Monthly Archives:

March 31 2009

17 Benjamin Netanyahu sworn in to lead Israel’s 32nd government

7 Update: ‘JPost’ states that its report on Norwegian Foreign Minister was inaccurate

28 Anatomy of an anti-Semitic falsehood: ‘Jerusalem Post’ said Norway’s Finance Minister led chant, ‘Death to the Jews!’

14 Netanyahu comes in talking Iran

6 ‘The Archipelago of Eastern Palestine’

19 Justice for Larry Franklin

8 ‘Commentary’ accuses ‘J Street’ of trying to ‘insinuate’ itself between American Jews and foreign policymaking

18 The Jewish question has become the Jewish quandary

10 Loewenstein: Jews are getting the image of being afraid of debate

1 Pharaoh’s on ‘Facebook’

3 Richard Wolffe: How remarkable that VP Cheney tried to undermine President-elect Obama with a foreign power

11 Evidence of malicious destruction is everywhere in Gaza– from olive trees to roads to a bullet fired sideways through a closet, piercing every article of clothing

1 ADL sure knows how to raise money

5 American Conservative is webby

21 The banality of ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem

8 Obama plans to confront Netanyahu over settlements, borders, 2 states, the whole megillah

4 Gaza effect: European boycott is now hurting Israel

34 Congresswoman brags of checking with Zionist Organization president before she signs on to legislation

March 30 2009

43 One State for Palestine Conference – ‘Israel’s massacres are the price of maintaining a Jewish state’

38 Jim Crow Israel: National railroad fires 40 Palestinian workers

32 Response to MK Dov Khenin – A just solution in Israel/Palestine is both utopian and necessary

0 Roger Cohen now getting ‘self-hater’ label (maybe we should call it a star?)

24 The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Debate: Boycott or ‘One Big Carrot of Peace’

11 What Kafka’s Jewish fear in central Europe teaches me about America today

2 Churchill would end the ‘cowed silence’ around Gaza slaughter

34 Mearsheimer: Walt and I welcome a debate on the lobby with the director of the American Jewish Comittee

41 Mike Marqusee was 14 when he was first called a ‘self-hater’

15 Maureen Dowd purveys an ‘antique notion’ of the WASP establishment

March 29 2009

14 Syria calling, Israel screening its calls

21 Cheney: if you’re ‘pro-Palestinian’ you can’t cut it in the ‘major leagues’

12 You’d think they would invite B’tselem to provide ‘context’

50 One State for Palestine Conference – ‘Who are the realists and who are the dreamers?’

17 Islamists, Hindu nationalists, and neocons like the same water

38 ‘JPost’ editor fears Diaspora Jews are ‘internalizing’ Gaza criticism and ‘peeling off’

1 Iran debate is fostering more frank discussion of Israel’s nuclear program

14 Hitler is revered by Hindu nationalists

12 One-state dismissed by non-Zionist MK as ‘very imaginary illusion’

24 Rick Steves makes common liberal error re Iran war advocates

2 ‘Put this in your Lincoln kick and smoke it’

March 28 2009

50 Gandhi model worked because British and Indian elites shared common values. (Not so in I/P)

12 First it was Jayson Blair. Now ‘Times’ fails to identify ‘mishpocha’ as Yiddish

25 Neocon revisions: ‘Weekly Standard’ compares Israel to India under Raj

13 ‘Impact of long confrontation with Palestinians is… significant number of little racists’

13 The colonization of Palestinian lands continues unabated

4 Imagine people offering this defense during Bosnia

0 unchain my heart

31 (Groundhog day in the Middle East) Elliott Abrams says if we bomb Iran, the people will turn against the ayatollahs and welcome freedom

21 Liberals continue to deny the influence of the Israel lobby, thereby plunging their readers into a tarn of ignorance

18 Benny Morris says one state is nonstarter, and two state likelihood is ‘very bleak’

19 Why I’m past caring whether someone calls me ‘self-hating’

March 27 2009

27 NYT reports: Israeli soldier returned Coca-Cola to store in Gaza after his mates told him it was wrong

16 Obituary of Sylvia Plath’s son, Nicholas Hughes, offended me

50 Jeffrey Goldberg guilt-trips Ari Roth over Jewish requirement to ‘love Israel’–but Roth is tortured by Gaza

23 Zellnik: ’7 Jewish Children’ reminded me that the media and Jewish organizations have infantilized us

42 Realist luminaries tell Obama there is a one year window to save the two-state solution, but they ignore the question ‘what next?’

16 Kafka, a Zionist, felt distance from Zionists’ militant chauvinism

18 intermarriage and yoga

44 Gaza, ‘the most moral army in the world,’ Oliphant, Caryl Churchill…. Don’t you see: People hate Israel

26 Nationalism is racist–and some nations grow out of it

22 Landmark moment: ‘ABC World News’ features Israeli army atrocity story

March 26 2009

10 Lieberman isn’t stupid enough to have suggested nuking Gaza

24 ‘We should be invading Israel/Palestine, not Iraq,’

11 New teams: Peretz/Netanyahu vs. Mearsheimer/Olmert

16 Lieberman hinted at nuking Palestinians

18 Memo to the lobby: Obama’s online ‘town hall’ asks, Why so much aid to Israel?

28 is it just a star of David, or a flag?

13 Old wars in new bottles

30 Once again demonstrating intellectual leadership, Roger Cohen offers stirring words on Jerusalem in the Times

49 ’7 Jewish Children’ has its first reading at the New York Theatre Workshop

2 Mainstream media at last battens on to U.S. tax-deductible gifts to Israeli colonists

1 ‘Forward’ has great report on Yemen’s Jews

20 More evidence that Israel is undergoing rapid paradigm shift

March 25 2009

35 Netanyahu and Lieberman cut ‘secret deal’ to finish off the two-state solution

50 Is Zionism racist? Foxman: ‘You bet it is. Every nationalism is’

23 Sign of the times

38 Blankfort agrees, you can’t reform the lobby from inside the Jewish community

3 I think Tom Ricks is a secret sharer, and he’s coming out of the closet

12 Thought experiment 1 (Georgia)

9 Thought experiment 2 (Darfur)

17 Good Hitchens piece (really)

March 24 2009

50 Umm al-Fahm violence is a sign of things to come in Lieberman’s Israel

19 Republican Coleman’s donors are 40% Jewish

29 To Ehud Barak and Gabi Ashkenazi, which is it?

5 Lobby puts Freeman’s head on a pole

48 Note to self: Zionism is central to the Jewish experience of the last century

2 Blumenthal suggests waterboarding to get AIG bonuses back

5 ‘Most shameful episodes in American history’ were sanctified by bipartisanship

March 23 2009

11 ZOA misrepresents its role in forcing Freeman withdrawal

12 Lessons of US occupation don’t travel

40 Horrific ‘Guardian’ reports will stoke international pressure for Gaza war crimes investigation

25 guilty post

31 First the good news: Influential Jews are against settlement expansion 3 to 1

50 Andersons, meet Corries: Tristan Anderson’s family calls for full investigation of son’s shooting

10 Two of five American Jews were touched by Madoff scandal

27 Improvement on ‘Self-hater’…’Uncle Tom Israelbasher’

27 Ilene Cohen: ‘Why am I so boringly repetitious about pro-Israel ‘talking points’”?

22 ‘Walzer constructed an entire Just War theory with the Israeli army in mind’

9 Zionism versus democracy–the new/old conversation

50 ‘Why do you single out Israel?’

28 Jew as nonpariah

March 22 2009

50 Bromwich on Bronner on the religious war inside Israel’s army

9 After the volcano, in Tonga

27 U.S. may have to choose between a nuclear Iran and Islamic revolution in Egypt, Saudia Arabia

52 Google has ‘disabled’ my ad revenue. Why? Where do I go?

50 Michelle Goldberg: ‘Everybody knows’ journalists sacrifice their careers by taking dissenting views on Israel/Palestine

16 Alas, ‘The Times’ echoes rightwing mayor’s language of ‘cleaning up’ Jerusalem

0 ‘Do we dare to celebrate Jerusalem in Jerusalem?’

