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The case for Jewish optimism in 2026
Jewish history is a spin cycle of darkness and disaster. Wait long enough and trouble will come around.
Predicting doom and gloom for the Jewish people is about as shocking as an Los Angeles weather reporter forecasting hot summers and mild winters.
What’s more surprising: the Prophets we study hedged their warnings with hope. If the people followed the correct path — if they, so to speak, did the work — God would come through. Isaiah, for instance, ended a jeremiad about the ills that might afflict the Jews with a vision of a brighter future: “While you have been forsaken and hated,” he said, “I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations.”
In that spirit, here are my reasons for Jewish optimism in the coming year:
1. The Gaza ceasefire is still tenuous, but holding
We enter 2026 with something that seemed far off in January 2025: the return of all but one of the hostages amid a ceasefire after two years of war. (The remains of Ran Gvili are still in Gaza.)
Neither Israel nor Hamas appears particularly eager to make the sacrifices necessary to proceed to the second phase of the ceasefire, which would involve Hamas disarmament, further Israeli withdrawal and the deployment of an international peacekeeping force. But successful Mideast diplomacy has always depended on American engagement, and judging by the meeting this week in Florida between President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the American president is still engaged.
Trump’s pressure and leverage, especially with Turkey and Qatar, who have sway over Hamas, could help push the sides toward the next step.
Success would increase the likelihood of a Saudi-Israeli accord, which would be a true Middle East game changer.
“A deal with Saudi Arabia could remake the Middle East and Israel’s place in it,” former diplomat Nimrod Novik recently told The New York Times. “Saudi Arabia doesn’t come alone. It’s a whole list of countries that follow, once the Saudis put a kosher stamp on Israel: Indonesia, Malaysia, maybe even Kuwait and Oman — who knows?”
2. In Israel, a grassroots awakening
A new generation of grassroots Israeli movements and leaders has emerged since the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
Now, they may help reshape Israel’s political landscape. New centrist parties like Gadi Eisenkot’s Yashar and Yoav Hendel’s Reservist Party have emerged to challenge Netanyahu’s divisive leadership. Two weeks ago, Einav Zangauker, who protested daily for the release of the hostages, among them her son Matan Zangauker, said she may enter electoral politics.
And while election polls still show that Israel suffers from deep social and political rifts, one finding of a recent Israel Democracy Institute survey gives me hope: 71% of Israelis say “it’s important for Israel to have a Constitution” — a document the country has lacked since its founding.
“The biggest threat to long-term stability in Israel,” wrote the institute’s founder, Arye Carmon, “is the lack of a national constitution to provide a foundation on which to guarantee stability and define Jewishness in the ‘Jewish and Democratic.’”
As religious, tribal and political forces pull the country apart, it’s hopeful that a consensus exists to keep it together.
3. In the United States, a continuing Jewish revitalization
The post-Oct. 7 surge that has brought American Jews deeper into Jewish life shows no sign of ebbing in 2026. Synagogue, camp and day school enrollments are up, as is Jewish involvement across the board. A recent national survey found that 72% of people who became more deeply engaged in Jewish life after Hamas’ 2023 attack are “still engaging more today through community, learning and personal relationships.”
At a time when Americans are suffering from an epidemic of over-digitized isolation, American Jews are seeking and finding actual, real life community.
How that looks can vary wildly: increased donations to Jewish causes, overt displays of pride and belonging, activism, adult b’nai mitzvah classes or a packed Brooklyn “Sinners’ Shabbat” with burlesque dancers and drag queens. In all ways, it’s a resurgence that can only strengthen our identity.
4. The calmer the conflict, the safer our streets
Violent antisemitic attacks have grown in frequency and ferocity in the past six months — witness Washington, D.C., Boulder and Bondi Beach.
But the numbers of overall antisemitic attacks have fallen off. Antisemitic hate crimes fell by more than 50% in New York City in early 2025, reflecting an international decrease and a sharp decline in global antisemitism since post-Oct. 7 highs. That isn’t surprising. “There is no more important factor in explaining variation in antisemitic hate crimes in this country than Israel being engaged in a particularly violent military operation,” said Professor Ayal Feinberg, whose 2019 study looked at the correlation between the 2014 Gaza War and antisemitic violence.
If Hamas and Israel can enter the second ceasefire phase, the world’s anti-Israel demonstraters will be faced with the dissonant reality of Israel working with Arab and Turkish neighbors to rebuild Gaza. I’d like to see the protest signs objecting to that.
