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Bezalel Smotrich

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Oct 27, 2026, 12:12 AM

Arab countries are not interested in a war with Israel

Bezalel Smotrich and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi face off against a backdrop of the Israeli and Egyptian flags. (AI-generated)

Watching the recent exchange between Bezalel Smotrich and Abdel Fattah el-Sisi made me feel like I was watching two different centuries talk past each other. Smotrich, speaking this month, floated the prospect of a future Egyptian attack and answered it...

Stephen M. Flatow

Oct 25, 2026, 10:41 AM

Who Says My Vote Is Wasted?

An oleh chadash discovers that casting an Israeli ballot requires political convictions—and a little electoral mathematics. I am about to vote in another Israeli election, and I have a confession to make. I still don’t completely understand how I am supposed...

Oct 22, 2026, 9:25 PM

Zionist political leaders married to Haredim

I am a citizen of Israel who has voted in Israeli elections since 1993. I have learned that it is not enough to read the platforms of political parties. Nor is it enough to research who is on a...

Sep 23, 2026, 3:52 PM

Hear, O Israel: Choose Healing over Hate

Cartoon by Dan Savery Raz using Adobe AI.

Ben Gvir and Smotrich must be ousted for this recovery to start. Where were you on September 11, 2001, or October 7, 2023? These are commonly asked questions, but do you remember where you were on November 2, 2022? This...

Sep 18, 2026, 6:27 PM

Why a Technical Bloc is not a Partnership

Image created by Lisa Liel using ChatGPT

Ever since Moshe Feiglin's Zehut Party signed a technical bloc agreement with Betzalel Smotrich's Religious Zionism Party, I've seen one person after another refer to this as a "partnership". It is not. A technical bloc is a political maneuver intended to...

Sep 18, 2026, 5:18 AM

Israel must challenge rather than engage ‘pro-Palestine’ performance politics

The Macklemore battle presents a trap that pro-Israel activists have yet to escape Two options: Either stay silent as more and more celebrities accuse Israel of genocide in ever more prominent forums, and hope the tide will pass, or wield...

Sagit Alkobi Fishman

Sep 17, 2026, 3:41 PM

In Smotrich’s AI Video, He Doesn’t Win by Argument. He Wins by Force.

Jewish tradition treats disagreement as a value. Pirkei Avot promises that a dispute "for the sake of Heaven" will endure. This week, during the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Religious Zionism party released...

Sep 17, 2026, 11:01 AM

Collateral Benefit

The real test raised by NAZA - the Hebrew military acronym for collateral damage - is not whether its filmmakers are right. It is whether a state confident in its force is equally confident in evidence, law and institutions...

Sep 9, 2026, 4:28 AM

Britain’s trade ban should be blamed on the Israeli government

I do not support the boycott of Israeli goods from the West Bank, such as the boycott by Britain. At the same time, however, I believe that the Israeli government deserves much of the blame for these boycotts, even...

Sep 5, 2026, 12:46 PM

Gaza: Voluntary Relocation in Name Only

Displacement produced through coercive circumstances This week, within days of each other, two members of Israel's government put new institutional weight behind something that has been implicit in Israeli policy for more than a year. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir...

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