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Recent Posts
- “There is No Crisis at the Border” January 13, 2019
- “One Bright Shining Moment” December 26, 2018
- A Sequel: The Best Film Ever Made About Politics December 3, 2018
- Thanksgiving Good News from Palestine November 20, 2018
- “Hate Is on the Ballot Next Week” October 31, 2018
- Israel’s Uri Avnery Dies Too Soon at 94 October 22, 2018
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Category Archives: Archives
Israel’s Uri Avnery Dies Too Soon at 94
by James M. Wall Uri Avnery died at age 94 on August 20, 2018, two weeks after a stroke sent him to a Tel Aviv hospital. He died too soon. Israel, Palestine, and the world, still need his passionate voice … Continue reading
Posted in Israel, Media, Middle East, Middle East Politics, Netanyahu, Palestinians, Uncategorized
6 Comments
Trump and the Repackaged Oslo Accord
by James M. Wall We live in a world saturated by the manifestation of evil. Genesis tells the origin story. The story starts with Adam succumbing to the temptation of desire for the forbidden. The Creator surely knew the decision to allow … Continue reading
Posted in Donald Trump, Israel, Middle East, Palestinians
4 Comments
Living Through a Nightmare “With a Little Help from My Friends”
by James M. Wall A close friend took note of the scarcity of recent Wall Writings. I told him I was living in a nightmare in which two world figures hold the power to plunge us into an even darker … Continue reading
Posted in Israel, Jimmy Carter, Middle East, Middle East Politics, Netanyahu, The Human Condition, Trump, USA
7 Comments
This Bishop Is Not Finished With Us Yet
by James M. Wall I first met E.J. Dionne, Jr. during my first stint as Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Illinois campaign chair. We huddled for lunch in a corner deli across the street from our Chicago campaign headquarters. I was surprised … Continue reading
A Child Dies In The Killing Fields of Gaza
by James M. Wall History is filled with narratives about killing fields. This troubled writer looks at the killing fields of Gaza, and is driven to begin with a story: “A man kills his mother and his father. Brought to … Continue reading
Posted in Gaza, Israel, Middle East, Palestinians
9 Comments
50 Years Ago They Failed to Shut Him Down
by James M. Wall The first time I almost met Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been at his father’s Ebenezer Baptist church, in Atlanta, Georgia. I was one of three Emory University seminary students assigned to visit MLK, Sr.’s … Continue reading
Posted in Gaza, Israel, Martin Luther King Jr., Religious Faith
9 Comments
White Evangelicals Stifle Own Values For Trump
Posted in Religion and politics, Religious Faith
8 Comments
That UN Vote: “How are the mighty fallen”
Thirty-five nations abstained, and 21 countries did not cast a vote. The eight countries voting with the United States were Israel, Guatemala, Honduras, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Togo. Continue reading
Trump Speech “Irresponsible and Reckless”
Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco.
Trump’s announcement is actually the culmination of years of pressure by a large bipartisan majority of Congress and leaders of both political parties towards the White House. It represents the fulfillment of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, which mandates that the United States move its embassy to Jerusalem, though the bill allows a president to waive that requirement every six months if deemed in the national interest.
In the Senate, the bill was cosponsored by such prominent Senate Democrats as Joe Biden and John Kerry and only one Democrat (the late Robert Byrd) voted no. On the House side, just thirty out of 204 Democrats voted no, along with the independent then-Congressman Bernie Sanders.
Since then, every President has taken advantage of the waiver to prevent such a provocative move, despite continued bipartisan pressure from Congress. As recently as this past June, just days after Trump issued his first waiver of the requirement, the Senate voted 90-0 in favor of a resolution re-affirming the 1995 law and calling on President Trump “to abide by its provisions.” Co-sponsors included such leading Democrats as minority leader Chuck Schumer and Ben Cardin, ranking Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, as well as Tammy Baldwin, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker, and Ron Wyden.
Schumer has openly encouraged Trump to move the embassy and previously criticized his “indecisiveness” on the issue.
Support by Congressional Democrats and party leaders for moving the embassy is not due to demand from their constituents. A recent poll shows that 81 percent of Democrats oppose moving the embassy while only 15 percent approve.
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