Posted on March 11th, 2010 The Israel Lobby and Gentile Power
The more I’ve studied the long-term politics of Zionism in the United States, the more I’ve been struck by a paradox. While most people see the Israel lobby as an attempt to use Jewish financial and electoral power to impose a special Jewish agenda on American foreign policy, it hasn’t actually worked that way.
In the [...]
Posted on March 10th, 2010 Don’t Blame The Jews
Many people think that Jewish lobbying, pressure and influence dragged a reluctant Uncle Sam into the Middle East. Think again.
Now it’s true that American opposition to Zionism has a long and distinguished pedigree. In the 19th century, American missionaries built a network of colleges and hospitals across what was then the Ottoman Empire and what [...]
Posted on March 9th, 2010 Holy Crap Rap
I always love when a blog post can be set to music, so I was very glad to be tipped off by a linking website (HT: Irenic Thoughts) to this video.
I was a little mystified by what these young people were doing until my research associate Sam (formerly team intern here at Mead GHQ, but [...]
Posted on March 9th, 2010 The Night Yasser Arafat Kissed Me
The stars were sparking over Gaza on the unforgettable night when Yasser Arafat kissed me — gently, tenderly, sincerely. I’ve rarely felt more relaxed or more comfortable with a world leader; he was kneading my shoulders and massaging my back at the time. As the tension of a hard day drained out of me, I [...]
Posted on March 8th, 2010 Revolutionary Not Evolutionary Times
Ever since the ‘cluster of Copenhagen’ ended in open disarray I’ve been blogging about the breakdown of the movement to fight climate change through the negotiation of an international treaty. These days, I’m increasingly wondering whether the climate meltdown is just one aspect of something much bigger. It’s beginning to look as if the whole [...]
Posted on March 7th, 2010 Faith Matters Sunday: The Perils of Common Sense
Theodore Roosevelt may have called him a “filthy little atheist,” but Tom Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” got right to the heart of the American world view. Common sense is more than a political slogan in the United States; a belief in common sense is basic to democracy as we think of it here in this [...]
Posted on March 6th, 2010 Literary Saturday: The Communist Manifesto
Everybody should read The Communist Manifesto, and read it more than once. Short, fast-moving and written to be understood by a wide audience, it’s a gripping read, a huge intellectual accomplishment, and a way of thinking about the world that has shaped almost everything that came after it. It was once said that the second [...]
Posted on March 4th, 2010 Patagonian Pander Predictably Flops
Hillary Clinton has ruled out a run for the White House after serving as Secretary of State. I hope she’s at least equally clear that she shouldn’t follow Tom DeLay onto the set of Dancing With The Stars; if her experiences on her recent trip to Buenos Aires are any guide, the tango isn’t her [...]
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 Thinking the Unthinkable: War With Iran
“Do not even think about bombing Iran,” wrote Michael O’Hanlon and Bruce Reidel in yesterday’s Financial Times. Pointing out that the US has two unpopular and unfinished wars in the region already, and that the damage from any military strikes on the Islamic Republic would be unlikely to do enough damage to its nuclear program [...]
Posted on March 2nd, 2010 Back In The Saddle
After a rough week of paper grading, family visits and writing capsule reviews for Foreign Affairs, I’m getting back to an ambitious blogging schedule. I’m working on a post about war with Iran that should be up by morning, planning a look at the state of the climate change movement following Al Gore’s typically unreflective [...]
Posted on March 2nd, 2010 American Populism Podcast
Recently, on a trip to Washington, D.C., I stopped by the offices of The American Interest and sat down to discuss the Tea Party movement in the context of historical American populism, something I wrote about in my recent post, “Do Soldiers Drink Tea?“. Here it is:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
(You can also [...]
Posted on February 27th, 2010 The Democratic Crisis?
The modern Democratic Party was formed out of four previously antagonistic elements in American society: urban working class and immigrant whites, Southern whites, African-Americans and upper middle class progressive reformers. It began to take shape when Woodrow Wilson brought progressives into the mainstream of the Democratic Party; Franklin Roosevelt put all the pieces together when [...]
Posted on February 25th, 2010 Middle East ‘Realists’: Anti-Semites or Just Dumb?
The Gallup organization has come out with yet another poll showing that Americans by an overwhelming percentage sympathize with the Israelis rather than the Palestinians. This time, the pro-Israel sentiment is at a near record level: 63 percent of those asked said their sympathies lie more with Israel, 23 percent said both or neither, and [...]
Posted on February 24th, 2010 Another Blow to The Blue Beast
A report from the Pew Research Center out this morning isn’t getting huge play in the press, but it offers a much bigger clue to the shape of our future than anything you will read on the front page of today’s New York Times.
The report is on public attitudes toward unions, and it finds that [...]
Posted on February 22nd, 2010 Carter According to Carter
President Jimmy Carter, and his National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, have both taken issue with my recent article in Foreign Policy about Obama’s Jeffersonian and Wilsonian foreign policy impulses, entitled “The Carter Syndrome.”
As I said in my reply, my “article was not really about Carter or his administration. It was about the current U.S. president and [...]
Older Posts »
From the March/April 2010 issue
Behind the Settlements
West Bank settlements hollow out respect for the law in the State of Israel.
Are the Settlements Illegal?
Answering that question is a pitfall the Obama Administration has been wise to avoid.
Allies Divided
Israel and America have long taken opposite approaches to managing Palestinians and other Arabs.
The Outpatient Prison
How to lower both the prison population and crime—at the same time.
Recent Posts
- The Israel Lobby and Gentile Power
- Don’t Blame The Jews
- A Good NYT Post on Climate
- Holy Crap Rap
- The Night Yasser Arafat Kissed Me
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