Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 380 (since 2009-10-12 15:20:58)

Bill in Maryland

concerned US citizen, physician, and secular Presbyterian

Showing comments 380 - 301
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• Dickens editors think they are better story-tellers than he was
  • Bill in Maryland June 9, 2013 at 5:54 pm with 1 replies

    Good for you Phil. Hope that Our Mutual Friend will be on your list at some point. So many great characters to meet, especially the strong and inspiring Lizzie Hexam and Jenny Wren. Not to mention numerous rascals and London's nouveaux-riches whom Dickens skewers so well.

• Bennett slams European labelling measure, saying occupation demonstrates 'true coexistence between people'
  • Bill in Maryland June 6, 2013 at 12:44 pm with 3 replies

    The Jewish Press also smeared the BDS movement in this despicable cartoon equating the European efforts to label settlement goods with Nazism.

• Richard Engel says Syrian rebel journalists are 'noble,' but journalists whose cause is Hamas aren't really journalists
  • Bill in Maryland May 15, 2013 at 12:30 pm

    With respect to the two excluded Palestinian journalists, Mahmoud al-Kumi and Hussam Salama: "Were they pure journalists? No. But they wanted to bring down an occupier with words and images, and that occupier silenced them. They certainly died trying to do something noble. They were speaking out against oppression. They died trying to quench a thirst for freedom."

• Send in the clowns
  • Bill in Maryland April 28, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    Event signals Disneyfication of the "peace process", now featuring safe, charming Jason Alexander on the marquee.

• My guide was a righteous radical
  • Bill in Maryland April 16, 2013 at 9:09 am

    Thank you Phil for sharing your insights in such a beautifully written way.

• Slamming intellectuals who backed Iraq war, Hedges says he lost job at 'NYT' for opposing it
  • Bill in Maryland April 2, 2013 at 10:57 am

    Thanks Phil. Chris Hedges is a principled journalist indeed. Here is a report that Hedges is turning down a speaking engagement next month at the PEN World Voices Festival and resigning from the human rights organization PEN in protest of PEN's naming of Suzanne Nossel to be Executive Director of the PEN American Center. Says Hedges:
    

    The suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation and the plight of those caught up in our imperial wars in countries such as Iraq are not abstractions to me. Nossel’s relentless championing of preemptive war—which under international law is illegal—as a State Department official along with her callous disregard for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians and her refusal as a government official to denounce the use of torture and use of extra-judicial killings, makes her utterly unfit to lead any human rights organization...

• Obama heads for the occupation-- and why isn't Ben Ehrenreich on NPR?
  • Bill in Maryland March 20, 2013 at 10:36 am

    Thanks Phil. Ehrenreich's LA Times piece from 2009 that you cite is really a gem- so thoughtful and beautifully written:
    

    It has been argued that Zionism is an anachronism, a leftover ideology from the era of 19th century romantic nationalisms wedged uncomfortably into 21st century geopolitics. But Zionism is not merely outdated. Even before 1948, one of its basic oversights was readily apparent: the presence of Palestinians in Palestine.

• Why Fran Korotzer stopped saying 'ethnic cleansing' and started saying 'genocide'
  • Bill in Maryland March 13, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    What a beautiful soul Fran is. Thank you Phil.

• NY synagogue banishes panel on Israel, saying BDS discussion is 'forbidden'
  • Bill in Maryland March 12, 2013 at 12:05 pm

    @IL1948 Thank you so much for your comment. While some cynics might accuse you of "pinkwashing" to protect a Judeo-supremacist Apartheid state receiving $3B annually from US taxpayer coffers, I recognize your deep-seated concern for the LGBT community here and in Israel.

  • Bill in Maryland March 12, 2013 at 10:51 am

    Thanks very much Phil and Adam for your ongoing leadership on the issues of Israel/ Equality/ Democracy. Here is a link to the CBST announcement of the panel discussion.

• After a week of protests, conditions are ripe for a popular uprising across the West Bank
  • Bill in Maryland February 28, 2013 at 1:26 pm

    Excellent reporting Allison, thank you and take care.

