Peter Berkowitz is the Tad and Dianne Taube Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In 2019 and 2020, he served as Director of Policy Planning at the U.S. State Department. His writings are posted at www.PeterBerkowitz.com.
Observation ·
To ease social animosities and heal political wounds, leaders and citizens in America and Israel must rededicate themselves to the principles of liberal democracy.
Observation ·
In his new book, Leon Kass shows Americans how to honor the benefits of liberal democracy, including individual freedom and human equality, while recognizing their high costs.
Observation ·
Spy games, catch-67s, lionesses, smugglers, patriots, setting suns, and more.
Observation ·
Out of the pages of history, the distinguished scholar and essayist Gertrude Himmelfarb offers intellectual, moral, and political aid for our time.
Observation ·
What a new history of American civil religion gets wrong.
Response ·
The Ten Commandments tell us nothing directly, and little indirectly, about the proper limits of government power. For that we must turn to John Locke.
Response ·
A striking correlation exists between the decay of liberal education and the belief that government should push American citizens toward progressivism.
Observation ·
A new theory of Jewish nationalism promises to be more liberal than the old one. But it profoundly misunderstands Zionism—and liberalism.
Response ·
Postmodern Europeans may not like to hear it, but nation-states are still essential to preserving the continent's culture and safety.
Response ·
The threat to religious liberty has its roots in a progressivist faith that has been steadily gaining momentum in America for at least a century and a half.
Response ·
Liberal democracies like Israel need and depend on pious people. But they don’t need to— and shouldn’t—subsidize grown men for not working.
Response ·
Rare is the scholar of politics or of law these days who would think to turn to the Ten Commandments to understand better the hard questions to which liberal democracy gives rise. But Leon Kass’s remarkable exploration of the Decalogue shows that these scholars have neglected a vital resource.
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