JPost.com - Jeff Barak Reporter

Reality Check: Hitting the voters in their pockets

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:20:20 GMT

Even though his focus must be on balancing the country’s books, Lapid must not make the mistake of not keeping his eye on opportunities for furthering the peace process and prodding an unwilling prime minister into action.

Israel’s new politics tests the waters

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 22:05:34 GMT

Reality Check: Knesset summer session begins; will see if new politics promised by Lapid, Bennett comes to fruition.

Reality Check: Hat tip to Lapid!

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 21:46:38 GMT

First of all hat tip to Finance Minister Yair Lapid for making the Treasury’s internal pre-budget discussions a heated national talking point

Reality Check: Lapid’s budget problems

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 21:15:54 GMT

Lapid's decision to take the Finance Ministry, with all the risks it entails for his future political career, is a brave one.

Netanyahu and the haredim

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 21:38:57 GMT

The PM lacks the political courage to make the necessary reforms Israeli society both wants and needs.

Reality Check: Racism in soccer

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 21:14:29 GMT

Football, indeed all sport and popular culture, can be a force for good, shaping a more tolerant, open society.

Reality Check: At least we get the day off work

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 23:03:45 GMT

Let’s enjoy our holiday on Tuesday, but only after first placing a clear vote against Netanyahu.

Reality Check: Netanyahu’s damaging policies

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 21:59:24 GMT

By letting Netanyahu get away unchallenged for so long, the country’s political opposition, to their shame, have failed to do theirs.

Reality Check: What about Dov Henin?

Sun, 23 Dec 2012 22:31:58 GMT

Yacimovich’s decision to challenge Netanyahu solely over economic policy is nothing more than rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titantic.

Reality Check: What is Netanyahu’s plan?

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:48:05 GMT

Will the PM follow through on the tough rhetoric of his FM? With Netanyahu, one never knows.

Where is the alternative in our elections?

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:57:01 GMT

Reality Check: If Yacimovich is content in simply remaining in the center, and refuses to rule out joining a Netanyahu-led coalition after January’s elections, then what’s the point of voting for Labor under her leadership?

Reality Check: Is Likud abandoning Jabotinsky?

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 21:30:38 GMT

One wonders whether Jabotinsky, were he alive today, would make it on the joint Likud-Yisrael Beytenu slate the prime minister is so eager to create.

Reality Check: Getting back to the negotiating table

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:45:17 GMT

Once America’s next president is installed, a new government is established in Jerusalem and the Syrian crisis resolves itself one way or another, there will be a pressing need for Israel to seek a return to the negotiating table.

Business: Complementary interests

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 22:33:26 GMT

China’s Wujin economic zone is wooing Israeli investors and innovation.

Romney’s allegations

Sun, 02 Sep 2012 22:53:50 GMT

‘Chutzpah” isn’t normally a word associated with straight-laced Mormons, but Mitt Romney’s assertion at last week’s Republican convention that President Barack Obama “has thrown allies like Israel under the bus” provides a new definition of this fruity Yiddish term.

Reality Check: Peres and the voice of reason

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:26:26 GMT

Using the media platform generated by his 89th birthday, the president launched into his own commando strike.

Reality Check: The right way to remember Munich 11

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:09:43 GMT

Did Bush ever receive the same venomous flak over Jerusalem that US President Barack Obama is currently receiving?

Reality Check: Netanyahu’s falling stock

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 23:29:50 GMT

For the sake of a few more months of power, in which he will do no more than tread water, Netanyahu has hampered his own reelection campaign.

Reality Check: Netanyahu refuses to seize the day

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 21:34:34 GMT

The decision facing Netanyahu is really quite simple: either do what’s best for the country or just tread water in office.

Reality Check: Yishai a serial incompetent

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:53:34 GMT

As interior minister, Yishai holds direct responsibility for the state of the country’s firefighting units.

Reality Check: Netanyahu's self-inflicted crisis

Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:22:27 GMT

The PM turned US opposition to construction in e. J'lem into a confrontation with Washington.

Reality Check: A diamond jubilee for Israel?

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 23:18:45 GMT

Israel should institute a few days’ public holidays a year so that we can all have a good time – together.

Reality Check: Afraid of the future

Sun, 13 May 2012 21:18:31 GMT

We now have an easy score card on which to mark Netanyahu over the next 12 months or so.

Reality Check: Knesset contretemps

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 22:11:39 GMT

Country needs a government prepared to deal with most serious issue facing society: Economic unsustainability of haredi way of life.

