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The Palestine 194 Plan for Legitimacy and Justice

February 23, 2015  •  The Huffington Post

The Palestinian move to drag Israel before the International Criminal Court (ICC) is a plan to gain statehood by circumventing negotiations with Israel. Known as the "Palestine 194" plan, the campaign represents their push to become the 194th state at the United Nations. It does so by pursuing international justice and legitimacy at the expense of a negotiated end to the conflict. While Western media has been late in identifying the trend, its foundation became visible during the peace negotiations shepherded by President Bill Clinton at Camp David in 2000. Those who claim to support Palestinian statehood and back their latest initiative are doing the Palestinians a disservice because it will perpetuate rather than solve the conflict.

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The Crusades in Context

February 17, 2015  •  The Times of Israel

In its proper historical context, the Crusades were a minor episode in European-Islamic relations. Unlike the jihad, the Crusades were primarily concerned with the defense and reconquest of threatened or lost Christian territory, not the expansion and spread of faith into new lands under a different religion and rule. The elevation of the Crusades' implications into the narrative now espoused by many apologists in the West, and those with grievances in the Middle East, is a modern invention based on revisionist history. In a week that began with the Islamic State or ISIS lighting their Jordanian hostage on fire; at an event primarily attended by practicing Christians; the National Prayer Breakfast was a poor choice of events to engage in false parallelisms.

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The Great Game: Israeli, Hezbollah, and Iranian Edition

January 30, 2015  •  The Huffington Post

The latest escalation signifies Iran's growing dominance in the region and their desire to change the rules of the game with Israel vis-à-vis Hezbollah. Iran and Hezbollah are setting up another front to attack Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan, but Iran would prefer to wait and use it to respond to a future Israeli strike on its nuclear facilities. Domestic constraints weigh against Hezbollah significantly escalating from Syria at the moment as it risks a full-scale retaliation from Israel against targets in Lebanon. Hezbollah's most likely response will be a continuation of smaller-scale clashes and they'll probably step up covert operations against Jews outside of Israel. But each response carries its own risk of failure and Murphy's Law often applies.

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The Upcoming Battle Over Iran

January 26, 2015  •  The Huffington Post

Despite President Obama's State of the Union assertion that the U.S. has halted progress of Iran's nuclear program and reduced its stockpile of nuclear material, Iran has advanced on each core area of their overall program. Further extensions of the talks provide Iran with additional bargaining chips and concrete achievements while America's leverage diminishes. Nevertheless, the bad deal reportedly being considered by the White House is worse than no deal all all. Given the wide gap between the U.S. and Israeli leader's positions on what constitutes an acceptable deal, the stage is set for another politically acrimonious episode in the American-Israeli relationship when Netanyahu addresses the U.S. Congress in March.

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Anti-Semitism and the Crisis in Ukraine
The Donetsk leaflet demanding Jews register fits a pattern of pro-Russian disinformation about Kiev loyalists

April 19, 2014  •  The Times of Israel

Amidst the fury of finger pointing and propaganda surrounding the crisis in Ukraine, the familiar specter of anti-Semitism has resurfaced with a leaflet in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk calling on Jews to register. It is happening in Russian-controlled portions of Ukraine. It is not general Ukrainian anti-Semitism; it is Russian in origin. This tracks with deepening anti-Semitism within Russia itself and the rising tide of anti-Semitism across Europe and the world. If there is something about the situation in Ukraine that sets off alarm bells in the collective Jewish memory, it is with good reason. This episode should serve as a wake-up call to the world. If "never again" is supposed to mean something, we need to mobilize to prevent this type of activity—which, as history has demonstrated, is usually a precursor for much worse things to come.

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