Jerusalem
Not a single person is excluded from the system. The non-citizen Arabs of Jerusalem are included in it. The ultra-orthodox Jews, who barely recognize Israeli sovereignty (after all, God did not grant it), use it, probably to excess. As the United States embarks on its new medical venture, it might be interesting to read an article in the Jerusalem Report of May 2 on the universal health coverage which Israel provides. Here are seven salient paragraphs: READ MORE >>
Forget About “The New Middle East.” Israel Belongs To The First World, And Its Neighbors To The Third.
Everybody actually knows that. “The new Middle East” is a psychedelic fantasy of the perennially intoxicated peace processors. The dream will go on forever. And maybe it will be punctuated positively a tiny bit by practical arrangements on the ground. But probably not through the “proximity talks,” which the Obama administration has somehow convinced itself is a great achievement, which I have argued in print it is not. READ MORE >>
I Confess: I Am A Member Of Opus Judaei
John J. Mearsheimer, who is co-author (with Stephen Walt) of The Israel Lobby, a who’s who they’d rather have called The Jewish Lobby, has finally come clean and done a morphology of American Jewry, splitting it into two schools each personified by perhaps a dozen individual Jews. READ MORE >>
“The Palestine Peace Distraction,” "The False Religion of Middle East Peace,” And Other Significant Recantations
Barack Obama came into office with one messianic mission. It was to bring statehood to the Palestinians. Of course, even he understood that he couldn’t quite put it that way. But statehood for the Palestinians necessarily also meant Palestinian peace with Israel, an aim worthy enough for any American administration. So that became his primary foreign policy mission. Still, the fact is that he saw the shadings of the conflict only through the eyes of the “disinherited.” And they really had nothing much to give in any transaction. READ MORE >>
Minority Report
Does Obama Really Think He Can Micromanage American Jews?
There are signs that he thinks he can. Barak Ravid reports in yesterday’s Ha’aretz that a high-level but unnamed U.S. official has complained about American Jews speaking up about how they feel and what they think about U.S. policy towards Jerusalem. I don’t particularly agree with what I’ve discerned as Ravid’s political views. But he is certainly a reliable journalist. He did not make this up. READ MORE >>
The TNR EXCHANGE: Trust Fall
James Risen, a Washington-based writer, and Yossi Klein Halevi, a Jerusalem-based writer, have been friends since they both crashed the Nazi Party headquarters in Chicago as student reporters 30 years ago. They have been joking and arguing about news and politics ever since, especially when it comes to Israel and the Middle East. READ MORE >>
No American Troops Should Die Protecting Israel
Almost before the celebrants at Barack Obama’s inauguration had gotten over their hangovers some 15 months ago, the president designated George Mitchell as his special envoy in the Middle East. READ MORE >>
