General News

When Jon Stewart and Diane Feinstein Both Blast the Israel Lobby, You Know the Game Is Changing

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This week, something unprecedented has occurred: politicians, mainstream media outlets, and political satirists have uniquely joined forces to identify AIPAC – and the ‘pro-Israel’ lobby – as the political force threatening the Obama administration’s historic, diplomatic breakthrough with Iran. Jon Stewart did so. The New York Times, in an extremely rare moment of candor, did so. Even Diane Feinstein, in a double-take-worthy address on the Senate floor, did so. How has this happened?

General News

Chris Hayes Rips AIPAC & Its Senators & Senator Dianne Feinstein's Brilliant & Brave Speech

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It has started. The media is waking up to the AIPAC crusade to get us into a war with Iran. Last night Chris Hayes, the very young, very brilliant, MSNBC reporter called out both AIPAC and the 16 Democrats backing its Iran war bill with a directness never before seen on that station or anywhere else on television. Watch it here. Best part: when he reminds Cory Booker and the others of the last time Democrats (like Hillary Clinton) voted for a war because they were afraid not to: Iraq.

General News

Don't Let AIPAC Kill Obama's Iran Agreement

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On Sunday, the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany (known as the P5+1) reached full agreement with Iran on the next steps in the process of freezing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the easing of economic sanctions. This is great news. Nonetheless, Democrats in Congress are moving to terminate the agreement by imposing new sanctions on Iran despite our government’s signed promise to lift sanctions. They are joining the Republicans who, as on health care, will sabotage anything the President supports. This is insane.

General News

A Young Hero

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Aitazaz and Malala have much in common, but they are not the only two exceptions that prove the rule. They are in fact, part of a growing number of youth who are tired of the violence in their lives. A love of education can be seen in this new generation – the children of Pakistan and other poor countries who are saying, enough is enough. We will not let extremists take away our right to an education, even if we have to sacrifice our lives for it. It’s an amazing, exhilarating message, one that we need to savor and promote in Pakistan as well as in every corner of the earth.

General News

I'm Now Another Jew Who Has Been Barred from Speaking in a Jewish Building (in America)

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Last week, I wrote about how, due to my writing on the issue of boycotts and Israel, I was asked by a prominent Jewish organization (Hillel) to publish a favorable political statement before being allowed into its building to speak about my book, What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife? Despite my discomfort with such a problematic request, I published it. For I thought, If there are places where talking about reconciliation and understanding might be meaningful and important, this is one of them. The statement I made affirmed my desire, as a progressive Zionist, for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict while acknowledging the legitimacy of economic sanctions against Israel as a nonviolent form of opposition. I made this statement, even though its focus has little to do with the focus of my book.

General News

Q & A with Coleen Rowley, F.B.I. Whistleblower: Part One

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Arguably were it not for former F.B.I. agent Coleen Rowley, one of Time Magazine’s 2002 Persons of the Year, the American people would never have known that 9/11 may have been prevented. In a far-ranging interview with Tikkun Daily, the famed whistleblower shares her views on government service and a host of other issues.

General News

Two Books: Ari Shavit Vs. Max Blumenthal

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I had a good laugh when I saw the New York Times story last week with the headline: Members of Jewish Student Group Test Permissible Discussion On Israel. The piece told of the decision by the Hillel Jewish student society at Swarthmore College to break with the national organization over its ban on discussions of the Middle East that did not tilt toward the Israeli position. It noted that the restrictions faced by Swarthmore students are far from unusual:

At Harvard, the Jewish student group Hillel was barred from co-sponsoring a discussion with a Palestinian student group. At Binghamton University, a Hillel student leader was forced to resign his position after showing a film about Palestinians and inviting the filmmaker’s brother to speak. And on many other campuses, Hillel chapters have been instructed to reject collaboration with left-leaning Jewish groups.