Indispensable Reading on Israel

Every once in a while we read an article that we really want to share with other readers. Twice now it has happened with something published by the BESA [Begin-Sadat] Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel. (For disclosure, our Institute of Post Communist Studies and Terrorism (jvlv.net) has also produced articles for BESA.)

Most recently, BESA ran an article, “ Israel is Real,” that has created a stir by dealing with historical criticism from within and without Israel. The article’s author, Dr. Jose V. Ciprot, a conflict specialist dealing with social systems and international politics, posits Israel as a country where every topic “continues to be thoroughly debated.”.Specifically, he refers to an archeologist Ze’ev Herzog who, “after 70 years of digging across the land of Israel,” concluded “that the Israelites were never in Egypt, had not wandered in the desert, and did not conquer the land in a military campaign to pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel." Surprisingly, Christians and Muslims are more outraged with Dr. Ciprot than the Jews.

Despite addressing the possible inaccuracy of Biblical history, Ciprot nevertheless fully justifies the Jewish State of Israel and explains the numerous ways and methods in which those less open to self examination have denigrated the Jews and distorted history throughout the ages.

It’s a thoughtful piece and deserves to be read at https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/israel-is-real/

Leni Friedman Valenta is a graduate cum laude of Brandeis University and an honors graduate in playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. Among her plays is a historical one, The Fortress, about Benedict Arnold, winner of a New Jersey play writing award and production. Dr. Jiri Valenta, a much-published author, is a long-standing member of the Council on Foreign Relations, N.Y., with specialties in international relations, Russia and East European Studies and Terrorism. The two have worked as a writing team since 2005 on numerous published articles. They have contributed in the past to Forward, the Jewish Journal and Mischpacha. Their website is The Institute of Post Communist Studies and Terrorism, reachable at jvlv.net.