By James Kirchick
South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party is slipping into anti-Semitism, tarnishing the legacy of iconic leader Nelson Mandela, James Kirchick writes.
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By James Kirchick
In enchanting Transylvania, the ashes of a Nazi collaborator have sparked a diplomatic incident. Why is Hungary intent on reburying Jozsef Nyiro in Romania, James Kirchick asks.
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By James Kirchick
Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright-turned-president, was a vocal enemy of anti-Semitism and stood up for Israel in a region emerging from totalitarianism.
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By James Kirchick
When the self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” group J Street was founded over a year ago, many in the Jewish community predicted that it would have little to no influence in the shaping of American foreign policy. While American Jews are indeed overwhelmingly left-of-center in their political orientation, they also happen to hold rather hawkish views on Israel. A 2007 American Jewish Committee survey found that the overwhelming majority of American Jews believes that Israel “cannot achieve peace with a Hamas-led, Palestinian government” and that “the goal of the Arabs is not the return of occupied territories but rather the destruction of Israel” — views sharply at odds with J Street’s support for engagement with Hamas and its tendency to accuse Israel of hindering the peace process.Read More
By James Kirchick
A recent news item in The New York Times highlighted the matter of collective indifference. Time-lapse pictures from a security camera showed a woman collapse onto the floor of a Brooklyn hospital waiting room. Though there were a number of people around, no one tried to resuscitate her or to ask for help. For more than an hour, the woman’s body lay on the ground. People passed by, unaware or unconcerned that a human being was expiring before their eyes. Eventually, the 49-year-old mother of six died of blood clots that traveled to her lungs.
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