Israel, Iran and the Holocaust’s enduring effect
Israelis still have a complex response to the Holocaust, evinced by the reaction to Netanyahu’s AIPAC speech on Iran, writes David Landau in Haaretz.
To judge by the nearly Pavlovian reactions of ridicule and disgust that filled the press in regard to the AIPAC speech in which Benjamin Netanyahu drew a comparison between Auschwitz and the Iranian nuclear bomb – it appears that this syndrome, i.e., our inability emotionally to confront the Holocaust, has yet to be cured.
The Pentagon’s cold feet on Syria
The United States should not automatically give in to the defense establishment’s reservations about military intervention in Syria, argues Max Boot in the Washington Post.
Aiding the rebels would hardly risk plunging Syria into civil war. Syria is already in a civil war, and it is getting worse. The more pressure we bring to topple Assad, the faster we can end that war and the more influence we can exert with a successor regime.
Michael Jackson’s Rabbi Is Running for Congress
Michael Daly of the Daily Beast encounters the broad appeal of Shmuley Boteach, who has announced his candidacy for the GOP in a New Jersey district.
Shmuley did not seem to be just another fake whose purported beliefs turn out to be simply what he figures will best further his ambitions. Shmuley’s shameless devotion to the 11th commandment appears to be accompanied by actual beliefs about issues that are truly important. Where other Republicans seek to capitalize on intolerance and to shrink already small minds down to the size of a vote for them, Shmuley preached tolerance and accommodation. On the question of homosexuality and Jewish tradition, Shmuley noted that there are 614 commandments in Judaism and only three concern being gay.
Inside the Octopus: Unraveling Iran’s terrorist Quds Force
Ronen Solomon of Israel Hayom looks at Iran’s elite Quds (Jerusalem) Force, the regime’s operatives in international terrorism.
Deconstructing the Quds Force’s modus operandi lays bare the full extent of the potency of the terrorist octopus, where the most senior officials in the ayatollah regime order its tentacles into every corner of the world. Terrorist plans are not set in motion without the knowledge and approval of the security unit in the Supreme Leader Khamenei’s office (“Division 101”). The plans are brought up for discussion at the Supreme Council for National Security, which is charged with the important task of issuing recommendations for operations. From there, the plan is then handed to a special operations council.
