If the pen is mightier than the sword, Yedioth Ahronoth proved it last June. On June 30, just before the 30-year anniversary of the IDF’s dramatic rescue of Jewish hostages in Entebbe, Uganda, the daily Hebrew newspaper published an article debunking 20 years of myths surrounding that proud moment in Israeli history.

The story, written by journalist Ariella Ringel-Hoffman, also restored the reputation of one of Israel’s most renowned military heroes.

Ringel-Hoffman’s story, ‘The Unfinished Battle,’ included a statement from 15 former members of Sayeret Matkal, the IDF’s elite commando unit, who took part in the rescue of over 100 Israelis and Diaspora Jews being held by terrorists at Entebbe Airport on July 4, 1976. 

The unit members issued the statement and agreed to be interviewed by Ringel-Hoffman because they were fed up with attacks on the credibility and conduct of their late commander, Jonathan “Yoni” Netanyahu, who was the only Israeli...

[Robert Sullivan, former associate director for public programs of the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum, is vice president of Chora, a museum consulting firm in Washington.]

The Smithsonian has just awakened from a leadership nightmare. On this groggy morning after, it finds itself soiled by commercialism, Disneyfication and politicization, and sorely in need of a meticulous scrubbing.

Supporters of now-departed secretary Lawrence M. Small have characterized the former banking executive's tenure at the Smithsonian's helm as a "clash of cultures," positing crisp, data-based corporate values on Small's side and airy, ivory-tower academic values on the other. Nothing is further from the truth. The Smithsonian is blessed with competent, high-performing staff who have been misled and disrespected by a dysfunctional bureaucracy and misguided decision-making. All of this was orchestrated by Small and his administration after he became the Smithsonian's...

AMERICAN CHRONICLES about Captain John Smith and books on Jamestown, Virginia, which celebrates its four-hundredth anniversary this year. It is of more than passing interest that, even before he died, Captain John Smith was widely believed to be a liar, since he was also, arguably, the first American historian. The quadricentennial is a good time to take stock of John Smith, not least because the Library of America has just published a 1,300-page edition of his work.

Born in Lincolnshire in 1850, Smith fought the Spanish in France. Sailing from Marseilles to Italy, he was thrown overboard and rescued by pirates. In 1601, he joined the Austrian army to fight the Turks in Hungary. He was captured and sold into slavery in Istanbul. He escaped and made his way across Europe back to England. In 1606, he sailed to Virginia.

[The article] Discusses a number of books about Jamestown, including Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler’s “Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the Birth of the American...

Some years ago, I was talking to an older conservative woman about the Reagan era and she told me that whatever problems there were during that time, the president had been absolutely correct about one thing: “Something had to be done about the budget deficit.” Given that Reagan created what were then the biggest budget deficits in history, it was hard to imagine how she could say something so self-evidently ludicrous. Then Time magazine came along with a lengthy story on the supposed crisis of conservatism, with Reagan, weeping a single crystal tear, on the cover, and it becomes clear how such myths are born and flourish.

“How the Right Went Wrong,” by Karen Tumulty, explains that the “principles that propelled the [conservative] movement have either run their course, or run aground, or been abandoned by Reagan's legatees,” and suggested the “scandals and the corruption” of the Bush years, as well as the GOP's failure to respect “law and order,” were a contrast to the...