The other day I did a post quoting a foreigner, an “Arabist,” commenting on Israel’s transformation of the Middle East and other matters. This was deceptive and I regret it. The man is an Arab. Yes he’s an Arabist but…
My friend Mark passed along Steve Sailer’s item today noting that Obama hasn’t learned a foreign language. Mark says: It is telling that Obama had sooooo many opportunities to learn a foreign language under superior tutelage at elite institutions, has…
I had dinner with a smart friend, an Arabist, from across the sea. Here are some things he said. What if they are true? –Egypt had a Parliament and a democracy till 1952 and the takeover by Nasser and the…
Been meaning to mention this. I had the privilege, three weeks ago, of attending the Dalton School commencement at Lincoln Center. Dalton is an elite private high school in New York City. Maybe the most elite. Michael Steinhardt sent his…
I continue to applaud the New Yorker’s knocking off Sheldon Adelson last week, but with one hand. It has the feeling of special pleading to me. In fact, it even created an undercurrent of sympathy in me for its villain,…
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…
This is an amazing piece by Harvard Anthropology Prof Lorand Matory. Published in the Crimson because no one else will publish it, it says everything I say: the Jewish presence in the establishment has had the effect of stifling debate…
Today’s Washington Post has a piece by author Saree Makdisi about his censorship by the bookstore Politics and Prose, and also a piece by bookstore-owner Carla Cohen, a vigorous opponent of the Israeli occupation, explaining her decision to disinvite Makdisi,…
Scott McClellan is a good man, is all I have to say. He’s a whistleblower of a sort, he’s put country ahead of party and chain-of-command. He even describes how Bush was converted to the neocon delusion, that peace in…