Tag Archives: Israel

Democracy’s Flaw

Posted on January 25, 2026 | 5 comments

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

One of democracy’s great strengths is the people’s power to change its government with every election cycle. One of democracy’s flaws is that such power currently produces acute discontinuity in a nation’s policies and statecraft that alternately causes stagnation and upheaval.

There was a time when foreign policy was largely a bipartisan concern, with disputes relegated to the margins. American policy towards Communism and the Soviet Union was remarkably consistent for almost four decades, at least until Ronald Reagan rejected containment and ushered in the downfall of Communism in Europe. There was no significant anti-war movement in the United States during the two World Wars and until Vietnam, and even the anti-Vietnam War movement did not reshape the political system until years later. Recall that President Nixon in 1972 defeated the robustly anti-war George McGovern in a true, not Trumpian, landslide, winning 49 of 50 states, and almost 61% of the popular vote.

As the adage went, “politics stops at the waters’ edge,” but Jimmy Carter in his post-presidential global perambulations repudiated that with his frequent criticisms overseas of both Democratic and Republican administrations. And the wars in the Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab terrorist attacks of 9/11, as well as the bitter polarization of American politics, ruptured the consistency of American foreign policy.

Thus, Obama reversed Bush policies in Iraq and Israel, Trump reversed Obama policies on Iran and Israel, Biden reversed Trump’s policies in every conceivable sphere, and Trump II has returned the favor to Biden – on Israel, Iran, NATO, Europe, the US border, and a host of other areas. The next president, Republican or Democrat, is liable to overturn fundamental Trump foreign policies. The sense that American foreign policy can shift dramatically every four or eight years has led many countries to try to game the system, adjusting its policies and priorities depending on who is or who might be in power.

For example, it is invariably true that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine on Trump’s watch but exploited a feckless Biden presidency. Iran manipulated that same administration to ramp up its nuclear program soon after Biden became president even while Iran benefited from the relaxation of sanctions. Iran knew that it could buy time through endless negotiations and that – whatever the provocation – Obama or Biden, unlike Trump, would never militarily attack Iranian facilities.

Similarly, Israel played a waiting game throughout 2024, waiting out a Biden presidency and its vacillations towards Israel (providing some needed weapons and much diplomatic support coupled with occasional threats as well as limitations on Israel’s freedom of action) and hoping for a Trump victory in the fall elections. A nation’s pursuit of even vital interests can progress or languish depending on who sits in the Oval Office.

Compounding the disjointedness of American foreign policy in recent decades is Trump’s trademark unpredictability. The world today is witness to a new and unprecedented phenomenon – thunderous declarations of peace, details to follow, and contraindications of peace ignored or wished away. While Trump’s hatred of war, love for peace, and detestation of American casualties anywhere seems genuine, it leaves countries threatened by real enemies who will not be mollified grasping for coherent strategies.

For example, Trump prefers that his “Board of Peace” designed to create a pacified, peaceful, and prosperous Gaza include such rogue anti-Israel countries as Turkey and Qatar. Such is not only risible and guaranteed to fail, like putting Mexico, Guatemala, and Venezuela in charge of security at the USA’s southern border. It also endangers Israel, empowers our enemies, and mocks the sacrifices of our soldiers who will have died not to conquer and transform Gaza but just to recreate the same old Gaza that inevitably will lead to the same old terror and violence.

There is something awry when a nation’s foreign policy must be evaluated in units of four years. That essentially means that Trump can focus his sights on the next three years without concern for what happens in three years and a day. It explains why Trump declares he made “peace in the Middle East” even though no one who lives here thinks that. If relative peace is sustained until January 20, 2029, it does not matter what cataclysm befalls us the very next day. And some of his policies if enacted – for example, rehabilitating Gaza without rehabilitating the Gazans – will inevitably explode in an even greater rage of hatred and violence than October 7 when Trump leaves office. Israel is being asked to indulge Trump’s quixotic quest of a “Board of Peace” that has a shelf life of three years or less and thus can ignore longer term Israeli interests. We accommodate that at our peril.

A foreign policy for the short term helps explain why Trump loves strongmen, like Putin, Erdogan, Xi, Kim, and others who can serve for years and present consistent, unwavering policies (moral or not) while scorning leaders of democracies who, like him, will be gone soon enough and cannot guarantee stability. The autocrats can, and so only they win Trump’s highest accolade, as leaders who are “strong.”

