My first piece for Open Zion, Peter Beinart’s blog at The Daily Beast, is live. It addresses the false accusation that one cannot be Zionist and also hold to liberal values, using the question of Palestinian refugees as the way to explore this question. Since i don’t identify as a Zionist, I think this makes it a more powerful argument.
Posted in Refugees, Zionism | Tagged Anti-Zionism, BDS, Daily Beast, human rights, international law, Israel, Jerusalem, Justice, Middle east, One-State Solution, Open Zion, Palestinian Refugees, Peter beinart, pro-Israel, Right of Return, Two-state solution, United Nations, West Bank | 1 Comment »
Ahmed Tibi is perhaps the Knesset’s most controversial member. Eloquent (in Hebrew), he is an unflinching critic of Israel’s occupation and its treatment of its Arab citizens and has frequently been the target of his fellow Knesset members.
MK Ahmed Tibi (photo by Lisa Goldman)
In 2010, on the UN Holocaust Remembrance Day, he delivered a speech so brilliant and moving that even the right-wing Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin called it ”one of the best speeches he has ever heard in the plenum” about the Holocaust.
Rivlin’s saying that is particularly noteworthy since, while always respecting the Holocaust and its meaning for Jews, Tibi did not back away from saying that racism is a growing problem in Israel today.
I provide the full text of Tibi’s speech below. Continue Reading »
Posted in Holocaust | Tagged Ahmed Tibi, Holocaust, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Knesset, Racism, Reuven Rivlin | Leave a Comment »
In this week’s entry at Souciant, I examine the implications of Israel’s heavy-handed, stupid and clumsy response to the intention of hundreds of activists to fly into Israel in order to join a Palestinian protest. The ironic thing is that Netanyahu trots out the standard “Israel is the region’s only democracy” argument to defend actions that both show how deeply flawed that democracy is and how seriously that democracy is threatened.
Posted in Democracy, human rights | Tagged al-haq, B'Tselem, Bashar al-Assad, Benjamin Netanyahu, East Jerusalem, Flytilla, Gaza Strip, Gisha, Hamas, Iran, Israel, Palestine, Six Day War, Syria, West Bank, Yom Kippur War, Zionism | Leave a Comment »
My latest piece on Souciant looks at Germany’s relationship with Israel through the lens of the recent controversy over Gunter Grass’ poem criticizing Israel’s actions vis a vis Iran and its own possession of nuclear weapons. It’s also a new paragraph in the discussion about how people or governments can be pro-Israel and that simply doing what Israel wants is no more the right way to do that than it would be if one thought they were being a good friend to another by letting them do something self-destructive or immoral.
Posted in Anti-Semitism, Iran | Tagged Anti-Semitism, Benjamin Netanyahu, Günter Grass, Germany, Holocaust, Iran, Israel, Jewish State, nuclear, pro-Israel, Suddeutsche Zeitung, United States | 2 Comments »
In this week’s column at Souciant, I revisit the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in light of recent events in Brooklyn and Peter Beinart’s controversial New York Times op-ed.
Posted in BDS | Tagged AIPAC, American Jewish Committee, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Americans for Peace Now, Anti-Defamation League, apartheid, BDS, Brooklyn, Christians United For Israel, COPJ, Daniel Levy, Holocaust, Israel, J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, Lara Friedman, New York Times, Occupied Territories, Palestine, Park Slope Food Cooperative, Peter beinart, South Africa, The Atlantic, West Bank, Zionist Organization of American | Leave a Comment »
I have just learned that Adrienne Rich, the renowned and brilliant feminist poet has died at the age of 82. 
I am not going to go on at length, here. But I want to say that I was proud to have called Adrienne a friend. She was one of the earliest supporters of both Jewish Voice for Peace and my own work as an analyst and writer on Middle East matters.
Adrienne supported JVP financially, and me personally. Her thinking, her support and her criticism meant a lot to JVP’s and my early growth.
All that is aside from her brilliant work as a feminist and political thinker.
She was a woman of bravery, frankness, grace and warmth. I am a better person for having known her, and feel privileged to have not only read her work but to have called her a friend. She will be missed.
Like this:
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Adrienne Rich, Jewish Voice for Peace | Leave a Comment »
This week’s Souciant pieceis up. In it, I look at what was perhaps the high point for me of this year’s J Street conference, the words of new Meretz chairwoman, Zehava Gal-
Meretz chairwoman, Zehava Gal-On
On. Meretz has been reduced to a tiny party in the Knesset, but a voice as powerful and clear as Gal-On’s really does have the potential to start shifting Israeli discourse away from its current, fascist direction.
Like this:
Posted in Israel, J Street | Tagged Avigdor Lieberman, Benjamin Netanyahu, Gaza, Israel, J Street, Kadima, Mapam, Meretz, Oslo, Palestine, Ratz, Separation Wall, Shaul Mofaz, Shinui, Zahava Gal-On | 1 Comment »
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