Brian M Downing and the world at war. Timely, thoughtful, and nonpartisan analysis of military matters. @BrianMDowning1.
Brian M Downing This week the US opened its embassy in Jerusalem, moving it from Tel Aviv as President Trump promised. The relocation signaled the president’s disinterest in a two-state solution and support for the Israeli Right’s assimilation of the West Bank. Along the Gaza Strip in the west, Palestinian Read More …
Brian M Downing The US recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel is bringing angry protest in many parts of the world. Most of it is easing, giving way to realization that the Israeli prime minister and his Likud predecessors have outmaneuvered the Palestinians. There will be no Palestinian state Read More …
Brian M Downing Fifty years ago, shortly after Israeli paratroopers took control of Jerusalem in the Six Day War, the army’s chief rabbi asked the presiding general to blow up Muslim shrines atop the Temple Mount. This, in the rabbi’s estimation, would clear the way for rebuilding the Temple where it Read More …
Brian M Downing Armies prize discipline and respect for law and procedure. This attracts them to conservatism, at least in most of its manifestations. The American officers corps, according to Military Times polls, is staunchly conservative. Israeli generals, though, have historically supported parties across the political spectrum. Yigal Allon helped found Read More …
Israeli generals, the Palestinian question, and a growing divide Brian M Downing The matter of a Palestinian state has for the most part fallen by the wayside. Recently, however, Vladimir Putin has broached the idea of holding talks in Russia between Israel and the Palestinians. The talks will not be Read More …
Netanyahu builds up his majority – and the “iron wall”? Brian M Downing Last week Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu replaced his defense minister with Avigdor Lieberman – a conservative who has found a niche to the right of the PM. Lieberman’s public support is in the Russian immigrant community and Read More …
A review of The Unmaking of Israel by Gershom Gorenberg. (New York: Harper, 2011). ISBN-10: 0061985082. Price US$25.99, 336 pages. by Brian M Downing. Gershom Gorenberg is an American-born Israeli and longtime critic of the West Bank occupation and keen observer of the religious right in Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.1 He sees ominous trends Read More …
Brian M Downing A review essay of A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation by Jeremy Ben-Ami; and The Unmaking of Israel by Gershom Gorenberg. The entry of the moderate Kadima party into the right-wing Likud government has brought questions as to what the Read More …