Broader View

This page is a repository for background and reading materials for the Israel Current Affairs Discussion Group I am leading at Temple B’nai Torah in Bellevue.

June 6, 2012: Jerusalem

• Video (5’16″): 4,000 Years of Jerusalem History in 5 Minutes, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
• Video (5’33″): The Media Myth of Two Cities, Honest Reporting, May 2011
• Video (2’26″): Victoria Nuland, State Department Spokesperson, answers questions about Jerusalem, March 2012
• Menachem Zivotofsky case: Justices Decline to Say if Jerusalem-Born Americans Can Claim Israeli Birthplace, New York Times, March 26, 2012
• Jerusalem Press Kit, The Israel Project, November 2011
• U.S. Senate Bill S. 1322: Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995
• Video (5’57″): Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim Shel Zaha), Ofra Haza, with English lyrics
• Lots more at http://www.broaderview.org/jerusalem

May 2, 2012: The U.S.-Israel Relationship

• Can Obama Be Trusted To Save Israel? by Gary Rosenblatt, The Jewish Week, April 3, 2012
• A Pro-Obama Editorial by Warren Boroson, Florida Jewish Journal, March 11, 2012
• Why Israel Still Can’t Trust That Obama Has Its Back by Yossi Klein Halevi, The New Republic, March 7, 2012
• Israel’s Best Friend by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, March 6, 2012
• Video (30’21″): Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel, Emergency Committee for Israel, March 3, 2012
• How Is Obama’s Middle East Policy Endangering Israel? Let Me Count the Ways by Barry Rubin, Rubin Reports, December 12, 2011
• Lots more at www.broaderview.org/usisrael

March 7, 2012: Iran’s Nuclear Pursuit

• Video: Douglas Murray on Israel & Nuclear Iran
• Iranian Uranium by Irwin N. Graulich, JewishIndy, February 29, 2012: A very hard-hitting (and completely not politically correct) analysis and prescription.
• Fact Sheet: The Threat from Iran, Jewish Virtual Library, February 15, 2012
• What to do about Iran by David M. Weinberg, The Times of Israel, February 15, 2012
• Obama’s dangerous game with Iran by Daniel Klaidman, Eli Lake, and Dan Ephron, Newsweek, February 13, 2012
• A nuclear Iran would put us over a barrel by Wendy Rosen, Seattle Times, February 6, 2012
• Israel and Iran on the Eve of Destruction in a New Six-Day War by Niall Ferguson, Newsweek, February 6, 2012: “There are plenty of arguments against an Israeli attack on Iran. And all of them are bad.”
• Is Israel preparing to attack Iran? by David Ignatius, Washington Post, February 2, 2012 (see also commentary, Panetta Predicts an Israeli Strike on Iran by Daniel Pipes, National Review Online, February 4, 2012)
• Will Israel Attack Iran? by Ronen Bergman, New York Times, January 25, 2012
• Will Iran Really Start a War? by Victor Davis Hanson, Defining Ideas, January 11, 2012: “History teaches that the saber rattling of lunatic regimes should be taken seriously.”

February 1, 2012: Israeli Democracy

• [Added later:] Israel’s Resilient Democracy by Michael Oren, Foreign Policy, April 5, 2012
• The sky is not falling in Israel by Gerald Steinberg, The Canadian Jewish News, January 19, 2012
• What Does it Mean to be Pro-Israel? by Evelyn Gordon, Commentary, January 13, 2012: “[E]ven if a particular bill is flawed, Israelis aren’t “anti-democratic”; they are grappling with a genuine democratic concern.”
• Israeli Society Is Not Unraveling by Caroline B. Glick, Jerusalem Post, January 2, 2012: “For the benefit of society as a whole, we must hope that the basic health and cohesion of Israeli society that has grown so miraculously over the past decade will prevail in the current contest. We have far more that unites us than separates us. If we focus on this, there is no force either within or without our society that can defeat us.”
• Israel at the End of 2011: Better than Ever by Yaacov Lozowick, December 30, 2011

January 4, 2012: The Settlements Debate

• Overview of the settlements issue
• Map: Lands of Contention, New York Times, February, 2011
• Video: Why won’t Israel hold off on building settlements?  Ambassador Michael Oren interviewed on CNN by Eliot Spitzer and Kathleen Parker, November 2010
• Video: An Aerial View of Israel’s Security Dilemma and Settlements, The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, January 2012
• Many additional articles, analyses and viewpoints here

November 2, 2011: The Shalit Deal

• A Rediscovered Abundance of Goodness by Daniel Gordis, Jerusalem Post, October 28, 2011
• The Meaning of 1 for 1,000 by Rabbi Kaufman, We Are For Israel, October 26, 2011
• Hamas’ win-win formula by Asaf Romirowsky, YNet News, October 23, 2011

October 5, 2011: Palestinian UN Initiative

• Benjamin Netanyahu speech at the UN General Assembly, September 23, 2011 [video]
• Mahmoud Abbas speech at the UN General Assembly, September 23, 2011 [video]
• Quartet Statement, September 23, 2011
• JCPA Statement: JCPA Urges Palestinian President Abbas to Grasp Israel’s Outstretched Hand, Jewish Council for Public Affairs
• U.S. Plans To Delay Vote on Palestinian Statehood by Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2011
• President Barack Obama speech at the UN General Assembly, September 21, 2011
• UN Vote on Palestinian State: The Israel Project press kit
• Palestine Logo Suggests Elimination of Israel by Anne Bayefsky, The Weekly Standard, September 21, 2011 [Palestinian website]
• UN Security Council members