Zvi Bar'el

Controversy has exploded in the Iran experts’ laboratory in Israel. Who gave the order to cook up this elixir called Iranian President Hasan Rowhani?

A majority of Israeli Jews support integration of Arabs into society. But that’s the same majority that continues to view Arabs with suspicion, whether or not they volunteered for national service.

Many countries in the Middle East are under an internal or external threat of some sort. But amazingly, none of them claim to be the most threatened as Israel does.

In presenting Mahmoud Abbas as a partner, Israeli President Shimon Peres defied the Israeli strategy of questioning the Palestinian president's credibility to avoid peace negotiations.

As his recent interview in The New York Times shows, Finance Minister Yair Lapid knows how to sell himself as everything to everyone, but his brand is wearing thin.

When red lines are no longer red lines and threats of varying severity can be found around every corner, Israel needs to pick and choose its fights. Let's decide which issues really require a military response.

Israel, the country that notices distant threats before anyone else, has become deaf, dumb and blind when the threat is lying at its doorstep.

Freedom to decide is a two-edged sword because it gives Israel a double responsibility - the first for its security, and the second toward the U.S. - not to involve it in a war it did not start.

We may one day have 'peaceful coexistence’ with the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza. With the Arabs of Israel, it will take much more. We need sincere reconciliation.

Israel has made the occupation into a sacred security cow, preventing it from being evaluated economically.

Israel is planning for the aftermath of the crisis in Syria, but remaining aloof from events on the ground and letting chances to make a humanitarian and political impact pass it by.

Even the best relations can be destroyed by skewed expectations.

President Obama's visit attests to Washington's strategic choice: to neglect the Middle East peace process.

Instead of getting what we voted for, we'll get a chunky mixture whose components will be impossible to identify: Yair Lapid with the flavor of Naftali Bennett, Tzipi Livni rolled up in Netanyahu.

The head of the Shin Bet security service has to decide right now how to stop the next intifada.

The strange alliance between Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid has transformed both of their parties into something they're not.

Nobody disagrees with the prime minister's right to consult his wife. But it isn't customary for a political victory to depend on her authorization.

Despite the party's avowed interest in peace, Yesh Atid's platform does little to distinguish it from the hawkish agendas of the other major players in the coalition talks.

While Israeli politicians have done little to dissect the politics of the Arab world, Iranian academics are watching us closely, and publishing their analyses abroad.

There is nothing new about opportunism, but this time it has become a value in and of itself. We won’t get mad at Lapid, Livni or Yacimovich if they join Netanyahu’s coalition; we expect it. We’ll ridicule them if they sell out too cheaply, not for giving up their principles in the first place.

The question that was coined to boost hamburger sales and co-opted for Walter Mondale's ill-fated 1984 presidential bid could today be addressed to Shelly Yacimovich and her empty, so-called leftism.

The left wing parties have the best of intentions for helping Israel's Arabs, but like the most right-wing among us, wouldn't dream of publicly forming an alliance with them.

A society that knows how to respect and nurture ethnicities and cultures doesn't turn them into genies.

The frustration with Yacimovich is not about her unwillingness to take a leftist stance on the peace process. Rather, it is because this party will be unable to faithfully represent those who oppose the policies the next Netanyahu government will follow regarding the peace process.

Even the miracle drawing that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu displayed at the UN General Assembly has been forgotten. Has something happened in the interim that we don't know about?