Author Archive | David Bernstein

According to the Columbia Spectator, Barnard religion professor Alan Segal was asked by the university to provide a list of archeology experts to comment on the controversial tenure case of Nadia Abu El-Haj’s tenure–archeologists who “preferably” were not Jewish. Segal quite properly refused, noting that religion “has nothing to do with what you say as […]

Eugene’s right, I do disagree with Columbia’s decision to invite Ahmadinejad. That Pres. Bollinger made sure to have the right to questioning him is better than giving him a completely open forum, but it’s not enough. Unlike when I objected last time Ahmadinejad was to visit Columbia, my reason this time is that Ahmadinejad is […]

One thing I’ve noticed roaming around the blogosphere is that most people who use the term “neoconservative” have no idea what it means (or perhaps this means that the word itself is becoming meaningless). I’m especially sensitive to this because as a college student, I for a while considered myself a neoconservative, and I wrote […]

Ilya’s post on rabbis’ (and other clergypeople’s) economic ignorance reminds me of one of my pet peeves, D.C. area rabbis who give overtly ideological sermons on general political topics like gun control, environmental issues (see Sam Kazman’s post My Green Rosh Hashannah), and the like. Put aside the issue of whether such sermons are appropriate […]

As loyal VC readers surely recall, in 2003 the Cato Institute published my book, You Can’t Say That! The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties from Antidiscrimination Laws Some of you probably considered buying it at the time, but thought $20 was a little too steep. Well, now you can get the hardcover for under two […]

NY Times: The appointment of Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, as a distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution is drawing fierce protests from faculty members and students at Stanford University and is threatening to rekindle tensions between the institution, a conservative research body, and the more liberal campus. Some 2,100 professors, staff […]

It’s not working too well in relatively peaceful, prosperous places like Belgium, which makes me believe that when people like Tony Judt suggest it for Israel/Palestine, they are either being facetious or really mean “let the Arabs take over and the Jews disperse.” UPDATE: A seemingly informed commenter says that the Times story is overblown. […]

“Reporters” Steven Erlanger and Helene Cooper: Under international law, Israel is considered an occupying power in Gaza, even though it has removed its troops and settlers. Denying civilians access to the necessities of life is considered collective punishment and a violation of international law under both the Hague and Geneva conventions although the amounts involved […]

Some excerpts from my op-ed, which appears in today’s L.A. Times: The saga of controversial liberal law professor Erwin Chemerinsky’s on-again, off-again deanship at the new UC Irvine law school was highly unusual in two ways. First, the pressure to enforce political orthodoxy at Chemerinsky’s expense came from the right, not the left, and second, […]

Commenter Sonja: “as I said earlier, the duration of a Jewish state in Palestine before 1948 was a mere 60 years.” Me: “Sonja clearly never heard of the Hasmoneans, who ruled Judea for quite a while. I’d say not knowing about the Hasmoneans pretty disqualifies anyone as an expert in Jewish history.” Sonja: “A Jewish […]

Prof. Matory wrote an extremely tendentious piece for the Harvard Crimson complaining about alleged suppression of anti-Israel viewpoints. Here are the challenges: (1) Professor Matory writes: “Israel has now withdrawn from Gaza, an action that [former Harvard President Larry] Summers slammed Harvard and MIT professors as anti-Semitic for even contemplating.” Prof. Matory, exactly when, where, […]

An article in the New York Times about Rand and Atlas Shrugged that is notable for the absence of the expected condescending sneering. Rand didn’t much influence my political philosophy, which was about the same before I read her stuff as it is now, but I do give her credit for two things. First, she […]

Barack Obama has been criticized by pro-Israel forces (undoubtedly egged on by the Hillary team) for naming Zbignew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s National Security advisor, as one of his foreign policy gurus. Ezra Klein links to, and endorses, a post by one Matthew Duss, relying on a story from the Politico website, suggesting that the “Israel […]

Happy New Year to all our Jewish readers. Through the magic of technology, I’m posting tonight via Powerblogs’ “publish later” function a post I wrote earlier. But in observance of the holiday, I won’t be responding to comments. Kay Hymowitz has an essay in the Wall Street Journal on libertarianism, which at times is fair-minded […]

Profs. Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman recently published a study describing American Jews’ attachment to (or alienation from) Israel, measured by various metrics. Not surprisingly, the study found that young Jews were less attached to Israel than are older Jews. (This is not surprising for a variety of reasons, including that young Jews are less […]