Amotz Asa-El

Award-winning journalist and bestselling author Amotz Asa-El, The Jerusalem Post 's senior commentator and former executive editor, is a fellow at the Hartman Institute. Asa-El's column in The Jerusalem Post appears continuously since 1995, when Jpost.com was among the world’s first 10 news sites. Asa-El is is thus among the most veteran online columnists in the world. Slugged “Middle Israel,” the column is a unique attempt to present in English mainstream Israelis’ view on anything, from politics and foreign affairs to business and religion. Asa-El's book Mitzad Ha'Ivelet Ha'Yehudi (" The Jewish March Folly ," Yediot Sefarim, 2019), a revisionist history of the Jewish people's political leadership from antiquity to modernity, became a bestseller within a month of its publication. The book was praised by novelist A.B. Yehoshua as "convincing and accurate" and "reviving Jewish history with dramatic, literary scenes," and by historian Yuval Noah Harari as "a well-written and thought provoking book which artfully connects the Jewish past with the present's concerns.” Asa-El's previous book, The Diaspora and the Lost Tribes of Israel (Universe, 2004), a geographic history of the Jews, was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal as "an engaging history of the Jewish experience" that "vividly captures the creativity and nomadic quality of the Jewish people." Asa-El’s five-part series in The Jerusalem Report (Aug-Sept 2017) about the future of the Jewish people won the Bnai Brith Journalism Award. Having originally joined The Jerusalem Post as its business editor, Asa-El was later the Post 's news editor and editor-in-chief of its overseas edition, the International Jerusalem Post, before serving as The Jerusalem Post 's executive editor. Since joining The Jerusalem Post Asa-El has been a frequent commentator of Middle Eastern affairs on BBC, NPR, CNN and Israel TV, as well as a regular contributor to Dow Jones' MarketWatch. Asa-El has been quoted or published along the years by the New York Times , the Washington Post , the Wall Street Journal , the Economist , TIME magazine , the Daily Telegraph , the New Republic , Le Figaro , L'Express , Azure, Harvard Political Review , the Australian, the Australia Financial Review , Jornal do Brasil , the India Times , Politiken , and others. Asa-El holds graduate degrees in journalism from Columbia University, in Jewish history from the Hebrew University, and in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Nurit and the couple has three children. A native of Jerusalem who spent some of his childhood in New York and London, Asa-El is the only senior editor in the Post ’s 91 years to have never held a foreign passport.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a Christian Conference in Jerusalem, on April 27, 2025

Middle Israel: How Benjamin Netanyahu transformed Israeli politics in 30 years - opinion

Netanyahu’s rise marked the beginning of a new political age in Israel, one defined by sound bites, self-promotion, and lasting consequences.

MAY 29, 2026
A LIKUD supporter waves the party’s flag at a gathering, a show of grassroots loyalty which has long defined the movement, even as critics say its primaries have reshaped, and at times distorted, who rises within its ranks.

Middle Israel: How Likud’s primaries poisoned Israeli politics - opinion

The 18-year fencing match between Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin came to a sudden end, thanks to an invention Israel had never seen: primary elections. 

MAY 15, 2026
TO BEAT the incumbent prime minister, opposition leaders and former prime ministers Naftali Bennett (left) and Yair Lapid must come up with a plan and agree on a set of actions they will take collectively should they unseat Netanyahu.

Middle Israel: What's the plan? Israel needs a 'reconciliation government' - opinion

MIDDLE ISRAEL: Led by four prime ministerial contenders, the task ahead of today’s opposition is much more daunting than what Rabin faced last century.

MAY 8, 2026

Middle Israel: Will Bennett and Lapid's fourth Israeli alliance last? - opinion

The alliance that Bennett and Lapid unveiled this week is young and might well fail the way so many others have before it. But two things can already be said in its favor.

MAY 1, 2026
FORMER PRIME MINISTERS Naftali Bennett (left) and Yair Lapid pose during a press conference announcing a joint list named ‘Together’ to be led by Bennett, ahead of upcoming elections.

