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Israel’s Global Reassessment
Last week, two defense trade shows took place thousands of miles apart. Land Forces 2026 was held in Perth, Australia, while the Marrakech Air Show took place in Morocco. On the surface, they were similar events: countries and companies displaying military technology to potential customers, partners, and suppliers. But for Israel, the two shows could not have been more different. And the difference tells us something important about Israel’s changing place in the world. Israe
Ari Sacher
The Guilty Must Be Punished
The attacks in the Palestinian villages of Qusra and Jalud over the past month are indefensible. Masked Israelis descended on homes, threw stones, set fires, and attacked residents and journalists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the violence “criminal.” President Isaac Herzog strongly condemned it, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry called it “a disgrace.” They are right. Israel is confronting the problem, but condemnation alone is not enough. The question is what more c
Ari Sacher
Never Confuse Money With Power
There is an old rule in the Middle East: Never confuse money with power. Saudi Arabia has a great deal of the former. Recent events suggest that it possesses considerably less of the latter. Only recently, Saudi Arabia joined Turkey and Pakistan in the so-called Mecca Pact, under which an armed attack against one member would be considered an attack against all three. It sounded impressive. Three major Sunni states, one of them nuclear-armed, standing shoulder to shoulder. T
Ari Sacher
Israel’s Global Reassessment
Last week, two defense trade shows took place thousands of miles apart. Land Forces 2026 was held in Perth, Australia, while the Marrakech Air Show took place in Morocco. On the surface, they were similar events: countries and companies displaying military technology to potential customers, partners, and suppliers. But for Israel, the two shows could not have been more different. And the difference tells us something important about Israel’s changing place in the world. Israe
Ari Sacher
1 day ago3 min read
The Guilty Must Be Punished
The attacks in the Palestinian villages of Qusra and Jalud over the past month are indefensible. Masked Israelis descended on homes, threw stones, set fires, and attacked residents and journalists. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the violence “criminal.” President Isaac Herzog strongly condemned it, and Israel’s Foreign Ministry called it “a disgrace.” They are right. Israel is confronting the problem, but condemnation alone is not enough. The question is what more c
Ari Sacher
Oct 54 min read
Never Confuse Money With Power
There is an old rule in the Middle East: Never confuse money with power. Saudi Arabia has a great deal of the former. Recent events suggest that it possesses considerably less of the latter. Only recently, Saudi Arabia joined Turkey and Pakistan in the so-called Mecca Pact, under which an armed attack against one member would be considered an attack against all three. It sounded impressive. Three major Sunni states, one of them nuclear-armed, standing shoulder to shoulder. T
Ari Sacher
Sep 223 min read
Managing Your Enemies
At our Rosh Hashanah table this weekend, the conversation turned to the extraordinary amount of reserve duty my sons have performed over the past three years. More than 500 days. That is not a statistic. It is birthdays missed, careers interrupted, families left waiting, and ordinary life repeatedly placed on hold. We began “reminiscing,” if that is the word, about the summer of 2021. My younger son spent a month hiding in a ditch near the Lebanese border, waiting for a Hezbo
Ari Sacher
Sep 143 min read
A New Year in the Book of Life
This weekend we begin the High Holiday season, known in Judaism as the “Days of Awe”. The season opens with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Unlike January 1st, which is usually celebrated by staying awake far later than one should and imbibing intoxicating beverages, Rosh Hashanah is traditionally celebrated by eating astonishing quantities of food. In North America, it is often the holiday of brisket. My family, however, has its own custom. We eat duck on the first night
Ari Sacher
Sep 84 min read
Israel's Quiet Grief
Ori and Abigail met for the last time the day before he died. Ori was serving in the reserves, transporting supplies to soldiers deep inside Gaza. Abigail came to Ashkelon, near the border, to see the man she was supposed to marry. They were to be engaged shortly. There was a future waiting for them: a proposal, an invitation, a wedding canopy, a home. The next day, Ori’s convoy was ambushed. A sniper killed him along with two other reservists. I cannot forget Abigail’s cries
Ari Sacher
Aug 313 min read
What the Return of Yehuda Katz Says About Israel’s Covenant With Its People
I arrived in Israel for a gap year in August 1982. Looking back, I can hardly imagine a more consequential moment to begin my journey. Just two months earlier, Israel had launched Operation Peace for Galilee, the First Lebanon War. The war was still unfolding. Casualty lists were appearing in newspapers. Families were waiting for their sons to return home. The entire country seemed suspended between determination and grief. One battle in particular cast a long shadow over the
Ari Sacher
Aug 262 min read
Our Neighbors Don’t Have to Love Us
The report was only a few lines long, but it landed with unusual force. According to recent disclosures, an unidentified Arab country that had been making peace overtures toward Israel was allegedly planning to use any agreement merely as a temporary expedient until conditions were ripe for confrontation, upon which it would attack. No names were released. Yet in a region where diplomatic possibilities are limited and carefully scrutinized, speculation was inevitable. Most pe
Ari Sacher
Aug 173 min read
Resilience Should Not Be Confused With Normalcy
