Dr. Norman Bailey

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a crime under international law and atrocities have been committed, but the Russians are not trying to annihilate the Ukrainian people.

If they do, it could well be to Israel's wider benefit.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine looks like another chapter in the rise of China and the waning of the US. As for Israel, its interests do not justify its ambivalence.

Avigdor Liberman correctly predicts the breakdown of international order but does not mention it is being hastened by the social and political deterioration in the US.

After America's failures at home and abroad in 2021, we can only hope that Israel, and the world, will see better from it in 2022.

Following the general success of the agreements signed with Israel by four Arab countries a year ago, there are one or two good candidates to follow suit.

The extreme concentration of wealth makes Oswald Spengler's "The Decline of the West" look alarmingly relevant, 100 years on.

Forecasts about a coming world war don't stand up to scrutiny, and the dangers to Israel in any case lie elsewhere.

Factual refutation is helpless against deliberate disinformation. We need different tactics against this plague of our time.

We still know nothing about the obscure American NGO, which brought together 300 prominent Iraqi Sunni and Shia leaders to urge Iraq to normalize relations with Israel.

The failures of Joe Biden's administration so far make even Donald Trump look good - a miracle if ever there was one.

The Afghanistan debacle follows decades of bad US policy, but the blame for the current chaos lies squarely with the Biden administration. Israel take note.

All seems well, but one hears dire predictions on every side.

Insufficient attention is being paid to cyber terrorism, and to the debt time-bomb that will not spare even the most thrifty country.

The new government will have its hands full with immediate problems, but fundamental reforms are also urgent.

The disasters that have befallen Israel in the past two years all point to the absolute necessity of forming a functioning government.