I’ve finally read Connie Bruck’s profile of the self-proclaimed richest Jew in the world, Sheldon Adelson, in The New Yorker and I’m a little dismayed. I think it’s great the magazine ran the story, and great that it spoke so…
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Monthly Archives: June 2008
Generational Divide: Young Jews Embarrassed by Older Jews’ Censorship of Palestinian POV
Last week I picked up reports of censorship by Spertus, a Jewish museum in Chicago, of a show called “Imaginary Coordinates” that gave a lot of airtime to Palestinian views of the conflict in Israel/Palestine. I’m returning to the subject…
Latest Israel Abuse Story Has More of a Soviet Union Vibe Than a South Africa One
Inter Press is reporting that its correspondent in Gaza, Mohammed Omer, who is also working for the Washington Report, was stripsearched and assaulted at the border crossing from Jordan on Thursday. Omer, pictured here in London, where he lately won…
‘J Street’ Seems to Be Finding a Niche
J Street, the leftish Jewish lobby, is having an effect. Here is a piece urging Obama to make common cause with the “other Jewish lobby”– not the Likudnik-neocon lobby, AIPAC. Here is J Street’s great ad in the New York…
Where Is Jeffrey Goldberg Now That Feith Needs Him?
I have some limited sympathy for Doug Feith as a guy who’s been abruptly marginalized; it’s hard to imagine a more precipitous farewell. It reminds me of seeing former Cheney aide David Wurmser speaking at a New York law firm…
Feith Seeks Rehabilitation. The World Ignores Him
The Washington Independent runs a story by James Risen of the New York Times that makes a half-hearted effort to rehabilitate Douglas Feith. Feith says the piece was killed by the Times.The Washington Independent calls the story “The Return of…
Former Dutch Premier Says He Is ‘Ashamed’ of Support He Gave Israel While in Office
Only in Haaretz. Here is a profile of the “Dutch Jimmy Carter,” a former premier of the Netherlands, Andreas Van Agt, who has accused Israel of terrorism and describes his awakening: [H]e became vocal after 1999, when his “eyes were…
‘Dual Loyalty’ Debate Edges Into the Center Ring
The Joe Klein dual-loyalty assertion is being debated everywhere, including here by Shmuel Rosner, who goes thru some formalities about being an Israeli so he can’t comment then promptly tosses that aside to speak as a member of the Jewish…
Israel’s Leading Publisher States that His Country Is an ‘Apartheid State’
Amos Schocken is the publisher of Haaretz. Today in that great newspaper that his family has published for three generations he prints an amazing editorial stating that Israel has become an “apartheid” state because for the eighth time the government…
Obama Letter Urging Action on Peace Process Says Not a Word About Settlements
Obama wrote a long letter to President Bush Tuesday urging him to press forward with the peace process now. It is two pages long and speaks of our unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security and says that Israel’s security has been…
Joe Klein Assertion of War-for-Israel Stirs Hornets
Max Boot at Commentary is going crazy over Joe Klein’s assertion that Jewish neocons played an important role in pushing the Iraq war to make Israel safe. Myself I have trouble reading a blog entry this long. Also the tone…
Rightwing Zionist Group at U of C Calls to Jews ‘With a Strong Jewish Identity’
Here’s a good piece in the Nation on rightwing Zionist actions at the University of California at Irvine. The Zionist groups claim that pro-Israel students are being harassed on campus. After the [U.S. Office of Civil Rights] concluded that there…
Chicago Jewish Museum, Trying to Move ‘From Parochial to Civic’, Is Censored by Its ‘Donors’
More censorship in Chicago. This time of an exhibit at a Jewish museum that pictured many different maps of Israel/Palestine. The Tribune story bravely speaks of the money issue. No, we won’t get anywhere till we talk about this issue….
Slater Slams ‘Times’ for Imbalanced Coverage of Breaches in Truce
Jerome Slater, the scholar of press coverage of Israel in the Times and in Haaretz, had an incisive take on the Times coverage of breaches in the fragile truce between Hamas and Israel: “The Times may be a-changing, but not…
Buzz on ‘The New Yorker”s Adelson Piece
Connie Bruck’s profile of Sheldon Adelson in the New Yorker continues to resonate. Says Christopher Varley: “I have written about the pernicious influence of Israel ’s so-called friends in America on many occasions. They use their wealth and influence to…
Only in Haaretz: Apartheid-Style Policies that We Cannot Discuss Here
Only Haaretz seems to be discussing the existential crisis Israel is in today in a frank manner. Here is Avrum Burg, a former speaker of the Knesset (and the son of a rightwing religious leader), saying that the time of…
‘The New Yorker’ Resumes Its Position as Journalistic Leader
My crowd is buzzing over Connie Bruck’s profile of Sheldon Adelson in The New Yorker. I have pressed for just such coverage of the U.S.’s third-richest man, and birthright-nut, for months. I notice that the Israel angle is right up…
Joe Klein Opposed Neocon ‘Fantasy’ of Baghdad-for-Jerusalem Back When It Counted
Responding to my post of yesterday, my friend Nim Chimpsky, a primate, pointed out to me that Joe Klein was brave before about the make-Israel-safe logic in the minds of the Iraq war planners. Klein wrote this piece in February…
WINEP Says, Striking Iran Won’t Cause Gas Prices to Go Up. Oh, and Most Iranians Would Welcome Invasion!
Iraq was a preemptive war. But that language has been discredited, so the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a station of the Israel lobby, has put out a paper all-but-calling for military strikes against Iran, which it describes as…
Joe Klein Suggests Jewish Neocons Pushed Iraq War to ‘Make World Safe for Israel’
Now Joe Klein has raised the issue of dual loyalty around the neoconservatives’ motivation for “plump”ing for the Iraq war: The notion that we could just waltz in and inject democracy into an extremely complicated, devout and ancient culture smacked–still…
MSM Should Take Feith Off Blacklist–and Expose the Zealotry He Does His Utmost to Conceal for 674 Pages
It appears that Douglas Feith’s book War and Decision is being ignored by the mainstream media. The Observer’s Leon Neyfakh reported that the Washington Post failed to review the book after running a news story off the book’s publication, and…
Gathering Storm on West Bank: Italian Judge Struck, Yeshiva Settlers Fire Rocket at Palestinian Village
At Jews Sans Frontieres, I learn that the UNICEF decision to cut off Lev Leviev, the diamond merchant who is expanding settlements on the West Bank, has been covered all over thanks to Reuters, and the JTA. But Leviev continues…
Q. Why Can’t American Politicians Emulate Sarkozy’s Straight Talk in Israel?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy addressed the Knesset today, and after saying that France would always be Israel’s friend, declared that Jerusalem must be divided to make way for the Palestinian capital, and all the Jews in the West Bank must…
Look at the Bright Side of High Gas Prices
The Hudson River this year is empty of the countless stinkpot personal trophy yachts. So is the Schuylkill in Philly. Americans are reordering their priorities not to be such giant oil-pigs. They will ride bicycles more, live their lives more…
Bastions and Bastards (My Weekend)
I had a big weekend. My father-in-law turned 80 and we celebrated in Philadelphia. I married into a Protestant clan and a lot of the festivities took place in Chestnut Hill, which is the sort of privileged old neighborhood in…