Opinion

The critical question – rarely asked – is: where is Israel’s intent to destroy the Palestinian people?

The Maccabees prevailed because they refused erasure – militarily, culturally, and spiritually. Contemporary Jewish survival requires the same multi-front refusal.

As the South Caucasus undergoes a profound transformation and the Middle East enters a new diplomatic era, Israel has a rare chance to convert dormant affinities into durable strategic capital.

Israel has proven it can survive and endure. The task of 2026 is to ensure it can thrive and flourish, not despite the past two years, but because it chose to rebuild wisely after them.

The massacres, the pogroms and the terror, are focused on Israel’s eradication: to be achieved by crushing Jews and the Jewish spirit.

If the international force never deploys, or deploys in a limited, ineffective way, there is a real danger that the ceasefire will become a “frozen conflict.”

If Israel is to honor Haymanot Kasau and every child who depends on the state’s vigilance, it must remember this truth: When a child disappears, time is the enemy and urgency is our only defense.

Winning it will require something we have not yet fully mustered: unity, coordination, and unapologetic resolve from the Diaspora itself.

For years, severe antisemitic incidents have steadily increased, intensifying further during the war in Gaza.

History will record who stood by democratic values at this critical moment and who sacrificed these values for short-term interests.