Improving security may be the single most important objective for U.S. officials in Iraq, but current American efforts to promote security risk jeopardizing Iraq’s eventual chances of becoming a democracy.Iraqis walk along dangerous streets, with murder and robbery common. An ongoing insurgency claims American lives almost daily, and killsRead More
Since disclosures of interest are expected from reviewers these days no less than from politicians and financial analysts, I’ll make mine at the start. For the last three-and-a-half decades I have written frequently for Commentary, a monthly magazine that was as closely associated with Podhoretz for over a generation as was The New Yorker withRead More
As other explanations for America’s invasion of Iraq have been cast into doubt, a new dawn for human rights has become one of the rationales invoked by the Bush administration to justify the war. So it’s not surprising that the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority would boast of its efforts to improve the lot of IraqiRead More
Israel’s right to defend itself against suicide bombers is on trial. On Monday, the International Court of Justice at The Hague began a hearing on whether Israel has the right to build a security fence to try and keep out the terrorists.This case is being brought to the court by the Palestinians and anti–Israel factions in the United NationsRead More
Amid all the boiling passions awakened by Mel Gibson’s “Passion,” it’s been mostly overlooked that this movie is a critical landmark in Gibson’s personal journey as an artist. Of the 40 films with which he’s been associated over a 25-year career as actor, director, producer and writer, only three have been described as labors of loveRead More
When it comes to the question of what constitutes “Jewish art” or “Jewish music,” there is not and likely never will be a definitive and satisfying answer. Is any art by a Jewish artist “Jewish art”? Was Felix Mendelssohn a “Jewish composer”? Mahler?Similarly, there is no final answer to what it is that makes an issue of public…Read More
At the recent conference of world business and government leaders in Davos, Switzerland, Jordan’s foreign minister, Marwan Muasher, declared that suicide attacks against Israeli citizens are morally wrong. His statement was extraordinary because Arab leaders rarely, if ever, have forthrightly labeled such killing immoral. AcknowledgingRead More
A decade ago, I found myself in a hotel lounge in a mid-sized American city chatting with a local Jewish leader. He spoke loudly, but every time he used the words “Jew” or “Jewish,” he lowered his voice. For an instant, I experienced an urge — similar to one I had felt in a Moscow cafeteria in the 1970s — to hopRead More
Senator Joe Lieberman would have made a wonderful leader for this country. He is an authentic American statesman, a brilliant craftsman of public policy (witness the primary role he played in drafting the Homeland Security Act) and a serious and loyal Jew.Ruefully, support from the Jewish community, which should have been sustained andRead More
There seems to be more confusion than ever in the Jewish world over the word “Jewish.” The lack of clarity is exemplified nowhere more obviously than in the debate over homosexuality — not that there is much debate going on among our Jewish communal leaders. Leading Jewish groups overwhelmingly favor erasing the marks of disapproval that…Read More
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