I spent most of my writing hours in 2023 working on a book, so the articles declined in number from recent years. Traffic statistics at DanielPipes.org indicate that the following ten articles are my most read writings published in 2023, in ascending order. (Gary Gambill of the Middle East Forum kindly provided the tabulations and assisted with the summaries.)
10. How Can Israel Win the Palestinian Conflict? (January 7)
In a Jerusalem Post interview, I argue that resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict "requires the Palestinians to lose hope." This reasoning "precisely contradicts the premise of the Oslo Accords," which held that economic benefits "would vest the Palestinians in prosperity, deradicalize them, and make them true partners for peace." But 30 years later, "Palestinians retain the fantasy of eliminating the Jewish state," a goal that "must be fought by making them abandon it, not by fueling it with hope."
9. Violence Is Not the Biggest Palestinian Threat to Israel (February 2)
Murderous violence by Palestinians "pose[s] less of a threat to the country than ... their campaigns of delegitimization," which "inspire a toxic hostility, especially on the Left and among Muslims, that threatens Israel's long-term welfare and security." Oct. 7 confirmed this argument, as the war initiated by Hamas will end with the destruction of its military apparatus while its underlying aim of inspiring a worldwide "toxic hostility" to Israel is succeeding.
8. A Decent Outcome Is Possible in Gaza (October 17)
Despite the handwringing, Gaza's future "the day after" Israel eliminates Hamas is not so dire. For the past 15 years, Gazans "have endured something monstrous and possibly unique in human experience: exploitation by their rulers as cannon fodder for public relations." While this has made Hamas a very dangerous adversary, it has also ripened the population for non-Islamist rule.
Most Gazans understandably "don't want to serve as pawns in an obsessive and illusory jihad against Israel." For years, they "voted with their feet," seeking to emigrate at every opportunity. Once Israel has extirpated Hamas from Gaza, "Israel can reasonably expect to find plenty of residents ready to work with the new authority to create an administration that could return them to normal life."
7. Israel Has Quickly Reverted to Its Bad Old Policies (November 17)
Despite much talk of victory by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since October 7 and survey research showing the Israeli public endorses a tough new approach, "Israeli officialdom and its security establishment show signs of reverting to their old failed policies, even before the bodies have all been buried." Signs that the prewar ethos guiding Hamas policy – that "enrichment gives Palestinians something to lose, taming them and making them less inclined to aggress" – is making a comeback abound, from the resumption of fuel supplies to Gaza just 20 days after the Hamas massacre to the approval of work permits for West Bank Palestinians.
6. Hamas vs. Gazans (November 8)
Hamas exploits the Gazan population in a historically unique way. While autocratic adversaries routinely sacrifice soldiers for battlefield gains, Hamas alone "sacrifices civilians for public relations purposes," and in large numbers. Not only has it refused to lift a finger evacuating civilians from the warzone (or providing bomb shelters for them), but it has actively blocked and even shot at those trying to escape the carnage.
Of course, the Islamist ideology of Hamas enables this callous disregard for Muslim lives, but the real driver is that Hamas knows how to the read the room internationally. "The more misery endured by Gazans, ... the wider and more vehement the support it wins from antisemites of all persuasions." The antidote is obvious: Israel must "extirpate Hamas and its foul works, then set up a decent administration in Gaza that will not continue deploying such degrading tactics."
5. Irene Pipes (1924-2023): An Appreciation (July 31)
A tribute to my mother, Irene Pipes, attempts to capture her character: extroverted and social, with a "talent for friendships." She complemented my father, Richard, the professor. "He was the intellectual, she not; she the social butterfly, he wanting to go home, already." Like nearly everyone else in the family, my mother escaped Poland and the Holocaust. In her later years, she reconnected with her birthplace, spending about a month there annually. Her death marks the passing of the last immigrant in my family who remembered pre-war Poland.
4. How Obama's Muslim Childhood Became a Taboo Topic (June 23)
Fifteen years ago, my presentation of clear evidence that Barack Obama was raised as a Muslim before adopting the Christian faith spurred an intense backlash. Any discussion of this "gigantic biographical inconvenience" was denounced across much of the political spectrum, with even the conservative press shying away from the topic. As Obama's "sacral quality" loses its sheen with the passage of time, I expect to be vindicated. Then, "historians will take great interest in his childhood religious affiliation ... [and] how, in a modern democratic society, a determined candidate can suppress even the most important and relevant information."
3. The Rapid Return of Israel's Disastrous Policy (Winter 2024)
This in-depth follow-up to the op-ed a few weeks earlier (#7 above), examines the revival of the false belief that rejectionist Palestinian leaders can be "bought off or tempered through economic benefits." In part, this change resulted from Israeli public opinion – overwhelmingly in favor of eradicating Hamas in the weeks after October 7 – having changed. "Politicians and the security establishment drove previous flights from strategic reality (e.g., the Oslo Accords, the retreat from Gaza) but not this one. Here, the public pushed the destruction of Hamas aside in favor of rescuing the hostages."
Why then did the Netanyahu government cave to public pressure and accommodate the demands of Hamas (by slowing the pace of and even pausing its ground offensive, resuming fuel supplies to Gaza, etc.). The answer: "That the same leadership team that brought on October 7 also went on to sign the hostage deal hardly surprises: responsibility for the first made it vulnerable to the appeals of hostage families and foreign states."
2. Muslim Africans' Harrowing Journey to Israel (Summer)
With allegations that Israel is an "Apartheid state" widespread on the Left, a simple sniff test is in order: Not only are Muslim citizens of Israel not emigrating, but outside of Israel "large numbers of Muslims long to live among Zionists" and infiltrate the country given the opportunity – not to carry out murderous attacks, but to take advantage of its economic success, standard of health care, rule of law, and functioning democracy.
The influx of tens of thousands of predominantly Muslim Africans from Sudan and Eritrea between 2006 and 2012 illustrates this phenomenon. In contrast to "the angry oratory of the United Nations or the insipid bigotry of the Middle East studies professoriate, ... Muslim migrants abandoning their countries of origin, traveling long distances, enduring terrible experiences in Egypt, and taking a chance in the Jewish state unambiguously reveals a wide but covert appreciation of Israel" in parts of the Muslim world little watched by outside observers.
1. Israel's Opportunity to Destroy Hamas (October 7)
I published an article at 3:30 EDT on the day of the October 7 attack in which I seemingly went out on a limb by calling for Israel "to destroy Hamas"; before that day, I had been isolated in calling for such a move. To my surprise this view quickly became a consensus opinion in Israel and far beyond (e.g., the European Parliament resolved that "the terrorist organisation Hamas needs to be eliminated").
