Daniel Doron is an Israeli economist and public policy commentator who founded the Israel Center for Social and Economic Progress. He wrote for The Weekly Standard from 2001 to 2016, contributing analyses on Israeli politics, economics, and Middle Eastern security issues, including Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Everyone is, or pretends to be, in favor of a "two-state solution," which stipulates that peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs will come only when the Palestinians can establish their own independent state next to Israel. There is nary a president, prime minister, foreign minister, or…
Everyone is, or pretends to be, in favor of a “two-state solution," which stipulates that peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs will come only when the Palestinians can establish their own independent state next to Israel. There is nary a president, prime minister, foreign minister, or…
The recent spike in suicidal terror attacks in Israel by mostly teenage Palestinian Arabs was allegedly sparked by the fire bombing of an Arab house near Jerusalem, and the death of an Arab infant and his parents. Because that horrific arson followed several non-lethal attacks by Jewish fanatics…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently noted that with the Middle East in chaos, it may not be a good time to establish another rogue state, Palestine, which would likely be taken over by Iran’s proxy, Hamas, which would then launch a bloody war against Israel. The Prime Minister’s…
Elections have grown increasingly contentious in countries across the globe. This makes sense; governments have become immensely powerful in the face of growing challenges, governments control a much greater share of the economy, and the benefits of dispensing government largesse are increasing…
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a daunting task at his address to Congress this week: convincing a friendly America, but a hostile administration, not to let Iran acquire an atomic bomb that could undermine the West and destroy Israel. His speech to Congress was so effective not…
Coming on the heels of a spate of revelations regarding corruption in the Israeli government – as well as worrisome signs of dysfunction in Israeli governance, exposed during last summer’s unresolved campaign against Hamas – the Israeli public was shocked again recently by yet more revelations of…
When Israel finally discovered a bonanza of natural gas about five years ago everyone was happy. But then fierce arguments broke out—and rightly so.
Israel is facing numerous security threats, and yet the country’s most recent round of elections in January focused not on security but on the need to reform a dysfunctional economy and liberate the enterprising spirit of a nation that boasts more startups than Europe. Paradoxically, it was the…
An agreement to curb Iran's development of nuclear weapons was not reached at the International Conference in Istanbul. The West came to the conference with no unified strategy or coherent goals because it seems confused about Iran's intentions and strategy. Few asked why Iranian leaders are…
IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROJECT can probably be stopped by significantly cutting its oil income. A meaningful decline in this main source of Iran's income would force its leadership to choose between butter and guns. This is a critical choice; the ayatollahs cannot hope to maintain their hold on power if…
"STAYING IN THE LIKUD means wasting time on political struggles instead of acting for the good of the state." This is how Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon explained his dramatic departure from the Likud, a party he helped establish, and his forming of a new party, Kadimah (Forward), from a…
ISRAEL'S UPCOMING WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA is drawing so much attention that few have noticed the dramatic vote this week in Israel's Knesset Finance Committee ratifying a government resolution to finally reform Israel's regressive financial markets. This reform will break up a bank duopoly which has…
ISRAELIS RECENTLY OBSERVED the 31st anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. This anniversary is made much of, because Israel's near defeat revealed some basic flaws in its system of governance. The debates about these flaws are still going on, gradually transforming Israeli society in profound and…
Jerusalem
Jerusalem
JERUSALEM The latest mission impossible embraced by those who would resolve the Middle East conflict is the effort to "democratize" the Palestinian Authority, an organization that has thrived on repression, violence, and aggressive irredentism. Meanwhile, a far more promising route to peace--the…
Jerusalem