A Memory Of Justice – Chrysler’s Decline And The Third Reich

Posted on: March 31st, 2004

There can be no justice without memory. In 1998, Chrysler entered into an ambitious merger agreement with Germany's Daimler-Benz. Since that time, its economic well-being has generally and persistently deteriorated. Most recently, Chrysler's woes of falling stock prices and shrinking cash reserves have been aggravated by widening product deficiencies and burgeoning vehicle recalls.

The David Haivri Case

Posted on: March 24th, 2004

Were it not for the evident seriousness of its implications, the David Haivri case would represent little more than the reduction to absurdity of a democratic country's legal system. Known popularly as the "T-Shirt Trial," the current court proceedings in Israel are based on an incident in which the defendant was charged with possession and distribution of a "publication" intended to incite racism.

The People In American Politics

Posted on: March 17th, 2004

Now that the primary season is seriously upon us, at least one claim is common to all of the candidates. No matter the differences between them, all of the political aspirants exhibit a fundamental populism. "I want to be the people's president" is their shared mantra. Indeed, for any of them to suggest otherwise would be far more than foolish; it would be downright blasphemous.

On The Difference Between Murderers And Freedom Fighters

Posted on: March 3rd, 2004

Moments after the latest bus bombing in Jerusalem this morning (January 29th), the group claiming responsibility, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, identified its action as an expression of "freedom fighting."

Israel’s Proposed Assassination Of Sheik Yassin: Targeted Killings Of Terrorist Leaders According To International Law

Posted on: February 25th, 2004

According to Zeev Boim, Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense, Israel plans to target Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of the deadly Hamas terror group. Boim authoritatively cites numerous acts of barbarism authorized by Yassin, with particular reference to Yassin's recent religious ruling allowing women to become suicide bombers.

Why Israel Needs Nuclear Weapons: A Response To Zeev Maoz

Posted on: February 18th, 2004

Israeli strategist Zeev Maoz, currently a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, has written a controversial article calling for Israel to disband its nuclear weapons program and to join with Arab states in the region to create a "nuclear-weapons- free-zone."

The ‘Geneva Initiative’ And Arab-Perpetrated Jewish Genocide: Nothing New Under The Sun

Posted on: February 11th, 2004

The so-called "Geneva Initiative" is merely the latest expression of Arab determination to "liquidate" (a commonly-used term in Arab documents about the "Zionist Entity") Israel. Although less explicit than usual, the Geneva refusal to fully renounce a Palestinian "Right of Return" means nothing less than a carefully-conceived plan for demographic as well as military measures in the ongoing war against Israel.

The ‘Geneva Initiative’ And Amnesty For Palestinian Terrorists

Posted on: February 4th, 2004

An essential element of all civilized legal systems is the fundamental rule of "No crime without a punishment." This principle, drawn originally from the law of Ancient Israel, is conspicuously codified in binding international law.

Prosecuting Saddam: Which Paths To Justice?

Posted on: January 28th, 2004

Under international law, Saddam Hussein is the quintessential Hostes Humani Generis, a "Common Enemy of Mankind." Prosecuting the former Iraqi dictator, therefore, would now appear to be a decidedly simple judicial matter.

Suicide Bombers In Macrocosm: The Intolerable Danger To Israel Of Irrational Nuclear Enemies

Posted on: January 14th, 2004

"Do you know what it means to find yourselves face to face with a madman?" asks Luigi Pirandello's Henry IV. "Madmen, lucky folk, construct without logic, or rather with a logic that flies like a feather."

Understanding America’s ‘Holiday Period’

Posted on: January 7th, 2004

As Americans, we Jews share with our fellow countrymen (more or less) certain portions of the annual "holiday period." Extending from the secular holidays of Thanksgiving to New Years, this span imposes on all the United States the breathless rhythm of a machine. Noisy and relentless, it is a rhythm associated in the popular imagination with enhanced reverence and spirituality, but in reality it produces a decidedly opposite effect.

Funding Evil

Posted on: January 1st, 2004

Terrorism requires funding. Without actually understanding the complex patterns by which terrorists systematically pay for their nefarious operations and personnel, the War On Terror would fail catastrophically.

Contradictions

Posted on: December 24th, 2003

Each time I get on an airplane, I am struck by contradictions. We are a species that can take tons of heavy metal and transform it into an instrument of travel, transporting millions of passengers at very high speeds from one place to another. At the same time, we are required to take off our shoes before being allowed to board the plane, not for reasons of civilized comfort, but rather to ensure that we are not about to destroy the aircraft.

Understanding Recession And Bear Markets A New American Perspective

Posted on: December 17th, 2003

Personal consumption drives our American economy. To uplift the financial markets and restore confidence on Wall Street and Main Street, everyone now wants the consumer to buy more. Without an aggressive expansion of consumer spending, corporate earnings will remain depressed, growth will stagnate, unemployment will increase, and stock values will decline even further. What then should we do?

“Sulam”: Special Needs For A Special Place In Israel

Posted on: December 10th, 2003

During the summer of 2002 I wrote hopefully in The Jewish Press about Sulam, a special education network in Jerusalem. At that time, I reminded my readers that as life had become increasingly difficult for Israelis in general, it had become even more difficult for the country's developmentally disadvantaged Jewish children.

Jewish Students On American College Campuses Face The ‘New’ Anti-Semitism

Posted on: December 5th, 2003

This past spring, I spoke at a synagogue in Skokie, IL. about the situation of Jewish students on our college campuses. As a professor at a large midwestern university who is faculty advisor to a pro-Israel organization (Israel Council at Purdue or ICAP), it wasn't difficult for me to identify the increasingly perilous circumstances of Jewish students.

Palestinian Terrorism Now Takes Barbarism To New Lows

Posted on: November 26th, 2003

On Rosh Hashana eve, at around 9:00 p.m. on September 26, a very heroic Palestinian "freedom fighter" knocked on the door of a trailer home in Negahot, where 30 religious families live quietly on two barren hilltops, and jubilantly murdered a seven-month-old girl.

Outliving The Road Map: What We Can Personally Do To Help Save Israel

Posted on: October 8th, 2003

I have been lecturing widely on the risks which the Road Map poses to Israel. Yet, whenever I complete my largely analytic examination of the issues, I am left with a vague feeling of discomfort - a feeling that I have left my audience without enough concrete recommendations for practical action. With this in mind, I now offer the following precise answers to the important question: "But what can I do personally to help save Israel?"