5, Jews have allies, and antisemites just have X
I suspect that other noxious forms of antisemitism — like podcaster Tucker Carlson hosting Nazi fanboys, or Candace Owens spouting Jew-hating conspiracy theories — will continue to do more to splinter the Republican party than unite it.
We’ve seen that happening already. Jewish and non-Jewish members of the Heritage Foundation resigned when its director refused to distance himself from Carlson. Ben Shapiro threw a wrench into the Turning Point USA convention by declaring a red line against bigots and Holocaust deniers.
A disturbing number of MAGA leaders equivocated — here’s looking at you, Vice President JD Vance — but others like Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw and Sen. Ted Cruz spoke against the hatemongers.
The not-so-coded antisemitism that many of us have long warned infests MAGA, and that Trump has long both denied and winked at, is now out in the sunlight, which, counterintuitively, may not be a bad thing. For Jewish Republicans, it’s clarifying to know where their so-called friends stand, and who their real allies are.
And while X and Discord may be a safe space for antisemites, American themselves have historically proven to be less accepting of the oldest hatred. Let’s hope — actively — it stays that way.
Granted, these five points come with caveats. The contrary voices in my head are loud: Hamas or Israel could sabotage the ceasefire. Iran and Israel could renew hostilities. Tucker Carlson could become a future President J.D. Vance’s Secretary of State. A.I. could unleash a flood of hate bots and deep fakes that will swarm common sense. Like I said, the safe money is on doom.
But when the prophets’ hopeful visions always came with a hitch — a better future depends on what you do now, in the present.
The question isn’t what gives you hope, but what future are you willing to work for?
The post The case for Jewish optimism in 2026 appeared first on The Forward.
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NATO’s Rutte Praises US, Israeli Military Action Against Iran but Says Alliance Won’t Be Involved
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte attends a press conference at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, Feb. 12, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Tom Nicholson
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday praised US and Israeli military action against Iran, saying it was degrading Tehran’s ability to get its hands on nuclear and ballistic missile capability, but he said NATO itself would not be involved.
“It’s really important what the US is doing here, together with Israel, because it is taking out, degrading the capacity of Iran to get its hands on nuclear capability, the ballistic missile capability,” he told Germany’s ARD television in Brussels.
“There are absolutely no plans whatever for NATO to get dragged into this or being part of it, other than individual allies doing what they can to enable what the Americans are doing together with Israel,” he added.
Rutte’s comments came on the same day that US President Donald Trump said he ordered the attack on Iran to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, vowing to pursue the war for as long as necessary.
Trump claimed the threat from Iran had been imminent when he made the decision to order the strikes. The attacks have killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sunk Iranian warships, and hit more than 1,000 targets so far.
“This was our last best chance to strike … and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” he said at an event in the White House East Room.
Trump added that the US military campaign in Iran was going ahead of schedule, without providing details. He said the campaign had been projected to last four to five weeks but could go longer.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon played down concerns on Monday that the US attack on Iran risked plunging the United States into a new, open-ended conflict in the Middle East, even as officials declined to offer a timeline and cautioned that they expected more US casualties.
In the first Pentagon briefing since the conflict began, US General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters it would take time to achieve US military objectives in Iran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listed those objectives in primarily military terms, saying the Pentagon sought to destroy Iran’s navy and expansive missile capabilities that could shield any covert attempts by Tehran to later build a nuclear weapon. Iran denies it wants nuclear weapons.
“To the media outlets and political left screaming ‘ENDLESS WARS’ – stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless,” said Hegseth, a former Fox News host and Army veteran who served in Iraq from 2005 to 2006 and deployed to Afghanistan in 2012.
However, Hegseth noted that Trump would not be pinned down by any timeline.
The US and Israeli attacks have triggered a massive Iranian retaliatory response but many of the most dangerous drones and missiles have been intercepted by US military forces and US allies in the region.
Still, some of the attacks succeeded in inflicting US losses. The US military said a fourth US service member died on Monday as a result of injuries in the Iran operations.
Six US service members were also injured on Monday when Kuwaiti air defenses shot down their three F-15 fighter jets by mistake.
“We expect to take additional losses,” Caine told the briefing, adding the United States would work to minimize US losses but “this is major combat operations.”
Hegseth said there were no US troops on the ground but also declined to rule that possibility out.
“We are not going into the exercise of [saying] what we will or will not do,” Hegseth said. “President Trump ensures that our enemies understand we’ll go as far as we need to go to advance American interests.”
“But we’re not dumb about it. You don’t have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay 20 years,” he added.
