After developing an independent policy on a number of issues such as businesses opening on Shabbat and asylum seekers, Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai announced this week that the city would recognize same-sex marriage. Tel Aviv is demanding autonomy, and we are here to do it right and declare the first extra-territory in Israel -- the State of Tel Aviv.…

Israel’s golden decade has been brought to an abrupt end, as the country now faces a long line of ticking bombs: a pandemic that the state is failing to deal with and that professionals fear is spiraling out of control; a devastated economy that has left around a fifth of the population on the breadline; and a fateful decision to…

The abusive diatribe recently leveled by Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef against Israeli immigrants from the former Soviet Union is merely a symptom, not the problem itself. The real problem is that the Chief Rabbinate, headed by Rabbi Yosef together with his Ashkenazi counterpart Rabbi Lau, makes life difficult for this immigrant population on a daily basis, applying an extremely stringent…

After a gestation period that dragged on for years, on Sunday – the criminal case of “the State of Israel versus Benjamin Netanyahu” will finally make it to the courtroom. It has not been a happy pregnancy. The child brought into the world at its end could be a guilty verdict against an incumbent prime minister, one of the greatest…

Many among the extreme right and extreme left were bitterly disappointed by the High Court’s unequivocal decision not to disqualify Netanyahu from serving as prime minister. The ruling pulled the rug out from under the fairy tale of the deep state, which the extreme right has been trying to sell. When the most liberal and activist justices decide that Netanyahu…

Nearly half of all Israelis do not trust the High Court They attribute a left-wing bias to the Court and claim that it engages in extreme activism, in violation of the separation of powers. This is the forerunner of the “deep state” that aims to subvert the elected government. For years, arguments against the “rule by lawyers” have been the…

The coalition agreement – the prickly embrace of two hedgehogs – is better than many feared it would be but worse than they had hoped it would be. The two Benjamins certainly deserve credit: Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz strode bare-chested into a free-fire zone. Many consider his agreement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be a doomed…

For the ultra-Orthodox, the very notion of a great rabbi making a mistake is unthinkable. What we’ve seen over the past month, is not about one rabbi getting it wrong. A long list of the leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis, in Israel and abroad, initially refused to comply with the government directive to shut down yeshivot, synagogues, and ritual baths. At a…

Israel in the midst of a crisis –unprecedented in its scale. Human life is in danger, and the economy faces huge challenges. All branches of government are focused on dealing with a first-ever situation. All this does not prevent some journalists and public figures from calling for the establishment of a state commission of inquiry the day after the corona.…