Why Israel Should Not Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons: An Informed Response To Obama Adviser, Joseph Cirincione (Part IV)

Posted on: June 18th, 2008

We have seen that, among several other essential purposes, Israel could conceivably need nuclear weapons for nuclear war fighting.

Why Israel Should Not Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons: An Informed Response to Obama Adviser, Joseph Cirincione (Part III)

Posted on: June 12th, 2008

We have seen that, among other purposes, Israel needs nuclear weapons to undertake and/or to support various forms of preemption.

Why Israel Should Not Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons: An Informed Response To Obama Adviser, Joseph Cirincione (Part II)

Posted on: June 4th, 2008

We have seen (in last week's list of reasons, numbers 1 and 2) that Israel needs nuclear weapons, among other purposes, to deter large conventional attacks and all levels of unconventional attack by enemy states.

Why Israel Should Not Give Up Its Nuclear Weapons: An Informed Response To Obama Adviser Joseph Cirincione (Part I)

Posted on: May 28th, 2008

According to a May 1, 2008 article by Aaron Klein in WorldNetDaily, Joseph Cirincione, director of nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress, and an adviser on nuclear issues to Senator Barack Obama, has essentially urged Israel to give up its nuclear weapons.

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Barack Obama And The Middle East ‘Cycle Of Violence’

Posted on: May 7th, 2008

Senator Barak Obama has displayed basic intelligence and understanding on many complex policy issues, and his "debate promises" in support of Israel were forthright and plausibly meaningful.

Redeeming America’s Soul… Not By Presidential Elections

Posted on: April 30th, 2008

Every four years America looks to a new president as a source of real hope. And every four years the code word of each yelling aspirant is "change."

When The Ship Of State Comes Apart: On Israel, Horatian Metaphor And The Post- ‘Palestine’ Middle East

Posted on: April 23rd, 2008

Horace was born in 65 BCE, and died in 8 BCE. His ode (I, 14) on the "Ship of State" pertains to ancient Rome, but it might just as well refer to Israel after "Palestine".

Can Israel Slay Clocks? Understanding Chronology Of War And Terror In The Middle East (Conclusion)

Posted on: April 16th, 2008

Protecting Israel from terrorism is, at least in part, an intellectual task. Let us, therefore, now think very deliberately about terrorism.

Can Israel Slay Clocks? Understanding Chronology Of War And Terror In The Middle East (Part One)

Posted on: April 9th, 2008

Over the years, regular readers of my column in The Jewish Press may have noticed a continuing regard for the concept of time.

After Yeshiva Mercaz HaRav Kook: Understanding The Horribly Human Face Of Arab Terror

Posted on: April 2nd, 2008

Pain can sometimes be sanitized by language, but it can never be truly anesthetized.

Still Facing Existential Threats: Nuclear War And Genocide In The Middle East (Part Two)

Posted on: March 26th, 2008

Facing imminent existential attacks, Israel could decide to preempt enemy aggression with conventional forces.

Still Facing Existential Threats: Nuclear War And Genocide In The Middle East (Part One)

Posted on: March 19th, 2008

"In a dark time," says the poet Theodore Roethke, "the eye begins to see." Today, with improving sight, the Iranian nuclear threat should remain bright in our visual field. Despite a recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) that effectively supports Tehran's multiple lies and deceptions, this unconventional threat remains existential. It follows that an Israeli and/or American preemptive strike against certain Iranian nuclear assets and infrastructures should still not be ruled out.

The Terror Outside And The Terror Within

Posted on: March 12th, 2008

My readers in The Jewish Press are accustomed to reading my articles on timely strategic and jurisprudential issues. For the most part, these columns have explored various dangers of terrorism, war and genocide. But sometimes we are imperiled by a very different sort of terror. There is, of course, the "usual" threat of terror violence (the terror "outside"), but there is also a serious specter of interior terror that arises from our willful abandonment of individuality (the terror "within").

After Annapolis: Israeli Rights, Arab/Islamic Anti-Semitism And International Law (Conclusion)

Posted on: February 27th, 2008

Some years ago, following one of the devastating suicide bombings in which small Jewish children were blown to bits, prominent Palestinian columnist Fahd al-Rimawi - then writing with obvious approval of Nobel Peace laureate Yassir Arafat in Amman's al-Majd newspaper, gleefully celebrated the monstrous act of terror:

After Annapolis: Israeli Rights, Arab/Islamic Anti-Semitism And International Law (Part I)

Posted on: February 20th, 2008

The recent Annapolis "peace" conference - and President Bush's subsequent visit to the Middle East - shows that where Israel is concerned, there is still nothing new under the sun. Once again, fundamental Israeli rights were shamelessly subordinated to the presumed rights of all others, including even of openly Arab defiant terrorists now conveniently disguised as an "Authority." Once again, it seems, Israel had been called upon to offer land for nothing.

Understanding Gaza: Pain And Perfidy Under International Law

Posted on: February 13th, 2008

It is easy to feel sorry for the Palestinians in Gaza. Televised and print images of their apparently unrelieved misery suggest Israeli cruelty in the creation of shortages and in the use of armed force. Exactly the opposite is true. The moment that flagrantly illegal Hamas rocket attacks upon Israeli noncombatants cease, no harms of any kind will be imposed by Israel.

Well, Dear Candidates, Which Is It? A Tactical War On Terror, Or A Genuine Clash Of Civilizations?

Posted on: February 6th, 2008

From a national survival standpoint, the candidate debates remain pretty much beside the point. Not a single presidential aspirant has answered (or even attempted to answer) a very important question: Are we Americans now involved in a merely tactical struggle against particular terror groups and individuals, or are we, instead, embroiled in something much larger? Should we now be focusing on assorted political, military and logistical issues (the effective position, more or less, of all candidates), or upon the much wider religious and cultural context from which our principal terror enemies are spawned?

Living Amid Absurdity: Israel As Tragic Hero (Conclusion)

Posted on: January 30th, 2008

For Jews, free will must always be oriented toward life, to the blessing, not to the curse. Our binding charge is to strive in this obligatory direction of individual and collective self-preservation by using our intelligence and by exercising our essentially disciplined acts of will. In circumstances where such striving is consciously rejected, the outcome - however catastrophic - can never rise to the dignified level of tragedy.

Living Amid Absurdity: Israel As Tragic Hero (Part One)

Posted on: January 23rd, 2008

True life, it seems, can never be brought purposefully before the judgment seat of Reason. Much as we might wish it were otherwise, absurd narratives now best mirror the deteriorating situation of life on earth. Still living an elaborate pantomime of right and wrong, justice and punishment, we humans desperately want the unfolding world-drama to develop with both fairness and sensibility. Generally, we witness something quite different.

The More Things Change… On Fighting A Terrorist Enemy Who Still ‘Loves Death’

Posted on: January 16th, 2008

Notwithstanding all of the alleged "progress" in combating Islamist terrorism, our leaders have yet to really understand the core Jihadist rallying cry. "We love death," the murderers shout ecstatically - and they always shout in chorus, for terrorism is a collective activity - but we seem to think this apparent necrophilia is merely perverse, that operationally it is beside the point. No judgment could be further from the truth. In fact, correctly interpreting this openly lurid affection is ultimately the key to fashioning a genuinely effective strategy of counter-terrorism.