Carlo Strenger

To protect their modus vivendi, the ultra-Orthodox sector must give up certain privileges and stop forcing their beliefs onto the rest of Israel's population.

By deciding not to attend the Israeli Presidential Conference, one of the world's leading scientists is singling out Israel and denying it has been under existential threat for most of its existence.

The Finance Minister's refusal to kowtow to ultra-Orthodox political demands doesn't show a hatred of Haredim, but it does show that the winds of change are blowing.

Whatever the final truth about the Boston bombing will turn out to be, it is time to realize a simple, and terrible truth about terrorism: It is here to stay.

The U.S. secretary of state's first attempt to forge negotiations has been rejected by Israel. It may be because he overestimates the issue of territory and underestimates existential fear.

I am just as pessimistic as Rashid Khalidi about the prospects for peace. But I had a hard time reading his new book, since it showed, once again, how catastrophic the settlement policy has been not only for Palestinians, but also for Israel.

Israel’s current government might be able to take some steps towards easing the Orthodox stranglehold on personal and public matters. This will be neither easy nor will it go far enough.

Because of his provocativeness, it's easy to miss Yeshayahu Leibowitz’s profound moral seriousness and the great relevance of his thought today.

By equating criticism leveled at Israeli settlements to efforts to delegitimize Israel, Netanyahu is resorting to cheap political trickery unbefitting of a Western democracy.

The American president should take into account that most Israelis are more open and flexible than their PM to the message that there are ways to move toward compromise with the Palestinians without harming Israel’s security.

Israel's political discourse is largely based on the mistaken assumption that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is unlikely to change.

A large proportion of Israelis are more similar to the liberal Jews who informed Obama's formative years than to Benjamin Netanyahu. Remembering this is key.

The Prime Minister's Office has said that Israel's leader has not seen the Oscar-nominated documentary, nor does he plan to. This is a shame, not just for Israel, but also for Netanyahu's own legacy.

The free world leaders should listen to the new voice of the new Israel. If they will bring fresh thinking to the table, a brighter horizon could rise.

The Oscar-nominated film 'The Gatekeepers' is stirring and soul-shaking. It's also a testimony to the thriving democracy we could one day become.

Every ethnic, religious and political group fears that if it will not dominate all others, it will itself be wiped out.

The coming Knesset will have a sizable center-left bloc, and it is to be hoped that its leaders will understand that it is part of their civic and political duty to oppose any legislation that undermines the pillars of the liberal order.

Israel’s progressives represent one of the deepest values of Jewish history: the value of dissent. For millennia, Jews flourished without having a politburo that told us how to think – and we will not let either Netanyahu and Lieberman or Rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Dov Lior dictate to us what to think, speak, or write.

Netanyahu is likely to be in a comfortable position of having his job assured, but his choice in coalition structure could lead Israel into a historic catastrophe.

The Hamas leader's speech was good for Netanyahu, because he could, once again, present Israel as the innocent victim that is never understood by the international community and diffuse attention from his own actions that aggravate the international community.

In attempting to make a case for a specifically Jewish critique of Israeli state violence, Berkeley professor Judith Butler argues that even at its most liberal, Zionism is profoundly un-Jewish.

If Labor and Yesh Atid join Livni and stay out of the government, there will be a sizeable opposition that cannot be laughed off and delegitimized as 'extreme left.'

Netanyahu keeps behaving in a way that profoundly contradicts the values of the club of the Free World, of which he wants to be a valued member: His disregard for international law and individual human rights of Palestinians simply doesn’t square with the standards of the Free World.

Let me begin with a much-needed clarification. The two-state solution, with all its downsides, is a solution. One state west of the Jordan is likely to be a catastrophe. Let me therefore call it ‘The one-state reality’ as opposed to the ‘two-state solution’.

This conflict has now come to an end. It is now an extreme right-wing party with strong racist undertones.