Sunday Reads: Is Israel a bipartisan issue?, Nimoy’s Jewish roots, Egypt vs. Hamas

US

Jeff Ballabon makes an interesting case against the idea that support for Israel is a bipartisan issue:

In 2012, Pew analyzed 15 issues to determine where the largest partisan gaps lie. Only 3 – Social Safety Net (41%), Environment (39%) and Labor Unions (37%) – were greater than the 35% that exists on Israel. Scope and Effectiveness of Government (33%), Immigration (24%), Social Conservatism (17%) and National Security (15%) were among the many issues more bipartisan than Israel appears to be.

Matthew Continetti tries to explain why Netanyahu’s speech could be important for the US:

Netanyahu’s commitment to warning America about a nuclear Iran has given him the opportunity to explain just how devoid of merit the prospective deal is. His speech is proof that Congress is a co-equal branch of government where substantive argument can triumph over vicious personal attacks and executive overreach and utopian aspirations. Of course Barack Obama can’t stand it.

Israel

Jeffrey Goldberg believes that Netanyahu is seriously damaging US-Israel relations:

Even though AIPAC’s leadership leans right, the organization knows that support for Israel in America must be bipartisan in order for it to be stable. “Dermer and Netanyahu don’t believe that Democrats are capable of being pro-Israel, which is crazy for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that most Jews are Democrats,” one veteran AIPAC leader told me.

Aaron David Miller tries to dispel five myths about the upcoming speech:

My own view is that, tough patch or not, the U.S.-Israeli relationship is too big to fail. The U.S. needs friends in the Middle East as the region melts down; that’s why the administration spends time and effort cultivating ties with Arab states (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates) that share some of our interests, if not our values. Despite its occupation of the West Bank, Israel does share our values. If the Obama administration wants to get stuff done in the Middle East in the next 20 months, it needs friends; and Israel sits at the nexus of the Iran nuclear issue, the Palestinian problem, and the fight against radical Islam.

Middle East

Walter Russell Mead examines Egypt’s decision to label Hamas as a terrorist organization:

Egypt, its Gulf allies and Israel combined during the last Gaza war to frustrate John Kerry’s efforts at a ceasefire and left the Obama administration looking ineffective and irrelevant. Are the same countries now combining to resist the administration’s Iran policy? This ruling in Egypt suggests that they are.

Douad Kuttab writes about the recent shooting of a Fatah activist and how it might affect the security coordination between Israel and the PA:

Whether the Palestinians turn in the keys, as they are threatening, or whether their government will collapse, remains undecided, but what is clear is that a decision on Palestinian-Israeli security coordination will be the key indicator of where things stand. Given Israeli disregard for Palestinian demands or reciprocity in the coordination effort, and the recent killing of a Fatah activist in an area that both sides agree is under Palestinian security control, the future of security coordination is obviously in jeopardy.

Jewish World

Ben Dror Yemini discusses the tendency to revise the history of Jews in Muslim countries for political reasons:

Some academics have managed to turn the tables. They glorify the periods of coexistence. They hide the pogroms, the decrees, the abuse and the oppression. And they certainly hide the Jewish Nakba. The Jews didn't suffer from abuse and oppression because of Zionism. To the contrary. They became Zionists because of the abuse and oppression. But manipulating the facts will triumph once again – under the patronage of Gideon Levy and so-called academic freedom.

This excerpt from a book by Abigail Pogrebin examines Leonard Nimoy’s Jewish heritage:

Because his grandmother spoke only Yiddish, he became fluent. “I still use it whenever I can, and I get the mailings from the National Yiddish Book Center. Aaron Lansky runs it in Massachusetts. Are you familiar?” I’m not. “He started this thing some years ago of rescuing Jewish books. He’s done a remarkable job. And I’ve been somewhat supportive, just sent him a check. They send out a monthly brochure and there are stories in Yiddish, and English translations, and I try to sit down and spend some time reading the stuff in Yiddish and see how far I can get.”