zionism

Parting Ways is Butler’s attempt to construct a Jewish narrative that coheres with her philosophical and political sensibilities as well as her allegiance to her Jewish heritage and lineage. As a Jew for whom religious practice and the Jewish textual tradition do not constitute her Jewish core, hers is a secular narrative of Jewishness outside the orbit of Zionism. Butler’s concern for Israel is that she believes its present construction is “Jewishly” indefensible (in the terms she develops in her book) and the muscularity with which Zionism is proffered squashes any alternative narrative of diasporic Jewish identity.

“Jewish self-hatred” is an epithet that Jews fling at other Jews—for not being religious enough, or for daring to criticize Israel. As Paul Reitter puts it in his book, On the Origins of Jewish Self-Hatred, the term is an “an instrument of censure,” a “smear.” Reitter’s title is slightly misleading—the book doesn’t explain why some Jews hate themselves. Instead he explains the origin of the term. Reitter argues that many historians have wrongly assumed that the term has always been censorious, but careful study reveals that Jewish self-hatred was first put forward for a salutary, even messianic purpose.

What’s to come when a right wing billionaire funnels money to Newt and a columnist jokes about killing the president?

Recently, Mitt Romney has been referring to the Israeli Prime Minister as ‘my friend,’ and invoking memories of the short period when the two ambitious young businessmen were working for the same Boston consulting firm in the 1970s. The elder Netanyahu’s death has given Romney yet another opportunity to position himself as ‘pro-Israel’—or in his words, a champion of “all who care about Israel.”

Are the Jews in trouble? From the outside, things look quite good. Anti-Semitism is at an all-time low in the United States. The U.S. administration seems to allow Israel to do what it wants, even as many of us disagree with what it is choosing to do.

Jeffrey Goldberg’s review of a new book by fellow “liberal” Gershom Gorenberg perpetuates the mythology that if Israel seems impure there must be an explanation.

So the FJP says to the FEP: hey, you’ve insulted Islam.

A recent book by an eminent Israeli has caused a sensation in Israel as it calls on Jews to move past the Holocaust, which has rendered them oblivious to the suffering of others. Though Burg is firmly rooted in the tradition of Israeli apostates, his thesis overlooks several critical phenomena.

What’s the importance of the status of Jerusalem for the Alaskan contender?

The Daily Alert newsletter sent by the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations is quite predictable: the news sources it quotes are either the official statements of Israeli officials or media articles supportive of…