Herf Wows the State Department

Friend of dcat Jeffrey Herf recently gave a talk at the State Department on progressive foreign policy and radical Islam. The New Republic has republished his provocative speech.
As with everything Jeff writes this is smart and provocative. I have my qualms, especially with regard to the idea that the Obama administration does not talk enough (or loudly enough) about the dangers of radical Islam. Eight years of Bush administration bombast was damaging enough, thank you very much. It's not what you say so much as what you do as you say it. Nonetheless, his piece is very much worth reading.

Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World

Yesterday I highlighted Jeff Herf's review of Robert Wistrich's book A Lethal Obsession. Well, Jeff is having a big few weeks. On January 31 he was interviewed by Egypt's Al-Masry Al-Youm about his most recent book, Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World.

Herf v. Wolin: Heavyweights Square Off

This article on "the long, toxic afterlife of Nazi propaganda in the Arab world" by my friend and former professor Jeffrey Herf in The Chronicle of Higher Education prompted a, let's say "spirited" rejoinder from the historian Richard Wolin. The Chronicle then brought the two together, in a manner of speaking, for an "exchange." Read it all.

Herf on Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex

Friend and former professor of dcat Jeffrey Herf has an article in which he assesses the German film Der Baader-Meinhof Komplex and places it in the context of both historical memory and dealing with political radicalism.

Herf on German Silence and Ahmadinejad

dcat friend and mentor Jeff Herf has a piece at TNR in which he asks why Germans have not been more vocal in decrying Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for his fascist leanings. As usual Herf is smart and insightful and informs his commentary with a wide range of ideas and readings.

Herf on Friedlander

My one-time professor and golf partner and still-friend Jeffrey Herf has a strikingly positive review of Saul Friedlander's new book The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 in The New Republic. If you know Jeff's work you are right to guess that the review will be insightful, brilliant and challenging.

Herf and Markovits on Anti-Semitism

Friend and mentor of dcat, the respected historian Jeffrey Herf, has an important piece that he has written along with the comparativist German Studies scholar Andrei S. Markovits at The New Republic online. In it they take issue with John Judis' downgrading of what constitutes anti-semitism. Here is the concluding paragraph:

Israel's critics in this country have the freedom to say what they wish, including the freedom to exaggerate vastly the power of Jews and the Israel lobby. We who criticize some of their views also have the freedom and obligation to explain why we think such arguments are false, dangerous, and bear comparisons to older anti-Semitic traditions. In a period in which Iran's president threatens to wipe Israel off the face of this earth and Hezbollah, Hamas, and Al Qaeda seek its destruction as well, a weakening of American support for Israel would be a catastrophe of the first order not only for Israel, but for its supporters in this country. It would also be both a strategic blunder and moral debacle from the perspective of U.S. national security in the conventional sense of that term.

But do read the whole thing.