29
Jun
Already in its death throes after seven years of futile struggle against Israel, the Palestinian national movement suffered a fatal blow last week, when Gaza fell in the hands of Hamas. Now, instead of a state-in-the waiting, Palestine is two failed states, under two governments at war with one another.
Hamas in Gaza might still pursue [...]
29
Jun
Tashbih Sayyed was a very special human being, a friend of the Jewish people, and my friend. I first met him seven years ago when my organization, the American Jewish Committee, was launching an interfaith effort to initiate dialogue with Muslims. In our conversations, Tashbih exuded a quiet intensity, and a determination to make [...]
28
Jun
In Let Us Prove Strong: The American Jewish Committee, 1945-2006 (Brandeis University Press, 2007), Marianne Sanua describes a telling moment in AJC history. It was John Slawson’s “Aha!” moment in the early 1960’s. Slawson, AJC’s executive vice president, was reading the latest American Jewish Year Book study by Erich Rosenthal (“Jewish Fertility in [...]
15
Jun
A few years ago an American Indian friend phoned me, absolutely perplexed. He could not reconcile two stories in his morning paper – one in the news section, the other in sports. Both were about major Florida universities.
The first story reported universal outrage at and severe sanctions on a fraternity which had hosted an event [...]
15
Jun
As international news networks were reporting Hamas’s onslaught against Fatah, I began trawling the internet to see what, if anything, the various pro-Palestinian websites and blogs had to say about the brutal civil war raging in the Gaza Strip.
The short answer: not much.
Over at the Electronic Intifada (EI) commentators were undisturbed by the fragmentation of [...]
7
Jun
At a recent dinner for a global environmental organization, a new Tesla was auctioned for $110,000 in ten minutes. Starting bid was $80,000, discounted from the $100,000 sticker price, and the actress emceeing that portion of the program expressed frustration that the guests filling the New York hotel ballroom were not more forthcoming in competing [...]
1
Jun
It’s tempting to view the movement to boycott Israel as a peculiarly British affliction. The University and College Union vote marked the third time in three years that British academics have opted for a boycott policy. And that decision came barely a month after the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ) voted, at its annual [...]