Sen. Joe Biden’s refrain these days is that the violence in Iraq requires a “political solution.” I.e., it’s not religious fanaticism, it’s not Islamofascism, it’s not a clash of civilizations, it’s not a war on terror; suicide bombers are motivated…
I’m surprised that I’ve seen no coverage of political theorist Michael Walzerâs lecture at Yivo Institute last month on the issue of Jewish identity: “Are We a People?” Surprised because it was such a strong lecture, and such a disturbing…
The other night NBC Nightly News ran an attack on Wikipedia as being a kind of clown show. NBC said that increasingly Wikipedia is the go-to source for college kids. Then it said that Wikipedia is not composed by experts,…
M.J. Rosenberg of the Israel Policy Forum has a fine piece this week about Hebron (all but endorsing my view that the situation in the West Bank is worse than apartheid). This week 200 settlers in Hebron grabbed another building…
When will the mainstream media cover the Columbia Spectator’s fine piece of reporting from A. Philip Randolph High School in Harlem: “It’s harassment because you can’t walk through the hallway without them saying things to you,” said Clifton Feurtado, 18…
The other night I was reading a yellowed copy of Labyrinths, a (once-trendy) book of stories by Jorge Luis Borges (who died in ’86), when I came on the story “Three Versions of Judas” and was stunned to see that,…
From the moment I met my wife 17 years ago, I asked her to explain things to me, because she has more common sense than I do. She drew the line at a couple of things. I wasn’t allowed to…
Zalmay Khalilzad is now a lock for the U.N. Ambassadorship. Smooth as a crocodile. Even looks like one. Here is a wonderful portrait of Khalilzad as a grad student in the late 70s, from Anne Norton’s book, Leo Strauss and…
Yesterday’s Times had a fine piece on the politics of Barack Obama’s position re Palestinians. In a speech last weekend, Obama spoke of Palestinian suffering. The Times made clear this was a misstep. Yet by singling out Palestinian suffering on…
This morning I feel proudly Jewish. Not my usual response to the news. But today’s Times has an unbelievable story by Alan Schwarz about dementia felling former NFL great John Mackey and many other former football players; and it puts…
For the last year I blogged at the Observer, now I’m blogging on my own. I did the Observer blog for nothing with the hope that if it worked out, I’d get paid. After a year I asked for a…
Today Reuters reports on the flood of Christian Arabs who are leaving the Occupied Territories because of the issue of access to holy sites, including the fact that Bethlehem is surrounded by the towering security fence, and it’s hard to…
Here I am, on my own now.