Author Archives: Scott McConnell

Decades of structural racism in a society can be overcome, as Ernie Els demonstrated at the British Open victory ceremony yesterday

Robert Wexler, former Florida congressman and a key Obama ally on Israel/Palestine issues, was one of the speakers at a Churches for Middle East Peace dinner last night. Wexler is a liberal Zionist, who (correctly) sees Israel’s long term interest … Continue reading →

I was twirling the dial while driving and heard this guy Pete Dominick, a host on POTUS–a mainstream satellite station.  Kind of great on I/P — he had on a Palestinian former Princeton prof guest, deftly parried hasbara points, talked … Continue reading →

On Thursday night, I went to the book launch event for Pamela Olson’s memoir Fast Times in Palestine at the New School. For quite a while now, I’ve thought Pamela was going to become a star—young, smart, and cool and … Continue reading →

Two quick points about the Anthony Weiner scandal. First, among heavy hitters in the progressive media, no one wants to point out that Weiner’s Israel-Palestine views put him in deep Likud territory, which on the American spectrum translates into an … Continue reading →

The Code Pink “Move Over Aipac” demonstrations in Washington were extraordinary. There are not yet thousands ready to come to DC to demonstrate against AIPAC and its fellows’ dominance of American Mideast policy, but there were a few hundred. Medea … Continue reading →

I’m tickled by the Times front page story today: there is a question of whether Obama should lay out an American peace plan. He and Hillary favor this idea. Dennis Ross opposes it. So, the gist of the article implies, … Continue reading →

Caroline Glick was on Capitol Hill, giving a speech at the Center for Security Policy national security luncheon, along with Douglas Feith and new congressman Allen West. Really quite a performance.  I thought it was bad to see David Horowitz … Continue reading →

What stood out from the first page was the tone—measured but firm, uncompromising but not strident. Every assertion seemed precisely weighed, put forth without exaggeration, flamboyance, or polemical excess. Also striking was the absence of gratuitous deference towards the opponent. … Continue reading →

Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, left, and US national security adviser Zbig Brzezinski play chess at Camp David, 1978. In the midst of the Egyptian revolution, a concerned Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet that the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace was “the … Continue reading →

This morning, NPR’s Morning Edition did a program on Al Jazeera, focusing on Arab governmental efforts to keep Arabs from watching the channel by blocking its signal by various means. Reporter Deborah Amos chronicles the disruptive efforts and the cat-and-mouse … Continue reading →

Ever notice how the Times will happily publish any claim by an Israeli spokesman, regardless of its relationship to facts? Note today’s op-ed by ambassador Michael Oren: “Will Egypt Be a Partner in Peace?” It would take a while to … Continue reading →

A little wave came out of the Israeli agitprop machine yesterday: Harold Evans wrote a piece in the Daily Beast, soon amplified  by one of the Washington Post’s resident Israelists, Jennifer Rubin. They attacked Human Rights Watch, the venerable organization … Continue reading →

What measures can the Palestinians take to get Israel’s boot off their necks? Armed struggle is out. All Palestinians we (a delegation from Churches for Middle East Peace) spoke to on a recent fact-finding trip to the region recognized that … Continue reading →

Just had a Jerusalem meeting with a US government official. Inevitably, as our group is a delegation from Churches for Middle East Peace, someone asks, “What can we do back home to most effectively advance the peace process?”  To persuade … Continue reading →