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Iran Conflict Widens to Lebanon, Kuwait Mistakenly Downs US Jets
Smoke billows after an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, following an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, Lebanon, March 2, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
The US and Israeli air war against Iran widened on Monday, with no end in sight as Israel attacked Lebanon in response to strikes by Hezbollah and Tehran kept up its missile and drone attacks on Gulf states.
President Donald Trump said a “big wave” of further attacks was imminent, without giving details, and said it was unclear who was in charge in Iran, following the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei at the weekend.
The attack on Iran has pitched the Gulf into war, thrown global air transport into chaos, and shut down shipping traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices surging.
Underlining the risks, Kuwait mistakenly shot down three American F-15E fighter jets during an Iranian attack, US Central Command said. All six crew members ejected and were safely recovered. Video, filmed at a location verified by Reuters, showed one of the planes spiraling out of the sky, an engine on fire.
For Trump, facing growing discontent at home over bread-and-butter economic issues, the weekend strikes against a foe that had tormented the US and its allies for generations amount to the biggest US foreign policy gamble in decades.
Trump urged Americans to grieve the four US service personnel killed so far. The campaign could pose a major political risk for Trump’s Republican Party in this year’s midterm elections, with only one in four Americans supporting the operation, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll at the weekend.
“WE HAVEN’T EVEN STARTED,’ TRUMP SAYS
Trump said he had ordered the attack to thwart Tehran’s nuclear program and a ballistic missile program that he said was growing rapidly. He said the war could go on past a four-to-five-week projection he made earlier.
“We haven’t even started hitting them hard,” he told CNN in an interview. “The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”
In the first formal Pentagon briefing since the campaign began, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, described a campaign that included hitting more than 1,000 targets in the first 24 hours. He said more forces were still on their way to the region.
“This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives that CENTCOM and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work,” Caine said.
Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon and says it was offering to curb its nuclear program at talks when the United States launched an unprovoked assault.
Trump repeated his call to Iranians to rise up and overthrow their leaders.
Within Iran, where residents have jammed highways to flee the bombing, there was uncertainty about the future and emotion ranging from euphoria to apprehension and rage.
Many have openly celebrated the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 86, who had ruled since 1989 and directed security forces that killed thousands of anti-government protesters at the start of this year.
But the conservative clerical leaders have shown no sign of yielding power. Military experts say that US and Israeli air power, with no armed force on the ground, may not be enough to drive them out. Meanwhile, scores of Iranians have been reported killed in strikes, including several that hit apparent civilian targets.
WAR SPREADS TO LEBANON
In a sign that Iran‘s rulers are still reaching out to the outside world, a senior Iranian security official contacted Reuters to say Iran was defending itself against aggressors and would continue to do so.
A new front in the war opened on Monday when the Lebanese armed terrorist group Hezbollah, one of Tehran’s principal allies in the Middle East, launched missiles and drones toward Israel.
Israel responded with sweeping airstrikes, which it said targeted the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and struck senior militants. The Lebanese state news agency NNA said an initial tally showed 31 people had been killed and 149 injured.
An Iranian Shahed missile that Cypriot officials said was most likely fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon also hit the British air force base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, the first strike to reach US allies in Europe.
Israel declared Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem a “target for elimination.” Officials said they were not for now considering a ground invasion of Lebanon, whose government on Monday banned military activities by Hezbollah.
As Washington’s allies in the Gulf came under renewed attack from Iranian missiles and drones, black smoke rose above the area around the US embassy in Kuwait. There were loud blasts in Dubai and Samha in the United Arab Emirates, and in the Qatari capital Doha.
Qatar, one of the world’s biggest exporters of liquefied natural gas, halted production, with no prospect of being able to ship safely through the chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz.
Saudi Arabia shut its biggest refinery after drone strikes caused a fire there, one of a number of energy installations that became targets.
European allies, which distanced themselves from Trump’s initial decision to go to war, have since said they could help suppress Iran‘s ability to retaliate.
In an X post on Monday, Ali Larijani, a powerful adviser to Khamenei, said Iran would not negotiate with Trump, who had “delusional ambitions” and was now worried about US casualties.
OIL SUPPLIES INTERRUPTED
The interruption to oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz – where around a fifth of the world’s oil trade skirts the Iranian coast – jolted global economies. Oil prices leapt by double-digit percentages when trade opened on Monday, but later gave up half those gains. Shares fell and the dollar surged.
Iran‘s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had hit three US and British oil tankers in the Gulf and the Strait. Shipping data showed hundreds of vessels including oil and gas tankers dropping anchor in nearby waters.
Global air travel was also heavily disrupted as airstrikes kept major Middle Eastern airports closed.
