The paddling Jimmy Carter is receiving for making criticisms of Israel that are common in Israel demonstrates a law of the Israel conversation: It is one thing for Jews to criticize Israel, but it’s not O.K. for non-Jews to do…
When tragedy befell them on Bear Camp Road in southwest Oregon, the Kim family was driving an all-wheel drive Saab 9-2X . Saab’s website shows the sporting vehicle performing on a lot of mountain roads, at least one a little…
The other night at NYU, Tony Judt said, “Fasten your seatbelts it’s going to be a bumpy night,” and then dropping his scarf and jacket on the stage, gave a barnburner about the intellectual’s responsibility. Here are some of his…
The idea that former President George H.W. Bush cracked up in front of the Florida legislature today because he still grieves his son Jeb’s loss of the ’94 governor’s race is preposterous. Yes, that’s what Bush was talking about when…
Last night at NYU, Tony Judt gave a speech about the changing role of intellectuals in democracies in which he brought up the Israel/Palestine question and observed that the American discourse is now opening up to criticisms of Israel. Eight…
You’re a smart Jew. You go to a prestige college and hang out with a bunch of cool gentile guys. One of them has a fancy sister. You marry her because you want to be in the cool gang. She…
Toshikuni Doi is a 50-ish Japanese journalist now visiting the U.S. after spending years in the Occupied Territories with a camcorder. The other day at Columbia he had his first American audience, for a documentary about a family in a…
Having spent months in Tonga, I’m not entirely surprised by the latest videos of Nuku’alofa in flames. It’s a sleepy South Pacific capital, and there’s always a lot of feeling rumbling underneath the placidity. My main Tonga interest is the…
Jennifer Siegel of the Forward has turned in another fine piece of reporting, this on the fact that Republicans count their Jewish vote in the recent election at 26 percent, while the Associated Press puts it at half that, 13…