New Media

As Darfur and Rwanda have undermined the international meaning of the phrase “Never Again”, does this expression still have relevance? To Israelis, it absolutely does, though the creed has a much more specific interpretation in this country and among the diaspora:

The phrase, “Never again”, can be taken to mean that we are united in opposing the genocide of any group or nation in a new Holocaust (though Darfurians rightly wonder at why the rest of the world chose not to live up to that creed). But for Jews, it has other meanings as well: never again will they put their security in the hands of those who could and often did make the choice to abandon them in their time of need. Even among those who spilled horrendous blood and treasure to defeat the Nazis, the Israelis wonder why these allies did not, for instance, bomb Auschwitz and destroy a camp where a few hundred prison workers were able to apply industrial methods to murder thousands of people per day.

It’s looking more and more like a strong possibility. The odd support of the left around the world in support of an extreme right wing violent agenda may make this a reality:

This problem is not exactly new, though the trends have certainly worsened over the past few years. For years after Oslo, virtually everyone agreed on a two-state solution. This made sense, since Palestinians themselves were asking to remain separate from Jews.

But now, we hear lots of talk of a one-state solution, in which the Jewish remnant in a unified nation would very soon lose its unique character through simple demography. “It would have been beyond the pale years ago, but now they talk of an Apartheid state, even though Israel is a multicultural country where all citizens, Jew and Arab alike, have the very same civil rights — and next door in the Palestinian territories and the Arab lands, Jews were kicked out of their homes and would not be safe in those countries today. Yet none of this is even discussed.”

Read the full article, The Case of the Kidnapped Conscience

The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee has released a report urging Canada to continue an active role in Afghanistan after the military mission ends next year. Committee co-founder Terry Glavin and Nasrine Gross, an Afghan-American writer at Kabul University, discuss the situation on the ground.

Can Palestinians truly develop a free marketplace of ideas without a political revolution? Will the Anti-Semitic media factories of incitement get put out of business anytime soon?

It’s not looking good on either score. From my latest Rediscovering Israel post, Palestinian Censorship, Self-Censorship and the Failure of Leadership:

If there is a solution, it may have to come from Palestinians themselves, given how awesomely counter-productive international efforts from Canada, Israel and the rest of the international community have been. Palestinian Affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh is mournful on this topic. “You are funding Palestinian television, radio stations and newspapers with millions of dollars so that they can incite people to kill Jews. If anyone watches Palestinian television for just five minutes, they’ll want to go out and stab Jews immediately. Palestinians have been fed a steady stream of this hate for years and your taxpayer dollars are funding it.”

Palestinian Cleric “Explains” the “Jewish Nature” on Palestinian Authority TV

Having a well-publicized reputation as the most unpredictable and ultra-violent maniac in the neighborhood seems like a decent strategy for getting others to leave you alone. But for Israel, can this strategy translate into long-term security from a nuclear Iran or the threat of being singled out as a pariah state?

From my latest essay in Rediscovering Israel: Little Bombs, Big Bombs and Washing Machines

Who you tryin’ to get crazy with, ese? Don’t you know I’m loco?