Contemporary Legal Lessons from the Holocaust
Sixty years after the Nuremberg Trials, the “Nuremberg legacy” is part of modern international law. Remembering the behavior of German judges and lawyers during the Nazi era can help ensure that today’s democracies, faced with the threat of terrorism, do not transform themselves into legal tyrannies.
Rivkah Duker Fishman on The Oslo Years: A Mother’s Journey
An Underground View of Oslo
The Oslo Years: A Mother’s Journey, by Ellen Horowitz, I.I. Creations (distributed by Gefen Publishing), 2005, 284 pp.
Reviewed by Rivkah Duker Fishman
Simon Erlanger on Hurra, wir kapitulieren: Von der Lust am Einknicken
Europe and Appeasement
Hurra, wir kapitulieren: Von der Lust am Einknicken (Hurray, We’re Capitulating: On the Desire for Appeasement), by Henryk M. Broder, Wjs Verlag, 2006, 197 pp. [German]
Reviewed by Simon Erlanger
The New Demographic Balance in Europe and its Consequences
Some European Muslim leaders make no secret of their intent to change Europe to their tune, not to adapt to it. They demand their own school systems, in their own native languages, financed by the host state and, in the long run, to its own detriment. There are already areas in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Britain where Muslim children constitute the majority of the school population.
The Big Lie and the Media War Against Israel: From Inversion of the Truth to Inversion of Reality
From the 1960s, inversion of truth and reality has been one the most favored propaganda methods of Israel’s adversaries. One of its most frequent expressions has been the accusation that the Jewish people, victims of the Nazis, have now become the new Nazis, aggressors and oppressors of the Palestinian Arabs. Contemporary observers have identified this method and described it as an “inversion of reality,” an “intellectual confidence trick,” “reversing moral responsibility,” or “twisted logic.” B
Manfred Gerstenfeld on Figli di un dio locale: Giovani e differenze culturali in Italia
Italian Prejudices against Jews and Israel
Figli di un dio locale: Giovani e differenze culturali in Italia. (Sons of a Local God: Youngsters and Cultural Differences in Italy), by Enzo Campelli, FrancoAngeli, 2004, 244 pp. [Italian]
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Manfred Gerstenfeld on Ireland and the Palestine Question, 1948-2004
Ireland: A Country Hostile to Israel
Ireland and the Palestine Question, 1948-2004, by Rory Miller, Irish Academic Press, 2005, 266 pp.
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Manfred Gerstenfeld on Using and Abusing the Holocaust
An Author’s One-Liners Attack Holocaust Myths
Using and Abusing the Holocaust by Lawrence L. Langer, Indiana University Press, 2006, 165 pp.
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Manfred Gerstenfeld on Die Shoah erzählt: Zeugnis und Experiment in der Literatur
The Structural Shortfall of Holocaust Fiction
Die Shoah erzählt: Zeugnis und Experiment in der Literatur (The Shoah Related: Testimony and Experiment in Literature), by Elrud Ibsch, Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2004, 196 pp. [German]
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Anti-Israelism and Anti-Semitism: Common Characteristics and Motifs
Anti-Semitism’s core theme is that Jews embody absolute evil. The three main permutations of the core theme are religious anti-Semitism—one might call it more precisely anti-Judaism, ethnic (racist) anti-Semitism, and anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism. The anti-Semitic character of anti-Israelism can be proved through the analysis of cartoons, opinion survey findings, statistical analysis, and semantics. During the summer 2006 war in Lebanon, further proof emerged that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel
Manfred Gerstenfeld on De Drie van Breda: Duitse oorlogsmisdadigers in Nederlandse gevangenschap 1945-1989
Decades of Dutch Debate on Releasing World War II Criminals
De Drie van Breda: Duitse oorlogsmisdadigers in Nederlandse gevangenschap 1945-1989 by Hinke Piersma
Reviewed by Manfred Gerstenfeld
Brothers in Arms: Fatah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad
Originally, Islamic Jihad was actually a purely Fatah offshoot, part and parcel of the military apparatus of Arafat’s deputy, Abu Jihad, who, as his name may convey, was the major promoter of Islamic features in Fatah. During the first Lebanon war, Abu Jihad followers helped Iran establish Hizbullah on the ruins of the Fatah infrastructure that Israel had destroyed in the war.
Turkish Jewry Today
The Turkish Jewish community is one of the oldest of the Diaspora, dating back to the Roman Empire. Ninety percent of Turkish Jews live in Istanbul and most of the remaining 10 percent in Izmir. Demographically it is an aging community with a steady trend of emigration, in the past to Israel and nowadays mainly to the United States.
The International Implications of the Hamas-Fatah Mecca Agreement
The Mecca agreement between Hamas and Fatah does not presage a favorable diplomatic turn. It is merely a tactical political measure calculated to create a false impression regarding Hamas’ political flexibility in order to whitewash the organization into being accepted as a legitimate player in the international arena without it having to meet the three preconditions of the Quartet.
Israel’s Deterrence after the Second Lebanon War
The Islamic fundamentalist war against Israeli and Jewish existence in the Middle East – which is being waged by both Hizbullah and Hamas – did not begin in 1967, and it is not going to end even if Israel redeploys along the 1967 lines. Hardly anybody in Israel thinks that if we give territories now, we will get peace in return.
