Obama’s Challenges: How to Govern the U.S.
Two months after taking office—but after two years of campaigning—it is possible to begin to outline some elements of future policy by the new government. Perhaps the first thing to say is that it will indeed be a “government” rather than what Americans typically call the “administration” in Washington. Simple administration is all that is…
Read MoreEpistles from the Roadside
I don’t think I had any conscious concept of Whitman’s vision of the “Open Road.” I had to read Whitman in school, but hardly any of it took. Later in life I’ve come to love Whitman but I never delved that deeply into him. I agreed with everything he said, but there were a thousand…
Read MoreThe Way We Wait Now
My first camera was a rectangular box you had to hold in front of you in order to see a reflection of the scene you wanted to shoot; occasionally, strange ghosts would appear in those photos. That was a long time ago, and I still don’t know why the camera so often turned reality into…
Read MoreGeneration Threat: Why the Youth of America Are Occupying the Nation
“In the late sixties, we were so fed up we wanted to destroy it all. That’s when we changed the name of America and stuck in the “k”. The mood is different today and the language that will respond to that mood will be different. Things are so deteriorated in this society, that it’s not…
Read MoreUnjust and Illegal: The Israeli Attack on Gaza
The reports of statements from Israeli soldiers documenting their horrendous war crimes[1] have greatly discomforted those who engaged in cheerleading for the brutal Israeli assault on Gaza. It is hard to proclaim the “purity of arms” of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) when its members wear t-shirts showing the stomach of a pregnant Palestinian woman…
Read MoreGot My Kicks on Route 66
Much has been written about Route 66. That iconic shield with the double 6 marks the most famous of American highways. It had its origins in the twenties, and eventually extended from Chicago to LA, but the original road has been almost completely swallowed up by the Interstate System. It exists now only in patches,…
Read MoreThe Palestinian Statehood Question
Background In organizational terms the Palestinians have had a state for quite a long time. The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) began performing most of the duties of a state apparatus soon after Yasser Arafat took over the organization in 1969. Departments ranging from Health and Education to Internal Security were set up to provide services at first…
Read MoreGaza On My Mind: Old Hopes, Mistaken Assumptions, and New Ideas on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
At the point of departure they left me with thorns of remembrance and never returned. —Mahmoud Darwish Hopes for peace were soaring in 2004 when Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel began evacuating 8000 Israeli settlers from Gaza. As Western newspapers depicted wailing Israeli settlers, bemoaning their betrayal while waiting for government checks to soften…
Read MoreEgypt in Transition
Part I – The Historical Background The origins of modern Islamic Fundamentalism can be found in the clash of cultures that accompanied Western imperialist intrusion into the Muslim lands in the 18th and 19th centuries. That intrusion introduced Western and secular practices and outlooks into societies that had centuries-old Islamic roots. Depending upon the area,…
Read MoreGaza 2009: Hit by an Iron Wall
The Iron Wall in Theory The conceptual origins of the 2009 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, so appropriately designated Operation Cast Lead, as well as its numerous predecessors,1 can be traced back to November 4, 1923. On that date Vladimir (Ze’ev) Jabotinsky, the founding father of right wing Zionist thinking, published an article in…
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