General News

On Friendship and Faith: The Best Man Holiday

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It has been 14 years since the movie-going public has seen a group of college friends come together for the wedding of their friends, a football star and his fiancé – Lance and Mia– in The Best Man. In the movie, the best man for the couple – Harper– has written a novel based on the college days of the group. Tension arises when a secret from the past is revealed and the entire wedding is in jeopardy. The best man, who questions the existence of God, encourages his friend, the groom, to rely on his own faith to make the decision whether or not to go through with the wedding. Now fast forward 14 years to the sequel –The Best Man Holiday– a movie full of laughter and tears, and we see how these characters have developed over the course of time.

Politics & Society

Student Workers Face Intimidation on the Eve of a Historic Strike at the University of California

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This Wednesday, November 20, could be defined by one of the largest labor strikes in the history of the University of California. Custodial, food service, grounds, and health service workers affiliated with AFSCME 3299 are planning to strike on all UC campuses. They are forming picket lines to contest the stark acts of intimidation they faced from supervisors prior to a work action some of them undertook last spring to preserve safe staffing levels at UC hospitals. A number of workers were pulled into private meetings with supervisors and threatened with consequences if they joined the strike.

Environment

Dark Shadow of Chernobyl Touches Fukushima: It's Time for Action

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To fully understand the current folly and cover-up of Fukushima, you must understand the same folly, cover-up and consequences of Chernobyl in 1987 and recognize that this time we may not outlive the consequences. It’s time now for populist direct action and Germany is a stunning blueprint for the success of that process.

General News

A Minority’s Minorities: Sephardic Jews in Norton’s Anthology of Jewish American Literature

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Perhaps because I descend from an intramixed Jewish marriage I’ve always been aware of the exclusion of Sephardic or Spanish Jews from the exclusively Ashkenazic histories of the American‑Jewish experience.The ultimate fault of anthologies that do the same is the closing down of our sense of the multi-lingual Jewish literary experience in America, apparently out of thoughtless ignorance.

Culture

The Spiritual Truth of JFK (As Movie and Reality)

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To put the Kennedy assassination in a historical perspective that is both spiritual and political, we here reprint Peter Gabel’s brilliant article on the subject, “The Spiritual Truth of JFK (As Movie and Reality),” originally published in Tikkun in March/April 1992 in response to the original release of Stone’s film.

Culture

The Culture Made Me Do It

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When interviewed about Richie Incognito’s racist bullying of fellow Miami Dolphins player Jonathan Martin, some athletes have sought to exonerate Incognito, instead blaming football “culture.” In truth, culture is made by humans, which means we all have the capacity to reject a culture of brutality.

Politics & Society

How to Create an Ethos of Enmity: Israel Military Cuffs, Detains 5- and 6-Year-Old Palestinian Children

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Four Palestinian children, ages 5 to 9, were cuffed and detained for over an hour by Israeli soldiers during a protest against Israel’s occupation in the West Bank village of Kfar Qaddum. The detention of these children, who witnesses say had their hands cuffed behind their backs and were held without an adult or parent present, comes against the backdrop of a recent UNICEF report entitled, “Children in Israeli Military Detention.” The report found widespread abuse of children who come into contact with the IDF and its military justice system, concluding:
It is understood that in no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights. […]
Ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears
to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized. This conclusion is based on the
repeated allegations about such treatment over the past 10 years and the volume,
consistency and persistence of these allegations.

General News

The Israel Lobby Is Killing Iran Negotiations In Favor Of War

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The Israel Lobby has truly gotten out of control. The Obama administration is close to an agreement with the Iranian government to achieve a decade’s long goal. Iran would give up any plans it might have to develop nuclear weapons (verified by international inspections) in exchange for the lifting of some international sanctions that are doing significant damage to the Iranian economy. This development — the possibility of ending a possible Iranian nuclear threat and ultimately normalizing relations with Iran after a four decade freeze — was made possible by an event few anticipated. That was the election of a moderate Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, who has been authorized by the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, to explore if the United States (and the Europeans) are serious about peace in exchange for a no-weapons pledge.

Environment

November Tomatoes and Climate Change

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It’s mid-November, and our plants are still bearing red tomatoes. The days are warm, it doesn’t freeze at night, and it hasn’t rained. Maybe when we lived in Santa Cruz we still had tomatoes in November, but in the Sierra Nevada? It should be raining or snowing here. Over 50% of the United States is in the second year of drought.