Everyone is stunned that a process that should be occurring 9 months to a year from now is occurring now: the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. It is completely premature. And now the Republicans seem to be following in…
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Monthly Archives: February 2007
Journalists Whine–But Judy Miller Has (Finally) Served the Calling
Yesterday on “Meet the Press,” a bunch of journalists rued the new landscape created by Patrick Fitzgerald and his star witness Judith Miller. Tim Russert, Gwen Ifill, Howard KurtzÂthey all feared damage to professionalism, that the public might see the…
Have Bloggers Undermined the Jewish Establishment?
Richard Silverstein, the blogger Tikun Olam, writes in the Guardian that progressive Jewish bloggers have played an important role in undermining the establishment Jewish consensus re Israel. A new weapon in the battle for that free exchange of ideas has…
A Few Thoughts About Obama’s Threat to Zionism
My dad’s real smart, even if he doesn’t agree with me on my Middle East politics, and a couple weeks ago he said something that stuck. He was saying that Jimmy Carter’s book is a sign of rising anti-Semitism (something…
More on Chomsky (Not Apologizing This Time)
I continue to get heat from Chomsky supporters for my (yes, ill-tempered) post the other day. Richard W. Symonds writes, I still question your view that he did not “deliver” his “$5 lecture” – it was not advertised as a…
Hoist on My Own Pedantry, I Mistake Hebrew for Yiddish.
Arieh Lebowitz, of Meretz/USA, who gives me lots of info and links, sends me a correction. I said that hechsher is Yiddish for Kosher, Arieh says it’s not, it’s Hebrew. (I was trying to sound smarter than I am. I…
How Jewish Perestroika (the AJC’s Blunder) Is Helping the Zionist Left
I can’t stop talking about the wonderful-horrible AJC report, it’s so changed the landscape. Again I say, give credit where credit is due: this was the AJC’s reactionary pushback against Carter and Walt and Mearsheimer, and it blew up on…
Another Achievement of the AJC: ‘The New Republic’ Joins Me on Dual Loyalty Issue
A few weeks back I brought up the charge of dual loyalty with respect to the neocons who claim that Israel’s interests and the U.S.’s interests are identical. A very sensitive question, yes, and a lot of people got upset…
Will the AJC Distance Itself From (Radioactive) Report?
The AJC’s report on “Only Self-Hating Jews Don’t Like Israel”Âit’s actually called “‘Progressive’ Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism”Âis officially an embarrassment. I say officially because the report’s theme that it is “illegitimate” for Jews to question the nature of…
I Apologize Re Chomsky
Noam Chomsky’s assistant comments below that there is an illness in the linguist’s family and that’s why he had to run, to make a plane back to Boston. Also I note that Chomsky gave good weight at an earlier event…
O.K., Leftwing Jews Have a Movement. What Does It Stand For?
A reporter called me yesterday and said I was wrong in declaring there’s a movement of progressive Jews who are criticizing Zionism. He asked for my evidence. I started with Jewish Voice for Peace, which runs muzzlewatch and rallied in…
Backtracking on Criticism of Chomsky
I think I was too harsh on Noam Chomsky yesterday. Oh well, I said it. Anyway, here’s Peter Voskamp, editor of the Block Island Times, offering a better picture of the great man: I saw him a few years ago…
A Sour Chomsky Shows Disrespect to a Young, Paying Audience
Last night Noam Chomsky was to give a lecture at the Miller Theater at Columbia University in N.Y. The Miller Theater was sold out 2 weeks back for the event, $5 a head. Probably 500 people. The outside walls of…
It’s Official: Jewish Progressive Criticism of Israel Is Now a Movement
The New York Times’ stunning piece last week about the American Jewish Committee’s effort to smear leftwing Jewish critics of Israel as antisemites did what 1000 blogs, 100 human rights reports, even 10 pieces by Tony Judt, could never do:…
The Racialism of the Super Bowl (and Politics)
Even as it disappointed on the field, the Super Bowl supplied racial drama. The historical celebration, that a black coach was finally coaching a Super Bowl teamÂand not just one, but both coaches, both teamsÂwas all over the airwaves. Even…
Impeach Him, Sure–And Limit Presidents to One Term?
I’m all for impeaching George Bush for staggering incompetence and intransigence (let the lawyers figure out the language), but if I get my wish that means that 3/4 of our recent 2-term presidents will have been impeached, or close: Nixon,…