Issue: Liberal ZionismRSS feed

I first heard and saw Lisa Goldman, a Canadian-Israeli writer and left political activist, on a panel at a J Street conference.  She is both brilliant and acerbic, albeit generally too strident for my taste. Her XMas gift to us this year is another sharp and anguishing article about the occupation, “Nabi Saleh is Where I Lost My […]

I’m a subscriber to The Forward, where I used to be published with some frequency. An opinion piece that’s gotten my notice the other day is “No, You Can’t Be a Feminist and a Zionist” by one Mariam Barghouti, identified as a writer based in Ramallah. This provocative title was the subject head for a Forward email […]

The Struggle for the Heart of the Left: Israel, Palestine and BDS It’s no surprise that the Democratic Socialists of America, endorsed a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) policy at its recent membership convention. Disheartening, yes, but today’s DSA, though calling itself the ‘largest socialist organization in America’ is not the DSA that was founded […]

(September 6, 2017)  New York’s Center for Jewish History is currently being subjected to an aggressive and unacceptable outside campaign to discredit its newly appointed CEO and President, David N. Myers of the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Myers is a widely known and distinguished Jewish studies scholar who is highly qualified to administer […]

Lawrence Bush, the editor of Jewish Currents (originally a creation of Jewish veterans of the Communist Party) is almost Zionist in his lament over BDS and the Chicago Dyke March incident: “As the Jewish Left Moves Left . . . Do We Have to Be Anti-Zionist to Be Progressive These Days?“ Bush’s view is boldly stated, […]

Thrall is a curious sort.  I don’t believe that he really wants to do Israel in, but he argues powerfully (in a NY Times op-ed and in a longer piece in the Guardian) against the liberal-Zionist view that a reasonable peace deal can be negotiated if there’s an amenable political alignment and a sufficient good-faith effort […]

A recent proposal by Israel’s Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett (head of the rightwing Jewish Home party), for the Knesset to legislate an “ethics code” that would prohibit university faculty from voicing their political opinions in class and from “participating in, or voicing support for, academic boycotts against Israeli institutions,” has drawn concern from members of our […]