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…