To prevail in future wars, Israel will always need to be the “fittest" adversary. Recalling Charles Darwin and his interpreters, this signals a continuing capacity to “adapt" as required. Opinion.
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."-Archilochus.
Reduced to its essentials, a worst case scenario for Israel would commence with progressively explicit warnings from Moscow or China about new Israeli preemptions against Iran. Opinion.
Unlike Israel, which expressly laments the collateral damage of its self-defense operations in Gaza and elsewhere, jihadi rocket fire and terror attacks are the relentless product of “criminal intent.” Opinion.
By his recent agreements with Qatar and Turkey and his expanding financial relations with Saudi Arabia, Trump makes it clear that maintaining Israel’s “qualitative edge” will no longer be Washington’s top regional priority. Opinion.
More than anything else, Israel’s survival will require intellectual supremacy. Opinion.
Though Jerusalem’s defense and security policies ought always to be science-based, these policies would still benefit from variously other refined understandings. Opinion.
The pipe dreaming Gaza peace plan hits reality. And things go back to where they were. Opinion.
What should Israel do to slow down approaching chaos? How shall such potentially irremediable circumstances be averted? Opinion.
The fact that Hamas terrorist leaders sought safe harbor in a friendly sovereign state did not mean they were no longer subject to law-mandated punishment or that the principle of sovereignty immunized the terror-protecting state (Qatar) from Israeli law-enforcement. Opinion.
“A man should never put himself in a place of danger, and say that a miracle will save him, lest there be no miracle…" - Yannai.
Under international law, terrorists are hostes humani generis or "common enemies of humankind." This category of criminals invites punishment wherever the wrongdoers can be found. Opinion.
International law is not a suicide pact. Even amid long-enduring world-system anarchy, such law offers a binding body of rules and procedures that permits a beleaguered state to express an "inherent right of self-defense." Opinion.
A “Two-State Solution” would enlarge not “only” the jihadi terror threat to Israel (both conventional and unconventional), but also prospects for a catastrophic regional war. Opinion.
Because it is still credible that Iran would manage to “go nuclear” itself, as one of several possibilities, Israeli strategic planners need to examine multiple narratives of nuclear war. Opinion.
International law is not a suicide pact. Ipso facto, Israel has no legal obligation to carve an enemy state aggressor from its own still-living body especially when recent recognition of “Palestine” by four major states misses larger justice issues altogether. Opinion.
The limits of Israel's nuclear ambiguity.
For Israel, the time for “deliberate nuclear ambiguity” has come to an end. Opinion.
Yet again, Israel is waging mandatory war against an exterminatory foe, this time a jihadist terrorist organization that seeks annihilation for Israel, eternality for its “martyrs” and luxury-laden safety for its leaders. Opinion.
Israel has been conducting secret direct talks with Syria to lower tensions between the two countries. Anything more is wishful thinking.
“The worst is not yet, so long as we still say, `This is the worst.’” Shakespeare, King Lear.
Isolationism is not a solution. It is the problem. Opinion.
Deliberate Israeli imaginations of approaching disappearance could help the People of Israel in suitably identifying what needs to be done for survival. Op-ed.
Israel's overlooked survival obligation. Opinion.
Navigating Hamas barbarism needs knowledge of what the law allows. And Israel's war is unequivocally within its rights. Opinion.
For jihadist terrorists, there can never be distinctions between civilians and non-civilians, between innocents and non-innocents, so although judicial procedures against them would be ideal, international law must not become a suicide pact. Opinion.
Whatever differences emerge between Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its predecessors, whether suddenly or incrementally, all jihadi groups will continue to embrace terrorism as a redemptive expression of religious sacrifice. Opinion.
A gathering of dust: Everything on this planet must depend upon the dignity, courage and "emancipation" of the individual human being. Absolutely everything. Opinion.
Israel must be prepared for an Iranian nuclear conflict that is deliberate, unintentional or even accidental. Opinion.
Israel’s growing nuclear war hazards include variously tangible scenarios of Russian or North Korean interventions on behalf of Iran. Opinion.
Israel needs less faith in “common sense.” It needs more faith in disciplined and refined strategic reasoning. Such reasoning will have to be logic-based and dialectical. Opinion.