Middle Israel: Jesus-statue smasher is product of Jewish fundamentalism - opinion

Unfortunately, what the IDF soldiers in Lebanon did when they smashed the statue of Jesus represents a syndrome much larger than the two young idiots they evidently are.

APRIL 24, 2026
Here, the Israeli soldier damages the head of a statue of Jesus, in Debel, Lebanon, in this still image obtained from social media released on April 19.

Middle Israel: Orbán’s defeat, Hungary's political shift, and lessons for Israel - opinion

Hungary's defeat of Orbán’s authoritarianism offers a powerful lesson for Israel. Can Israel learn from Hungary’s democratic shift and face its own political challenges?

APRIL 17, 2026
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a media briefing in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2022.

Middle Israel: What comes after NATO? The fall of the Western alliance's era - opinion

The Western alliance has lost its compass, driver, and fuel. And since this alliance is brain-dead, a new one will have to come in its place.

APRIL 10, 2026
US SECRETARY of State Marco Rubio meets with Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte at the State Department in Washington DC, on Wednesday. The Western alliance is brain-dead, and a new one will have to come in its place, the writer argues.

Middle Israel: What are Israel's long-term goals and opportunities in Operation Roaring Lion?

The past month’s events lead to one military imperative, one political aim, and one diplomatic opportunity; a grand opportunity, one that is as precious and fragile as it is achievable and overdue.

MARCH 27, 2026
‘WHATEVER TRUMP’S plans, Israel can emerge from this war with a great diplomatic prize.’ Here, a person holds a sign supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump during a gathering of Iranian community members showing support for Israel and the US, earlier this month.

Middle Israel: Iran's multilevel blockade of the Straight of Hormuz is destined to fail - opinion

Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has three levels: the political, the military, and the economic. The political part is the strongest, and the economic part is the weakest.

MARCH 20, 2026
INDIAN VESSEL ‘Nanda Devi’ carrying liquefied petroleum gas arrives at Vadinar Port in the Jamnagar district of Gujarat state earlier this week, after Iran allowed it to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a key energy corridor that Iran has selectively closed.

Middle Israel: Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment shows Iran’s revolution is dead - opinion

The people who crowned Khamenei the Second installed as the leader of Iran a man who, besides being a religious lightweight and a political novice, is a professed enemy of the Iranian people.

MARCH 13, 2026
Here, a large poster shows (from left) the first leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini; the second leader, Ali Khamenei; and on the right, the new leader of the revolution, Mojtaba Khamenei.

Middle Israel: Jihadists, Russians, European cynics, US fools unite to oppose Iran war - opinion

The antiwar front’s non-Western flank is joined by a sizable Western opposition to the war on both sides of the Atlantic.

MARCH 6, 2026
Ankara and Moscow increasingly find themselves aligned in opposing Western power and influence in the Middle East. Here, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in September 2023, in Sochi, Russia.

Middle Israel: Smotrich’s crushing Knesset defeat exposes the finance minister's limits - opinion

Smotrich is a light-year away from the Israeli consensus. Why does a man who represents but a marginal, detached, and minuscule part of Israeli society sit on its national chest?

FEBRUARY 27, 2026
EVEN BEZALEL Smotrich’s rivals agree that he is a smart man who studies complex issues quickly and knows how to make decisions. Here, the finance minister leads a faction meeting at the Knesset on Monday.

Middle Israel: Why Turkey, Qatar are Iran's Ayatollah Khamenei's willing accomplices - opinion

While Doha's support for Khamenei stems largely from practical concerns, Istanbul's defense of Iran is more connected to ideology.

FEBRUARY 20, 2026
IN TERMS of the clash of civilizations, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Recep Tayyip Erdogan are on the same page. Here, the Turkish president speaks during a joint press conference with Ethiopia’s prime minister during his official visit to the National Palace in Addis Ababa on Tuesday.