From Azure, Chaim Gans (Tel Aviv): Is There a Historical Right to the Land of Israel?; Michael Oren on The Second War of Independence: Fifty years later, the lessons of the Suez War are only now becoming clear; an essay on Circumcision as Rebellion: Why Judaism rejected the decrees of Nature, Fortune, and Rome; an article on The State of Freedom and the State of Emergency; and Robert Bork reviews The Judge in a Democracy by Aharon Barak. Palestinians’ hard choice: An interview with Sari Nusseibeh, a leading Palestinian intellectual and political figure.
Mad, bad or a joker? A review of The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran. A review of Inside Hamas: the untold story of militants, martyrs and spies; Hamas: unwritten chapters; and Hamas: politics, charity and terrorism in the service of jihad. A review of Lipstick Jihad by Azadeh Moaveni and Warring Souls by Roxanne Varzi.
Kevin Drum reviews The Infernal Machine: A History of Terrorism by Matthew Carr and The Matador's Cape: America's Reckless Response to Terror by Stephen Holmes. Londonistan Calling: From the shoe-bomber to the July 2005 suicide attacks, terrorism has an unlikely new player: the British jihadist. Returning to the London streets of his youth, Christopher Hitchens finds a breeding ground for Islamic radicalism, in a country that may have to rethink its multicultural ideals (and an interview).
From New Statesman, a special issue on Tony Blair, 1997-2007: The Reckoning. What makes Tony Blair tick, and what he stands for, have eluded all his biographers. Will the prime minister, who rose without a trace, now leave none behind him? A purple patch on how politicians earn their keep by Max Weber.
Sex and foreign aid: The lessons learned from a high-level administration official's resignation in the D.C. Madam scandal. An Elite Escort Service: Washington is on edge as names of the clients of accused D.C. Madam Deborah Palfrey begin trickling out. But the women who worked for her might surprise you: college grads, white-collar professionals, even military personnel. He’s impeachable, you know: The power to impeach civil officers like Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is at bottom a tool granted Congress to defend the constitutional order; and Two Parties, One Law: Whatever happens to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the taint of politics will remain. That’s why the only real solution is to depoliticize the Justice Department.
The Economist begins a series on the main presidential contenders for 2008, starting with Rudy Giuliani. From USA Today, here are 5 reasons the GOP faces an uphill climb in '08. A review of The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution and Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time by Chuck Schumer. Bob Kerrey, Unbound: The former Senator has some questions about Rudy’s security credentials and likes Obama’s name. And on reforming disloyal Democrats: Ari Melber reports on how unions and Internet activists are joining forces to reform the Democratic Party from the ground up through "Work for Us"
