Israel Harel
Israel Harel is a regular columnist for Haaretz. He is the founder of the Institute for Religious Zionism at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, which he headed until 1995.
Harel began working as a journalist in the 1960s, as a young contributor to the Eretz Yisrael Movement's newspaper, This is The Land.
He went on to serve as managing editor of the Hayom daily and in 1972 became the assistant editor for the weekend edition of Ma'ariv, at the time the most widely read newspaper in Israel. In addition to that position, Harel also worked as an investigative reporter on Israeli corruption.
In 1991, Harel was asked by Haaretz to contribute an occasional column and to write as a guest journalist. When Chanoch Marmori took over as editor-in-chief, Harel's column became weekly, and it has appeared every Thursday since.
Opinion Netanyahu, Father of the Temple Mount Mosques
Recent clashes in Jerusalem's Old City prove that under Netanyahu’s rule, Israelis are the ones to cave in – rather than Palestinians
Opinion The IDF's Much-needed Revolution of Consciousness
The bloody doctrine of 'containment' must give way to decisive victory, which will cause the enemy to lay down its arms. Only then can peace be imposed upon it
Opinion Yes, Poles Imbibed anti-Semitism With Their Mothers’ Milk
A vast majority of Poles and others remain haters of the Jewish people, but some Israeli politicians, diplomats and Holocaust researchers are foolishly saying they’re shocked by this ‘generalization’
Opinion The Hypocrisy of the University Cartel
The fuel that is igniting the campaign against Ariel University is purely political and ideological
Opinion From a Moderate to a Radical religious-Zionist Party
Habayit Hayehudi has become more extremist, and moderate voices are finding homes elsewhere
Opinion The Sorry Fate of Israel’s Historical Parties
Labor is spent, while Habayit Hayehudi is functioning as a sectoral party, with rabbis calling the shots
Opinion The High Court of Justice Against the Israeli People
In questioning the nation-state law, even the 'conservative' justices are causing grave damage to the soul of the nation that returned to Zion with so much suffering
Opinion Bennett and Shaked’s Dual Test to Draw Support to 'Hayamin Hehadash'
In addition to the secular and traditional-Jewish pool of voters who seek a genuine, honest right-wing home is a second pool, also large, composed of the so-called 'knitted kippa' religious Zionists
Opinion Hating Netanyahu Isn’t an Ideology
This hatred, however deep, is emotional, incidental and transitory; If the opposition wants to draw the nation’s hearts to them, it would do well to wash its hands of those mired in the swamp of hatred
Opinion The Disengaged Generals
Well-intentioned people who have blinded themselves to reality seek to duplicate the brilliant model of 'the disengagement is good for security' from Lebanon and Gaza in Judea and Samaria
Opinion The Army’s PR Hanukkah Miracle
The Israelis are the modern-day Maccabees, fighting - the few against the many, the weak against the strong - against the existential danger posed by the tunnels
Opinion Netanyahu Will Divide Jerusalem
Netanyahu certainly recognizes the added diplomatic value of increasing the Jewish population in East Jerusalem’s Jewish neighborhoods by some 50,000, if not more
Opinion Replace the Captain
Israel's large army, which is endowed with a bounty of resources, is incapable of preventing Hezbollah and Hamas from making Israelis’ lives an ongoing hell
Opinion Citizens of Israel, Get the Bomb Shelters Ready
In Iran, Syria, Lebanon and beyond, they’re watching, listening and drawing conclusions from Israel's conduct during the last round of hostility with Gaza
Opinion Make Aliyah or Disappear
Western Jews are threatened by assimilation and only in Israel is it possible to live on any point of the Jewish spectrum, and especially on the secular end, without needing to assimilate
Opinion Yes, the Shin Bet Did Distribute the Rabin-SS Posters
For years I’ve been harping that the Shin Bet, through its informant, distributed an image showing Rabin in an SS uniform, leveling an extremely serious accusation against the Shin Bet
Opinion Netanyahu and the Army Are Coddling Hamas
Aware that the Israeli aim in Gaza is a Palestinian state led by Hamas, not Fatah, it is confronting us, quite successfully, with a balance of terror
Opinion When Livni Gave the Nation-state Law Her Blessing
The opposition leader's objections to the legislation were very minor, but she changed her tune once she got a chance to brand herself the leader of the left
Opinion The Shameful Deal That Haaretz Is Offering Netanyahu
The leftist justice system is drawing up its get-out-of-jail card for the prime minister, just as it did over 20 years ago with Ariel Sharon
Opinion The One Thing Even Israeli Leftists Like Meretz Can’t Do
Left-wingers have given us policies leading to rocket fire on communities near Gaza, but even they wouldn’t be able to get the Palestinians to agree to any peace deal cooked up by Trump
Opinion The Racist Law of the Left-wing Government
An Israeli judge just passed the first ruling based on the nation-state law, daring to impose damages on a terror organization for injury to a Jew. Critics roiled, but a much more racist law was passed 24 years ago, by a left-wing coalition
Opinion Decisive Year Ahead
On the eve of Rosh Hashana, Maj. Gen. Herzl Halevi, head of Southern Command, said he sees no chance of quiet in the coming decade, or even afterward
An Alternative History: How Shimon Peres Made Peace by Walking Away From Oslo
This is how Shimon Peres could have left Oslo’s architects behind, battled Yasser Arafat and terrorism, and put the Jordanian option back on the table
Opinion Israel's Selective Memory on the Oslo Accords
Should we not focus on the handshake between Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat, the man who would betray him and destroy in the blood and fire of terror attacks the agreement that he had just signed with him?
Opinion Unprecedented Lunacy: It's Not Racist to Oppose Calls for 'Blood and Fire' Against Israeli Jews
The ultranationalist Palestinian population in Israel uses the slogan of bloodshed 'with blood and fire we’ll redeem Palestine.' And around the oath’s real meaning, a web of denial has been woven
Opinion Three Cheers for the Goldin and Shaul Families
In contrast to the Regev and Goldwasser families, the Goldins and the Shauls oppose releasing terrorists in exchange for the remains of a loved ones, as their remains have become a strategic asset for Hamas
Opinion The Hypocrisy of Protesting the Nation-state Law
If the national clauses are unnecessary because they are mentioned in the declaration, why is the absence of 'equality,' which is also mentioned in it, a red line?
Opinion An Operational and a Moral Failure
A main argument coming out of the army’s PR machine is that the conflict in the north is strategically critical, and for that reason most resources are being directed there, but that’s an evasion
Opinion Nation-state Bill Isn't Racist – It Preserves the Legacy of Israel's Founding Fathers
It is not respectable to submit this bill to the vote in such a cynical way, which degrades its ideological, Zionist and Jewish content