Author Archive | David Bernstein

Every four years when a new president is inaugurated, I get slightly sick to my stomach. It’s not that I don’t like the people who are taking office (though I haven’t for quite some time), and I do appreciate the U.S.’s unique, long record of peaceful transitions of power. But what gets me is the […]

Via Instapundit, I learn that Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen has been appointed (under the Bush Administration’s watch) to a four-year term on the FDA’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee, as the “consumer” representative. It’s hard to imagine a worse choice. Wolfe and Public Citizen have the unique distinction of being primary instigators […]

Via Rosner’s Domain, the Powerpoint presentation from respected pollsters Greenberg and Newhouse linked on this page has to be pretty sobering for the Juan Coles and Glen Greenwalds who think American public opinion is on their (anti- very hostile to Israel’s policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians) side. For example, five times as many people blame only […]

Juan Cole thinks the following is clever enough to post twice: “The Israel lobbies take their cue on what is good policy from the Israeli government and the Likud Party. [emphasis added] So, US Israel policy is driven by . . . the Israeli rightwing. That is why Congress voted 309 to five to support […]

One Bernardo V. Lopez writes in Business World: Both Republicans and Democrats in the US support Israel in their Gaza invasion because the rich and powerful American Jewish community, which controls media, Hollywood, hedge funds, investment banks, among other things, gives funds to their campaigns and their cause. It is a “power quid pro quo.” […]

I thought the following announcement would be of interest to some of our D.C.-area readers. GMUSL is a five-minute walk from the Clarendon metro. The George Mason Jewish Law Student Association and the Mason Law Republicans invite you to attend a panel discussion on the current conflict in Israel. We invite you to attend, learn, […]

Over my years of blogging, I’ve been highly critical of the N.Y. Times’s coverage of a variety matters, not least its coverage of the 2006 Lebanon War (e.g.). I think it’s therefore only sporting to acknowledge that I think the Times has been much better this time, and by better, I don’t mean “overtly pro-Israel,” […]

Her bestseller, The Shock Doctrine, has been subject to some withering critiques, some of which she attempts to rebut here. I don’t have the time or interest to get deeply involved in this back and forth, but I did give in to the temptation to click on one of her links. She writes, “If you […]

“J Street” founder Jeremy Ben-Ami: “The fallacy here [regarding the war in Gaza] is the argument that a military victory against an insurgent group actually is achievable.” Of course, there are a lot of much more recent (and often much less bloody) examples of military victories against “insurgent groups” than the Roman victory over Bar […]

CNN has restored the video discussed here yesterday to its website, and has published a response by the local stringers who took the video denying accusations that the video is fraudulent. There is no specific response to the main claim of fraud that has arisen, which is that the doctors who are allegedly trying to […]

The blogosphere has been abuzz about a CNN video (see below) allegedly showing Gaza physicians vainly trying to revive a dying boy, filmed by his brother, Ashraf Mashharawi (who, as it turns out, owns a company that hosts Hamas websites). Sharp-eyed viewers noticed that the doctors were clearly play-acting, and CNN pulled the video with […]

One thing I find interesting in reading various authors who discuss the history of the Arab-Israeli or Israeli-Palestinian conflict is how the role of the USSR in exacerbating the conflict, and the role of its demise in providing an opportunity for a potential settlement of the conflict, is generally completely, or almost completely, ignored. [A […]

It’s hard to believe that the Washington Post could run a “news” (not opinion) article virtually accusing Israel of war crimes in not better facilitating the mobility of Red Crescent ambulances around Gaza without at least mentioning the well-established, and well-known, fact that Palestinian terrorists have often used such ambulances to ferry weapons, explosives (including […]

In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt, preparing for his Progressive Party candidacy for the presidency, attacked the Supreme Court in a speech before the Colorado legislature. He singled out Lochner v. New York for criticism. Judge Alton Parker, the Democratic nominee for president in 1904, and author of the New York Court of Appeals majority opinion in […]

(Decided to repost this, because I originally posted it over a holiday weekend.) This seems to be an opportune time to link to this comprehensive, scholarly analysis of international law and the conflict between Israel and Hamas, written before the current fighting, but still quite relevant. The authors are attorney Justin Reid Weiner and Professor […]