A little more about religious community and the necessity of Jews working with Christians on Israel/Palestine. I grew up with complete suspicion of “the Christians.” It was very cultural. The Jesus statue outside the Catholic church on the road I…
A piece in the Times yesterday on Israeli and Arab views of Obama, filed from Amman, by Michael Slackman and Isabel Kershner, broke new ground in its frank descriptions of Jewish influence in the American political process. “What we know…
I changed parties to vote for McCain 8 years ago. I’ve always liked him. That said, it’s clear to me that one reason he’ll lose big is that he is doddering. He’s weak on important geographical details. Two days back…
The New York Post demonstrated the wisdom of the New York Times today by printing the McCain opinion piece the Times rejected. It’s a long negative campaign ad. I think it mentions Obama by name or pronoun 25 times. I…
The other night I had one of my regular arguments with a liberal Jewish friend. I said that AIPAC is representative of Jewish opinion. He said it is not, Jews are more liberal. Rabbi Lerner makes the same point here,…
Rabbi Michael Lerner went to a conference on “dialogue” in Saudi Arabia and was impressed by the humanity of the Saudis. He has filed this long report on a dinner table conversation he had with several members of Saudi King…
Amy Wilentz has a compelling piece on Jimmy Carter in New York Magazine that includes this ringing praise: What’s most interesting about Carter at the age of 83 is… that his mind-set and his policies seem to jibe so well…
Al-Ahram weekly in Cairo has an unsettling piece from a writer in Nablus on the recent Israeli raids, which it characterizes as “Gestapo-like behaviour.” Note that these raids were not covered in the U.S. but are the talk of the…
Today I’ve got a guest blogger who I’m hoping will make more appearances in the days and years (touch wood) to come, the author and traveler James North (that’s his pen-name; I’ve known him for more than 30 years as…