Teaching The Arab Narrative

Posted on: May 17th, 2012

How does a state keep its capital city united? A strange question, and one that is clearly not an issue in most of the world. But in Israel, whose capital is the most coveted and contested city in the world, the problem is an acute one.

Stop Funding Tel Aviv University

Posted on: May 16th, 2012

One of Israel’s leading universities seems to have lost its way. In a move that is as incomprehensible as it is shameful, Tel Aviv University (TAU) agreed to allow a student group to hold a ceremony commemorating “Nakba Day,” when Palestinians bemoan the establishment of the state of Israel.

The New Challenge

Posted on: May 16th, 2012

Two weeks ago, in my weekly column on the NRG website, I wrote, “Nobody really understands why Israel is going to early elections.” So when I heard that the election merry-go-round had been cancelled, I was pleased.

Israeli Security, Enemy Rationality, And Coming Global Chaos (First of Two Parts)

Posted on: May 16th, 2012

In the past few years, on these pages of The Jewish Press, I have written several times about critical strategic implications of “chaos” and also of “irrationality” and “madness.” Still, I have never written about the fusion or juxtaposition of these seemingly distinct issues. However, because there are increasingly obvious and important potential interactions between them (military strategists would call such interactions “synergies,” or sometimes “force-multipliers”), I shall now examine these utterly core security matters with a view toward acknowledging their possible ways of coming together.

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

Posted on: May 16th, 2012

Money For Occupy’s DC Office Coming From Union Linked To Obama A labor union with strong ties to President Obama is paying for Occupy’s Washington DC office space inside a think-tank that is also heavily tied to the White House. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU ) is forking over $4,000 per month for three [...]

Reconsidering The People’s Army

Posted on: May 10th, 2012

The Knesset factions are pursuing legislation that will institute an equal draft into the IDF – but something is fishy. The New Israel Fund’s propaganda has made inroads, and it looks like the upcoming elections will focus on haredi-bashing.

Rationality, Irrationality, And Madness: Core Enemy Differences For Israeli Nuclear Deterrence (Third of Three Parts)

Posted on: May 9th, 2012

What, then, might be most important to Israel's prospectively irrational enemies, potentially even more important than their own physical survival as a state? One possible answer is the avoidance of certain forms of shame and humiliation. Another would be avoidance of the potentially unendurable charge that they had somehow defiled their most sacred religious obligations. Still another would be leaders' preferred avoidance of their own violent deaths, deaths that could be attributable to Israeli strategies of targeted killing and/or regime-targeting.

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

Posted on: May 9th, 2012

.Terrorists’ Memory Alive At Sports Tournament...John Bolton: Talks With Hamas Inevitable If Obama Reelected...Obama Official Doesn’t Recall His Own Writings

Rationality, Irrationality, And Madness: Core Enemy Differences For Israeli Nuclear Deterrence (Second of Three Parts)

Posted on: May 3rd, 2012

A "bolt-from-the-blue" CBN (chemical, biological or even nuclear) attack on Israel launched with the expectation of city-busting reprisals might not necessarily exhibit irrationality or madness. Within such an attacking state's particular ordering of preferences, any presumed religious obligation to annihilate the "Zionist Entity" could represent the overriding value.

Beware: Feiglinism Poised To Bring Peace

Posted on: May 2nd, 2012

This is how it works: A minister or MK who steps out of line – opposing the destruction of the Ulpana neighborhood, for example – is immediately accused of “Feiglinism.” It makes no difference if the accuser is Tzipi Livni or Ehud Barak. “This is simply terrible,” Kadima MK Nachman Shai explained on the afternoon news. “Feiglin determines the fate of the Likud MKs.”