Nahum Barnea

IAF fighter jet during an exercise. (photo: IDF Spokesperson)

Why Israel picks fights with Hezbollah

And why it will probably pick another one before too long. After Hezbollah’s fatal attack on Israeli soldiers Wednesday, the two enemy sides are in a rare configuration: they’re even. Israel killed six Hezbollah guerrillas and an Iranian general on January 18, so Hezbollah killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven more, and now they’re…

By Larry Derfner January 30, 2015

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz at the Defense Ministry. (photo: Haim Zach / GPO)

In ceasefire talks, Netanyahu is letting Hamas win Gaza war

The great mystery is: Why? In the Cairo ceasefire talks, Netanyahu is snatching diplomatic defeat from the jaws of military victory. I have no explanation for why he’s doing this and I have yet to hear a convincing one. There must be something Netanyahu knows that no one else does. Otherwise his concessions at the…

By Larry Derfner August 15, 2014

An IDF soldier walks through the tunnel the IDF uncovered underneath the Gaza-Israel border earlier this week. (Photo: IDF Spokesperson)

The ‘terror tunnels’: Another Israeli self-fulfilling prophecy

There were non-lethal ways to preempt Hamas’ underground attacks, but the Netanyahu government rejected them all. Here is the current, ostensibly airtight rationale for whatever the IDF chooses to do in Gaza: armed Hamas militats are coming up out of tunnels that start in Gaza and end not far from kibbutz and moshav communities on…

By Larry Derfner July 21, 2014

Latest

Netanyahu and Abbas in Washington, September 15, 2010 (State Dept. Photo)

‘There was no generous offer’: A history of peace talks

Raviv Drucker, a prominent journalist who co-hosts a well-known television magazine program on Channel 10, wrote a tough blog post in which he takes some of Israel’s best known journalists to task for presenting a completely erroneous interpretation of the Palestinian position regarding a negotiated agreement for a two-state solution. I have translated his post…

By Lisa Goldman April 26, 2014

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Kobi Gideon / GPO)

Which American billionaire advocated transferring ‘every last Palestinian?’

A friend of Netanyahu presents his own solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nahum Barnea, one of Israel’s leading political and diplomatic correspondents, had an interesting item at the end of his weekly feature in Yedioth Ahronoth. The Hebrew version is at the end of this post; this is my translation: A few years back, a known…

By Noam Sheizaf January 12, 2014

Stephen Hawking during the press conference at the National Library of France (Public Domain)

Consensus wisdom: The boycott of Israel is working

The only way to stop its spread is to end the occupation, say a growing number of prominent voices (none of whom, by the way, support the boycott). From reading my digital mail, I see that a lot of people who say they oppose the occupation also oppose the boycott against Israel, and not…

By Larry Derfner June 24, 2013

Israel-Palestine flag (Oren neu dag)

Why it’s time to discuss the one-state solution

Secular, binational, and more: there are plenty of one-state models that can and should be discussed. But what’s becoming increasingly clear to figures from both the right and the left is that the feasibility of the two-state solution must be reconsidered. By Yoav Kapshuk It is time to start a public discussion about possible and…

By +972 Magazine September 18, 2012

Israeli flag with Hatikva written on it (Avital Pinnick/CC BY NC ND 2.0)

The miraculous antiwar uprising of the Israeli establishment

An uprising within the Israeli establishment is preventing an insane war from being started. In how many other countries could such a thing happen? This is a proud moment for Israel’s democracy. People don’t realize what a miracle is taking place in this country. A revolt by the Israeli military/intelligence establishment and Israel’s best reporters, helped along by President Shimon Peres and ultimately enabled by the…

By Larry Derfner August 10, 2012

The problem with Netanyahu’s judgment, when it comes to WMD

Why was a paragraph removed from a Haaretz op-ed concerning an attack on Iran? Dr. Avner Cohen, the unofficial historian of the Israeli nuclear program, noticed today that a paragraph that appeared in the Hebrew print edition of a Haaretz op-ed by Sefi Rachlevski revealed for the first time a few details of a little-known incident from 1998.…

By Noam Sheizaf August 7, 2012

Is an Israeli cover-up keeping Jonathan Pollard in prison?

The Americans are convinced Pollard – who spied on behalf of Israel in the 1980’s – didn’t act alone, and have made it clear that if Israel gives up the other name(s), he can go free. It’s been a mystery for many years why Jonathan Pollard is still in prison, why U.S. president after president refuses to pardon him. The reason in…

By Larry Derfner April 11, 2012

Tzipi Livni, another moral casualty of the Gaza war

This week she lost the leadership of Kadima, but Livni lost her voice when she supported Operation Cast Lead – and she wasn’t alone. In the euphoria immediately after Obama’s election night in 2008, and with Israel’s own election four months away, I wrote that “if there’s any Israeli candidate who can catch the fire he lit, it’s Livni.” While granting that she wasn’t…

By Larry Derfner March 30, 2012

Bloggingheads: Larry Derfner and Elliot Jager debate Israeli strike on Iran

Bloggingheads: Will Israel strike Iran?

In recent weeks discussion has grown about the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. Israeli media, politicians, and American officials have all spoken publicly about the advisability and ramifications of such a strike. Does this signal a real possibility for such an attack, or simply political posturing? Watch +972 Magazine’s Larry Derfner…

By Larry Derfner November 12, 2011

Finally, Iran plan wakes Israel up to “the Israeli threat”

A storm of protest has arisen against a plan by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities. This has been the Israeli media’s finest hour, and it started with a great journalist’s column. In all the rising volume over Netanyahu and Barak’s plot to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilties, by far…

By Larry Derfner November 2, 2011