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The big question remains: Which kind of country will we be?

My two boys recently got new passports. The little books are gorgeously designed. On thick paper, drawings are etched of wheat fields and farmers, statues and monuments. Quotes from great Americans — former Presidents George Washington, Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy, as well as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. — top each page. The security measures are a marvel of modern ingenuity: Watermarks and holograms, color-changing ink, stamps and microtext. Combined, it represents a vision of what the United States of America is, or, increasingly, what it should be. Admiring the ...

After Gaza, what do we think comes next?

In his address to Israel’s Knesset following the release of 20 living hostages by Hamas, President Donald Trump said several things that reflect wishful thinking. Among them: “The forces of chaos that have plagued the region are totally defeated.” “The enemies of all civilization are in retreat.” And the “long and painful nightmare is finally over.” While the president and his team of negotiators are rightly given full credit for achieving this moment, there is no evidence that Israel’s enemies see it his way. Palestinian Media Watch keeps tabs on what ...

Has there ever been a president more pro-Israel?

Donald Trump has held many rallies, but never one in the parliament of a foreign nation. President Trump’s speech to the Knesset was a raucous, celebratory affair with the audience of Israeli lawmakers showering him with adulation. Trump’s reception made it a little like a State of the Union address with no Democrats in attendance (although there was one disruption.) For all the focus on Trump as the dyspeptic voice of “American carnage” — and there’s no doubt that he can be excoriating about his political enemies — he is a natural at the vauntingly optimistic pep ...

Trump has shown he is really able to defy conventional wisdom … so far

“What all the wise men promised has not happened, and what all the damned fools said would happen has come to pass.” That was the mordant comment of Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s first prime minister, on the failure of a liberal reform to achieve the results promised with great assurance by the articulate liberal eminences of the day. With two centuries of foresight, he might just as well have been describing President Donald Trump’s triumph, celebrated “in a state of ecstasy” in Israel’s Knesset, as he secured the release of hostages held by Hamas for two years and ...

A reminder: Not all fights are worth fighting

The president is still riding on global goodwill for the release of hostages from Hamas. On stage in Egypt, the president of Pakistan praised President Donald Trump for bringing peace to what could have become a nuclear war between Pakistan and India. The Israeli people love him more than they do their own leaders. But here at home, Democrats have kept voting to keep the government shut down. Democrats, however, have been careful with their battle. Trump has moved defense funding around to make sure the military gets paid. He will not be able to keep doing it, but for now, our ...

We might have a ceasefire, but it is not peace

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a quick study in the art of laying it on thick, announced that he was teaming up with Israel’s Knesset speaker to invite parliamentary leaders from around the world to jointly nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize — and for nothing less than inaugurating “a new golden age.” Though refraining from that level of MAGA-fication, Democrats have not stinted on the praise due to Trump for achieving the ceasefire and hostage agreement. Former National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Joe ...