The Berlin Jewish Museum’s Anti-Israel Problem

In March, the Berlin Jewish Museum hosted an Iranian diplomat who received a private tour, met with the museum’s director, and made a pronouncement about the importance of distinguishing anti-Semitism from anti-Zionism. This is not the first time in the past few years that the museum has ignited controversy by inviting committed enemies of the Jewish state. More recently, the museum’s official Twitter account appeared to oppose recent German legislation declaring the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction (BDS) the Jewish state a form of anti-Semitism. As a result of fierce criticism from the German Jewish community, the museum’s director—the distinguished scholar of ancient Judaism Peter Schäfer, who is not himself a Jew—has resigned. Manfred Gerstenfeld comments:

The position [of the museum’s director] has many complex political and managerial aspects and Schäfer, primarily a scholar, never should have accepted it. It requires an experienced manager with profound political understanding and instincts who is able to operate in what is for German Jews a highly problematic reality.

There are many topics that merit attention or even exhibitions by a Jewish museum in Berlin, but are [nowadays] taboo. For example: the mutation over the years of murderous anti-Semitism against Jews in Nazi Germany into the massive demonization of Israel in contemporary Germany. This expresses itself in the frequent comparisons of Israel’s actions against the Palestinians with those of the Nazis toward the Jews. Another exhibition could compare the modern-day Arab demonization of Israel and the Jews with that conducted by the Nazis. . . .

There are very different possible subjects of exhibitions as well, such as the role of the church in creating the infrastructure for persecution in Germany and how much of that survives in the current German Christian environment. . . . When the day comes that the Jewish Museum organizes such exhibitions, we will know the messianic age is dawning.

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More about: German Jewry, Germany, Jewish museums

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF