Excerpt:
"What these commentators are picking up on is not an exact parallel to any one event of the 1930s—hence their scattershot of historical analogies. Instead, what they are picking up on is a sense of the overall direction of world events: we are clearly headed toward a much larger, bloodier conflict in the Middle East, but no one wants to acknowledge it, prepare for it, or begin to fight it….

"Whatever their other faults, commentators on the right…have demonstrated two important virtues: they are capable of learning from events—and they are eager to be on the forefront of opposition to dictatorship. They are starting to see that Iran is today’s equivalent to Nazi Germany—and they all want to be Churchill.

"The left also senses the impending war, but they have a very different reaction. Their favorite analogy is not the prelude to World War II, but the beginning of World War I.

"It is widely acknowledged that World War II was made far more horrible by the years in which free nations appeased Hitler, allowing him to strengthen his armies before he took over Europe. That analogy lends itself to one conclusion: the sooner we attack Iran, the better.

"World War I, by contrast, is widely regarded as the result of a giant, tragic mistake, a failure of diplomacy in which the great powers of Europe, seeking a network of alliances that would guarantee a 'balance of power,' instead trapped themselves into a senseless war…."

• The Suicide Bomb Society

by Robert Tracinski

Like East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War, Israel and the Palestinian territories are side-by-side laboratories—not for opposing political systems, but for opposing moral systems.

Excerpt:
"In early July, a poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media Communications Center found that 77% of Palestinians supported the Hamas kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, the provocation that had recently led to a new Israeli offensive in Gaza. 'Significantly,' the Jerusalem Post noted, 'this high support for the abduction comes in spite of the fact that the majority of respondents…expect the crisis to end with losses incurred by the Palestinian side…. The poll also found that support for Hamas has increased despite international sanctions and the growing violence.'

"Such decisions are driven, not by any hidden ulterior motive or long-term strategic calculation, but by a simple moral imperative: the morality of self-sacrifice….

"As with the Cold War examples of East Berlin and West Berlin, the Palestinian territories and Israel offer side-by-side laboratories for opposing moralities.

"As in the Cold War, this side-by-side contrast is merely a microcosm for the contrast between two larger civilizations and their central powers: America on the one side, and Iran on the other…."

• Where Are We Going?

by Robert Tracinski

Two very different films, The Da Vinci Code and Art School Confidential, seemingly criticizing opposite ends of the contemporary cultural spectrum, both reveal the same thing about where our culture is—and isn't—going.

Excerpt:
"For two centuries, since the intellectuals' counter-revolution against the Enlightenment, we have been offered a false alternative: old-fashioned religious dogma—or 'modern' social subjectivism. The Da Vinci Code superficially rejects one half of that alternative, while Art School Confidential satirizes the other half. But neither one offers us a vision of the real alternative: a secular philosophy of reason.

"What does this imply about where our culture is going?..."