Anshel Pfeffer

Latest from Anshel Pfeffer

Biden’s love letter to Israel gets lost in the post

President Herzog flew home from his visit to the White House this week Israel with his country’s relations with its most important ally in disarray

5 min read

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 18: U.S. President Joe Biden (R) meets with Israeli President Isaac Herzog in the Oval Office at the White House on July 18, 2023 in Washington, DC. Herzog is on a multi-day visit to the United States where he is set to meet President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken and Congressional leaders as well as address a joint meeting of Congress to reaffirm the US-Israel relationship. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Anti-judicial overhaul demonstrators block a road and clash with police during a protest against the Israeli government's judicial overhaul in Pardes Hanna-Karkur, northern Israel, on July 11, 2023. Photo by Shir Torem/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** קפלן הפגנות רפורמה משפטית חסימות פרדס חנה כרכור

Who’s pushing Israel to the brink? The blame game begins

5 min read

Israeli soldiers clash with Palestinian youth following Military operation in Jenin, in the West Bank city of Hebron, July 4, 2023. Photo by Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** חברון חיילים פלסטינים עימותים הפגנות אבנים חייל חיילים גנין

IDF learns from bitter experience on how to defeat Jenin ‘TikTok warriors’

5 min read

The damage caused to Palestinian homes and cars by Jewish settlers in the West Bank village of Turmus Aya, on June 21, 2023. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** חיילים כניסה לכפר חייל חיילים שומרים כפר תורמוס עיא

Ben-Gvir’s ‘sweet children’ are headache for security chiefs

4 min read

Young, tech-savvy Palestinian fighters are the new headache for IDF

Last week's operation in Jenin shows the new foes are often teens adept at operating off the grid

4 min read

June 22, 2023 10:15

Palestinians gather around parts of an Israeli armored vehicle after clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin, on June 19, 2023. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** פלסטינים פלשתיני מעצר כוחות ביטחון פלסטינאים מהומות

Bibi’s cunning law reform ploy blows up in his face

Netanyahu tried to postpone matters using an obscure procedural clause, but it handed the opposition the advantage

5 min read

June 15, 2023 11:28

Likud leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu seen during a vote in the plenum session at the assembly hall of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, on December 20, 2022. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** כנסת מליאה הצבעה חברי כנסת חוק פקודת המשטרה בנימין נתניהו יו"ר הליכוד

Egypt is still key ally for Israel despite guard’s gun rampage

Despite the parlous state of its economy and society, it remains Israel’s most powerful neighbour

3 min read

June 8, 2023 10:51

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in New York, on September 18, 2017. Photo by Avi Ohayon/GPO ***HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES*** *** Local Caption *** øàù äîîùìä áðéîéï ðúðéäå ðôâù òí òáã àì-ôúàç à-ñéñé îöøéí

As the judicial reforms stall, Bibi lines up his fall-guy

Netanyahu would like to see a more conservative Supreme Court, but he doesn’t share justice minister Yariv Levin’s burning desire to make it the government’s chief priority

5 min read

June 1, 2023 12:10

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks with Israeli Minister of Justice Yariv Levin during a government conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on May 28, 2023. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** éùéáú îîùìä áéáé áðéîéï ðúðéäå øàù äîîùìä éøéá ìåéï

Israeli Budget delivers £3 billion bonus to the Charedim

Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reached a deal

4 min read

May 24, 2023 10:35

Chairman of the Religious Zionism party MK Bezalel Smotrich at Kikar HaShabbat conference in the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem Hotel, September 12, 2022. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** בחירות 2022 כיכר השבת כנס אתר חדשות בצלאל סמוטריץ הציונות הדתית

This week's rocket barrage was part of Tehran's terrifying war games

The most crucial element of 'Operation Shield and Arrow' is ensuring that Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad don’t join forces under Iranian direction

4 min read

May 11, 2023 11:45

Rockets are fired from Gaza City towards Israel, on May 10, 2023. Israel's army and Gaza militants traded heavy cross-border fire on May 10, with 22 Palestinians killed over two days amid the worst escalation of violence to hit the coastal territory in months. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Bibi gets a ceasefire from Gaza but stays under fire from his own side

Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, doesn’t want a war with Israel now while Benjamin Netanyahu has enough problems to deal with

5 min read

May 4, 2023 11:59

Yahya Sinwar, head of Hamas's political wing in Gaza, visits the house of fellow Hamas leader Nizar Awadallah (unseen) in Gaza City on March 10, 2021, upon his re-election as the head of the Islamist movement's de facto leader in the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave. - Sinwar, a former commander of Hamas's military branch, served more than two decades in an Israeli jail before he was released in 2011 as a part of a prisoner exchange. First elected to the post in 2017, he faced four challengers this time, including Nizar Awadallah, the former head of Hamas's advisory Shura Council. (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS / AFP) (Photo by MAHMUD HAMS/AFP via Getty Images)

Charedi battalion soldiers on while the politicians dither

Strictly Orthodox military service is back on Israel's political agenda

5 min read

April 27, 2023 10:47

Israeli soldiers of the Jewish Ultra-Orthodox battalion "Netzah Yehuda" hold morning prayers as they take part in their annual unit training in the Israeli annexed Golan Heights, near the Syrian border on May 19, 2014. The Netzah Yehuda Battalion is a battalion in the Kfir Brigade of the Israel military which was created to allow religious Israelis to serve in the army in an atmosphere respecting their religious convictions. AFP PHOTO/MENAHEM KAHANA (Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

The legal reforms are dead. How do we know? Because that's what Bibi promised the credit agencies

Israel's downgrading was bad news, but could have been much worse

4 min read

April 19, 2023 17:19

Israelis block the Ayalon highway in Tel Aviv during a protest against the Israeli government's planned judicial overhaul on March 26, 2023. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** מחאה נגד הרפורמה המשפטית ברחובות ת"א תל אביב הפגנה דגלי ישראל איילון

Will the protesters take a break? Not right now

With Netanyahu's judicial legislation on hold and the next weeks filled with Pesach dinners, holidays, remembrance days for the Holocaust and IDF Fallen Soldiers, then Israel’s 75th Independence Day, will 'The Protest' at least take it down a few notches?

4 min read

April 4, 2023 11:28