After reading Glenn Greenwald’s scathing rebuke several days ago, Jeffrey Goldberg composed himself enough to respond by inviting Greenwald to visit Iraqi Kurdistan, and let the rest of us know who is in his rolodex: "As it happens, I was e-mailing yesterday with the prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, Barham Salih, and I mentioned Greenwald’s […]
Bernard Avishai at TPM says that the Israeli press has become lapdog as the country swerves right…
Writing from the confines of what some Palestinians call the "Ramallah bubble," Thomas Friedman thinks he knows how to solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict: "quietly support[ing]" the Palestinian Authority while it builds a "real economy, a professional security force and an effective, transparent government bureaucracy." Friedman has a curious definition of a Palestinian state, which according […]
Filmmaker Iara Lee continues to be outspoken since returning from the freedom flotilla. Her footage from the Mavi Marmara offers some of the most compelling evidence of what took place the night of the Israeli attack, and Jared Malsin just interviewed her on her film and the importance of the flotilla: “The media in this […]
No link available, but, Maan is reporting that Muhammad Abu Tir (a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council who is affiliated with Hamas) has been taken from his Jerusalem home and his expulsion is imminent. And other news from Today in Palestine:
B’nai B’rith has issued a statement criticizing the recommendations of the Middle East Study Committee of the Presbyterian Church USA. These recommendations include possibly withholding US military aid to Israel in order to encourage it to abide by international law as well as an endorsement of the important Kairos Document, recently put forth jointly by the […]
Elena Kagan at her confirmation hearings: "As you know, I don’t think it’s a secret I am Jewish," she added. "The state of Israel has meant a lot to me and my family." How would Kagan have been received by the Senate, by the media, and by the lobby if she had said instead: "As […]
Translation below of a piece in Taraf, a Turkish daily, about an interview that aired on Israeli television with a leader of the Turkish IHH charity that organized the flotilla. Thanks to Lonso for translation. The remarkably-philosophical Bulent Yildirim says more boats are ready to go, and his statements about paintball, knives, death wishes, and […]
The Jewish community knows something is breaking loose. Thus J Street’s recent statement on BDS that begins to crack open the door on the idea of targeted divestment. Now here is Donna Nevel of Jews Say No! with a piece in the Baltimore Jewish Times that calls upon the Jewish community to engage on the […]
Everyone’s talking about Elena Kagan’s remarks about Jewishness and Israel yesterday during the Senate hearing. My two cents. First, the woman is charming. You don’t get so far in life without having interpersonal gifts, and she has ’em. I admired the way she took Lindsey Graham’s scary question about what she does on Christmas and […]
Here is an interesting piece on Hezbollah in Tablet, by Nicholas Noe, that essentially warns Jews that the Jewish state is finished unless you can reach a deal soon. Because the threat picture is only getting bigger, and you can’t deal with it with an iron wall anymore. No, you must come to terms with […]
My oh my, what a sad state of affairs it is when the prime minister of another country takes a stronger stance than the U.S. government has on the killing of an innocent U.S. citizen. Charlie Rose interviewed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last night, and Erdogan explained why Turkey was so angered at […]
Elena Kagan, the nominee to the Supreme Court, was dean of Harvard Law School in 2006 when she introduced Aharon Barak, chief judge of Israel’s High Court of Justice, during an award ceremony as “my judicial hero.” She explained (per the New York Times): He is the judge or justice in my lifetime whom, I […]
I haven’t had a chance to read this all the way through, but it looks like the most comprehensive reports into the flotilla attack yet. Here is one particularly chilling passage on the initial Israeli attack (p.22): Around 4:10, messages from the ship Defne, which was part of the flotilla, began to be received by […]
And other news from Today in Palestine:
Several updates from the National Public Radio front: • Last week, just a day after I sent a complaint to Fresh Air and NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard about the misleading account of the origins of the siege of Gaza presented by Terry Gross’s guest Lawrence Wright, a correction of sorts appeared on the network’s corrections […]
Check out all the trashings of Jeffrey Goldberg:
Two days ago, I found it curious to learn of a large rally held in Paris by the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI, also known as MEK or MKO) by reading the headlines on Ynet and on Ha’aretz. I usually follow Iranian opposition events via various other Iranian websites, where the rally was not mentioned. […]
I love it when realists make moral arguments. At the American Conservative, John Mearsheimer declares the two-state solution dead, and Israel headed for apartheid, with the U.S. backing it to the hilt and losing credibility around the world. The sad truth is that Israel has been brutalizing the Palestinians for so long that it is […]
On September 11, 2001, George Bush changed the way Americans look at the world and the success with which he accomplished this feat is evident in the fact that his perspective largely remains unchallenged — even among many of his most outspoken critics. Bush’s simplistic for-us-or-against-us formula was transparently emotive yet utterly effective. For almost […]
And other news from Today in Palestine:
I’m crushed and livid. Jerusalem master plan: Expansion of Jewish enclaves across the city: The Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee is set to approve an unprecedented master plan that calls for the expansion of Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, a move largely based on construction on privately owned Arab property. This is heating up […]
Noah Feldman of Harvard Law School says in a piece in the NYT pointing out that Elena Kagan will make it three Jews on the Supreme Court, and no Protestants. It’s easy for him to say, he’s a winner. Also, Feldman served in the Coalition Provisional Authority in the Iraq war and occupation. Was Zionism, […]
I’m told that last year in a panel at Columbia Journalism School, a writer for The New Yorker said that only one member of the magazine’s staff who dealt with foreign policy opposed the Iraq war. Wow. Why did this leading magazine that told people how to think about Vietnam flub this one so bad? […]
From Slate’s the best movies never made: Genesis 1948 In 1970, Otto Preminger bought the screen rights to Dan Kurzman’s 800-plus-page nonfiction chronicle of "The First Arab-Israeli War," intending a follow-up to his 1960 epic, Exodus. At a press conference, he said, "We’ll show both the conflict on the battlefield and in the political arenas […]