Jerusalem
American Jews at Meretz USA say to Israelis: “The settlements are our business, too!”
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008
A potentially explosive new campaign by Meretz USA has just been launched. It calls upon American Jews to urge Israel’s Housing Minister to stop building settlements, and says they have the right and the obligation to do so because they are AMERICAN CITIZENS, as well as Jews with ties to Israel. It’s the […]
Obama, AIPAC and why we need a Middle East peace lobby
Thursday, June 5th, 2008Barack Obama had 7,000+ American Jews and non-Jewish friends of Israel eating out of his hand at the AIPAC Policy Conference yesterday morning. There was no political reason for him to disappoint Palestinians, the Arab world and the pro-Israel left by stating his commitment to an “undivided” Jerusalem. I have the highest hopes for […]
Revisiting a checkpoint, and an unexpected message
Monday, March 17th, 2008The Jerusalem Post notes that Ala Abu Dhaim, the gunman who shot up the Merkaz HaRav yeshiva in Jerusalem:
…did not meet the typical profile of Palestinian attackers, police said. “He is not known to the security forces,” Jerusalem Police Chief Cmdr. Aharon Franco told Channel 2. “He was a normal man … who was going […]
For Zionists, the obsession with Jerusalem is a recent phenomenon
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations recently “reaffirmed its longstanding position that a united Jerusalem should remain the sovereign and eternal capital of Israel,” according to a JTA story. Some left-of-center groups were against it but they could not stem the tide. Anyone with the slightest familiarity with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations in […]
AIPAC is an agent of…AIPAC
Friday, October 26th, 2007Mearsheimer and Walt write that AIPAC is a “de facto agent of the Israeli government.” In various parts of their book, they provide examples of the “Israel lobby’s” ability to promote Israel’s agenda in the halls of power.
But they do not seem to grasp a far more interesting, subtle point about AIPAC: it answers to […]
Checkpoints, the wall and an unexpected message
Wednesday, July 4th, 2007I think of Hannah often these days, now that I have begun to wade into the difficult task of conversing with the left on Israel. She is from Australia, in her late 50s, and has lived in Israel since the early ’70s. Hannah (not her real name) is one of the brave, tireless, […]
“Jerusalem Day” and the fiction of “unification”
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007Today is “Yom Yerushalayim,” or “Jerusalem day.” Haaretz has
a very powerful editorial about the plight of Palestinian Arabs in East Jerusalem and the Israeli policies that are largely responsible for that plight.
What do the advocates of the one-state solution say about Jerusalem? For decades, it has been two cities, not one. […]