Where does that leave Israel? It is unlikely that a President Vance or a President Newsome (or any future Democratic president in the near term) will be as viscerally pro-Israel as is President Trump. The world today is so volatile – the Middle East, Iran, Russia and Ukraine, the decline of Europe, the aggressiveness of Turkey and Qatar, Central and South America, China and Taiwan, North and South Korea – that it is impossible to predict the state of the world three years from now and how the next president will deal with them. Papering over crises with vacuous rhetoric looks good in daily headlines and sounds good in press conferences but plays poorly in the real world. And Trump has been known to yield when countries he has threatened push back and he realizes there is no risk-free method of achieving his goals.

As such, it behooves Israel to identify its national interests and pursue them now, and not just rhetorically for campaign purposes as has long been practiced. Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is a forceful declaration that the creation of a Palestinian state is inimical to Israel’s existence and a non-starter. Such would end the strategic vacuum in Israel’s heartland that has existed for almost six decades. Jerusalem must be expanded, its undeveloped areas designated for new housing, and its indivisibility reaffirmed. The presence of hostile foreign entities in Gaza, such as Turkey or Qatar, should be off the table and resettlement of Jews in Gaza advanced.

Moreover, Israel must firmly assert that the policy has officially ended of enduring attacks, conquering the bases from which those attacks were launched (such as Gaza or South Lebanon), abandoning them under pressure to the attackers only to have to fight there again in several years.

Presidencies come and go but Israel’s interests transcend any particular presidency and the vagaries and predilections of who holds the office during any particular four-year term. Such is democracy’s flaw. We cannot count on consistency from our allies – but we can demand it from our government.

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Somaliland and Venezuela 

Posted on January 8, 2026 | Comments Off on Somaliland and Venezuela 

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

Like the two least popular kids in high school befriending each other, Israel and Somaliland recently established diplomatic relations, to the usual handwringing from our adversaries. Halfway across the world, the United States kidnapped Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife and brought them to the US to stand trial for drug smuggling and other crimes.

Much of the world is unhappy about the latter although there is not much they can do about it except gripe. The United Nations is feckless except for its routine denunciations of Israel, and the US veto in the UN Security Council precludes that body taking any practical steps. Even the General Assembly will be muted because of the nations’ fear of inciting President Trump’s wrath against them.

There are already mass protests in the United States and globally against the abduction, notwithstanding that it should be difficult to muster any sympathy for a mass murdering, drug smuggling, human trafficking dictator. But then again, many of these same protesters are ardent supporters of Hamas and violently anti-Israel.

We need not speculate how the world would react if Israel ever tried such a stunt – because we already have. Every incursion into our neighbor’s territory in our own defense (Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, Iran) is immediately denounced as a violation of international law, regardless of circumstances or provocation. And when Israel did kidnap Adolph Eichmann from Argentina in May 1960 and to try him in Israel for war crimes, Israel was denounced by the UN (UNSC Resolution 138) for this “violation of the sovereignty” of Argentina that caused “international friction” for which Israel was urged to make “appropriate reparation.” The resolution passed unanimously, with American support, although the Soviet Union and Poland abstained. The resolution did acknowledge and refused to condone the “odious crimes” of which Eichmann was charged.

Are there lessons that we can derive from both these incidents – Israel’s recognition of Somaliland and the US seizure of Maduro? One lesson for us would be to act more and talk less. Days after the attack, there is still no mention of US or Venezuelan casualties. Another, and the primary lesson, is that we have to better learn how to advance our national interests by making daring decisions after rationally assessing all options and consequences rather than being perpetually reactive.

Accordingly, in retrospect, it is surprising that we did not recognize Somaliland until now. Somaliland, a territory on the horn of Africa almost eight times our size, has never been part of neighboring Somalia and had long fought them (primarily a struggle of clans) until declaring its independence in 1991. Somaliland is a Muslim country that sought friendly relations with Israel, as opposed to Somalia which has always boycotted us and has rebuffed our outreach for more than a half century. And now Somaliland offers Israel friendship, a military base that is in close proximity to Yemen and its Houthi rebels, as well as a possible locale for resettlement of a hostile Gazan population. Win, win, win.

