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Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad
Islamic supremacism, European cultural disaggregation, American vacillation, and Israeli timidity and confusion. These are the main social contexts that inform political and strategic developments of global and national affairs in our times. In her biweekly commentaries, Caroline B. Glick, the formidable Jerusalem Post columnist, highlights these underlying trends while analyzing events as they unfold both globally and in Israel. This extraordinary collection of her probing and eloquent work is a must read for all who care about winning the war against the multifarious forces of global jihad.
448 pages, Hardcover
First published April 20, 2008
17 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Caroline B. Glick
5 books34 followersAbout Caroline B. Glick
(from her website)
I grew up in Chicago’s ultra-liberal Hyde Park neighborhood. Hyde Park’s most famous resident is Barack Obama.
I made aliyah to Israel in 1991, two weeks after receiving my BA in Political Science from another radical liberal stronghold — Columbia University in New York, otherwise known as Beir Zeit on the Hudson.
I joined the Israel Defense Forces that summer and served as an officer for five and a half years.
From 1994-1996, as an IDF captain, I served as Coordinator of Negotiations with the PLO in the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In this capacity I was a core member of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians.
In 1997 and 1998 I served as assistant foreign policy advisor Binyamin Netayahu during his first stint as Prime Minister.
From 1998-2000 I returned to the US for graduate school. I received a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Although I spent most of my free time hiking in New England, it did not escape my attention that much of the faculty at the Kennedy School was not particularly fond of America, (Alinsky’s organizing methods were taught in a required first year course for MPP candidates) — or of Israel.
The latter truth was exposed for all the world to see when my former professor Steve Walt co-wrote the updated version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion with his friend from my childhood hometown – University of Chicago’s John Mearshimer.
After I finished graduate school I returned to Israel and began writing at Makor Rishon newspaper, (Hebrew). I served as chief diplomatic commentator and edited magazine supplements on strategic issues for Makor Rishon until 2007.
In March 2002, I accepted the position of Deputy Managing Editor of The Jerusalem Post. At the Post I write two weekly columns. These columns are regularly syndicated. My current title is Senior Contributing Editor.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, I covered the US-led war in Iraq as an embedded journalist with the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Reporting for the Post, Maariv, Israel TV’s Channel 2 and the Chicago Sun Times, I was one of the only female journalists on the front lines with the US forces and the first Israeli journalist to report from liberated Baghdad.
My writings, which have also been published in major US periodicals, journals and newspapers and online publications focus on the strategic, cultural and political issues challenging the Israel and the United States.
From 2004-2012 I served as the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC.
In 2012 I joined the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles as the Director of the Center’s Israel Security Project. I remain the Center for Security Policy’s adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs. In both capacities, I travel regularly to Washington to brief senior officials and members of Congress on issues of joint Israeli-American concern. I also lecture widely throughout the US and Canada.
If you would like to have me speak to your community, please email me at caroline@carolineglick.com and I’ll be happy to try to schedule it during my travels in North America.
In 2009, I founded the Hebrew-language satirical media criticism website Latma, (latma.co.il). Latma uses satire to critique the Israeli and Western media’s radical leftist bias. The concept guiding Latma is that the main reason the Left is able to force Western societies to agree to its crazy policies is because the Left controls popular culture, and through that control, leftists dictate what is cool and what is not, and what is socially acceptable and what is not. That power in turn intimidates people into accepting policies and positions that they oppose morally and intellectually.
In its Israeli Independence Day supplement in 2003, Ma’ariv named me th
(from her website)
I grew up in Chicago’s ultra-liberal Hyde Park neighborhood. Hyde Park’s most famous resident is Barack Obama.
I made aliyah to Israel in 1991, two weeks after receiving my BA in Political Science from another radical liberal stronghold — Columbia University in New York, otherwise known as Beir Zeit on the Hudson.
I joined the Israel Defense Forces that summer and served as an officer for five and a half years.
From 1994-1996, as an IDF captain, I served as Coordinator of Negotiations with the PLO in the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In this capacity I was a core member of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians.
In 1997 and 1998 I served as assistant foreign policy advisor Binyamin Netayahu during his first stint as Prime Minister.