7 Where do you draw the line on Chas Freeman’s ties to Saudi Arabia?

12 Avnery: ‘Are we to become irreversibly bestialized in our own eyes, and the eyes of the world?’

46 Kafka was wrong about circumcision

4 ‘JPost’: Israel’s going to lose the divestment battle in the U.S.

March 21 2009

47 Another existential threat? Israel bans Palestinian cultural events on Israeli soil

50 It’s not a lobby, it’s a philosemitic culture and era; and it’s over

6 Jon Stewart and the end of ‘morally blind ethnic solidarity’

15 this item feels Jim Crow… South Africa… Raj… very yesterday

29 Israel’s greeting to Iran: Is the tail wagging our dog, or is the dog pissing on our leg?

13 Yglesias seems to excuse IDF atrocities

82 In their own words (End of the two-state solution edition)

5 Lobby targeting Mark Rudd’s new book

14 Netanyahu would deny Palestinians 4 rights of any sovereign state, and ‘Washington Post’ won’t tell you that

26 Mearsheimer: the real debate is now taking place–right here on the internet

31 Why do you single out Israel? (Falk and Cohen answer)

March 20 2009

10 1963: ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’…. 2009: ‘Eid-eh Shoma Mobarak’

14 a small (and yes slightly peevish) sign of ‘Commentary”s decline

5 Conventional wisdom alert: ‘US and Israel are on collision course’

3 Arab festival shut down in Jerusalem amid fears of suppression of cultural identity

50 NYC Rabbi renounces Nadia Matar and Americans For A Safe Israel after Mondoweiss report

23 Slater defends Walt and Mearsheimer from Rothkopf’s ‘Brooks Brothers’ attack

50 Racist and sexist Israeli military shirts show the mindset that led to war crimes in Gaza

6 Obama’s not Iranian, but–

56 A taperecording of Nadia Matar’s call for the assassination of Mahmoud Abbas

15 Was there an intentional Israeli policy in Gaza to kill civilians?

21 a radical in the fatherland

March 19 2009

11 Harvard offers quick course on how to keep a people stateless for 60 years and try and make the world forget about it

53 In NY synagogue, Israeli settler leader calls for assassination of Abbas– and tax-deductible contributions

27 NY Times offers the rationale for the cultural boycott of Israel

10 Israeli soldier testimony from Gaza: ‘we should kill everyone there [in the center of Gaza]. Everyone there is a terrorist.’

29 Ha’aretz begins publishing soldier testimonies from Gaza

6 Another lefty Jewish family, split by the Israel issue

2 ‘NY Review of Books’ continues to overlook elephant in room

5 Traditional sexual mores have deprived us of Eliot Spitzer’s smarts, now when we need them

March 18 2009

22 American Federation of Teachers takes stand for illiteracy, stating that Hamas unilaterally breached ceasefire

21 Zinni will get Freeman’s job, says my mole

13 Lieberman is not the issue

2 Ross defends Rabbis for Human Rights, and Alterman too

40 Israeli consul general in US likened ‘frightening’ Lieberman to fascist Austrian Haider

12 Still waiting for ‘Rabbis for Human Rights’ to live up to their name

17 Let me to the marriage of realists and leftists admit one impediment

6 ‘NYT’ suppresses the bad news from Israel

4 here’s a video of the ’92d Street Y’ Israel lobby event on 3/16 we keep mentioning

4 Peace Now: It’s ‘self-defeating’ not to congratulate Gary Ackerman for an important statement

38 Kafka said Zionists had small heads

50 Why single out Israel/Palestine?

March 17 2009

5 Chas Freeman is a victory the neocons will regret

50 What ‘J Street’ is up against

13 Jerusalem’s mayor recruits American Jews to invest in the end of the two-state solution

9 ‘It’s a sin’ –Some in Wales are willing to be arrested to protest sales of goods from West Bank lands denuded of ancient olive groves

10 Another sign that Israeli and US gov’ts are on collision course

14 A lot of French people are excited by boycott

10 Bromwich on Corrie

44 Arabist, anti-semite, Americanist–where is thy sting?

7 Selling the ‘contradictory’ Lieberman to U.S. Jews

March 16 2009

50 Judea Pearl asks, ‘Is anti-Zionism hate?’

38 On anniversary of their daughter’s killing, the Corries are thinking about Tristan Anderson and Palestinian dignity

21 OK, let’s admit South Africa and Israel are equivalent moral cases, says Stanley Fish

48 US Eyewitness in Gaza: ‘The reality of a very real bloodbath set in…’

8 Roger Cohen again. Stunning, heretical.

27 The ‘game’ of labelling gentile critics of Israel anti-Semites

19 NPR anchor Robert Siegel’s double standard for Freeman

0 ‘NYT’ dignifies calumny of Khalidi as ‘terrorist professor’

7 Freeman voiced Obama’s ideas (we thought)

4 Caryl Churchill’s Gaza playlet will be read tonight in NY on anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death

March 15 2009

5 More facts about Tristan Anderson and Ni’lin

34 American press trivializes the injuries suffered by American peace volunteers in the West Bank

50 Landmark event: ‘LA Times’ publishes a Jew embracing anti-Zionism

34 ‘Mr. Horowitz, tell us what you think of the two-state solution’

50 By all means, let us have the dual loyalty debate

15 Zionist dream

March 14 2009

29 NYT refers to ‘Palestinians and other opponents’ of the wall as if UN and ICJ are chopped liver

14 ‘The rape of Washington’

11 Regardless of Freeman, the realists aren’t resting…

36 Greenwald defends Freeman and goes after ‘Israel-centric fanatics’ Schumer, Rahm et al

35 ‘Washington Post’ urges dismissal of AIPAC espionage case, asks for counter-argument, and promptly rejects same

20 Further support for the idea that AIPAC should invite Walt and Mearsheimer to debate

11 ‘The Washington Post’ is pro-neocon, says Robert Parry

9 I repeat, AIPAC should stop playing defense and invite Walt and Mearsheimer to debate their ideas

22 Key facts in Tristan Anderson shooting

12 Rosenberg: It’s not democracy if a high appointee can’t be a harsh critic of Israel

31 Chas Freeman: Jews tell me they hope there will be a discussion of Israel at last

23 ‘Washington Post’ buries the Tristan Anderson shooting story

8 Dershowitz used to say that Walt is an antisemite. Now he doesn’t. Why?

46 What will Americans do when it’s not an Arab woman wailing over a stricken figure, but an American woman?

March 13 2009

14 Mearsheimer: if you think Obama’s going to put pressure on Israel, you’re living in Disneyland

12 Abridged version of Alan Dershowitz’s assessment of Chas Freeman on ‘Huffpo’

1 Love letter to Steve Rosen

12 Once a canard, ‘Israel lobby’ idea is getting naturalized. Yippee

14 More on Schumer and the Zionism in our politics

20 The U.S. without Israel is like a fish without a bicycle

50 American activist critically injured by Israeli troops in the West Bank village of Ni’lin

27 Has the bubble burst on the Israel lobby?: Does the response to Freeman reflect the same ‘cultural watershed’ as Jon Stewart’s interview with Jim Cramer?

19 Barghouti to Obama: Uphold your values – End Israeli apartheid

42 The JTA addresses the elephant in the room – Israel does not support the two-state solution

17 The tribal angle in the Freeman drama

March 12 2009

13 ‘Noxious culture of silence, fear and suppression dominates the organized Jewish community’

34 Hallelujah–Shaul Magid in ‘The Forward’ calls out Wisse and Peretz over Gaza, and calls Jews ‘to our collective senses’

17 Murakami in Jerusalem: ‘Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.’

10 Freeman story makes ‘Al Jazeera’

16 List of goods Israel is blocking from Gaza continues to grow; now includes toilet paper, soap and toothpaste

5 ‘Sydney Herald’: Obama’s failure on Freeman means Netanyahu can take him

37 NYT fails to tell readers that Freeman’s antagonist was indicted for espionage

5 Does Israel = Old South?

31 ‘Israel today is like the Old South’ (read the post to get the punchline)

