Monthly Archives : January 2005

Menachem Mazuz vs. The Jewish People


Last Wednesday Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz did something unpardonable. He decided that the state can no longer abide by the law of the land. That law, the Basic Law for the Israel Lands Authority from 1960 provides the legal basis for the ILA's administration of both state-owned lands and lands owned by the JNF.   The law states that lands owned…

Read More »

Whither Israeli democracy?


In America, the Democratic Party is in a state of tumult following its defeat in last November's presidential and Congressional elections, as voters deepened Republican control over both the legislative and executive branches of the government.     Because in the US judges are appointed by the president and approved by the Senate, over time they inevitably reflect majority sentiment.…

Read More »

Today’s Jewish anti-Semites


In a recent poll, 62 percent of Germans said they were "sick of all the harping on about German crimes against the Jews." Two thirds of Germans said they believe Israel is waging "a war of extermination" against the Palestinians.   Jews often focus their attention on Holocaust sentiment among non-Jews to gauge anti-Semitic feelings. But while feelings about the…

Read More »

We must learn from America


Writing Tuesday in The Daily Telegraph, British military historian John Keegan compared the Palestinian terror war to the Iraqi insurgency. "What is going on in Iraq," Keegan writes, "resembles the second Palestinian intifada, though it is more intensive and better organized. It is also more difficult to counter, since the Western forces lack the detailed intelligence to which the Israeli…

Read More »

The wages of courage


New York Magazine published a long article this week outlining the dispute between pro-Israel students at Columbia University and the overwhelmingly pro-Arab professors in the university's Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures Department. The students allege that the department's professors promote the notion that Israel is a racist, terrorist state.   While the dispute has been simmering for years,…

Read More »

The demographic bomb is a dud


For the past generation, Israel has found itself engaged in post-modern warfare. Whereas Arab armies have proved themselves in five wars to be no match for the IDF on the battlefield, our enemies over the last 20 years, since the IDF withdrawal from most of Lebanon, have found that the most effective means of fighting Israel is on the post-modern…

Read More »

Abbas Wins Election to Succeed Arafat


Amid low turnout and allegations of vote fraud and voter abuse, Mahmoud Abbas, longtime associate of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, appeared to have won yesterday's vote to succeed Arafat as president of the Palestinian Authority. Exit polls placed his electoral majority at between 66% and 70% of the vote.   Mr. Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was Arafat's deputy…

Read More »

Avoiding civil war


In his testimony before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday, Shin Bet director Avi Dichter described some short-term threats inherent in carrying out Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to pull the IDF out of the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.     "In a situation where Israel is not in control of the Philadelphi corridor [which separates Gaza…

Read More »