Liberman's first challenge Last week, a mob of 300 Muslim men in southern Egypt stripped a 70-year-old Christian woman naked and paraded her through

         
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Liberman's first challenge

Avigdor-Lieberman-Netanyahu

Last week, a mob of 300 Muslim men in southern Egypt stripped a 70-year-old Christian woman naked and paraded her through the streets.

This Islamist atrocity came a few days before an EgyptAir flight from Paris exploded in the skies near Alexandria. It was the second passenger jet bombed by jihadists in Egypt in recent months.

Egypt is hanging on by a thread. Like the attack that downed a Russian passenger jet over Sinai last October, this week’s attack is likely the work of an Egyptian airport employee. It is yet more proof that nearly three years after the military deposed the Muslim Brotherhood’s jihadist government, the Brotherhood’s supporters remain seeded throughout the country and are capable of threatening the regime and the very survival of the Egyptian state.

It isn’t in the least surprising that Islamists have this power. Most Egyptians support them.

In the parliamentary elections four-and-a-half years ago, Islamists won more than 65 percent of the vote. Those were the most open elections in Egyptian history.

Given their strength, it is far from certain that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will long succeed in preventing the most powerful and populous country in the Arab world from becoming another branch of Islamic State.

From Israel’s perspective, how this battle pans out is of pivotal importance. But you wouldn’t know it from the media – or from our national security leaders.

As far as they are concerned, the gravest threat facing Israel is the Israeli Right.

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The Koch Brothers Meet the Crackpots

kochbros

It’s no secret that American society and its political parties are in the midst of a period of profound instability. The presidential primaries revealed once again the vast ideological divide separating conservatives and liberals. They also revealed the yawning gap between primary voters in both parties and the parties’ leadership.

On issue after issue, from taxes to bathrooms to what it means to be an American, the cleavages in American society continue to expand.

Yet, to date, through the storm, one certainty has remained. American support for Israel has stood the test of the times.

As a Pew survey published two weeks ago showed, yet again, the majority support that Israel enjoys from the American people continues to hold strong. The most significant pillar of that support is the 75 percent of Republicans who strongly back Israel.

On the Democratic side, the situation is significantly less reassuring, but acceptable in light of the near-consensus support Israel enjoys from Republicans.

Democrats support Israel 43 to 29 percent.

But while on the surface everything seems fine, just below it, we discover that all is not well on the Republican front. The instability rocking American society has not left Republican support for Israel unscathed.

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Hillel's moment of truth

BDSHILLEL

Two wars today are being waged against Jewish students on American university campuses. One is substantive, the other is institutional. The plight of the Jews at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island is emblematic of both.

The purpose of the substantive war is to deny Jews their freedom as Jews. As the guarantor of Jewish freedom, Israel is the subject of a systematic, multidimensional assault, carried out everywhere on campuses.

On a growing number of campuses in the United States, the only Jews who can safely express their views on Israel are those who champion Israel’s destruction.

Those who support Israel are subjected to continuous harassment by their fellow students.

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