• Hagel news: Abrams says lobby is mostly Christian, JVP wants Americans to say 'apartheid'
  • Bill in Maryland February 22, 2013 at 1:34 pm with 6 replies

    Could it have been Master Chess player Obama's intention all along with the Hagel nomination, to outflank Netanyahu and his allies and get this long overdue discussion about the Lobby and apartheid out into the light?

• 'NYT' lecture to Palestinians on democracy was written by former 'Hasbara Fellow'
  • Bill in Maryland February 19, 2013 at 1:45 pm

    Great catch Phil: "shouldn't [the NYT] tell its readers when it's running the work of a hasbara fellow?" Damn straight it should!

• A defense of ‘respectful separation’ from 1955 and today
  • Bill in Maryland February 14, 2013 at 6:58 pm

    Thought-provoking comparison Adam- liberal Zionist paternalism in 2013 vs. white paternalism in the 1950's US South--> keep the sequels coming!

• Chas Freeman to the Middle East Policy Council: 'American diplomacy has been running on fumes for some time. It is now totally out of gas'
  • Bill in Maryland February 13, 2013 at 5:30 pm

    Freeman video now shows/works fine- thanks Annie!

  • Bill in Maryland February 13, 2013 at 5:02 pm with 2 replies

    Thanks Annie (can you please fix video link up top- plays Marwan Muasher's talk).

• How the JCRC inspired New York officials to fight BDS
  • Bill in Maryland February 12, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    Beautiful reporting Phan. Thank you for sharing this in-depth, well-written and thoroughly researched entry.

• Obama's 2-day schedule in Israel/Palestine: 3 hours in Ramallah, 45 hours celebrating the special relationship
  • Bill in Maryland February 12, 2013 at 1:04 pm with 1 replies

    An itinerary most of which could have been lifted from the Birthright tour organizers. At least, please let him experience the Qalandia checkpoint on his way to Ramallah, and by all means let President Obama meet some of the fine young Israelis that Max Blumenthal interviewed in Tel Aviv in 2009.

• Why I'm for boycott
  • Bill in Maryland February 5, 2013 at 10:23 am

    Thank you so much Phil for this beautiful and inspiring writing:

    ...it is very difficult to visit an ethnically-cleansed land, Israel, and see it market itself as a European high tech country and also a fantasy of Jewish power, and know that it does so on the ruined villages of people who live a few miles away, even as it invites Jews from around the world to "return" there. That is the return that most disturbs me as a Jew, the injustice I see before my eyes.

• Could the Israel lobby's unending battle to stop Hagel hurt the lobby?
  • Bill in Maryland January 27, 2013 at 9:47 pm with 2 replies

    As MJ Rosenberg, an excellent source on the machinations of AIPAC and the Israel lobby, explains it, AIPAC is still against the Hagel nomination but has to operate in the dark. AIPAC must keep its fingerprints off the Hagel opposition effort so as to not alienate Democrats. Max Blumenthal talks about this "shadow war" here, and also tweets how Christians United For Israel (CUFI) is going to do the dirty anti-Hagel work for AIPAC.

• On US television, Zuckerman, Ross and Remnick all refer to Israeli prime minister as 'Bibi' on first reference
  • Bill in Maryland January 25, 2013 at 6:41 pm with 1 replies

    Excellent points, a blah chick- it would have been great to hear them on Charlie Rose.

• Casual slander of Hagel as anti-Semite puts Elliott Abrams on hot seat
  • Bill in Maryland January 12, 2013 at 12:43 pm

    Thanks very much Phil- it is great to see the mudslingers get publicly sullied in the process. Let's hope Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post is held to account as well for her smear that Hagel is the "worst" kind of anti-Semite:

    It [the Hagel nomination] is about the acceptability of the worst expression of anti-Semitism, the accusation of disloyalty. There is no other meaning to Hagel’s phrase “Jewish lobby.” The declaration from Hagel that he is not “the senator from Israel” (Who said he should be?) is again a direct attack on Jews’ fidelity to the United States. For decades this kind of venomous language has been gaining acceptance in Europe. But never in America. In elevating Hagel the president in a real and troubling way moves us closer to Western Europe. Indeed the most disturbing aspect of Hagel’s nomination is not his impact on policy (President Obama has and will continue to make one blunder after another), but what it says about the U.S. president’s willingness to embrace a man espousing the world’s oldest hatred.

