Eventually, Obama and his team may well press the Israeli government to make hard decisions on the West Bank settlements, presumably as part of a comprehensive diplomatic plan in which each side will need to sacrifice cherished principles and stop habitual behavior. We got an inkling of Israel’s predictable but disturbing response to a key […]
Israel
Baker and Biden at AIPAC: A Tale of Two Speeches
At the AIPAC Policy Conference 20 years ago, Secretary of State James Baker made a widely publicized speech that, if I’m not mistaken, was written by Aaron David Miller. He told the throng: For Israel, now is the time to lay aside, once and for all, the unrealistic vision of a Greater Israel. Israeli interests […]
Americans for Peace Now’s sensible take on new Iran sanctions bill
New Iran sanctions legislation is now in the House and Senate (S. 908 and HR 2194). No doubt it will be the major focus of AIPAC’s lobbying efforts this coming Tuesday, after AIPAC”s Policy Conference, when literally throusands of its members will descend on Capitol Hill. According to a contact at Americans for Peace Now, […]
Poll: Growing majority of Americans oppose new Israeli settlement construction
Just in time for this weekend’s AIPAC conference and the Netanyahu-Obama meeting on May 18th, a new poll by WorldPublicOpinion.org indicates that three-quarters of Americans think that Israel should not build settlements in the Palestinian territories. This is up 23 points from when this question was last asked in 2002. One third of Americans show […]
Review of my book in NY Jewish Week
The erudite Jerome Chanes has (mostly) positive things to say about my book in the latest NY Jewish Week. Love the opening line: “Oy! Yet another book on the `Israel lobby.’”
The Egos at AIPAC
In the official indictment of ex-AIPACers Steven Rosen and Keith Weisman and their Pentagon contact Larry Franklin, there is a tidbit that hints at the role of egos and self-aggrandizement in the lobby’s day-to-day activities. This topic is related to something I discuss in my book, which conveys how AIPAC and the conventional Israel lobby […]
Errors in my book
I am mortified by a few factual errors in the book. They are the product of careless copyediting and proofreading. In fact, they are mystifying because they are so obvious, and I am not even sure how they got into the manuscript in the first place, let alone how I missed them during proofreading. Before […]
Who deserves award for the most stupid behavior in Jane Harman fracas?
We still don’t know a great deal about the Jane Harman affair, in which she allegedly agreed to try to intercede in the Justice Department’s investigation of two former AIPAC employees. But I believe we now have incontrovertible proof of the utter stupidity exhibited by some of the main players. Here are my current nominees […]
Ace reporter: American Jewish leaders are getting nervous about Obama
The well-connected and astute James Besser is hearing from American Jewish learders who are concerned that Obama will ignore conventional political wisdom and not worry (too much) about battling “the pro-Israel establishment.” He tells us: Last month Obama said “the status quo is unsustainable,” and he sounded like he meant it. For many pro-Israel leaders […]
Is praise from Philip Weiss the kiss of death?
Uh oh. Philip Weiss had nice things to say about me and my book in a recent post. Did he just ruin my life? Walt and Mearsheimer, let us remember, were castigated because David Duke promoted them on his web site. Should I worry for similar reasons? I am sometimes deeply offended by what Weiss […]