A “Palestinian State” as a Prize for Antisemites and Other Absurdities of Our Times
In April and early May 2024, four Latin American states—St. Kitts and Nevis, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Bahamas—officially recognized the Palestinian Authority (PA) as an independent state. On May 28, they were followed by three EU members—Ireland, Spain and Norway—which were joined a week later by Slovenia. Two weeks after that Armenia […]
Antisemitism and the Islamophobia Libel
Very often, when the leaders of our various institutions address the problem of antisemitism, they are quick to invoke the dangers of Islamophobia, as if it were on a par with centuries-old antisemitism. In an audit of antisemitic incidents in 2019, the Anti-Defamation League makes little mention of Students for Justice in Palestine, the Boycott, […]
India and Israel: The Need for a Nuanced Understanding
In the post-WWII bipolar world order, two countries emerged facing similar problems – India (1947) and Israel (1948). Both had to fight wars immediately. While for India it was about the accession of a territory (Kashmir), for Israel it was about survival, following an attack by seven Arab nations (Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, […]
International Human Rights Law Needs a Review
In 1998, a diverse group of South African professionals/public servants (myself included) spent a year studying International Human Rights Law at the Raoul Wallenberg institute at the University of Lund, in Sweden. This was a partnership between the Centre for Human Rights and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. The last part of the course was hosted […]
Realism and Morality: What Is Really Stopping a Forever Ceasefire?
A point of principle and a forever war A number of commentators on the conflict in what was for centuries called the region of Palestine cast it in terms of a forever war. After all, it has been going on for more than a hundred years, which certainly seems like forever. It started when the […]
False Witness: What the Israel-Hamas War Teaches Us About Defining Antisemitism
While Hamas terrorists were still massacring “peacenik” kibbutz-members, young people dancing in the desert, and farmers in Israel’s arid South on October 7, 2023, American newspapers and media worried loudly about the evils of Israel’s retaliation. Hamas videos of terrorists in action revealed: “terrorists torturing a pregnant woman and removing her fetus,” and “bodies of […]
Terrorism Denial on Campus
The issue of terrorism and its impact on students on university and college campuses is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon. While campuses are meant to be hubs of intellectual discourse and diversity, they can also become breeding grounds for radicalization or platforms for the expression of extremist ideologies. This is particularly evident in American campuses […]
Antisemitism in FSU in 2023 Vis-à-vis the World Trends
The current war in the Middle East has already had, and will obviously still have, a variety of consequences. For example, it seems that media coverage of the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) counter-terrorism operation Swords of Iron in the Gaza Strip has much to offer in terms of putting an end to one of the […]
New Approaches to Combatting Antisemitism
This is not your usual discussion of antisemitism. It’s hard to know what to do about it as an American Jew. This is because the prevalence of antisemitism is rising, most of what has been tried before has not worked and is not working, and more of the same failed ideas are being promulgated. It […]
The “Merah Affair”: The “Sea Change” in Islamism’s Terror Footprint to Holy Jihad in France
On December 16, 2020, a panel of French judges found all 14 defendants guilty of involvement in the 2015 attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris. As reported by James McAuley of the Washington Post, the long-awaited verdict followed a three-month trial that captivated the French public even […]