This is my version of a standard holiday column, inspired by the hope that we can rise above all the horror and suffering in the world today and live in peace and goodwill.
Its subject is the Middle East because, well, that’s where peace and goodwill go to die. The Middle East is always the Read More
“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 Read More
For partisans of President Barack Obama, the headlines were alarming.
“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
Marquee New York properties notwithstanding, foreign investors are fast losing interest in an American commercial real estate market increasingly buffeted by the credit crisis.
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 Read More
Spain’s skimpy, ubiquitous, mass market clothing chain, Mango, is venturing where no Western retailer has been before–at least since the 2003 war–by opening a branch in Iraq, WWD reported today.
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
