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).

I read this article by Jeffrey Goldberg, about the most extreme, fanatical wing of the Israeli settler population. Though published in 2004, I have no doubt many of these people are still alive today and have not moderated their views in the slightest. As I read it, I found myself disturbed, quite a bit more so than I expected, and I tried to put my finger on why that was. Obviously, a big part (and the part that was quite “expected”) was the simple fact that these people are, in the...

Being tolerant of your gay, lesbian, or bisexual child significantly reduces their risk of suicide. Trying to “help” them by trying to change or challenge their sexual orientation, by contrast, causes their risk of suicide to spike. Stunning, isn’t it?

Though my own posts haven’t been bad, I think the folks over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money have probably the best package of coverage regarding Israel’s latest operation in Gaza. One of the things I think they’ve done effectively is avoid some of the easy traps that obscure efforts to actually evaluate what Israel’s doing. Trap #1, emanating from the left, is the “disproportionality” argument. In international law, disproportionality is a term of art: It does not...

Some of you may know that I’m currently in an open relationship with my girlfriend (as I continue to cement my place as the liberal hippie of the TMV crowd). One of the reasons why is that traditional “closed” relationships are a little too reminiscent of the view of women-as-property (property being, at root, that to which you have the right of exclusive use). At times, this justification feels a little anachronistic. But then, I read insults to the Jewish community like Dennis...

Quin Hillyer argues that limiting big government isn’t just a good principle for Republicans, but historically has been good politics for them as well. He proves his point through the brilliant argumentative strategy of (a) defining “big government” only to encompass things that conservatives dislike (no critique of the partial-birth abortion ban here!), (b) excluding all counter-examples, like the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections where George W. Bush was specifically running on big...