Martin Kramer, at The Blogs

Dec 5, 2023, 11:30 AM

Yom Kippur to Iraq: Wars in Years Ending in ’3

Image created by DALL-E, OpenAI’s image generation model.

Both had profound political consequences for the politics of Israel and the US, as will the present conflict

Nov 13, 2023, 11:59 AM

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting, Jerusalem, November 18, 2012. Kobi Gideon, Government Press Office.

He electioneered on a promise to topple Hamas, but abandoned the pledge when casualty forecasts made it too politically risky

Oct 26, 2023, 6:50 AM

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The Nazi case for Hamas

Executions of Jews by German army mobile killing units (Einsatzgruppen), Ukraine, 1942. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

The logic equating the October 7 murders with civilian deaths in Gaza was tested in Nuremberg in the '40s. It was rejected without hesitation

Sep 26, 2023, 11:30 PM

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Golda Meir’s filtration system

Her selective hearing – and not just hers – had calamitous consequences for Israel: There's a lesson in that for today

Apr 25, 2023, 10:01 AM

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Israel from 25 to 75: The lesson is perpetual vigilance

Five months after the hubris of a giant military parade, the country faced an existential war: Today's pensive mood is reassuring

Jan 5, 2023, 10:16 PM

Barbara Walters, impresario of peace

Barbara Walters interviews Menachem Begin in Washington, April 17, 1980. Credit: Moshe Milner, Government Press Office.

Celebrity journalist Barbara Walters, who died last Friday at the age of 93, owed much of her fame to her interviews with Middle Eastern leaders. These included the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein, Mu‘ammar Qaddhafi, King Hussein of Jordan,...

Dec 2, 2022, 12:30 PM

Israel boycotters convene in Denver

Rally to boycott Israel, Columbus, Ohio, summer 2021. (Becker1999, Wikimedia Commons)

As you read this, the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is meeting in its annual conference, the first since its membership passed a resolution calling for the academic boycott of Israeli universities. These universities, so the resolution claims, are “imbricated” by “their provision...

Apr 1, 2022, 6:13 PM

Honey, they shrunk MESA

The membership of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has endorsed a resolution to boycott Israeli academe. The general referendum took place over nearly two months, and the final count came to 768 for a boycott, 167 against. My longtime readers won’t...

Nov 20, 2021, 12:52 AM

Ardeshir Zahedi: legend and lesson

Pahlavi Iran’s last ambassador to the United States, Ardeshir Zahedi, who died on Thursday at the age of 93, was nothing short of legendary. He was arguably the most flamboyant foreign ambassador in the history of Washington, an icon...

Jan 20, 2021, 11:11 AM

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Repudiated presidents and Israel

Some of the worst leaders of the American people, at least according to the usual measures of presidential success, have been the most effective allies of the Jewish state

About Me

Martin Kramer is a historian of the Middle East at Tel Aviv University and the Walter P. Stern fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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