Mark Lynch has come back from Israel and has a message for Obama: don’t back down on the settlements. I mostly concur, and give my additional analysis here

University of Chicago law professor Todd Henderson examines the “nanny corporation” and what he calls the “market for paternalism.” I’m going to be blogging all summer covering Chicago’s “works in progress” talks for the Faculty blog. There should be one going up each week — your chance to take a peek at what’s percolating at one of the world’s top intellectual centers.

Happy Juneteenth! It’s nice that it falls on a Friday. Unfortunately, Chicago has been under a severe thunderstorm warning all day.

Part of Netanyahu’s agreement to establish a Palestinian state is the condition that the state be demilitarized. It isn’t as radical an idea as it’s made out to be. It is also flat wrong, and will make Israel less secure in the process.

Ha’aretz reports that prosecutors have dropped an indictment of a Hebron settler who went to the house of local Palestinians, drew his gun, initiated an argument, and then assaulted and shot two at close range. And was caught on film doing it. This is not isolated. The settlers have recently embarked on a campaign of intimidation and violence: torching Palestinian fields, throwing rocks at Palestinian cars, and attacking Israeli police. This is a threat to the very core of Israel’s status...

In a fascinating bit of political history research, Swing State Project blogger “Silver Spring” takes a look at the now-vacant NY-23 district (represented by John McHugh before he was nominated as Secretary of the Army) and finds that much hasn’t been represented by a Democrat for awhile. A long while. Nearly half of the district hasn’t been represented by a Democrat since 1854. And one county (Franklin) was more recently represented by a Whig (1852) than a Democrat (1850). So...

Yesterday, I signed on as a supporter of TULIP: Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine. TULIP was formed by three labor leaders in the UK, US, and Australia as a counter to the growing movement within the labor community supporting boycotts of Israel. Groups like BRICUP and PACBI, and BDS leaders like Naomi Klein, have consciously placed themselves in opposition to “constructive engagement” (their words) as the proper strategy to achieving a peaceful and just solution. They seek to...

Cross-posted to The Debate Link Daniel Doron writes in opposition to the creation of a Palestinian state: But should not the establishment of such a state–which the Europeans so strongly promote–adhere to the European Union’s 1993 Copenhagen Political Criteria for new members, which states, “Membership criteria require that the candidate country must have achieved stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, rule of law, human rights, and respect for and protection of...

I have to admit I stunned by the sheer naivete it takes to find it a shocking revelation that Israel might have agents in the US. Why wouldn’t they? I bet we have agents in Israel. And France and the UK and Germany and Japan for that matter (and vice versa). And I’m sure they have agents here as well. And sometimes the agents get caught, and get arrested or expelled or whatever, and it’s a big incident, and then everyone goes back to where they started. Just because sovereign states...

PDF of the opinion here. And the arc of history bends a little more towards justice.

Gershom Gorenberg has an unbelievably good article in The Weekly Standard taking a look at the possibility of a genuinely non-violent Palestinian resistance — one set to the mold of Gandhi and King. He looks at the people advocating such a stance today, the reasons why it hasn’t manifested in the past, and the barriers to producing such a movement in the future. It is a stellar, nuanced, fascinating read that I can’t recommend highly enough. I give some more specific thoughts at...

Go here for info on how to participate. I think the TMV readership could have some good questions. I fantasized about being able to ask President Bush a question (okay, more like deliver a speech at him) when he was president. And I do firmly believe that American politicians should face determined inquiry from American citizens of all stripes and persuasions. That isn’t to say I think Obama (or Bush for that matter) has an obligation to grapple with professional bomb-throwers or people who...

Former PLO cabinet minister Sari Nusseibeh, and former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, have forwarded a peace plan that they call The People’s Voice. It is very good. Are there things I would quibble with? Yes, of course. But they are not sufficient such that I would have any hesitation in voting for it, were it up to me. Indeed, I would say they are not sufficient so as to justify anyone who calls themselves “pro-peace” to vote against it. The problem with The People’s Voice is...

I’ll be doing it here.

I’m already pretty firmly on the record that the continued expansion of the settlements poses a massive threat to the viability of the two-state solution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. The longer the settlements stay up, many argue, the more entrenched they will become — eventually, they will be so dug in that evacuating them will become impossible, and suddenly there is no two-state solution. At that point, the only alternatives will be ethnic cleansing, outright apartheid, or...

The results of the Israeli election were confusing at best, with a majority of the country shifting significantly right-ward but a plurality unifying around Tzipi Livni’s centrist Kadima Party. The best thing we can hope for over the next couple years is stasis, with some kind of unity coalition centered around Kadima and Likud that treads water until the government inevitably collapses and the next set of elections come around. The worst case scenario is a stable right-wing coalition made...

A post by Dylan Matthews, guest-blogging for Ezra Klein, has been nagging at me for a couple of days now. Netanyahu’s policy position here is based entirely on negatives. He doesn’t want to divide Jerusalem, even though annexing East Jerusalem is illegal and would cripple the Palestinian economy. He doesn’t want a return to 1967 borders, even though that would secure Israel recognition from the entire Arab League. But the problem isn’t just that the planks are wrong. It’s...

I have a ton of work to do this weekend (mostly so I can have a free next weekend with a certain special someone in Minnesota). So … roundup time. Ha’aretz reveals an Israeli government report detailing the extent to which the settlement enterprise (even the “legal” ones) has been carried out without government permission and on private Palestinian land. Let’s be clear: Settlements on open territory? Political problem. Settlements on private Palestinian property? Theft....

My good friend Richard Jeffrey Newman is collecting stories of anti-Semitism in a post over at Alas, a Blog. He’s looking for stories from Jews and non-Jews alike — his only rule is that you can only give a story: no analysis, no critique of some politician’s rhetoric. Just a story. It’s a good project, and an interesting one, and Mr. Newman has specifically told me he’s looking to grab from as wide a scope of people as possible. So, if you have a story you’d like...

According to Ha’aretz, the decision was unanimous. Obviously, I’m pleased by the decision, but it is not a positive sign for a putatively liberal democracy that it needs to be bailed out by a notoriously aggressive judiciary in cases like this. It never should have come to the court’s attention, because we have the right to expect that the Knesset will behave like a mature, democratic body and not vote to ban parties it doesn’t like. Had the decision by the Central Elections...

Part II of the Feministe guest post series is now up. This was originally supposed to be Part III, but I flipped it with the second post — it will be coming next. I am so looking forward to these comments again.

The guest-posting stint at Feministe has begun! It’ll will be a seven part series on Jews, anti-Semitism, anti-subordination, and Israel. I’ll post a link to each post here as it comes up, but you’ll need to head over yonder to get the full bit. Part one is now available here.

What happens if Israel “wins” in Gaza and manages to actually crush Hamas? Flowers? Fairies? Fatah? Or an even more radical, Salafist-inspired organization that makes Hamas look timid? Jews should know — it can always get worse.

Larger summary here. Look: I’m sure the two parties have taken stances I consider wrong-headed or even appalling. It doesn’t matter. That’s true of a lot of parties in a lot of states (including the risible and frankly racist Yisrael Beiteinu among Israeli parties). Insofar as Israel claims to be a liberal democracy, it needs to act like it, and that means not taking creepy fascist actions like banning the only two Arab-run parties in the Knesset (there are Arab MKs who represent...

BUMPED, with the link fixed. My two well-received posts this summer on Black Conservatism have been been reposted on Racialicious (here and here). In honor of the occasion, I have put up some excerpts from a larger piece I’ve been working on explaining how Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas fits in with my theory. It’s long, but I think it’s worthwhile if you find Justice Thomas interesting (or inexplicably infuriating).