Author Archives: Victor Rosenthal

Upsetting the narrative

Do you want to know what your enemies are thinking? Listen to what they say. Usually they won’t tell you where and when the next terrorist attack will be but they will tell you their intentions and their strategy. Even … Continue reading

Posted in Israel and Palestinian Arabs | 3 Comments

Why we are so happy (and the staff of Ha’aretz is not)

Who is rich? He who is happy with what he has. – Shimon ben Zoma (2nd century CE) As the new year approaches, Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released its annual report. It contained the astonishing detail that 89% of … Continue reading

Posted in Israeli Society | 2 Comments

A few questions for our leaders about the next war

Nobody ever defended anything successfully, there is only attack and attack and attack some more. – George S. Patton The idea that a war can be won by standing on the defensive and waiting for the enemy to attack is … Continue reading

Posted in Iran, War | 6 Comments

Taking the ghetto out of the Jew

We do not have to account to anybody, we are not to sit for anybody’s examination and nobody is old enough to call on us to answer. We came before them and will leave after them. We are what we … Continue reading

Posted in Israeli Politics, Zionism | 2 Comments

How Trump looks from here

After I returned to Israel about four years ago, I found that American politics seemed stranger and stranger to me. I thought it would be interesting to discuss how it looks from here, and what the trends portend both for … Continue reading

Posted in American politics, American society, Jew Hatred | 5 Comments

Facebook’s essential extremism

There are 7.6 billion humans on this earth. 2.23 billion of them logged on to Facebook (the number counts “monthly active users”) during the second quarter of 2018. I don’t know about you, but I found this astounding, considering that … Continue reading

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

The Times They Are A Changing

When the State of Israel was declared in May of 1948, 35 men and two women signed the Declaration of Independence. The overwhelming majority was made up of activists of various left-wing factions, a few represented the interests of different … Continue reading

Posted in Israeli or Jewish History, Israeli Politics, Israeli Society, Post-Zionism | 2 Comments

Ronald Lauder’s Left Turn

I recently got an email from a liberal Jewish friend in America. He’s a Zionist, he’s interested in Jewish issues, and he’s not dumb. To my horror, he highly recommended the op-ed published in the NY Times on Sunday by … Continue reading

Posted in American Jews, Israeli Politics, Zionism | 3 Comments