israel

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Sheldon Adelson: All Israel, All the Time

I recently made a private vow not to use the term Israel Firster again, for two reasons: it’s derogatory (and it was, initially, my vituperative response to being called “anti-Israel” by assorted neoconservative blowhards) and it’s inaccurate — most of those who are, I believe, unduly aggressive about Israel’s national security think …

Articles of Faith: Is Obama Really Losing His Jewish Support?

Tell me where you’ve heard this before: Jewish voters are unhappy with Barack Obama. He’s seen as insufficiently supportive of Israel. There are questions about whether he can win enough Jewish votes to carry key states.

If you guessed “during the 2008 Democratic primaries,” then ding, ding, ding! A loaf of raisin-studded challah for …

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Borderline Personalities

There are continuing ruffles and trifles about whether President Obama said anything at all different about the borders of a Palestinian state. Much of it is either meta-talmudic picky (Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post) or poisonously disingenuous (the ever-bilious Charles Krauthammer). Kessler’s gripe is that Obama is the first …

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Armageddon Blues

Convinced that the world was coming to an end on May 21, my wife and I decided to spend our last days–before being engulfed in the eternal fire–in Italy last week. Imagine my disappointment that the Lord’s smite schedule was …

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Foxman on Petraeus?

Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League has, according to Andrew Sullivan, indirectly accused General David Petraeus of “blaming the Jews for everything.” I’m not sure that Foxman had Petraeus, specifically, in mind–or maybe just the vast majority of humans who are concerned about Israel’s continuing colonization of Palestinian lands. …

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Latest Column–and More on the Middle East

On Gaza.

I’ve spent the past three days wandering about the West Bank, visiting new commercial developments and social programs, and speaking with Palestinian leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. I’ve also spent some time in Israel, talking with prominent members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s …

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Anti-Semitism, Again

It’s not much fun when your friends get into a deep, personal, cage-match sort of fight. In this case, the fight is between Andrew Sullivan and Leon Wieseltier–people I respect, love and admire. Leon has launched a nuclear attack on Sullivan’s writings about neoconservatives and Israel:

Criticism of Israeli policy, and sympathy for the

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