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1979: What Are the Settlements For?

Minutes of Israeli cabinet meetings from October 1979 reveal a dispute between Ariel Sharon and Ezer Weizman as to whether West Bank settlements were a security necessity or a liability.Obama’s Foreign Policy Cliff

With crises in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Obama faces national security threats across the Middle East; but his top priority will be Iran's nuclear program. Very Superstitious

While science and technology have supplanted magic and the occult in the West, Jews have not only retained old superstitions, but invented some new ones. So Long, Lieberman

In his exit interview, the retiring U.S. senator says he is"taking a sabbatical from elective partisan politics"—which might "go on for the rest of my life." (Interview by Mark Leibovich)Breaking the Kashrut Cartel

Israeli law gives the Chief Rabbinate a monopoly on kosher certification.  The predictable results are complacency and corruption.  But now a group of restaurateurs is fighting back.The Fuhrer Was Not Amused

From average Germans to Jews in concentration camps, gallows humor was one of the few weapons of resistance against the Third Reich.  So, Hitler tried mightily to repress it.Fearing the Flood

Underneath all of the scientific predictions and vast technological apparatus monitoring Hurricane Sandy lay an ancient biblical fear—of the Deluge.Choosing Life

Tamara Mann was carrying a non-viable fetus.  Her Orthodox rabbi said that it was not alive, so she should terminate the pregnancy.  The State of Ohio disagreed.People of the Book, Power of the Tongue

The Library of Congress celebrates the centennial of its Hebraica collection with a multifaceted collection, including everything from Bibles to Winnie the Pooh in Yiddish—or Vini-der-Pu.Looking for Apartheid in All the Wrong Places

Israel’s move to the right leads some people to charge that it is nearing South African-style apartheid.  These people have no idea of what real apartheid was like.