There is a television commercial that seems to play every fifteen minutes on North American sports channels. A man bites into an Old El Paso taco. The crunch is so powerful that it creates a visible shock wave. Buildings shake. Windows rattle. Facades crumble. It is meant to be funny. I have not found it funny. For nearly three years, my family and I have been living in a country at war. During that time, two rockets landed roughly one hundred feet from my home. Debris from a
Ari Sacher
Aug 103 min read
Munich, Memory, and Consequence
In Munich, on a quiet hill overlooking the former Olympic Village, stands a memorial to one of the darkest days in modern Jewish history. I visited it about a year ago. The memorial overlooks the apartment building and the balcony from which one of the most iconic images of twentieth-century terrorism was taken: a member of Black September, an arm of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), face concealed with a sock, standing watch over eleven Israeli athletes and coache
Ari Sacher
Aug 23 min read
An Underlying Commitment
For the past two months, the obituary writers have been working overtime. According to a steady stream of headlines, social media commentary, and Israeli opposition politicians, the special relationship between the United States and Israel was in trouble. Some even suggested it was nearing collapse. The evidence, at least on the surface, seemed compelling. The fighting with Iran had stopped without the kind of decisive victory many Israelis expected. Reports suggested that th
Ari Sacher
Jul 273 min read
U.S.-Israel Defense Partnership
For decades, support for Israel has often been framed as a matter of shared values, historical ties, or moral obligation. Those factors matter. But there is another reason Congress should continue to strengthen the U.S.-Israel defense relationship: it directly advances American national security. At a time when the United States faces growing challenges from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and transnational terrorist organizations, Washington needs capable allies that can h
Ari Sacher
Jul 203 min read
Silence Is Permission
On July 2, 2026, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described Israel as a "burden that humanity can no longer bear." To be fair, this was not an explicit call for genocide. But it came uncomfortably close. One does not speak about a nation or a people as a "burden humanity can no longer bear" without invoking some of the darkest chapters of modern history. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar immediately recognized the danger, calling the remarks "clear incitement to genoc
Ari Sacher
Jul 133 min read
Lebanon-Israel Tripartite Framework
“The United States, Israel, and Lebanon Sign the Trilateral Framework”. “Israel, Lebanon sign initial agreement after US-mediated talks”. It was a great way to turn on my phone on Saturday night after 25 hours without hearing any news. There is something deeply appealing about a clean agreement. A tripartite framework. Clear responsibilities. A sense that, this time, the pieces might align. The emerging arrangement with Lebanon has all of those qualities. It also carries with
Ari Sacher
Jun 294 min read
Israel’s Expanding Alliance
Many Israelis woke up this week with a sense of strategic vertigo. The emerging agreement between the United States and Iran has landed not as a surprise, but as a shock. The outlines are still murky, but the direction is unmistakable: Washington appears to have moved significantly toward Tehran’s position, conceding ground in pursuit of closure. For Israelis, that closure feels premature. And yet, if we are honest, none of this should be entirely unexpected. The United State
Ari Sacher
Jun 223 min read
The Cycle Must Be Broken
Deterrence is not a scoreboard. It is not measured by the number of missiles intercepted, launchers destroyed, or buildings reduced to rubble. Deterrence is measured by what does not happen. It is measured by the attack that remains unlaunched because the enemy has already calculated the cost and decided it is unbearable. The emerging cycle between Israel, Hezbollah, and Iran is dangerously familiar. Hezbollah fires at Israel. Israel strikes targets in Dahiyeh. Iran launches
Ari Sacher
Jun 153 min read
Patient Endurance
There is a quiet, pervasive feeling in Israel today that is difficult to articulate but impossible to ignore. It is not fear in the traditional sense, nor is it panic. It is something more unsettling, a sense that events are moving elsewhere, driven by actors beyond our control, and that the outcome that will determine our future will be decided without us. When Israelis speak about Iran, the conversation always circles back to Washington. Everything, it seems, hinges on whet
Ari Sacher
Jun 84 min read
The Only Path Forward
Israel is heading, once again, toward elections. The exact date remains uncertain, but the direction is clear. Sometime this fall, Israelis will be called to vote. On paper, this should feel routine. In practice, nothing about the current political moment is routine. This government has lasted longer than many expected, especially after a period in which Israel cycled through election after election, unable to form a stable coalition. For several years, politics devolved into
Ari Sacher
Jun 14 min read
Fiber-Optic FPV Drones War
The newest threat to IDF forces operating in southern Lebanon does not streak through the sky at supersonic speed or crash down as a ballistic projectile. It arrives slowly, quietly, and with unnerving precision. Fiber-optic-guided explosive First Person View (FPV) drones are an unassuming yet dangerous evolution in battlefield technology, and their appearance in Lebanon is as predictable as it is troubling. To understand the challenge, one must first understand the system. A
Ari Sacher
May 263 min read
Israeli Home Front Realities
My son owns a home in Akko, the top two floors of a three-story building. It is the kind of place Israelis buy when life feels normal: stone, sun, a view, kids running up and down the stairs. It was built before the early 1990s, before the state rewrote its building rules around a hard lesson of the first Gulf War. So it has no safe room, no reinforced concrete “mamad” built into the apartment itself. Since the early 1990s, new Israeli homes have been required to include one,
Ari Sacher
May 184 min read
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