The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dizzyingly complicated. In this talk, Elan Journo — author of an upcoming book on the conflict and America's stake in it — looks at how intellectuals conceptualize and debate the issue, and spotlights the distinctive value of an Objectivist perspective on it.
In the months since I released the first episode of my Rise & Fall podcast, focusing on Islamic totalitarianism, there have been several terrorist attacks around the world perpetrated by Islamic totalitarians.
In this talk, Elan Journo explores how today’s widespread acceptance of determinism leaves many people unable to grasp what a truly self-interested foreign policy in the Middle East would consist of.
Was President Trump right or wrong in deciding to bomb a Syrian airfield in retaliation for the government’s use of chemical weapons against citizens? When a similar question arose in 2013 on President Obama’s watch, Ayn Rand Institute executive chairman Yaron Brook recorded this prescient video, questioning whether the use of chemical weapons threatens American interests.
The Iranian Hostage Crisis, the Salman Rushdie Affair, September 11th and the Charlie Hebdo Massacre. Are we in the Western world doomed to more and more attacks by Islamic totalitarians? And what can anyone do about it? The answer might surprise you.
When people hear it said that Islam is America’s philosophical enemy, they often recoil at the mistaken implication that the police may therefore arrest anyone who adheres to that religion. But there is a crucial distinction, argues Peter Schwartz, between a philosophical enemy and a political enemy.
Two peoples. One piece of land. No wonder there’s a conflict, right? But what if this common perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is wrong? What if this view of the conflict obscures more than it explains? What if it distorts our understanding, rather than helps unravel the conflict?
When you look around the globe, the Islamist movement is far from defeated. On the contrary. The movement is strong materially, in its ability to inflict harm, to control territory, to subjugate people. And, what’s more significant: it is strong in its morale, exhibiting an astounding confidence.
In this interview, ARI’s Elan Journo assesses America’s deal with Iran. Among other things, he discusses the futility of trying to contain Iran’s nuclear program without addressing the broader threat of the Iranian regime, the need to recognize the ideological goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Obama administration’s false alternative between diplomacy and war.
