Tucker Unhinged

Posted on February 24, 2026 | 1 comment

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

Ambassador Mike Huckabee must have the patience of a saint; it is the only way to explain his serenity during his interview with Tucker Carlson. Huckabee was imperturbable, unflappable. Carlson, by contrast, has the demeanor of a deranged person, with a demonic laugh that erupts at inappropriate times for the oddest reasons. He speaks in spurts and flits from topic to topic without any coherence.

Carlson also has the inflated ego of the narcissist, bent out of shape because PM Netanyahu rejected his entreaties for an interview. Who is Carlson after all but a fired TV host who now has his own podcast like a million other people? Today he has many listeners because hatred sells but that well will eventually run dry. Other haters will compete for his audience, at least until they get real jobs that take up their time.

He is also quite scatterbrained. Huckabee is the US Ambassador to Israel; what connection does he have to Jeffrey Epstein or the Epstein files? None. So why badger Huckabee about them? As Ben Shapiro points out, Carlson is a devotee of the “Just Asking Questions” copout, by which Carlson normalizes nuts and haters of all stripes by interviewing them, asking questions but no follow-ups or challenges, thus allowing them to spew their hatred unconstrained by facts or decency.

Carlson has been forced to apologize for several wild statements, including his declared hatred for Christian Zionists but also for accusing President Herzog for befriending Jeffrey Epstein and visiting the infamous island. Herzog strenuously objected, claiming he never met Epstein even once (it is good to know that there are some Jews who had no dealings with Epstein), and Carlson apologized for his accusation that was entirely baseless and slanderous. So why make it?

It is fair to ask: how friendly was Tucker Carlson with Jeffrey Epstein? How much money did Epstein lend him? How many times did Carlson visit the island and are the reports of their close association true? I have no evidence at all – but I am Just Asking Questions. What a perverse game. It is a devious way of spreading lies without being accountable.

I believe Carlson when he says he is not an anti-Semite. Why would anyone have anything against Semites? What did the Semites ever do to offend anyone? But I do believe he hates Jews and Israel and his use of certain code words and phrases – almost one a minute – betrayed his animus.

Israel is a “police state.” Christians are persecuted. He is “paying” for Israel’s crimes through his tax dollars.  Israel committed genocide on his dime and murders children. He is obsessed with Israel’s right to exist, as he is for no other country. The Israeli government “shields child molesters.” Netanyahu’s parents did not speak Hebrew (!). Netanyahu has no claim to the land of Israel because he is not religious. Carlson has no idea what “from the river to the sea” means. The United States went to war in Iraq because of Israel and for Israel, and Netanyahu was the one who talked George Bush into regime change in Iraq. (Alas, for Carlson, Netanyahu was not the Prime Minister of Israel then, nor during the entire Bush Presidency, and wasn’t even in government when Muslim Arabs – not Israelis – attacked America on September 11, 2001.) There are more Christians in Israel than there are in Qatar (unlike Carlson’s assertion to the contrary) and unlike in Carlson’s patron Qatar, Israeli Christians are full citizens while Christians in Qatar are mostly not.

He did raise three questions for which he could have received better answers, not that his mind is open to answers. He is fanatically obsessed with the Law of Return, something that to him smacks of racism and rabid nationalism. To be fair, he contrasts that with America’s open borders until recently, but why blame Israel because the demographics of the United States and Europe are swiftly changing?

Carlson asked: what is a Jew? And what right do the Jewish people have to the land of Israel? Is Jewishness an ethnicity or a religious affiliation?

To the latter question, Huckabee properly answered “both,” not that Carlson could understand or would accept that. But it needs elaboration, as this is something that perplexes Gentiles. The Jewish people are a religio-nation. We have a dual identity, given to us by G-d. The Torah states (Shemot 6:7): “I will take you to be My people and I will be for you G-d.” We are both an ethnic group and a religion, and in both capacities we were granted a relatively small territory on earth in which we were mandated to build a holy state.

A Jew born of a Jewish mother, or converted according to halacha, is a Jew, a member of both the religion and the nation. We are heirs to the land of Israel through the Bible (as Huckabee pointed out repeatedly) and via international law and organizations (as Huckabee also pointed out repeatedly, to no avail.) In another whopper of an error, Carlson insisted that the Balfour Declaration was not enshrined in international law, apparently unaware that it was adopted by the League of Nations that awarded the mandate over the land of Israel to Britain on that basis.

