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Ruthie Blum

Ruthie Blum, a former adviser at the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is an award-winning columnist and a senior contributing editor at JNS. Co-host with Ambassador Mark Regev of the JNS-TV podcast “Israel Undiplomatic,” she writes on Israeli politics and U.S.-Israel relations. Originally from New York City, she moved to Israel in 1977. She is a regular guest on national and international media outlets, including Fox, Sky News, i24News, Scripps, ILTV, WION and Newsmax.

Then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi speak to reporters at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv, Nov. 12, 2019. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
Netanyahu’s (bulls)eye on Iran
Of all world leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been the most vociferous in warning of the danger to the Jewish state and the rest of the world posed by Tehran in general and by its race to obtain nuclear weapons in particular.
Nov. 12, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Rabbi Avraham Elimelech Firer. Source: www.ezra-lemarpe.org.
Senior Contributing Editor
Turning Rabbi Firer’s blessings into a feminist curse
A nationwide argument erupted in Israel over the limits of religious freedom and practice in the public sphere, particularly when involving state-funded or municipal venues.
Nov. 5, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Some 300 new immigrants from France arrive on a special “Aliyah Flight” organized by the Jewish Agency, at Ben-Gurion International Airport in central Israel, on July 23, 2018. Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
‘Aliyah’ seems to be the hardest word
A subtle yet significant gradual shift in the perception and description of the Jewish Agency’s job has coincided with the evolution of the concept of “Zionism.”
Oct. 29, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz during Simchat Torah celebrations in Kfar Chabad, Israel, on Oct. 21, 2019. Photo by Yossi Zeliger/Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
Israel’s holiday government
It’s not an electoral impasse per se, but Jewish festivities in September and part of October that shut everything down for a month.
Oct. 23, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Naama Issachar, 26, was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in a Russian prison after 9.5 grams of cannabis were found in her luggage during a stopover in Moscow, Oct. 11, 2019. Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoned her on Jan. 29, 2020. Source: Screenshot.
Senior Contributing Editor
A cautionary cannabis tale for globe-trotting Israelis
As well-traveled as they are, Israeli millennials are so conditioned by the freedoms they enjoy at home—and so enamored of cultures other than their own—that they frequently miscalculate the consequences of their actions abroad.
Oct. 16, 2019
Ruthie Blum
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on May 23, 2017. Credit: U.S. Embassy in Israel.
Senior Contributing Editor
Trump and Israel: Lasting love, not a broken ‘bromance’ with Bibi
The relationship was sparked and continues to be based on shared interests.
Sep. 24, 2019
Ruthie Blum
A polling station in Jerusalem during the second round of Israeli elections, on Sept. 17, 2019. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
Knesset elections 2.0: An absent electorate?
People have been literally lining up to leave, some have left long ago, and others are zapped of the inspiration to vote for what they believe will wind up in another impasse.
Sep. 17, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement to the press regarding the Iranian nuclear program, at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Sept. 9, 2019. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
Was Netanyahu’s latest nuclear ‘bombshell’ election propaganda?
You’d think that this was a bigger bombshell than the news of Iran’s continued and very concrete efforts to develop nuclear warheads for its long-range missiles. You know, in its pursuit of regional hegemony and its stated aim of “wiping Israel off the map.”
Sep. 10, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Election campaign posters in Tel Aviv depict Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud Party, as well as the leaders of the Blue and White Party, including Benny Gantz, second from left, Sept. 2019. Photo by Adam Shuldman/Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
Voting against Israeli electoral apathy
We Israelis are used to having our tax shekels spent on futile, top-down endeavors born of nanny-state committee meetings held to interpret and tackle societal phenomena. No wonder there’s a sense that voting won’t change anything.
Sep. 3, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Trump, Netanyahu
Senior Contributing Editor
Israel, Iran and Trump: Behind the rhetoric
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had faith that Washington would be his key ally in any confrontation with the Islamic Republic. It was Trump, after all, who withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Aug. 27, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) speaks with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi during an event honoring outstanding IDF reservists, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on July 1, 2019. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
Netanyahu’s carrot-and-stick policy on Gaza
Both left and right are uneasy about growing violence from the border, but the prime minister has a plan.
Aug. 20, 2019
Ruthie Blum
Yoav Sorek, the father of Dvir Sorek, the yeshivah student and IDF recruit who was found stabbed to death near the Jewish settlement of Migdal Oz in Gush Etzion, speaks with the media outside the family home in Ofra on Aug. 9, 2019. Photo by Flash90.
Senior Contributing Editor
May Dvir Sorek’s legacy be a lesson to the Jewish left
Faced with what they clearly viewed as a contradiction in terms, Israel Prize laureate David Grossman and his fellow peace fantasists were stunned.
Aug. 13, 2019
Ruthie Blum
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