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Opposition Leader and Beyachad party member Yair Lapid speaks at the 'Law and Lies' conference, on October 12, 2026, in Israel. (Avshalom Sassoni/ FLASH90)

Yair Lapid

What makes countries successful

Until four years ago, Israel met every criterion of a successful country. That’s no longer the case. But since the damage came from the top, the repair can come from the top, too. And it will

Elchanan Poupko

Religious Zionism’s dangerous euphoria

As Israelis leave, allies lose patience and the Jewish world faces mounting threats, too many members of the community insist they are living in a time of miracles

Aron Schoenfeld

It takes 10 minutes to return a gun

After five months of reserve duty, turning in my rifle was easy. Finding my place again in a life that had learned to carry on without me is another matter

East of Eden. Promotional still courtesy of Netflix. Used for illustrative review and commentary purposes under Fair Use.

Sarah Ansbacher

East of Eden and north of Jaffa: John Steinbeck’s hope

The author’s 19th century ancestors moved to the holy land to help teach the Jewish community to farm. I found traces of them in Tel Aviv – and on Netflix

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem, September 16, 2025. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

Barak Seener

Netanyahu has changed the Middle East. Will Israel ensure it lasts?

After Oct. 7, the Jewish state dramatically weakened its enemies, but Israel’s leaders must have the resolve to protect those hard-won gains

A boy observes police as they patrol the streets of Tarabin al-Sana, a Bedouin town in southern Israel, on December 31, 2025. (Charlie Summers/Times of Israel)

Yardena Bagantz

The Negev’s future cannot be secured by police cruisers alone

The Shin Bet warns of terrorist cells forming in the south — but tackling the threat means addressing the root causes that draw young Bedouins toward crime and extremism

Students at Beth El Temple in West Hartford, Connecticut add to a communal art piece marking the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks, Oct. 7, 2024. (Tyler Russell/Connecticut Public via Getty Images)

Dena Klein

Oct. 7 made it impossible to ignore what’s missing from Israel education

We need to help Diaspora Jews build a relationship with the country that can hold the weight of reality – even in difficult times

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Abdiqani A. Aden

Oct 16, 2026, 12:14 AM

The Letter From Hargeisa: Egal’s 1995 Appeal to Israel

The four-page letter dated 3 July 1995, attributed to Somaliland President Mohamed Ibrahim Egal and addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, proposing a strategic partnership between Somaliland and Israel. The copy reproduced here is held in the author’s historical archive. Egal reportedly denied authorship before his death, and the document’s authorship and delivery to Israel remain unverified.

Courtesy of Keydka Cabdiqani C. Aadan (Historical Archive).

In 1995, Somaliland’s president asked Israel for a “strategic partnership.” Thirty years later, Israel recognised the country. The letter explains much about the logic, and almost nothing about the cause. On 3 July 1995, a letter was prepared at the...

Michael Zoosman

Oct 16, 2026, 12:07 AM

Statement Responding to Trump Decision not to Live-Stream Pre-Hanukkah Execution

U.S. President and convicted felon Donald J. Trump recently decided not to live-stream the military firing squad state-sponsored murder of Nidal Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who killed 13 people, and injured dozens more, at a medical processing center...

Oct 15, 2026, 11:56 PM

What makes countries successful

Opposition Leader and Beyachad party member Yair Lapid speaks at the 'Law and Lies' conference, on October 12, 2026, in Israel. (Avshalom Sassoni/ FLASH90)

Until four years ago, Israel met every criterion of a successful country. That's no longer the case. But since the damage came from the top, the repair can come from the top, too. And it will

Oct 15, 2026, 11:49 PM

A Letter to My Mother (Z”L) on her 75th Birthday

Dear Mom, Happy 75th birthday. Today Jonas turns seven, and tomorrow you would have turned 75. Your two birthdays, one day apart, always arrive together. I'm looking at a photo from your 71st, the last birthday we all had together: the two...

Oct 15, 2026, 11:41 PM

Religion fuels conflict. It can also help put it out.

Extremists aim to turn Israel-Palestine into a holy war. But Israelis and Palestinians aren't fully buying it — and people of good faith can intervene. In recent weeks, my social media feeds filled with clips of Jewish religious extremists hijacking...

Henry Greenspan

Oct 15, 2026, 11:37 PM

Disposable People Studies

Although I’ve been at it for over fifty years, I have never been comfortable with the phrase, “Holocaust Studies” as a description of my field. I am not alone. I know colleagues who avoid the term because of the...

Sagit Alkobi Fishman

Oct 15, 2026, 11:21 PM

What Barack Obama’s Belfast Remarks on Israel Miss

In the weeks after September 11, 2001, the philosopher Michael Walzer took up a question that has lost none of its urgency: can the weakness of those who resort to terror excuse what they do? In his essay "Excusing...

Carol Silver Elliott

Oct 15, 2026, 11:03 PM

Behind the Scenes

It is easy to see the roles that people play in an organization when they are “front facing” and highly visible. When we think of a business or service, it is the leadership whose names come to mind, knowing...

Grant Arthur Gochin

Oct 15, 2026, 11:03 PM

Exactly Her Size

The Lithuanian Gunman Who Offered to Choose a Jewish Woman for Her Clothes At Ponary, Lithuanian riflemen divided and sold the possessions of murdered Jews. One offered to select a living Jewish woman to fit a customer's wife. Lithuania's Foreign...

Douglas F. Williamson

Oct 15, 2026, 11:02 PM

Noach: What the Tower of Babel taught me about multinational teams

Torah interpretations through the Bridge6 leadership model Parashat Noach · Genesis 11:1-9 This Shabbat we read Parashat Noach. From a leadership perspective, the story of Babel jumps out at me more than the other lessons this week. This part of the...

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