Brit Tzedek v’ Shalom sent out the following message from Rabbi Bonnie Margulis, who is on their Rabbinic Cabinet. I don’t normally deal with matters of religion on this blog. But I think this is worth reading and taking to heart, whatever your religion. Happy New Year to all. —————————————————————————————— Around the world at this […]
Palestinians
An Arab American moderate argues against the 1-state solution
American Jews like me who argue against the one-state solution are constantly confronted by those who claim a moral high ground and cite the small but growing number of Palestinian intellectuals who have given up on two states. They spend much of their time showing why the two-state solution is no longer feasible while spending […]
Arguing with B’Tselem about body counts misses the point
B’Tselem, the Israeli human riights group, has released a report on civilian casualties during “”Operation Cast Lead,” Israel’s military venture in the Gaza Strip. Predictably, the Israeli military and various NGOs have different body counts, according to Yediot Achronot. Pay attention to the numbers here, because they lead to a larger point: A new report […]
Notes on a passionate Palestinian moderate
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]