Israel
August 23, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In his book Why Are Jews Liberals?, Norman Podhoretz argued that the real religion of a great many non-Orthodox American Jews is liberalism, not Judaism. There’s a lot of truth in this, I think. However, it’s one thing for a serious Jew like Norman to say so. It would be inappropriate for a non-Jew to say it, and especially so for an American president. But President Trump’s recent comment about
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August 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Paul Mirengoff wrote here about the vile group that organized and underwrote the trip Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib planned to take to “Palestine.” The Miftah factor (i.e., the nature of Miftah) of course remains a deep secret to readers who get their news from the mainstream media. Writing for the opinion page of the New York Times, Bari Weiss is the only prominent exception of which I am aware.
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August 20, 2019 — Scott Johnson
We continue our preview of the new (Summer) issue of the Claremont Review of Books hot off the press. It went into the mail on Monday and is accessible online to subscribers now. Buy an annual subscription including immediate online access here for the modest price of $19.95. If you love trustworthy essays on, and reviews of books about, politics, history, literature and culture, the CRB may be for you.
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August 19, 2019 — Scott Johnson
Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib and friends have seized the moment to hold a press conference in the Minnesota State Capitol peddling the PLO/Hamas line on the state of Israel and its “occupation” of the West Bank. Their reference to the “Palestine” that exists only in the genocidal imagination of their allies says it all. While they decry the impingement of the freedom of West Bank Arabs in various
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August 18, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
When Barack Obama was in office, Benjamin Netanyahu had a terrible relationship with the American president. Back then, as Herb Keinon reminds us, liberals and their media pals insisted it was crucial that the Israeli prime minister have a strong relationship with the president of the U.S. These days, Netanyahu’s relationship with the American president could hardly be stronger. So what’s the liberal/media line now? Netanyahu is too close to
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August 17, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Joe Biden has weighed in on the controversy over the nixing by Israel of a planned visit by Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. Biden tweeted: I have always been a stalwart supporter of Israel—a vital partner that shares our democratic values. No democracy should deny entry to visitors based on the content of their ideas—even ideas they strongly object to. And no leader of the free world should encourage
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August 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In thinking about the aborted visit to Israel by Reps. Omar and Tlaib, it’s helpful to know who organized the trip. The trip was planned by an outfit called Miftah. Miftah is an anti-Semitic organization. It promotes hatred of Jews and celebrates the terrorists who massacre them. No surprise, then, that Omar and Tlaib chose Miftah to plan their trip. The most egregious manifestation of Miftah’s anti-Semitism was its publication
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August 16, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, Israel reversed a previous decision and determined that two Israel-hating congresswomen — Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib — would not be permitted to visit the country. It relied on a law that forbids the entry of people calling for and acting to place a boycott on Israel. However, it seemed clear, at least to me, that President Trump’s hand was the decisive factor in Israel’s decision. Tlaib responded to
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August 15, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib want to enter Israel, a nation they despise and would like to see destroyed as a Jewish state. Israel initially agreed to their visit. Today, however, the government changed its mind. The two Israel-haters will not be allowed in. Prime Minister Netanyahu released a statement that explained his decision this way: As a vibrant and free democracy, Israel is open to any visitor and
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August 4, 2019 — Steven Hayward
It hardly needs mentioning that enlarging government power to “fight climate change” is nowadays a central purpose of the left. Well, the Jerusalem Post reports on a scheme that just might change this: Climate Change Is a Jewish Issue [T]here’s a much more immediate and dire threat to our future against which Jewish federations and advocacy organizations have not devoted nearly enough resources. By “our” future I mean not only
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July 23, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In his Wall Street Journal column “Thelma and Louise go to Israel,” Bill McGurn looks at the vacation plans of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar. “The Democratic Party’s Thelma and Louise—Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar—are taking their act to Israel,” McGurn writes. “In a great gift to Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to let them in.” This Thelma and Louise are on a mission. They seek
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June 17, 2019 — Scott Johnson
The Tikvah Fund has posted an intensely interesting podcast with Jerusalem Post editor Yaakov Katz here; I have embedded it below. Katz is the author of Shadow Strike, a new and deeply reported account of Israel’s strike on Syria’s nuclear reactor in 2007. The story remains of current interest in various aspects. Tikvah introduces the podcast as follows: On September 6, 2007, shortly after midnight, Israeli fighters advanced on Deir
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May 31, 2019 — Scott Johnson
In his Commetary essay “The Gaza conundrum,” Jonathan Schanzer describes a senior Israeli official in Tel Aviv speaking to him in private. “He was in a foul mood. He looked as if he hadn’t slept much,” he writes. “He rubbed his eyes, scratched his stubble, and blurted suddenly, ‘Gaza is a problem from hell.’” Hamas and Iran are the source of this particular problem from hell. The original Hamas charter
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May 26, 2019 — John Hinderaker
On Friday, PJ Media headlined: “Report: Declassified Docs Will Show That Samantha Power’s 2016 Unmasking Efforts Were Related to Israel.” Government documents that will soon be made public will reveal stunning information about former U.N. ambassador Samantha Power’s voluminous unmasking efforts in 2016, according to multiple sources. On Thursday, President Trump gave Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify documents from multiple agencies related to surveillance of the Trump
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May 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Seeking to follow the path blazed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, someone called Mckayla Wilkes is challenging House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in the Democratic primary in Maryland’s 5th congressional district. Wilkes doesn’t quite have Ocasio-Cortez’s credentials. As far as I can tell, she never tended bar. Instead, Wilkes is (according to The Intercept) a 28-year-old administrative assistant, part-time student, and mother of two. Thus, even without bartending, her resume is sufficiently
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May 13, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Rep. Rashida Tlaib is under fire for saying this: I think two weeks ago or so we celebrated, or just took a moment I think in our country to remember the Holocaust. There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and
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May 13, 2019 — Scott Johnson
I noted on Power Line that I was sideswiped by the New Yorker’s Benjamin Wallace-Wells earlier this year. I also noted that Victor Davis Hanson was blindsided by the New Yorker’s Isaac Chotiner around the same time. I wish Israel’s former Ambassador to the United States and former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Oren had been following along on Power Line. He might have avoided Chotiner’s call this past Friday for
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