Ofer Bavly

Apply for a Blog

Oct 27, 2023, 1:15 AM

Resetting Israel-Diaspora Relations

Despite disparaging rhetoric used by Israeli politicians towards most of American Jewry for years, this time again Diaspora Jews are doing what they do best: standing up unconditionally in support of Israel in its time of need. After the...

Nov 11, 2020, 4:35 PM

Presidential Support – a Rift Between US Jews and Israelis?

American Jews have traditionally supported Democratic presidential candidates by large margins. This has been the case in all 26 elections since 1916 with an average of over 70% of Jews voting for candidates from the Democratic Party. The single...

Sep 23, 2020, 11:06 AM

For the Palestinians, a Time of Reckoning

The old adage says that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. For decades, their maximalist intransigence has led them to reject numerous offers for reconciliation with Israel, offers which could have led them to statehood...

Mar 10, 2020, 1:22 AM

The Arab Party and the Elections – a Fresh Opportunity

No doubt the biggest winner of Israel’s March elections is the United Arab List, with a record 15 Members of Knesset (MK’s). The party is actually a coalition made up of four smaller parties which traditionally ran separately. They...

Feb 7, 2019, 11:42 AM

One Thing We Won’t Hear about in the Elections

The April 9 elections in Israel are shaping up to be an interesting battle between over a dozen different parties fighting for voters’ hearts – and votes. The issues that are already being debated range from the strategic (should...

Jun 26, 2017, 12:00 AM

Israel-Diaspora Relations On a Dangerous Path

The Israeli government reached two decisions on Sunday that are far more important for world Jewry than they are to Israelis. One decision was to suspend the Western Wall compromise agreement that had taken four years of negotiations and...

May 3, 2017, 1:03 PM

Freedom Came with a Cost

On Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the IDF, as I do every year, I joined thousands of Israelis at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl. I paid tribute to my best friend, who shall forever remain a happy,...

Nov 9, 2016, 12:55 PM

Deri Should Unite, Not Divide

In the ever-present rhetoric of the Ultra-Orthodox in Israel against Reform and Conservative Judaism, Minister of the Interior and head of the Shas party Aryeh Deri has upped the ante once again, saying that non-Orthodox Jews “cause incredible damage...

Jun 13, 2016, 11:00 AM

Massacre in Orlando — What the West Can Do

When news of the horrible massacre at the Pulse club in Orlando reached Israel, many here felt an initial reaction of deep sympathy for the American people and a sense of shared fate. We know all too well the...

Aug 31, 2015, 9:57 AM

Time for An Israeli Peace Initiative

It was twenty-two years ago that Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Yasser Arafat and Bill Clinton shook hands on the White House lawn and signed the Declaration of Principles, an agreement that was to launch a peace process between Israel...

Load more

About Me

Ofer Bavly was a diplomat with the Israeli Foreign Service from 1991 to 2014, serving in Israel's Embassies in Madrid and Rome. He was Policy Advisor to two Foreign Ministers and was Israel's Consul General to Florida and Puerto Rico. He currently heads the Israel office of the Jewish Federation of Chicago / Jewish United Fund