Much ado about flytilla

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:32:24 GMT

The protest’s real victory will be an unflattering picture of Israel flashed across the world's media headlines.

Reality Check: Liberman’s home front

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:34:38 GMT

Liberman has correctly identified state assistance in housing as a make-or-break issue for his party.

Reality Check: A true friend

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:45:40 GMT

A true friend will act exactly the way US President Obama has acted toward Israel throughout his presidency.

Reality Check: Talkbacks and racism

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:35:56 GMT

The first step to ending the alienation felt by Israel’s Arab citizens is to stamp out the casual racism that is so prevalent in Israel.

Reality Check: Visit both sides of Hebron

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 22:12:17 GMT

If school students are to be sent to areas that are at the heart of the of the country’s internal political argument, then it is vitally important that they are shown both sides of the argument.

Reality Check: Is this really what Israel needs?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:35:22 GMT

Yair Lapid is already changing the format of the country’s political debate.

Reality Check: All signs point to early elections

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:18:28 GMT

Netanyahu had the greatest gift any Israeli PM could wish for: a stable coalition. And he’s wasted it.

Coy euphemisms, tragic implications

Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:33:09 GMT

Securing Israel as a Western, democratic country is coming under increasing attack from haredim and extremist settlers.

Reality Check: Stop the anti-Left witch hunt

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:37:28 GMT

PM's professed support for democracy is in contrast to a slew of bills put forth by his government.

The Katsav story is no Shakespearean tragedy

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 22:24:59 GMT

Why isn’t the disgraced president already behind bars? Katsav should already be serving his time rather than receiving a platform in the media.

Reality Check: Taking back the billboards

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:03:33 GMT

Women have been steadily disappearing from street advertising in the capital, due to self-censorship by secular advertisers scared of antagonizing haredim.

Reality Check: Schalit’s returning to a whole new world

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 22:12:43 GMT

Sign of great leader is ability to make grave decisions, even at the cost of spurning long-held, cherished beliefs.

Reality Check: New leader, new Labor

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:00:39 GMT

Time is ripe for Shelly Yacimovich to lead Labor Party back to power, but only with an economic plan that meets needs of ordinary Israeli families.

Playing a dangerous game

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 22:08:58 GMT

The damage to Israel’s international standing due to Netanyahu’s do-nothing diplomatic policy is finally becoming apparent to all.

The firing of Larry Derfner

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 22:00:39 GMT

What didn’t stop Ehud Barak from reaching the premiership has cost Derfner his job, and that is a shame.

Shamir and Netanyahu – spot the differences

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 23:24:41 GMT

Reality Check: Both leaders ignored the public’s economic hardships, but will the current prime minister pay a political price as well?

Reality Check: Thank God for the summer break

Sun, 17 Jul 2011 23:15:58 GMT

With MKs out for their seasonal recess, we’ll finally get a break from undemocratic legislation.

US & Israel, 2 countries, a shared idea

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 23:13:34 GMT

Israel, losing its way, must rekindle its visionary dreams.

Bright spots and dark horizons

Sun, 12 Jun 2011 22:44:19 GMT

Israel has some way to go before it becomes a fully tolerant, open society.

The limits of rhetoric

Sun, 29 May 2011 23:43:03 GMT

Netanyahu’s stirring phrases may have boosted his standing in the opinion polls, but opinion polls do not change reality.

Reality Check: The man for the job

Sun, 01 May 2011 23:09:58 GMT

If Labor is to return to a position of influence, it will need some ideological clarity and a new party leader – namely, Isaac Herzog.

Reality Check: Why does Israel Bonds still exist?

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 03:52:36 GMT

Established in 1951 by Ben-Gurion, the organization raised much-needed capital for the young Jewish state.

Reality Check: Last thing we need is a 2nd round in Gaza

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 22:53:44 GMT

Full-throttled attack on Strip would be equivalent of pouring gasoline on already inflamed Arab world. It would only serve to aid Islamic extremists.

Reality Check: Nursing Labor back to health

Sun, 13 Mar 2011 22:57:14 GMT

Soul-searching is needed If the party is ever going to return from the depths to which it has sunk under Barak’s leadership.

Reality Check: Between Binyamin and Avigdor

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 23:44:05 GMT

Whose stance will the new ambassador to the UN and the consul-general to New York be representing, the prime minister’s or the FM's?

As the Hebrew saying goes: ‘The fish stinks from the head'

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:23:48 GMT

Netanyahu, as PM, bears a heavy responsibility for the shenanigans that have surrounded the appointment of the 20th chief of General Staff.

