The New Republic

New York Timesman Roger Cohen was to come to my house for dinner on Tuesday night. But, alas, at the last moment, he found himself amidst one of the oldest Jewish communities in the Diaspora. But if he'd come I would have started a discussion with him about his op-ed piece, "What Iran's Jews Say," that was published in Monday's Times. Other guests would certainly have joined in. This is Cambridge, remember: READ MORE >>

You surely recall the Iraqi "journalist" who threw his shoe at George Bush. Well, there has been an epidemic of shoe-flinging ever since. A shoe was even hurled at the prime minister of China, Wen Jiabao, when he visited London a while ago. READ MORE >>

One of my favorite magazines, the Virginia Quarterly Review, has beefed up its presence online, which is a good thing, since it means I can link to this piece about Russia by Stepehn Boykewich. Boykewich's article is ostensibly a (withering) review of Steve LeVine's book, Putin's Labyrinth: Spies, Murder, and the Dark Heart of the New Russia, but it's more a realist manifesto for how the U.S. READ MORE >>

Roll Call reports that Roland Burris "has not considered resigning," because [t]he Senator believes he has been honest and above board, but feels he is suffering in part because of a faulty communications strategy in relation to how he has dealt with this latest scandal. READ MORE >>

The prospect of Congress passing and President Obama signing theFreedom of Choice Act (FOCA) has inspired the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to sponsor a parish-based campaign to get Catholics to send postcards to members of Congress stating their opposition to the act. There's nothing wrong with that. And neither is there anything inappropriate about Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) -- a Catholic READ MORE >>

David Frum is worried about the roughly 25 percent of Americans who would be disinclined to vote for a Mormon for president. READ MORE >>

A Pakistani deal sets a troubling precedent: Pakistan government officials said they struck a deal on Monday to accept a legal system compatible with Shariah law in the violent Swat region in return for peace. READ MORE >>

There is now much pirouetting and pivoting among Israel's leading politicians and political parties ostensibly for the favor of the slightly out-of-it president of the state, Shimon Peres. There are only two people between whom he must choose to ask to form a government: Tsipi Livni and Bibi Netanyahu. Were he to choose Livni, however, he would be imposing his own political prejudices on the process itself. He is vain enough to convince himself that this action would not be wrong. But the fact is that it would be. READ MORE >>

Yoav Lurie is a freelancer in Washington. READ MORE >>

As you know very well, I don't hold out much hope for the Middle East peace process. At the State Department and almost all the ostensibly important--but truly irrelevant--European foreign ministries however, officials are insisting that peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians is at the top of their agenda. Sanctimonious, yes; realistic, no. Why? One reason is that there are more important hot spots in the world, more important especially for the United States. But not only. READ MORE >>