• 'NYT' equates Palestinian suicide-bombers to CT school-killer
  • Bill in Maryland December 18, 2012 at 12:42 pm

    Thank you Donald.
    Another actual scholar who has studied suicide bombers extensively worldwide, Robert A. Pape of the University of Chicago, has identified a common denominator: foreign military occupations.

• ADL misrepresents Israel's map to delegation it leads of 19 Latino leaders
  • Bill in Maryland December 11, 2012 at 12:05 pm

    One possible motivation for the ADL to spend its dollars brainwashing educating Hispanic leaders (from Haaretz): " The Israel Project: ‘American Hispanics are the most hostile toward Israel’"

• 'Lincoln' is an argument for equality in Israel and Palestine
  • Bill in Maryland December 10, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    hophmi sez "Israeli fears are legitimate. And they are not about voting rights." Thank you hophmi: one person, one vote, with equal human rights for all, from the river to the sea. A solution Lincoln would be proud of!

• Scott Roth joins Mondoweiss as publisher
  • Bill in Maryland December 5, 2012 at 10:41 am with 1 replies

    Welcome Scott to a fantastic site. Just a question for @Mondoweiss (for the non-journalists among the readership): what is the role of Publisher compared to Editor for example?

• It's time for the media to talk about Zionism
  • Bill in Maryland December 4, 2012 at 2:01 pm

    Beautiful essay- thank you Phil.

• Site News -- Welcome to our new Assistant Editor, Alex Kane
  • Bill in Maryland November 14, 2012 at 3:13 pm with 1 replies

    Congratulations Alex and thank you for all you contribute to Mondoweiss.

• Avigdor Lieberman: 'When it comes down to the choice between Jewish or Democratic Israel it has to be Jewish'
  • Bill in Maryland November 13, 2012 at 4:21 pm with 2 replies

    Thanks Adam. I certainly hope that such ideas will wake American Jews up from their comfortable slumber and make them realize that Israel has evolved in a direction incompatible with their democratic, anti-slavery, anti-Jim Crow American heritage and shed any sense of "dual loyalty" to Lieberman's sick state. Israel gravely imperils the Jewish "brand".

• 'There's now a visceral anti-Israel movement among rank-and-file Democrats' -- Adelson
  • Bill in Maryland November 6, 2012 at 6:16 pm with 3 replies

    Thanks Phil. The divergence between the liberal rank-and-file who, as you say, are getting educated on I/P and losing patience with the "special relationship" and the Democratic Party leadership (e.g. Debbie Wasserman Schultz) who envision Israel and the US as conjoined Siamese twins is fascinating. It is a grassroots movement within the Democratic party. Maybe this will result in migration of the frustrated activist rank-and-file leftward into the open arms of the Justice or the Green Party. The latter party calls for a single, secular democracy in I/P based on equal human rights. (See for example item E.2.h. in the Green Party platform).

• Angela Davis: At least in the Jim Crow South the roads were not segregated
  • Bill in Maryland November 5, 2012 at 9:17 am with 1 replies

    Thanks Annie. Amazing to hear that talk, including so much unvarnished truth about the Occupation, at a large meeting of American health professionals. In this regard I think the APHA is light-years ahead of the AMA and other health professional groups thanks to the leadership of Dr. Alan Meyers and others. In one of the photos on this APHA blog you can see Dalit Baum in the audience- great to see coalition building going on to such good effect.

• More divorce news: US Jews 'don't care enough about Israel's survival'
  • Bill in Maryland November 3, 2012 at 12:43 pm with 1 replies

    Thank you Phil: "You don't save the Jews by embracing apartheid. You save Jews by embracing human rights for all." Right on.

