israeli defense minister’s shameful retreat

Prominently on display in Yoav Gallant’s speech were two traits that make him unfit for his job: cowardice and betrayal. Op-ed.

Denouncing judicial reforms won’t have the effect Herzog desires

Herzog's attempt to broker a compromise by appeasing the “resistance” is a waste of time. Op-ed.

Op-ed:

Three Jewish funerals and an Israeli hate-fest

The terrorist murder of two children and a newlywed didn’t put a dent in the demonstration against the so-called “death of democracy.”Op-ed.

Op-ed:

The Israeli left’s violent rhetoric and phony ‘apologies’

It’s hard to believe that the anti-government propagandists could sink any lower, but they managed this week to outdo themselves.Op-ed.

Op-ed:

Terror in Jerusalem, PLO flags in Tel Aviv

Protesters bemoaning a concocted danger-the “death of Israeli democracy”-made a mockery of the actual mass murder of innocents. Op-ed.

Lapid’s lament: ‘There’s only one truth, and the rest is a lie’

The reductive portrait of Israelis’ connection to the Jewish state painted by the country's opposition leader is beyond the pale. Opinion.

Penalizing Palestinian Arab lawfare

The new gov't responded harshly to the P.A.-spurred UNGA resolution calling on the Hague for an opinion on Israeli “occupation." Op-ed.

The false prophets of an impending Israeli apocalypse

With dire predictions about the end of democracy, the sore losers to the new government will do even worse in the next election. Op-ed.

Op-ed:

Israel’s new diaspora minister hits the ground running

Min. Chikli ordered an immediate halt to Nachman Shai's multi-million-shekel contribution to a leftist NGO with a progressive agenda. Op-ed.

Is Alan Dershowitz right to warn against the ‘override clause’?

The world-renowned attorney has proven trustworthy in his views on the Jewish state, even if one disagrees with some of them. Op--ed.

No, Hady Amr is not ‘our friend’

AJC's lauding Biden appoiintee anti-Israel Amr after expressing concern about the incoming government in Jerusalem is beyond inexcusable.

No, the ‘override clause’ won’t ‘crush’ Israeli democracy

The case for the incoming coalition to reduce the Supreme Court’s self-invested power to rule against laws enacted by the Knesset. Op-ed.

Judgment day for Israel’s legal system

The punishment for a Bedouin who sodomized a little girl in her Negev home shows the need for a “full, full, right-wing” government.Op-ed;

The hypocrisy of the Israeli left’s calling dibs on democracy

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Comm. chairman,says that if the public chooses Netanyahu, Israel will morph into the 3rd Reich.Op-ed

Yair Lapid’s holiday bloopers

Just as worrisome as his ignorance of basic Judaism is the fact that he can't even fake it. What awaits us for Sukkot, I wonder. Op-ed.

Look who’s interfering in the elections to block Netanyahu win

Israeli voters must take into account that Iran and the PA are working to keep the Likud Party leader from reassuming the premiership.Op-ed.

The political suicide of the Israeli elite

The anniversary of the death of Dudu Topaz is a reminder of the cultural root of polarization in the Jewish state. Op-ed.

Honoring Joe Biden, dishonoring Taylor Force

That Biden, who reversed the freeze on US aid to the “pay for slay” PA, is receiving Israel’s Presidential Medal is worse than ironic.Op-ed.

Bolstering Bibi by deriding his backers

Former Israeli TV anchor Gadi Sukenik’s critique was clear: Anyone casting a ballot for Likud belongs in the baboon category. Op-ed.

Fear terrorism, not the Israelis defending against it

Contrary to the aspersions cast by external or internal ill-wishers, Israelis are far from trigger-happy. Op-ed.

Jihad by any other name

There it was: an admission that the ‘nakba’ always has been the root of the conflict, which is why 2 states are not what the PA seeks.Op-ed.