Category Archives: Modern Middle East
The Only Guarantee of Israel’s Existence
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke yesterday at a service for Israel’s Memorial Day. The event and his words are reported by Arutz-7: Quoting from the Book of Jeremiah (31:16), the Prime Minister stated, “Our grief is overwhelming, our hearts ache, where will we find comfort? The prophet said: ‘Refrain thy voice from weeping, and… Read More »
Palestine as a Member of the UN
From the New York Times, earlier this week: “We are facing a diplomatic-political tsunami that the majority of the public is unaware of and that will peak in September,” said Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, at a conference in Tel Aviv last month. “It is a very dangerous situation, one that requires action.” He added,… Read More »
Interview of Netanyahu
I would recommend to you the Youtube interview of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It’s long, but Netanyahu expresses well the Israeli perspective that you do not often get from the mainstream media. For instance, he explains why the issue of Israel building in the West Bank is a red herring. One advantage of the… Read More »
November 11
PC or Mac? Here’s a new one. I’m not really sure what a “neutral” article on the Arab-Israeli conflict would like look, but this one earns points for saying things that you won’t read elsewhere. This is an impressive 2-minute Timescapes video. How to raise boys who read – is the secret gross books? These… Read More »
Netanyahu’s Speech at the UN
I’m probably breaking some blogging rule by linking to something that didn’t happen this week (or even this year), but I just saw this and thought that it might have escaped the notice of others as well. Last year Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, addressed the United Nations, one day after a punk from… Read More »
Israel Still in Exile
I have always thought of Israel’s exile as being a 70-year thing. I struggled to figure out how to count those 70 years (is it 605 to 536 or 586 to 516?), but the exile ended when the Israelites came back from Babylon and rebuilt their temple. I’ve changed my mind in the last few… Read More »
"The Inheritance of our Ancestors"
First Maccabees was written about 100 B.C., but you can imagine the Prime Minister of Israel today saying the very same thing. Simon is Netanyahu and Athenobius is the United Nations ‘ representative. 1 Maccabees 15:28-36: He sent to him Athenobius, one of his Friends, to confer with him, saying, “You hold control of Joppa… Read More »
A Demilitarized Palestinian State
The big news in Israel yesterday was Netanyahu’s speech in which he declared, for the first time in his political career, willingness to support a Palestinian state. He conditioned that it must be “demilitarized.” But would such work? Would the Palestinians agree to not have full sovereignty? What about after they become a state? Would… Read More »
May 18
Michael Oren, author of the excellent Six Days of War and recently appointed Israeli ambassador to the United States, has an essay on “Seven Existential Threats” to Israel. There really is no reason why Israel should exist twenty years from now. (Except God.) Fascinating wall chart on where tax dollars come and go. The Secret… Read More »