• Eric Yoffie says Jewish leaders can criticize the settlements, but nobody else
  • Bill in Maryland October 25, 2012 at 2:18 pm

    Thank you Phil. Eric Yoffie gets the symmetry wrong when demanding the Protestant leaders be fair and balanced when leveling criticism against the settlements:
    

    the Protestant leaders made no effort to include in their letter words that might have reassured Jews and others that this effort was not motivated by hostility to Israel

    To be more fair, the Protestant leaders should have come out strongly and unequivocally for a Congressional inquiry into all US aid supporting the demolition of Jewish housing, the establishment of Arab-only towns and villages, and the construction of Palestinian-only highways west of the Green Line.

• A conversation between two Joes brings the debate over drones out in the open
  • Bill in Maryland October 23, 2012 at 4:48 pm with 1 replies

    Thanks Annie. Unfortunately Obama brandishes his record of drone attacks as a shield to protect himself against the usual Republican charges that Democrats are "weak" on security and defense, encouraged to do so no doubt by the defense industry and their highly paid retired military consultants. A short-sighted, doomed effort that, as many have pointed out, simply sows the seeds for future anti-American terrorism by those motivated by revenge for the senseless and arbitrary murder of their loved ones. How about American moral leadership for a change?

• 'NBC' likens Iran boycott to anti-apartheid struggle
  • Bill in Maryland October 19, 2012 at 2:18 pm with 1 replies

    Thanks Austin for highlighting this amazing double standard, by NBC and by Caterpillar both. Caterpillar caved in to UANI after they were shamed by a billboard, but will not budge in response to the Rachel Corrie Foundation and criticism from human rights and Palestinian justice advocates. We clearly need to raise the level of shame associated with support for home demolition, maintenance of Jim Crow, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of I/P.

• Israeli ambassador Michael Oren gets hero's welcome in liberal enclave of Brooklyn
  • Bill in Maryland October 17, 2012 at 11:51 am

    Thanks very much Alex for a great report. We need public figures willing to strongly debunk Oren's propaganda. Sadly no such public figures were present at Hofstra University last night.

• Palestinians block Israeli-only road in the West Bank: 'Israeli daily life can’t continue on as normal while Palestinians suffer under settler terror'
  • Bill in Maryland October 16, 2012 at 9:41 am

    Visualizing Palestine has an excellent graphical overview of the segregated road system on the West Bank, including Road 443, that can be seen here.

• Truman's recognition of Israel ignited 'wars,' Clemons acknowledges
  • Bill in Maryland October 10, 2012 at 2:42 pm with 1 replies

    Thank you Phil. Regarding your prediction that "ultimately, I believe we will have Clemons, and Petraeus and Dempsey, on our side in that struggle", I agree with you. In addition, perhaps with tears streaming down their faces, Peter Beinart and Jeremy Ben-Ami will also move to the side of democracy and human rights in the struggle to come.

• See how Israeli colonies killed the two state solution
  • Bill in Maryland October 1, 2012 at 9:03 pm

    giladg- project much?

    Was it projection that made you type words 180 degrees divergent from reality?
    "If there is every going to be peace, then ... the world should not lend any support to the Zionists, as long as they continue this same theme. Zionists need to say that Christian and Muslim Arabs have as strong a connection to the holy sites as anyone else. Until they say this, the world should shun the Zionist cause and wait for another day. Those who listen to many radical Israelis, in their own words, understand that the Zionist world is no where near doing this. Decent people around the world need to stop offering any type of support to them until they do, and offer their support to Palestine and the Palestinian people instead. This is the right thing to do."

• Friedman's mirror
  • Bill in Maryland September 21, 2012 at 9:16 am

    Thank you Belén Fernández. Please post here more often!

• Maureen Dowd accuses the neocons of fomenting war -- and is promptly tarred as an anti-Semite
  • Bill in Maryland September 18, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    Thanks Phil -great post. It's quite sick that we can openly discuss the influence of Cuban-American politics on US foreign policy vis-a-vis Cuba, but must keep the discussion of Jewish-American influence on US foreign policy in the closet, even after 9/11, even after the disastrous attack on Iraq, and even as the drums are beating for us to go to war with Iran.

