Rabbi Steven Pruzansky

Understanding Trump

it seems that Trump’s grievance with Netanyahu is the PM's insistence on safeguarding Israel’s vital interests in the case of Trump's characteristic desire to 'strike a deal' - this time, with Saudi Arabia. Opinion.

The People’s Republic of Israel

For clarity’s sake, will the media, military, and judicial elites soon rename our country the “People's Republic of Israel” or the “People's Democratic Republic of Israel” like China and North Korea? Sadly, the elements are all there. Opinion.

Holy fire, Unholy lies

There is literally no respite from the lies of our enemies. Opinion.

Defining Pesach

On Pesach night, we were chosen, and history was never the same.

The Judictatorship

Who will challenge a court system and legal establishment that is running amok, disobeys written laws, and fabricates others as it suits them? If democracy in Israel is in danger, it is from those who are screaming that it is in danger, and from no one else. Opinion.

Needed: Vision and leadership

Do you know who “never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity”? We Israelis, who time and again, especially recently, have been given opportunities to deal decisive blows to our enemies, and do not. Op-ed.

The Saudi Seduction

The Saudis need our assistance with their sworn enemy Iran – and if Iran is successfully neutralized, how valuable does this treaty then remain for them? The answer is, not much, so why should we concede anything substantive in order to achieve it? Opinion.

Echoes of the past

It may be painful for us to accept this truth, but presently the Arabs are happy with the outcome of their invasion and massacre. Those Israelis who associate the release of our hostages with “victory” are deluding themselves. Opinion.

Trump 2.0

We should not expect him to be everything we want. We should appreciate him as a relief from the nasty rebukes and harmful policies of the Biden years, and from Biden's method of selling us weapons -just enough so that we could fight but not enough for us to prevail. Opinion.

Sadly, nothing has really changed

Defeating Hamas and freeing all our hostages are both worthy objectives but they are incompatible. Have we learned nothing? Opinion.

We the People

Is anyone guiltless in the wake of the Hamas massacre? Opinion.

A vision for a second Trump term

There are several items worthy of the new administration’s agenda that can solidify the advances made in the first Trump administration and further promote peace and security in the region. Op-ed.

The Trump Triumph

There can be a sea change in the Middle East – a strong Israel, more Jewish and confident, with a military and civilian presence in lands conquered from our enemies who invaded us, and at peace with an Arab world mostly deradicalized and defanged.Opinion.

Evacuate them NOW!

Why does the world dislike Palestinian Arabs so much? Why doesn't it care about them? Opinion.

Election Enigma

Anyone who feels that Trump is not the better candidate for world stability, for a stronger America, and for a more secure Israel is hopelessly partisan and beyond reason. Too bad he is such a terrible campaigner. Opinion.

Taking Torah Seriously - on how to wage war

Instead of adopting the Torah’s approach of besieging a city with starvation, thirst, and the spread of disease, we have embraced the opposite approach, and then complain when the war drags on, our soldiers are killed, and our hostages suffer privation and death.

Ransoming captives:

Impotent clichés

Forget all the clichés and substitute this sentence: They need to fear us, and only then will they be deterred and learn to respect us. Op-ed.

Rogue nations

The rogue nations – Russia, China, Iran – are winning, and there is little the West can do at this point to stop them, if there is not going to be a change in tactics. Op-ed.

Israelis, Americans - Don’t be manipulated

Are good and decent people so easily manipulated? Opinion.

Don't go

It is a maelstrom in the United States. Mr. Prime Minister, don’t go to the US now. Nothing will be gained and much can be lost. Opinion.

War Objectives

What are Israel’s objectives in this war and how close are we to attaining them? And what are Hamas’ objectives in this war and how close are they to attaining them? Op-ed.

And who's in charge 'The Day After'

If parts or all of Gaza are not controlled by Israel, and the Gazans stay put, then we are spinning our wheels, kicking the can down the road (perhaps not even that far down the road), and simply accepting that we will forever live with terror. Opinion.

American Pressure

History teaches us that succumbing to American pressure is often unwise and occasionally fatal. Ask Chiang Kai-shek. Op-ed.

The New Trump Doctrine

Almost all Jews would prefer bipartisan support for Israel in the United States. And although many Jews maintain that support for Israel remains bipartisan, the current difference between the parties could not be more glaring. Opinion.

How to lose a war

A nation can lose when it halts the battle when it has momentum and then informs its enemy where it is next attacking, so the enemy can regroup, rebuild, replenish, and re-strategize. And red below to see what defeat looks like. Opinion.

Leadership woes

It seems that the people screaming for the PM's resignation now were screaming for his resignation on October 6. They assume that new elections will spell certain electoral defeat for Israel’s longest serving prime minister. They should learn a little history. Op-ed.

The missing piece

What are we missing? Why is Schumer, like a lapdog with a bone, suddenly obsessed with a Palestinian state? What do the Democrats – and the Israeli left – not understand? There is a missing piece to this puzzle. Op-ed.

