A Policy of Terror

A Comment on Norman Finkelstein’s ‘This Time We Went Too Far’: Truth & Consequences of the Gaza Invasion (OR Books, 2010) We are approaching the second anniversary of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in December 2008 into January…

Higher Law

Review of Steven V. Mazie, Israel’s Higher Law: Religion and Liberal Democracy in the Jewish State. Published first in  Journal of Church and State, 2006. “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.” This…

Book Recommendation: Gideon Levy

I highly recommend Gideon Levy’s new book, The Punishment of Gaza. Reading it reminded me of something Noam Chomsky wrote in 1996: “Those who came to be honored much later as the Prophets received rather different…

Analogies

If past behavior is any guide, Elie Wiesel must be having a fit. I’m not thinking here of the great loss to his Foundation from the audacious and criminal pilfering of Bernie Madoff. No, I…

Accuplacer Prep

Reading Overview (9:30 minutes) 1. Information and Ideas  Reading Closely Determining Central Ideas and Themes Understanding Relationships 2. Rhetoric Analyzing Text Structure Analyzing Point of View Analyzing Arguments 3. Synthesis   Analyzing Multiple Texts 4….

Questions for Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel—Holocaust survivor, author of Night, 1986 Nobel Peace laureate, adviser to American presidents, acclaimed humanitarian—is speaking at Saint Louis University on Tuesday 1 December 2009 at 7:00 p.m.. What follows are some questions students and…

Two Faces of Elie Wiesel

1. “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy,…

Refuseniks

On Peretz Kidron, Refusenik! Israel’s Soldiers of Conscience (London and New York: Zed Books, 2004) 1. General, your tank is a powerful vehicle It tramples the forest, it crushes a hundred men. But it has one flaw:…