Israel and the "sting of the bee." Recall that one type of honey bee dies after it has stung. Op-ed.
Israel must take into account Russia’s escalating threats to deter Israeli preemptive strikes against Iran. Opinion.
International law is not a suicide pact. In fact, Israel’s targeted killing of jihadist murderers like Sinwar is indispensable to justice. Opinion.
For Israel, the underlying existential threat is an adversary who identifies deliberate violence against Jews and the Jewish State as “sacred.”
Israel’s current war with a not-yet-nuclear Iran could represent the Jewish State’s last best chance to prevent nuclear war in the Middle East.
Assessing the imminent risks of an Iran-Israel nuclear war. Opinion.
Our mortal enemies are desperately seeking immortality. We have to find a way to show them that murdering Jews is not the way to achieve it. Opinion.
Why an Israeli agreement on ceasefire would never be honored by its Jihadist foes. Opinion.
A “Two-State Solution” would enlarge not “only” the jihadist terror threat to Israel (conventional and unconventional), but also prospects for major regional war. In these existential security matters, Israel doesn’t need more common sense. It needs disciplined and dialectical thought. Opinion.
Israel's law-based obligation to prevent Iranian nuclear weapons. Opinion.
Listening to Iran’s repeated threats to initiate aggressive war with Israel, something seems to have been overlooked: Israel is a nuclear power; Iran is not. Opinion.
If North Korea became a party to nuclear threats against Israel, Israel’s actual war would always be against Iran, and North Korea would be operating against Israel solely as Iran’s nuclear surrogate. Opinion.
For Israel, the only successful outcome of military conflict with Iran would be a tangible reduction of Iranian nuclear war fighting capabilities and intentions. Op-ed.
The jihadist’s “heroic armed struggle” is never about geo-political settlements or compromises. It is always about God, immortality and a defiling vision of “ecstasy.” Opinion.
Must the virtuous state accept barbarism as its sine qua non to “stay alive”? Opinion.
Iran-backed Hamas (Sunni) and Hezbollah (Shiite) crimes have nothing to do with achieving Palestinian Arab sovereignty or statehood. For these terror-criminals, what is being sought is the sheer ecstasy of primal human barbarism. Opinion.
How should one correctly identify a Hamas leader’s call for “necessary sacrifices” when the human subjects of his harsh decree do not include himself? Sinwar’s call represents a cry of incomparable cowardice. Opinion.
Institutionalized criminal defilement is the most accurate description of the attempts to recognize a Palestinian state. Op-ed.
In a worst case scenario, Israel would fail to prevent a nuclear Iran, and Iran would become the first adversary to fire its nuclear weapons. Opinion.
Israel "escalation dominance" and nuclear war with Iran. Three catastrophic scenarios have now been rendered more likely by US President Joe Biden’s embargo on terror-fighting weapons to Israel. Opinion.
Ambiguity or openness? Opinion.
Looking behind the news. Unless Israel can understand that a nuclear Iran should be prevented at almost all conceivable costs, Israel will sometime be defeated by time. Opinion.
This is not a moment for Israeli strategic thinking to become confused or shortsighted. Opinion.
The United States, Israel and regional nuclear war: A “Two-State Solution” would enlarge not “only” the jihadist terror threat to Israel (both conventional and unconventional), but also the prospect of major regional war. Opinion.
There is no reason to believe that "Palestine" would ever make good on any pre-independence promises to support Israel’s irrevocable rights to "peace and security." Israel must use that against its proponents. Opinion.
Israel's targeted killing and counter-terrorism is justified in today's world. International law is not a suicide pact, especially when an adversary remains indifferent to its unassailable claims. Opinion.
Because there has never been an authentic nuclear war (Hiroshima and Nagasaki don't "count"), determining relevant probabilities is a sorely problematic task. Opinion.
At some point, a nuclear war involving Israel may become more imaginable. Israel’s corresponding responsibility should be to prepare prudently and systematically for all contingencies, as outlined below. Op-ed.
The lawlessness of "heroic operations." What does international law actually say about these incessantly dissembling circumstances in the Middle East? Op-ed.