Biden’s Zionism

Every present Republican member of the Senate (except maybe for Rand Paul) is far more supportive of Israel than Joe Biden ever was. Biden is a “lifelong supporter” of a certain type of Israel – docile, concessionary, secular, and deferential to American interests. Op-ed.

Haredim and the Living Torah

In a perfect world, in my view, every Jew would spend time as a soldier and every soldier would spend time learning in a yeshiva – the former to teach us how to fight, the latter to teach us what we are fighting for.

Op-ed:

The Ramadan Ruse

Perhaps good Muslims should use this Ramadan for soul searching on how best to uproot savage evil from their midst. And we should show as much concern for Ramadan as our enemies showed for our Simchat Torah. Opinion.

Evict UNRWA from Jerusalem

Israel should no longer indulge an organization that is pro-terror and anti-peace, not in Gaza and not in Jerusalem. Opinion.

The empty toolbox

America's policy: Heads, we lose; tails, they win. With those odds, further attacks are not only inevitable; they are logical.

At any price

The question is not one of sympathy with the families – but of effectiveness. If we stop the aid now, Gazans might storm Hamas strongholds and free the hostages. I will believe Gazan protests when they run en masse into the tunnels and bring out our hostages with them. Op-ed.

Innocents Abroad

That the civilians of Gaza are so docile means that they are either cowardly - or complicit. Innocent they certainly are not. Op-ed.

Where is the outrage?

We cannot expect the world’s outrage or even recognition of its own hypocrisy. We must muster our own. Opinion.

Politicians in Robes

The justices are essentially politicians in robes, unelected, claiming to be preserving democracy while evidently mocking it. Op-ed.

Of Rivers and Seas

“Free” has never been synonymous with “intelligent,” and this slogan is one of the dumbest imaginable. Opinion..

Can you paradigm?

No one should be allowed to live here who does not want to be here, in the Jewish state. Op-ed.

Lessons of Sodom

The absence of righteous people defines a city 's moral worth far more than disingenuous assertions about its “innocent civilians.”

Not so innocent civilians

Would Guterres ever assert that the death of Gaza civilians past and future also does not “happen in a vacuum”? Hardly. Opinion.

Looking back and ahead

We can put aside strife and fight a ruthless enemy, but we cannot put aside the Jewish history that finds us facing that enemy again. Op-ed.

The sickening hatred of Jews...by Jews

The Daf Yomi Siyum at MetLife stadium in New Jersey had over 90,000 people, with separate seating..America is a democracy. Is Israel? Op-ed.

Confrontation - is a judicial coup next?

A democracy that can only endure by relying on an undemocratic institution is not a true democracy. It is a farce. Op-ed.

The sun rose today

Life goes on as protesters continue to think they have to destroy democracy and become permanent rulers in order to save democracy. Op-ed.

Biden-vitation Blues

Israel's government is "extreme?" We should all merit being called extreme by Biden, a clear indication that we are on the right path.Op-ed.

A BIG mistake

As the BIG chain holds a gun to its own head, it would be wise to consider whether they want to be merchants or political activists.Op-ed

A simple protest - because, pride lobby, Torah is not changing

In the Orthodox coddling of LGBT in its ranks, the emperor has no clothes! He is not wearing alternative garb, he is distorting Torah! Op-ed

Six additional knocks

Rabbi Soloveitchik spoke of Israel's creation as a sign that G-d is knocking on our door. Six knocks then, six since..Op-ed.

The Halakhic State

The headline alone must send shivers down some people’s spines.

Op-ed:

Neither Jewish nor Democratic

The anarchist left does not want a Jewish state. It is patently clear that they also do not want a democracy. They are murdering it. Op-ed.

Democracy dies in demonstrations

Democracy is not just the right of civil disobedience, that is one right among many and protests should not be able to ride over them.Op-ed.

Op-ed:

Pounding the table - or Israel's January 6

These protests are the Israeli elite's attempt to supplant democracy with mobocracy. Spare us the crocodile tears. Op-ed.

I am concerned

I cannot assuage unfounded “concern over the Israeli government.” What I can do is express my concern about US Jewish leadership.Op-ed.

The Torah and Judicial Reform

One difference: The judges do not appoint their successors nor are they given veto power over new nominees as the current Court has. Op-ed.

Death of the Oligarchy

It is the death of the oligarchy, not the democracy, that has brought the likes of Aharon Barak to scream from the rooftops. Op-ed.

Banana Republic?

Israel is basically being told by the US that its new government may not implement the policies on which it was elected. Oh, really? Op-ed.

Op-ed:

Is there a place between Never Trumpers and Always Trumpers?

Is there a sane middle between those for whom he can do no wrong and those for whom he can do no right? Op-ed.

Diaspora Blues

They didn’t want Netanyahu. Now that they have him, they want him to govern in the opposite manner from which he pledged to govern. Op-ed.

The Fear-of-Ben-Gvir Phobia

CJV Israel rep. on the election results:The more alienated a person is from Torah, the more they fear the specter of a strong Jew. Op-ed..

For and against our own - the Religious Zionist 'elite'

It is undoubtedly true that one can have more confidence in Smotrich implementing his political vision than Shaked implementing hers. Op-ed.