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Perspectives Papers

Perspectives Papers provide analysis from BESA Center research associates and other outside experts on the most important issues pertaining to Israel and the Middle East.

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The US is on the horns of a dilemma regarding Saudi Arabia’s interest in nuclear power. Washington would like to cajole Riyadh into a deal that would strengthen non-proliferation, but the kingdom is well aware of the competitors vying for its business and is not necessarily receptive to such arguments. This is a concern for the US, which does not want a Russian or Chinese nuclear energy market to flourish in Saudi Arabia.
The University of California system has gone out of its way to protect BDS activists by shielding them from prosecution. However, recent efforts by StandWithUs and the Brandeis Center to prosecute event disruptors seem to have had a deterrent effect on BDS activity on California campuses – at least for the time being.
The “War Between Wars” is an ongoing Israeli military and intelligence effort to disrupt the force build-up of the Iranian-Shiite axis throughout the Middle East. This campaign, which has evolved into an entire force activation doctrine, has seen the Israeli defense establishment employ an approach that differentiates between Syria and Lebanon. 
The Israeli Left’s obsession with toppling PM Benjamin Netanyahu has driven it to embrace a military “dream team” bent on overthrowing a civilian ruling party. This echoes the all-too-common phenomenon of Third World military juntas seizing power to “save the nation” from “corrupt politicians.” Generals brought to power as “national saviors” in times of deep crisis have often been the harbingers of populism, authoritarianism, and fascism.
No one should be misled by the revelation that several Iraqi delegations visited Israel in 2018 into optimism about Iraqi-Israeli relations. Peace with Iraq remains very far away. Iraq is simply the next in line of Israel’s Arab neighbors who express interest in warming relations with the Jewish state when they are in distress, but have little to no intention of making peace a reality.
The anti-Semitism that is so integral to European culture developed in a dominating hostile Christian environment over more than a millennium. This provided much of the cultural infrastructure of the Holocaust, which was executed by Germans with the help of many allies. During the Enlightenment and thereafter, many leading European thinkers expressed hatred towards Jews. In recent decades, the hatred towards Jews found in European societies mutated partly into anti-Israelism, which targets the Jewish state.

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