• Sarah Schulman takes on pinkwashing at OUT Magazine
  • Bill in Maryland September 10, 2012 at 5:37 pm with 1 replies

    Thank you Sarah for your beautiful conscience and for standing firm on the truth, even if it made comfortable editors in Manhattan squirm.

• Price tag vandals attack Latrun Monastery; set fire to door and spray paint 'Jesus is a monkey'
  • Bill in Maryland September 4, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    Thanks very much Shmuel.

  • Bill in Maryland September 4, 2012 at 12:59 pm with 5 replies

    Could someone please share a translation, interpretation or deconstruction of the graffiti "mutual guarantee, Ramat Migron and Maoz Ester"?

• Help out antiwar leader Scott Horton
  • Bill in Maryland August 24, 2012 at 2:12 pm

    Thanks Phil- just donated via PayPal. I first learned about you and your invaluable work when you were interviewed by Scott Horton in the summer of 2008.

• The boy on the horse
  • Bill in Maryland August 17, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Good insight Elisabeth- thanks.

  • Bill in Maryland August 17, 2012 at 8:48 am

    Thanks very much Scott for sharing this glimpse of a truly sick system. The boy idly riding on to the scene, acting with complete impunity, gesturing down from his horse to have the Israeli military execute his racist and unchallenged wishes. To defend this sick system Obama must prostrate himself before AIPAC and Netanyahu?

• Travels with a former Zionist in Israel and Palestine, part 2
  • Bill in Maryland July 19, 2012 at 12:52 pm

    But yet you find yourself here posting on Phil's website, schlemiel. Perhaps you are being paid to do so?

• Announcing a new partnership between Mondoweiss and Salon
  • Bill in Maryland July 16, 2012 at 5:53 pm with 2 replies

    Great news and congratulations- maybe soon we will see Phil or Adam invited onto UP with Chris Hayes.

• Responding to 'the Atlantic' smear on Mondoweiss
  • Bill in Maryland July 16, 2012 at 5:49 pm

    Thank you Alex, Adam and Phil for standing up to would-be bully Armin Rosen and showing plainly that Rosen has no substance to back up his smears of Mondoweiss. Mondoweiss threatens all those who want to maintain the status quo: a system of Jewish privilege, enforced by violence, between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

• Michael Oren: Al Qaida is in Egypt
  • Bill in Maryland June 11, 2012 at 7:00 pm with 1 replies

    The material is from a piece called "Seven Existential Threats" by Michael Oren in Commentary Magazine from 2009; the part quoted is under the section on "The Arab Demographic Threat".

• Green Party candidate for President calls for end to Israeli apartheid
  • Bill in Maryland May 16, 2012 at 10:47 am

    It would be so refreshing to have the Green Party included in the presidential debates in the fall, when the subject turned to Israel/ Palestine/ Middle East: live on stage Tweedledee (Obama), Tweedledum (Romney), and Dr. Stein.

• On the sidewalk in Hamburg-- 'Hier wohnte'
  • Bill in Maryland May 14, 2012 at 12:25 pm with 1 replies

    "Hier wohnte..." = "Here lived..."

• State Dep't has nothing to say about hunger strikers 'one way or another'
  • Bill in Maryland May 11, 2012 at 10:54 pm with 2 replies

    Should the Israeli jailers and court system allow the hunger strikers to die and Palestinians across the oPT react in fury, the American MSM microphones and cameras will suddenly all switch on just in time to catch the stone-throwing and tire burning, and the defensive military response of the Israeli police and IDF.

    Then Ms. Nuland will have something to say, in defense of victimized Israel.

• CNN's Amanpour interviews Kopty and Pollak on Palestinian prisoner strike
  • Bill in Maryland May 11, 2012 at 3:03 pm

    Thanks Adam- she really gave the two speakers a decent amount of time to speak their piece. Now, MSNBC, the ball is in your court: top that Chris Hayes!

• Beinart warns Jews that not talking to Palestinians and anti-Zionists 'makes us stupid'
  • Bill in Maryland May 5, 2012 at 12:44 pm with 4 replies

    Very true words dbroncos: "Beinart understands the personal implications of this 'running meter' aspect of his critique. As time runs out on Israel to make dramatic changes, it also runs out on Beinart. He has to know that his credibility is at stake." Ultimately I think Beinart will be disappointed by his fellow lib Zios (less courageous than Beinart) and as Israel slides deeper into obvious fascism he will undergo metamorphosis, shedding his lib Zionism.

