Free Republic

I believe we are seeing the beginning of the end of Jewish history in Europe. What makes the situation in Europe unique in history is the fact that Europe has become very intolerant of identities in a multicultural and post-nationalist environment. This new antisemitism is very connected to Israel — demonisation, delegitimisation and double-standards — and is now so deep in the core of European political and intellectual leaders that practically every Jew is being asked to choose between being loyal to Israel and loyal to Europe. That insecurity is due to Muslim immigration and the rise of the classical...

Natan Sharansky is among the world's most consistent advocates of democratization as a basis for foreign policy. Born in Ukraine in 1948, he received a degree in mathematics from Moscow's Physical Technical Institute. A brilliant mathematician and chess master, he entered the limelight as a spokesman for the movement to emancipate Soviet Jewry. Arrested by the Soviet authorities in 1977 for his refusenik activities, he was sentenced to thirteen years imprisonment. President Ronald Reagan interceded and, in 1986, won Sharansky's release as part of an East-West prisoner exchange. In his 1988 autobiography Fear No Evil,[1] he discussed both his emotional...

For those bad-news-from-Iraq-only information consumers, stop reading here. There have been several recent developments out of Iraq that should give some comfort to those who believe that Arabs and Muslims are capable of embracing democracy. There have been military victories in Iraq, a debt relief agreement for the country has been hammered out, and Iraq’s independent electoral commission has set a firm date for elections. First Najaf was cleaned up, then Sadr City, then Fallujah, then Mosul… Yes, Iraq’s “insurgency” won’t go away overnight, but it is certainly getting harder and harder for the “militants” – they’re either dead or...

Year after year, generation after generation, Jews spend Pessah night retelling the story of their exodus from Egypt. We try to instill in our children a sense of our ancient journey from slavery to freedom and try to provoke discussion over its meaning. In fact, our need to recall the past is so strong that each of us is obligated to imagine that he or she personally went forth from Egyptian bondage. Why does our faith demand that we go to such great lengths to remember? I have long believed that implicit in this commandment is a deep understanding of...