Issue: BDS ≠ PeaceRSS feed

Click here to link to the “60 Minutes” interview with Bibi Netanyahu, broadcast on December 11, 2016. Interviewer Leslie Stahl seems convinced that BDS [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] supporters on campus simply want to end the occupation. When Netanyahu suggests (correctly, regarding many) that they want to destroy Israel, he comes off as paranoid. To me this says two […]

Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi is a Jerusalem-born scholar and peace activist who founded and directs the Wasatia Graduate Academic Institute, a Palestinian Islamic institution  promoting moderation, reconciliation, peace, tolerance and justice.  This interview was originally published on the Fikra Forum website.  (The Fikra Forum is “an independent initiative of the Washington Institute for Near […]

A media storm has erupted over whether an Israeli filmmaker was a victim of the anti-Israel boycott movement — whether he was invited and then disinvited (the latter for political reasons) to screen his film at a conference to be hosted at Syracuse University.  What follows is part of an article written for the school’s […]

Scholars and activists of The Third Narrative email list have recently discovered that the leadership speaking in the name of “The Movement for Black Lives” has issued a Platform that includes an embrace of BDS and a one-sided pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli perspective.   While legitimately expressing concern for the fate of Palestinians living under occupation, it unreasonably […]

This commentary is inspired by “When Your Enemy’s Enemy is Your Enemy,” an article written by the liberal American-Israeli journalist, Gershom Gorenberg, for his usual venue, The American Prospect (March 11, 2016). While his piece does not directly address BDS, it analyzes the anti-Western/anti-Imperialist ideology that often accompanies support for BDS. The summary sentence beneath the title reads: “A defense of Hezbollah […]

The scholarly journal ARAM features contributions by both Arabs and Israelis (and others) about ancient (and sometimes modern) Aramaic-language culture. Some of the Israeli authors appear to have worked in Jordan. There’s even one article co-written by a Haifa U / Yarmouk U duo. Aramaic was the lingua franca of the Fertile Crescent from around […]

As a teenager I was riveted to the television coverage of the Chicago Conspiracy trial: the government’s attempt to convict Vietnam-era anti-War protestors. Defense attorney Bill Kunstler used the courtroom as political theater, and put the system – and the war – on trial. Over the decades, I’ve been involved in legal cases that have […]