There is another, deeper, emotional/spiritual layer to this entire problem. I used to try to explain it but it falls on secular ears, and is largely ignored as insignificant. It is anything but, and anyone who cares about justice and dignity in the Middle East would do well to try to understand it better. Back in …
Category: Foreign Policy
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2008/08/24/layers/
Aug 20 2008
If Americans only knew
What do we really cherish? America absolves itself the same way a smoker convinces himself he’ll never get cancer. In both cases, there is plenty of available information from which the truth of the matter can be gleaned, but that requires more introspection than most of us are willing to endure. Less than a minute …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2008/08/20/if-americans-only-knew/
Jul 10 2008
Rabbi Fox
Ms. Gassaway, I had hoped the rabbi’s recent rant would be disregarded by your readers as the specious partisan pandering it obviously is to anyone who understands even the smallest bits of Middle Eastern history and contemporary realities “over there.” However, given that more than a week has passed, and now today’s follow-on huzzahs by …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2008/07/10/rabbi-fox/
Jun 15 2008
The wolf we feed
“So it is that democracy without honest information creates the illusion of popular consent, while enhancing the power of the state and the privileged interests protected by it. Democracy without accountability creates the illusion of popular control, while offering ordinary Americans only cheap tickets to the balcony, too far away to see that the public stage has …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2008/06/15/the-wolf-we-feed/
Dec 11 2007
Charley Reese and the rabbi
You have confirmed an unfortunate suspicion. Your postscript reflects the same reaction, albeit belated, that the rabbi expressed in his letter. I read Reese in a completely different light — he is simply suggesting that it is not in America’s best interests to support Israel and the oil-rich (or geographically strategic) despots in the region. …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/12/11/charley-reese-and-the-rabbi/
Dec 05 2007
Just in
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 11:16 AM Subject: Alienation of Iran’s intellectuals I am constantly impressed by the fact that an overwhelming majority of academics and other intellectuals of Iranian origin currently residing outside of Iran are in agreement that the Bush administration’s actions and policies in dealing with Iran are tragically misguided and …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/12/05/just-in/
Nov 27 2007
What if Barak Obama were a Muslim?
Apologies all, for plagiarizing some of your earlier thoughts (ie, who would Jesus waterboard?), but I could not let last Sunday’s profoundly ignorant editorial re. Barak Obama go unchallenged. I just sent in a lengthy response (below and partly cannibalized from earlier posts) and we’ll see if this one gets printed… Here’s the letter that …
Permanent link to this article: https://levantium.com/2007/11/27/what-if-barak-obama-were-a-muslim/