Realistic Dove has picked up an unbelievable story about the Israeli army not allowing Palestinians to bathe at the Dead Sea: Israelis bathing on the north shore of the Dead Sea had not been pleased with the presence of the…
Today brings more evidence that Republican congressmen have turned on the war and are talking about a September deadline out of fear of the political consequences of persevering in a failed policy. I’m an optimist; I think this trend will…
Last night I was reading a biography of Walter Benjamin that described the excitement over Zionism in Berlin intellectual circles 90 years ago. Socialists and dreamers adopted Zionist ideas. In the U.S., too, many eastern European Jews who had lately…
I’ve been moved by Jon Corzine’s ordeal, it’s about hubris and defeat and a new life, with a script seemingly provided to the governor by the recovery movement. Inote that Corzine’s girlfriend is a psychotherapist. The Corzine story echoes that…
Conservatives are obsessing over Hillary Clinton even more than Democrats are. She’s all they see when they look at the Democratic smorgasbord, they dismiss Obama. Conservatives secretly want Hillary to become President because that will fulfill their worldview, that p.c….
On Meet the Press yesterday, Tim Russert sharply questioned George Tenet over his passivity during the runup to the Iraq War. Disaster was looming, the executive was justifying war with lies; and yet the intelligence chief did not tell the…
The most interesting interchange at the Center for Jewish History event on Hannah Arendt on May 2 involved Jewish assimilation in western societies. Arendt was born in Germany in 1906. Jerome Kohn said that two ideologies she grew up with…
Last night the Center for Jewish History had its Hannah Arendt event. The big surprise about the evening for me was the extent to which the panel, which consisted of two Arendt-adorers in Jerome Kohn and Richard Bernstein, ennobled Arendt’s…
Tomorrow night the Center for Jewish History is having an event on Hannah Arendt, reconsidering her Jewish writings, and I’m excited. I find Arendt’s writing thrilling, and the controversies she was mixed up in 40 and 50 years ago anticipate…