Writing in Foreign Policy, Robert Haddick presents the case why this time, Israel is not bluffing when it comes to a strike on Iran.
Yet from Israel’s point of view, time really has run out. The sanctions have come too late. And when Israeli policymakers consider their advantages and all of the alternatives available, an air campaign, while both regrettable and risky, is not reckless.
Betting on Syria’s Assad staying in power
While there is general consensus that Syrian President Bashar Assad cannot survive, it would imprudent to believe his end is imminent, writes Bernd Debussman in Ma’an.
Some experts on Syria expressed deep pessimism over an early end to the Syrian bloodshed even before China and Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution that provided for Assad to hand over power to a deputy, withdraw troops from towns, stop the killing of dissidents, and begin a transition to democracy.
FOLLOWING THE MONEY: A Look at Jewish Foundation Giving
Erik Ludwig and Aryeh Weinberg of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research examine the giving habits and pet projects of Jewish charitable orqanizations.
This summary examines giving characteristics of selected Jewish foundations with approximately $20 billion in combined assets who made grants of $1.4 billion to Jewish causes. The data revealed that perhaps the most important decision private foundations have made is to continue to provide significant support toward traditional centralized organizations while also seeding innovative Jewish projects and organizations.
In conversation: Nathan Englander and Jonathan Safran Foer
In a piece for the Guardian, two of the world’s most esteemed contemporary Jewish writers discuss their friendship, work and religion and their collaboration on a new translation of the Haggadah.
… I can’t believe we’re both sitting here, because we’ve spent so many years on this project. More than three years ago, you said to me: it’s going to be a lovely project. I don’t know if anyone else could have talked me into this. Translating it has been three years of my life. It’s different from fiction. I have a book of stories just out and I would never say: oh, look at these! But this is a different interaction. We’re showing respect for something that is not ours, that we made, that we’re part of.
It is time to banish wishful thinking about Islamism
Writing in the Financial Times, Ayaan Hirsi Ali warns that the Islamist parties who are rising to power in a post-Arab Spring era have no intention of modernizing and embracing democracy.
To compare Islamists of today with the Christian democrats of postwar Europe is absurd. To take them at their word that they will govern like the Islamists of Turkey is not much better. Europe’s Christian democrats may claim to be inspired by the Bible but they would not dream of proposing legislation straight from the book of Leviticus. By contrast, the Islamists of north Africa and the Middle East have for decades promoted the agenda that legislation should come from the suras of the Koran and other Islamic scripture.
