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.

War, Terror And Revolution: Israel’s Special Vulnerability to Chaos (Part II)

Posted on: August 31st, 2011

For Israel, the prime inheritor of Genesis, an expanding global chaos portends a very unusual, and also ironic, kind of fragility. A relentlessly beleaguered microstate, and always the individual Jew writ large, Israel could become the principal victim of international disorder. In view of the exceptionally far-reaching interrelatedness of all world politics, this could be true even if the actual precipitating events of war and terror would occur elsewhere.

U.S. Leaves Door Open For Internationalizing Jerusalem

Posted on: August 31st, 2011

Full gas in neutral. With nearly built-in enmity on the part of the U.S. to the most basic Israeli positions regarding Jerusalem, it is no wonder our efforts to keep Jerusalem continue to run up against so many obstacles.

War, Terror And Revolution: Israel’s Special Vulnerability to Chaos (Part I)

Posted on: August 25th, 2011

Continuing turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa signals important and potentially catastrophic transformations. For Israel, the greatest danger stems from the interpenetrating and largely unpredictable effects of war, terrorism and revolution in the region. In essence, these plainly destabilizing effects could spawn an unprecedented and historically unique kind of chaos.

Israel, Egypt And Palestinian ‘Demilitarization’: Some Unseen Perils Of Treaty Law

Posted on: August 17th, 2011

I am a professor of international law. In my columns, therefore, I focus from time to time on distinctly legal aspects of Israel's foreign relations. Nonetheless, I am always deeply attentive to examining these particular aspects within a genuinely realistic geopolitical or geostrategic context.

A Palestinian Exercise in Futility

Posted on: August 17th, 2011

Next month the Palestinian Authority is planning to seek United Nations recognition of its unilateral declaration of statehood.

The Foiling Of Another Islamic Attempt To Claim Jerusalem

Posted on: August 17th, 2011

The Islamic Waqf rests not in its efforts to rub out all Jewish connections to Jerusalem - so how can we even consider relaxing our efforts to keep the Holy City Jewish?

After Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation The Endless Futility Of Israel’s ‘Peace Process’ (Conclusion)

Posted on: August 10th, 2011

When on October 6, 1973, Egyptian and Syrian surprise attacks came dangerously close to jeopardizing Israel's survival, it was because of a monumental intelligence failure. Similarly, on January 18, 1991, the scream of air-raid sirens could be heard in every corner of Israel. The Iraqi Scuds that slammed through Tel Aviv and Haifa neighborhoods had caught the country, in the words of a former Israeli intelligence chief, "with its pants down." In the latter case, the only element that saved Israel was Iraq's notably ineffectual warheads. If they had not been so ineffectual, Israel could have suffered profoundly, if not existentially.

After Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation The Endless Futility Of Israel’s ‘Peace Process’ (Fourth Of Five Parts)

Posted on: August 3rd, 2011

Israel's persisting legal obligation to abrogate the Oslo Accords, as we have seen, stemmed from certain peremptory expectations of international law. Israel, however, also has substantial rights of abrogation here that bind its behavior apart from any such expectations. These particular rights derive from the basic doctrine of Rebus sic stantibus.

Some Thoughts On Israel’s Housing Crisis

Posted on: August 3rd, 2011

Who caused Israel's housing shortage? The Left. That sounds demagogic, but here's the reason why:

Islam’s Bonds Of Expediency With Jerusalem

Posted on: August 3rd, 2011

It's a well-known cliche that Jerusalem is "holy to the three main religions" - and in truth, it is not surprising. After all, the city was first holy to the Jews - and so it was inevitable that the rest of the world would ultimately jump on the bandwagon.

After Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation: The Endless Futility Of Israel’s Peace Process (Third of Five Parts)

Posted on: July 27th, 2011

The explicit application of codified restrictions of the laws of war to noninternational-armed conflicts dates back only as far as the four Geneva Conventions of 1949. Recalling, however, that more than treaties and conventions comprise the laws of war, it is also clear that the obligations of jus in bello (justice in war) comprise part of "the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations," and bind all categories of belligerents. Indeed, the Hague Convention IV of 1907 declares, in broad terms, that in the absence of a precisely published set of guidelines in humanitarian international law concerning "unforeseen cases," the preconventional sources of international law govern all belligerency.

After Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation: The Endless Futility Of Israel’s ‘Peace Process’ (Second of Five Parts)

Posted on: July 20th, 2011

The Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO have always been in violation of international law. Israel, therefore, has always been obligated to abrogate these non-treaty agreements. A comparable argument could be made regarding PLO/PA obligations, but this would make little jurisprudential sense in light of that non-state party's antecedent incapacity to enter into any equal legal arrangement with Israel.

It’s Not About Freedom Of Torah Thought

Posted on: July 20th, 2011

When the recent spontaneous protests against the arrests of Rabbis Dov Lior and Yaakov Yosef gave way to official spin, the provocative initiators from the Attorney General's office likely breathed a sigh of relief. Once again, the "enemy" had painted himself into a patently irrelevant corner, and the partisan justice system - growing public disgust with it notwithstanding - remained the only show in town.

Fire In Jerusalem

Posted on: July 20th, 2011

Many unanswered questions remain surrounding the fire that broke out in the Jerusalem Forest on Sunday, burning 40 acres and sending four people to the hospital.

After Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation The Endless Futility Of Israel’s ‘Peace Process’ (A Column in Five Parts)

Posted on: July 13th, 2011

At the end of April 2011, the Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Hamas reached a formal reconciliation and unification agreement. At that time, Hamas leader Mahmoud Azhar carefully noted the still-unchanged Hamas platform - "no recognition of Israel, and no negotiation." To be sure, this refractory position will become the de jure and/or de facto position of Fatah as well.

Rabbi Lior And The ‘Rule Of Law’

Posted on: July 13th, 2011

Approximately a year ago, Rabbi Dov Lior, venerated chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba, gave his approbation on a book about the Jewish laws of war, The King's Torah, written by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira. Among other issues, the book deals with the legal ramifications of the Israeli army taking action to kill terrorists even when enemy civilians may also be killed in the process.

A Homecoming For A Lost Tribe Of Israel

Posted on: July 13th, 2011

In the farthest reaches of northeastern India, a long-lost community is about to fulfill its age-old dream of returning to its ancient homeland, the land of Israel.

A Nuclear Iran: What, Finally, Is To Be Done? (Second Of Two Parts)

Posted on: July 7th, 2011

After suffering anyenemy nuclear aggression, Israel wouldcertainly respond with a nuclear retaliatory strike. Although nothing is publicly known about Israel's precise targeting doctrine, such a reprisal would most likely be launched against the aggressor's capital city, and/or against similarly high-value urban targets. Understandably, there would be no assurances, in response to this sort of plainly genocidal aggression, that Israel would in any way limit itself to striking back against exclusively military targets.

Al-Quds? Jerusalem? No, Yerushalayim

Posted on: July 7th, 2011

Israel has taken a significant step this week toward enhancing the Jewish national character of the country. The Cabinet voted to appoint a ministerial committee to approve a uniform Hebrew naming system - not Arabic, not English - for all Jewish locations in the country.