From 1998-2000 I returned to the US for graduate school. I received a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Although I spent most of my free time hiking in New England, it did not escape my attention that much of the faculty at the Kennedy School was not particularly fond of America, (Alinsky’s organizing methods were taught in a required first year course for MPP candidates) — or of Israel.
The latter truth was exposed for all the world to see when my former professor Steve Walt co-wrote the updated version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion with his friend from my childhood hometown – University of Chicago’s John Mearshimer.
After I finished graduate school I returned to Israel and began writing at Makor Rishon newspaper, (Hebrew). I served as chief diplomatic commentator and edited magazine supplements on strategic issues for Makor Rishon until 2007.
In March 2002, I accepted the position of Deputy Managing Editor of The Jerusalem Post. At the Post I write two weekly columns. These columns are regularly syndicated. My current title is Senior Contributing Editor.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, I covered the US-led war in Iraq as an embedded journalist with the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division. Reporting for the Post, Maariv, Israel TV’s Channel 2 and the Chicago Sun Times, I was one of the only female journalists on the front lines with the US forces and the first Israeli journalist to report from liberated Baghdad.
My writings, which have also been published in major US periodicals, journals and newspapers and online publications focus on the strategic, cultural and political issues challenging the Israel and the United States.
From 2004-2012 I served as the senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC.
In 2012 I joined the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles as the Director of the Center’s Israel Security Project. I remain the Center for Security Policy’s adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs. In both capacities, I travel regularly to Washington to brief senior officials and members of Congress on issues of joint Israeli-American concern. I also lecture widely throughout the US and Canada.
If you would like to have me speak to your community, please email me at caroline@carolineglick.com and I’ll be happy to try to schedule it during my travels in North America.
In 2009, I founded the Hebrew-language satirical media criticism website Latma, (latma.co.il). Latma uses satire to critique the Israeli and Western media’s radical leftist bias. The concept guiding Latma is that the main reason the Left is able to force Western societies to agree to its crazy policies is because the Left controls popular culture, and through that control, leftists dictate what is cool and what is not, and what is socially acceptable and what is not. That power in turn intimidates people into accepting policies and positions that they oppose morally and intellectually.
In its Israeli Independence Day supplement in 2003, Ma’ariv named me th
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 23, 2008
The Shackled Warrior by Caroline Glick
In The Shackled Warrior, author Caroline Glick has collected many of her countless articles and essays on Israel and Jihad. Many if not all of the material has appeared in the Jerusalem Post and deals with the problems that face Israel daily from the Palestinians to corruption in the leadership of the government. Many of these problems also face the rest of the west whether they recognize it or not.
The collection of essays is very assertive in the dangers that are faced by ignoring the problems that are currently Israel’s but are forming against the rest of the civilized west. Our inability to publicly identify the evil that comes our way only allows that evil to spread faster and stronger. The unwillingness of those elected to face the problem is so problematic that she devotes several essays to the topic.
As for the collection, there are a few problems. Firstly, the book lacks context. While it is arranged by subject and then by date, the lack of explanatory notes leaves the reader lost, especially on Israeli domestic issues that may have not been covered by the US media. The book would be much more powerful with these notes, which would then allow the reader to be further swayed by the lucid writing. Along with the notes, a time line and a little bit of Israel history would be helpful for others.
Overall, I found this book to be a treasure trove of needed information and a great source of intellectual reading. Glick is truly one of the best working journalists in Israel and her work is always informative and powerful. By collecting her works into one volume, the reader is allowed to see how these issues do not change over time. It is sad to say, but there truly is a stagnate aspect to the Middle East and its problems.
In The Shackled Warrior, author Caroline Glick has collected many of her countless articles and essays on Israel and Jihad. Many if not all of the material has appeared in the Jerusalem Post and deals with the problems that face Israel daily from the Palestinians to corruption in the leadership of the government. Many of these problems also face the rest of the west whether they recognize it or not.
The collection of essays is very assertive in the dangers that are faced by ignoring the problems that are currently Israel’s but are forming against the rest of the civilized west. Our inability to publicly identify the evil that comes our way only allows that evil to spread faster and stronger. The unwillingness of those elected to face the problem is so problematic that she devotes several essays to the topic.
As for the collection, there are a few problems. Firstly, the book lacks context. While it is arranged by subject and then by date, the lack of explanatory notes leaves the reader lost, especially on Israeli domestic issues that may have not been covered by the US media. The book would be much more powerful with these notes, which would then allow the reader to be further swayed by the lucid writing. Along with the notes, a time line and a little bit of Israel history would be helpful for others.
Overall, I found this book to be a treasure trove of needed information and a great source of intellectual reading. Glick is truly one of the best working journalists in Israel and her work is always informative and powerful. By collecting her works into one volume, the reader is allowed to see how these issues do not change over time. It is sad to say, but there truly is a stagnate aspect to the Middle East and its problems.
October 14, 2013
Neocon Nonsense
(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program.)
At first glance, journalist Caroline Glick seems well-suited to author a book on the so-called “global war on terror”, particularly Israel’s piece in the puzzle. Born in the United States and educated at Columbia and Harvard Universities, she immigrated to Israel in 1991, where she joined the Israel Defense Force and served as “a core member of Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians during the Oslo peace process.” Subsequently, Ms. Glick also served as assistant foreign policy advisor to PM Binyamin Netanyahu. Currently she is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC., as well as the deputy managing editor of THE JERUSALEM POST (to which she contributes two weekly syndicated columns), and the chief diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s MAKOR RISHON newspaper (which publishes a weekly column of Ms. Glick’s in Hebrew).* THE SHACKLED WARRIOR: ISRAEL AND THE GLOBAL JIHAD is a collection of Ms. Glick’s columns, culled from the pages of THE JERUSALEM POST from 2002 to the present.
Unfortunately, Ms. Glick’s considerable knowledge and experience is dwarfed by her black-or-white, “you’re either with us or against us” world perspective. Like most neoconservatives, Ms. Glick has yet to advance beyond Piaget’s concrete operational stage of cognitive development. To wit: she seems incapable of anything but dichotomous thinking.
For example, take the following passage (from the column “Politically Correct Perfidy”, dated September 11, 2006).
The setup: Harvard University students are protesting a scheduled visit from former Iranian president Muhammad Khatami, who was invited to speak at the school by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The same week, VP Dick Cheney had to scurry through the back door of the Harvard Club in Boston in order to avoid a few hundred angry protesters.
Glick blasts Harvard for extending an invitation to Khatami; doubly so, their failure to schedule a two-person debate rather than an uninterrupted monologue.** She then wonders,
“[H]ad a debate between him [Khatami] and Cheney been organized, it would have been interesting to see which side the protestors outside of the Harvard Club in Boston would have supported.”
Because, ya know, you just can’t detest two fascist, murderous regimes simultaneously.
Seriously, though, as a self-described liberal/progressive, I think equating Bush/Cheney with the likes of Hitler is misguided hyperbole at best. Even so, I do consider BushCo war criminals, and both the VP and the President ought to be impeached. That doesn’t, however, mean that I must automatically support Khatami (along with the likes of Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, radical Islamists, suicide bombers, and other assorted bigots who would kill and oppress the Other in order to gain power and/or advance their particular strain of superstition). Again, this “you’re either with us or against us” dubya speak is the kind of egotistical blather that lost us the hearts and minds of most of the world – allies and “damsels in distress” alike.
In addition to this black-and-white “reasoning”, Ms. Glick dons the blinders when it comes to seeing any possible negative consequences on the “War on Terror”.
In the Preface, she writes,
“The forces of jihad – whether comprised of states actors or non-state actors – are the enemy in this war. Consequently, anything that advances jihad’s aim of Islamic domination is antithetical to the interests of the free world. Anything that harms that cause advances the interests of human liberty and freedom.”
In two tidy sentences, Ms. Glick has justified torture, indefinite detention, warantless wiretapping, and countless other violations of civil liberties. “Anything that harms jihad advances the interests of human liberty and freedom.” The terrorists hate us because we’re free – so let’s not exercise our freedoms, or the terrorists win! Jonah Goldberg? Is that you?
Not to mention, half the Iraqi population is female. Female humans. Female humans who have seen their rights steadily eroded since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But, again true to neocon think, I guess they don’t count since they have lady bits and all.
Aside from the actual content of the book, I was also dissatisfied with the format. The bulk of the book is columns that have previously appeared in THE JERUSALEM POST. They’re arranged by topic into ten chapters, and then chronologically within each chapter. The only new material is the book’s preface, meant to introduce the compilation. With no chapter intros to string the individual columns together, the book simply doesn’t flow well. Additionally, the columns are presented without context; unless the reader is intimately familiar with everyday happenings in the Middle East, it’s sometimes challenging to read the topic as part of a larger narrative. Some background information, where appropriate, would have been much appreciated.
All in all, I can sum up my review with one pithy statement: Why buy the book when you can (not) read the neocon nonsense for free? ***
* Information gathered from Amazon’s THE SHACKLED WARRIOR listing, as well as Wikipedia’s entry on “Caroline Glick”.
** When the current Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was similarly invited to speak at Columbia University on September 24, 2007, this format worked out wonderfully: given the chance to spout off, Ahmadinejad’s rants no doubt taught the students in attendance much about the hard-line leader’s warped worldview. “No homosexuals in Iran”? Indeed.
*** Google the individual columns to read them online – or take a shortcut right to TownHall, the epicenter of right wing neocon nonsense.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2008/03/24/...
(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Library Thing's Early Reviewer program.)
At first glance, journalist Caroline Glick seems well-suited to author a book on the so-called “global war on terror”, particularly Israel’s piece in the puzzle. Born in the United States and educated at Columbia and Harvard Universities, she immigrated to Israel in 1991, where she joined the Israel Defense Force and served as “a core member of Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians during the Oslo peace process.” Subsequently, Ms. Glick also served as assistant foreign policy advisor to PM Binyamin Netanyahu. Currently she is a Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC., as well as the deputy managing editor of THE JERUSALEM POST (to which she contributes two weekly syndicated columns), and the chief diplomatic correspondent for Israel’s MAKOR RISHON newspaper (which publishes a weekly column of Ms. Glick’s in Hebrew).* THE SHACKLED WARRIOR: ISRAEL AND THE GLOBAL JIHAD is a collection of Ms. Glick’s columns, culled from the pages of THE JERUSALEM POST from 2002 to the present.
Unfortunately, Ms. Glick’s considerable knowledge and experience is dwarfed by her black-or-white, “you’re either with us or against us” world perspective. Like most neoconservatives, Ms. Glick has yet to advance beyond Piaget’s concrete operational stage of cognitive development. To wit: she seems incapable of anything but dichotomous thinking.
For example, take the following passage (from the column “Politically Correct Perfidy”, dated September 11, 2006).
The setup: Harvard University students are protesting a scheduled visit from former Iranian president Muhammad Khatami, who was invited to speak at the school by Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. The same week, VP Dick Cheney had to scurry through the back door of the Harvard Club in Boston in order to avoid a few hundred angry protesters.
Glick blasts Harvard for extending an invitation to Khatami; doubly so, their failure to schedule a two-person debate rather than an uninterrupted monologue.** She then wonders,
“[H]ad a debate between him [Khatami] and Cheney been organized, it would have been interesting to see which side the protestors outside of the Harvard Club in Boston would have supported.”
Because, ya know, you just can’t detest two fascist, murderous regimes simultaneously.
Seriously, though, as a self-described liberal/progressive, I think equating Bush/Cheney with the likes of Hitler is misguided hyperbole at best. Even so, I do consider BushCo war criminals, and both the VP and the President ought to be impeached. That doesn’t, however, mean that I must automatically support Khatami (along with the likes of Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, radical Islamists, suicide bombers, and other assorted bigots who would kill and oppress the Other in order to gain power and/or advance their particular strain of superstition). Again, this “you’re either with us or against us” dubya speak is the kind of egotistical blather that lost us the hearts and minds of most of the world – allies and “damsels in distress” alike.
In addition to this black-and-white “reasoning”, Ms. Glick dons the blinders when it comes to seeing any possible negative consequences on the “War on Terror”.
In the Preface, she writes,
“The forces of jihad – whether comprised of states actors or non-state actors – are the enemy in this war. Consequently, anything that advances jihad’s aim of Islamic domination is antithetical to the interests of the free world. Anything that harms that cause advances the interests of human liberty and freedom.”
In two tidy sentences, Ms. Glick has justified torture, indefinite detention, warantless wiretapping, and countless other violations of civil liberties. “Anything that harms jihad advances the interests of human liberty and freedom.” The terrorists hate us because we’re free – so let’s not exercise our freedoms, or the terrorists win! Jonah Goldberg? Is that you?
Not to mention, half the Iraqi population is female. Female humans. Female humans who have seen their rights steadily eroded since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But, again true to neocon think, I guess they don’t count since they have lady bits and all.
Aside from the actual content of the book, I was also dissatisfied with the format. The bulk of the book is columns that have previously appeared in THE JERUSALEM POST. They’re arranged by topic into ten chapters, and then chronologically within each chapter. The only new material is the book’s preface, meant to introduce the compilation. With no chapter intros to string the individual columns together, the book simply doesn’t flow well. Additionally, the columns are presented without context; unless the reader is intimately familiar with everyday happenings in the Middle East, it’s sometimes challenging to read the topic as part of a larger narrative. Some background information, where appropriate, would have been much appreciated.
All in all, I can sum up my review with one pithy statement: Why buy the book when you can (not) read the neocon nonsense for free? ***
* Information gathered from Amazon’s THE SHACKLED WARRIOR listing, as well as Wikipedia’s entry on “Caroline Glick”.
** When the current Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was similarly invited to speak at Columbia University on September 24, 2007, this format worked out wonderfully: given the chance to spout off, Ahmadinejad’s rants no doubt taught the students in attendance much about the hard-line leader’s warped worldview. “No homosexuals in Iran”? Indeed.
*** Google the individual columns to read them online – or take a shortcut right to TownHall, the epicenter of right wing neocon nonsense.
http://www.easyvegan.info/2008/03/24/...
February 5, 2013
The Straits of Tiran
Bergson Group and Rescuing Jews from the Nazis
Europe
Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan
Aharon Barak and the Israeli Supreme Court
Journalism
Amir Drori
Ilan Ramon
In the 1956 Suez Crisis, Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula. American President Dwight Eisenhower promised Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion of Israel that in exchange for Israel withdrawing from the Sinai, if Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran at some future time, then America would establish an international fleet to break the bockade. But when Egypt actually did close the Straits of Tiran in the days leading up to the Six-Day War of 1967, President Lyndon Johnson reneged on Eisenhower's promise, and did nothing to stop Egypt’s blockade.
Bergson Group and Rescuing Jews from the Nazis
Hillel Kook and Ben Hecht formed the Bergson Group during WWII to lobby the United States to rescue European Jews from the Nazis. These efforts helped lead to Roosevelt’s creation of the War Refugee Board in January 1944.
Europe
• Islamists in Europe have tried to create autonomous enclaves ruled by Sharia
• In 2006, the Anglican Church divested from any corporations whose products are used by Israel in the Palestinian territories
• In 2007, the European Union announced its support for Syria reclaiming the Golan Heights from Israel
Ariel Sharon's Disengagement Plan
• Ariel Sharon unilaterally expelled all Jewish settlers from Gaza and northern Samaria in 2005
• Yekutiel Ben Yaacov was arrested for inciting racism, for suggesting that Israel expel those Palestinians who refuse to forswear terrorism.
• Vitaly Vovnoboy was arrested for owning a web site domain hosting materials opposing Sharon's Disengagement Plan
Aharon Barak and the Israeli Supreme Court
Aharon Barak was President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006. His constitutional revolution placed the judicial branch above the Knesset (the legislative body). Barak decided that “everything is justiciable”, that is, that the Israeli Supreme Court had the right to approve or disapprove any action by the executive or legislative branches of government.
Journalism
• Britain’s National Union of Journalists voted in 2007 to boycott Israeli goods
• The so-called press offices of Hamas and Hezbollah are actually propaganda wings of terrorist organizations, not genuine press offices, and Israel has the right to treat them as legitimate military targets.
Amir Drori
Amir Drori, a mentor to the author, Caroline Glick, founded the Israel Antiquities Authority in 1990 and returned Samuel's Tomb to Israeli control.
Ilan Ramon
Ilan Ramon was an Israeli fighter pilot who participated in the successful 1981 attack on Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor, and was also an astronaut on the 2003 Columbia mission that was destroyed on re-entry.
November 15, 2015
Simply could not get the stamina to finish this. The book is a collection of her columns from the 2003- 2006 era. Nothing really new or startling if you have ever heard her or read other stuff.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews