Herb Keinon

“I’m an athlete. I don’t really get into politics, because it’s not my job. I obviously stand for my country, because that’s where I’m from,” he said in an interview last month in The New York Times.

Was it wise, or necessary, for Netanyahu to raise this issue now? To what end? For what purpose?

In addition to revitalizing the Hebrew language, the reborn State of Israel also made Hebrew birthdays a thing.

NATIONAL AFFAIRS: Ran Gvili’s burial offered Israel a moment of unity that revealed something essential, even as it quickly faded.

If the vote is postponed, or if the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) parties choose not to support it and it falls, then for all intents and purposes the government will fall with it.

After 843 days, Israel has accounted for every hostage taken on October 7, bringing home the living and the fallen at immense cost.

Washington signaled where it intends to anchor its Middle East strategy: in self-reliant partners willing to fight for their own security.

POLITICAL AFFAIRS: Two significant political developments played out this week as Israel moves towards elections. Gadi Eisenkot and Yonatan Shamriz took the reflectors with key announcements.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would accept Trump’s invitation to join, but did not say whether Jerusalem would pay the $1 billion fee required to become a founding member.

Without context, the move to demolish UNRWA’s east Jerusalem headquarters looks like just another incident of Israeli hard-heartedness - an attack on a UN body that wants only to help.