Healing Israel/Palestine

Liberal Values and the BDS Movement

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When Scarlett Johansson became the spokesperson for SodaStream, a company with its main factory in an Israeli settlement, the worldwide pressure resulted in her being forced to choose between being a spokesperson for Oxfam, a human rights organization, and her SodaStream gig. It seems that no one, not even A-list celebrities, can be considered humanitarians or human rights advocates any longer if they have anything at all to do with the settlements, which, of course, are illegal under international law.

Politics & Society

Tom Hayden on Venezuela's Current Crisis

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The losers of the Venezuelan elections have turned into Leninists of the Right, seeking to create a counter-revolutionary situation in which the government apparatus crumbles and they seize power……..Despite frequent denials by US officials, for example, the State Department’s own Inspector General found that the Pentagon and US “democracy programs” supported individuals and groups “actively involved in the brief ouster of the Chavez government” in the 2002 coup attempt.

Culture

Celebrating Black (Muslim) History Month

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This year, why not focus on Black Muslims for Black History Month, because until we accept and acknowledge this subset’s contributions to our nation’s history we will continue the popular rhetoric of Islam as a recent, unwelcome entry into the American, Judeo-Christian culture. If you’ve seen the hateful graffiti on American mosques that read “Muslims go home!” you will understand what I’m referring to.

Culture

The Freedom Movement Today

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Remembering our history matters little if it doesn’t reshape how we see the present. While communities across America are telling neat and clean stories about the 1960s, most of the mainstream media is ignoring the biggest broad-based organizing effort in the South since that time.

Healing Israel/Palestine

Why I Don't Support The BDS Movement

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This will be a short one as I only choose to make one point. I make it as someone who absolutely supports the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) as applied to the West Bank. Even if I deeply desired a seltzer machine, I would not buy the one manufactured in occupied territory. However, I do not support boycotting Israel itself because, although I have no problem at all about applying collective economic punishment on settlers and the loathsome settlement enterprise, I do not feel that way about Israelis in general. I am not anti-Zionist.

Culture

The Language of Cancer

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Open any local paper and you are likely to read the following headline: “Survivor Loses Battle with Cancer.” We have adopted the language of war. Those with the disease are described as heroes. Finding a cure is a war. Our medical community leads our forces. Everyone must join the fight. I challenge this metaphor.

Culture

Female Rabbis at the Tent of Meeting?

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The female rabbinate is a progressive sign of equality between the sexes; a bold, new stroke written out in the history of Judaism, whose pages have always been male-dominated…or so it is frequently assumed. As the old adage goes though: there is nothing new under the sun. While, at one point, a female rabbinate was unthinkable, its ever-growing numbers are giving rise to the question if the position is indeed new or if, instead, modern Judaism has decided to come full-circle. Is there evidence that professional female spiritual leadership ever existed in the Torah? “He made the basin of bronze and its stand of bronze, from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered in the entrance of the tent of meeting.”–Exodus 38:8
It is a sentence that packs a spiritual punch so subtle that it seems many don’t even notice its potential revelation.

Gender and Sexuality

Why Are So Many White Men So Angry and What Can We Do About It

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Michael Kimmel’s popular new book Angry White Men describes the rage of American men who have been cast out of their dominant roles within the economy, the family and personal life. The book does not discuss mass murder, but the fact that men are killing large numbers of people in America indicates a level of rage with no socially constructive outlet.