Latest Articles

The Prospect of U.S. Sanctions Exacerbates Turkey's Political and Economic Risks

April 1, 2019  •  FDD Memo

Turkey is experiencing one of the worst economic downturns in its history. Following the record devaluation of the lira, which lost 28 percent of its value in 2018,1 the Turkish economy is now in recession for the first time in a decade.2 GDP per capita slipped to $9,632, cancelling all gains made since 2007.14

Turkey's Support for Venezuela

Since 2017, Ankara and Caracas have inked major cooperation agreements on defense and commerce. As a result, the bilateral trade volume grew tenfold, mainly due to Venezuelan gold exports. In 2018, Turkey imported some $900 million worth of precious metals from Venezuela.15

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Trump Calls for Israeli Sovereignty over Golan Heights

March 21, 2019  •  FDD Policy Brief

President Trump wrote on Twitter this afternoon, "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights." The announcement has been jeered by critics of the administration, but there is less controversy than meets the eye.

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Terrorism (The Definitional Debate)

Summer 2019  •  Israel Studies

INTRODUCTION

In 1995, Victor LeVine of Washington University in St. Louis penned an article in the journal Terrorism and Political Violence on the "logomachy" of terrorism. A logomachy is a "dispute about or concerning words", and no word has sparked more dispute in recent years than "terrorism". The definitional debate has only increased in the years after the September 11, 2001 attacks, as the field of terrorism studies has grown. Yet, an unanimously agreed-upon, meaningful, and universal definition of the act remains elusive.

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Trump's Subtlety Could Yield Middle East Peace

March 13, 2019  •  Wall Street Journal

The "deal of the century"—the Trump administration's long-awaited Mideast peace deal—could be coming as soon as next month. But not much has been announced about its contents. For that reason, most regional leaders have withheld support for the plan. Yet the administration's secrecy, and its tendency to eschew the traditional fanfare of peacemaking, may give President Trump a leg up on his predecessors.

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Why has Human Rights Watch become an anti-Israel activist group?

February 4, 2019  •  Washington Examiner

When Airbnb, the online lodging service, announced in November that it would ban Israeli listings in the disputed West Bank, hardcore anti-Israel groups took an undeserved victory lap. Surprisingly, though, the credit belongs to Human Rights Watch, an nongovernmental organization with seemingly no reason to enter into the circus of anti-Israel activism.

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Books by Jonathan Schanzer