Anti-Semitism
The Tribes SpeakWednesday, February 16, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Unrest is spreading in the Middle East, but everywhere it displays a unique character. Take Jordan. In an unprecedented public letter to King Abdullah II, thirty-six of the country's tribal leaders have warned that "Jordan will sooner or later be the target of an uprising similar to the ones in Tunisia and Egypt."
Cyrus, Ahmadinejad, and the Politics of PurimTuesday, February 1, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Anyone who deplores the politicization of the past should have been apoplectic in September 2010 at the sight of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad receiving the loan of the "Cyrus Cylinder" from officials of the British Museum.
Blood LibelsMonday, January 31, 2011 by Allan Nadler | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Among the unexpected consequences of the January 9 shooting tragedy in Tucson has been the introduction into American public discourse of a term seldom used and poorly understood.
Arab StirringsFriday, January 28, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
On January 14, the strongman of Tunisia, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, fled in panic to Saudi Arabia after the astonishingly spontaneous, Facebook-driven crumbling of his corrupt regime.
Is Israeli Democracy Finished?Tuesday, January 25, 2011 by Benjamin Kerstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In a now somewhat notorious story published on January 11, Time magazine announced that Israeli politics was taking an ominous "rightward lurch," and concluded that the Middle East's only democracy is on the slippery slope toward something like . . . fascism.
The Hamas-Fatah Two-StepFriday, January 14, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
Frustrated by the diplomatic deadlock over negotiations with the Palestinians, many Westerners, and some Israelis themselves, have focused on the need to accommodate the demands of Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority (PA).
The Persian PuzzleWednesday, January 12, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
A synagogue in today's Jerusalem bears the name "Hajji Yehezkel." Yehezkel is Ezekiel, and Hajji is the Persian term for one who has fulfilled the Islamic precept of going on pilgrimage to Mecca. Who was this Ezekiel, and how did he earn his improbable honorific?
Loving Jews, Hating JewsMonday, January 10, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
In their new book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, the sociologists Robert Putnam and David Campbell advance the striking claim that "Jews are the most broadly popular religious group in America today."
The Economist Strikes AgainFriday, January 7, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The Economist is a curious publication. A weekly newsmagazine published in London, it largely hews to a classical liberal (or libertarian) line in economics and a correspondingly conservative line in politics. In contrast to most newsmagazines today, it is also a rousing success.
Under FireWednesday, January 5, 2011 by Sol Stern | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
The second Lebanon war in the summer of 2006 forced Israelis to come to grips with the definitive end of the Oslo era and the shattering of two fundamental assumptions about the nature of their conflict with the Palestinians.
Editors' Picks
Vatican't Giulio Meotti, Ynet. Israel's decision to cede some sovereignty over the "Hall of the Last Supper" to the Catholic Church will only embolden the Vatican's campaign to appropriate Jewish Jerusalem.
Creating a Monster Jonathan Kirsch, Jewish Journal. On the weak-chinned, bespectacled, clumsy young man who ambitiously reinvented himself as . . . Heinrich Himmler.
History without Witnesses Deborah E. Lipstadt, Jewish Week. As the Holocaust disappears from living memory, what matters is not who is speaking but who is listening.
Who's Afraid of a Nuclear Iran? Douglas Murray, YouTube. Israel is—and since 1973, Israel has had reason to think that on the brink of its annihilation, Europe wouldn't act to save it. (Video)
The Big Lie Returns Ben Cohen, Commentary. As long as the enemies of the Jews control the meaning of the term 'anti-Semitism,' Jews will remain vulnerable to the calumny that they alone are the authors of their own misfortune.
Restrictions on the Reformation Dean Phillip Bell, H-Net. The Hebraism which permeated the Reformation did not necessarily translate into increased tolerance of Jews.
Hard Times for Hamas Guy Bechor, Ynet. Its rhetoric is as fierce as ever, but since it's been strangled in Jordan, expelled from Syria, and defunded by Iran, Hamas lacks the friends and money to match.
The Mufti and the U.S. Election Rafael Medoff, JTA. A mufti calls for violence against Jews, Netanyahu demands Palestinian leaders disavow him, and America's presidential race could be affected. That could be a news report from last week. Or from 1946.
Assad in the Balance Daniel Freedman, Forbes. Of all Israel's neighbors, Syria has traditionally been the most hostile. But now that the Arab League has deserted him, President Assad might be open to rapprochement with Israel and the West.
A Conspiracy Against Catholicism? Piers Paul Read, Telegraph. When Captain Alfred Dreyfus was unjustly convicted of espionage, many of those who rallied to his defense were not philo-Semites but militant atheists, bent on destroying his Catholic opponents.