Between the Issues

For me, the current wave of student protests on US university campuses over Israel’s war on Gaza remind me of the horrendous U.S. war on Vietnam in the 1960s and the 1970s and the protest movement rolling from one campus to another. This wave of unprecedented student protests helped to form a New Left, an…

Since the attacks initiated by Hamas on Israel on October 7 and Israel’s retaliatory counteroffensive, the main question on the mind of many analysts and observers has been about the role of Iran in this conflict. Although Iranian authorities never spelled out clearly their role in the Gaza conflict, and the Hamas leaders have been…

In response to the October 7th Hamas attack and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, the editors of Logos asked scholars and activists to comment on the latest phase of the conflict as well as the prospects for peace. Menachem Klein, Ian Lustick, and Yoav Peled replied to the initial invitation. More articles are forthcoming.…

Richard Wolin recently sat down with Michael Walzer to discuss the state of the contemporary left and Walzer’s new book, The Struggle for a Decent Politics: On “Liberal” as an Adjective. Richard Wolin: Let’s begin by talking about what you mean by “liberal as an adjective” and why this theme is so relevant today. Why do…

Part I: Treason During the latter stages of World War II, the American labor movement was divided sharply in two: on the one hand the old line craft unions, such as ladies’ garments and headgear, joined in the American Federation of Labor; on the other the unions attached to the newer mass industries: auto ,…

There’s a large synagogue in my area that always keeps its doors locked. People seeking entry need to be buzzed in. I suspect that this requirement is true of virtually all synagogues. We usually think of houses of worship as open, welcoming places. Yet the need for surveillance and safety at Jewish institutions is warranted…

Forty-four years ago, the image of an Iranian woman, dressed in the traditional Shiite chador and holding a G-3 automatic rifle, had become one of the hallmarks of the Iranian revolution of 1979. Today, the key iconic image of the protests in Iran, which has being going on for four months, since the death in…

The February 2022 suspension of actor Whoopi Goldberg from The View after she apologized for her remark, to the effect that the Holocaust had not been about “race,” epitomized several layers of the problem in disentangling antisemitism IN THE USA from the phenomenon of systemic racist oppression.  It further epitomized the field of tension that exists between US African Americans…

In the English-language scholarship, there have been two general accounts for interpreting President Putin’s foreign policy. One emphasizes his possible ideological commitments (ranging from his interpretations of Russia’s historic geographic boundaries and identity) and, for lack of a better phrase, his effort to “make Russia great again”. A second emphasizes his strategic interests and his…

I’m not into making predictions, but at this point it’s fairly easy to predict not what is going to happen, but rather what has to happen to avoid what might otherwise be irremediable consequences. All commentators think the Republican Party is going to win back the House.  That will be pretty terrible in that the House leaders…