I keep a dual-loyalty file. Jews like myself who say that Zionism demands dual loyalty of American Jews. Today an addition: former Israeli Speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg, writing in Haaretz this week: [Jonathan Pollard] and his handlers lived…
Israel/Palestine discussions are marked by conflict and ferocity. No big surprise. Rarely do you come on gentleness and dignity. In that spirit, I offer the following. Two nights ago at Columbia they held a panel on the Nakba. There were…
A couple of readers have pointed out that I was unfair to Geoff Garin, Hillary’s top strategist, in my suggestion that he was milking the Rev. Wright controversy on MSNBC Monday. They’re right. Turns out Garin was actually saying it…
Salon has a good piece on the new Israel lobby, J Street, whose founder, Jeremy Ben-Ami, says that part of the motivation for the organization was the special Jewish role in the Iraq war. Well let’s not put words in…
I just saw Jimmy Carter on Charlie Rose defending his decision to talk to Hamas. Beautiful. Then Rose asked Carter about Obama and the famous Cheshire grin came out. Carter’s not endorsing till the primary season is over, but his…
From the Forward profile on Congressman Howard Berman: Berman’s Jewish background was central to his getting involved with foreign policy issues. Indeed, earlier this month he told the Forward that an interest in the Jewish state was one of the…
Yesterday I heard Geoffrey Garin, Hillary’s new strategist, on MSNBC, using the Rev. Wright controversy to question whether Obama is out of touch. (The link’s not up yet, or I’d quote him). He made similar comments in the Times re…
I’m still thinking about the Nakba panel at Columbia last night. Christopher Varley tells me of a tee shirt he once saw a young Arab wearing in Jerusalem: “So how far east do you want me to move?” The Palestinian…
It’s late, I just got home from a Nakba commemoration at Columbia University, a panel of four professors in a classroom with about 250 people in it. It seems important to relate the following before I go to bed. I…
The Forward’s analysis of the Pennsylvania results, in which Hillary Clinton captured 62 percent of the Jewish vote, in part by announcing on the morning of the primary that we would “obliterate” Iran if it attacked Israel, is that Israel…
Today cable news shows trotted out two black commentators, Jonathan Capeheart of the Washington Post and–I’m going to get this wrong–but someone I believe is named Maria Wall of the Washington Times, to say in so many words that Rev….
I criticize the Times too much. Today it has a fabulous piece of reporting, by Andrea Elliott, on how Debbie Almontaser was forced out as principal of the Khalil Gibran school for Arabic in Brooklyn by a gang of anti-Islamic…
This morning students at Columbia put up 1000 posters, each bearing the name of one of 418 villages wiped out in the Nakba. Says Saif Ammous: “It is vital to inform our fellow students of the roots of today’s conflict,…
Today’s Independent in England features an opinion piece on the Nakba that uses the word “sh-t” three times in describing the repulsive practice of Israeli colonies, pumping their raw sewage on to Palestinian land. Then Johann Hari brings the Nakba…
Rev. Wright isn’t crawling under a rock, he’s standing up for himself, good for him, today reminding the media that he served six years in the Marine Corps, somewhat longer than Dick Cheney served. And two nights back, he gave…
I had a few responses to comments on my post about Jewish superiority. I agree Richard that the narrative has happened before, of Jews having court power and being expelled or worse. But I feel like this history is too…
Arab students at Columbia University in New York will be staging a number of Nakba-related events this week, beginning with a faculty panel tomorrow night at 7 p.m. (Details below) “These will really be the biggest Palestine events in Columbia…
I’m still caught up in Ambassador Gillerman’s statement that Israel is a “far better” country than most others because it produces scientific and artistic talent. My friend Richard Witty acknowledges that this attitude is unfortunate when he hears it from…
The world is changing. The Associated Press has a wonderful story on the Nakba. Israel’s joy over independence after two millennia of Jewish exile has been the Palestinians’ “naqba” — their catastrophe. The state they were to have in a…
From Haaretz: [T]he U.S. State Department is planning to issue a public statement condemning comments made by [Ambassador Dan] Gillerman at a press conference in New York on Thursday, where he called [Jimmy] Carter a “bigot.” …Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni…
More on artists and Israel. Here is a story my mom sent me, written by a Louie Kemp, a Minnesotan, speaking of his friendship with the late Marlon Brando. Kemp says that in ’46 Brando gave tons of money to…
Nadine Gordimer–South African, Jewish, Nobelist–is under pressure to boycott a writers’ conference in Israel that she had signed up to appear at next month. (Thus spake Haaretz, no it’s not in the American press.) Looks like she’ll boycott. On Thursday,…
Last Tuesday night on Charlie Rose, Jacob Weisberg offered grim insight re Obama. He said that Hillary had just done to Obama what Republicans do to Democratic presidential candidates in the general election: portrayed him as elitist and out of…
I’m still a little stunned from hearing Israeli Ambassador Gillerman’s “bigot” comments about former President Carter yesterday. Such chutzpah, and condescension. And keep in mind that he didn’t do this at the U.N. or the Israeli consulate. No, he was…
–Kos says Obama outperformed Hillary in small Pennsylvania towns, improving on his performance in Ohio. These are the “clinging” towns that are supposed to be angry at him; –The press turns. It’s the nature of the beast. Now all the…