ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Biden shouldn’t try to ‘save’ Israeli democracy
Jonathan S. Tobin
November 3, 2022

…But the rise of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir is a natural consequence of the failure of the current government to adequately address the rise in Palestinian terrorism. It also reflects the growth of the religious population and the collapse of credibility of those parties that championed outreach to the Palestinians over the course of the last two decades as the Oslo peace process proved to be a disaster. In contrast to the overwhelmingly liberal bent of American Jewry, Israeli Jews are more likely to be proudly nationalist and have fewer illusions about the Palestinian desire for peace. They are sympathetic to leaders who are unashamed about their desire for Israel to be a Jewish state rather than a non-sectarian nation in which Jewish peoplehood and religion are downplayed. READ MORE