Anti-Zionism
Get Ready for Durban IIIOn September 22, one month from today, world bodies will gather at the UN General Assembly in New York on the 10th anniversary of the UN World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa.
The Night of the Murdered PoetsTuesday, August 16, 2011 by Nahma Sandrow | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On August 12, 1952, thirteen major Soviet Jewish figures were executed for espionage, bourgeois nationalism, "lack of true Soviet spirit," and treason, including a plot to hand the Crimea over to American and Zionist imperialists.
Israel and the AntipodesMonday, August 15, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
During the February 2011 earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, a boulder smashed into a car, killing 23-year-old Israeli Ofer Mizrahi. The death toll from that earthquake was 181, including two Israelis besides Mizrahi.
The Challenge of EilatFriday, August 12, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In a country where the sky is mostly blue, the southernmost city of Eilat has nonetheless laid claim—with justification—to being Israel's sun capital. Reliably good weather does not, however, solve all problems.
The New SinaiWednesday, August 10, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Sinai Peninsula is known for its aura of stillness. But amid the timeless mountains and endless dunes, the great crossroad between Africa and Asia is more active today, and potentially more explosive, than at any time in history.
The Palestinian Mandela?Tuesday, August 9, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
To his Israeli backers, Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti is the "Palestinian [Nelson] Mandela." That image—of a principled, graying freedom fighter with the courage to move his people toward reconciliation—is promoted by political and cultural figures on the Israeli Left.
Hizballah in AmericaThursday, August 4, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Hizballah is a Shiite Muslim movement, Iranian-created and -funded, which strongarms Lebanon through threats and violence, assaults Israel with rockets obtained through Syria in contravention of UN resolutions, and is funded through massive criminal enterprises. And it has arrived in the Americas.
Minorities in the IDFWednesday, July 27, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Recently, while driving by the Israeli settlement of Nokdim (where Avigdor Lieberman lives), I picked up a hitchhiking soldier. We started chatting, and I asked the soldier his name. "Mustafa," he said. "You're a Muslim?" I asked. "Yes," he answered, "from Haifa."
The State of the Arab StateTuesday, July 26, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
From the Mashriq to the Maghreb, one end of the Arab world to the other, people are contemplating where the six-month-long upheavals that began with the Arab Spring are fated to deliver them. Those with longer memories may recall an earlier experiment at reshaping the political contours of Arab governance.
The New Biblical ArcheologyMonday, July 25, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Every summer, the Israel Antiquities Authority holds a reception for foreign archeological teams excavating in Israel. This year's reception was attended by over 200 archeologists, who are investigating sites ranging in age from the Paleolithic through Islamic periods.
Editors' Picks
French Al-Qaeda MEMRI. Muhammad Merah, who has confessed to perpetrating the murders in Toulouse, appears to be a member of Fursan al-'Izza, the French branch of Al-Qaeda, profiled here.
Europe's Rising Tide Anti-Defamation League. Classical anti-Semitic attitudes are not only widespread across Europe but have risen significantly since 2009 in traditionally more tolerant countries, such as Britain and France.
A Nation Mourns Jerusalem Post. At the funeral of the four victims of the Toulouse shooting, Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin said that those who terrorize Jews "do not distinguish between Jews in Israel or in France . . . They know very well that we are all brothers."
Diaspora Divided (Sneak Preview of JRB Spring Issue!) Jordan Chandler Hirsch, Jewish Review of Books. Peter Beinart tries to show how one-dimensional support for Israel is alienating young liberal Jews. The trouble is that his own one-dimensional criticism of Israel alienates everyone else.
Proxy War Jonathan Schanzer, Foreign Policy. Although Israelis have come to expect rocket attacks from Gaza, this time the perpetrators are not Hamas agents but Iranian proxies. And however the conflict develops, Tehran will come out on top.
Hester Panim? Daniel Pipes, DanielPipes.org. Jerusalem in the Qur'an is a 142-page text—but Jerusalem is nowhere to be found in the Koran.
In Fayyad's Hands Alexander Joffe, Asaf Romirowsky, National Post. Salam Fayyad is both the primary vehicle for a future Palestinian state and its most effective symbol.
Forked Tonge Howard Jacobson, Independent. Dismissed from the UK's Liberal Democrat party for an apparent longing for Israel's extinction, Jenny Tonge cried foul. But hating Israel doesn't grant automatic immunity from the charge of loathing Jews.
Behind the Times Josh Nathan-Kazis, Forward. Entering a crowded field of English-language publications in Israel, the founders of the Times of Israel hope that their unapologetic defense of the Jewish state will set their paper apart.
The Hypocrisy of Harvard Ruth R. Wisse, Wall Street Journal. Harvard's Kennedy School of Government purports to "strengthen democratic governance around the world," yet it is hosting a conference aimed at destroying the only democracy in the Middle East.