Norman Podhoretz first traveled to Israel in 1950, when he was 20 years old. He visited a cousin who decided to pay tribute to his relative from America by saving up two eggs and serving them soft-boiled. Podhoretz, who loathed nothing more than soft-boiled eggs, ate them with a smile.
In the decades that followed, Podhoretz’s commitment to Israel would...
In light of Israel’s recent military operations against Iran’s military expansion in Syria, comprising strikes against strategic Iranian and Syrian targets such as Iran-controlled airfields, missile bases and drone bases, Iran now faces a strategic question: whether or not to respond to these attacks, when doing so could lead to all-out conflict with Israel.
Iran’s long-term goal in Syria is...
With Israel’s Independence Day, the battle of the narratives over Israel’s creation begins anew with mainstream Muslim Israeli Arabs remaining highly critical of the state, despite living standards that dwarf those in Arab states bordering Israel, such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.
Yet with with the rise of Islamists and the persecution of minorities, especially Christians, in the region...
“Support Israel in every way you possibly can. Get people to understand Israel’s tremendous contributions to humanity,” said Lester Crown in a 2015 interview.
In outlining his devotion to Israel, Crown was not merely expressing a personal preference, but a long and distinguished family tradition of engagement and principled commitment to the Jewish state.
Lester’s mother, Rebecca, was active in Hadassah;...
Tom Lantos’s mother was one of 440,000 Hungarian Jews killed by the Nazis. Lantos joined the anti-Nazi underground and survived. But when he learned of her death, he was not embittered. He remained positive with an engaging personality, enabling him to befriend people of all backgrounds and views. “,” remarked his friend Elie Wiesel, “saw his survival from the...
LANSING, Michigan — Today, I come not just to mourn nor to scorn but rather to warn our world, that is, the world of today whose memories are still whistling and bristling with the torments and tribulations of a generation now passing before our eyes. But also, for the world of tomorrow — and the day after — pulsed...
Nullum crimen sine poena, "No crime without a punishment."
(Ancient principle of law reaffirmed at the Nuremberg Trials)
For the most part, a military response to the recent Syrian chemical attacks at Douma was obligatory under the authoritative international law. The system of world law as originally established under the Peace of Westphalia (1648) is largely based on "self-help." This system of "self-help"...
Elie Wiesel was great not because of his prodigious talents as a writer or his profound wisdom as a thinker. He was great not because of his sublime character, which combined the dignity of nobility with the humility of a person of the deepest faith. Elie Wiesel was certainly all of these things. But what made him truly great...
Ben Hecht was a prolific journalist, novelist and playwright. He was one of Hollywood’s most sought-out and successful screenwriters, with many of his creations now considered classics.
Hecht’s life took a sharp turn in 1941 when he met Peter Bergson, a central figure in the history of Zionism. Born Hillel Kook (nephew of the famed Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook), Bergson...
It’s hard to say for sure whether the following fable was really told in the Warsaw Ghetto, but it’s grimly funny enough to warrant repeating.
The story goes that at the height of World War II, Winston Churchill consulted with the Chassidic Rabbi of Gur about the best way of bringing down Nazi Germany. The rabbi told the British wartime...
