by James M. Wall Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the annual AIPAC conference earlier this week. He also held a private meeting with US President Barack Obama. In his AIPAC speech, Netanyahu evoked the Holocaust as the source of  Israel’s special privileged status that permits Netanyahu to do whatever he decides to do […]

by James M. Wall Cross posted from The Electronic Intifada In his book Kairos for Palestine, Rifat Odeh Kassis deals with a topic that is as fresh as the destruction of a Palestinian home by Israeli-driven, US-built bulldozers, and as ancient as the use of the term kairos, derived from an ancient Greek word which refers to a specific moment in time. Why […]

by James M. Wall The Washington Post’s Al Kamen has a follow up story on the State Department assignment given to Dennis Ross, discussed in my earlier posting,  However, the smear tactics now being used by the Israel Lobby against Ambassador Charles Freeman’s appointment as the new NIC chairman are not in the Kamen story. His story […]

  by James M. Wall Late Saturday night, Israel and its allies, the US and Egypt, made a grand show of calling a “time out” (also known as a “ceasefire”) in Israel’s relentless attacks against Gaza’s civilian population.  The US has agreed for its part to monitor the border between Egypt and Gaza. Egypt’s President […]

The Obama family visited a Chicago south side Food Center at the St. Columbanus Catholic Church, where they handed out packets of food.  Huffington Post ran the story on Thanksgiving Eve, complete with a slide show and a video. The Obamas wanted to show the children the “true meaning” of Thanksgiving. Tom DeFrank of the New York Daily […]

by James M. Wall Barack Obama was campaigning in Aberdeen, South Dakota on Saturday while the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Committee was deciding what to do about delegates elected in the Florida and Michigan primaries. A reporter from Time magazine asked him to comment on the decision he and his wife, Michelle Obama, […]

by James M. Wall William James Martin’s essay in CounterPunch provides the most encouraging perspective I have seen on the importance of Jimmy Carter’s latest trip to the Middle East.  Martin’s post (May 2) is a stern reminder that presidential elections have long-range consequences. He writes: “A radical change in American Middle East policy occurred in […]

We should have listened to West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd (D) on March 19, 2003. At the start of his prophetic speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate, Byrd said: Today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image […]

 Christian Century Impression  An editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz (April 15) sharply criticized Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert for Israel’s “boycott” of Jimmy Carter during the former president’s recent trip to the Middle East. Olmert refused to meet with Carter; Israeli security personnel were not available to assist Carter’s Secret Service detail. Editors of […]