Michael Koplow is the chief policy officer of Israel Policy Forum. He writes the weekly Koplow Column and co-authored Starting from the Ground Up: U.S. Policy Options for Post-Hamas Gaza. A version of this column originally appeared on X.
Michael Koplow
By Michael Koplow
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Opinion By Recognizing The Golan, Trump Greenlit Annexing The West Bank
On Monday, President Donald Trump officially proclaimed his recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. It did not even take until the next day for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take the Golan victory and try and extend it to the next arena. Speaking after the White House ceremony that night, Netanyahu said, “When…
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Opinion The Right Uses Anti-Semitism To Protect Israel. The Left Uses Israel As An Excuse For Anti-Semitism.
In what has now become a weekly ritual, Ilhan Omar is once again the center of attention for her ruminations on Israel and its supporters in the United States. Unlike previous incidents for which she apologized or retracted her comments, this time Omar appears to be standing by them, and also unlike previous incidents, this…
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Opinion If You Called Out The Women’s March Over Farrakhan, You Better Call Out Netanyahu
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, already saddled with a reputation of being willing to do or say anything to keep his job as prime minister, took a step that stretched that reputation even further. In an effort to prevent right-wing votes in Israel’s April 9 election from going to waste, he brokered a…
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Opinion The Israeli Response To The Pittsburgh Massacre Has Been A Disaster
In the aftermath of the terrorist attack at the Tree of Life shul in Pittsburgh last Shabbat, many Israelis weighed in with messages for American Jews. The responses to the attack ranged from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sympathetic condolences to Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau’s patronizing insults. But Zionist Union chief Avi Gabbay’s contribution –…
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Opinion Zionism Is Not Racist. Israel’s Nation-State Bill Shouldn’t Be Either.
The nation-state bill that the Knesset has been debating for the past week became law this week. Since its inception, it’s left a non-stop controversy in its wake. From the noxious clause that would have enshrined state-sanctioned discrimination in one of Israel’s Basic Laws – thankfully dropped after a wave of protest both in Israel…
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Opinion The End Of The Jewish People Is Here
This weekend, the Jewish people came under threat. I don’t mean the people themselves so much as the idea that there is a single unified Jewish people, a concept that thanks to a new poll was revealed to be more of an anachronism than a truism. The idea of Jewish peoplehood has been such an…
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Opinion Natalie Portman Speaks Loudly For Young American Jews With Snub Of Israel
On Thursday, actress Natalie Portman set the Jewish world on fire. Portman, an Israeli citizen who was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States at the age of 3, was set to receive the Genesis Prize in Israel in June. The prize has been dubbed the “Jewish Nobel” and is given in partnership…
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Opinion It’s Putin’s World. Netanyahu’s Just Living In It.
In the quarter century that has elapsed since the end of the Cold War, Israel has in many ways gained an independence and freedom of action that it did not enjoy during its earlier history. Aside from being the unparalleled military power in the Middle East, Israel and its Arab neighbors are no longer proxies…
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