Pollak: During the past decade, as the New Israel Fund and European governments have funded and fueled the delegitimization war on Israel, critics have argued the NGOs they support have no real constituency in Israel; that they represent foreign interests; that they are funded — all told, the sum is around $100 million per year […]
Author Archive | David Bernstein
Juan Cole, 2010, on the Mavi Marmara
For those of you who still take Juan Cole’s views on Israel seriously, a reminder: “There are two possible reasons for the violence. One is that the Israeli troops boarding the vessels met some sort of resistance and over-reacted. Aid volunteers are unlikely, however, to have posed much real challenge to trained special forces operatives.” […]
“Plausibility” and Legal Claims about the Gaza Blockade
By David Bernstein on September 3, 2011 2:07 pm in Gaza Ship Incident, International Human Rights Law, International Law, Israel
Kevin Jon Heller of University of Melbourne and Opinio Juris: “Insofar as Israel insists that it is not currently occupying Gaza, it cannot plausibly claim that it is involved in an IAC [International Armed Conflict] with Hamas” (and thus the blockade of Gaza is unlawful). U.N.’s Palmer Committee Report on the Mavi Marmara incident (and […]
Rich, Dumb, Lazy (But Politically Active) Jews?
N.Y. Post: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is facing a new challenge: He’s having trouble raising money from some Jewish donors who mistakenly believe one of his opponents, Michele Bachmann, is Jewish. Some Jewish donors are telling fund-raisers for Romney, a Mormon, that while they like him, they’d rather open their wallets for the “Jewish […]
The Tenth Amendment and Sovereignty
Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center writes: “The Tenth Amendment, like all other Amendments, is a binding part of the Constitution that should be fully respected…. [But w]hen the states ratified the Constitution, they renounced their status as fully-independent sovereigns and endowed the federal government with enumerated but substantial powers.” Kendall is correct. Anyone, […]
Linda Greenhouse Questions Roe v. Wade
That wasn’t her intent, of course–Greenhouse was famously rebuked by her editors at the New York Times for marching in an abortion rights rally in 1989 in D.C.–but consider her recent blog post: Earlier this month, the American Bar Association traveled north to Toronto for its annual meeting. Doing some homework for a panel I […]
Faculty Positions at George Mason
I’m chairing GMUSL’s faculty appointments committee this year, and, barring unexpected budgetary vagaries, we do have some entry-level positions open. The purpose of this post is to solicit application from potential candidates who are not otherwise on the market via the AALS process. To apply, please send your materials to me at deliotb@gmail.com and also […]
Rick Perry Questions Evolution, Endorses the Teaching of “Creationism”
USA Today: The Texas governor was responding to a question from a little boy in New Hampshire, who was prompted by his mother to ask the Republican candidate about the age of the Earth and evolution. “I hear your mom was asking about evolution,” Perry said today. “That’s a theory that is out there — […]
Sarah Leah Whitson of Human Rights Watch and the Arab Spring
It’s fascinating to listen again to this talk by HRW Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson (starting at 16:53) from the Summer of 2009. The topic was “Human Rights in the Middle East.” Syria and Libya get barely a mention. Yemen isn’t mentioned at all. Israel gets by far the most negative […]
Why is the Media Ignoring Ron Paul?
Jon Stewart comments. The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook
Norway and Terrorism
Barry Rubin: Why should others not dream that the road to victory is paved with the corpses of murdered civilians? If terrorist murders by Hamas and Islamists did not stop well-intentioned future leaders of Norway from considering them heroic underdogs, an evil local man could think his act of terrorism would gain sympathy and change […]
Timely T-Shirt
Available here.
Widener’s Dean Linda Ammons Doubles Down
The saga of Dean Ammons vendetta against Professor Lawrence Connell, revolving around trumped up charges of harassment and discrimination, gets more and more absurd. Having been almost entirely vindicated by a faculty committee, with the only remaining “charge” that he dared to rebut false accusations against himself publicly, Dean Ammons has recommended that Connell be […]
Price Break on Rehabilitating Lochner
If you’ve been planning to buy the book in the reasonably near future, now is probably a good time. Amazon has priced it anywhere from 28.58 to 36.50 (list is 45), and it’s just come down near the bottom of the range, 28.50 with free shipping. By the way, there should be some interesting news […]
Israeli Protests
As you may have noticed from the news, Israel has been experiencing large civil protests/demonstrations, primarily over the price of housing, but generally over “cost of living issues.” Given that Israel currently has the best-performing economy in the OECD, with over 5% annual GDP growth and 6% unemployment, you may be wondering “what the heck […]