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The Arab Peace Initiative: Why the Lukewarm Response?

Ed Rettig — Sun, 05 May 2013 10:21:08 +0000

Like a couple of aged swimmers afraid of the cold water, Israel and the PA warily dipped their toes in the renewal of the Arab Peace Initiative (API). The latest stage of the API began when Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Hasam bin Jassem al-Thani, standing next to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, restated the original [...]

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Natural gas: Handle with care

Ed Rettig — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:06:41 +0000

Israel has begun to receive natural gas from the Tamar field in the Mediterranean. This good news should come with a huge “handle with care” sign. On the positive, the large deposits of natural gas beneath the water off Israel’s coast offer energy security for a period estimated as long as 50 years. Moreover, it [...]

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One thing this government could actually do

Ed Rettig — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 20:48:23 +0000

Israelis needed this Passover vacation. Within a few days their leaders established a government without Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties, welcomed the president of the United States, engaged in a reconciliation of sorts with Turkey and got the house ready for Passover. Now we have an opportunity to pause and take stock. Which one of these high [...]

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Coalition Quandary

Ed Rettig — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 21:47:49 +0000

As I write, the Israeli coalition talks are still going on. To follow the Israeli media is to ride a roller coaster of reports. The negotiations are either on the verge of a breakthrough or face imminent collapse. Maariv recently provided a headline formulated to be read breathlessly: “Netanyahu’s Plan: He Will Get Bennet into [...]

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Ruth Paz: an American Israeli whose life was her prophecy

Ed Rettig — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:33:12 +0000

A couple of weeks ago a large crowd gathered at Kibbutz Kissufim for the funeral of Ruth Paz, a founder and three times kibbutz secretary. Her life story personified the twentieth-century Jewish condition. Ruth was born in 1930 in Vienna. At the age of eight she was on the famous Kindertransport that saved 1,500 children [...]

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Ethiopian Jews and the IDF

Ed Rettig — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 13:05:20 +0000

A news item last week called attention to a painful Israeli social problem. Israel’s 125,000-strong Ethiopian Jewish community has about 5,600 of its sons and daughters serving in the IDF. The enlistment rate for this community is significantly higher than among the general population. But according to IDF radio, 50 percent of those young men [...]

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Did Likud get lost in its own fog?

Ed Rettig — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 09:04:37 +0000

Though it is poised to remain the largest party in the Knesset and Benjamin Netanyahu will almost certainly have the first crack at forming the next coalition, this election season has been unkind to the Likud party. Merger of the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu election lists failed to produce a bump in the polls. Rather, [...]

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The national unity government scenario

Ed Rettig — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 06:01:45 +0000

In an early December briefing for the American Jewish Committee noted: “In Israeli politics two months is a very long time, and almost anything can happen.” I should have deleted the word “almost,” since the spectacular rise in the polls of the right-wing, religious Jewish Home party has been an utter surprise. It held three [...]

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The rising cost of ‘Price Tag’ terrorism

Ed Rettig — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:02:59 +0000

“Price Tag” is a brand name used by a loosely organized group, largely based in the West Bank settlements, that practices political violence. Its members have attacked mosques, Palestinian farmers, the homes of leftist activists, the Trappist Monastery at Latrun and, most recently, the Church of the Dormition in Jerusalem. These attacks have all targeted [...]

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No-win in Syria

Ed Rettig — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:55:19 +0000

Israel’s strategists may be forgiven for lamenting the Jewish year past. New dangers arose while old dangers did not recede. Syria is perhaps the most visible symptom of a much broader process, mostly generated by regional and global developments over which Israel has little control. This is because the Syrian crisis is a combination of [...]

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Israel’s Morsi conundrum

Ed Rettig — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:08:26 +0000

President Morsi of Egypt scares Israelis. His election, and the rapid consolidation of power in the hands of his Muslim Brotherhood, culminates a year and a half of revolution. While public attention remains focused on the Iranian nuclear threat, the rise of this Egyptian Muslim Brothers regime is widely seen as opening another threatening front. [...]

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Who is a refugee?

Ed Rettig — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:39:20 +0000

Will we ever have peace with the Palestinians? Israeli public debate is largely divided between those who have given up and those who will never give up. MK Einat Wilf is one of the latter. Harboring no illusions about the current potential for successful peace talks, she ambitiously promotes thinking that may lead to productive [...]

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Using Israel’s geostrategic advantage

Ed Rettig — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 12:32:42 +0000

Public announcement of a joint Israeli-Chinese plan to construct a rail link between Eilat and Ashdod ports carefully avoided mentioning Egypt, but the connection is inescapable. The Egyptian economy is in distress and unlikely to prosper anytime soon. The central government already struggles to maintain security in Sinai and the large portion of Egypt South [...]

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Pyrrhic victory for non-Orthodox Judaism

Ed Rettig — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 02:04:22 +0000

The Israeli and American non-Orthodox movements took a victory lap following the decision by Israel’s Attorney General requiring rural municipalities to fund the salaries of non-Orthodox rabbis of congregations with more than 50 member families. But though understandable, the joy is tragically misplaced. There are a number of reasons to be wary of the Attorney [...]

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Illicit migration — a wakeup call Israel must heed

Ed Rettig — Wed, 30 May 2012 05:46:13 +0000

Last week’s anti-migrant riot in South Tel Aviv was a wakeup call to begin a serious public discussion of Israel’s handling of the influx of illicit migrants. For the better part of the last decade, NGOs involved in migrant affairs have urged adoption of a constructive, well-planned policy, to no avail. The recent violence may [...]

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