9 ‘Times’ and ‘Post’ stories on lobby represent important breakthrough

8 What would Kafka say about the lobby?

27 After Freeman, LA Times wants an open debate on Israel, Washington Post wants to shut it down

3 I was wrong about Chomsky

17 ‘Washington Post,’ a bulwark of the lobby, denies there’s a lobby

13 Obama administration is repeating Bush’s mistakes by using Gaza aid to sink Palestinian reconciliation

March 11 2009

40 Steve Rosen is on a roll

37 Killing the messenger (twice)

11 Congressman Kirk’s takedown of Freeman recalls an ugly chapter of LBJ’s rise

17 ‘I agree, Schumer is a pain’

48 AIPAC helped ‘orchestrate’ Freeman takedown– Fleshler

16 Undoing Exodus in Gaza: Alice Walker bears witness to a catastrophe

7 Did the ‘Weekly Standard’ plagiarize me?

3 Pipes and Schumer, separated at birth

43 Daniel Pipes claims victory in the Freeman fight, but the battle for US foreign policy is just beginning

17 Walt says Obama is a ‘wimp’

44 Dumb show: ‘Washington Post”s covers Freeman exit without using the word ‘lobby’!

March 10 2009

50 Chas Freeman speaks: By vetoing U.S. appointments, the Israel lobby is enforcing adherence to a foreign government

7 Jack Ross contends Freeman ouster means nothing re policy

50 Freeman ouster is signal, Obama won’t put pressure on Israel

18 Why is Illinois congressman point man on Freeman attack?

43 Chas Freeman’s out

9 Blair stands by Freeman

3 How far Roger Cohen has traveled in lo these 2 years

2 And lo, how far Brookings hasn’t traveled…

24 There’s further evidence that the lobby is going the way of the wicked witch of the west

13 Kyl withdraws anti-Palestinian amendment after admitting it was based on an internet rumor

30 Memo to Jews

8 Israel is ‘addicted’ to exploiting the West Bank

13 Why Freeman is a lock to keep his appointment

4 Rep. Keith Ellison: ‘I have one message for you today, just one, the crossings must open.’

11 Convoy organized by every-day Brits enters Gaza

March 9 2009

50 Andrew Sullivan gets religion on the Israel lobby (3 years after Walt and Mearsheimer published)

12 Portrait of an internet journalist who mixes dentistry and commitment

15 ‘In the name of God, sir–’ Emerson protested ethnic cleansing of Cherokees

40 Report from U.S. Capitol: Gaza wreckage included school text on Jackie Robinson and ‘meaning of prejudice’

30 Sen. Leahy likens Palestinians to his Irish ancestors, ‘hunted because they wanted to keep their land’

20 AIPAC doesn’t want to talk about the occupation

24 While the world looks the other way, the colonization of the West Bank continues

36 Roger Cohen, shamed by Gaza, is the realist heir to tribalist Tom Friedman’s chair

10 Chas Freeman and the end of anti-semitism

12 ‘Time Out NY’ embraces Israel as sister democracy, and good-on-ya colonialist

March 8 2009

42 David Bromwich: Further Comment on Walzer

10 Tidal wave begins for Freeman

22 Will the Lieberman backlash begin before he even takes office?

15 Blankfort and Ross on Walzer

6 ‘Washington Note’ calls Freeman assailants ‘cabal’ with higher loyalty to Israel

24 Watershed moment, c’ted: Khalidi to speak at leading Brooklyn synagogue

9 Watershed moment. Sullivan says ‘intimidation’ of Israel’s critics must end

10 Stunner: Walzer says US must put ‘heavy pressure’ on Israel to ‘defeat the settler movement’ and pull the colonists

16 Tennis, and Alice Walker. Gaza continues to undermine the world’s opinion of Israel

25 Israeli ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem is getting increased attention – will the US & EU step up to stop it?

