Israel

The Dispensability of Allies by George Friedman — probably the only required reading on President Trump’s upcoming visit to the Middle East, even if it is rather dismal.

A modest photoblog of a 5-day trip across Israel by Daniel Tchetchik, Haaretz Photography Blog editor.

Albeit behind Iran, Israel squeaks onto Walter Russell Mead’s list of the Great Eight Powers of 2017. It’s amazing that only one European country makes it here.

Good point, yes. If under Trump it’s between the symbol of a U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem or the reality of continued building throughout the city—as it may well come down to—then the choice is clear, writes Nadav Shragai.

Thank you, Evelyn Gordon, for providing some clarity for those now afar over why so many Israelis are supporting Elor Azaria, convicted of manslaughter for killing subdued terrorist Abed al-Fattah al-Sharif.

The New York Times attempts to embarrass Trump’s new appointment by linking to eight of incoming American Ambassador to Israel David Friedman’s columns in Arutz Sheva as if his words alone are enough to horrify. I for one though agree with everything he writes in these, except perhaps in “Time to Regroup on Iran” where he suggests hitting Hamas harder — not sure about that. I’m with him on J Street, and there’s great stuff on what he dubs the two-state narrative.

In this report on Ryanair’s service between Budapest and Eilat, anna.aero lists the low-cost airlines flying to Israel. All the others fly to Ben-Gurion. So that’s Eilat to Budapest in February roundtrip for 85€!!!

In Commentary Magazine Lazar Bergman summarizes Netanyahu’s cautious, patient geopolitical successes. And in the same issue, this more biographical piece by Seth Mandel.

An inviting tour of the Hebrew writer’s oeuvre as Shai Agnon is translated into English. [via aldaily.com]

Slant Magazine attends the 2016 Jerusalem Film Festival, witnessing the audience versus Miri Regev, Minister of Culture & Sport.

As part of a series of articles on Israel in Foreign Affairs, Aluf Benn worries from the center-Left about crumbling social and political norms while Martin Kramer expresses satisfaction about ever-strengthening strategic might [requires registration, only 1 free article].

Nice piece on poetic military language with examples from the Israeli, American and British experiences.

The Weekly Standard visits Jerusalem’s new Shalem liberal arts college.

A sweeping reminder to anxious Israelis from Edward Luttwak that it’s always been worse than it is today. All cheerleading aside, I say to all citizens at home and abroad: when someone is providing a service, look at their faces. Maybe even smile. Say thank you. Please.

An excerpt from Dennis Ross’s book about US-Israel relations. This all seems believable, and fascinating as well.

The tale of USA vs Israel on Iran.

“Israel is wrong in shirking responsibility for the consequences of its actions and in laying them at Hamas’ door,” writes B’Tselem. “Israel and Hamas are each responsible for their own actions.” This should be self-evident.

“Even a just war should be supported unfeverishly.” Leon Wieseltier articulates my own disquiet. “A provocation does not relieve one of accountability for how one responds to it.”

Not only isn’t the Israel Broadcasting Association listing the names of the child fatalities from the Gaza bombings but refusing to let B’Tselem pay for an ad doing so. And the Attorney General has upheld the decision. This seems to me a mistake. We must fully own these deeds.

Read this serious analysis of the conflict in Gaza so far by Amos Yadlin, director of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies.

In case it’s of interest/relevance, a translation of Hamas’s charter.

Nahum Barnea tells us more than we knew before about Hamas’s tunnels and how Israel chose to ignore them to date. It is thoughtful, analytic, regretful pieces like this that give me hope.

Some strategic implications for Israel of Hamas’s tunnels and rockets by JCPA.

An enquiry into one of Egyptians’ psychic scourges: conspiracist anti-Semitism.

Beyond bracin’, stormin’ Norman Podhoretz eviscerates the Palestinian position in the wake of the Kerry talks collapse.

Jonathan Spyer bracingly articulates the Right’s two fundamental arguments for the inevitability of the failure of John Kerry’s Israeli-Palestinian talks.