Now that Somaliland’s diplomatic isolation has ended, perhaps other countries will follow suit. Leaving its land in diplomatic limbo for more than seventy years sounds ridiculous. But we foolishly do the same thing.

Israel has never been proactive in promoting our interests. For well over fifty years, we have allowed the status of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza to remain disputed, never declaring sovereignty or even staking a formal claim. Instead, we tolerated this ambiguity to our detriment, negotiating agreements based on fantasies that facilitated the rise of hostile forces with subsequent torrents of terror and wild claims to statehood. That failure is on us and our leadership.

Innovative ideas are usually kicked down the road, with decisions often delayed “until the Prime Minister returns from Washington,” as happened years ago with sovereignty over Judea and Samaria and weeks ago with the municipal plans to rebuild the Atarot neighborhood in north Jerusalem. Both were “temporarily” shelved to “avoid a confrontation,” which begs the question, if they are both right and just, then why don’t we? Why don’t we act in our national interest? Why do we subjugate our rights to the considerations of other nations?

While constructive ambiguity may have its place in diplomacy, it has most often weakened us and strengthened our enemies.

Take a few other examples. Last year, Israel declared it would penalize countries that recognized a “state” of Palestine but literally nothing has happened. France’s illegal consulate in Jerusalem remains open, conducting nefarious anti-Israel activities in gross violation of Israeli law. The Turkish consulate in Jerusalem explicitly declared itself its “Embassy to Palestine,” and other Turkish agencies located in Jerusalem still engage in consistent incitement and anti-Israel activities. All these provocations are met by Israel with empty bluster but nothing ever actually happens.

Additionally, the UK was one of those countries that recognized a “Palestine” and thus seeks to deprive us of the heart of our ancestral homeland. Why not, in turn, appreciate the current friendship and support of Argentina by recognizing the Falkland Islands – still claimed by Argentina, a few hundred miles off the Argentinian coast, and distant from Britain by approximately 8,000 miles (!) – as rightful Argentinian territory? Admittedly, the symbolism of our recognition is greater than the practical effect – but isn’t recognition of a “Palestine” more symbol than substance?

For too long, we have left diplomatic, political, and territorial vacuums, which are then invariably filled with initiatives, policies, and actions that are inimical to our well-being. Granted, we are not a world superpower like the United States that can act with impunity. But we are more powerful than we think, and our power should be used to reward our friends, punish our enemies, and conserve and develop our land for future generations – rather than just kicking the can down the road and making idle threats.

At a certain point, we will run out of road, as has happened before, and what filled those vacuums were catastrophes like Oslo, the Gaza Expulsion, repeatedly mowing the lawn in Lebanon and Gaza to little effect, October 7, and a “state” of Palestine now recognized by 157 countries.

With Iran and its proxies weakened, and Venezuela – an ally of Hamas and a sanctuary for Islamic terrorists – temporarily sidelined as a global threat, it is time to be proactive, identify our national interests, promote them, and achieve them.

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The Friend of My Enemy

Posted on December 19, 2025 | Comments Off on The Friend of My Enemy

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

There is a well-known and ancient aphorism that affirms that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Two countries that are rivals can still unite to challenge and overcome a mutual adversary that threatens them both. Thus, during World War II, the United States and United Kingdom joined forces with the USSR (after Germany breached their non-aggression pact) in order to defeat the Nazis. Shortly after the war ended, the enmity between the erstwhile allies resumed in full force and the Cold War began.

What about a corollary to that hoary principle? How does one characterize “the friend of my enemy,” or in our case, enemies? Is the friend still a friend? Does the friend become an enemy? Is there an intermediate stage – can a country become a frenemy?

This is our new reality, as Israel’s closest friend and ally in the world – the United States – curries favor with Qatar and Turkey, arguably two of Israel’s most implacable strategic foes in the world today. It is impossible not to conclude that those two countries are our enemies, and this despite Israel’s longtime willingness to ignore the provocations of both and to dream of the past (Turkey) or better days ahead (Qatar).

