Lords of the Land, by Idith Zertal and Akiva Eldar, is one of the most heartbreaking books I have ever read (or, more accurately, started to read, as I am half-way through). Written in 2005 and just released in translation by Nation Books, it tells us everything Diaspora and Israeli Jews must be forced to […]
Palestinians
Israeli columnist: Cutting Gaza’s fuel supply is just “spin”
Americans for Peace Now’s latest “Middle East Peace Report” (link doesn’t work, so go to http://www.peacenow.org/mepr.asp?rid=&cid=4173) has some provocative critiques of the Israeli move to cut Gaza’s fuel supply, including lengthy excerpts from a column by Nahum Barnea in today’s Yedioth Ahoronot. I keep waiting to read sensible justifications for this action from the Israeli […]
Mearsheimer, Walt and what didn’t really happen at Camp David
There is a sentence towards the end of Walt and Mearsheimer’s new book that undercuts some of what they have tried to accomplish with their critique of the “Israel Lobby.†Having rejected the binational, single-state solution as well as Israel’s permanent occupation, they assert: “The United States will have to put significant pressure on Israel […]
Mearsheimer, Walt and the so-called “silent” Jewish doves
I have read the Mearsheimer and Walt book. They have answered some–although not all– of my prayers, which were spelled out in my post on August 12th. The book is much more careful, more nuanced, more detailed and more convincing than their original paper, which was published in the Spring of 2006. I wanted very […]
Give Israel’s Education Ministry credit: new text acknowledges Palestinian narrative
Yuli Tamir, Israel’s Education Minister, gets it. She and her staff have taken a tiny step towards a goal that has never been a priority for either Israel or the Palestinian Authority/PLO: acknowledging that there are two very different narratives at work here, two different ways of looking at the same set of events. Those […]
The Magnes Zionist on “moral” vs. “immoral” Zionism
I have found a rare commodity: a kindred spirit in the blogosphere. “Jerry Haber” is the nom de plume of an Israeli professor whose provocative blog, “The Magnes Zionist,” wrestles bravely with the same issues I am trying to address. Both of us were recently plugged by Mobius in his indispensable “JewSchool.” Judah Magnes, as […]
New Senate resolution: will “one-staters” sit on their hands?
There is a good chance that there is no hope. It may well be impossible to unravel the Gordian knot of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But there will certainly be no hope unless the U.S. gets more actively engaged and takes a more balanced approach. That is a no-brainer, isn’t it? Americans for Peace Now, Churches […]
Peace Now: Remove most, but not all, checkpoints
I took a deep breath and opened up a can of worms by discussing checkpoints and the wall in my previous post. The dilemma that confronts ordinary Israelis and Palestinians who won’t want to rely on glib rhetoric or simplistic solutions is how to reconcile two moral imperatives: the imperative of ending the occupation and […]
Checkpoints, the wall and an unexpected message
I 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, often rather […]
My speech on candor, Israel, and the rhetoric of the far left
By now, readers of this blog know that I was part of a panel discussion on “How To Talk Candidly About Israel” at the Steven Wise Free Synagogue in New York City, June 21st, 2007. I was on a panel with Anne Roiphe and the Philip Weiss. The moderator was JJ Goldberg. I have posted […]