January 13, 2012 | 4:08 am

Must Read, January 13, 2012

Posted by Shmuel Rosner

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah

A Hezbollah Crack-up?

Israel’s arch-foe in Lebanon is feeling the pinch of a Syria in turmoil and an Iran under sanctions, not to mention infighting and a decline of power in Lebanon, says Lee Smith, writing from Beirut for The Weekly Standard. 

“If Hezbollah’s regional partners are in trouble, the domestic arena presents even more daunting challenges for the party of God. Hezbollah’s control over Lebanon’s Shiite community seems to be unraveling. There’s crime and social unrest in Shiite areas that the party is incapable of curtailing. It has had to ask the Lebanese state for assistance in policing Hezbollah’s own areas.”

The Silent Young Jewish Majority

Matthew Ackerman of Commentary magazine argues that claims that the young generation of American Jews is less connected to Israel are false, and they are just not as vocal about their support.

“Most young Jews feel connected to Israel in roughly the same proportion as their elders. They largely aren’t, though, speaking up about it. And their voices are largely not heard in the debate surrounding their views that continues to roil the Jewish world.”

The Intrigues of Persia

Today’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal warns that all the public diplomacy and clandestine operations will not stop Iran’s nuclear agenda.

“Much of the world wants to believe that force won’t be necessary to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but the explosions and killings show that a covert war involving deadly force is already underway. The Obama Administration says Iran plotted to kill a Saudi ambassador in a Washington, D.C. restaurant, and Iran is trying to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan as it previously did in Iraq. Many more people will die if the world doesn’t get serious about stopping this rogue regime.”

Alaska: That Great Big Jewish Land

Moment magazine’s Yereth Rosen explores the role of Jewish pioneers in developing the trade, industry and culture of America’s 49th state.

“Alaska’s Jews are proud of their Jewish life. The major urban areas, where most Jews live, have their own synagogues. Anchorage, the metropolis with about 40 percent of the state’s residents, has two—the reform Congregation Beth Sholom, the state’s largest synagogue and home to Nome’s historic Bayles Torah, and the Orthodox Lubavitch Jewish Center of Alaska led by Rabbi Greenberg. Fairbanks’ Reform Congregation Or HaTzafon [Light of the North] is touted as the world’s farthest-north synagogue, located just 125 miles south of the Arctic Circle.”

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