We should not delude ourselves any longer. Qatar has for quite some time been the sponsors of Hamas and other terrorist groups. It literally hosted and shielded Hamas’ leadership before, during, and after the October 7 massacre, and Qatari wealth has sustained Hamas despite its designation as a terrorist organization. Qatari money has allegedly fueled the anti-Jewish campus unrest in the United States the last several years. Their recent distancing from Hamas was solely the result of Israel’s attack on Hamas’ Qatar headquarters this past September, a shot across the bow that, among other things, informed the Qataris that the jig was up – and even induced them to pressure Hamas to free all the living Israeli hostages then held captive by Hamas.

Israelis still remember the Turkey that was the first (and for decades, only) Muslim country that recognized Israel. That bond was severed when Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became prime minister in 2003 and then president (apparently for life unless there is a coup) in 2014. Turkey before Erdoğan was a breath of fresh air in the Middle East. His ascension to power and his commitment to the tenets of radical Islam immediately soured relations, although Israel was slow to realize that and our diplomacy remained trapped in the fantasy world of the 1980’s. Nothing Erdoğan’s Turkey could do – supporting Hamas, dispatching the Mavi Marmara, repeatedly condemning Israel on the world stage, calling our government “Nazis” and our prime minister “Hitler” – none of that dispelled the Israeli illusion that this was still the same Turkey that exports dates and welcomes Israeli tourists, and that we are just a few conversations away from reviving that halcyon era.

Today, Turkey’s influence in our region is especially nefarious, and even in Israel itself. It designated its illegal consulate in Jerusalem, our capital city, as its “embassy to Palestine” – and we do nothing about it. Through a variety of social service, educational, and cultural organizations it sponsors in Jerusalem, funded by Qatar, it propagates radical Islam, rejection of Israel, and support for terror – and we do nothing about it. It routinely insults us, denies our legitimacy, and mocks our sovereignty – and we do nothing about it. The fantasy about the old Turkey even precipitated an apology from our prime minister after the Mavi Marmara incident. In other words, Turkey sent a hostile craft meant to break our blockade and supply our genocidal enemy in Gaza – and we had to apologize.

Now, the United States is friends or at least allies with these two of our enemies, and the price of that friendship has not been the diminution of their hostility towards Israel. Turkey and Qatar have captivated the US and it is not because of the shared values of those three countries – unless the primary value is money. These antagonists have infiltrated the US in different ways – Turkey as a longtime member of NATO serving as a counterforce to the Russians, and Qatar by spreading tens of billions of dollars of its oil revenues to buy influence in universities, politics, think tanks, school boards, and cultural institutions. Qatar has upped the ante in the current administration by engaging in sweetheart business deals with Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s ambassador for all things, and with Trump family members, and promising (although not yet delivering) investments in US infrastructure reported to be a trillion dollars.

Although the US could easily detach itself from Turkey, whose weak economy is obscured by its bellicose rhetoric and grandiose ambitions, it could not easily disconnect from the Qataris, so extensive is their influence in the United States. Qatari money is spread across numerous industries such as real estate, energy, aviation, and technology, and most reprehensible is their funding of dozens of American universities, including study programs which extol the virtues of Islam and denigrate Judaism and Israel. Yes, money talks, and three American universities – Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, and Northwestern – have received more than two trillion dollars to fund their campuses in Doha, Qatar.

The influence of Qatari money on American university campuses, and its connection to the rampant Jew hatred and anti-American activism that have erupted there in recent years, is being investigated. But the linkage should be unsurprising, as well the accompanying decline in support for Israel in the last few years among younger Americans.

Undoubtedly, Qatar and Turkey are masterful at playing the double game, promoting the interests of radical Israel under the pretense of befriending America and serving America’s interests. This should have been made clear to all through the machinations of Qatar and Turkey during the prolonged hostage negotiations, when both countries pretended to be intermediaries and peace seekers. In fact, their enmity to Israel was blatant. Even their supposed neutrality to Hamas was and is a moral obscenity. If part of their current game is currying favor with President Trump through money (including a promise of a new Air Force One, which has not yet been fulfilled) and overblown flattery, then it is working. And if a long-term Arab goal has always been to distance the US from Israel, then that hasn’t happened, but it is clearly on their agenda.

Well, how do we react when our strongest ally sees itself as friends with our enemies? We can pretend to our detriment that perhaps those enemies are no longer enemies because they are friends with our friend. That would be absurd, which is not to say unlikely given our diplomatic dithering. But it should be clear that one might be a friend of my enemy but that does not make that enemy my friend. An enemy remains an enemy because of divergent interests and objectives, and hostile actions. Friendship with a third party will not change that.

