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.

The Holiest Week Of The Omer

Posted on: May 9th, 2012

My father had gone to the hospital to get a simple procedure to clear the arteries. The procedure failed and the doctor made a terrible mistake in what he did next. The botched effort caused my dad to have not one but two heart attacks.

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

Khaled Abu Toameh: How Journalists Allowed the Palestinian Authority to Fool Them

Posted on: May 9th, 2012

If the Western journalists and donors continue to ignore the reality on the ground, the West Bank could soon fall into the hands of gangsters and armed clans, as has been the case in Jenin -- among the main reasons the Palestinian Authority collapsed in the Gaza Strip in 2007, speeding the rise of Hamas to power.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: President Obama Does a Bin Laden End Zone Dance

Posted on: May 8th, 2012

Tied as we are in Martin Luther King's 'single garment of destiny' where 'whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly,' courageous soldiers of the US military are forced to engage in war so that the rest of us might live in peace, to stain their hands so that our future might be clear. We do not gloat over the death of evil since its very existence must be mourned.

Khaled Abu Toameh: What the Palestinians Want

Posted on: May 4th, 2012

As far as most Palestinians are concerned, the "friend of my enemy is my enemy." Palestinians hate the US because of its continued support for Israel. The Palestinians want the US to endorse all their demands and force Israel to give them everything. As one of the leaders of a recent anti-US demonstration explained, "The US will remain our enemy for as long as it does not fully support the Palestinians."

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.”

Quick Takes: News You May Have Missed

Posted on: May 2nd, 2012

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Khaled Abu Toameh: How The Palestinian Authority Fights Corruption

Posted on: May 2nd, 2012

Instead of going after top officials suspected of embezzling public funds and abusing their powers, the Palestinian Authority government has chosen to wage an unprecedented clampdown on those who dare to raise their voices in support of transparency and freedom of speech.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: Savaging the Bible Over Homosexuality

Posted on: May 2nd, 2012

The Bible consists of 613 commandments, one of which is for a man to marry and have children, and the other is for a man to avoid gay sex with another man. That leaves 611 commandments for gay men to observe. That should keep them pretty busy. Homosexuality should be treated like lighting fire on the Sabbath or eating non-kosher foods, both Biblical prohibitions

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach: A Warrior-Scholar Falls in Israel – The Death of Benzion Netanyahu

Posted on: May 1st, 2012

In the time that I spent with Professor Benzion Netanyahu, I discerned a Jewish nationalist of phenomenal determination. Zionism was in his DNA and I have rarely met a more passionate Jewish patriot or a prouder Jew. He had a sweeping view of history and could clearly argue the precarious state of the Jewish people throughout time.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Pro-Palestinian or Anti-Israel?

Posted on: April 27th, 2012

Anti-Israel messages and campaigns serve only the radicals in this region who do not want either peace or coexistence. The time has come for the emergence of a genuine pro-Palestinian camp in the West that would focus less on Israel and more on helping the Palestinians.

Striking Iran And The U.S.-Israel Relationship

Posted on: April 26th, 2012

Recent warnings by President Obama to Israel against an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities are reminiscent of the period prior to the 1967 Six-Day War. Then, as now, Israel was faced with an existential threat. Then, as now, the U.S. pressured Israel not to take action.

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

Posted on: April 26th, 2012

Over the years, in several of my columns in The Jewish Press, I have examined the critical bases of Israeli nuclear deterrence. Recently, in consequence of the growing threat of Iranian nuclearization, increasing attention has been directed toward pertinent issues of enemy rationality. With this in mind, the following three-part column will seek to explain the impact of "irrationality" on Israel's deterrence posture, and also the vital differences between prospective Iranian irrationality and "madness."

An American Odyssey (Part 9)

Posted on: April 25th, 2012

On Sunday morning, after breakfast at the Elite Café, we loaded the van, filled the gas tank and travelled the famous Route #1 from Los Angeles toward San Francisco, along the Pacific Ocean coast. It was the 4th of July weekend and the narrow route was crowded with miles of RV’s, campers and fellow travelers. Traffic was a bit slow along the way.

Where Is The Tzaddik? Look In The Mirror!

Posted on: April 25th, 2012

I’d like to offer the following question: At the Pesach Seder we read about the four sons – the wise, the wicked, the simple and the one who does not know how to ask – but where is the righteous son, the tzaddik?

Israel’s Jerusalem Sovereignty Again In Danger?

Posted on: April 25th, 2012

A brief review of Jerusalem's police blotter for recent days looks like this: * April 2: Haredi man, 55, is axed by Arab terrorist near Shaar Shechem (Damascus Gate); lightly wounded. * April 15: Seven Molotov cocktails are hurled at Jewish homes in Maaleh Zeitim, causing a fire in one of them. * April 19: Young worshipper on his way from Shimon HaTzaddik to Meah She'arim is stabbed by two Palestinian terrorists (moderate wound).

Quick Takes: New You May Have Missed

Posted on: April 25th, 2012

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Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Authority Radicalizing Palestinians, Dragging Them Toward War

Posted on: April 23rd, 2012

In yet another sign of how the Palestinian Authority is radicalizing Palestinians and eventually dragging them toward another confrontation with Israel, the Palestinian Authority issued an order banning Palestinians from making direct contact with Israeli authorities in the West Bank on the same day that two Palestinian officials met in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu,