Raoul Wootliff, at The Blogs

Raoul Wootliff

Jun 22, 2025, 4:41 PM

The scene where a ballistic missile fired from Iran hit and caused damage in Tel Aviv, June 16, 2025. (Erik Marmor/Flash90)

It's a single, piercing note of purpose. No nuance. No ambiguity. No past, no future. Just now. Just them and us. Just clarity.

Jun 16, 2025, 4:12 PM

What we must be asking about the war with Iran

Israel’s strike last week on hundreds of Iranian targets was stunning in its scale, precision, and clarity of message. Nuclear enrichment sites, missile factories, IRGC headquarters, and senior military scientists were all hit in a single coordinated wave. The...

May 27, 2025, 4:53 PM

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What we did, and why

A Palestinian walks past destroyed residential buildings damaged by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Bureij, central Gaza Strip, January 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

We were told victory was, finally, just around the corner. We were told total victory meant total destruction.

May 18, 2025, 4:35 PM

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Paradox lost

Israeli demonstrators are seen through Israel's national flag during a protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to overhaul the judicial system, in Caesarea, Israel, March 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Our tradition never taught us to mistake power for righteousness. The Torah calls not for blind allegiance, but for moral accounting.

Apr 6, 2025, 10:41 AM

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Israel tariffs wreck the US trade model, along with Netanyahu’s economic legacy

View of the Tel Aviv skyline in a dense sandstorm, September 08, 2015. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The economic model Netanyahu championed is now being dismantled by the very man he helped normalize and legitimize on the world stage

Mar 30, 2025, 6:45 PM

Would he? Could he? How Netanyahu might delay Israel’s next election

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara casts their votes at a voting station in Jerusalem on September 17, 2019. (Heidi Levine/AFP)

Israeli democracy is on borrowed time. After years of incremental erosion, the democratic backslide is no longer theoretical. It is happening. And if we do not confront this moment with the seriousness it demands, we may soon find ourselves...

Jan 27, 2025, 5:30 AM

Don’t be fooled, we’re losing the war for Israeli democracy

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, MKs and ministers in the Knesset, May 23, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Last night, those who cherish Israel’s democracy celebrated what seemed like a victory: Yitzhak Amit was finally elected as President of the Supreme Court, following months of obstruction by Justice Minister Yariv Levin. The court’s intervention broke the deadlock,...

Nov 26, 2024, 10:00 PM

The martyrs of Caesarea and real meaning of Israeli victimhood

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embraces his wife Sara as he appears before supporters of his Likud party in Tel Aviv early on April 10, 2019, as election results are announced. (Thomas Coex/AFP)

In the annals of human suffering, certain events transcend the ordinary bounds of tragedy, forcing us to reevaluate the very concept of victimhood. For decades, we’ve naively assumed that loss, pain, and destruction are measured by lives shattered, families...

Oct 10, 2024, 12:56 PM

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‘We failed you’: A Yom Kippur confession from Israel’s leaders

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prays at the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem on February 28, 2015. (AFP/Pool/ Marc Sellem/ File)

Will the leaders of this government ever say a 'vidui' prayer for ignoring the danger signs and sowing division in the nation?

May 20, 2024, 1:09 PM

How Gantz and Gallant can bring down Netanyahu

File: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (center) and Minister Benny Gantz (right) embrace, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at left, at a joint press conference at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on November 11, 2023. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)

The recent speeches by Benny Gantz and Yoav Gallant criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failures in his management of the war, laden with urgency and conviction, have sparked a crucial conversation about Israel’s future beyond the war. Yet...

About Me

Raoul Wootliff is head of strategic communications at an international strategic, research and communications consultancy. He was formerly the Times of Israel's political correspondent and producer of the TOI Daily Briefing podcast.