We cannot compete with Qatari money. Trump is a sucker for flattery and has been played by multiple countries – Russia, China, Syria, and others – but we should not play that unsavory game more than is necessary, such as calling Trump “the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” which is true but does not preclude Trump pursuing American interests first, as he should. We pretend to our detriment that US and Israeli interests are always aligned.

What we can do is try to minimize the impact of that so-called friendship by emphasizing our shared interests with the United States, and especially by calling out Qatari and Turkish actions that conflict with US interests, of which there are not a few. Qatar has announced it will not fund Gaza’s rebuilding, despite promises made to the Americans. Both countries have long flirted with America’s global adversaries and skillfully play one off against the other. The presence of a US Air Force base in Qatar serves one US interest but means that the US literally defends Qatar from all hostile elements, something that makes American troops targets which should trouble America Firsters. Israel has never sought that type of on the ground protection, and it is a mistake to allow an American base in Kiryat Gat.

Under Qatari and Turkish influence, the US will try to force Israel into accepting the disappearance of the deceased hostage Ran Gvili, diluting our insistence that Hamas be disarmed and disabled, speed up Gazan reconstruction, and advance our withdrawal (again, for the eighth time) from Gaza. None of this is in Israel’s interest, unless our goal is a few months or years of relative tranquility as the enemy prepares for the next, and even deadlier, round of terror and atrocities.

Trump has good instincts and is unpredictable because of his tendency to engage in bold actions. But he also has a short attention span, is easily distracted, and enjoys more the good PR from claiming diplomatic triumphs than the reality on which his wishes are implausibly imposed which is always less auspicious. Hence, the series of “wars” he has ended which have not actually ended – whether in Congo, Thailand, Gaza, or the Middle East. The day of agreement concerns him more than the day after an agreement. He lacks the tenacity and patience to see his vision through or to ensure it endures. That is why he urges Netanyahu to “take the win,” even if there is no win to be taken. It is akin to Senator George Aiken’s famous quote (he did not actually say it) in 1966 that the US in Vietnam should “declare victory and go home.” But Gaza is home, part of the land of Israel, and the enemy’s objective is to survive, and during the respite rebuild, rearm, and plan for the next attack. Now that Hamas is on the ropes and Gaza is devastated, we would be foolish to allow true victory in that tiny territory to slip away.

And we would have to be insane to allow the introduction of troops from Turkey and Qatar into Gaza, knowing full well that they will do little else than facilitate their plans for our demise. Their forces would not be Trojan horses but rather the enemy itself, armed and dangerous and in plain sight. Qatar has infiltrated the highest levels of the American government and it should be sobering for us to realize the outsized influence Qatar now has on American foreign policy, including Trump’s pronouncements. It puts paid to the boring cliché prevalent among anti-Israel Americans that Israel controls US foreign policy, although it will not stop our haters from professing it. Every administration statement, including leaks to journalists from “senior officials,” has to be filtered through the prism of Qatari influence.

In truth, it is Trump who should “take the win,” the win being the release of all the living hostages at once which would not have happened without him. Everything else is smoke and mirrors. If we do not take advantage of Hamas’ current vulnerability, we will be left dealing with a resurgent terror network and an explosive Gaza long after Trump leaves office, and under much less favorable conditions for us to respond.

As always, Israel is remiss is not clearly defining our interests and sticking to them, in not establishing red lines and proclaiming their indelibility. Ruling out Turkish troops in Gaza is a god start but Qatari forces are no better. We, too, are desperate for friends and allies but we should be forthright in recognizing that our enemies are not just those who physically attack us but also those who subsidize the attackers. Israelis too have been seduced by the allure of Qatari business and investments. That the US is unduly swayed by Qatar and Turkey is probably inevitable, given the US interest in countering the growing sway of China and Russia, but it need not be permanent. Those countries’ influence on the Trump administration is troubling but not exclusive. We too have influence – and that influence is enhanced when our interests are unambiguously projected and our shared values are transparent and transmitted.

