Open Search form

Bezalel Smotrich

Apply for a Blog

Yochanan Schimmelpfennig

Jul 27, 2026, 10:10 AM

The Agreement We Were Never Shown

Three days before the Knesset formally dispersed, Bezalel Smotrich announced that the security cabinet had approved NIS 1.3 billion for the establishment of 34 West Bank settlements. He also pointed to a further NIS 1.075 billion for settlement roads—the...

Yochanan Schimmelpfennig

Jul 22, 2026, 5:46 PM

If We Decide Smotrich’s Grammar of Absolute Victory Bezalel Smotrich has defined absolute victory. Not as a general promise to defeat Hamas or as a formula attached to a continuing war, but as a specific sequence of actions. Israel is to...

Jul 20, 2026, 4:42 AM

Treasure Trove: Don’t Forget the Justice Part of Zionism (A Note for Tisha B’Av)

From the Herzl and Zionism Collection of David Matlow, Toronto (www.herzlcollection.com). Photograph by Kevin Viner, Elevator Digital, Toronto used with permission.

There is a Jewish story told about Napoleon. He once travelled through a Jewish small town in Europe and entered a synagogue where he witnessed men and women sitting on the floor weeping. Napoleon asked what terrible misfortune had...

Yochanan Schimmelpfennig

Jul 1, 2026, 7:55 AM

Judea Is Not a Footnote

Judea Is Not a Footnote Naftali Bennett and Israel’s Unfinished Return The debate around Naftali Bennett is usually misread when it is reduced to another chapter in the history of Israeli right-wing rhetoric. That reading is too small for the matter...

Richard Diamond

Jun 24, 2026, 8:54 PM

The Deterioration of American Jewry’s Unconditional Solidarity with Israel

image by Google Notebook

The Grief of Estrangement There is a particular kind of grief that has no clean name — the grief of loving something so completely that you never thought to examine the conditions of that love, until the day you realize...

Andy Blumenthal

Jun 14, 2026, 10:08 AM

Be Bold and Settle Our Entire Land of Israel

This week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government moved forward with one of the most significant Zionist initiatives in decades, allocating over $350 million to authorize and establish 61 new Jewish communities in the ancestral heartland of Judea and Samaria....

Jun 11, 2026, 4:35 AM

Did The Sinai Deal Really Work?

For decades, Sinai has been treated as the crown jewel of the land-for-peace argument. Oftentimes, in the argument surrounding “land for peace,” opponents will claim that Israel exchanging land for peace has never historically worked or held up. Those in...

Jun 5, 2026, 6:45 PM

Israel Cannot Pay Its Way Out of the Reserve Crisis

Financial incentives may ease the burden of reserve duty, but they cannot replace a shared sense of responsibility. A few days ago, Yinon Magal published a post that quickly went viral: “Good morning, Yinon. This morning we received another reserve...

Jun 1, 2026, 4:16 AM

Being Pro-Israel: A Tent of Intent

It’s not unusual to be on the receiving end of name-calling at J Street. I’ve heard quite an array over my fifteen years at the pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy advocacy group. Increasingly there’s been more coming from the far-left: tagging us...

May 27, 2026, 4:04 PM

Elections are Coming. They Must Be Free and Fair.

The first preliminary bill to dissolve the Knesset ahead of looming elections passed yesterday. The announcement, while both expected and anxiously awaited, comes at an extremely difficult moment in Israeli history. The outcome will undoubtedly shape how millions of...

Load more