Essays

197 essays

Freeze on Jewish Construction - A Double Standard

Arabs claim that Jewish settlements “change the status” of the Territories and represent a distortion of the Oslo Accords. The phrase applies to acts that …

Gaza - Proportionality and Collective Punishment in International Law

To finance, recruit, train, house, feed, transport and murder Jews, is a collective Palestinian effort, requiring a collectively responsible response. In fact, poll after …

Gaza - Proportionality and Collective Punishment in International Law

To finance, recruit, train, house, feed, transport and murder Jews is a collective Palestinian effort, requiring a collectively responsible response. Poll after poll …

Gaza 2014: Proportionality and Collective Punishment

Examining Israel’s response to Palestinian attacks in 2014 and the legal principles of proportionality and collective punishment under international law.

General Assembly Resolution for Limited Palestinian Statehood Lacks Legal Authority

A host of resolutions passing annually by the General Assembly are not legally binding documents by any measure. One needs only to read Article 10 of the UN Charter: …

Goldstone Mission Guilty of Hate Crime

Arab leaders will see the Goldstone Report as justification to continue to incite, inflame and encourage Palestinian Arabs to pin every problem they face as individuals …

Hardly an Excessive Demand

The weight of the evidence of so many scholars, observers, pollsters and monitors make it almost impossible to mitigate, not to mention ignore the enormity of finding a …

He Loves Me. He Loves Me Not. President George W. Bush on the Eve of his Visit to Israel

Next week, the President of the United States, George W. Bush will pay a formal visit to Israel and to the Palestinian Authority. On the eve of his arrival, the major …

Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Abuses Human Rights

Once again, a report has blamed an event almost solely on Israel while refusing to assign responsibility or even suitably investigate any other party. Unsurprisingly, a …

Illusion of Palestinian Compliance

Analysis of the apparent decrease in violence against Israel during the Palestinian Authority’s declared ceasefire, examining media coverage and documented …

Inappropriate Use of the Fourth Geneva Convention

Background The language of Article 49 was crafted in the wake of World War II and the Nazi occupation – an occupation that led to a war of aggression in which Nazi …

International Law Prohibits Using Children to Fight

Article 38 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (adopted in 1989) condemns the recruitment and involvement of children in hostilities and armed …

Is antisemitism Coming to Annapolis?

“Applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” is antisemitism.

Is Security Council Resolution 1701 Good for Israel

“War is not politics by other means”, but “represents a catastrophic failure of political skill and imagination.” Kofi Annan, Secretary-General. …

Is there no way out?

The weight of the evidence of so many scholars, observers, pollsters and monitors make it almost impossible to mitigate, not to mention ignore the enormity of finding a …

Israel 'Occupies' no Arab Territories

In urgent matters of national survival and geopolitics, words matter. The still generally unchallenged language referring provocatively to an Israeli …

Israel's 1967 Six-Day War - The Legal Aspects of Coming into Possession of the Territories

The Arab objective in the 1967 Six-Day War was to overrun and eradicate the Jewish state. That objective is very much in the minds of the majority of Palestinian Arabs - …

Israel's Declaration of Independence

The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, …

Israel's Enemies Fail to Label Israel the Aggressor

Draft resolutions attempting to brand Israel as an aggressor and illegal occupier after the 1967 Six-Day War were all defeated by either the UN General Assembly or the …

Jerusalem

Jerusalem and the Jewish people are so intertwined that telling the history of one is telling the history of the other. For more than 3,000 years, Jerusalem has played a …

Jerusalem in a Nutshell

Jerusalem’s Jewish connection dates back more than 3,000 years. Even after Jews lost control of the city in 70 CE, a Jewish spiritual and physical bond with …

Jerusalem is not Occupied Territory

Resolution 242 was adopted after the 1967 Six-Day War when Israel was attacked by and captured territory from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. However, the resolution never …

Jerusalem's Jewish Link

Jerusalem, wrote historian Sir Martin Gilbert, is not a ‘mere’ city. “It holds the central spiritual and physical place in the history of the Jews as a …

Jerusalem's Jewish Link: Historic, Religious, Political

For more than 3,000 years, the Jewish people have looked to Jerusalem as their spiritual, political, and historical capital, even when they did not physically rule over …

Jewish Palestine is the Land of Israel

The League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine established the Jewish legal right to settle throughout western Palestine between the Jordan River and the …

Jewish Peoplehood in Palestine

It is remarkable to note the April 22, 1925 Report of the first High Commissioner on the Administration of Palestine, Sir Herbert Louis Samuel describing Jewish …

Jewish Rights to Palestine Are Guaranteed by International Law

Successive Israeli governments have failed to recognize the supreme importance of the “Mandate for Palestine” [24 July, 1922] a historical League of Nations …

Jewish rights to Palestine were internationally guaranteed

Herbert Louis Samuel’s 1921 report as British High Commissioner for Palestine documented how a Jewish National Home was internationally guaranteed through the …

Jordan's Shameful Record

As recently as the mid-20th century, when Arabs last controlled parts of Jerusalem, they exhibited no respect for the Holy City. In 1948, when Jordan took control of the …

Jordan's Shameful Record & Now You are Asked to Trust the PA ...

As recently as the mid-20th century, when Arabs last controlled parts of Jerusalem, they exhibited no respect for the Holy City. In 1948, when Jordan took control of the …