How Russia Plays All Sides of the Middle East’s Power Struggles, and Wins
Relishing frozen conflicts and divided countries.
March 31, 2021
Remembering an American Scholar-Diplomat Who Saw the True Imbalance in the Arab-Israeli Conflict
International pressure on Israel to concede, without pressure on the Palestinians to match Israeli concessions.
On Saturday, the diplomat, scholar, and teacher Charles Hill died at the age of eighty-four. During his long career in public service, he served as an aide to Henry Kissinger and George P. Shultz; he was also deputy director of the State Department’s Israel desk before serving as political counselor to the American embassy in Tel Aviv, then director of Israel and Arabi-Israeli affairs, and after that deputy assistant secretary for the Middle East. A reminiscence by the Mosaic contributor Eric Edelman can be found here; some recent articles by Hill here; and Hill’s reflections on war and human nature here. In this 2019 essay on the idea of “balance” in the Arab-Israeli conflict, Hill saw far beyond the usual complaints that the U.S. needs to take a more “balanced” approach to the Israeli-Arab conflict:
March 31, 2021
The New Immigrants to Israel Aren’t Fleeing Persecution but Seeking Opportunity
The post-coronavirus aliyah?
Remembering an American Scholar-Diplomat Who Saw the True Imbalance in the Arab-Israeli Conflict
International pressure on Israel to concede, without pressure on the Palestinians to match Israeli concessions.
Too Many Historians Have Ignored or Downplayed the Role of the Bible in American Public Life
Aided by biblical illiteracy.
To a Leading Critic, Both American-Jewish and Israeli Literature Express Deep Ambivalences
The blessing and the curse.