Biden arrived at the summit intent upon rallying NATO’s 30 member-strong alliance behind a security policy that confronts both new threats, like cyberwarfare and China, as well as traditional threats, like Russia’s military incursions into Eastern Europe.

President Biden settled the most important question: He affirmed America’s commitment to defend the alliance’s 30 members by force. And despite divisions on many other foreign policy issues, his party stands in lock step behind him.

President Biden repeated a call Monday “to prove to the world and to our own people that democracy can still prevail against the challenges of our time and deliver the needs of our people.” Biden said it was up to Democratic nations to prove to the world that autocracies cannot deliver for their people.

…the most frequently asked question is how long a jury-rigged governing coalition led by Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid can survive with no discernable unifying ideology beyond an antipathy toward their controversial predecessor. While no one can predict such an uncertain future, the best person to answer that question might be Joe Biden, who is attempting to navigate a similar path.

Even if this shaky coalition crumbles from within, we should take this moment to reflect on our assumptions around who can or cannot serve as partners toward a shared future.

…the new government could clarify the American debate over Israel. The departure of the conservative Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister won’t change Democratic Party disagreements with Israel’s government over Iran and the Palestinians.

A government that works for the public. For this, one must first of all strengthen the civil service and restore its power, authority and responsibility.

The conventional wisdom is that the intense desire to replace Netanyahu was what unified them. Yes, but there’s more. This coalition would never have happened without the decent human beings who persevered to make it happen.

Despite the difficulties in swallowing a Bennett-Abbas government, we have no choice but to wish it success. We are along for the ride, and we want the pilots to do what pilots do in order to avoid a crash. So for the sake of order and to send a message of domestic reconciliation, power should be transferred in an orderly manner…

It was actually quite a calculated little formulation of words. Look closely at her sentence. Notice how she left herself just enough wiggle room to in effect assure her followers: “Don’t worry; I’m not really retracting the analogy. I don’t believe that Israel is either democratic or has a well-established judicial system. So, all I’m saying that terrorists—Hamas, the Taliban and Israel—are different from the U.S., which does have a judicial system, even though it’s flawed.”

And, despite her “clarification,” Omar was far from repentant and labeled the 12 Jews who dared to call her out as being guilty of “Islamicphobic [sic] tropes” and subjecting her to “constant harassment and silencing.”

Omar wasn’t supplying a list of all the bad actors in the world, or ranking the worst of them. She was arguing that the parties listed have something in common: They’ve all committed acts of violence during conflicts that exceed or violate international standards of just war.

During remote services the distractions are constant, like working from home. Only instead of zoning out on a client while putting on my socks, I miss the benediction for the state of Israel. There’s also the temptation to multitask—is it a sin to empty the dishwasher while singing the Aleinu?

Before COVID-19, I’d always felt like a religious outsider, too ashamed of my beginner’s ignorance to go to synagogue. Zoom services were, for me, the pandemic’s great silver lining. They helped me take part in shul for the first time in my life.

“As difficult as it has been, there have been blessings that have come out of this hard moment,” Latz said. Online worship has “opened access” to his congregation, he said.

Time and again, what is apparent is that people who look like Toobin — white and male and heterosexual and cisgender — are more able to take risks not afforded to others. The presumption that accountability doesn’t apply reinforces this cycle of power.

“He was on a Zoom call. It was an accidental exposure. It was not a CNN Zoom call, it was with The New Yorker — from where he has been terminated and faced consequences — he was off CNN for many months, during the elections, during some of the hottest political and legal times.”

… two questions to ask: How do his female colleagues at CNN feel about this? If Toobin held any other lower-level job besides “Chief Legal Analyst,” would he have kept his job?