March 7 2009

51 Sen. Jon Kyl proposing discrimatory amendment to budget bill to prevent Gazan refugees from resettling in the US

47 My wife and I argue about Chomsky

50 Was Jeffrey Goldberg ‘idealistic’ in moving to Israel and serving in its army?

March 6 2009

50 Israeli aid minister, hosted by Israel Policy Forum, defends not allowing sugar to enter Gaza

42 What if the lobby wins on Freeman?

32 Freeman’s coalition is progressives and realists– Obama’s base

50 The National Interest, and the Israeli interest

31 Jumping up and down about China, Freeman’s pursuers hide their real agenda, Israel/Iran

6 In the 90s, Steve Rosen and AIPAC worked with Netanyahu to block Oslo peace process

14 Alleged spy for Israel tries to get MJ Rosenberg fired for supporting Ambassador Freeman

7 Leading lobbyist says Democratic base is turning against Israel

March 5 2009

44 The good fight: Freeman would actually take on the occupation, and that’s why he’s being attacked

12 Introducing Israel’s next foreign minister: Avigdor Lieberman

33 Why it is impossible to discuss the lobby without talking about money

39 Is Obama using John Kerry to test the waters on sanctioning Israel?

28 Uh oh–hints that Chas Freeman about to be tossed under the bus

2 ‘Foreign Policy’: US and Israeli gov’ts are on ‘collision course’

50 How do we avoid ‘irrepressible conflict’ over Israel?

4 Congressmen want to punish children in Gaza for the imprisonment of Shalit

28 Ellison, Edwards & Baird offer a vision of the post-Israel-lobby Congress

26 Hillary seems stuck in ‘shop-worn’ paradigm of Fatah only

March 4 2009

29 Jack Ross on the relationship of Chabad to Zionism

22 ‘Spengler’ unwittingly outs himself as David P. Goldman

50 What do you notice about this map?

29 The best thing about the blogosphere

32 Two versions of Roger Cohen’s Iran piece (in IHT and NYT) offered different takes on a loaded issue

15 Groundhog day at the ‘Times’

50 help sought

28 ‘We will play with the Americans’–senior Likud strategist

23 Clinton says that house demolitions are ‘unhelpful’

11 Quantity vs. quality–some self-help re the financial collapse

12 ‘Waltz with Bashir’ animator takes on the siege of Gaza

6 McEnroe once boycotted South Africa, why can’t he wise up?

16 Why should Israeli athletes be invited to international competitions when Palestinian athletes can’t go anywhere?

7 Boycott coup: British embassy eschews Leviev’s building in Tel Aviv

12 the new talmud will be antizionists sitting around talking

March 3 2009

15 J Street: Israel increasingly runs counter to American Jewish values & US national interests

15 The unceasing smile of the 2-state blues

25 But wait, given a choice, Palestinians would prefer to live in Israel over neighboring societies, right?

50 ‘Almost every Palestinian I met in Gaza believes that Israel’s recent attack will only be followed by another bloodier and more deadly attack on Gaza that will exterminate the Palestinians once and for all.’

26 Neocon holdovers want NYT to fire Roger Cohen for uttering fair statements about Jews in Iran

47 My tribal minder

8 High State Department official listed Obama’s election among ‘severe challenges and threats’ to Israel

March 2 2009

22 Whither the ‘special relationship’?

12 32 senators are actively supporting the 2-state solution. For what it’s worth…

13 Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement is hitting home

12 ‘Slumdog’ and the ravages of neoliberalism

7 And Netanyahu imagines an economic partnership with the Palestinians

10 Defending Chas Freeman

33 Possible Netanyahu coalition partner calls for one-state solution

41 Iran turns from fatwas and assassinations to international criminal court. Role model?

8 ‘I have family that lives in Israel’– Stand up if this statement is true

29 Read the fine print: Only one-third of US pledge at Gaza conference to go to Gaza, none of it for rebuilding

23 A dozen or more signs that the Israel lobby has been exposed to kryptonite

2 After a New York party– religious feelings

7 Here’s a post my mom can read!!

6 On calling Palestinian Authority ‘Vichy’

March 1 2009

35 Walt calls out seven Israel-firsters for smearing Freeman

33 What’s good for goose isn’t good for gander

3 Many predicted ‘human, moral, and economic cost’ of Iraq war

21 Civilian diplomacy: lots of people are going to Iran and making nice

25 Israeli elections confirm there is no Israeli partner for peace

26 What do non-Zionist Jews plan to say at Passover seders this spring?

23 A few obvious statements about ‘Slumdog’

5 Iraq’s unending tragedy, in a blistering video

35 ‘Jerusalem Post’ says Jews are crazy if they think this is the 1930s

50 Despite smashmouth tactics, Dershowitz is effective. Why?

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