10 Hanukkah hikes * Why are those Iranian smiling? * Daniel Gordis: The Maccabees and us * Gideon Sa’ar is no solution * Benny Gantz is a traged y

[Times of Israel]( [The Blogs Weekly]( Thursday, December 10, 2020 [A picture from Iran that’s worth a thousand warnings about the JCPOA]( By [Yossi Kuperwasser]( [Why was the now-deceased top military nuclear scientist Fakhrizadeh secretly decorated after the Iran nuclear deal came into effect?]( From the blogs [Steering the Biden administration wrong on anti-Semitism]( By [Kenneth S. Stern]( [Of all the crucial steps the new government must take to protect Jews, adopting the IHRA definition I drafted is not one of them. Not even close]( [Daniel Gordis]( [What would the Maccabees think of us?]( [If the true Jewish revolt is a countercultural rebellion of ideas, here are some of the ideas we should be challenging today]( [Dan Perry]( [Gideon Sa’ar is sane, but not the solution]( [What is actually killing Israel is not only Netanyahu, but his right-wing policies that Sa’ar does not disavow]( [Ori Wertman]( [The tragedy of Benny Gantz]( [Joining a unity government with Netanyahu was the responsible move of the kind of leadership that Israel has been sorely lacking, and it likely cost Gantz his political career]( [Bishara A. Bahbah]( [Palestinians don’t need Biden to make peace – they need courage]( [Enough of blaming the world: The PA must step up and ink a plan too compelling for the United States and Israel to ignore]( [CRM]( [Seal of Respect: Because that Orthodox extremism isn’t going to fight itself]( By [Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll]( [Calling all businesses, institutions, and publications that don’t erase women to unite and forge a counter market force against those that do]( [Yonatan Neril]( [God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts]( [An arson attack, allegedly by a Jew, on a landmark Jerusalem church highlights the need for meaningful interfaith encounters]( [Our Big Fat Greek Hanukkah]( By [Jeremy Benstein]( [Given the Maccabees’ fight against foreign influence, the holiday has some surprising linguistic dimensions]( [Susannah Schild]( [Top 10 family hikes for Hanukkah in 2020]( [Visit King David’s hiding cave, explore beachside cliffs, roam the desert and give the kids and yourself the gift of nature, exploration, fun and history]( [Debra Orenstein]( [8 essentials for zooming on Hanukkah]( [Advance planning can make all the difference this year, when you gather to celebrate the holiday together, over sufganiyot, candles, dreidls, and technology]( [Prisoners from Zion]( By [Danny Hakim]( [Visitors ’down under’ face a shockingly strict 14-day quarantine. And then… blissful freedom and a safe, maskless visit with my elderly mum]( Choice voices [Alex Lederman]( [The road to Arab-Israeli peace should go through Muscat]( [If Israel truly wants to become an integrated part of the Middle East, it needs to look past obvious military alliances and reach beyond the Saudi orbit… to Oman]( [Galia Golan]( [What does it mean to be pro-Israel?]( [When peace is the yardstick, the diplomatic breakthroughs and Trump initiatives fail the test of true friendship]( [Sara Lehmann]( [Georgia on my mind]( [Given Raphael Warnock’s history of virulently anti-Israel rhetoric, why are Jewish Dems dressing this radical in moderate clothing?]( [Gideon Taylor]( [Overcoming darkness]( [For many survivors, the menorah was a symbol of light and a beacon of hope through the darkest times of Jewish history. This year is no different]( [Albert Dadon]( [With freedom at stake, the bigger crisis is one of leadership]( [The pandemic has undermined democracy and exposed leaders’ failure to uphold core values. That’s what we’re discussing at our gathering this week]( [Ilai Z. Saltzman]( [Reclaiming Israel as a bipartisan issue in American politics]( [Pigeon-holing Israel as an exclusively Republican commodity poses a clear threat – Netanyahu must pull back from his provocative policies]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( Email not displaying correctly? [View in browser]( © 2020 The Times Of Israel, All Rights Reserved