Reality Check: Israeli democracy needs a checkup

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 04:24:42 GMT

A country that establishes political committees to investigate its ideological opponents can hardly be said to be in the best of health.

Reality Check: Enough is Enough

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:57:21 GMT

Our senior diplomat, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, should have been sent packing long ago.

Reality Check: Leave the rabbis out of it

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:24:57 GMT

This country has one of the Western world’s highest rates of refusal to donate organs due to rabbinic opposition to the practice.

Reality Check: More Yitzhak Shamir than Winston Churchill

Sun, 19 Dec 2010 23:35:51 GMT

Netanyahu may see himself as the old British PM, warning of dangers of Iran, but in reality, he resembles one of least successful premiers.

Reality Check: A bête noire and a hero

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 06:56:27 GMT

Shas MK Haim Amsalem has become a persona non grata within his party, but for the non-haredi public he has simply expressed what many already believe.

That we need a reminder to integrate Arabs is shameful

Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:46:10 GMT

Our leaders have turned a blind eye to the alienation of 20% of the population.

Reality Check: Bibi’s likely miscalculation

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:54:27 GMT

The belief that a weakened Obama will ease pressure on Israel to make concessions might prove spectacularly wrong.

Reality Check: A new way for Labor?

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 04:41:55 GMT

Isaac Herzog’s decision to run for the leadership is the best news this embattled and dispirited party has had in a long time.

Reality Check: This is no theocracy

Sun, 19 Sep 2010 22:10:19 GMT

Eli Yishai seems determined to antagonize secular Israelis and drive them away from tradition.

Reality Check: A new year, a new Bibi?

Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:57:30 GMT

For first time since taking office a second time, Netanyahu has finally given sign that may be ready to shed Bibi of old and knuckle down to talks.

Reality Check: Not so fast

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:14:16 GMT

Netanyahu shouldn't allow the Arab League’s decision to approve direct talks go to his head.

Democracy lessons from the Lapids

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:39:02 GMT

Tommy Lapid’s message that democracy isn't just rule of majority, reverberates with Knesset’s decision on MK Haneen Zoabi.

Reality Check: All eyes on Bibi

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:50:24 GMT

At his upcoming meeting with Obama, the PM should choose peace over ideology.

Reality Check: Netanyahu’s weakness, our dime

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 21:18:07 GMT

If the PM couldn’t even issue a statement of support for the rule of law in the face of the petty Emmanuel standoff, the chances of his standing up to the haredi parties on issues that really affect their way of life are slim indeed.

Reality Check: Why is Labor still in gov't?

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 06:31:23 GMT

There is no justification for the party to stay in the current coalition, led by a man who has no vision for this country’s future.

Reality Check: About these boycotts

Mon, 24 May 2010 07:26:33 GMT

While Elvis Costello made the wrong call in cancelling his gigs here - the PA-sponsored boycott of Israeli goods is less clear cut.

Reality Check: There she is

Sun, 09 May 2010 22:53:58 GMT

Opposition leader Livni now has to ensure her words turn into action.

Reality Check: Stan’s the Man

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:20:12 GMT

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer’s call to restrain executive salaries will undoubtedly prove unpopular with the tycoons, but he calls it as he sees it. Let’s hope Netanyahu comes on board.

An earthly taste of paradise

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 17:04:22 GMT

A rich man’s getaway in Thailand affords the writer a peek at the lifestyles of the rich and famous.

REALITY CHECK: All the Shoah's lessons

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:38:53 GMT

The survivors’ lessons of rebuilding and enjoying the opportunities that they created for themselves are no less important than the other, grimmer lessons of the Holocaust.

A democratically dangerous direction

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:22:00 GMT

The recent report findings that around 50 percent of Israeli youth think Arabs should not be given equal rights is deeply worrying.

Reality Check: The joke's on Edelstein

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 21:52:35 GMT

New gov't Web site is propaganda tool more fitting of world's darker regimes.

Where are Netanyahu's priorities?

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:04:38 GMT

Preserving the country's heritage is a worthy task, but if it is the most important to the PM, we have a serious problem.

Reality Check: Where are Netanyahu's priorities?

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:42:08 GMT

Preserving the country's heritage is a worthy task, but if it is the most important to the PM, we have a serious problem.

Reality Check: Shaking things up

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:28:06 GMT

Why is challenge 'Yisrael Hayom' puts to 'Yediot' a "threat to democracy?"

Reality Check: Netanyahu's self-inflicted crisis

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:00:49 GMT

The PM turned US opposition to construction in e. J'lem into a confrontation with Washington.