Tag Archives: column

Jeremy Ben-Ami might best be advised to check Principle #4 of J Street’s mission before he opens his big mouth in the future. Principle #4 of the Israel-centric organization advocates “vibrant but respectful debate about Israel.” Is “respectful” how J Street’s longtime president would characterize his statement in Saturday’s New York Times?

Israel is presumed guilty even after it proves itself innocent. It is fair to conclude that the Palestinians sent this very message when the American government announced that a Palestinian-American journalist was probably shot to death unintentionally by a bullet fired from Israeli military lines. Washington also stated that the …

Omar Shakir should forget the popular refrain, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.”

As Jerry Seinfeld would put it, “And you want be prime minister again.” While Seinfeld once caught George Costanza sprawled on the floor in his underwear after stumbling in Seinfeld’s living room, last week Benjamin Netanyahu stumbled – a generous description – by comparing accusations against his family to a “blood libel.”

If only Israel would end its “belligerent occupation.” Most of us know better, but don’t tell that to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Its Commission of Inquiry last week released the first of what they hope will be decades of annual reports on Israel’s oppression of the poor Palestinians.

A new play to top the absurdity of “Springtime for Hitler”: “Rashida Resurrects the Nakba Legacy.”

Amid the varied dissections of Shireen Abu Akleh’s death, the Palestinian Authority was consistent. To paraphrase Israeli diplomat Abba Eban, they did not miss an opportunity to miss the opportunity to sound credible.

Now I will need to avoid being in the middle when Christians sing the praises of Jesus and Muslims conduct a competing prayer session whether 30,000 feet in the air or on earth. Or an insane asylum.

On the first day of Passover, I left a store and entered my car only to look up and spot two bizarre signs on the wall – one warning of death in “hell-fire” for anyone who kills a son of Islam and the second crediting Muslims for building the Pyramids in Egypt.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, imposed a religious test upon the newly-confirmed Justice-to-be Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Supreme Court hearing, thus violating Article 6 of the Constitution.

The Vermont episode is among more than 4,700 goodies – or baddies, if you will – that AMCHA Initiative documents on its website, some of which the organization picked out in last week’s release of a study which found that “the presence and number of faculty who expressed support for an academic boycott of Israel strongly contributed to every measure of campus antisemitic activity.”

Those who call the article shoddy journalism give the Times too much credit. The article is shoddy, but is it journalism? Minimal balance, little context, no facts to support sweeping accusations.

Kevin Kline’s character Otto from “A Fish Called Wanda” was outdone by Alabama high school officials who demanded that a Jewish student apologize for something he did not do and disregarded any thought of apologizing for his teacher’s action – leading his class in a Nazi-like salute.

On the same day, a Jewish candidate for mayor was assaulted by a gun-toting intruder in his office in Louisville, Ky., and the Jewish Federations’ umbrella organization altered its priority list by removing advocacy for gun-violence prevention.

Never would we expect Nazis assaulting an American Jew near Disney World. Or anywhere else in this nation.

What a relief that pro-gun advocates routinely offer prayers whenever innocent people are threatened with or harmed by firearms. Abbott maintained the pattern as we worried what would become of the four hostages at Congregation Beth Israel.

“Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?” The forceful, stammer-free President’s Speech launched the 10-month election cycle to remove the Republican “dagger held at the throat of America” – while enabling political allies who persist in vilifying American Jews.

Across the pond, Jewish leaders are protesting the BBC’s news coverage of an incident in which pro-Palestinian advocates threatened Jewish bus passengers in London.

It is alarming, if not surprising, that Israeli and American officials are clashing over whether to revive a nuclear-arms deal with Iran or initiate military action.

Says U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, “Words can cause violence.” The Minneapolis Democrat was referring to the words of Rep. Lauren Boebert, who represents much of western and southern Colorado. Omar could have been referring to her own words – words like “the evil doings of Israel,” “the apartheid Israeli regime” and “all about the Benjamins” in reference to pro-Israel lobbying.

We cannot argue with Nancy Pelosi: “When a member uses his or her national platform to encourage violence, tragically, people listen.”

New York state Jews who live in the Bronx’s Riverdale section or Scarsdale and New Rochelle in Westchester, not to mention their non-Jewish neighbors, almost lost their infrastructure funding thanks to their congressman, U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

Those “authoritarian school board Nazis.” “Israel literally owned Congress.” Reckless words. Wacky parents raging at school officials? Pro-Arab students whipping a crowd into a frenzy? Comparable words were uttered by them, yet such words were echoed in the past week by the unfiltered voices of Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

“Saying ‘Free Palestine’ is the beginning of what we meet to talk about on this issue,” says Canadian author Desmond Cole. As I moved on to read his further comments, I was anxious to finally learn what “Free Palestine” means. Many readers are probably cynical enough to expect Cole to disappoint.

It might otherwise have been delightful to witness a lone irregular Republican senator join with a handful of insufferable House Democrats who take a bipartisan stand over process and money in the halls of Congress.