Israel
July 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal’s Global View columnist Walter Russell Mead wrote an excellent column for us on his interest in the subject of his new book, The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People. Having spoken with Walter in his office in 2015, I vividly remember his discussion of American attitudes toward the Middle East. He was finishing God and Gold: Britain,
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July 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Walter Russell Mead is the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College and the Wall Street Journal’s Global View columnist. He is the author of Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (2002), perhaps the most important foreign policy book of the past 25 years, and, most recently, The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of
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July 2, 2022 — Scott Johnson
President Biden wants to run another shift of the printing press and shake the money tree to “plan for the next pandemic.” Say what? “There’s going to be another pandemic,” he added. “We have to think ahead.” We have to think ahead to the post-Biden era. That’s my thought. How did the public health authorities perform during the Covid pandemic anyway? Assessing Israel’s experience, Professor Ehud Qimron bluntly advises the
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June 19, 2022 — Steven Hayward
It is very likely the case that the next major war has started. No—I don’t mean the Russia-Ukraine War, which could yet spread to the rest of Europe if we’re unlucky. I mean the Israel-Iran War. It has been said that Israel and Iran have been at open war for some time now. (Actually, Iran and the U.S. have likewise been at war since 1979, though don’t tell John Kerry.)
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June 16, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby has written a valuable and scrupulously detailed column exploring the handiwork of BDS Boston in “A roadmap for Jew-haters.” You may not have heard much about the roadmap. The news would have been blasted around the world and repeated for days on end if some American minority group other than Jews were the subject of the map. The derangement it manifests is familiar to Power
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May 23, 2022 — Scott Johnson
IRGC Colonel Hassan Sayad Khodayari was assassinated yesterday Sunday in broad daylight outside his home by two men on a motorcycle who rode off into the sunset. Iran blamed the assassination on “elements linked to the global arrogance,” which the Times of Israel’s story translates as “the term for the United States and its allies including Israel.” I think Iran is fingering Israel, but they don’t want to let the
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May 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Alegemeiner has published Alan Dershowitz’s column responding to the Harvard Crimson’s pro-BDS editorial “in support of a free Palestine.” It turns out that Dershowitz’s column was to be published in the Crimson itself, but editorial minds at the Crimson are confused or clouded, as one might infer from the editorial itself. The Algemeiner includes this explanatory preface by Professor Dershowitz (link to the Crimson editorial omitted): On April 30,
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March 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The AP reports on the message from the mullahs that landed in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan province: “Iran has claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck early Sunday near a sprawling U.S. consulate complex in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, saying it was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two members of its Revolutionary Guard….Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said on its website that it launched the
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February 3, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Robert S. Wistrich was the Neuburger Professor of European and Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the director of the university’s Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Anti-Semitism. He may also have been the leading academic authority on anti-Semitism. Witness his histories A Lethal Obsession: Anti-Semitism From Antiquity to the Global Jihad (2010) and From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, The Jews and Israel (2012).
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January 20, 2022 — Paul Mirengoff
Joe Biden has withdrawn U.S. support for a pipeline project designed to deliver Israeli natural gas to Europe. Biden thereby reverses a decision made by the Trump administration. The Biden administration tried to justify the reversal of U.S. policy on the basis of its interest in “renewable energy.” But the obvious effect of the decision is to strengthen the stranglehold Russia has on Europe’s energy supply. In this regard, it’s
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January 9, 2022 — John Hinderaker
Last October, the New York Times printed a review of a book about Henry Kissinger by Martin Indyk. The review was titled Henry Kissinger and the Puzzle of the Middle East. The Times piece was updated two months later, on December 22, and was corrected today: A review on Dec. 19 about “Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy,” by Martin Indyk, referred imprecisely
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December 15, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
The paper edition headline to this Washington Post article is “Trump’s outburst over Netanyahu shocks allies.” I wrote about that outburst here. Why is anyone shocked that Trump said what he said? The outburst is vintage Trump. Netanyahu is the umpteenth former ally Trump has thrown under the bus for “disloyalty.” Trump’s absurd claim that he prevented the destruction of Israel is fully consistent with his “I alone can fix
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December 12, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s not a scoop to say that Donald Trump’s opinions about individuals, including whether to support or denigrate them, are based almost entirely on how the individuals in question have treated Donald Trump. Nor is it a scoop to say that Trump’s view of how individuals have treated him is based these days almost entirely on whether they embrace his unsupported claim that he won the 2020 election. Benjamin Netanyahu
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December 2, 2021 — Scott Johnson
Within tacit limits, President Biden attacked anti-Jewish bigotry in his remarks “During a Menorah Lighting in Celebration of Hanukkah.” Nary a word, however, about the genocidal Iranian regime, which the administration seeks avidly to appease and accommodate, or about the anti-Jewish and anti-historical “Jerusalem” resolution passed by the United Nations General Assembly yesterday. The Jerusalem Post covers the “Jerusalem” resolution here. The UN covers it here. UN Watch covers it
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October 10, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
Ruth R. Wisse is a leading scholar of Yiddish literature. To many conservatives, she is best known for her frequent contributions to Commentary magazine. Wisse has published her memoir. The book is called Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation. Cynthia Ozick, Wisse’s fellow Commentary comrade-in-arms, calls the book an “intellectual autobiography. . .of profound moral force and scathing political discernment.” I agree. The book begins with
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October 1, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
When I attended college in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I viewed Oberlin College as a model for what a radicalized campus should be. After John and I braved a snow storm to visit Oberlin for a debate tournament, my impression was confirmed. Oberlin was in the vanguard. These days, that position must be difficult to maintain, but Oberlin is trying hard not to lose it. There was the
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September 30, 2021 — Paul Mirengoff
This pathetic: She can’t even speak to a small group of college students without revealing her anti-Israel views and giving aid and comfort to our enemies. From now on, Harris’ public appearances should be limited to ribbon cuttings (if they still have them). Iran quickly seized on Harris’ statement that the view of Israel as genocidal is one version of the truth. According to Fox News: An Iran state media
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