The reborn Jewish commonwealth after the miracle Chanukah foundered because of, among other reasons, ill-considered alliances with foreign countries that gradually undermined our sovereignty in the land of Israel. Having learned from our long and providential history, we know better. Or do we?

Happy Chanukah!

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Chanukah: Ancient Challenges

Posted on December 15, 2025 | 2 comments

(First published in the December issue of Jewish Image magazine)

It is not widely known but Jerusalem is at the center of each of the Jewish holidays. In addition to the three pilgrimage festivals, a second day was added to Rosh Hashana to facilitate the Temple service in case the precise appearance of the New Moon perplexed the authorities. The Temple service was at the heart of Yom Kippur and Jerusalem celebrates Purim on the same day it was celebrated in Shushan, one day after most of the Jewish world rejoices.

But on no holiday does Jerusalem feature as prominently in its history and observance as it does on Chanukah. The miracle of Chanukah – the burning of the Temple Menorah for eight days – occurred in Jerusalem and the liberation of Jerusalem was considered the apex of the military victory even though the war itself continued for another two decades. And there is much that happened on Chanukah that can guide us today as the challenges that bedeviled the Jewish people then are prevalent, not to mention, exasperating, in modern times.

The story of Chanukah almost 2200 years ago took place against the backdrop of three major crises. The Jewish world then had to wrestle with a foreign enemy, internal strife, and a spiritual malaise that threatened the continuity of Jewish life.

The Syrian Greeks led by a descendant of one of the generals of Alexander the Great captured the land of Israel and the Temple itself and embarked on a campaign of coerced Hellenization of the Jewish population. The Temple was defiled with a statue of Zeus, service in the Temple was summarily halted, and the Syrians attempted to force the Jews to abandon Torah study, circumcision, and other fundamental commandments in the hope that Jews would assimilate into the Greek culture as all other conquered nations had done.  Additionally, the Syrians exercised hegemony over the land of Israel and the Jews were subjugated in their own land.

Most Jews succumbed to the allures of Hellenism, embraced their conquerors, and fiercely opposed the rebellion of the Hasmoneans. In a real yet frightening sense, the war of Chanukah was as much a civil war among Jews as it was a rebellion against the foreign enemy. Jews were quite willing to lend support to the enemy and too many did not hesitate to abandon the particulars of Jewish observance and identity in order to integrate into the Hellenist culture that had swept the world.

None of these predicaments are unknown to us today. The Jewish state, and Jerusalem itself, hosts a large Arab population that does not necessarily perceive its destiny as identical to that of Israeli Jews. There are hostile foreign elements within Jerusalem – chapters of Hamas, Turkish anti-Israel organizations, Qatar money funding a variety of nefarious activities, and European consulates that operate in Jerusalem as embassies to the Palestinians in defiance of Israeli law and thus threatening Israeli sovereignty in the Holy City, including that of Greece, of all countries, our ancient tormentor.

The internal disharmony in Israel over the last few years, which itself precipitated the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023, was mostly papered over by the war but has now slowly re-emerged. It mostly centers on starkly different, even diametrically opposed, visions of Jewish destiny, the meaning, importance, and even continued relevance of a Jewish state, and competing notions of Israeli and Jewish identity.

To be sure, the good news is that the state of affairs when the rebellion of Chanukah began was far more precarious than it is today. We have endured much as a people, weathered conquests, expulsions, exiles, pogroms, and Holocausts, only to return to our land – as promised in the Bible – and reestablish thereon the third Jewish commonwealth. Jews for the last two millennia could only dream of an independent Jewish state in which Torah study is abundant, the observance of mitzvot is woven into the societal structure, a Jewish army can rise up against our foes in righteous self-defense, and Chanukah is a national celebration. Indeed, despite all our differences and the superficial discord, somehow, we have created and maintained a thriving society, prosperous and caring, boisterous but determined, tolerant and broadminded, embattled but audacious, and in many respects, the envy of the world.

We should never ignore the gifts we have been given nor trivialize the opportunities with which we have been blessed. The Jewish population of Jerusalem has not been as sizable as it is today since the destruction of the Temple over nineteen centuries ago. The challenges that we face today – both domestic and foreign – pale before the challenges we overcame throughout history.

That is because the great light of Chanukah still illuminates our way forward and reminds us of the great days of faith, unity, and redemption ahead.

Happy Chanukah to all!

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