Why is it that the most important advances in American understanding of the Middle East can only appear in papers that spell neighbor “neighbour”? Lately it was Tony Judt in the London Review of Books. Before that the LRB gave us Walt and Mearsheimer. And now it’s the Financial Times, publishing the great Henry Read More
I got some great comment on a post I did on the taboo liberal journalists experience when tempted to talk about Israel. Anonymous grapples smartly (if casuistically) on to the point that the lobby has actually worked against Israel’s best interests by hamstringing the independence of U.S. policymakers:
If the Lobby is bad for Read MoreAn article in this week’s Observer about the unanimity among New York politicians in supporting Israel’s bombing of Lebanon (surprise) contains an important statement by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (who was a brave opponent of the Iraq war):
[Nadler] equated support for Israel at this moment with support for the country’s right to exist at Read MoreThis is about the power of ideas. The neocons were on the outs for a long time after Reagan left office. To their credit, they lived quietly in their cells exchanging crazily logical ideas about the Middle East—and were well paid to do so. They won over a lot of Democrats. Then through a concatenation Read More
The Washington Post today today has the courage to run a cover article in its magazine with the question, “Does the Israel Lobby Have Too Much Power?” Hats off to the Post! It has done what real journalists should have been doing for the last 20 years, and confronted the question head on. Read More
Jason Horowitz’s fine piece on the Lieberman-Lamont race in this week’s Observer contains a stretcher, or 2, from N.Y. Congressman Anthony Weiner:
‘[T]he Palestinian position seems to be perfect for the Internet world of pithy back-and-forth and 30-second You Tube tapes, where the Zionist position is more at home in a seven-page New York Read MoreLast night on Charlie Rose, the great Henry Siegman said that he had met recently with Hamas leaders in Beirut. He related Hamas’s aims.
Hamas is prepared to explicitly recognize the state of Israel. But it cannot do so without Israel recognizing the legitimacy of the Palestinians’ aspirations. That means a recognition of Read More
A couple weeks back I said that no American newspaper would print a piece by the great Henry Siegman, the former American Jewish Congress president who has become outspoken on the need for Israel to deal fairly with the Palestinians.
I was wrong. Yesterday’s LA Times has a stunning article by Siegman Read More
In today’s Financial Times, Henry Siegman states that Israel is trying to annex large portions of the West Bank and thereby frustrate plans for a true Palestinian state. “The issue is not whether Hamas recognises Israel,” Siegman says. It is whether Israel recognizes the right of Palestinians to statehood. Hamas, he points out, has Read More
