Surprise! (Or should I say, disappointment?) "Slavoj Žižek said that Zionism is not the worst evil in the world. He mentioned the strangling of the West Bank by Israel as a colonization project. But he also stated that someone from the Democratic Republic of Congo would sell his mother into slavery in a heartbeat for the chance to move to the West Bank."
Slovenian philosopher: "Antisemitism is alive and kicking in Europe" by Mairav Zonszein | +972972mag.com
"Sitting in a room full of Israeli activists, some of whom favor a total boycott of the country, I could feel the disappointment in the room from certain people that Žižek was not speaking more critically of Israel."
Posted on 28 June 2011
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William Galston: "Jonathan Pollard is a prisoner, but he is still a human being. Honoring our parents by burying them appropriately is one of the defining duties of our humanity. Preventing a human being from discharging that duty is an elemental wrong.… What considerations of public safety, or national security, or international relations were so weighty as to override the dictates of simple humanity?"
Pollard: What Precepts of Decency Does our State Owe its Prisoners? by William Galston | TNRwww.tnr.com
"The Secretary of State and the Attorney-General owe us an explanation. In fact, the President of the United States owes us an explanation."
Posted on 27 June 2011
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As the flotilla sails: "Two luxury hotels are opening in Gaza. Thousands of new cars are plying the roads. A second shopping mall—with escalators imported from Israel—will open next month. Hundreds of homes and two dozen schools are about to go up. A Hamas-run farm where Jewish settlements once stood is producing enough fruit that Israeli imports are tapering off." First flotilla: tragedy. This one: farce.
In Gaza, a Building Boom Amid the Ruins by by Ethan Bronner | NYTwww.nytimes.com
"Things are better than a year ago," said Jamal El-Khoudary, chairman of the board of the Islamic University, who has led Gaza's Popular Committee Against the Siege. "The siege on goods is now 60 to 70 percent over."
Posted on 27 June 2011
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Yale has shown the door to Charles Small, who founded its antisemitism initiative, and has put a revamped program under a prof of French lit. Small finds that "concerning... It's important to understand history, but we have to apply the lessons of history to contemporary contexts. Scholars have an obligation to address contemporary genocidal expressions of anti-Semitism." As a rule, they don't come from France.
Yale Will Replace Anti-Semitism Institute With a New Center | CHEchronicle.com
"Small said he feared that the new program will be too focused on literary and historical analyses of Jewish suffering, and insufficiently concerned with contemporary anti-Semitism, especially the rhetoric of the Iranian government."
Posted on 21 June 2011
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In March, when Juan Cole righteously endorsed the Libya war, I predicted that if it went badly, he would start to peddle backward, claiming it hadn't been waged in total accord with his precise conditions (
http://t.co/Wcvwo8h). Well, today my prediction came true. Sorry, Juan, this is your war. Mistakes were made? You should've anticipated them—as you claim to have done on Iraq. Or are your powers waning?
Top Ten Mistakes in the Libya War by Juan Cole | Informed Commentwww.juancole.com
"Some will take my essay today as a sign that I have become diffident. Not true. But I think we would have all been better off if the emphasis had remained on civilian protection."
Posted on 19 June 2011
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Dear Tom: Israel doesn't need anyone's recognition as a Jewish state. Israel's proposal that the Pals recognize Israel as Jewish was an Israeli concession to the Pals—a ladder to climb down from the 'right of return' without explicitly renouncing it. As they won't climb down, Israel should keep it simple and just insist they renounce the 'right of return.' Is Israel Jewish? That's up to Israelis to decide—alone.
What to Do With Lemons by Tom Friedman | NYTwww10.nytimes.com
"The Israelis would get formal UN recognition as a Jewish state—with the Palestinians and Arabs voting in favor."
Posted on 19 June 2011
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An album of fascinating early photographs of Tel Aviv will go up for auction on Saturday evening at the Tiroche Auction House in Herzliya. The listing is at the link, and be sure to visit all the photos, here:
http://goo.gl/2C0g2. (Estimate at auction: $15k-$20k.)
46 Photographs of Tel Aviv, 1905-1945 | Tirochewww.tiroche.co.il
The photographs are bound in an album from the 1930's; each photograph is inscribed in handwriting in Hebrew. By Avraham Soskin (1884-1963).
Posted on 19 June 2011
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The ex-CIA guy who says the Bush White House tasked the agency to dig up dirt on Juan Cole so happens to have a book in press. Pub date, June 28. Glenn Carle's belated allegation put his name on page A1 of the NY Times (
http://goo.gl/aDQIB). The headline dramatically labeled him an "ex-spy." Is the Cole tale a publicity stunt? Perish the thought. But the book really needs one, to judge from this purple excerpt.
Book excerpt: 'The Interrogator: An Education' by former CIA officer Glenn L. Carle | CNNinthearena.blogs.cnn.com
"I was suave and sophisticated, talking over sparkling glasses with elegant women in low-cut designer dresses. I bounced around mines in a jeep, carried a weapon, wore a keffiyah over my face, spat, swore a lot, scratched my crotch, slapped my buddies on the back, and almost got shot."
Posted on 18 June 2011
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Juan Cole is outraged by a claim that the Bush White House tasked the CIA to dig up dirt on him (
http://goo.gl/QjMTi). CIA denies. In 2004, Cole wrote: "The FBI should investigate how Waled Phares, an undistinguished academic with links to far rightwing Lebanese groups and the Likud clique, became the 'terrorism analyst' at MSNBC." You think that merited an FBI investigation? You aren't a hero of free speech.
AIPAC Spy Case Update by Juan Cole | Informed Comment (2004)www.juancole.com
"Pro-Israeli figures like the Phalangist-related Walid Phares have played a sinister behind-the-scenes role."
Posted on 17 June 2011
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I am quoted on the closing of Yale's antisemitism initiative: "No one knows what lurks in the hearts or minds of Yale administrators.… [But] one thing is certain: Yale's declared 'academic' rationale for pulling the plug smells foul." The full quote and more at the link.
Yale closes antisemitism research program | Jewish Ledger (Conn.)www.jewishledger.com
Kramer: "We know that they have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to lure Prince Alwaleed, financial front man of the House of Saud, to make an eight-figure gift to the promotion of Islam-West relations. YIISA may have become an obstacle to that quest."
Posted on 17 June 2011
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