When I was at Columbia U. Monday, I stopped at the Hillel for tea and grabbed a brochure for a group called Masa. It’s the professional equivalent of the birthright tour. It offers grants to American kids to do internships…
This Mother Jones piece on the new J Street lobby says that its $1.5 million budget is up against a Goliath in $100 million Aipac, whose new headquarters in Washington was funded by Sheldon Adelson, according to unnamed “sources.” Adelson…
I’ve long contended that a war between the neocons and the progressives inside the Jewish community is necessary for American Jewry to recover from Iraq–to understand the ways that neoconservative support for Israel led to planning what (predictably) turned out…
Good for NPR; it aired a report on the new “J Street” lobby, an alternative to Aipac, this morning. NPR’s got a lot of liberal Jewish listeners. Will they support J Street? Reporter Michele Keleman interviewed Dennis Ross of WINEP…
Now that I’m looking into the “Nakba,” or Palestinian catastrophe of ’48, I’ve come to understand that division of water rights, land swaps, settlement of refugee issues etc. are all subsidiary to a spiritual process of recognition. Last night I…
I keep talking about Sheldon Adelson, America’s third-richest man, whose pro-Israel activities the Times all but ignored last week. Turns out his foundation shells out for a birthright-style happy tour of Israel, this one for Harvard law students that some…
The Masters golf tournament was, as usual, exciting this year; and it offered a political lesson. Trevor Immelman, a 28-year-old from South Africa, won by staving off the amazing Tiger Woods at Augusta (Georgia) National Golf Club. The ridiculous ceremony…
Here is another photo from Hebron, showing a lane in the old city. Take note of the netting over the lane. Reports M.J. Rosenberg of the Israel Policy Forum: But the most striking thing is the steel mesh screens that…
I love Chris Matthews, he’s a political genius. I keep saying that he’s going to talk about the Israel lobby because he talks about every other ethnicity’s role in politics with devilish pleasure, and is cynical about everyone’s motivation. But…