I have yet to hear one good reason why the U.S. should veto a new UN Security Council resolution that condemns Israeli settlements, or why it should try to keep the resolution from coming up for a vote. Oh there have been protests from the usual suspects who support the settlers or object to any […]
Author: Dan Fleshler
Is there a shred of hope for a renewed Israeli Labor Party? Sure…
Today, two days after I posted a lament about the rightward tilt of Israel’s Labor Party, Ehud Barak announced that he was quitting Labor and forming a new party, “Atzmaut,” that would be “centrist, Zionist and democratic.” He took four Knesset members with him. Good riddance. While this blog obviously doesn’t keep track of the […]
The Labor Party’s new flirtation with the settlers
I don’t think there is much chance of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without a revival of the parliamentary left –or at least left-center– in Israel, the development of a powerful and consequential counterweight to the aggressive right. (Of course, there is not much chance of resolving it even if there were such a revival, but […]
“Not All Criticism Of Israel Is the Same”
My op-ed on the campaign against the “anti-delegitimization” of Israel was just posted on the New York Jewish Week web site. The far left won’t like it. The far right won’t like it. I don’t know what the centrists will think… Here it is: Not All Criticism Of Israel Is The Same In an article […]
Have a strong stomach? Track the settlements on your cell phone
Americans for Peace Now has just released a “Facts on the Ground” application that gives iPhone and iPad users real-time, digital maps of the West Bank settlements. It’s also available on the web. You can find it here. Interviewed by Ha’aretz, APN’s estimable CEO Debra DeLee said, “One of the things that make this tool […]
Is there any hope?
We’ve been here before, of course. We’ve been here so many times I’ve lost count. Most of what needs to be said about the upcoming Israeli-Palestinian peace talks was expressed in a poem written nearly sixty years ago by the late, truly great Yehuda Amichai. In The U.N. Headquarters Headquarters in the High Commissioner’s House […]
NY Times perpetuates myth that American Jews are single-issue voters
More and more Jewish voters are deserting the Democratic party, according to a Pew Research Center poll. The survey shows that 33% of American Jewish voters now identify or lean Republican, up from 20% in 2008. That’s interesting and troubling to a died-in-the-wool Democrat like me. But Charles M. Blow’s take on the poll in […]
Philip Weiss and the inconvenient truth of suicide bombers
In a recent post, the increasingly influential Philip Weiss tells of a Gaza psychiatrist who pleads with his visitors to “reach out and heal” Israelis because they are “gripped by fear.” Weiss accepts the challenge. After saying Israelis have a “psychosis†because of their fears, he asserts: I use the word psychosis because Israeli society […]
The Israeli blockade is actually strengthening Hamas
The estimable Lara Friedman of Americans for Peace Now has provided ten reasons for Israel to reassess its blockade of the Gaza Strip. One rationale for the blockade is Israel’s desire to weaken and undermine Hamas. The opposite has occurred, according to Friedman. Oops. This is a classic, tragic example of the law of unintended […]
Dialogue on the Gaza Flotilla
“I appreciate your call. My staff was going to get in touch with you. The task force is meeting tomorrow at 8:30. Can you make it?†“I’m afraid the Consulate will need to get someone else. I’m calling to tell you I can’t help anymore. I’m too upset…†“But the facts are on our side. […]