  • Bill in Maryland May 4, 2012 at 9:35 am with 6 replies

    The point Krauss makes, viz. "this conflict won’t be resolved within American Jewry. It’s too entrenched and too tribal." is a point that Phil frequently comes back to, and why JVP is growing (they act in solidarity with Palestinians, Christians, Muslims) while J Street is mired in omphaloskepsis.

    Beinart's intellectual prowess and honesty coupled with his strong moral compass make him a fascinating protagonist to watch, in a kind of Shakespearean drama still unfolding. One of these days his compass will take him right over the edge of his current belief system, at which point he must face the inherent contradiction of Zionism (ethnocracy ≠ democracy).

• United Methodist Church rejects divestment
  • Bill in Maryland May 2, 2012 at 6:32 pm with 1 replies

    "Israel is nothing like apartheid South Africa." says giladg.
    Says Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "Black South Africans and others around the world have seen the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which "describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians. This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable."

• His excellency Michael Oren to address American Jewish organization on 'facing our challenges together'
  • Bill in Maryland May 1, 2012 at 12:43 pm

    In their forum on "Responding to Anti-Israel Activity & Anti-Semitism on Campuses" they intend to discuss the JCPA's relevant mission statement on this, found here. The mission statement is all about when to use Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. One of the potential uses of Title VI would be to "call[s] on campus leaders including university presidents, chancellors, provosts, deans, and department leaders....to actively discourage university support, co-sponsorship or endorsement of virulently anti-Israel programs." Seems like an arm of The Lawfare Project.

• Jerusalem's 'center of life' policy imprisons Palestinians
  • Bill in Maryland April 24, 2012 at 4:51 pm with 1 replies

    Cynical, slow-motion, Kafka-esque, bureaucratic ethnic cleansing.

• '60 Minutes' profiles Palestinian Christians, Michael Oren falls on his face
  • Bill in Maryland April 23, 2012 at 1:46 pm

    Thanks you tree, Sumud, and smithgp for your analysis and documentation. One hears the same rationale for the checkpoints ("necessary to stop the suicide bombers") and these analyses blow a hole in the rationale for the exhaustive system of checkpoints as well. Seem more likely designed for long-term degradation, humiliation, demoralization of non-Jews.

• A dialogue about divestment that didn't happen in the Columbia Tribune
  • Bill in Maryland April 22, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    Great letter smithgp and thanks for sharing.

  • Bill in Maryland April 22, 2012 at 11:22 am

    Thanks Phil. Rabbi Yossi Feintuch is a rejectionist and master hasbarist. Here he can be found in an earlier letter to the editor lauding the viewpoint that "the only hope for reconciliation between the two peoples of Palestine is to recognize Jordan as the historical 'state of Arab Palestine' ".

    Here in another letter he denies the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank (he actually writes "the so-called West Bank"), Gaza and East Jerusalem since 1967.

• Glorious Methodists helped lead Montgomery bus boycott of 1955
  • Bill in Maryland April 21, 2012 at 1:59 pm

    Thanks very much anonymouscomments, and also for the clips you suggest for next time. Trusty iMovie'11 worked well, with Pete Seeger's song and Natalie Merchant's beautiful voice.

• Sequestering young people in religious/ethnic schools breeds alienation and hatred (Magid takes on Beinart)
  • Bill in Maryland April 20, 2012 at 1:55 pm with 1 replies

    Thanks very much Phil- great post. Hmmm... Hamlet reference serves also to reflect back on Beinart's soul-searching?

• Define Orientalism (Palestinians make heroes of people who kill civilians)
  • Bill in Maryland April 18, 2012 at 10:53 am

    Excellent point Phil. But can you imagine the hue and cry if the AP actually did provide context, and mentioned the civilian blood on Israeli heroes' hands? We Americans are kept in the dark through the vigilance and energy of Israel's defenders over here.