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The Palestinian Authority Condemns Iran’s Attacks on Arab States — But Not Israel
Emergency personnel work at the site of an Iranian strike, after Iran launched missile barrages following attacks by the US and Israel on Saturday, in Beit Shemesh, Israel, March 1, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Other than a few informative reports, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is almost silent about the Israeli-American war with Iran.
So far, the PA has limited itself to condemning Iran’s attacks on other Arab states and requesting “an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and for a session of the UN Security Council.”
The PA has neither condemned the Israeli-American attack on Iran, nor has it said anything positive about the Iranian missiles launched against Israel:
The State of Palestine strongly condemned the Iranian attacks on several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq, stressing its full rejection of any violation of their sovereignty or aggression against them by any party.
It described the attacks as a blatant violation of the UN Charter and principles of international law…
It also reaffirmed its consistent position against resorting to violence and war, calling for dialogue as the means to resolve disputes … and for adherence to international law to strengthen regional and international peace and security.
President Mahmoud Abbas called for an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers and for a session of the UN Security Council to address the serious challenges facing the region, its countries, and their sovereignty. [emphasis added]
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, Feb. 28, 2026]
Vice President of the State of Palestine Hussein Al-Sheikh on Saturday reaffirmed Palestine’s rejection and condemnation of the Iranian attacks on several Arab sister states … and conveyed Palestine’s solidarity with the Arab states and support for any measures they deem appropriate in response.
Al-Sheikh stressed that the State of Palestine and its leadership firmly reject any violation of the sovereignty of Arab states or aggression against them by any party, describing the attacks as a blatant violation of the UN Charter and the principles of international law.
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, Feb. 28, 2026]
Although the PA has not openly applauded the joint US and Israeli attack on Iran, there is reason to believe they silently appreciate the development.
Palestinian Media Watch has exposed that the PA blamed Iran for making Hamas launch the devastating Oct. 7 war to “serve its Iranian masters” and accused Iran of supporting Hamas to “destroy the Palestinian national project,” thereby enabling it to replace the PLO as “the sole representative of the Palestinian people”:
PLO National Council member Muwaffaq Matar: “There is no clearer proof [than Iranian leader Khamenei’s speech] of Hamas’ subordination to this Iranian regime. In this speech there is nothing new for us, because we have already understood how much this regime controls Hamas, has given it its blessing, supported it, and aided it to destroy the Palestinian national project completely, so that it [Hamas] and also its partners who follow Iran will be the artificial alternative to the PLO.”
[Fatah Commission of Information and Culture, Facebook page, June 3, 2024]
This claim was reiterated recently by PLO Central Council member and regular columnist for the official PA daily, Omar Hilmi Al-Ghoul:
[Hamas] began to move according to the direction of the wind, based on the Muslim Brotherhood’s principle of taqiyya. Nothing is constant for [Hamas] except to continue serving as a paid pawn in the hands of the enemies, in order to sabotage the national project, dissolve it, incite against the legitimate leadership. [emphasis added]
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 18, 2026]
Following the Israeli-American attack, former spokesman of the PA Security Forces Adnan Al-Damiri even mocked both Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Iran.
Al-Damiri prophesized that the Iranian people won’t reach for their freedom made possible by Netanyahu (and Trump) but will continue to “support the regime.” Iran’s attack on several neighboring Arab states, many of which host US military bases, was ridiculed by Al-Damiri as “stupidity and malice”:
Posted text: “The Iranian people are not a plaything to accede to [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu, even if it is against the regime. Netanyahu’s appeal to the Iranian people will fail, and the people will set out to support the regime. The war will last a long time to complete the mission of toppling the [Iranian] fundamentalist regime…
Iran, out of stupidity and malice, attacked its [Arab] neighbors who opposed the war. It weakened itself by directly involving its neighbors.
This will open the possibility of ground military activity from the territories of its neighbors and with their participation. The war will last weeks, perhaps months.”
[Former Official Spokesman of the PA Security Forces Adnan Al-Damiri, Facebook page, Feb. 28, 2026]
So far, only the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) has openly mourned the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with a poster and text calling the Israeli-American attack “a cowardly assassination operation committed by the Zionist and American treachery.”
Note: On June 3, 2024, then Iranian leader Khamenei gave a speech in which he praised Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, stating that:
An army that claimed to be one of the strongest armies in the world has been defeated inside its own land. Who has defeated it? Was it a powerful government? No, it was defeated by Resistance groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. It was defeated by these [groups]. This is what Al-Aqsa Flood did.
He neither mentioned the PA nor the PLO at all but only the “Resistance” and the “Palestinian people.”
The author is a contributor to Palestinian Media Watch, where a version of this story first appeared.