It's long been an accepted fact that Israel is terrible at hasbara (public diplomacy). For decades, the Jewish state has struggled to convey its point of view, and explain its actions, to largely hostile global publics. All too often the traditional ways it has tried to do so – speeches, interviews, and formal communiques – have failed to move the needle on world perceptions in a meaningful way. Even so, the six months since the horrible events of October 7 have been a wake-up call. It would be an understatement to say that Israel has been caught off guard by the explosion of global anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment that followed Hamas's campaign of terror and the subsequent Gaza offensive. It has found itself unprepared for a global media environment where Hamas claims and statistics are treated uncritically, where Israeli communiques are scoffed at, and where foreign actors such as Russia and China help amplify disinformation that is intended to erode the Israeli position. Simply put, Israel now finds itself not only in a physical fight against Hamas (and, increasingly, Iran itself), but in an informational one as well. Against this backdrop, a qualitatively new approach to winning global "hearts and minds" is required. 

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I'm sure you've heard commentators describe the Islamic Republic of Iran and Israel as "rivals" engaged in a "tit-for-tat" conflict. That misinterprets reality.

Ali Khamenei, Iran's "supreme leader" since 1989, seeks to establish a new Middle Eastern empire.

Israelis, by contrast, only want to survive as an independent nation within a slice of their ancient Jewish homeland.

They would like nothing better than to enjoy amicable relations with Iranians, as they did prior to Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979.

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Iran has claimed that its drone-and-missile strikes against Israel this weekend were a justified response to "the Zionist regime's crimes"—in particular, Israel's attack on Iran's embassy complex in Damascus, which it claims as sovereign soil. On April 1, an Israeli air strike had killed several senior members of the Quds Force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps unit that oversees covert operations in the Middle East, and General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a top commander. While diplomatic facilities are generally viewed as sovereign and off-limits to attack, Israel claims that the complex did not have diplomatic status and was a legitimate target.

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Since last year's Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas, no U.N. agency has garnered as many headlines as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

The U.N. agency, created in 1949, had one primary purpose — to resettle purported Arab Palestinian refugees and their descendants, created in the wake of the Arab states' failure to annihilate the nascent state of Israel following its establishment in 1948.

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For someone who has declared himself to be a Zionist, US President Joe Biden sure has a funny way of showing it.

On April 4, in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden reportedly harangued Israel, all but threatening to cut off military aid to the Jewish state unless it capitulated to his demands.

As Reuters succinctly noted, "US President Joe Biden effectively gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an ultimatum on Thursday: Protect Palestinian civilians and foreign aid workers in Gaza or Washington could rein in support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants."

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In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israeli civilians, President Joe Biden showed sympathy and support for Israel. Even as news of that day's horrors, including the death of 30 Americans, continued to come out, Biden's sympathy and support was not shared across his administration. As the war reaches its six-month mark, those anti-Israel voices within the administration and the Democratic Party are pushing Biden further and further away from his initial position.

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Israel looks increasingly isolated on the world stage. But one country has stood unwaveringly by Israel's side: Germany. It stands out as a model of support. Not because it gives Israel a free pass on every controversy. But because it has not buckled on its fundamental pro-Israel positions, even when international pressure builds.

First, let's acknowledge that Germany's strong pro-Israel positions are rooted in the country's need to right historic wrongs. As Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated, "German history and our responsibility arising from the Holocaust make it our duty to stand up for the existence and security of the State of Israel."

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A new ban on foreign-appointed imams in France is aimed at combating Islamist separatism, but the policy risks making matters worse by handing future decisions about hiring imams over to local groups affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood. The French move is an example of a political decision that sounds superficially positive. Unfortunately, it fails to address the complex, often unofficial processes by which Islamist ideology is currently disseminated. As such, it offers an object lesson in what not to do, worthy of close observation.

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I can't believe we're having this discussion in September 2023, just as the fall respiratory virus season commences and we're experiencing a new wave of COVID-19, but the politicizers of COVID won't let up. Senator J.D. Vance (R-OH) this week introduced legislation that "would prohibit any federal official, including the President, from issuing mask mandates applying to domestic air travel, public transit systems, or primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools."

There was also the ill-timed article by John Tierney in City Journal on August 27th claiming that "maskaholics are incorrigible" and everyone should reject masks because "we're rational."

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While the ongoing protests in Syria's southern province of al-Suwayda' against the Syrian government and its policies are noteworthy, the tribal uprising in the eastern countryside of the eastern province of Dayr al-Zur against the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is arguably of greater significance, as it amounts to an actual armed revolt that has posed a serious challenge to the SDF's authority over the area- an authority that was only established because of the American-led campaign against the Islamic State. In turn the revolt raises very serious issues about U.S. policy in the region and the supposed ongoing American mission to ensure the "enduring defeat" of the Islamic State.

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