Dore Gold recounts Iran’s first ‘charm offensive’: its use of the tactic of khod’eh, ie, “tricking one’s enemy into a misjudgment of one’s true position”, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini waged a successful deception campaign from exile in Paris.

David Horovitz interviews Yossi Klein Halevi about his new book, Like Dreamers: The story of the Israeli Paratroopers who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation. The friendship between these two gifted greying Anglo-Israelis is warming.

Leon R. Kass on The Ten Commandments is the opening essay at the new http://mosaicmagazine.com.

Devising tailor-made rules of international law for application only where Israel is concerned undermines international law and can have an insidious and corrosive effect on the rule of law in general.

Sorry, but more David P. Goldman, this time at Tablet with “Dumb and Dumber” (not his title) on recent US Middle East policy. He begins: “Errors by the party in power can get America into trouble; real catastrophes require consensus.” Like liberals, neocons got mugged by reality.

Peres and the Pope as covered by the Voice of America (Reuters). This meeting has not gotten much coverage.

Australian-born himself, rising Israeli statesman Tal Becker does the regional lowdown at the Lowy Institute.

Bracing clarity from Krauthammer on the meaning of Obama’s visit to Jerusalem.

Jeffrey Goldberg imagines what Obama would really like to be doing on his visit to Israel.

Welshman Tom Doran explains why, as a liberal secular humanist, he must stand up for Israel.

“The Bashar al-Assad regime commits atrocities that are designed to be unforgivable,” Spengler postulates, “in order to persuade their base to fight to the end.” His conclusion? “Let the Alawites have their enclave, and let the Sunni Arabs have a rump state, minus the Syrian Kurds, whose autonomy would be an important step towards an eventual Kurdish state.” Me, I’d be willing to wager just three things about the Middle East in 50 years: there will be Israel, there will be Kurdistan, and there will be Arabs. PS — Doesn’t Goldman look like Gary Oldman playing James Baker III?

Dense, readable, utterly informed, worth re-reading almost as if literary: “How to End the War in Gaza: What an Egypt-Brokered Cease-Fire Should Look Like” by the inestimable Ehud Yaari (now requires registration).

Walter Russell Mead explains why Americans tend to view Israel’s actions so differently than does the rest of the world. In brief: “In America, war is not a sport.”

Gershon Baskin, the man who negotiated Gilad Shalit’s release, writes in the New York Times that he believes it was a mistake for Israel to kill Ahmed Al-Jabari, as a long-term ceasefire was in the works.

The writer’s bias is clear but still it’s hard to dispute the gist of this exploration of Israeli chauvinism, even if it’s unfair to expect too much more given the circumstances.

For the Kurds, an independent state a question of if not when. This rich, dense yet clear piece surveys their situation and is particularly interesting in laying out the Turks’ “schizophrenic” yet sophisticated policy towards them. Also, Israel’s omission is glaring in its absence.

The Vlady-Bibi Tapes by Michael Ledeen. BIBI: “Well maybe you shouldn’t have built that nuclear reactor, or arranged for them to get your antiaircraft missiles.” VLADY: “I didn’t sell them antiaircraft missiles.” BIBI: “You sold the missiles to Chavez in Venezuela, and he sent them to Iran, as you well know. That was the deal, wasn’t it?”

Amid the celebration that is the Olympics remains the diabolical stain of Munich. Here one of the sons of the killed notes some nasty circumstances surrounding the attack on the Israeli athletes in Munich.

“Israel is as American as apple pie”. Walter Russell Mead explains why Mitt Romney’s Israel visit is his most important as a US presidential candidate. It’s not the Jewish vote, which is tiny and pro-Democratic.

Bret (Stephens) on what lessons to take today from the Six Day War.

On the touchy (for me) topic of Anglo accentim (or is that accentiot?) in Hebrew. Huge comments section to a short (follow-up) piece.

Exhaustive and wonderful list of what Alli Magidsohn expects to miss upon leaving Israel after 7 years, published by the impressive David Horowitz’s new The Times of Israel. (Not so sure about “the ferocity of celebration here” though, at least among the non-religious.)