But Carlson was also extremely mystified by Huckabee’s assertion of our biblical claims to the land of Israel, which, accordingly, should give Israel rights to all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates (we can call that “from the river to the river.”) Huckabee deflected – Israel is not claiming Jordan, Iraq, Syria, etc. – but there is a better answer. The Bible proposes several maps for the land of Israel. G-d delineated one for Avraham – from the river to the river (note that the “River of Egypt” does not necessarily mean the Nile). But at the end of Bamidbar (Chapter 34), the Torah spells out the borders of conquest that adhere more closely to Israel’s current borders, save for a sliver of land in southern Lebanon and east of the Jordan River. The conquest of Yehoshua resulted in still a third map that is different from the other two, and King David’s borders were even larger.

The truth is that the borders of Israel according to the Torah are somewhat fluid, much like the borders of the United States when independence was declared almost two centuries ago. The original thirteen colonies occupied territory mainly along the Atlantic coast but the US extended its borders to the Pacific Ocean and beyond in accordance with the “manifest destiny” it proclaimed. Of course, the only territorial “destiny” that is truly “manifest” is the divine one that bestowed the land of Israel on the people of Israel. And the Euphrates border? Consider that a Messianic vision – except, perhaps, if our neighbors to the east attack us and are defeated.

Carlson was also bewildered by the grant of land to the descendants of Avraham. How can they be defined? He even called for a DNA test, which Huckabee parried by saying that such would exclude righteous converts. He could have added that the Torah prescribes that only descendants of Avraham through Yitzchak share our covenantal mission and rights to the land of Israel (Breisheet 21:12, Nedarim 31a), by implication excluding descendants of Yishmael and Esav.

Asked to prove that Netanyahu is a Jew who shares in the covenant, Huckabee appropriately cited the Mesorah, and movingly portrayed the Jewish connection to the land of Israel through unending residence here, even after the destruction of the Temple; that we face Jerusalem in prayer wherever we are in the world (consider: Muslims praying in Israel literally turn their backs on Jerusalem and face Mecca); our adherence to the Torah and the Hebrew language; and our embrace of the covenant. Carlson was unmoved, if he was even listening.

Thus the Right of Return – vilified by Carlson – assures that the Jewish nation-state can survive.  That vexes Carlson, who is untroubled by even more restrictive citizenship criteria in Japan, the Emirates, or his patron Qatar, all US allies, where the average immigrant can never become a citizen no matter how long they live there and even if they are born there. And Carlson fully embraces the classic lie – popularized but not invented by the Nazis – that we Jews are not the descendants of the real Jews of antiquity but imposters. Apparently, according to Carlson, Israel does not have the right to exist as a Jewish state because Jews simply do not exist.

Carlson was particularly angered by Huckabee’s meeting Jonathan Pollard, even terming him the “most dangerous spy in American history.” Really? Worse than Benedict Arnold? He uttered this bit of ignorance with an abundance of confidence, willfully unaware that Pollard was accused of spying for the Soviet Union by Aldrich Ames, to deflect attention from the person who was actually spying for the Soviet Union, whose name happened to be Aldrich Ames, who died last month after serving 32 years in prison.

Carlson also seemed blissfully unaware of the true nature of American aid to Israel. As the ambassador correctly pointed out, all of this money is spent in America and subsidizes the US arms industry. Furthermore, the US return on this investment is more than tenfold annually, in terms of intelligence Israel provides and the promotion of US interests in the region and beyond. He could have added that the US has spent far more money maintaining bases in Germany and Japan eighty years after World War II, as well as provided Ukraine just in the last few years, than it has ever granted Israel. He clearly believes that any foreign aid is wasted money that should be spent in the US. That is a plausible but unconvincing argument, akin to claiming that his advertisers waste money because I will never patronize their products, so why are they paying him. But others will, and so advertisers assume there will be a return on their investment. The same principle applies to foreign aid to Israel, if not other countries.

Perhaps the most egregious and outrageous of Carlson’s ramblings is his moral equivalence  between Hamas and Israel. True, he admittedly hates Hamas, but without admitting it, he hates Israel as well. Hamas slaughters people and Israel slaughters people. Huckabee tried to explain the difference between the assailant and the assaulted, the victimizer and the victim, but unsuccessfully, no fault of the ambassador’s. Carlson pronounced himself, as a Christian, opposed to all wars and violence. Really? Even the Revolutionary War? The Civil War? World War II? Does he not subscribe to the “just war” doctrine of the Christians, or is he an absolutist, a pacifist, who is intolerant of any violence at all?

In any event, Carlson’s abhorrence of violence, “as a Christian,” sounds tone-deaf to Jews considering our history as victims of anti-Jewish Christian violence, forced conversions, blood libels, and the like. The good news is that Jews and Christians have mostly reconciled in the last few decades; the bad news is that Carlson seems intent on reviving the classic Christian religious-based hatred of Jews.