• Rabbi Saperstein's threat to 'J Street' --Updated
  • Bill in Maryland April 18, 2012 at 2:44 pm

    I believe Phil reported from the J Street convention that attendees seemed to be significantly to the left of Ben-Ami and the J Street executives. So if J Street policy doesn't move to the left they may find themselves soon irrelevant, with the frustrated and dissatisfied J Street rank and file moving into the welcoming arms of Rebecca Vilkomerson/ JVP.

• Denial
  • Bill in Maryland April 13, 2012 at 5:38 pm

    Such a beautiful quote from Emerson- thank you Phil. What a wonderful goal for partners & parents to strive for- to create a "home of courtesy, genius, & conscience."

  • Bill in Maryland April 13, 2012 at 5:26 pm

    "And if you don’t think you can say “viaduct” with a sneer, you didn’t hear her, every time I walked into the class."

    This may explain Mean Girls' Rachel McAdams's interest in the screenplay- the Mooser subplot to "The Emma Thompson Story."

  • Bill in Maryland April 13, 2012 at 2:08 pm with 2 replies

    But wait, was the girl impressed with Mooser's answer?

• When is someone going to lose his job for calling someone an anti-Semite?
  • Bill in Maryland April 13, 2012 at 1:54 pm with 3 replies

    Thanks Pixel- it really is a good documentary movie. I was so impressed to see how a group of touring students from Israel were "minded" and totally insulated as they visited Poland, discouraged from actually talking to Poles after being told what anti-Semitic monsters they all were.

  • Bill in Maryland April 13, 2012 at 9:42 am with 1 replies

    You are so generous Phil to recognize the nobility in Beinart's spirit as he wrestles with his mixed feelings about Israel and strives valiantly to rehabilitate Zionism, efforts very likely too little too late.

• Video: Arizona State's SJP debka flashmob
  • Bill in Maryland April 10, 2012 at 10:40 am

    Really liked the way the dancers kept growing in "pieces" then unified to make one big line near the end- beautiful dancing and message!

• MJ Rosenberg is leaving 'Media Matters' to start his own blog
  • Bill in Maryland April 10, 2012 at 11:26 am

    Wow, Dershowitz and Josh Block gloating over MJ Rosenberg's departure from Media Matters.

• Leading sociologist says 'the enemy' includes 'disloyal' individualistic young Jews who push human rights
  • Bill in Maryland April 4, 2012 at 1:09 pm with 4 replies

    Steven Cohen of Hebrew Union College: "These people [the meshugayim] are an embarrassment to us. In fact in my mind they too are the enemy."

    Sorry Steven, but John Brown was a little meshugenah also, and I will take Liza Behrendt and Rae Abileah and Medea Benjamin and their leadership over J Street any day- yes, you have to be a little crazy to be out in front as they are!

• The 'Jewbags' photo
  • Bill in Maryland April 4, 2012 at 11:07 am

    This very recent poll among American Jews supports your point that it's not about the votes- the Dems have the Jewish vote.

• Beinart gets a Jewish conversation going in the media (just don't call us a cabal)
  • Bill in Maryland April 4, 2012 at 9:39 am

    "Occupy American Judaism." Love it! Thank you Phil.

• Video: 'Long range acoustic device' and other weapons used on Palestinians on Land Day
  • Bill in Maryland April 2, 2012 at 7:23 pm with 2 replies

    I fully agree with you Gilad that the bulldozing of Jewish homes, construction of Arab-only housing and roads, and rampant theft of land and water resources from Jews in the Holy Land must stop. And shame on the US leadership for cozying up to the Arab Lobby and defending this ongoing ethnic cleansing of helpless Jews from Israel by the near-omnipotent Palestinians. Who can stop them except you and me?

• My spirit is American (a religious manifesto)
  • Bill in Maryland April 2, 2012 at 1:50 pm with 1 replies

    Beautiful piece Phil- thanks so much for sharing.

    [An aside- if Peter Beinart's 2010 New York Review of Books essay can give rise to a book, then this essay of yours today surely deserves to be expanded into a book for our time.]

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