In These Times

Latest Comments view all 21

• • 20 Nov 09
  • 9:24 am

  Imran's link to J Street's site does not support the position that he claims. It supports an independent Israeli investigation (as called for by Goldstone himself). Independent commissions have been quite harsh with Israeli government actions before, as when one such investigation forced the resignation of Ariel Sharon as defense minister in the wake of the Sabra and Shatilla massacres. This is from the text of J Street's statement on that link that Imran provides: ... We are urging thoughtful amendment of the Resolution before passage to bring it in line with the principles we articulate in our statement on the …

  Posted to Jews on J Street

• • 10 Nov 09
  • 4:39 pm

  There is much to be disappointed about in the 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, but we need not be overly cynical. This marked the end of a brutally harsh dictatorship and the downfall of the Soviet-Stalinist empire. It is up to progressive (small d) democrats to remind everyone that this was a victory over tyranny and not for world conquest by multi-national corporations.

  Posted to The Lessons of the Berlin Wall

• • 24 Jun 09
  • 2:52 pm

  Fleshler's book corrects this mistaken notion that Mearsheimer and Walt advanced about dovish pro-Israel organizations. Americans for Peace Now actually supported US financial sanctions against settlements expansion during the George H. W. Bush administration. APN raises money for Peace Now's "Settlements Watch" program, that monitors settlement activities with the view of ending them. Most of the other dovish Jewish groups did not yet exist when Bush senior was president, but their opposition to settlements is a core principle for all of them.

  Posted to The Israel Lobbies: Left, Right and Center

• • 25 Jun 09
  • 12:24 pm

  I appreciate Imran's polite tone. All strategies for peace over the past 40 years have failed. BDS is not likely to work either; it has only marginal political support and it is one-sided. For example, BDS does nothing to address Hamas and other violent Arab groups that have contributed to making the quest for peace so difficult.

  Posted to The Israel Lobbies: Left, Right and Center

• • 27 Apr 09
  • 12:58 pm

  That word "balance," is not in the article. It was an editor's choice in summarizing the article at the top. The book's author, Alan Johnston, leans toward the Palestinians in his sympathies. But he is "fair-minded," a quality we generally want in a journalist. He notes with sadness that both sides are flawed in how they relate to the other. This is not a game to him in which there's one team that he roots for and the other side that he hates. He understands the complexities of this conflict, which according to Imran is a bad thing.

  Posted to ‘Kidnapped’ in Gaza