In truth, I haven’t paid much attention to him in years but was urged to watch this interview. Carlson’s manner was maddening. He was tactless, argumentative, frenetic, manic, ignorant, quick to distort Huckabee’s words and repeatedly so, and unable to answer any of Huckabee’s questions.  He presents as a tad disturbed.

I did learn two things. Mike Huckabee has exquisite patience and must have been a fine pastor. And Qatar Carlson, I mean Tucker Carlson, should be barred from future visits to Israel as a peddler of Nazi and radical Muslim ideology, an enemy of Jews and Israel, and – it will shortly become clear – the United States as well.

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Seeds of Failure

Posted on January 29, 2026 | Comments Off on Seeds of Failure

(First published at Israelnationalnews.com)

The return of Ran Gvili H”YD for burial in Israel is a source of great relief and catharsis for all Jews. His personal story, heroism, and self-sacrifice are so compelling that it could easily epitomize the courage and resilience exhibited by our entire nation during this difficult period. For the first time in several decades, no Jew is being held hostage in Gaza or Lebanon, an achievement it itself, and something our enemies know quite well. His return fulfills one of the three war objectives set forth by PM Netanyahu who deserves enormous credit for clinging steadfastly to this one despite intense pressure to settle.

Ran’s repatriation should also remind us of the sheer cruelty of our enemy – brutal mass murderers and revolting ghouls, who torture, maim, and murder, and then callously retain the bodies of the deceased. That enemy might have been ravaged but it has not yet been defeated – and the pathway towards achieving the other war aims – disarming and dismantling Hamas – are strewn with obstacles and dangers, often born of the naïveté with which some of our interlocutors perceive our enemies. One pathway is staring right at us.

The odds of President Trump’s Board of Peace succeeding are less than the odds of Greenland becoming the 52nd state of the United States (after Canada becomes the 51st). It is not only because it is a vanity project that will not survive beyond Trump’s presidency and will likely dissipate long before then accompanied by the fanfare of the numerous synthetic successes it has achieved. The Board of Peace will fail because it possesses little understanding of the dynamics of the Middle East – and much of the rest of the world – and is comprised of enough rogue nations that it already has sown the seeds of its own collapse.

It is undeniable that the Board of Peace fills the vacuum caused by Israel’s failure to articulate a vision for Gaza beyond generalities and, worse, Israel’s reluctance to do what is necessary to ensure that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel’s security or existence, i.e., sovereignty, resettlement of Gazans who wish to leave, and settlement of Jews who wish to live there. This disinclination to utterly transform the Gazan part of the conflict guarantees that the recent war was just another round and sometime in the future we will be forced to again fight the same people and their heirs over the same territory and its latest occupiers.

Indeed, the Board of Peace is almost designed to ensure that the conflict will persist. The mere fact that countries such as Qatar and Turkey, enemies of Israel and funders and protectors of Hamas, are part of the Board is a macabre joke at our expense. Steve Witkoff, perhaps others on his team, if not bought and paid for by Qatar, are at least rented by them. He seems unconcerned about the true nature of Qatar but his nocturnal dreams of peace and prosperity are our living nightmare.

The Gaza Board is another farce, filled with assorted Jew haters, scoundrels, reprobates, and a few good men, all assembled on the risible notion that a Gaza with the same Jew-hating, genocidal citizenry can be remade into luxury resort to which vacationers will flock. This will happen shortly after the unnamed nations that have promised billions of dollars for Gazan reconstruction pony up. Any day now. Perhaps an impressive show of confidence would be if the Americans moved their Gaza supervision base from Kiryat Gat in Israel to… Gaza itself, where, if anywhere, it belongs.

A good start for Israel would be drawing a red line against the introduction of any troops from Qatar, Turkey, Russia and other nations whose interests are inimical to ours and then dismissing any practical suggestions from those countries because they are invariably intended to weaken us, preserve Hamas, and prolong the conflict. Already, despite our government’s protestations to the contrary, elements of the Palestinian Authority were granted influence over Gaza’s direction and future. Whatever the spin, that mocks the sacrifices of our soldiers who would have fought, seemingly, to restore Gaza to PA, and ultimately Hamas, control.

Perhaps the time has come to state the obvious, something that the nations of the world have to tap dance around out of fear and intimidation. Assuming that President Trump cannot impose tariffs on me, it bears declaring the following. If all that Trump did was free the remaining hostages we would have said Dayenu, it would have been enough. It is to his eternal credit. But he has done so much more – recognizing Yerushalayim as our capital city, moving the embassy there, recognizing the Golan, declaring that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria do not violate international law, resupplying Israel as soon as he took office, bombing the Iranian reactors, providing diplomatic coverage at the UN, etc. Dayenu, indeed.

Nevertheless, President Trump is a showman, an entertainer, whose blustery rhetoric often has little connection to reality. No, Mr. President, Israel created the Iron Dome, not the United States; no, you have not settled eight wars (or nine, if you count that Trump averted the almost war between the US and Denmark); no, you didn’t free all the hostages (almost 200, living and murdered, were freed before you became president); no, the United States is not the “hottest” country in the world (its economic engine is being fueled by trillions of dollars of deficit spending that has devastated the dollar’s value and cannot be repaid); no, you didn’t win by a “landslide” in 2024, 2020, or 2016 (in two elections, you squeaked out a victory by barely winning several states, and in 2020, your opponent similarly squeaked out a victory by barely winning several states, or so the evidence indicates); and the $18 trillion in foreign investment about which you boasted has not arrived and likely never will. In a world governed by appearances, not reality, other countries can play that game as well.

In the most recent and egregious example of careless magniloquence, Trump promised Iranians rebelling against their corrupt and brutal government that “help was on the way” and Iran will be “hit very strong” if the Iranian regime starts massacring its citizens. Well, in exchange for empty promises from Iran not to publicly hang eight hundred dissidents – who made such a promise is unknown – those eight hundred dissidents were not publicly hanged but reportedly privately shot. The Iranian civilian death toll has surpassed 30,000 people and is likely far more than that, and help is still not on the way.

Anyone who thinks that President Trump will endanger American lives in order to overthrow the Iranian regime is dreaming. If anything, he will take the safest, more risk-free approach, bombing targets from the air which is unlikely to topple the Ayatollah. And even if the Ayatollah’s rule collapses because of air attacks accompanied by the most important element of a rebellion – the Iranian military turns on its rulers – the likelihood is that Trump will be quite content to have one dictator (the Ayatollah) replaced by another dictator (some Iranian general) who professes however cagily his support for Trump and America, just as the thug, mass murdering Ahmed al-Sharaa has done in Syria (massacring Kurds while retaining US support and funding).

This would be identical to what happened in Venezuela, where dictator Maduro was captured and imprisoned by the US, only to be exchanged for another dictator, Delcy Rodriguez, who still torments her people but has now pledged allegiance to the US. I cannot help but wonder if Trump rejected the overtures of María Corina Machado, the popular opposition leader, because (in his mind) she won his Nobel Peace Prize. That would be petty, would it not? And how will Trump respond if the Nobel Committee awards this year’s Peace Prize to Steve Witkoff? We may well find out.

But Conchado certainly has more support in Venezuela than does the Shah’s son and heir-to-the-throne in Iran. Regime change in Iran that swaps one hater of Israel in a turban with another hater of Israel in a military beret does not help us that much, nor will that new leader’s promises about Iran’s nuclear ambitions count for much in the real world. Those promises, though, will play well in the ersatz world of proclamations, declarations, signing ceremonies, and assertions that peace, love, and eternal sunshine have broken out across the globe.

Israel has to be grateful to President Trump but also assertive about protecting our interests. There is a short window of opportunity, as Trump is likely to be severely weakened as president after the midterm elections this fall. And Trump’s successor – whether Democrat or Republican – is extremely unlikely to be as viscerally supportive of Israel as is Trump, even if it is sometimes just on the surface and not as much behind closed doors. No conceivable Democratic candidate will be as unabashedly pro-Israel and the Republican party is showing increasing signs of fracture on this issue as well.

Moreover, it is good to remind ourselves even outside of the daily prayers that we are “not to trust in princes, in a human being who has no salvation” (Tehillim 146:3). For, as the medieval commentator Radak notes, “if not for G-d’s will, no human has the power to save another from his troubles. Only G-d saves.” The real G-d, not the pretenders who claim divine powers.

Well, the Lord has blessed our generation with multiple opportunities to conquer, possess, and settle the land that He promised our forefathers. We have seized some of those opportunities but largely squandered many others, consistently surrendering to our enemies the territory from which they attacked us, hoping for a better outcome, rather than just enjoying the bounty that G-d granted us and building thereon a country worthy of our destiny.

Politicians who do not perceive that have outlived their usefulness. Those who do should receive the support of a grateful and faithful nation. And such truly honors the sacrifices of all our heroines and heroes, including Ran Gvili HY”D.

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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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