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Statesmen and Technocrats

Proportional representation used to be blamed for the collapse of the Weimar Republic: Too much fragmentation crippled effective majority government. Israel adopted proportional representation in 1948, but in order to avoid what happened in Germany, the Israelis set a 1 percent threshold for a party . . . . Continue Reading »

Hating Netanyahu

Bibi:  The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu by anshel pfeffer basic, 432 pages, $32 After Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by an ultra-­Zionist fanatic in November 1995, the veteran anti-Israel terrorist Yasser Arafat was among the mourners welcomed at Rabin’s home to . . . . Continue Reading »

Letters

Peter Hitchens is invariably witty and provocative. His recent essay (“Latimer and Ridley Are Forgotten,” June/July) is no exception. Although diverting, it errs in at least one crucial respect: its assertion that the “judicial murders of Thomas More and John Fisher were political in origin, . . . . Continue Reading »

A New Zionism

God’s Country: Christian Zionism in America by samuel goldman penn, 248 pages, $34.95 The New Christian Zionism: Fresh Perspectives on Israel and the Land edited by gerald r. mcdermott ivp academic, 352 pages, $26  Israel Matters: Why Christians Must Think Differently about the People . . . . Continue Reading »

Soloveitchik the Zionist

Rabbi, if only I knew our suffering was paving the way for the Messiah,” cried a Jewish refugee to R. Hayyim Soloveitchik of Brest-Litovsk shortly before his death in World War I–era Warsaw. R. Hayyim rebuffed him, questioning whether it was self-evident that the advent of the Redeemer justified . . . . Continue Reading »

BDS Has Failed

I am a rabbi who is often asked how to improve Christian relations with Jews. I’m grateful that so many are concerned with continuing the positive changes of the recent generation. But I also follow the ups and downs of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign, which since 2004, . . . . Continue Reading »

Political Supersessionism

Last spring I attended a conference at the newly established St. Olaf Institute for Freedom and Community, which is dedicated to “free inquiry and meaningful debate of important political and social issues.” The institute invited four professors to talk about religious conflict: a well-known . . . . Continue Reading »

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