1. Iraqis’ protests over the 12-foot separation wall in Baghdad–that it will promote sectarian divisions and make normal life impossible–cause the American government to abandon the wall, which it had lately begun, to stop suicide bombers. (And the 30-foot separation…

Saif Ammous has his comprehensive exam (a big deal, apparently) next Tuesday at Columbia. He’s told me he won’t respond to my comment on the big thread below, nor anyone else’s, till he gets that done. Good luck, Saif. I…

I wrote about U.N. Ambassador-to-be Zalmay Khalilzad’s ideological peregrinations before. From radical to neocon. Well, turns out there was a stop in Realism. Ten years ago, Khalilzad deplored the Israel lobby’s role in our foreign policy. In a 1997 paper…

There have been a lot of comments on my Michael Walzer post. I want to deal with one right off. Realistic Dove has taken me on, saying that the “far left” has a problem with Jewish identity, and accusing me…

Having covered former Iran hostage Michael Metrinko’s homecoming to Pennsylvania 25 years ago, I remember the mixture of humiliation and rage that proceeded from that long nightmare. The British hostage crisis has been a Broadway farce by comparison. The sailors…

The other night at Columbia, student groups including Lionpac, Columbia’s version of Aipac (the Israel lobby), held a panel on “What to do about Iran?” They invited three experts. One was a fullblown neoconservative, Herbert London, the ruddy-faced former mayoral…

Sen. Joe Biden’s refrain these days is that the violence in Iraq requires a “political solution.” I.e., it’s not religious fanaticism, it’s not Islamofascism, it’s not a clash of civilizations, it’s not a war on terror; suicide bombers are motivated…

I’m surprised that I’ve seen no coverage of political theorist Michael Walzer’s lecture at Yivo Institute last month on the issue of Jewish identity: “Are We a People?” Surprised because it was such a strong lecture, and such a disturbing…

M.J. Rosenberg of the Israel Policy Forum has a fine piece this week about Hebron (all but endorsing my view that the situation in the West Bank is worse than apartheid). This week 200 settlers in Hebron grabbed another building…

Richard Silverstein, the blogger Tikun Olam, writes in the Guardian that progressive Jewish bloggers have played an important role in undermining the establishment Jewish consensus re Israel. A new weapon in the battle for that free exchange of ideas has…