How to Flood Gaza with Aid without Enriching Hamas

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid line up at the Rafah border, October 2025. Photo credit: REUTERS.

The key to success of President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan is to remove Hamas from power, permanently. A key to achieving that is to take away Hamas’s profit centers in Gaza, which allow it to pay fighters and smuggle in weapons. Hamas currently makes money by taxing and exercising control over critical humanitarian supplies in […]

The Fragile Peace

Photo credit: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein.

The relief that swept across Israel this past week was profound. Twenty living hostages returned home from Gaza captivity. Families who had braced themselves for permanent loss suddenly found themselves whole again. For a few days, the streets filled with tears of joy. Mothers embraced sons they thought they’d never see again. In a country […]

The Battle for Gaza City

Israeli air strike in Gaza City, September 5, 2025. Photo credit: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa.

Gaza City, one of the last two Hamas strongholds, is the target of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in an ongoing operation. It is a large metropolitan area stretching from Shati, the historic refugee camp on the beach, through the wealthy neighborhood of Rimal, around to Zeitoun and the old quarter of historic Gaza. In […]

Make Hamas Face a Choice

Photo credit: IMAGO/APAimages via Reuters Connect.

There are no easy answers to the question of what Israel should do in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is demanding a complete Israeli surrender in exchange for releasing the remaining hostages, whom it has bandied about in horrific videos. The only option is to cope intelligently and soberly with a situation that is borderline impossible. […]

Closer US – Hungary Military Cooperation is Good for Both Countries

President Trump and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Photo credit: REUTERS/Carlos Barria.

Hungary and the United States have been allies since Hungary joined NATO in 1999. President Donald Trump’s reelection augurs well for closer ties on defense policy. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Trump during the election campaign and called him “the man who can save the Western world.” Trump, in return, has said “there’s nobody that’s […]

Israel has No Genocidal Intent and is not Committing Genocide in Gaza

Photo credit: REUTERS.

In Gaza, a brutal war is being fought against a still-active enemy whose sole purpose (as demonstrated on  October 7, 2023) remains the elimination of Israel. At the same time, an information war is being waged in the West, using accusations of “genocide” against Israel as a tool, including by scholars who should know better. […]

How to Finance Ukraine’s Defense Industry

A Ukraine-made GARA UAV for aerial reconnaissance in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, May 2025. Photo credit: Dmytro Smolienko via Reuters Connect.

At this year’s Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome, all eyes were on the country’s fast-growing defense-technology sector. With Kyiv now in its fourth year of war with Russia, Ukraine’s home-grown firms urgently need fresh capital – public, private, and blended – to offset gaps in allied arms deliveries and anchor Ukraine’s long-term recovery.  Longstanding prohibitions […]

How a Bad Deal in the Indian Ocean Undermines the West

Protest against the UK handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, June 2025. Photo credit: ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.

On May 22, the UK government of Labour’s Keir Starmer signed a treaty with the island nation of Mauritius, a former British colony in the Indian Ocean, to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, a seven-atoll archipelago that includes the Diego Garcia military base. Though the deal contains protections for this base, it also raises […]

Lessons of the Middle East War

Photo credit: REUTERS/Amir Cohen.

All wars teach lessons. The war that began with the murderous assault on southern Israel by the governing organization of Gaza, Hamas, on October 7, 2023, and ended – at least for now — on June 22, 2025 with the American bombing of three major parts of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, demonstrates the importance […]

Thoughts from the Safe Room on the New Map of the Middle East

Iranian missiles intercepted over Tel Aviv, June 16, 2025. Photo credit: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun.

Every modern apartment in Israel comes with a safe room hardened to survive a missile or rocket hit. In 2022 I moved to Jerusalem, bought an apartment, and placed my library in the safe room. Thus, I had plenty of resources to consult in the safe room during the recent Iranian missile attacks. Here are […]