Carlo Strenger

The government’s disconnection from the world has much in common with the psychology of religious sects that, having become so convinced of their own truth, no longer care about the world at large.

Israel needs to realize that the Palestinian political reality of today has undergone a significant upheaval - and must tailor its policies accordingly.

The imminent recognition of a Palestinian state by the UN puts Israel on a collision course with the rest of the world. And there is but one way which this could be made less catastrophic.

Israel’s right is not confident enough to accept the truth of the country's history, and instead propagates stories that no historian on earth would support.

Once the dust of the media storm settles down, the citizens of Israel will be faced with the stark truth: The specter of Israel’s ever-growing isolation and of increasing international pressure looms large.

We can expect Netanyahu to do everything but what he should during his visit to Washington, attempting to torpedo the recognition of Palestine and doing nothing to bring about acceptable Israeli borders.

If Hamas does make the historic move of accepting Israel’s existence, chances for Israel-Palestine peace will increase dramatically, writes Carlo Strenger.

UNRWA teaches children in the schools of Gaza about the Holocaust; Israeli schools need to teach about the Palestinian Nakba. Passover should teach us to live with the truth.

The gruesome murder of Italian peace activist by an extremist Islamist group in Gaza show, more than ever, that Hamas is running into insoluble problems.

While it is legitimate to criticize Israeli policies, Hamas’ systematic targeting of Israeli civilians and Israel’s attempt to neutralize Hamas’ military infrastructure simply belong to different moral universes.

Israeli youth grows up seeing a parliament that passes nationalist, often outright racist laws, hears a Prime Minister who keeps fanning fear of Israel’s imminent demise by Iranian attack, and is told the world hates Israel no matter what it does.

It needs to be made clear that the choice is not between a safe Israel that occupies the territories and an unsafe Israel alongside a Palestinian state.

Although Tel Aviv University is off the charts in the caliber of its research, its professor to student ratio is abysmal, with not enough faculty members on staff due to serious lack of funds.

If Netanyahu had any of the Churchill daring that he likes to fantasize he has, he would see that a future UN recognition of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders would be an historical victory for Israel.

Ultimately, Israel’s sane majority that wants peace and democracy rather than war and theocracy will wake up and break the destructive stranglehold of those who wish to make the country a theocracy.

Liberal Zionists do not think that Israel’s raison d’être hinges on Hebron, but being recognized by internationally law and giving millions of people, most of them, but certainly not all, Jewish, the home in which they can live and realize their potential.

Are we indeed in an era in which the internet and social media revolutionize politics?

If Egypt succeeds in its transition towards viable democracy, Israel will get the courage to relate to the Palestinians from a position of mutuality rather than the posture of dominance it inherited from the West’s colonial past.

Nobody can be certain that cold peace between Israel and Egypt will survive Mubarak's fall and the emergence of a new political system.

Does the common wisdom that Al Jazeera is close to Hamas and wanted to undermine Abbas really hold true?

Israel’s right-wing politicians are trying to divert blame for its isolation onto the country’s liberal critics.

Those who voted for Katsav as president should ask themselves: What did I know about this man? Did I really think he was suited for what is formally Israel’s highest office? Was I capable of thinking beyond petty party politics and personal gain when I cast my vote?

There are two choices in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the two-state solution, or descent of the region into chaos that will make earlier rounds of bloodletting look tame.

Israel suffered truly existential threats until 1973, and then severe blows when it gave peace a chance; now many Israelis are deeply angry at anybody who tries to talk them into doing it again.

After endless boycott attempts accusing Israel's universities of cooperating with the occupation, now Israel's right is waging a totalitarian campaign against what they term 'anti-Zionism.'