Israel finds itself increasingly under political attack these days and friends of Israel understand that actual Israeli behavior is not the driving factor. We are seeing warfare against the existence of the Jewish State by non-military means. Israel is a stable, democratic, and free country. It is a bastion of personal, civil, and religious freedoms in a region increasingly hostile to all three. It is, as is often said, “A light to the nations.” Americans by and large agree—in a recent Gallup poll they ranked Israel as their sixth favorite country behind Canada, Great Britain, Germany, France, and India. Nice company.
The Spring 2015 issue of inFOCUS spotlights a broader Israel than you find in the daily press. We are especially pleased to have Sen. Rob Portman write on the U.S.-Israel security relationship and a terrific interview with Sen. Tom Cotton.
We also highlight MG (res.) Amos Yadlin and Uri Sadot‘s essay on the continuing relevance of Zionism, the homeland movement of the Jewish people. Shachar Zahavi and Yael Eshel of IsrAID find that people in the developing world see a different side of Israel. Security issues are addressed by Ambassador Dore Gold and former Israeli National Security Advisor MG (res.) Yaakov Amidror. Grant Rumley of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Eric Rozenman of CAMERA take on the related issues of “lawfare” and “hasbara,” two words essential to making sense of Israel’s position in the world. Dan Catarivas, Tommy Steiner, and Prof. Meron Medzini cover Israel’s trade and security relations with Europe and China. Prof. Norman Bailey discusses the energy situation off Israel’s coast. Shoshana Bryen’s review of Joshua Muravchik’s Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned against Israel helps explain the steamroller of current anti-Israel opinion.
I encourage you to make a contribution to the Jewish Policy Center. As always, you can use our secure site: www.jewishpolicycenter.org/contribute.php
Sincerely,
Matthew Brooks,
Executive Director
