Healing Israel/Palestine

Obama Will Do Anything For Israel…But He Won't Do That

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Not intending to go to war in Iran (a war Israel has been pushing for years), Obama avoids any suggestion that the occupation must end. Sure, Secretary of State John Kerry has both been dispatched to the region and is talking up the necessity for peace. But few take his effort seriously, largely because he emphasizes economic initiatives (fine with Israel) rather than ending settlements and the occupation. The administration remains very careful not to make Israel and its supporters here angry.

Culture

Summer's Gone, or The Bliss of Suburbia

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The irony: I moved to the suburbs and bought a house with a yard so I could grow a garden. I moved to a place where I envisioned long solitary walks. A writer’s dream. I imagined peaceful summers.
I came from Manhattan because the noise and bustle crushed my soul.
Yet the noise is here, every moment, everywhere. My neighbors run machines, buzz buzz buzz. We cannot leave windows open, sleep in a hammock, or read a book in the shade.

Environment

'The Talk' — How to Tell Your 8-Year-Old About Climate Change

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Bennett agrees that parents play a critical role in responding to climate change, but she said it’s not enough to limit climate action to the home sphere. Groups like Hoyos’ help to connect parents to the public sphere, where they can influence policymakers.
For Ian Kim, the parent grappling with how to talk to his daughter about climate change, those conversations are the foundation for breeding leadership.

Non-Violent Communication (NVC)

Remembering the Sixties: The Free Speech Movement

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Today, we hear a great deal of talk about the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, and very little about the First. Yet, it is that amendment, defending as it does the rights of free speech and assembly, which is absolutely essential to the life of a democracy. We were idealists, who wanted our country to live up to its purported ideals. To that charge, I am still happy to plead no contest. If that made us criminals, so be it. We were loyal Americans, exercising our right to criticize the nation of which we were citizens, and which we loved.

Politics & Society

Google Is Giving Millions in Cash Directly to the Poor

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Now, giving cash cannot solve every problem. However, doing so directly can dramatically help the world’s poorest people, who routinely must weigh unspeakable financial choices: Shelter or clothes? Food or education for my children? Perhaps the idea of direct giving in the United States is one that should be receiving more public attention. And by direct giving, I don’t necessarily mean giving to panhandlers. I mean this: if there was a way, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, to give direct donations to people left homeless rather than to the Red Cross, would you prefer the former?

art

New Film on Hannah Arendt: Eichmann, Zionism & Other Controversies

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… the new film (“Hannah Arendt”) … lends credence to the simplistic notion that her controversial portrait of Adolf Eichmann at his Jerusalem trial was a mark of great insight. She didn’t merit the abuse that she suffered as a result; … but her most significant conclusions were drawn from the very limited range of Holocaust scholarship available to her in the early 1960s. …

Politics & Society

He's Got His Act Together: Standing Pat on Guantanamo?

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It’s remarkable how President Obama, pressed heavily by activism and public commentary on the crisis of Guantanamo, can make a major speech offering the most minor and insufficient of actions toward remediation of one of the worst human rights outrages of the past decade. Thankfully the passionate outcry missing from Obama’s presentation was provided by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the activist group Code Pink. For a decade now, activists of Code Pink have made every effort to be a loud, theatrically in-your-face voice for the conscience of the United States. For a decade now, their cri de coeur for the world has resounded in Congress, in front of the White House, nationwide and abroad.

Culture

65 Years Post-Holocaust, Germany Is the World's Most Popular Country (While Israel Barely Beats North Korea)

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However, the painful truth is this: while Germany as a country and a societal entity has largely (though not entirely) moved beyond the historical atrocities committed by the Nazis, the same unfortunately cannot be said for Israel. Israel’s continued subjugation of the Palestinians – its brutal occupation, illegal settlement enterprise, theft of Palestinian lands, and disinterest in pursuing peace initiatives – has inspired the world to look upon Israel with frustration and disdain.

Christianity

Memorial Day 2013

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On Memorial Day we remember with gratitude those who were willing to fight and to die in the nation’s perpetual war against itself, against our own fears and lies. Yes, the world is full of evil, both within and beyond our national boundaries. Yes, there are human beings who have been indoctrinated to do violence for the sake of this or that god, for this or that religious tradition, for this or that political ideology. The larger question is: what is the best way to overcome evil and the cycle of violence and vengeance?