August 13, 2014 Brandeis Center Joins AMCHA Criticism of UAW 2865’s BDS Statement Yesterday, the Brandeis Center joined the AMCHA Initiative and ten other groups writing to University of California President Janet Napolitano to condemn a statement by the joint council of the UAW 2865 union announcing the union’s intent to support the anti-Israel and anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The UAW 2865 represents teaching assistants, […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism
August 13, 2014 What Flies Around Comes Around Recently, the U.S. FAA broke new ground diplomatically by embargoing flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in a move that did more harm to the Jewish state than thousands of Hamas rockets. Now, the FAA has had to act at home by declaring “a no fly zone” over Ferguson, Missouri, to promote unfettered law enforcement […] Blog
August 13, 2014 A State Is Born No, not Palestine. Hamas–recognized by the “New Republic.” See http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119064/b-yehoshua-israel-should-call-hamas-enemy-not-terrorists Hamastan–from de facto to de jure–would become the hottest new international lawyers’ IPO, i.e., a state with all the rights and none of the responsibilities of other states. The next step would be for Israel to arm Hamas–a lucrative franchise–and also an ingenious solution to […] Blog
August 13, 2014 Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus contributes a chapter on “Three Conceptions of Religious Freedom” to Hanoch Dagan, Shahar Lifschitz and Yedidia Z. Stern’s newly released volume on Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights (Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Democracy Institute, 2014) (downloadable here). The volume marks the inauguration of an important human rights program at the Israel Democracy […] Anti-Semitism Blog
August 11, 2014 Obama Through the Wormhole Everyone who hasn’t should read President Obama’s interview with Tom Friedman of the “New York Times,” See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/opinion/president-obama-thomas-l-friedman-iraq-and-world-affairs.html Here, I translate it to an alternative universe in which Israel is the superpower and the U.S. is a small ally under existential threat, and change accordingly who gives the uncensored answers: Tommy Friedman of the “New […] Blog
August 11, 2014 George Orwell and the Gaza War—Pro-or Con Israel ? George Orwell, author of “1984” (1949), was already dead for over a third of a century when the date of that sardonic classic came and went. Yet you would not know it from contemporary broadsides about the Gaza War invoking Orwell and his ideas, pro- and con-Israel. There has been a back-and-forth in the “Forward” […] Blog
August 10, 2014 The Murder of a Rabbi in North Miami Being Handled CAIRfully Orthodox Rabbi Joseph Raskin was shot dead in North Miami Saturday morning while walking to synagogue by two young assailants who escaped on motorbikes or motorcycles in a crime that one would not be surprised by if it occurred in Paris. Days earlier, two cars outside a house in Miami Beach were smeared with eggs […] Blog
August 9, 2014 Giving Nameless Humanitarianism a Name President Obama has failed to give a name to his “humanitarian” mission to relieve Iraqi religious minorities, the Kurds, and possibly four U.S. soldiers sent to a mountain to give the Iraqi military Alpine lessons. I think he should name it Operation Pointless Proportionality. The U.S. airstrikes are also difficult to characterize exactly. Are they […] Blog
August 8, 2014 A New Champion is Proclaimed Read “The Last And First Temptation Of Israel” for confirmation that blogger Andrew Sullivan is the most vicious, maybe the most dangerous American anti-Jewish demagogue since Father Coughlin in the 1930s was listened to by tens of millions of Americans for his monstrous rants against Jewish wealth, conspiracy, and power. Like Coughlin, Sullivan is a […] Blog
August 8, 2014 UC Santa Barbara: The Brandeis Center Helps Reverse a Hostile Environment for Jewish Students As the University of California Santa Barbara’s student senate voted down an anti-Israel divestment measure in 2013, this campus seethed with anti-Semitic activity. The Student Advocate General – whose job is to educate students about their rights as members of the campus community – said on the floor of the student senate: “Israel is harvesting […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism