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History & Politics


How the Likud Came to Be How the Likud Came to Be
Friday, April 22, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Benjamin Netanyahu no doubt took comfort from a recent survey showing that 76 percent of Likud members opposed annexing all of Judea and Samaria. Yet he would also have known that 10,000 party recruits had been newly signed up by uncompromising settler leaders. How to keep the Likud ("Union") together and in the center of Israel's political mainstream?
A New Germany? A New Germany?
Thursday, April 14, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

At a joint press conference in Berlin on April 7, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the atmosphere of mutual trust and friendship in which their just-concluded talks had taken place. Germany, he averred, was "a great friend" of Israel. Yet any sober assessment of the Germany-Israel relationship would have to come to a different conclusion.  
“We Love Death” “We Love Death”
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 by Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In 2007, two years before he killed thirteen people and wounded twenty-nine at Fort Hood, Texas, Nidal Malik Hasan prepared a slide show for his fellow Army doctors on the subject of Islam. One of his last points read: "We love death more than you love life!"
The Archeology War The Archeology War
Thursday, March 31, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) was founded in 1979 by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). It has three basic goals. The first is to spread a Saudi version of Koranic education throughout the Islamic world. The second is to publicize Islam to the non-Islamic world. The third goal is to oppose the "Judaization of Al-Quds"—i.e., Jerusalem.
Jewish Studies in Decline? Jewish Studies in Decline?
Monday, March 28, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Reports prepared recently for Israel's Council of Higher Education have brought despairing news about the condition of the humanities in the country's universities. Especially dispiriting is the report on Jewish studies, once the crowning glory of Israel's flagship Hebrew University—and, in the report's inadvertently nostalgic words, "an investment in the nurturing of the deep spiritual and cultural structures of Israeli public and private life." That investment has been producing ever smaller returns.
The Fate of Muslim Moderates The Fate of Muslim Moderates
Monday, March 21, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

The recent uprisings in the Middle East seemed, at least at first, to send a reassuring signal to Western observers: not only did genuinely moderate Muslims exist, and not only were they capable of finding a political voice, but there was reason to hope that, given time to organize and grow in strength, they might succeed in winning out against the voices of repression and Islamist extremism.
The Peace Plan Israel Needs The Peace Plan Israel Needs
Tuesday, March 15, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Israel's wobbly friends in Europe and the U.S. are renewing their pressure on Jerusalem to "do something" about the "unsustainable" stalemate in the "peace process." As German Chancellor Angela Merkel scolded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "You haven't made a single step to advance peace."
Beyond Tanks Beyond Tanks
Monday, March 14, 2011 by Alex Joffe | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

Israel in the past has fought large-scale conventional wars in which infantry and tanks have squared off. It has also faced down terrorists who cross borders to blow up buses or hide themselves among civilians. The next wave is called hybrid warfare, blending (in the words of the military theorist Frank Hoffman) "the lethality of state conflict with the fanatical and protracted fervor of irregular warfare."
An Open Letter to the Arab Street An Open Letter to the Arab Street
Wednesday, March 9, 2011 by Benjamin Kerstein | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

First and foremost, congratulations. Even from our vantage point on the other side of a seemingly unbridgeable divide between our peoples, the extraordinary nature of what you have accomplished in recent weeks is obvious.
J Street’s Last Hurrah? J Street’s Last Hurrah?
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 by Elliot Jager | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features

In a little over three years, a liberal lobby calling itself "passionately and unapologetically pro-Israel" appears to have either supplanted or co-opted other likeminded groups on the Jewish Left—among them, Americans for Peace Now, the Israel Policy Forum, and the New Israel Fund.
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Editors' Picks
How Algeria Lost Its Jews Lyn Julius, Times of Israel. A new exhibit in Paris honors the Jews of Algeria—who, after 2,700 years in the country, were driven out by Arab attacks on Jewish property 50 years ago.
In Memory of a Friend Seth Mandel, Commentary. Senator Daniel Inouye, who died this week, was a decorated war hero, a champion of his state of Hawaii—and a stalwart and constant friend of Israel.
The Other Kindertransport Sarah Wildman, Forward. We know about the thousands of Jewish children sheltered in wartime Britain.  For 75 years, though, no one knew about the smaller group ferried to Denmark, Sweden, and Palestine.
The Enemy of My Enemy Jonathan D. Halevi, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad will install another regime hostile to Israel.  The difference is that this one will be even more hostile toward Iran.
Chuck Hagel's Jewish Problem Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal. Former Republican senator Chuck Hagel has encouraged talks with Hamas and Iran and is on record condemning the "Jewish lobby."  Now, he is a front-runner to become Defense Secretary.
The Paper Brigade Adam Soclof, JTA. When the Nazis occupied Vilna, they planned to destroy large numbers of Yiddish texts.  A group of Jewish scholars worked to save the books from destruction.
Amaziah's Revenge Glenn J. Corbett, Bible History Daily. In the Book of Chronicles, 10,000 Edomite captives were “dashed to pieces” when King Amaziah threw them from a mountaintop.  Is es-Sela in Jordan the site of the slaughter?
The Forgotten Refugees Michael Curtis, Gatestone Institute. Forty years ago, the United Nations admitted that Jews who fled from Arab countries are refugees. Since then, UN refugee agencies have done nothing for them.
Is the “Ugly Germany” Back? Dirk Kurbjuweit, Spiegel. Issues involving Nazism have dominated German politics this year.  “Why all this constant rehashing of Hitler, some ask?  But Hitler isn't the problem.  The problem is our society.”
Bankrolling Our Enemies Walter Russell Mead, Via Meadia. Without U.S. foreign aid, Egypt would collapse.  But Morsi, like Mubarak before him, will use that prospect to ensure that there are no conditions on how he spends the money.