Latest Articles

review of Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History

June 17, 2019  •  Middle East Quarterly

In February 2019, two Israelis found a 1,900-year-old coin from the time of the Jewish Bar Kochba revolt against the Romans (132-35 C.E.) in an area southwest of Jerusalem. Inscribed on one side of the coin were the words the "second year to the freedom of Israel."

This kind of evidence connecting the Jewish people to the land of Israel is exactly what Nur Masalha seeks to undermine in his new book, a dense and redundant effort to undercut what he calls "the foundational myths of Zionism."

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Trump Can't Afford to Go Soft on Turkey

May 16, 2019  •  Wall Street Journal

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan may be playing dumb, but he's not stupid.

The strongman plunked down a deposit for Russia's advanced S-400 air-defense system in December 2017—months after Congress passed a law that triggers painful U.S. sanctions on governments that purchase Russian armaments. Now Mr. Erdogan wants an exemption, and he apparently believes President Trump is inclined to give him one. Mr. Trump likely cannot do so without congressional approval. But even if he could, he shouldn't.

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The Gaza Conundrum

May 15, 2019  •  Commentary Magazine

On May 14, 2018, at the exact moment that Israel was celebrating the opening of the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, I sat across the desk from a senior Israeli official in Tel Aviv. He was in a foul mood. He looked as if he hadn't slept much. He rubbed his eyes, scratched his stubble, and blurted suddenly, "Gaza is a problem from hell."

Amid all the embassy fanfare, Israeli officials were beginning to realize the Gaza border protests that had erupted on March 30, celebrated on social media as the "Great March of Return," would not soon end. And the Israelis were finding them increasingly difficult to handle.

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From Ben-Gurion to Netanyahu: The Evolution of Israel's National Security Strategy

May 13, 2019  •  FDD Research Memo

Every White House has an official National Security Strategy (NSS) thanks to the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986. The law mandates annual revisions to the NSS, but the accepted practice is for the White House to publish a new strategy every four years. The public nature of the strategy ensures that the document is full of platitudes. Nonetheless, the requirement to produce the NSS ensures that each president's national security team conducts a thorough review of U.S. foreign and defense policy. The resulting document represents, at least in principle, the authoritative view of the commander in chief.

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Oman in the Middle: Muscat's Balancing Act Between Iran and America

May 10, 2019  •  FDD Monograph

Weapons smuggling to Houthis via Oman rank among recent concerns

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(Washington, DC, May 9, 2019) – A new report issued today by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies reviews Oman's policies, and warns that Muscat may be drawing too close to Tehran. Economic deals between the two countries and reports of Iranian weapons traversing Omani territory have caused concern in Washington and among its Gulf neighbors.

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Books by Jonathan Schanzer