Month: June 2010

Glenn shares:

I can't express how many emails I've received over the last week, from self-identified Jewish readers (almost exclusively), along the lines of:  I'm a true progressive, agree with you on virtually every issue, but hate your views on Israel.  When it comes to Israel, we see the same mindset from otherwise admirable Jewish progressives such as Anthony Weiner, Jerry Nadler, Eliot Spitzer, Alan Grayson, and (after a brief stint of deviation) Barney Frank.  On this one issue, they magically abandon their opposition to military attacks on civilians, their defense of weaker groups being bullied and occupied by far stronger factions, their belief that unilateral military attacks are unjustified, and suddenly find common cause with Charles Krauthammer, The Weekly Standard, and the Bush administration in justifying even the most heinous Israeli crimes of aggression.

A reader writes:

Check out this revolting video that's surging on YouTube.  Apparently this comedy/satire group, Latma, is fully funded by the Center for Security Policy's Middle East Media program.  And who runs the CSP?  Yup, Frank Gaffney.  So we have American neocons celebrating and making fun of the death of nine individuals, including an American citizen.  How is this not a bigger deal?

Bradford Plumer searches for low-hanging fruit:

As it turns out, passenger travel—planes and cars, mainly—only accounts for 47 percent of our oil use. This is probably the hardest item to fix in the short run, and requires a very wide array of different policies…There's a lot of other oil use out there that may be easier to tackle in the short run. About eight million buildings, mostly in the Northeast, use oil for heating, and this accounts for about 15 percent of the country's crude consumption. Upgrading these buildings so that they get their heat from natural gas or electricity would be a worthwhile endeavor. Likewise, there's no good reason why we should still be burning oil to generate electricity during peak-demand times—smarter grids or even solar power could help whittle that down.

On this, Liz Cheney and Marty Peretz agree.

Greg Sargent's jaw drops.

Niraj Chokshi looks at the consequences of banning offshore drilling:

As the rigs move away, the nation's reliance on importing oil increases. That means increased activity among transport vessels, which have been responsible for most of the oil spilled since the mid-1900's, according to numbers compiled by professors at the Tulane Energy Institute.

They found that 61 percent of all oil spilled came from vessels, while only 16 percent came from rigs…Between 4.9 million and 5.9 million tons of oil has spilled since the mid-1900's, according to the Tulane data, and 3.2 million to 3.3 million of it came from vessels. "We have a much worse safety record with tankers than we do with drilling rigs," Professor Smith said. Although, in North America, 49 percent of oil spilled has come from rigs, with 43 percent from vessels and the remainder from other sources.

Plus the safety record in places like Nigeria is much, much worse.

A reader writes:

It is interesting that no one is really looking at the parallels between the diplomatic shift away from realism in America with the rise of the neo-cons, as well as in Israel’s current leadership, and the transition in Germany from Bismark’s diplomacy to Kaiser Wilhelm II, which left Germany well armed, prosperous, feared, hated and diplomatically isolated—at least until 1914.

We got Obama as a brake. But can he resist the tide of irrationalism? In a period of recession, polarization, a weakened media, Palin waits in the wings …

A reader writes:

I just read your latest post about the tribalism and emotional connections to Israel that animate and drive so much of the current debate within our Jewish American community. Your post was the most nuanced and intelligent I have seen you write on this subject. It is absolutely spot on and resonated deeply with me.

Good news: things are changing, at least here at home. I was born in the early 1960's into a family in which we all, absolutely identified with Israel in the ways you describe. I have been through AIPAC's leadership development program. My mother and her parents survived (barely) the holocaust in Hungary. But here's the thing, the Israel I grew up loving does not appear to exist anymore.

It is a place that, increasingly, is eroding democratic and even Jewish, values which I hold inviolate as a proud and patriotic American at a dizzying and terrifying pace. Arafat is, thankfully, gone. I know that Israel, Jews and America still have terrible, hate-filled enemies in this world. But I also now know that the Palestinian technology entrepreneurs in Ramallah whom I recently have had the pleasure to meet personally are human too, and want what I want: peace, prosperity and to raise their children in a world which presents opportunity and respect.

Increasingly, the old Jewish Establishment that Beinart wrote so eloquently about simply pisses me off. The only thing he got wrong in his piece was this: I love Israel, care deeply about her present and future and will not walk away. I also will not play by the old rules. I do and will continue to criticize not only the current government in Israel, but also the electorate they represent, when I believe their stupidity, arrogance or anything else threatens my values and my country's best interests. My country is the United States of America. I love Israel. I just love America more.