Film maker Harvey Stein is working on a documentary about Khaled Mahammed, the remarkable Palestinian citizen of Israel whose work on Holocaust education has been widely publicized. Stein sent me the following description of Mahammed, and I immediately recognized a kindred spirit, the kind of truly passionate moderate that is hard to find in Israel […]
Israel
Heartening news from Gilboa and Jenin
If we are to believe the rhetoric of some in the Israel-can-do-no-right crowd, the discrimination faced by Israeli Arabs proves that the majority-Jewish state is already comparable to South Africa under apartheid, and a 2-state solution will only make the situation permanent. In Israel and the territories, though, there are Jews and Arabs who can’t […]
The Middle East telephone game
Anyone who has played the game of “telephone” knows that our perceptions of what other people say are often distorted and inaccurate. In that game, people form a circle, and one person whispers something into the ear of his neighbor, who whispers what she thought she heard to her neighbor, and the whispers continue until […]
Cry from the heart of Israeli leftist, in 1968, still rings true
The good people of Ameinu have posted what is, in their words, “perhaps THE seminal article in response to the anti-Zionist Left, written by Amos Kenan in 1968. Mr Kenan recently passed away – but he leaves us this important piece.” It was written before it was clear that Israel would be ruling over another […]
Banish me. Shoot me. I often agree with Stephen Walt.
There is a peculiar, paranoid style of Jewish politics. Its logic would be shameful and contorted even it didn’t come from descendants of the people who invented sophisticated, multi-layered Talmudic pilpul: once someone is deemed beyond the communal pale, an enemy of the Jews, then you become tainted if you approvingly quote anything he or […]
The perils of American incrementalism
The pro-Israel peace camp, my camp, has been content to settle for incremental American diplomacy. We’ve rallied around the Obama team and its call for freezing settlements, for small but friendly policy changes from the Arab states, for “confidence-building” measures. That incremental approach didn’t work in the 1990s, but we are hoping beyond hope that […]
Review of my book by Colette Avital
The good news is that there is a nice review of my book by Colette Avital in the latest Jerusalem Report. The bad news is that, as far as I can tell, it is impossible to get it on their web site, which has been under construction for many many months. I’ve posted it as […]
Boycotters? Or thought police? A new war against the “two narratives”
Realistic Dove has never addressed the controversial BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement. One reason is that I keep taking one step towards it and then three steps back. It is a broad movement, and some of what some of its supporters advocate has begun to make sense to me. But much too much of it […]
Within organized American Jewish community, dovish groups fight back on Jerusalem
American Jewish groups are engaged in another internecine struggle about the ongoing tiff between Obama-Netanyahu. The latest tussle was prompted by a statement about Jerusalem last week from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the most important umbrella group in the community. That statement, addressing the controversy over East Jerusalem housing that […]
If U.S. says talk of sanctions on Israel is “premature,” doesn’t that mean they’re possible?
Am I the only one who finds significance in a new p-word used by the State Department: “premature?” Asked at a press briefing if the U.S. was considering putting financial pressure on Israel to get it to comply with American demands, State Department spokesperson Richard Wood said, “It’s premature to talk about that. What we’re […]