Current Issue

COLUMN LEFT: Albert Einstein's Zionism

editor — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 13:50:37 -0400

By Ralph Seliger

[Author Fred] Jerome ... places [Einstein] (correctly) with other left and liberal Zionists who advocated a binational state in Palestine before the violent Arab onslaughts in late 1947 and the first half of '48. ...

Einstein called the conflict ‘a struggle between two rights: the right of Jews to a homeland and the right of Arabs to their land. ...’

Far from proving that Einstein was not a Zionist, Jerome reveals the depth of the scientist’s approximately 35-year commitment to Zionism, beginning in 1919.

See related Weblog posting

Peace vs. Justice

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:40:32 -0500

By Michael Lame

Israelis ... tend to put a premium on peace, but they place an even higher premium on preserving their national existence.

A real question ... is whether justice in Arab terms must be all-or-nothing.

Palestinians can’t return to the world they knew before ’48. It no longer exists.

‘They’ Teach Hate: Examining School Texts and Israeli & Palestinian Student Views

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:33:44 -0500

By Stephen Scheinberg, Ph.D.

... most of the words cited [for antisemitism] were taken from the old Egyptian and Jordanian texts and not the newer Palestinian ones.

[Israeli and Palestinian] texts were almost mirror images of one another. Each celebrates only its own victims, and ignores the human suffering of the other.

See Weblog posting.

Youth Essay Winners for Peace

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:30:57 -0500

By Hillel Schenker

Last winter's [Gaza] war ... led peace researcher Dr. Simcha Bahiri ... to initiate an ... essay for peace contest ... open to Israelis and Palestinians aged 17-24.

Book Review: Striving for Democracy in Mideast

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:25:04 -0500

By Ziad Asali, M.D.

The Next Founders: Voices of Democracy in the Middle East by Joshua Muravchik, Encounter Books, 2009, 371 pp., hardcover, $25.95.

The Middle East must be a home to both peace and democracy, but neither should be held hostage to the other.

The problem facing Middle Eastern liberals and reformers is how to navigate the difficult waters between authoritarian states ... and even more illiberal and reactionary oppositions....

... those liberals who support or defend radical Islamist organizations because of shared grievances against Israel and the West are deluding themselves ... that they can do so and sustain liberalism and reform.

Book Review: Are Mizrahim Still Marginal in Israel?

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:12:49 -0500

By Lyn Julius

Not the Enemy by Rachel Shabi, Yale University Press, UK, 2009 (264 pages). [Published in the USA as We Look Like the Enemy, Walker & Company.]

Today Mizrahim are not some repressed minority; they are generals, doctors, property developers and bank managers, and have held every high government post other than prime minister.

... intermarriage is running at 25 percent and the mixed Israeli family is fast become the norm.

Shabi presents the persecution of Mizrahi Jews in Arab countries largely as a backlash to Zionism.

Book Review: Two Nations Into One Don’t Go

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:03:36 -0500

By Philip Mendes, Ph.D.

One State, Two States: Resolving the Israel/Palestine Conflict by Benny Morris, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2009, 240 pp., $26 (hardcover).

Morris’s overview of Palestinian history and politics is very black and white, and rejects the possibility of more nuanced interpretations.

He argues convincingly that the common fear and hatred of the two peoples makes a bi-national state unthinkable.

Morris ... favors a two-state solution, but is extremely pessimistic about its chances for success.

Book Review: A Progressive Zionist Examines AIPAC

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:46:15 -0500

By Thomas Mitchell, Ph.D.

Transforming America’s Israel Lobby: The Limits of Its Power and the Potential for Change by Dan Fleshler (Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 2009), $24.95.

AIPAC deliberately exaggerates its own power in order to intimidate its opponents and increase its fundraising. ...

There is too much emphasis on converting the loony left. These people ... are not open to rational argument. ...

See Weblog post.

DIRECTOR'S COLUMN: On Goldstone Report and Against boycotting Israel

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:25:42 -0500

By Ron Skolnik

On Goldstone Report:

... [an] investigation by Israel of its own actions would in no way excuse the terrible acts that have been committed repeatedly against Israeli non-combatants.... Related Website posting

Against Boycotting Israel:
... the BDS movement's disregard for the history that gave rise to the need for Jewish national liberation is both insensitive and misguided politically.

MOVEMENT MATTERS

editor — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:20:45 -0500

Visitors from Meretz Party
On Leah Shakdiel
And more...

EDITOR'S ODDS & ENDS: Israel is Not South Africa

By Uri Avneri

Those who call for a boycott act out of despair.