The Left
Fred Halliday, 1946-2010
I am devastated to learn that Fred Halliday died while I was away and mostly offline in Florida. Halliday was a scholar of international relations, speaker of seven languages, one of the clearest progressive political thinkers of our day, a ruthless dismantler of nonsense from the right and extreme left. May his example live on for decades to come. His
Defying the boycott thugs
Proponents of an anti-Israel boycott have tried to pressure Amitav Ghosh, one of my intellectual heroes, to turn down the Dan David Prize. Ghosh has declined to do so, and his reasoning is characteristically eloquent. Margaret Atwood, Ghosh’s co-recipient of the prize, has also rebuffed the boycotters, and just as eloquently. [Via Normblog, Engage.] In marked contrast, Gil Scott-Heron seems
Arguing the World
Dissent has launched a new blog, Arguing the World — a new outpost of social democracy on the web. Read it here and read it often.
Greenwald on Goldberg
There’s something a little disgusting about Glenn Greenwald, in this post, taking a cheap shot at Jeffrey Goldberg, portraying Goldberg as some sort of bloodthirsty oppressor of Palestinians, when Goldberg’s position on Middle East peace is in fact more admirable than most. Goldberg, today: I’m for the creation of a Palestinian state on one hundred percent of the West Bank
Anti-Anti-Zionism
I’ve just delved into Michael Bérubé’s book The Left At War, and it’s reminding me how deeply influenced I am by the late Ellen Willis, in particular her 2003 essay “Is There Still a Jewish Question? Why I’m an Anti-Anti Zionist.” I should have linked to it much sooner. Let me be clearer about why I raise the issue of
McKinney and friends
A quick follow-up to my previous post: in the comments, a friend has reminded me about this lovely photo (scroll down) of Cynthia McKinney posing with her new pal, the raving antisemite and borderline sociopath Israel Shamir, who is arguably worse than Gilad Atzmon. In addition to falsifying his name and his background, “Shamir” has advocated coalition-building between Palestine activists
John Pilger and the enabling of antisemitism
[Cross-posted at Z Word. And Harry’s Place.] To find journalist-ideologue John Pilger ranting about “the criminality of the Israeli state” and “the murderous, racist toll of Zionism” is all too routine. (Hat tip Oliver Kamm.) What’s new is this: Pilger trots out “the expatriate Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon” as a representative good Jew, emblematic of “the heroes of Israel” and
Obama’s Cantor smackdown
Conventional wisdom remains that our president is a wimp, spineless, etc., which flies in the face of jujitsu moments like this (hat tip Marc Cooper): And that’s not to deny that Obama, in his way, makes use of political theater, which is what that health care summit was. But taking the opportunity to call out Republicans on their nonsense for