The real scandal is the stuff it’s OK to say about Israel

Helen Thomas, who spent the bulk of her career as the dogged and distinguished White House correspondent for United Press International, will now be remembered as much for how she left journalism in disgrace – a rude and cranky Jew hater, spewing filth from her perch as a Hearst columnist. Her resignation yesterday was hardly …

Surprise! Violence erupts, Israel condemned

Here we go again. Israeli forces and pro-Palestinian activists clash, leaving nine activists dead and seven Israeli soldiers injured. Israel says it acted in self-defense, while Palestinian leaders charge Israel with launching a pre-meditated attack on an aid mission to Gaza. That the facts surrounding the skirmish on the seas around Gaza are in dispute …

American ideology, American pragmatism

Debates about taxes and spending in America are fought on two levels, the ideological and the pragmatic. The first gets far more attention, but the second reflects an equally important feature of the American character. At the ideological level, Americans distrust government, worry when they think it’s growing too big and believe that it produces …

Time to discard Middle East mythologies

With a headiness nourished by electoral victory, every incoming American president succumbs to “new president’s disease” – the confidence that, with more brains, more effort, and a better staff in and around the Oval Office, he will succeed on longstanding challenges where his predecessors have failed. No challenge has so dominated the time of recent …