After Bin Laden: Assassination, Terrorism, War and International Law (Second of Two Parts)

Posted on: February 2nd, 2012

“Everything in this world exudes crime,” says Baudelaire, “the newspapers, the walls, and the face of man.” But this “face” does not belong solely to what classic seventeenth-century international law scholar Hugo Grotius called “men of deplorable wickedness.”

Post-Bin Laden: Terror, War and Int’l Law (Part 1)

Posted on: January 26th, 2012

Everyone who has taught international law, or written about it, knows that the idea of crisis in actually inherent in the subject. More than anything else, this crisis, this continuing or protracted dilemma, is one of efficacy, of effectiveness.

Justifying Israeli Preemption Against Iran Under International Law

Posted on: January 20th, 2012

The following article by Professor Beres and Colonel (Israel Defense Forces) Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto was originally published in the April 18, 2007 issue of The Jewish Press. Its warnings and predictions concerning a nuclear Iran have been proven unassailable.

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Empathy, Suffering, And Human Survival: A Jewish Perspective

Posted on: January 11th, 2012

According to ancient Jewish tradition, one that certain Talmudists trace back to the time of Isaiah, the world rests upon thirty-six just men, the Lamed-Vav tzaddikim.

Political Scandal, Public Emptiness And America’s Soul

Posted on: December 29th, 2011

We have seen this movie before. Already, Herman Cain is off the front pages, but there will remain readily accessible political scandals to enjoy in the wings. Ironically, whatever the particulars of these chronic humiliations, all of them will commonly disclose far more serious shortcomings about their "audience" than about their subjects.

A State Won’t Turn Terrorists Into Statesmen

Posted on: December 21st, 2011

Even if the Palestinian Authority were to succeed with its strategy for incremental statehood at the United Nations, persisting expressions of violence against the innocent would still be terrorism.

Now That Iran Has Not Been Stopped…

Posted on: December 15th, 2011

“La commedia ė finita!” (“The comedy is finished!") – Pagliacci After so many unpardonable years of deception and self-delusion concerning Iranian nuclear intentions, the IAEA has confirmed the worst.

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Pain And Martyrdom After The Arab Spring

Posted on: December 8th, 2011

Soon, at least meteorologically, the Arab Spring will become an “Arab Winter. It will also be an apt change of metaphor. After all, from the standpoint of civilizational vulnerabilities to jihadist terror, nothing will have been improved.

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The UN, Palestinian Statehood And Jihadist Terror

Posted on: November 30th, 2011

Before the end of the year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though weakened by Hamas’s control of the recent Gilad Shalit deal with Israel, may still seek UN recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Israel And Its Enemies: Future Wars And Forceful Options (Third of Three Parts)

Posted on: November 23rd, 2011

Even if Iran and the Arab enemies of Israel were not in a declared condition of belligerence with the Jewish state, Israel's preemptive action could still be entirely law-enforcing.

Israel And Its Enemies: Future Wars And Forceful Options (Second of Three Parts)

Posted on: November 17th, 2011

At the conclusion of the recent [Editor’s Note: the first] Gulf War [Operation Desert Storm], the Bush administration announced plans to sell Saudi Arabia, a country of six million inhabitants, an arms package including over 500 tanks, 48 F-15 fighter planes, Apache helicopter gunships, more than 30 Patriot batteries, tens of thousands of armored vehicles, multiple rocket-launchers and command/control systems.

Israel And Its Enemies: Future Wars And Forceful Options (First of Three Parts)

Posted on: November 12th, 2011

As the continuing flow of new missiles to Iran reveals, the Bush administration [Editors Note: This refers to first President Bush] remains committed to misconceived policies in the Middle East. Even if Israel were to yield West Bank and Gaza to create a new state of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, the government in Tehran would persist in its planned aggressions against the Jewish state. Altogether unconcerned with the fate of the Palestinians, this government can be satisfied only by Israel's disappearance.

Learning From The Past: Some Current Implications Of An Earlier Indifference To Israel’s Basic Rights Under International Law

Posted on: October 26th, 2011

At a moment when Israel is under new daily assaults from the international community, especially from the Palestinian Authority and its oddly eager mentors at the United Nations, it is worth noting that there is a discernible and continuous pattern here of legal double-standards.

Hidden Truths, Deeper Meanings And Jewish Endurance In The Modern World

Posted on: October 18th, 2011

Israel, in the fashion of every nation, positively shrinks from annihilation. How could it be otherwise?

Israel and Palestine: Critical Intersections of Law and Strategy (Part II)

Posted on: October 16th, 2011

Generally, the Israeli is despised in the Islamic world because he or she is a Jew, a condition of presumed infirmity that can never be "remedied." Consider the following facts:

Israel And Palestine: Critical Intersections of Law and Strategy (Part I)

Posted on: October 5th, 2011

Oddly enough, even Shimon Peres, the unrelenting Israeli champion of a "two state solution" in the Middle East, initially identified Palestinian statehood as an existential threat to Israel. In his book, Tomorrow is Now (1978), Peres had warned: "The establishment of such a state means the inflow of combat-ready Palestinian forces into Judea and Samaria (West Bank); this force, together with the local youth, will double itself in a short time. It will not be short of weapons or other military equipment, and in a short space of time, an infrastructure for waging war will be set up in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip . In time of war, the frontiers of the Palestinian state will constitute an excellent staging point for mobile forces to mount attacks on infrastructure installations vital for Israel's existence ."

Obama, Netanyahu And Palestine: A Partnership In Futility And Dishonor

Posted on: September 27th, 2011

Bettelheim, like the Greek poet Homer, understands that the force that does not kill, that does not kill just yet, can turn a human being into stone, into a thing, even while it is still alive. Merely hanging ominously over the head of the vulnerable creature it can choose to kill at any moment, poised lasciviously to destroy breath in what it has somehow "graciously" allowed, if only for a few more moments, to breathe; this force indelicately mocks the fragile life it intends to consume.

Acknowledging National Mortality: Israel’s Ironic Imperative

Posted on: September 21st, 2011

Jorge Luis Borges, the very special Argentine writer and philosopher, sometimes quite happily identified himself as a sort of Jew. Although lacking any apparent basis in halacha, he nonetheless felt himself to be a deeply kindred spirit: "Many a time I think of myself as a Jew," he is quoted in Willis Barnstone's Borges at Eighty: Conversations (1982), "but I wonder whether I have the right to think so. It may be wishful thinking."

History, Crowds, And The Slow Death Of America

Posted on: September 14th, 2011

Sometimes, as I have asserted from time to time in this column, seeing requires distance. Now, suffocating daily in political and economic rants from both the Right and the Left, we Americans must promptly confront a critical need to look beyond the historical moment, to seek both meaning and truth behind the news. There, suitably distant from the endlessly adrenalized jumble of current fears and concerns, we could finally understand the timeless struggle of individual against mass, of the singular person against the "crowd."

Declaring ‘Palestine’ In The United Nations: Still-Hidden Risks of Mega Terror And Nuclear War

Posted on: September 7th, 2011

Declaring Palestine. It is a core issue for Israel that has come up in my columns before. But now, the enemy's operational tactics have been changed and fine-tuned. This month, Palestinian Authority leaders will seek formal creation of their independent state via the "good offices" of the United Nations.