"Israel has no better friend than America, and America has no better friend than Israel," the prime minister said. "We stand together to defend democracy. We stand together to advance peace. We stand together to fight terrorism."
These are indisputable facts, but they bear repeating from time to time. Mr. Netanyahu reminded Americans that as they Read More
"Jewish Donors Warn Obama on Israel," said The Wall Street Journal. "Obama's Jewish Backers on Edge Over His Mideast Peace Plan," proclaimed the Los Angeles Times.
The denunciations were swift and final. President Obama, it seemed, had made a fundamental error in calling for Israel Read More
Israel celebrated the 63rd anniversary of its independence on May 10. As usual, the occasion was marked by celebrations, remembrances and official greetings from Israel's allies. But this year's commemorations had a special significance, for they took place in the midst of extraordinary unrest in the Middle East.
The so-called Arab Spring has brought enormous Read More
According to an Associated Press report published in today's International Herald Tribune:
"Middle East investment is expected to be flat or down this year compared to a banner year in 2007. Read More
Undaunted by the political instability, sporadic violence, and relatively more modest style of dress that prevails in even the relatively peaceful, liberal Kurdish region Read More
At last, the put-upon Boston Globe has found a New York Times Company policy it can go along with: On March 19, as many as 30 staffers applied for 19 buyout slots, according to multiple sources at the newspaper. The names on editor Martin Baron’s desk were expected to include business columnist Steven Bailey and Read More
My dad's real smart, even if he doesn't agree with me on my Middle East politics, and a couple weeks ago he said something that stuck. He was saying that Jimmy Carter's book is a sign of rising anti-Semitism (something I disagree with), a sign we're entering a new phase for Jewish power in the Read More
The AJC's report on "Only Self-Hating Jews Don't Like Israel"—it's actually called "'Progressive' Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism"—is officially an embarrassment. I say officially because the report's theme that it is "illegitimate" for Jews to question the nature of the founding of Israel, that such inquiries represent a "betrayal" of Israel, based on "tangled Read More
A reporter called me yesterday and said I was wrong in declaring there's a movement of progressive Jews who are criticizing Zionism. He asked for my evidence. I started with Jewish Voice for Peace, which runs muzzlewatch and rallied in the cold to support Jimmy Carter at Brandeis. He said, "But they're kind of Read More
The latest battle in the ideological war over Israel/Palestine took place the other day at a high school outside Boston. Andover High had invited a pro-Palestinian group called Wheels of Justice to talk at the school. Local Jewish groups rose in opposition; the event was cancelled. Then the ACLU stepped in and the Read More
I'm in L.A. One of the liberating things about being here is that while there's Jewishness all around me, it is not as confining a Jewishness as the one in New York. The definition is looser. At a Christmas party of people in the movie business two nights ago, I talked to three Jews. 1 Read More
Holocaust denial is a particularly insidious evil. It was almost painful to read The Times’ earnest struggle to report on the Iranian Holocaust-deniers’ conference in anticipation of its opening on Dec. 11. It will be fascinating to see how the rest of the media reports on this conference of “scholars” whose distinguished keynote speaker is Read More
Just as one controversy over alleged racism begins to settle down, the New York Police Department is drifting into trouble all over again. While the killing of Sean Bell has attracted nationwide media coverage and drawn major figures like the Reverend Jesse Jackson to New York, a lawsuit recently filed in a Manhattan federal court Read More
“The United States, in a way, is trapped in Iraq,” Kofi Annan recently said. The outgoing Secretary General of the United Nations then added: “It cannot stay and it cannot leave.” We Americans have been coached to disregard anything Mr. Annan says, but this might be a moment to lay aside our prejudices and listen Read More
Jimmy Carter's use of the word "apartheid" in the title of his new book has generated a lot of controversy—the Washington Post reporting that a Middle East scholar has angrily resigned his affiliation with the Carter Center over Carter's book. The Democratic Party has of course banished Carter over the word, and, inevitably, Read More
