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U.S. Should Reject Venezuela's Overtures

May 20, 2013  •  "Contentions" @ Commentary Magazine

Ever since the death of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez back in March, his successors have been flinging insult after insult at the United States. The volley began at the very moment of Chavez's death, when his anointed heir Nicolas Maduro, pointing an accusatory finger at the U.S., claimed that Chavez had been "assassinated." Maduro then accused the U.S. of plotting to kill his opposition rival, Henrique Capriles, in order to engineer a coup. Finally, after weeks of blaming the U.S. for everything from food shortages to the violence that followed the disputed April 14 presidential election, Maduro recycled a barb that Chavez had previously deployed against George W. Bush, when he declared that President Obama was the "grand chief of devils."

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The Church of Scotland's War on Judaism

May 13, 2013  •  JNS/The Algemeiner

In a recent, exhaustive study of anti-Semitism, the German scholar Clemens Heni explains the significance for Christian theology of the story of Ahasver, a Jewish shoemaker in Jerusalem who, legend has it, refused Jesus a resting place as he made his way to Golgotha bearing the cross on his back. Ahasver's punishment, says Heni, was to wander the world for eternity, an image that formed the basis for what the Nazis famously called "der ewige Jude"—"the eternal Jew."

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Stephen Hawking Signs Up to the Academic Boycott of Israel

May 8, 2013  •  "Contentions" @ Commentary Magazine

There was much relief when, earlier today, a spokesman for Cambridge University in England released a statement denying that Stephen Hawking, the renowned British physicist, had invoked the academic boycott of Israel as the reason for his decision to withdraw from the "Facing Tomorrow" conference, which will be hosted by Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem in June.

As it turns out, Cambridge spoke too soon. Tim Holt, the spokesman who said that Hawking had backed out for health reasons, was compelled to issue the following clarification:

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Orban Whitewashes Hungarian Anti-Semitism

May 5, 2013  •  "Contentions" @ Commentary Magazine

As I read Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's speech to the delegates of the World Jewish Congress, who assembled in Budapest this past weekend, I found myself visualizing the furrowed eyebrows and anxious seat shuffling going on in the audience. For not only was Orban's speech a chain of platitudes from beginning to end, it was downright dishonest.

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What is the Motivation Behind Erdogan Visiting Gaza and Snubbing Kerry?

April 30, 2013  •  JNS/The Algemeiner

Of all the half-truths and misconceptions that mar the American debate over the level of influence exercised by Israel on U.S. Middle East policy, the most irritating has to be the manner in which Israel's foes ignore the behavior of our Arab and Middle Eastern allies when it comes to confounding America's national interests in the region.

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