Issue: Israel / PalestineRSS feed

Seventy years after Israel’s founding, the Knesset has just narrowly passed a new basic law (having constitutional authority) outlining in symbolic terms how Israel is the “Nation State of the Jewish People.”  Arab Members of Knesset loudly proclaimed their outrage.   Liberal-minded defenders of Israel have long referred to this section of its 1948 Declaration of […]

This may be considered a postscript to “Is Dem/Socialist Candidate Anti-Israel?”  Margaret Hoover, a great granddaughter of Pres. Herbert Hoover, has renewed the legacy of William Buckley’s “Firing Line” TV franchise on PBS.  Unlike Buckley, however, her hosting style is to politely question and discuss issues rather than to aggressively debate guests with opposing political […]

I’m a co-author of the recent Alliance for Academic Freedom critique of the “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act,” and originally was the lawyer who was the lead drafter of the definition of anti-Semitism that would be codified into law should the ASAA be passed.  But I oppose the application of this definition in the proposed legislation.  This is from my 2016 […]

The following is a somewhat shortened version of an article distributed by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Trump can build trust and cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians — if he wants,” co-authored in our respective roles as president and advocacy chair of Ameinu: Given the current climate of mistrust and despair, it’s hard to believe that […]

This post would have been more timely if written last year in response to Stephen Shalom’s article, “Looking Back at the June 1967 Middle East War,” in the summer 2017 issue of New Politics; but it’s still appropriate a year later for the 51st anniversary of the Six Day War (June 5-10, 1967).  It reminds […]

Last week, The Third Narrative online community continued to discuss and debate the recent bloodshed along the Gaza/Israel border.  In part, this took the form of dueling references to articles.  It began with a link to Lisa Goldman’s moral indictment in The Forward entitled “The Racism of Blaming Palestinians for Their Own Deaths.” One response […]

Paul Berman reflects thoughtfully, in Tablet, on the surprise Democratic primary election victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a 28 year-old Bernie Sanders ally and member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), over a local and national Democratic party titan, Joe Crowley, representing a Queens and Bronx Congressional district.  Crowley’s the Queens County Democratic party chair and a ten-term veteran […]